City Council Budget Workshop 8-14-23

[0:00:00] this meeting will be called to order start with we we will have an opportunity for public comment issues or concerns not on the agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the Deus Begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes other individuals in the audience who would like to come forward and offer public comment sure most people don't know that we're even meeting this morning but okay with that that will be a public comment will be closed and we will move into our Workshop itinerary discussion of matters regarding the fiscal year 2023-24 budget preparation including but not limited to one Enterprise funds Revenue expenditures to other items in need of council Direction and so we will start with the Enterprise funds and the first one on the agenda is the water fund and I seek Shane you're in position ready to go okay let's go United Air ski Director of Finance so we're starting out here with the water fund the primary source of revenue for the water fund is of course water sales rates are not budgeted to increase this year however there is an increase in projected consumption and we are facing Revenue here on fiscal year on projections as of June minus 5 percent other includes Taps and connections like use revenues transfers in interest lease proceeds sale of material Farm lease and auction proceeds if you have any questions on the revenue section yes Shane you want to talk through the sales piece of this so it's projected up 440 thousand dollars

[0:02:05] based off of a two and a half year drought that we have been in I am a little surprised that when I look at our Blue Book and see where we're at today in terms of water sales we are a little behind based off of 73 versus 75 percent of total budget spent so far so that's kind of surprising because either people are deci have decided that watering's not going to solve the problem and or you can do yes ma'am and when we looked at that we did we did basic kind of looking back on Trends as we as we came across and of course our our summer months are our big months you know June July August um we did it was it was a little strange coming in I guess how the rains fell this spring so uh when we're looking at uh looking at the sales there were a couple of months of spring that the sales were actually uh below where the trend lines were and so but since since then since June and July we've we've started catching up rather quickly uh We've we've seen our we've seen an increase up to our averages about 22 million gallons per day for the last two months and so we've seen that increase over the last last 60 days with the heat coming into August you know we're projecting of course a little cooler today and we hope that Trend continues but we're we're expecting that August to be another big month as well too so we should catch up rather quickly on our on our projections for uh this past year and moving into the next year so just looking at those trend lines that's why we went ahead with the increase now of course I mean there's there's plenty of things that can happen so next year uh hopefully it will rain a whole lot and we won't sell it sell a lot of water but uh because we need to catch it we need to catch back up on on our Reservoir levels and get back up to where we need to be but um we feel comfortable with the between the growth of the city and just natural growth that we're seeing and our trend lines are moving up and so we believe that we're we're about right on target

[0:04:09] where we need to be and we were we were a little conservative even on our trend lines so we were even a little conservative on that as well considering the 22 gallons a million gallons a day my greatest concern is the fine because you see the usage and the question is the following is that truly a reflection of what the citizens are using or a reflection of the number of broken pipes that the people who are putting in infrastructure called fiber optics and the number of broken pipes and the amount of water flooding our streets because I mean every day I drive around the city and see water flooding because of a broken pipe because of the infrastructure that the fiber optics people are using so in your best guess how much of the money of the water is it reflective in the sales versus usage and how do we make up for the Lost water that is occurring because of the fiber optics breaking the lines yes ma'am and we we've seen that now that has that has trended down the number of water main breaks that we've seen do that has started trending down we only right now we have just one primary utility company in here putting in fiber so we've seen those we've seen that kind of trend down over the last two or three months so really I would a very small portion of that would be contributed to them at this point and I think over the last 60 to 90 days where we have seen that 22 million gallons per day usage that we've seen the majority of that is residential I don't believe that a lot of these last numbers that we've seen over the last 60 to 90 days have been due to the fiber optic companies or the installation now we do have a few water main breaks but we haven't had any of those that are we've had a couple of pretty good sized ones but nothing we haven't had a major one [Music] everybody go go cross your fingers all

[0:06:15] right so do we have the right to charge back and if so how do we figure the charge back to the fiber optics people for the water lines they break in the water that we have we haven't necessarily been charging back for the water because it's it's hard to quantify how much water that you've actually lost in a specific break because if they hit a if they just hit a service line a you know one inch service line that's a lot different than when they drill into the side of a of a 27 inch water main and so it's hard to kind of quantify some of those numbers and how fast we get the water off how fast we don't um so but we do charge back for all the labor time and materials that it takes to repair all of that so we are recouping our all of our time and labor and materials for any time that they do hit a water main like that we have to go repair it I think the Vista Del arroya break was no that was that was that was that was one of the that was one of the large lines so it that was the 16 that they hit there so it was it was a large line and they have they've hits they've over over the past two years they've they've hit a couple of twenties they've um they've drilled into our raw water line coming out of Ivy so it's it's um our IV pipeline so it's some of it has been substantial over the past two years all right do does is there yes Lucy any update on the water meters uh water meters we are expecting uh our first round of the water meters that we purchased this past year we expect them in um any time now actually uh they're supposed to be here at the end of this month so we're hoping that we actually receive those and so we can get started on our meter replacement program and also looking at is probably be bringing another item to council uh mid mid-september uh to actually go ahead and be ready to purchase October 1 for the next because some of the wait times on these meters has been this first round of meters it was actually from the time we place the order until

[0:08:18] we're we're supposed to get them is is eight months eight to ten months so I mean it was the first order the first order on the 5 8 meters I believe was 18 1500 1800 uh that but we did a lot of the larger meters on this first one because some of those are the oldest meters and so we wanted to make sure because some of those large users we want to make sure that we get those meters on those large large consumption uh items as well this next one will actually roll in when we roll in we're going to be looking at uh 40 uh I believe 4 500 5 8 meters so that's normally what we use for residential other questions from Council yes Tommy uh one for Shane one for Tina Shane you mentioned to us in our uh Capital Improvement plan workshop at some point we're going to have to be looking at a water rate increase and I know that's not part of the discussion today but do you anticipate that within 12 months 18 months 24 months what do we when are we going to have to start seriously talking about that well we need to really seriously start talking about the study now and we need to look at you know implementing depending on what the rate study shows and kind of what what we're looking at moving forward but we're probably within the next um probably be talking about rate increases this time next year especially on the on the sewer side not it's not as critical on the water side currently but as we move in and we start looking at the North Concho water projects some of those things as they start coming online there's going to be some more expenses that we're going to have to really take into account moving forward and of course on the suicide's a little more critical after we after we implemented the nazworthy project and we have that moving have that going online it's starting that fund is is starting to see the pressure a little quicker than the water fund is okay thanks Tom Tina are we in to play piggyback on the

[0:10:25] mayor's earlier question are are you in fact getting reimbursement from the companies that are hitting our water lines when you build them for uh labor for equipment time charges for parts and so forth are you actually getting reimbursement yes yes we are we are getting reimbursed for the time labor and material um you know we we were seeing a lot of it with Frontier some with vexes but it was primarily where Frontier was the the first company that came in here and we started of course Housley was their their Prime uh contractor for that and so but we did we build that directly to Housley Communications and then they did reimburses so okay yes sir thanks idea what the total dollar amount is of these uh reimbursements we would expect um not off the top of my head but it was it would have been in the hundreds of thousands yes Tom Shane my question is if you look at this as a whole anytime of funding we're going to need going forward you might as well be in front of the Carver City after the curve so if I have a question right now to y'all do you know what percentage of your income is commercial versus residential I know I probably should have sent that up before but if you were to look at taking a rate increase right now and say if you wanted a million bucks you'd have to go up about three percent off your 35 million if you went up three percent three percent on a you know eighty dollar monthly bill is is minimal okay it's coupled but on the commercial side it's huge I don't understand why you wouldn't maybe pursue that sooner than later I just don't know how that proportionally lays out how much is commercial and how much is residential we have um and I um I mean it's probably yeah from an income standpoint I'd have to I'd actually have to look I know that

[0:12:27] commercial industrial meters roughly is about 3 000 meters out of our 35 000 meter uh Collective and so but as far as the in in break down the income off of industrial commercial versus residential I'd have to go back and actually I don't have those numbers with me today I'm sorry I think you see where I'm going and if there was a chance to do something we might as well be in front of the curve I mean if you did you know two percent sooner than later that may help plug a seven hundred thousand dollar hole and and yeah and if we can like I said and I believe if Council can will give me direction whether today or in the you know in the near future to to start moving forward with a rate study um like I said I believe that will it will break down and show us everything that we need to see uh because it I guess it's been six or six years now seven years since the last rate study and so it it's it's it would be good it's time for us to get back into that keywords how much is a rate study I can't remember the last time it was sixty thousand it it wasn't it wasn't tremendously High yeah and we are looking at and we're actually looking we're going to have a meeting with Tina and Kimberly and myself and Patrick and Jeremy uh with another with a company that actually has a it's a proprietary software that actually will work to allow us to kind of massage our own numbers over I think sir um massage our own numbers over um over time and so we can look at actually putting all of our all of our rates and all of our debt issuances and all of those things into this computer model and actually start modeling that stuff ourselves over time so hopefully we're we're looking at live real-time numbers and not a snapshot in time once every eight years or every 10 years or five years and so we are looking at that as well so hopefully that can at some point bring down the cost of these rate studies and things like that that we're

[0:14:29] periodically doing not a fan of paying for rate studies and I think dollar plenty capable of looking at it and saying we can go up here here and here but I get it anyway thank you well if you take a look at it when you're in a drought generally speaking the increase in usage is going to be for residential not commercial because commercial isn't quote impacted by drought like residential is because the evaporation itself and I don't know how many swimming pools we have in this city but the evaporation rate alone in the swimming pool business has got to be significant when you're as hot as we have been and and the investment people have in their landscape which they're trying to protect so the legitimate issue is the the usage is increasing residential and since the largest part of our city is residential not commercial you can pretty much throw a dart and hit a number that's relevant to be used and I think the issue is is I'm not a fan of these studies because I think we know what we need I'm not sure anyone's going to tell us something we don't know yes and we and we do for and I guess where they come in where the rate study actually comes in is when we start looking at some of our longer term debt when we start looking at some of these larger projects and and and and and and the timing of those uh from an o m standpoint correct we we've got that that's not an issue so it's just how um when we start looking at those larger debt issues and how that affects us over time uh that's really where we're getting the um whether it's ref Tillis or one of the other companies to come in and actually sit down with us and go over those long-term projections for uh debt issuance to see what we're going to need long term and how that's going to affect us that's really where their their expertise comes into play to help us get through those those situations you can you update us on the Hickory for object as we as we as well as the kind of kind of a

[0:16:31] water project where we're at on it what our expectations are timing wise Etc yes ma'am uh on the Hickory project on the Expansion Project we're really going quite well right now we've got through with all of the drilling they're wrapping up with their final testing on all the drilling at the actual well field itself so we're looking good there we've actually started uh contract the contract two portion of that has kicked in out there so we're upgrading our existing the existing Wells that are there the pumps in there and and some of the controls for it we're getting the up the upgrades on that has earlier started tying all of the new wells together has already started so really coming along well with that project here in town on that phase of it as well our new two clear Wells are completely constructed uh they're waiting on a couple of large valves to come in so they can actually start closing and getting all that sealed up and so we can actually start testing them get the water in them and start testing them make sure that there's not any leaks or structural issues or anything like that start working on that getting those sanitized so the Project's really coming along really well we hopefully uh this time next year we hope that's wrapped up complete and we've got everything online and we're capable of pumping our 12 million gallons out of the Hickory and ready to go so okay so in the Concho River Water Project where are we in terms of getting permits and how far down the road are we in anticipation if one one permit we have in place already our discharge permit we have it in place uh we're currently waiting on to see a draft permit of our Biden Banks permit so um we're hoping to see that in the next 60 to 90 days because the last time I was um last time we were discussing that with um with our Council that they uh they believed that hopefully we would see that sometime in September so um and then what's the next step and

[0:18:33] then next step is once we do that once we get the draft permit then we'll start pouring through that to on our side to look at it to make sure we're in concurrence with the state if there's any revisions we'll submit for revisions get our firm or our permit back to us once we actually get the final permit back then we'll have to publish it in the paper um and to see if there's anybody that wants to contest it if there is any if somebody does want to contest it then we would be looking probably at a contested case hearing sometime next time this time next summer once we work through all those processes and we get the final go ahead from the state that everything's good and there's no modifications need to be made then at that point in time we would start looking at design going into design and bid and construction at that point and so the water treatment facility is that the clear whales is that what you're talking about the two nuclear Wheels yes ma'am yes we have the two nuclear Wheels they're completely there they are constructed a lot of piping work left a lot of the major piping uh into our heart pump station for that still left to be done we uh up improvements and upgrades into the new low lift station uh actually a pump house there it's in construction actually it's built they've just got to put the roof on it and finish the plumbing in it um and so that that project's moved around really well the groundwater treatment facility they've got the two the the two new vessels in there so they're just plump doing a lot of plumbing and piping inside the inside that facility so uh Project's moving along really well say what are your biggest issues and concerns right now what would they be uh for my um water supply right now uh where the with the with the heat and everything and with every all the usage that we've seen water supply is is an issue currently right now so but we're hoping for uh looking at looking at the forecast we're hoping that we're going to see a really good spring next year and wet wet spring

[0:20:35] and and hopefully a wet year next year so looking at the forecast but again water supply is an issue and then um one of the biggest things that we're seeing from a budget perspective that we're really dealing with is inflation we're seeing the cost of chemicals uh and and those type things just Skyrocket um our vendors I mean you know we used to try to do it one and two and three year contract for some of our chemicals with a four percent escalator and our and our suppliers have done told us that a four percent escalator is not enough so you might as well rebid so some of these things will probably be bidding rebidding them every six months based on what we're seeing inflation and having said that as it relates to operations and maintenance the big increase of a million four is reflective of those chemical costs the majority of that is chemical cost yes ma'am about nine hundred thousand dollar increase he's projecting for the chemicals and then a 350 000 increase for electricity those are the big drivers of that increment like electricity yes okay use your electrical provider it's purchasing Freedom yeah Brenda yes going back to this and going back to council the city incurs cost every year we work off a budget our budget has to balance it's a legal requirement we have but keep the city in a decent spot I mean I would look at something to do on the rate deal just because I mean I've never come in here when somebody said well our cost went down I mean I can count those on one hand over six years but I think it goes back to justify we just heard of nearly you know half million six hundred thousand 900 that we just we have to absorb in the city I mean every citizen absorbs that it comes back out of that pot so I think there's a point just like what we're doing our rates and fees we get in front of the ball instead of behind it but we do it reasonably

[0:22:38] what would you ask that we do Tom well I went back there I was looking at if you wanted an extra million out of the budget you would figure out basically a 2.7 you know rate increase would get you a million off your 35 million receipts dollars in receipts I wanted to know how much of that burden is on the citizen versus how much is on a commercial and that's my question I mean you have to look at that to realize well if that's 80 on Commercial and 20 as far as the total receipts then you could look at doing something like that I don't know how much three dollars affects everybody's water bill but some people I mean we have heard phone calls before about that so I'm just throwing it out there for conversation well we do have a program right with the Community Action Agency that offsets and pays for um it does it does assist with uh low-income households that that qualify to meet for the um for that program that that will help pay for utility bills yes so there's some protection there now I'm not sure what the Dynamics are on how we set that up meaning we we give them basically we Council authorizes us to to give that agency fifty thousand dollars per year and then they utilize that fifty thousand dollars within their existing programs that they already have to offset those utility bills as they come in and to help with the utility billing portion of it they update us Tina you might need to answer this do they update Us in terms of where they're at on that fifty thousand dollars um being utilized I don't know if their budgeting's you know is the same as ours fiscally or calendar but the question mark is to Tom's point I I think it and I haven't had an update from them this year but I do know um the first year that we did implement it that they were they did run through that 50 000 fairly quickly but I think it was

[0:24:41] a it was one of those that the word got out about the program and every and then I think their use picked up really well that one year now granted that was kind of one of those codes a change in policy and it was it was a change in policy and I believe that was one of the coveted years and everybody was hit fairly hard as well too uh during during it was really prior to covid but it was because we had looked at the issues in terms of for example someone might have I remember the story correctly rental homes or maybe they haven't sold their home when they bought a new home a bigger home and we were given people at advantageous rates I believe and they were not really qualifying for for the for the program itself yes for the change of policy it was it was yes ma'am yes Tommy I would just say as one council member um whatever right study you need to do to help you um better forecast the needs that we would have from a revenue standpoint as one council member I would support the rate study to do that I'm just going to throw that out there so there might the other six may say no but I I would support that I think what we want to do is and I I'm not opposed to that but I want to know how much do you already know that you don't need someone to tell you like I said from the O M side of things we can we can calculate the O M side of things uh quite quite easily and so we can work um between myself and and the budget and finance office we can we can work through the O M cost fairly easily ourselves the big like I said where we really need the help is when we start looking at that long-term debt and and what that debt looks like and how we're going how we're going to manage that debt over time and so that's that's the that's the main where we need their the outside expertise to help us look at that as we manage that across time so

[0:26:44] number one is you already know what type of increase might be needed or is needed to cover the operations and maintenance dollars the million four concept that's out there number two is down the road right now we don't know what the long-term debts going to be on the North Concho River Project we know we're working on it we just went through the time frame timeline on that so there's ex there's a lot we don't know yet and so the question mark is there might not be a lot we know over the next 18 months to to two years based off of that project and but what we do know is current and so I think it's a two-step process one is providing what you know and would recommend based off of the numbers that you do internally and then look forward to we don't need to budget it now because the timeline isn't even correct for this study because you don't know where we're going on it in the timeline on it yes ma'am and as we as we move forward on that now we do have projected well we have probably old projected costs on that project at this point they would need to be revised on that because we do we do know the processes that are going to have to be in place for that project to come online so we do know what upgrades need to be made we know what those are going to be now our biggest issue is have we kept up with inflation on that over the last you know three four five years no those we're still we're still utilizing those same numbers and haven't updated based on on all of the increased pricing that we've seen across the entire industry and so um again those are so those are some of the issues that that again we have to look at as well too we have to have updated good numbers for us to look at on that again we know the processes that we're going to have to put in place to

[0:28:46] make this project work we know what we need from plant upgrades we know all of those things the piping how many miles we we have all of that in place again it's just going back and updating those numbers and those cost projections to make sure that we're actually dealing with with today's dollars and not eight years ago dollars so update us on the actual debt associated with the Hickory aquifer that's still out there including obviously the new five Wells and the Clearwater so where are we on that and how does that I have to pull that up just because that's a key component of it because as one becomes paid off another emerges in terms of a new project and so they're going to intersect at some point some year and then one will be paid off and then a new one will everyone comes on yes ma'am and so and that's and that's one thing that that these companies can help that help us do is is manage those long-term when we start leading those long-term costs when this one comes on and that one's going on and kind of projecting projecting that line that cash flow line for long-term Debt Service and so um and again in two we are um that this one company that we are looking at currently right now they um their software package helps helps manage those type of things as well too so again hopefully at some point in time we can maybe do our own internal rate studies instead of always having to go out and and hire other firms consulting firms to do that so I've heard two things and let's let's talk about those two things number one Tom are you suggesting that we as part of this process go ahead and do a rate increase a minimal amount of as you say three percent that brings um that would make up for the operations and maintenance expense increase and then

[0:30:48] projecting that we would perhaps in the 24-25 budget pay for this study to be done would that timeline work Shane 2425 budget or do you need it budgeted in the 23-24 budget for the for the study um I would I would for the rate study I would like to get started in the 23-24 year fiscal year now granted we don't have to have it completed that soon again but sometime this this following fiscal year to actually start the study and go through the process because it's not that's not a it's not a 60-day or 90 day turnaround it's it's a longer process than that so the process will take a little longer um to do that and again we can we can work through those and I can bring that bring that back to council well we'll have to bring it back to council for approval uh anyway so but again we can we can get some more numbers and and visit with you all about that as well too what are what the rate study would look like we can actually narrow down the components of that rate study and what that looks like and then bring that back as far as what we're going to have them look at instead of o m and debt and whatever we can we can focus on what we want them to look at on the rate study well you're saying to me as is is good right now yes ma'am and again if it's if it's sixty thousand dollars you know again we we have Professional Services Lines within our budget I know you you've already put into your budget the funds that would be needed to do this study great I have I've placed money into a Professional Services account for the study and anticipating that sometime within the 23 24 time year that we would uh hopefully be able to to actually start a rate study and start moving that forward we don't have to approve any additional uh dollars at this point no matter what when we approve your budget

[0:32:53] for the water fund we are approving the rate study that is needed you're approving the funding for that now you're not the rate study but you're proving the funding for that yes ma'am so okay further questions foreign I would suggest to your point mayor and and when Tom started this conversation that Shane brings to us don't worry about the rate study yet we'll get to that but we need short term between now and and the first of the next fiscal year your recommendation for that rate increase so I don't want to wait too long I think I think it's necessary for you to balance this next year's budget whatever that is three three and a half whatever that number is but bring it to the council soon I would suggest actually when we meet the next time not tomorrow but in two weeks we need to hear what that number is so that we can start that process now and get it in the next fiscal year so let me repeat what I think you just said you would like to see a rate increase in the 23-24 budget correct and I support that too Miss Brenda I mean if you look at that if I had to make a rough estimate I would say 68 percent of our revenue is from residential I'll do a quick shout out to finance for giving me that number over my cell phone right quick but no public girls this is live go public anyway but but the 68 that's residential I mean it's it's two Fountain drinks a month okay it's it's it's going all sorts and getting too Fountain drinks so I definitely think that's good I was thinking a three percent would get in there but Harry brings up a good point look at what your costs are Shane of

[0:34:55] what's going up let's not absorb that and spread that out to anybody else and we'll just go from there but it I know if we see that in time do we get to see that in time yes I'm with Harry still just look at what you're that's why I said we've got a two-part conversation that's my question is there's two part he has Professional Services already budgeted once we approve his budget he has the money and his budget to pay for the study the question mark is well what do we want to do for rates in the 23 24 cycle good and we're recommending you inheritance with a dollar amount percentage amount of something dollar something whatever that we can look at and decide if we can sign off on that very good I can bring that back great all right any other questions on where we're at so far on this conversation so we already jumped ahead and went into the operations maintenance piece of the budget I know we were just talking Revenue but we kind of jumped ahead a bit there and that's okay so um if you take a look then we are total expenditures 1 million 261 which a big part of that is the increase in chemicals um yes ma'am chemicals electricity electricity inflationary on what we're doing so I guess ma'am can't use less electricity I would love to okay electricity rates weren't going up that's the issue so it's not about usage it's not necessarily about usage we haven't we haven't we haven't built anything that would create more uh consumption it's just currently the uh just the rates have we're starting to see an increase in the rates so well and what I really want to make sure we do is present to the public as we talked about in two weeks when we finalize this is to make sure we can talk about number one your first concern

[0:37:00] and that is availability water supply because as an economy if you don't have water you don't have an economy so water supply is key and then two remind everybody about the projects that are out there to secure the water that we need for the future what it's going to cost us and the impact specifically due to that okay so two weeks we'll be talking some more okay anything else before we move on to the Water Reclamation fund Which is less fun okay we're you're on for a Water Reclamation fun thank you mayor you're correct Water Reclamation is less fun we kind of covered a little bit of the general discussion with the water fund but um here the only real increase to the budget is in the other line for Revenue which is mostly due to interest income and then an offset there to O M where he's able to fund a little bit more with that increase in Revenue so your operations and maintenance here once again is quote electricity and cost of chemicals and right that's where we are seeing the majority of our increases across across the board in in the water and Water Reclamation funds both they're um it takes a lot of chemical to to process both sides the the the drinking water and also the effluent so it takes quite a bit of product to do that so that's where we're seeing the majority of our expenses go up so what we could talk about right now and should talk about right now is where we're at on the lake Nas Where the sewer project how's it going because it seems like I'm seeing a lot of work being done yes ma'am the pipeline project is well underway we've uh they've already gotten about a mile of pipe putting the ground on the on the and we've started on the chadburn side of it on the on the downstream side of it right there we started there they're working their way back they're actually they their boring crew started last week so we're actually

[0:39:02] starting to see the boring start to take place and so as they're working along moving along very quickly if everything kind of holds up and we don't see any real issues they have run into a little bit of rock on the boring but nothing that slowed them down too much but they are really moving they're ahead of schedule so they are I see a lot of progress especially very commendable especially with the Heat and the work that they're doing to move as fast as they are moving so they are moving quite quite rapidly they're actually um yeah they've crossed Ben ficklin so I mean they're moving I mean they're they're really going there get that first bore um they're getting all the smaller bores under the under either the like right now they're going under 87 uh then they've got a couple under the river that the two or three that they'll do Under the river and then they'll move to the big one at the lake to do the lake uh as the last one so and that's going to be that's going to be the big bore so that'll that'll take a few days obviously you can't get it done fast enough for me so question mark is when will we see this project completed based off of where we're at today it was yeah it was a 24-month contract and uh as quick as they're moving I mean if uh but they I think they can at the rate they're going they'll shave they'll shave four to six months off of the off of the timeline so um they're they're moving so it's it's been impressive to watch good fantastic questions comments for from Council for Shane on the Water Reclamation all right so then we'll move into the storm water fund this is the one everybody hates we'll just say that up front yeah I understand [Laughter] I'm a resource of revenue for the stormwater fund is of course also user fees user fees excuse me and then other includes transfers in for mowing right-of-ways auction proceeds and interest income

[0:41:05] questions um on storm water surely there's got to be at least one question we've got another expert at the table so we gotta we gotta ask you something the question nobody wants to talk about for sure on this one the the the the I guess the rumor has circulated that we should at some point consider increasing the the storm water fee rate charge whatever is that something that we're going to be seeing in the next 12 months 18 months on on that side we as we were looking at this and we were talking about the rate studying of course we wanted to look at from the storm water perspective we want to look at it in a kind of a two-part um answer kind of a two-part situation where we're looking at because this right here has always been over water quality uh to to take care of what our unfunded state and federal mandates that that require us to do the certain things that we have to do to ensure the the quality of water out of a storm water runoff and so as as we've done that and of course we again we have not seen an increase since the program started in 2010 so we're 13 years without an increase we've seen some marginal growth in the fund just due to the number of residential homes that have been built in the last 10 years but again that has nowhere near kept up with inflation and so when we start talking about the quarter quality portion of it yes we do need to look at at an increase and of course when we were talking about a rate increase or we were talking about a rate study we wanted to include storm water in that as well now phase B of this is um is that we've never had a dedicated funding source to deal with storm water quantity issues we've got to have a rain first two and a half years so yes ma'am that is true but as but as we look at

[0:43:08] that Avenue P detention and we look at some of these other projects and we have updated our master plan now so our drainage master plan for the city and we have quite a few identified projects in that and we have been working with the region f with the Texas water development board region 9 stormwater flood Planning Group and so as we've done that a lot of our a lot of our projects that we identified in our Master drainage plan for the city have been included in the Texas water development board in that in that region plan as well and so a lot of those projects will now either one qualify for um Any Grant dollars that may come through the Texas water development board and or low interest loans much like we like we see with the water program as well and so we want to start we want to have a dedicated funding source that we can actually start um utilizing some of these programs to where we can actually start moving forward with some of our drainage issues across town and of course as we all know we've seen in the last several years when we actually do get a rain we're starting to see more intense rains and we are starting to see our localized flooding issues become a lot more dramatic than what we would have seen you know 10 years ago or 15 years ago and so we're starting to see some differences in our rain patterns and so some of these things we believe it's it's very timely for us to start looking at those and then two as we're looking new development we're looking at our storm water plan that we have in place now our ordinances that we have in place now again we start we're starting to see developers home Developers that are actually actually having to re-platten new new properties that haven't been that weren't planted prior to the 2010 and they're building the storm water Retention Ponds and basins that are covering these you know 100 and 185 home subdivisions and so they have these large detention basins that

[0:45:12] um they're not once they build once the home builders build out the the entire property you know they're not going to the home builder is not going to want to own that pond and maintain it forever the home builder or the home or create a homeowners association or whatever they want to build these properties and so they want to turn a lot of these are wanting to turn those over to the city and again that's a water quantity issue not a water quality issue and so um and so there was never any funding put in our o m budget for us to take on those ponds for permanent maintenance of those ponds over time and so something that we want to also look at is when we look at that second part of what a rate an additional component of our stormwater fee could look like would be to be able to take on be able to create a fund for o m for those ponds for the long term as well and again that's why we were looking at wanting to place storm water into that rate study as well again there's a lot of O M cost a lot of those things that yes we can we can do ourselves we know what those need to be we know what that looks like over time to project how we need to move forward on the o m side again when we start looking at some of these larger projects what those might look like in the from the master drainage plan that we that from the cities Master Dr James plan and also from the region 9 plan that we worked on with the Texas water development board what some of those projects might look like over time to create to create a fund where we could start maybe trying to tackle some of those projects so we can relieve some of the drainage and flooding issues that we're seeing around town so the answer to the to the question is yeah we need to start having a conversation about uh not only the quality issue the quantity issue but how we have ongoing uh adequate source of Revenue and funding to deal with that if in fact we have to take on some of this uh maintenance of some of these uh the detention ponds around so again as one council member I

[0:47:15] would say whatever that whatever portion of that you you would need in your rate study I would say include that as well it doesn't make any sense to me to have a race study and need to know that from a projection standpoint as well it seems Seems wise to me to include that in there so that's what he is yeah that's what he's saying that's yeah and and again that's you know that was a really long answer for your like yes question but I wanted that Shane I went to Texas A M and that you know that the shorter answer worked works better for the Aggies I tell you yeah I do want to point out that very briefly that we did have the old Master drainage plan I had 56 different projects on there we actually will only be able to get to three of them and that's because we just didn't have the funding source as well so really that the quantity part of it would have gone a long way for those other projects as well so now with a new one we need that funding source still in order to make sure that 20 years down the way we're not down just three projects that we've not marked off the list from over 60 projects need to be done so it's really important that we get to get that approved three projects that have been done are what Avenue P stormwater detention The Bell Street where right there where East Angelo draw comes over Bell Street we've raised the Hat there and we've cleaned some of that up so we don't have the overflooding and there is still East Angela draw and its hole is still an issue but we have cleaned up the one at Bell Street and then also at Southwest by the McDonald's in councilman Millers District so wouldn't College Hills also be one of those Hills College Hills will be one it will as as we get it completed well and again we're helping it we're not curing it so I just want to make sure that we we know that we're not it's nothing as a result of rain right so that's our biggest issue and we should be praying for rain and that's really our biggest challenge right yeah it is one of the biggest flooding areas has been College Hills yes and we are we are in that in the design on that is where

[0:49:18] we have a lot of underground uh storm water boxes that are going in from all the way from the loop all the way to the South Fork of the arroya and so we will see um that the capacity that added capacity there will take will hold a 25-year event below ground so the majority of the events that we see these little one-inch rains uh one and a half inch range that we see we should be able to hold the majority of that in those boxes underground uh we are always going to see some over topping of college Hills at the arroya we can we just can't raise the road high enough there um without having to completely redo the roads in both directions um for for quite a long ways and so and again I don't think we can I don't know that we could ever quite get College Hills high enough and not cause issues further Downstream so I would assume at some point too Foster Road and I think we may have seen another spot on Foster Road Patrick you and I when we met out there that when it was raining so hard that day but we may have two issues on Foster Road the low water area we've known about for a good while but then the one right there in front of the DPS right there for the questions on the storm water fund all right moving on to the solid waste fund primary source of revenue for the solid waste fund is user fees which were structured to fund the eventual permitting of a new landfill site excuse me other there also includes interest the contract fees and the billing collection fees right in every one of these funds that we've just gone over storm water solid waste the water fund and the Water Reclamation fund there is increases on every one of them for personnel you want to talk about the Personnel increases in all four of these funds dollars I'll get the water you get the other on the water and in the Water Reclamation funds the majority of those well about half of that 50 percent of

[0:51:22] that those increases are um the benefits side of it to where they've increased there I did on the water side I did put I did increase a little bit of overtime and in a couple of counts and I increased a little a couple of um uh part-time for the meter replacement program so I did add a little money in there but the majority of that increase in the water and Water Reclamation is in the um on the other half of it that was not the benefit side of it was was due to um basically certification pay of our employees when our employees get licensed when they get a water license or a Wastewater license once they go to school and they get trained and educated then we will give them a five percent increase for that certification and I had between that and CDL new CDL um people receiving their CDLs and coming on a CDL pay I had over 20 I had 28 employees that received certification pay and CDL pay this year so right and so that's where we see the increases on that side for the majority of it so when they get those certifications and we pay for that is there expectation in terms of their length of employment with us so they don't get the certifications and leave within 60 days or how do we work that no there we don't have any contractual obligations for for any of those but we do and the majority like I said the majority of these are either water water licenses or or Reclamation licenses and so um I think I think only two maybe three of those were actually CDL Pace but the rest of those were those licenses but again those and they can leave and we do see that we have seen we've seen a couple operators uh on the treat especially our treatment side we've seen a couple of them move to bigger markets in the metropolitan areas where you know they can make substantially more money but again the we we have to those guys have to

[0:53:25] have those certifications for us to even operate so again we have to make sure that we keep those uh keep those certifications speaking to what Shane referenced for the benefits there was a hundred thousand dollar increase um in the water fund that was related to tmrs which is our retirement system and so that was reflective of an increase to our contribution right and the same for the Water Reclamation that was thirty thousand dollars the contribution rate did we increase that rate or what tmrs is our retirement uh system excuse me and we contribute amount annually to cover the amount um on the for the employees retirement that rate increased from let me see I have it here from 16.91 to 17.65 percent and that's the amount that the the city contributes for Employee Retirement so that slight increase is what impacts the benefits increase as well is our percent towards retirement um in line with what all other cities do are we higher than other cities you want to answer that you've been involved with tmrs the rate we pay is based on the benefits we adopt and the actuary actuarially determined rate that should be paid based on our experience the benefits we have for cities our size are a little lower probably than most cities our size but our rate is high in the ballpark compared to those cities but it has to do with our experience as a city how many people actually come and stay versus how many leave early the principle associated with the rate is it's generally two to one

[0:55:29] years ago 15 years ago they were making an assumption about uh behavior that wasn't bearing out as true and so we're playing a little catch-up and that's why we contribute a little more than two to one the reason I also ask and it's certainly something we can get into in another conversation but as we were interviewing some individuals over the past few months what we saw was that relative to what we contribute to retirement was substantially almost double what that person's city was contributing to their retirement there are options to we we have adopted a two to one option there are options to contribute on a one to one or one and a half to one basis and um there are cities out there that do that generally smaller cities discuss that further as we go down the road okay so with that do we have any Now's the Time to have any last comments or questions for Shane as it relates to water projects related areas okay there seemed to be none so Shane Patrick see you tomorrow trick gets to go unscathed thank y'all I just wanted to know today well now just hang on a second that's what I've heard all day thank you thanks guys appreciate it you all want to break you want keep going let's go let's do this why do you ask Lucy you need to go well Tommy shook he said yes oh do you want to break I'm good okay airport you're on Jeremy

[0:57:35] Jeremy you need a break I'm Mary Revenue source for income leases are down a little this year due to the border patrol hangers they're required to have a fire suppression system and I think that's still unprocess right now and so they're still at the old rates until that project can be completed and there's also a slight decrease in concessions from the restaurants Jeremy I think the first topic we want to go over is the status of the runways and where we're at on that the extension of the runway the hangar projects and any updates on our ability to put out an RFP and get responses morning mayor council staff glad to be here today and good question I'm not going to be at the council meeting tomorrow but in the following council meeting I'll be bringing a recommendation to reject the bids that we receive for the project because they were 100 percent over our Engineers estimate we were able to secure some grants in the announcement we actually didn't apply yet but we got the announcement from Congress that we were able to secure the grants but the fa is not willing to go 100 over the engineer's estimate for that project so we did put the project out twice for the runway project and the taxi Lane project the first time we got no bidders we used FAA great asphalt FAA was not willing to give us a mod for the asphalt fa asphalt's a very tight spec and it's hard to get in West Texas so if if one bidder doesn't put it on it then the price goes up for additional batch plans to be brought in so we were not able to get asphalt we rebid the project out for concrete under the faa's approval and we got one bidder that was extremely high so that project is on delay mostly driven by the FAA and funding availability

[0:59:37] we've been working with the FAA and TxDOT to try and get a mod on the asphalt it's not looking good right now because there is no uh there is no text Dot spec that actually meets FAA standards what TxDOT airports are using is the FAA standard so that's been a challenge for asphalt we've been working closely with some of the local contractors and some of the not so local contractors to get our project at least spit out so we're gonna we're working with the fa now to at least do the taxi Lane project that's the AIG money I don't want to lose that AIG money I'm worried that the FAA could take that money and put it towards another project I'd like to get that money that project bit out so we can get the South taxi Lane built so our goal in working with my Engineers is in the next six weeks to hopefully get that project back out on the street and again we're working with some of the local bidders to to get that project done the runway 927 project as you know we tied those two projects in together we're looking to push that out to the next year's Grant because we're seeking discretionary money from the FAA which is not the traditional entitlement money so we need the fa to to support us on that project and that's going to be within the next fiscal year so what do you need help from us on because obviously those projects are really important to us in terms of the development of the airport and the question mark is what can we do to help push that what can we do to try to make that thing happen we need bidders I think the city's been very supportive working with Finance with Michael and with you mayor to at least secure the funding that we need even considering inflation I think we budgeted for it we did a good job with it nifa also budgeted for it and did a good job with it but at the end of the day I I don't have better so whatever you can do to help get especially the locals involved to get the project done and we had really tight specs the duration was 110 days because we had to

[1:01:41] close we had to close both runways at one point and so we made this the scope really tight and it scared a lot of the contractors off just to be honest so we're we're going to expand the scope a little bit we're going to do some additional phasing so we can entice more bidders but that that's my real problem right now mayors I have no bidders at what the qualifications and the anal the project is to figure out if you can broaden it on multiple levels because I hear on several different issues there's issues and make it a little more enticing for someone to make a bid sure and I when I first started here my FAA project manager called it the San Angelo effect and I didn't understand it until I got to this project but it is a challenge for sure being in West Texas to get FAA spec mix and everyone those specs everybody has to live by the specs if we're using federal dollars yes and if we don't use federal dollars what's the cost um not to tip our hat too much but the runway Project's going to exceed 10 million the South taxi Lane project would exceed 5 million when you take the FAA portion out of it I don't know what that does to the cost but it would reduce it I don't know if it's significant enough but it would reduce the cost if you we didn't use their money and chose to do it ourselves would we be able to change the specs entice more people to look at the project we could um we would just need to find a spec that's going to hold a Gulfstream 500 we need to concrete do that concrete would do it for sure yep concrete will do it and actually we were able to get bidders with the fa spec concrete concrete's not hard to meet the spec that's the asphalt FAA great asphalt is very hard to to meet the other who makes it the asphalt yeah the

[1:03:44] that asphalt that you specifically have to have um any contractor can make it the problem is what the contractor has to do is he has to have to shut the plant down they have to completely sterilize the plant and then they got to make the FAA stuff so what it does is it puts every other project that that contractor is working on on hold until our portion is done we were doing it in six phases so they would shut the plant down for our phase one and then they could open it back up to mass production while we were preparing for phase two and then they'd have to shut down and sterilize again so it was problematic in many aspects do not do it in one big instead of six partials so they would shut it down one time we could what we would have to do is close all of our runways for 110 days instead of phasing it out you down Tom what does that do to your budget Jim if you shut down both runways for 110 days does that just blow your budget to Pieces American Airlines wouldn't like you very much so I'll start with that yeah I mean it would hurt for sure um and it would just depend on what council would would approve a lot of airports when they do that they give a reduction to the least Revenue as well because the tenants are not able to conduct business so you've got border patrol which would not be able to do their operations L3 vertex would not be able to do their operations so more than just a budgetary it's a very critical infrastructure for for our community and really for the nation for National Security I was going to say we might have some National Security issues too yeah yeah it's probably not smart Council no I mean so I talked to Jeremy this morning but it's just trying to find bidders you and I've had that talk and it's this Midland Lubbock Abilene they run in the same issues I mean is there a way to campaign if we went and said you know what Abilene needs to redo a Runway Midland needs to redo a Runway Lubbock whatever if we could campaign three or

[1:05:48] four of those at the same time then that might be something that would entertain a bidder I don't even know if you've made that call and that's a hard thing to coordinate though we have we've made that call each one of those cities kind of has their own local contractor as we have our own local contractor and they they've done the same or they've had to reach out to some outlying contractors to try and get the work done but with with the amount of work that's going on right now airports are kind of put on the back burner and it's a national problem it's not just here and the FAA recognizes it and they've put some legislation into the FAA Appropriations Bill to try and get more funding for airports some incentive money so we can entice the contractors to come and do airport work instead of some of the other projects that are going on but it is it is a national problem it's not just localized thank you Jeremy for the questions for Jeremy comments more information talk about the planes and on planes how are we doing in terms of filling the planes we are filling the planes we're bringing in the Americans bringing in the 175 aircraft it's the larger aircraft our seating capacity has not declined but our frequency has declined if you remember prior to covert we had six flights a day there was lots of options lots of availability to get in and out of San Angelo with the pilot shortage we're down to three flights a day again we're bringing in the larger airplanes and the airplanes are going out at anywhere between the morning flight usually goes out between 90 to 100 percent capacity the afternoon flight drops down to about 60 percent and the evening flight is is kicking up again under the 90 range so the implements are pretty steady they've declined just slightly but they're they're picking back up go ahead yes Tom Jeremy is there any negotiation with American on when those flights can come in I mean if they can move the morning flight I mean a 5 a.m departure is

[1:07:50] it's painful not not only me but I've heard it from other people and then also that flight that gets in it might be in on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning whether it gets here at 11 58 or 1203 you know so I mean is there a way to tighten that up and that may not even be our call I just I think it'd be better for our citizens if we could move that to a 6 A.M just saying it's it's a discussion we can have I have had that discussion if we really want it to happen I need to bring one of you with me it's American Airlines corporate office but the station manager has also brought that issue up with them the five o'clock flight has they have seen a benefit when I say they it's American Airlines and a whole because they were able to get an additional flight and or additional bank into DFW so DFW added the bank that means you get to the East Coast a whole lot sooner and you get to the West Coast before your early morning start and so they're they're it's about connecting it's about connecting that's right and they're experimenting with that bank right now I don't know if they're going to make it official yet but the November I believe it's the November and maybe the October flights we're starting to see the six o'clock come back and not the five o'clock so with that additional bank I think they're going to keep the five o'clock um just because it has been successful on their National um projections well if you want to get somewhere so you can get there plenty early you can okay further questions no okay thank you Jeremy all right Costa DC Economic Development Michael uron so here of course the main source of Revenue is the type B sales tax 28 percent of which is allocated to Economic Development initiatives staff is proposing sales tax at a five percent decrease from projected year and as we have in years past and then we'll update this as appropriate to correlate with the general funds projections of course

[1:09:52] other here also includes interest in rent do we make any interest off of the br's I mean any rent income off of the BRC very little is there potential there because we pay the overhead not under the current policies no we we try to keep the rent slow for the incubator because those are fledgling operations that are mostly that are struggling to grow we do have one on a temporary basis that's in there right now um that could afford to pay Market rents they just needed they're a former incubator client who just needed a temporary location uh the biggest tenant is the sbdc and they're really a partner organization we I think we charge them a dollar a year or something like that and they help administer programs that are beneficial to the local business community what's the p l on that building pardon me what's the p l on that building we don't run a separate one on the building alone the building is part of the overall Cosa DC program can we look at that I mean we can I think we should I mean it's overhead it's cost costs continue to increase I think we need to be looking at what's the cost of operating that facility sure it doesn't mean we'll change anything but I think we need to know what it is and better understand just like we do all these other categories of business what's the cost the overhead because I'm sure like in many of these other areas those costs increase you're right they are a particular note right

[1:11:56] now we've got an elevator repair associated with a a storm an electrical surge that occurred during a storm and elevators are just crazy right now they're expensive to have required but expensive we need to be looking at the overhead of that building what what it is that we might do to better improve the deficiencies that exist there are you wanting to reduce the costs or increase the revenue what I I think in all cases you look at both what would be the game plan and it could be a piece of both of those but I think to continue to operate that building there's a lot of square footage they are not in use and I think we're going to continue to operate that building we need to understand what it costs us to operate it and we might say okay well we okay that's okay that's a cause we're willing to absorb but I think we need to know it I think we need to understand it you know put a little something together that isolates those costs and revenues I'm sure sounds good okay questions for Michael on the cross of DC Economic Development statistics as presented here mayor yes I've got a couple yes um Michael I noticed uh future projects increased budget 475 000. yes sir um so do we have I'm not asking specifics but do we have projects that we know are forthcoming because I my my brain's turning here because I've got I've got a pet um but your web specific commitments for that 475. councilman the way that that budget line works is uh that is where all the money goes that's not budgeted for something else

[1:13:58] in other words the the 2073 that you see on that line is not because there are specific projects that uh add up to that total that's what's left over after we have budgeted for the other items and and everything else goes into that future projects line so we try to maximize that line by increasing revenue and decreasing expenses in other areas because that's where we feel like well that's where incentive monies will ultimately be paid from okay that that gives that gives me hope um the the response gives me hope um it will come as no surprise to the council that one of my one thing that's near near and dear to my heart is brep um I I I feel some uh close kinship with that just because of my uh close involvement with that when I was on the Development Corporation um it's been a while since we have seen any projects for brep and we used to see a five thousand dollar for a new piece of equipment or seventy five hundred dollars for um helping with this or that for for a local business it would be my hope since that money is available as you just described that we could have um some some increased activity in bread but now if my I'm not mistaken that uh we work with closely with the chamber on Brett projects that falls under their one of their scope Scope Services yes sir that's correct I would be willing to offer my not that it would mean anything but just to have a conversation about um concentration if if SBA is correct that 75 to 80 percent and even if it's not that high of our new jobs are created from our local existing business it would be my contention that we need to be we need to have a specific idea in mind how we're

[1:16:02] going to help local existing business I'd be willing to have that conversation if you if that's something that you could facilitate so I would hope part of that we could be using over the course of the next budget year for future projects for local existing business based off of that hmm and based off of the future projects which is the 2324 where are we on the airport project because we have put some step some substantial monies aside for that airport project outside of the runways which brings up one question Jeremy that I will have in a minute and that is about parking so meanwhile can you talk about because we put aside I think huge dollars and we're very delayed on that project I think we need an update on where we're at on that project because we've lost rental income based off of pulling one building offline in preparation for these Investments where are we and what are we waiting for because we all need to know well I don't have all the details but in short when that Skyline contract was signed they began paying rent we've recovered that part of it they are also working on those early steps associated with a large construction project and we received one of the steps in the uh contract is to send us your plans before you start the work and we receive demolition plans I think last week or the week before and they're working on getting a permit for that and so Bob is reviewing those and I believe he sent a letter in response giving his comments but um well we it's not on the agenda for

[1:18:04] tomorrow so I don't expect it to be discussed tomorrow but what I do want in the next city council meeting an update on that project because it's very very delayed from when we first started this conversation and I I think we as a council need an update and understand where we're at and what to anticipate in terms of all of this happening which is the reason I've asked Jeremy to come forward again because a part of that project is parking correct the rental car parking the rental car parking movie net which moves and then there's some issues with short-term and long-term parking and whether we're going to start charging for parking all of that conversation is kind of all tied into that if I'm not mistaken so we really need an update on that and the ability to sort of understand what we need to do as a council in addressing some of the issues that come up with that and have we found another rental car company forgot to ask that no we're still negotiating with one um but I am happy to announce that Avis has made some changes they have new management out there and we've seen a significant Improvement in their service but we are explore cars um that doesn't sound good no no we we haven't seen a big increase in vehicles yet but they're working closely with Midland to try and move some of those assets down but we are negotiating with two other rental car agencies now to try and get those counters back operational so yes Tom on those rental car agencies is there what the most common one we have is a one-way that to me that when I get the phone call it's well the plane got canceled I was trying to get them one way to DFW or to love or one way from DFW back here to me those are the ones that hit the radar

[1:20:06] the existing I would think the existing companies cover what here cover what's going on here fairly well probably within 80 90 percent no not even close with you can talk to the American Airline Personnel out there and they say one of the biggest issues and complaints they have is passengers who fly in and have no transportation to the hotels and at one point we talked about conceptually having a van that did a hotel run like in larger cities Vans do a whole hotel run and since we have a hotel Corridor anyway if those folks could come together and find a way to support some of that but no there's an issue and the American Airlines staff will tell you there's an issue well the most vocal constituent in my district who shares my house I mean she was trying to get a one-way Wednesday night I mean she got diverted to from Colorado Springs to Fort Smith in the Longview and then finally got into Dallas supposed to be here to teach the next day and that couldn't be a problem that was you know only with her there had to be several but I was just trying to find a one-way yeah and it's not just airport users you get a lot of the the military from Goodfellow Air Force Base that the military will fly to get you here and then once you graduate you're on your own and so they'll do it one way out of here with the rental cars so in other words it's still an ongoing problem it is not a necessarily easy fix but we need to think outside the box and see if we can't help support you and the airport in addressing those issues and so if you need help there's seven of us up here sure we'll help you I don't know that we can do any good but we can at least be very vocal it's Lucy other airports all right Jeremy I don't know if I'm done with you yet but you can go back to your seat thank you

[1:22:09] all right Michael continue with the Converse All right so we know in not tomorrow but the next city council meeting which will be in September we will have an update on the airport projects the project is in in skylines hands yeah so but we need that presentation please and then Tom I think that there's another one that's a future project that that you want to talk about in that is your Park right which one the 29th Street right right and is Al here how can you give an update on 29th Street right quick I think we're moving on I mean it's to me it's painfully slow and you've given me reasons why it's painfully slow yes sir and the drawings and this one's on me okay it's not on you but I didn't stay on top of it but it's it's drug on for for years and I campaigned on this we all several of us did and now that window is getting short I'd at least like to see you know some progress sure the drawings are complete the contractor uh I'm negotiating with him right now on a price and then we should have it at next the next council meeting is it a local contractor or an artist it's a it's a job order Contracting process correct correct similar by board uh it's a company called Gordy and they're an international company and they have local contractors that they contract with so we're going that route yes sir right now that's been that was the holdup we were trying to get in this last council meeting but he's having trouble getting the price on the pedestrian bridge finalized and on the restroom he couldn't get him in time for this last meeting so and I'll just throw out this personal opinion to the members on the board it's extremely important to the public yeah and to the public but the reason I it's very painful for people that we have even given tears money to that have a manufacturing facility within 200 yards of the dam

[1:24:12] River won't even bid our pedestrian bridge all right I just to me that's that's painful I'm sorry you've heard that and they may have the reasons but I'm just like you wouldn't even have to do anything except move it right over there 200 yards I just we need seven people to campaign on that I don't know it's it's just it's heartbreaking I mean it really is when when you see what that could do and how it could link those two together and what it could provide for a community there's a whole part over there that goes unused I don't know how many acres that is and we've looked at it but that whole thing could just be really cool and it's something that we just can't get it together because of a bridge that could be made 300 yards away and they get tears money too so anyway I get it okay so those are two projects that I know compose is pretty significant piece of the future projects on there so we want we've I guess we've just gotten an update on that one we'll get an update on the airport and other questions from Council I was just curious about the decrease in the Personnel expenditures that's 20 percent less than the previous year uh is there some good news about that well um last budget it's not heavy we had four full-time Personnel Plus one that was supported through the chamber agreement um we've had some turnover and one of those four positions they also asked for another position last last season um those positions some of those positions have turned over and there's one of them that we do not plan to refill and so necessary we're going to try to move with one fewer full-time position and we we don't think that's going to be a problem so you don't feel you don't feel understaffed then correct we do at times today when they have a busy day

[1:26:14] and it's just Bob and Nora in a part-time me um it can it can be stressful at times but on a day-to-day basis they're doing a very good job thank you so all right Tommy you wanted to say one more one more plug from for Brett Michael but I I really would like to see us get moving on that again we used to see projects over the past six years fairly regularly you know so I would like to see that moving again whatever I can do to help facilitate that I'm willing to do so you can take that and run with it and do what you need I'll tell you what we need to do is because Michael Looney has taken on or chamber has taken on the Brett program we should have them presented our next meeting not tomorrow but the following their update on brap plans for and what they're doing currently and what they plan to do because they've owned that now I wonder if if we need to meet with them offline to have that conversation and then whatever I'm I'm willing to be a participant to the extent I would be helpful so we appreciate the support and there we have had a little bit of chatter lately about uh brep and we've talked about the possibility of actually dedicating some funds to for a campaign to support the chambers activity to recruit rep participants and I think just a conversation with two calls work you know in the old days mayor um when it was under coast of DC we had people making calls to businesses phone calls yes I am in direct sales phone calls do work um knocking on doors does work um we have 40 or 50 SIC code NAIC s codes that qualify we know what those codes are let's go like a Brett presentation from the chambers okay where we want to start okay and then Karen has a question or

[1:28:17] comment I think there are those listening that would like an explanation of how that program works what that program is and how it works we had defined I mean because we say brap business retention expansion program is what brep stands for just for everyone and it has been you know it's the old 80 20 thing 80 of your increases are going to come from 20 of your existing businesses growth is going to come from 80 percent of your existing 20 of your existing businesses and so what we want to do is make sure that we have done the work made the phone calls to ensure that brep is a program that we are benefiting and that our business Community is benefiting from people right here in San Angelo that contribute to the economy on a daily basis that make this engine harm here that's that's who it benefits right um we ought to have people wind up knocking on our door wanting that are in the qualifying NAC naics um they don't know about it or whatever so you know there's lots we can do and we're not talking huge projects at all five ten thousand dollar projects they're not big projects but it can mean all the difference in the world to business so the question mark would be then as you say that Tommy every year twice a year once a year we have the program where we select and give I think the plan is eighty thousand dollars and we picked first second and third place winners and the question mark is going beyond that program going beyond the new business proposals if we need to think outside the box come up with something that might work better

[1:30:18] because it's an old program might be a program that needs to be revised in a different way different format but that's for another day but let's get an update now on the Cosa DC ballot I think some of what we've just discussed has been covered in that but we want to go through each of those line items to make sure we are thoroughly knowledgeable about these and one would be the affordable housing it's budgeted we spend all that we spent 300 or we have 335 000 I know that in that ballot it was a much larger number can we be updated in terms of what that ballot dollar amount was what it has been spent on and what the target for spending this money is I can tell you that the amount budgeted annually is three hundred thirty five thousand dollars and that is per the ballot language that it was supposed to be ongoing and there's a sunset I believe it's 20 30 on that I think it was I think it was 30 years Tina 20 40 then yeah I think so I thought the sunset went away just on that program just on that yes just on that one project yes they're allocated that amount every year about thirty thousand dollars of that goes to Administration costs and the remainder goes to affordable housing initiatives um in some years they aren't able to spend it all and in that case we roll it over into the next fiscal year for and a good example is this year they had about five hundred thousand dollars a little more than that that they had available for use and they are working to spend that they came to the Development Corporation board couple meetings ago I think to request to use about two hundred thousand dollars for uh I guess it was a blitz type program a blitz style program yeah so they are actively using that and um if they don't then they get to carry it over into the following year for you in addition to that mayor that they're they're uh we are ready to have one of the goals for the next several months is to have a com begin a conversation about

[1:32:22] what should that housing that affordable housing program look like moving forward is is what we've been doing the most effective way to utilize that money or should we consider an an alternative or a different way yeah sometimes it looks like what we do is put Band-Aids on the problem and not get creative about what we could do all right on the water 600 almost 700 000 you want to talk about what that water project is money that is transferred to the water fund to support long-term water supply projects 498 000 of that is related to the Fort Stockton water rights the other two hundred thousand dollars is related to West Texas water partnership we usually don't use that entire 200 000 but we've been budgeting that for the last several years in the case that we have expenditures come up associated with that partnership we need to have a conversation about the west Texas water partnership yeah we have a new city manager who came on board in Midland and Tommy Gonzalez we do have a meeting schedule with the city manager on September 15th to really get the talks moving again uh we've been a little bit on hold because of that because that transition but once we get that meeting done I I'd be more than happy to update you all all the council members in in the city as far as where we are on that but again we have been a little bit on hold until he came into office right now he's moving his family and as I mentioned uh he'll be ready to go by that date will he be fully versed well he's getting he's been given time and of course uh the other city of manager Robert Hanna and Abilene myself uh well that's one of the reasons why we want to make sure we meet and we talk about the history of the West Texas partnership what it means to all three communities as far as helping to save on bringing money I mean bringing water to San Angelo Midland and and uh in Abilene we just want to make sure that we have a good discussion I think that there's been a lot of change over uh in the city council uh there in Midland so there's a

[1:34:27] lot of there's a lot going on dynamics that we need to make sure that we get resolved I know Abilene in San Angelo we're in a good place moving forward with what needs to be done we just need clarification and make sure that we're working really well with Midland and Midlands working well with us so we'll be working on that to make that happen all right further questions for from Council Harry do you have a question or comment you'd like to add no I I'm just a little wondering exactly what operations and maintenance are under this particular Outlet item it's almost entirely due to Debt Service Debt Service on the ballot projects that were approved by the voters as well as transfer to the water Debt Service fund to support the long-term water supply debt issues so how many projects do we still have out there outside of water and housing they've all been fully funded but we are still paying The Debt Service on some of those ballot projects including water is the major one into water supply okay yes okay so at this point we are going to take a break and um we'll be back in 15 minutes Hotel occupancy fund conversation for today Tina you want to lead that conversation first and then we'll move into the specific entities yes ma'am so fy24 Hotel occupancy tax revenues are being proposed at FY 23 projected year end less five percent decrease so that's how we're budgeting for that at about 2.8 million dollars so here you'll see that's a slight increase from the previous fiscal year as well as an increase in interest income

[1:36:37] you want to talk about how current we are on everyone paying their hotel tax and what we're doing about strs and making sure we create a separate account for them and that we're specifically pulling away from the total hot tax money those revenues from the strs we do not break out scrs from Total Hotel occupancy tax revenue we could add a line item for that we need that okay very specific we need that what they can call Airbnb Str demo whatever the language as anything that's not specifically with a flagged hotel or a non-flagged hotel okay we don't think that should be a problem we should be able to do that create a sec separate category for that so we we are in the process of an Str audit right now and so we expect to have been in that process when's the deadline on getting that this has been an ongoing conversation put Ryan on the spot my assistant Finance director Ryan Getty good morning Ryan Gaddy assistant Finance director yeah the uh the Str audit we got it we kicked it off back in in like the March time frame but we've had difficulty uh contacting some of the uh owners the unit owners because the address that we had on file is not consistent with where they're receiving their mail so we've had to go through a second mailing but that we uh we expect that once they receive those that the process will will pick up we should be complete probably in the in the [Music] in the fourth quarter or the first quarter the first quarter of the next District school year make that a deadline and and right now you know the the short-term rental units

[1:38:41] the contribution to the hotel occupancy tax is pretty small relative to the the 2.9 Million Dollars well of course it is it still needs to be a separate line item and we need to track it because we have seen tremendous amount of Str requests in our Planning Commission meetings and of course they only pay if they're occupied but we have to be able to have some ability to track when they're occupied because if an Str only has one rental a month how do you track that I mean it's a cumbersome project but we need to figure out the game plan for tracking that and keeping on top of it because many anyway yes we need to do that any other questions on this slide do you keep track of total number of hotel rooms that exist I do not but I know that's something that the DMO tracks a total number of hotel rooms available and does that the question well we'll ask it later okay any other questions about the the line item of Hotel occupancy tax anticipated and 23-24 budget line go ahead Lucy external Partners what is it it's the list that we'll have on the next Slide the all the people that we remit Hotel can see tax revenue funds to at the end of these presentations Tina will you have a total dollar amount of expected interest income that we will get this year compared to last year you mean Citywide I don't have that today but I can definitely bring that back yeah when we do general fund maybe yeah okay it'll be fine sure okay all right the first person on then is San Angelo Performing Arts Center

[1:40:53] good morning um mayor council members staff it's Yuki kuniyuki with the San Angelo Performing Arts Center we're really pleased to receive the uh uh Hotel occupancy business tax uh funds from the city it helps us broaden our reach across Texas you've been receiving our annual reports since we opened and uh we can we consistently reach audiences down to Del Rio and a lot of audiences in El Dorado Sonora and we've been working hard to reach out to audiences in Brady San Saba Brownwood Ballinger people within driving distance that can come see us shows this past year we were very um excited when we receive people from Houston to come see some of our shows in uh the Performing Arts Center at the Murphy Performance Hall in City Hall uh because that led to hotel stays and uh visiting other attractions in San Angelo in fact um upcoming John Waite concert we've got some guests coming in from Houston and we're excited about that and uh San Angel Broadway Academy's last performance of uh Phantom of the Opera had people drive in from Houston to see it now uh and because they wanted to it was on their bucket list of shows to see and San Angelo Broadway Academy put on a great performance and um one thing that we're noticing um is that uh commitment to the Arts is really important um I say I try to stay abreast of all the other cities around our region West Texas to see how they're funding the Arts one thing I did notice in Abilene is that the City of Abilene uh went into contract with ASM Global SM Global now runs their Convention Center in the next year I predict that the City of Abilene will have four to six Broadway shows competing in our Market because ASM Global is an international venue management company and they have a contract with the city for the next seven years to support that programming the important really important thing to know about this is ASM Global also manages the Wagner Noel Performing Arts

[1:42:56] Center in Midland Odessa and Buddy Holly Hall up in Lubbock Texas so they're creating a expanding their reach and we'll probably see more entertainment come through West Texas on the one hand it's good for us because it means that shows May see uh us as another location in their tour route through Texas but again it also will may impact us in the future I just want to bring that to council's attention because the Arts are a an evolving uh Market in Texas and you know they bring in six billion dollars to the state economy every year based on the um Texas cultural trusts art uh impact on the economy assessment so we really appreciate the funding because it helps us compete uh regionally in fact we've got working relationships with national promoters such as Outback presents AEG presents Awakenings events and now we have two International ballet companies that are looking at our venue for performances so on on the one hand is really good for us because San Angelo's getting noticed in um West Texas and we're also often the first place that these companies come on the tour so that that bodes well for us I think in the long run but I just want to make the city council aware of how everything is evolving because it is a dynamic dynamic place and um the more funding we can get for the Arts the better because if we want to the best quality of life here in San Angelo I think investment in the Arts is a good place to start thank you any questions we differentiate ourselves with that if obviously perceived additional competition from other cities how do we differentiate ourselves for what we offer that makes us stand out I think it's gonna become more difficult um the best thing that we have is the audience that we reach to the Southwest uh down to Del Rio there's no other facility like ours within that area so we can if we target our Marketing in those areas that are underserved and don't have Arts um

[1:45:00] centers like San Angelo that I think we benefit from that we may lose some of the audience that we used to be getting from Abilene in the last couple years and what I've seen is like Buddy Holly Hall for example they they've completed their first season in Lubbock and they brought in Hamilton right for us to bring in Hamilton would be a multi-year project to make sure that it works for that company um so I know a lot of San Angelos who want to see Hamilton because there's an opportunity and West Texans like to drive but people can save money locally in this area if they come see us at our facilities and that's I think one of the benefits for us what would be something unique that will be on the agenda this this coming season that everyone should know about well we've got a lot of um upcoming shows with national promoters we have a show coming up with Corey asprey through Awakenings events they brought in Zach Williams back at the start of July and that was almost a sellout crowd we're working with Outback presents for some other performances I can't release that yet because we're still working on the Contracting for that and then for ourselves we've got edamame the southern fried checks coming in October 12th that's for as comedy night at safeac we're also working with some other Broadway level performances to come through San Angelo one of them is a stop so we'll see them in the December time frame and now one other great thing right now is we're working closely with Tobin entertainment down in San Antonio they're a promoter branch of Tobin Center and we're seeing if we can collaborate more so that way when they start booking events they add San Angelo to the route you talked about people coming from Houston do we have people coming from San Antonio or Austin we haven't had Houston's much further away we've had

[1:47:02] some people in the past come from San Antonio fredericksburg's area um but what's really stood out this past year was people coming from Houston and um over the last season we've had a lot uh come from Midland and Abilene for some of our shows particularly uh The Glenn Miller Orchestra that we had biggest challenge is selling tickets correct that so many people talk about nothing to do in San Angelo and yet you all are pretty not putting on a tremendous program on an ongoing basis and don't always sell out and are very often disappointed with ticket sales and so the biggest issue is how to get this community to stand up and support your facility and the programming that you've put out there yes um ticket sales is always going to be a difficult um Prospect in the modern world that we live in it's not just awareness it's often streaming platforms and other sources of entertainment that compete with people's time and actually San Angelo has I'll just put down records since this is live there is a ton of things in San Angelo to do and I think that's another factor that we face is we'll have a show on a week for example when there's you know five or six other things that people can attend like for Saturdays at Railway music at the chicken farm Art Center second Saturday days at Railway Museum so there's a lot of things for people to do and sometimes that factors in as well as the economy people have to figure out how they make their budgets uh line up and sometimes live entertainment uh is the first thing to go but you know we're going to continue to strive to bring the best in life entertainment to San Angelo because we sincerely believe how important it is for the quality of life and Economic Development here the greatest ass that you have is air conditioning and a cold venue right so because live performances aren't so enjoyable in 110 degree weather so you

[1:49:06] have one great bonus in that yes and that's really helped us with um Partnerships we just partnered with the green apple out of Eden for concerts in our spaces and part of that was so they could extend their season during the summer months or actually winter months when it was climate controlled and people could come see a great music in our venues we are live what invitation are you going to give out to the citizens today that you want them to come buy tickets for from well so I I think a lot of people are already tracking the Amy Grant concert coming on uh the 26th but I'd really like to make a plug for the San Angelo Revolution Film Festival um because that's been been put on now for three years uh in in-person film festival and what we'd like to see is the masses come out because it is a really great event it showcases many of the films that we see in the Austin Revolution film festival and uh this year they are also premiering a film filmed here in San Angelo called losing Lalo and that's going to be a great event and the great part about that is tickets are pretty cheap and then portable nothing's cheap it's affordable it's affordable it's affordable yes ma'am attainable but yeah but it's you know I just asked people to stay in touch with us on social media check our website out because we do have a lot of things on the calendar and it's not just the San Angel Performing Arts Center but all the local Arts organizations in San Angelo are putting on some great shows would it help to have a because in the old days the cultural Affairs group put out a community calendar so it was very easy for all all organizations to understand what was going on and to at their best ability plan around that so I think the best research Source right now for community calendar is to discover San Angelo website it's easy to use but for lots of organizations and I know for myself it's a great resource when you search for things to do in San

[1:51:08] Angelo that's the first thing that comes up so I make it a point to advertise there as well because that also reaches out to visitors who may not know about a culture Affairs Council but they do know that the city has an events website wood Sonora El Dorado the main way is we use it internet targeting um social media primarily we focus Instagram advertisements towards young people that's where most of our viewership is we'll reach up to 100 000 people in this region uh through Instagram and then um Facebook is our older population 35 and up and um well the older population 35 and up yes ma'am yeah versus the 2x the one and a half X or 2x crowd sorry Rick and so so that's mainly because a lot of people are on their phones and um interacting in social media and we've also looked at using next door LinkedIn alignable um Twitter although Twitter isn't as wide reaching and we also we're also on Tick Tock so it's the age of social media and trying to engage people as much as possible questions come yes Tom so you talked about you spoke just a minute we're usually the initial point of a lot of these tours why is that like we're the first place they start is they just start West to move East well so some start West and move East um and right now where the one of the only presenting Performing Arts centers in this region um Wagner Noel Buddy Holly Hall and Abilene Convention Center are all going to be rental facilities so if people want to put on a show there it will be either sponsored by a local cultural Affairs Council or local promoter um so when people are looking for a Texas routing for example we brought in um ballet folklorco de Los Angeles last

[1:53:12] year with Mariachi Garibaldi the Jaime quayar they had a routing from west to east starting with us going to Irving and then ending with Lufkin Texas also with Outback presents when they brought in Stevo I think it was it started in San Angelo and then went down to McAllen Texas so it's just a good routing spot right now for us and we have a airport that helps although some performers would like to see Southwest come through here well that was I was curious I mean you have to sit back and look at the entertainment industry you know your competitions not only who you talk about it's Netflix it's Paramount it's all those things there aren't going to be new programs this fall season because they're all on strike so right now live performance should be the best right so people will look at you and judge you by the heads that you put through that Hall yeah don't leave that memory or that that behind it's that's what people look at and for us that don't understand what some of those heads are and what you know groups they represent you know the more you can run through there the better we appreciate what you're doing but and I could go in my garage and find a couple John weight cassettes all right I'm just saying I've got a couple of those babies and uh bad English yeah a little I have a bad English I've got a little Soft Cell but anyway long story short just be as aggressive as you can encourage you to go right and so one of my main focus areas this coming season is to really reach out to promoters to bring in their shows because I think that's where our future success will lie is uh getting more exposure from National and international uh companies and promoters to bring shows to San Angelo staying ahead of the perceived new competitive issues that you think coming online the greatest thing that we have available to us is our city of those locations that are adding that management company they still don't have

[1:55:15] what we have as a city and so that's our biggest selling point and hopefully that package is what will help you differentiate yourself from the other cities yes and Larry you have a question just curious is there a theme to the film festival so the film festival each year has had different categories so if you are a fan of horror action drama comedy um it's really one and a half days of a variety of those shows so if you're interested in a particular one your general admission ticket will get you in to any show that you want and they'll publish a schedule leading up to the event that date is it's on the 29th and 30th of uh September right after Amy Grant questions comments okay thank you very much thank you so much for your time thank you next up is the destination marking organization Walt Iran good morning everyone ah I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you all about what's going on on the destination marketing organization um despite being short-handed we're still in the recruitment process for the VP for DMO it's uh it's been more complicated than I'd anticipated but more continuing to work with a I think a very Broad and inclusive search committee and we're meeting this week to kind of reassess our approaches and how we're going to continue to work towards a fulfillment of that important position we're not going to settle we're going to make sure we get the best we can and that's proving to take a little longer than we anticipated um I'd like to bring you up to speed with some of the metrics as you all know we're under bonus system we had our first meeting and installment of the metric

[1:57:19] analysis about six weeks ago I imagine and we were successful enabled and able to get our full bonus so that was good I do have new statistics for the second reporting period if we look at the metrics that we use to measure ourselves it's simply bookings per quarter the occupancy tax or the occupancy statistics for the hotels and then some of the social media and web statistics so going through those in turn um in terms of booking if we look at our year over year which is what we're measured on uh in q1 of 2022 we had 14 completed bookings this year we have 31 so more than double there against admittedly a relatively small number in 2022 we had 66 total bookings for the entire year and right near our right now our year-to-date total for future bookings is 168 that's versus 66. again admittedly small number but we are seeing some increase and some significant increase in terms of of conventions meetings and events in terms of forward bookings if we look at the hotel occupancy tax metrics occupancy average daily rate and revenue per available room we are seeing some year-over-year increases if we look at our year to dates as of January I'm sorry July 30th our occupancies maybe half a percent up over year over year so very small increase but a positive increase our average daily rate in Revenue available room are up by about two percent so we are increasing there and those numbers look good and I think that's what you're seeing in terms of the increasing uh Hotel occupancy taking intake tax intake if we look at our social media hotel rooms this because we know we had one new Hotel open up for sure so total number of rooms available this year versus last year I I heard that question earlier I don't have that

[1:59:21] statistic right in front of me but I can certainly get that look at our social media and website statistics um in terms of total engagement across all platforms which is how we're interpreting that metric we have about a hundred percent increase year over year and that's owing to a very large over performance as we saw in the last reporting period uh in Facebook and as my colleague indicated Facebook is a demographic of interest to our town over 35 is a focus area and that's where we've been investing to make progress there but we have seen fairly steady uh increases across most platforms we did pull back a little in Twitter and now X I suppose and uh so that's what that looks like so again all of the metrics look green for the second reporting period and we will have a meeting to discuss this stuff more in depth with the committee that's been established to evaluate those question the increase in the Facebook is so hi the question mark is what are we doing different than what we were doing because the customer engagement went from 2022 of 549 percent increase to quarter one of this year's 2534 percent increase which would indicate a change in strategic planning and marketing to some degree it's investing in boosting and that's how you get more numbers is that by investing and boosting various posts for various events and I simply I mean that's simply how that works so we basically buy that and those results are purchased through a strategic decision to invest in that platform because of the positive demographic that IT addresses if we look at some of the non-contractual metrics from 2022 to 2023 these are provided by the state spending on travel year over year is up ten percent uh employment year over year is up seven and a half percent earnings uh year over year is up 13

[2:01:24] percent and total tax revenue for both state and local is up 6.3 percent year over year and these came directly from Austin so these are the most current I have I'm hoping to get some more current uh very shortly but all those also look positive I will say we're not to pre-covered numbers yet um there's a number of kind of structural Market issues at work uh short-term business travel is dropped off dramatically across the entire world and that's a gap that we continue to see here in San Angelo weekend bookings are strong during the week bookings still are not where they were pre-covered so that's one of the challenges of the dmos to try to figure out how to put more heads in beds during the week and we're certainly looking at ways to achieve that so that's one of the gaps we see but we are very pleased to see the weekend travels up and if you look at year over year or pre-covered we're approaching at least for the weekends near pre-covered levels so I think some of the things we're doing is working we certainly need to focus and continue to focus and it's one of the things that we're recruiting against as far as when we're vetting candidates for the job is one of the questions we're asking is how will you put moreheads and beds during the week to replace some of that business travel and everybody's aware of this issue so we've gotten some creative ideas and creative suggestions and we just need to so what land stick The Landing in terms of the candidate so that's kind of where we're at we've asked for a flat year-over-year funding allocation we did move the numbers slightly around we do need to give some pay treatments to some of the staff they haven't gotten a raise in some time and the revised budget that we submitted allows that but basically we have a flat year-over-year allocation with the anticipation that once we land the new VP of DMO that we can look at that and get their inputs in terms of how they would like to use those funds going

[2:03:28] forward talked about 168 events talk about those events what are they give you some examples um we've got we've got a big Texas Shriner Regional State meeting 1500 rooms we got the American Legion for the first time having a a a what is it it's a district meeting 125 rooms Angelo State University has a number of larger pro events 800 for an engineering conference we also have the solar eclipse coming so we're starting to see some Advanced bookings for the solar eclipse in 2024. so these are some of the highlights there's obviously lots of smaller groups but we are you know looking at increasing numbers there and we're really glad to see that happening yes Tom well are those groups that hadn't been here in the past summer so what I'm looking for and you nailed a while ago is those people that haven't been here before I mean we checked the box with who we have where we really like to check that bigger box is the new ones yeah we can differentiate that I you know we really look very carefully at I mean we measure both recurrent and new obviously to land an accountant to keep an account requires effort so there is effort in terms of retaining much like the business expansion retention discussion uh we have to continue to service those base events that happen on a regular basis but many of these events are new events but I can give you that statistic when we meet and discuss this in a couple of weeks I would like to see just from my knowledge of who is traditional that we have here like the tattoo convention and there's something and then who is new yeah I think that's fair but obviously the eclipse stuff is new and

[2:05:30] non-recurrent because that only happens once every thousand years or whatever uh becoming because we're out west Texas right they're not coming because we've recruited but we still want to take good care of them we still want to make sure that if they want to have their family reunion here they will have a positive experience and certainly circumstantial revenue is just as good as deliberately produced Revenue in many respects so we're really happy to see that happening and we're looking forward to hosting some folks here I know my old town of Kerrville is exploding because apparently they're right in the epicenter of that and don't have a whole lot of capacity but that's an interesting secondary story Mary you bring up a good point as far as is that I mean are they coming because it was sold uh do we go out there and actually sell to get this new business here or are they coming because they were coming anyway and I think that'd be something that would be important to take a look at yeah what we're looking for and Tom brought it up is what have we brought to the table that's new versus repeat and the question that everybody always asks is why do we go to Canada and Mexico and what has ever come out of those trips to Canada and Mexico yeah it's it's it came up when I presented city council the short answer to that is it's incredibly economical for us to do that because we piggyback on behalf of around behind travel Texas so it's a really economical way to reach into new markets as far as what that impact has specifically I will have to take a look at that in more detail and I'll be prepared to present that when we meet again and discuss that because I think it's a nice trip to make I appreciate the fact it's efficient Dollar Wise but everything's dollars absolutely so if we've gone for five years in a row and we don't have a single event that has been booked because of that travel then the question mark is the economy is expensive I understand everything comes out of it regardless of how affordable it is yes ma'am and we understand the Texas Travel organization is important but we also

[2:07:35] know our dollars are important too and we need to be very aware of the productivity of the dollars spent so there is a secondary benefit to participating with the travel Texas just through the relationship building and the association with that organization um so there's a there's a kind of I would term a secondary benefit to participation but I think obviously we're looking very carefully at every dollar we're spending to make sure that we're getting good effect and that's one of the reasons and I'll bring this up that we have invested in some of the uh some of the analytic uh products that we're using to evaluate where we're making Investments right now we're doing an analysis for Wild West Fest to see how that pulled numbers versus the last couple years to see what that trajectory looks like not only in terms of raw numbers but in terms of out of town visitors versus in-town visitors age demographics and others so that we can really understand you know the benefit of that particular promotion and we've done that also with the rodeo stock show we provided a lot of information to them in terms of their analysis and and and and value proposition in terms of capital Improvement projects out there we've done it with the art museum Museum in the same way so we are really looking very hard at those kinds of events that we're getting behind either through promotion or through direct contribution and making sure that we're seeing positive effects in numbers and not just sort of gut fields which is kind of what we've done in the past yes sir Tom so well a couple things one meeting you had a presentation Mike talked about a new geo-fencing a way for you to track some analytics that you were doing I mean say pack would love to have some of the I mean just I don't know what you can track and go down with that yes sir how has that moved forward I mean have we utilized that that's that's that's the program I'm referring to right it's called datify and it is a it is a geo-fencing um analytic that actually takes data off of cell phones smartphones I'm more than happy to do that for any like I said

[2:09:39] I've done it for the Museum of Fine Arts and I'm really happy to do it for saypac we can do it down to it a time frame of an event a two-hour time frame if he has an event there and I I certainly will be happy to help him understand where his business is coming from too because that's important to really Target your marketing if you know where folks are coming from it helps you kind of understand I still think you could sell that I think there's people that have events here that would love to know and if you had a fee to provide that I I get there some kind of a cross of what people owe and responsible but my second part of this question was of the metrics we've looked at that have gone you know from the 950 to the million and 12 that would look are those metrics still good I mean are those the metrics you would use to judge that I mean are we looking at the right things I think they I think they are I mean it looks at it looks at really I think the most important one or the two most important well I guess yeah let me let me let me let me go back yeah all three are important I was going to say the most importance of Hotel uh occupancy uh but obviously our bookings and how we're doing with that that's how we're proactively going out and generating business and the and the web metrics are very very important as well so I think they're good I do like some of the state metrics they they come to us uh in in a different kind of cadence and like a city or the county or how do those State metrics come because I was curious I didn't know if they judged that by Tom Green or by San Angelo this is for San Angelo yeah a whole lot of yeah there's not a whole lot of Tourism or properties outside of San Angelo within Tom Green County so it's it's it's not that different I wouldn't suspect between County and city but I think these are interesting because they're more macro um some of them are more secondary in terms of the effect I mean employment you know is an interesting thing to look at but it's a little hard to tie Market investment to hires in terms of cause and effect in the near term but these are kind of interesting to look at over the kind of broader picture and I'll

[2:11:41] tell you where I go with that wall I look at you know a lot of the things you do a lot of things that contribute from what the group comes from you know solar Farms the County's got a great benefit out of that the city doesn't um Coopers has had some wonderful events down there that draw a lot of people you know it's nothing that provides a lot of income here in San Angelo we may get ahead in bed out of it but there's when people provide those numbers there are things that pop up outside the fence and if they have enough frequency you can move the need a little bit I'm just curious and we can I think you know we can certainly look at that in terms of the effect we can use datify to look for example what's going on at Coopers and what those look like uh year over year and all those you know all those kinds of Trends um not sure what we would do at that information particularly but it would be of interest to see particularly if people coming from outside of Tom Green County and are using our hotels and staying in our restaurants and I mean people who go there I don't know how many multi-day events they do here for example or you know what I look and I go who goes there versus why they don't come here all right and what age group is it you know I hear my kids saying hey there's somebody playing at Cooper's we want to go see uh the that part of the entertainment business is very difficult I mean say pack acidity a lot of it depends upon the quality of the people you can put up in front to make the draw and that's what I look at I always wonder why people go somewhere else to see it but they won't come here to see it so if I if I were to guess and I it's a guess but I think it's an informed one is it's a demographic split I think there's a lot of younger people go to Cooper Coopers is obviously a lot cheaper in terms of I'm sorry less expensive in terms of ticket pricing maybe it is cheaper there but they have a good offense but it's not a great I mean it's it's a totally different kind of experience a totally different kind of venue um you know but that is something we could certainly peel the onion back on we have the tools and we can do that it's just a matter of prioritizing the time that we spend in order to get that kind of information it's like the river stage up against Coopers and you can have dinner and bring your own liquor and your own beer and

[2:13:46] you know the totally different events it's a different it's a definitely different experience a different affordable event yes ma'am so my my challenge um is marketing and I um if I take a look at and you've heard me complain about it regularly is the marketing effort and the advertisements that we're running are not reflective of the community that exists here and that we're not creating authentic marketing efforts we're not using who we are what we are and selling that we're selling a vision for somebody else that's not us and very disappointed in the marketing effort and the marketing profile I don't think it's helped sell San Angelo and help sell the community and I'm looking for a much different direction in terms of marketing to make sure that it's very reflective of this community and um I think we've missed the boat and we need to have some corrective action on that um I love who we are I love what this city is I love the history behind this city I love who makes up this city and I love the organizations who've added tremendous amount of character to this city and really increase the cultural impact of the city particularly the Arts and I don't think our marketing is reflective of that and we spend it's called the DMO destination marketing and I think the marketing is very much in question in terms of what it is what we're doing there and what's the game plan going forward um we are certainly featuring that set of challenges prominently as we're interviewing candidates for the new VP position we've gotten some interesting takes from

[2:15:49] people from outside given their view inward as far as how they see us but that's certainly very strong criteria that we're using to evaluate candidates for that position and I'm looking to get somebody who's really good at that in here so that that Vision that we all share of our city is reflected in our marketing of the city and clearly there is some work to do there and something that we've had in our meetings and that is in one specific Texas highways magazine six cities use the word discover discover San Angelo discover Waco discover Fredericksburg discover everyone uses the word discover we're not creating a unique statement or a statement that differentiates us from anybody else because they don't get beyond the Discover word everybody's trying to discover their cities and we need to make a marketing campaign that establishes us separately from other cities and a campaign that isn't just oh another discoverer I understand yeah and again I'll just go back to my earlier statement we have discussed that very issue with the candidates we're interviewing and we're looking forward to some interesting ideas in that front I don't mean to keep kicking the can down the road we've got to keep putting the numbers on the board and that's why the Telltale team here we're continuing to work hard to make sure our metrics are still right-sized and we are doing that we certainly have more potential once we have full staff on board to do more and it's my job to make sure that we get the right person in that job to make sure these Visions come to fruition and that our performance continues to improve not only to meet the goals but to exceed so I'm working on that yes Lucy Walt how long is it going to be till you get the VP position field nobody wants it filled faster than I do well finding great candidates is a

[2:17:51] challenge nobody wants it more than I want it honestly I this is this is tough I mean it's it's it's it's it's a it's a strain on the organization uh the chamber has really stepped up in terms of staff I spent about 30 to 40 percent of my time on DMO stuff um I'd like to not do that anymore and I want to get somebody who's better at that than I am so I'm working hard but I'm not going to hire down and I'm not going to settle we're going to get the best person we can and I'm going to take as much time as that takes I'm going to approach it from a different angle would you like to speak here I'm looking at the 2023 numbers 324 numbers and there's an increase of almost twelve thousand dollars so it's been eight months since you had somebody in the leadership position here outside of you you've had some challenges you're going to be looking for an additional person DMO within the next week 10 days whatever it is so tell me what that twelve thousand dollars is going to do for you sure that that's related to timing issues there's not our year than we do and so that's strictly um stemming from that so the actual amount of the contract will remain the same if Council directs that at the uh 950 000 plus 62 000 in performance-based bonuses I always know because the budgets and how many years I worked in it before I retired from Goodyear biggest percentage of any budget is salary and benefits and if you have one person that has not been there for eight months and an additional person that you're going to have to hired and

[2:19:53] replace then dollars should reflect that well what I'm going to recommend for Council is that we look at a 950 000 base for DMO and that we carry forward the eight months of salaries that have not been spent lack because of lack of a person so I strongly recommend a 950 000 base with a carryover of eight months worth of salary into the next year's budget that's my recommendation if I could just address that briefly there will be cost to hire and there will be costs to onboard a new person I would like I believe that that will happen in this year so that eight months could be a different number in terms of I'm not sure it's going to be eight months it may be more we're already in but there's but there's there's certainly going to be recruitment fees onboarding costs and other things which will need to be accommodated so um that's just for your consideration so that rollover number I'd like to see discussed a little more detail and and reflective of what the real costs are what I want to make sure that we don't do is take the salary allocation for the DMO position and utilize that for anything else and so again I strongly recommend a 950 000 base with a rollover of the salary savings okay that that's that seems reasonable and we can certainly work with that are we keeping the same metrics evaluation no we'll come up with different ones and we can present that at the next meeting because I think there's some new things and Walt has referred to some of those opportunities that we need to look at so I would say 950 Bays roll over the salary savings and use that as the new budget mayor if I may yes that's going

[2:21:56] to be part of the contractual language of the contract so when you say salary savings are you defining that as what Walt said net of any recruitment type costs or just the straight salary savings salary okay and you say salary I'm sorry base we will still have the bonus program then we're going to talk about that later we're going to use 950 base the rollover of savings on salaries and we'll have different Matrix which were not prepared today to talk about but there will be a bonus component yeah but not like what has been so I don't perceive as getting to the million dollars but we'll see based off of The Matrix I think we need to know that carryover number yes yeah we don't have it that's the point right now but we do know we have eight months because this is the middle of August right something based off of the salary savings will determined if and what bonus opportunities exist and then Karen it's okay he may ask it no I'm just going to make statement um something I think we do need to take into consideration on Walt's behalf is he may have to end up paying more than what he anticipates that he will and it sounds to me like we're cutting the budget um so I'm not sure that's fair to Walt um so I'm I'm I'm going to put a placeholder there if if I'm correct because you don't at this point you don't you don't have a good idea of what your what your uh compensation package is going to look like simply because you don't have a candidate right now the market is certainly more expensive uh now than it was when the previous VP left and we will have to pay up if we're going to get a good person so yeah that's a good point and it's one that I think I'd like to see considered as well

[2:23:59] because we do want to hire somebody who's strong and it's a competitive world and very specialized field it's the same effect we're seeing within the DMO I'm sorry the custody C recruitment for the economic development director um I mean what what was paid to the previous Ed is not what they're looking at paying for the recruits that are look they're looking at now so that's that's going to be you know the thing we don't want to do is to have more overhead than we have marketing resource in terms of a percentage and if we start pulling back in terms of our wherewithal to invest in the right people we could find ourselves in that position so it it it I appreciate that consideration that is that is a reality we're facing Aaron uh I think I need to modify what I was going to originally say and say instead or ask instead when might we expect the detailed conversation that provides us with carryover salary so that we have a whole picture there's knowns and I mean I can pull up what was budgeted for that position fairly easily the unknown is how many months ahead of us we have in terms of the Gap to recruit we also to councilman Hebert's Point don't have a firm knowledge of what that new person will cost in terms of base salary and benefits we're starting to look at we have an understanding of what the market looks like and frankly there's been some candidates that were just frankly too expensive for us we just couldn't couldn't justify the expense so we got to find an excellent person for the right price and that's been part of the challenge [Music] here's my issue and at night many of you are new on Council since all of this has happened so I'm going to refresh everyone's knowledge and year siscal year 13 through 15th we gave the CVB the now DMO 765 thousand dollars in year 16 through 19 it was 865 thousand dollars

[2:26:03] fiscal year 20 we took it up to a million 12 500 because of two major events that were being added to the calendar one was the air one show one was the cowboy Jubilee in the specific increase that was asked for was to accommodate some of those new events that were being brought to the table those events never happened but those dollars never came out of the budget okay so in fiscal year 21 we had 965 000 budget but it was 765 000 which was the base number and we had a two hundred thousand dollar carryover which equaled the 965. owing to covid it's been a fiscal year 22 we had a thousand twelve 500 as a request there was 965 000 base plus a 47 500 carryover 47.5 so we as a council made a big jump in investment in DMO CVB from 19 to 20 of 135 150 000 increase in their budgets no one else receiving hot tax money has received 150 000 increase in their budget since that 20-year so I mean I think I take a look at it and say we at some point we have to have expectations that meet the budget that we are supporting and again I remember I think the 950 base and a carryover of the savings certainly a minimum of eight months because this is the 15th of August

[2:28:07] already so by the time you would hire somebody and have them in place you're already into September so there ought to be at least eight months worth of carryover on salaries those are the statistics and I appreciate the statistics but we've also seen inflation we've also seen uh increasing costs as well um and uh to compare where we are now versus 2017 or 18. it's not quite an apples to Apple situation for sure bottom line is you know we're going to work with whatever you all give us we can certainly do more with more I'm very anxious to get the new person in here if we're wanting to do a rebranding effort that's expensive and that would need perhaps some external funding and we want to feel free to come to the city council and ask for those kinds of things that are off budget but necessary based on changing circumstances which I understand the doors open to that kind of discussion in the future so we will you know certainly work with what we have um it is a challenging time uh frankly um the staffing has been has been hard and the recruitment's hard uh but as I said before we have continued to put the numbers up and we've continued to make sure that the the the the organizations moving forward in support of our community despite those challenges and uh you know the the smaller our budget gets the harder it is to get a good person you know that's just the way that is people want to they look at what you got that's one of the questions they ask is how much budget do we have to work with uh an eroding budget situation does not suggest to a Top Flight candidate a commitment on the part of the city to the to the organization or to that position and so I would just caution um that um because a small savings could really confound an effort towards getting

[2:30:10] somebody who will be strategically beneficial to us over a very long period of time you know I love the conversation about inflation but if you look at the chart that's up there no one else is requesting inflationary increases so they've been living with those base numbers for multiple years well and I you know increase a lot of those don't have Staffing either and Staffing is one of the bigger issues so I mean I get Civic events has Staffing but I don't believe anybody else is paying headcount for example so it's it's a discussion worthy of having and you know my position I think I've been pretty clear on I mean I I will work with what you all give us but again if we're looking at a an eroding budgetary situation that will challenge us further well it doesn't seem like we are because if we carry forward the the savings of at least eight months it there's flexibility there so that would be my proposal I'll crunch those numbers and see what that looks like and we can have further discussions yeah okay all right great I do appreciate you all and uh thank you for your service and uh look forward to talking don't stop yes ma'am it's the national cultural Affairs Council who is here for that I don't think anyone's here for that their new director Mark Stevenson I don't see him in the audience right now so okay so downtown San Angelo doing the Darth Vader talk downtown San Angelo are proposing that they're a hundred thousand dollar allotment be funded solely out of the hot fund this year you'll recall that we did increase that by twenty five thousand dollars that was um largely in response to them taking on some additional duties and responsibilities

[2:32:12] related to the tiers funds and so which also goes back to when we evaluate what's going on in the coast of DC building Staffing Etc is we've talked about two things that no longer are functions out of the Cosa DC Arena and that office one is brep and two is tears which used to be a job and they're now separate funded separate organizations just to make sure we're all clear that's part of when you talk about salaries and we talk about the Cosa DC budget those two specific functions have been taken away from the Development Corporation and put into different entities so the functions are supported and a big thanks to Dell for his part in that thank you so there's not really an increase in that it's taken on the responsibilities that were funded out of Cosa DC and I believe it's less right less dollars that were being being spent and it's been really a a really good transition in relationship to us taken on that responsibility obviously see the staff and John James organization has been instrumental in making that happen and uh and we are doing our best to continue that flow of applications and taking on both the North and South tiers so it's been a I think a real positive trans process in terms of how we've handled it well I think because you work with it daily you're more informed about what's going on Etc that would be true we do get a lot of inquiries about tears at the downtown office both for the North and South and so we're pretty familiar with what may

[2:34:15] be coming down the uh into the channel as far as some of the funding requests so we can we can talk to people about what they should anticipate and and so it's it's been real positive mom's got a finger point we where did the budget go for the one maintenance person that we're doing through tears it's staying in his budget or is that still oh no he's just all he's doing is people who are requesting tiers funds come to him he's going to manage that but I was but the other is what it's in Parks okay that was my answer I was just making sure he didn't get the burden of that one and that one where it went out so it went to that okay questions for Dale what's up next for us um well we've got our downtown strong stroll or downtown Strow coming up in October that's the next one uh y'all may know um we're out down it's kind of down to me uh Monica is on pregnancy leave and uh she'll be returning hopefully by the first part of September and uh so we've we've scheduled that around the activities around that we continue to work with different uh promo developers um I thank everyone my promoters but yeah well yes that's true the the cell of the Roosevelt Lofts project is about to be completed and the new company that y'all heard from Overland Park Properties it has already met with the planning department to look at what requirements they're going to need in terms of starting construction on the Roosevelt Lofts and that should begin some time early in January and anticipation is the doors will open early in 2005 and uh so

[2:36:21] that's going to be a major step in terms of creating the downtown living aspect of what we've been working towards trying to make happen and so big win there um we've we're down to about 39 vacant buildings I think I reported that before uh and so that's that's a big big step in relationship to continue our downtown push for businesses and development I want to have you recap first and foremost the July 3rd event because that July 3rd event has always been a very important event for the city of San Angelo and the citizens everybody loves fireworks everybody likes celebrating July 4th what it means Etc and you have been instrumental and downtown has and pulling off that event which requires immense amount of hours and work and you guys have done a fabulous job and I just want you to talk about that event sure well this year was our third annual event we call it a Star Spangled Banner concert to decentuate it from what had been called the July Pops concert and people still believe it's still the July pops which is fine because they keep showing up according to estimates of from the police department we had in the area approximately 20 000 attend the event we we had entertainment starting at 6 30 in the in the afternoon went into 11 30 about when we shut down this year we had a tremendous amount of Interest with the VIP tables the first year we I think we sold 36 the second year we sold 48 and then we jumped up to

[2:38:25] almost 70 tables this this particular for this year so that was a large amount of support that we got I also want to make sure that AEP Foundation gets snowed gets kudos for their support they provided us a substantial fund for the fireworks and then earlier this week or last week I received notification that there will be funding the next two years for us to help us with that and I don't know if y'all got to see the fireworks show but it was spectacular it went on for about 22 minutes and if you don't if you don't know it cost a thousand dollars a minute for fireworks show so we got we paid a little more we paid 25 000 for the fireworks but it was a 22 minute show and people loved it I think everybody on Facebook Etc we received a lot of positive feedback from that so uh it's exciting I didn't even have the Oak Street bridge to work with no we didn't they had it was shut down but we were able to work with parks department they they helped us get through the uh staging all the fireworks on the the celebration bridge and so on and as well as the fire department they were also very heavily involved and so it was a Cooperative effort and we could not do it one thing I can tell you is we could not do it without the city of San Angelo supporting us through the sponsorship that y'all provide us so thank you very much talk about streetscape and and how that's dynamically changed downtown yes ma'am it it has businesses continue to bring about their comments to us about the traffic that they see the increased traffic that we have um and many people that come into our office that are visitors looking for the Sheep by the way that's primarily why they come in to find out more about the

[2:40:28] Sheep Project that we have the fiberglass sheet let me rephrase that and they come in and they always comment how great our downtown looks because of the improvements to the streetscape and and so I highly encourage a continuation of that project face B which would take it from borgard up to what fifth or sixth street or whatever we're still looking at but either way it would make a huge difference and that that particular core or say from Harris Street up or even from borgard up really does need the help and there's a lot of interest in people developing in that area as far as developing businesses in that area and so I know that having the streetscape project come in through that that particular Corridor would be very helpful you know one question I have in this Rick you can add to it but when we were working on designing that street skate we specifically said we wanted trees that would be green 20 12 months a year now I know those trees were not green this past and why did we get trees that don't have green 12 months a year we specifically checked we specifically selected trees because in the winter you want trees that actually let the sunlight in because people are walking on the streetscapes they're cold if they get in the a live oak it's so intense and it also encourages a birds nesting in there in the winter to get out of the cold and then they poop all over the sidewalk so I'm not sure what we talked about then but that's why it was specifically requested because they want it really changes how it looks in the winter and it's not really like to walk in the sun in the winter unlike today you don't want that you want the shade but in the winter you want to feel that sunlight as you walk in and get that warmth and it encourages people to be out on those sidewalks walking instead of avoiding them so the other questions I have about the streetscape so um there's supposed to be

[2:42:31] an approval by text Dot when do they walk and give the final approval on that project chain just before we were on break and he said they expected to have it by the end of next month some other additions that we want to do that we can't do until that is done and I also know that there's some dead trees now and I know it's been a tough summer drought and all but there's some trees that need to be replaced and still some vegetation that needs to be replaced is that still under contract to replace those any of that stuff that y'all notice talked to Shane about it they're managing that contract so if it's still under warranty then they'll be able to do that with the contractor and I've also noticed that there's some significant deterioration of some of those little decorative elements on the street that I'm sure should have lasted longer than a year once again you can talk to them about their specific ones on that then bring it up and they'll go through it I think some of the ones that were discussed was potential fading of of stamped concrete that is something that you know we talked about on the front end so I'll just have to see what the warranty is on those I'm not talking I'm talking about actually chunks having come out so they can look at those it all depends on how it was done if it was some wacko with a sledgehammer then unfortunately we can't but you know and we all laugh but we know it all unfortunately happens but anyway they can look at it and see why and you might want we'll talk about it later we don't need to do it during budget but I think there are some issues there that need to be addressed with the contractors before we sign off on them getting because I've walked some of those and they're not good deteriorations if that if we can deteriorate that quickly there's a problem with the product

[2:44:33] or it shouldn't have been used they'll continue um outside of well the our bruises and barbecue cook-off that we have now or I think we're on our seventh year um because we've been so successful with the international barbecue cookers Association uh our chairman our chairwoman excuse me Delilah setteth was contacted by them and they are now oh they've requested that we host the state competition which brings in well over a hundred teams so that creates a problem for us for space but we can we can figure it out and just recently I think a couple of weeks ago our state representative Drew Darby signed a resolution at the State House commending us for our work as far as the Brews using barbecue so that resolution has been turned into the ibca so we anticipate host seeing the state competition probably here in the next few years within the next few years I should say and so that will be another big event for our community um there's been a lot of different conversations being held with uh developers that still haven't come to fruition I know there's some new building or new business owners that have bought property but the plans for those have still not been totally vetted so not sure that I can talk clearly about those but the interest the point is the interest level for continued Downtown Development is still high well I think the biggest and you should continue to talk about this the biggest problem is property owners who have an inflated perspective of the value of their buildings and that is the biggest challenge not that we don't have

[2:46:36] developers looking to do the projects it's they can't get hold of the buildings that that's that's exactly correct we have our largest buildings that are when I say largest the square footage um that they have um are are totally inflated in terms of what they're selling price or they're asking selling price is uh and you cannot convert some of those buildings at that level of cost to purchase the property and then expect to have millions and millions of dollars put into the re rehab or the repurposing of those buildings and so they're not going to buy into it so those buildings sit there vacant and that's uh we when I say we downtown San Angelo has been very progress aggressive in discussing with those Property Owners what they should or shouldn't be doing about their properties and it's just one of those deals that we're not getting very far on private property rights unless you use them in a domain there's not a lot of options questions for Dale I did want to say one more little thing about that several years ago we put together a task force and when I say we the city of San Angelos or staff and and downtown San Angelo and we did look at an ordinance that we thought would be a little bit more assertive and aggressive and and creating a pain point maybe is a good word for people who are holding on to buildings and um I did later find out that I'm glad that council did not support it because later on the the some of the cities that implemented that type of ordinance that gets sued and won lost so in that respect I'm glad we didn't go to the

[2:48:38] extreme that we were looking at and in relationship to an ordinance that addresses vacant and vacant and underutilized buildings but I still think there's maybe an opportunity to modify it and see what we could do there and hopefully Council would support it put it together Bring It Forward talk about it okay so um questions to Harry anything dear I just I really want to say thanks to Dell and and the Downtown Association they've done a wonderful job with right in the middle of my my area so I say that all of the studies well one more thing we have just sold our 140th fiberglass sheet this week and so that project keeps growing and growing so that's a real good a real fun Testament to what our organization took on and it doesn't just impact downtown it impacts the whole community so it's been been a fun project and it's been a great project and Julie is sitting here in the audience but we have an unbelievably talented artistic City and the success of this art project has been the quality of work and the quality of artists that we have they're still willing to take on these projects and do them because each of those is has been a testimony to the talent that exists here it's been tremendous you brought up something a minute ago um we'll talk about it again at some point but parking is going to become an ongoing issue and it's terrific that we can take care of the traffic now but sooner or later that conversation is going to need to be had yes ma'am okay with that moving on going to lunch

[2:50:45] Museum of Fine Arts Laura Huckabee is here to speak to speak for the museum Hello I'm make sure this is I'm Laura Huckabee I'm the assistant director and also the curator at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and I'd just like to take this opportunity to to thank you for allowing me to be here and just say in person um how great it is to to be part of the artistic community in San Angelo this is really a a great City and I think a big part of that is it supports for support for the Arts and the cultural organizations so thank you very much to all of you for the support that you've shown us we're doing a lot of really exciting programs we've got exciting programs and Exhibits coming up the rest of this year and the following year and this is even with the roof on the main building being replaced and that main building being closed as as you also of course everybody's aware of the Oak Street Bridge being closed and so between the Oak Street Bridge being closed and our main building being closed we were definitely afraid that it would impact our visitorship very hard I'm thankful to say that it hasn't had the kind of negative impact that we thought it would have we have our exhibits currently open in our Oak Street galleries which are just in front of the museum and in that row of buildings on South Oak Street between I want to say like 4 4 17 and 427 something like that and we still have our education programs going on in our education studio and our clay Concho Clay Studio that part of the building is

[2:52:48] unaffected by the roof work since our exhibits currently on Oak Street open the current exhibit since they opened on July 20th we have had visitors from all over the state almost all 50 States including Alaska and also Germany France and Mexico so we are really really happy to say the visitors are still coming in so we we just want to keep everybody updated as to where things are going on I know it's hard visitors will come they'll say see the main building and say what in the world is going on so we're just trying to help direct people to where things are actually happening as much as possible via our website via social media via signage we've got sandwich boards out all over the place we are just doing our best to juggle what's what's going on uh well we're doing our best to keep things um just moving right along and serving the community while we're dealing with the building I do have some very happy news to report in terms of the roof they have only partially clad the copper part of the roof but they have already stopped the leaks you know I feel really bad on these 107 degree days and I see those guys up there on that roof working and I think oh why it's got to be a little warm up there I pray for their safety daily yeah one thing I think would help is that we have people constantly and I'm sure all restaurants downtown do and other businesses want to know where everything is is there just a flyer that you could make that showed how to get to the Museum from downtown or from Oaks I mean from Bryant and where the exhibits are because we're constantly being asked

[2:54:49] and I think if we had something it would help us direct more people and some more people yes ma'am we'll get that for you be great talk about Howard used to always talk about the impact of of the museum and the amount of Tourism that comes with it that most people don't truly understand how broad and how well known our museum is it is great pride for me to know we have a museum of that quality and that we have people internationally and nationally coming in to visit so talk to that um well I'm definitely proud to work for such a great museum which is nationally and internationally known even though it's a small institution again just being in a community as artistic as San Angelo and as supportive of the arts and culture as San Angelo I think is a big part of it but yes like I mentioned we have international visit visitors visitors from all 50 states that have just come in since July 20th but probably our biggest annual draw for out of town visitors is the annual Ceramics events that we have in April I'd like to reiterate that our collection in our in our museums collection we have four Focus areas one of those is ceramic art we are internationally known for our collection of ceramic art it ranks right up there with other museums such as the museums ceramic art in California such as the Syracuse Museum in New York museums all over Europe Asia Australia they're familiar with us and our collection so just that that in itself is a draw and I also want to mention that our education programs reach about 33 000 children a year and

[2:56:54] not only are those children in San Angelo but it's also in the region 15 Educational Service area which reaches from the counties north of here all the way down to Del Rio and to the east to Brownwood I couldn't tell you for sure what our western boundary is not quite as far as Midland Odessa area but it is a 17 County region and it's very large so between our our in-person programming that we have to reach students we have Outreach where our Educators go out to to remote or areas we have digital resources available we have take-home resources for families and um again even with the main building closed we've still been able to reach so many this this year questions for Laura thank you very much and we look forward to having the museum open back up but again give us the information so we can make sure does the chamber have the information about where the exhibits and all of that are so that they can direct people as well yes ma'am they do we Okay we make sure that we keep an up-to-date brochure up there on their racks okay um I do want to mention an exciting exhibit we have coming up in 2024 the summer of next year contemporary Native American photographer Will Wilson together with photographs by um Edward Curtis who was popular in the early 20th century and we have just received over forty thousand dollars of grant funding to bring this exhibit here and part of that funding part of our approach to the art Bridges Foundation to receive this funding was for a hugely augmented marketing effort so I did just want to throw that out there it's going to be Regional Statewide Nationwide marketing okay Carl

[2:58:58] yes the water lily Garden the this allocation was for a way finding signage to the collection as well as signage at the park what we've done is we have replaced the five old directional signage that's on North and South Bryant and Beauregard uh We've replaced those five we've added three additional so there's a total of eight wayfinding signs on the major third thoroughfares going to the civic league park the water lily collection uh the other part is the entrance sign to the park we've conceptualized what that would be um I should share that with city council we've shown it to the the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board staff we've modified that concept a little bit it's basically two stone columns with a descending wall on each side that ties well Parker are you talking about the Lily Park yes specifically parked water lily Park that ties in well with the historic walls that are there that dating back to 1938 it has a large wooden sign at the top which is kind of similar to the entrance signed to the boss but fits better with the park itself it also has a area for display for events coming up and different information about the park that could be posted there as well as some lighting we've done the the way finding signage that was just under three thousand dollars I got about 22 000 dollars left the entrance sign want to finish conceptualizing it once everybody's on board with what that looks like we'll design that up to get it permitted for construction we think it's going to be about forty thousand dollars maybe forty five thousand dollars okay and you don't have a diagram of that today no no okay so the question mark then is okay so we allocated twenty five thousand dollars for way finding and you've utilized it's

[3:01:02] only been three thousand dollars of the twenty five thousand for the way finding date correct are there uh other way finding signs that need to be made and utilized to better direct people out of that initial 25 000 or are you asking us to carry forward the twenty five thousand dollars to put towards this line at the Lily Garden yes we would like to carry that money over we did order some extra signs to replace ones if we lose them and we could add some additional signs farther out I don't think further out is as important as within the city center that's really where most of the questions come from we debated how many we should put out we didn't want to put out too many but we did increase the number that we did have out there and I think and moving that money to that main entrance sign is going to draw attention as well so that becomes important what I really want to make sure we do is with Ken Landon having passed away so many citizens are so concerned about keeping the lily pads going forward are we taking care of them are we making sure that there's not going to be a negative impact and and that we continue to make that one of the attractions so many people come to this city to see so I want to make sure we use take care of the water lily had in making sure people know where it is and that we're taking care of it and that we're proud of it and we've signed it and we make sure as I said we're proud of it so the request is what we would like to carry the remainder of the 25 000 uh I don't think we'll it'll probably take to the end of this

[3:03:04] calendar year before we get the news entrance way completed um but we would likely need some additional funds to fund that so if it's 40 000 so you're going to use about 5 000 on the way finding right so you have 20 leftovers so are you asking for another 25 000 to be in the that would help us get that 324. yes that would help us get that accomplished a thousand but the 23-24 budget plus the carryover plus carry out because it's kind of the signs what 40 or 45 Plus so that's 25 is a break even that's why I'm saying carry over plus 25. it should cover well in case the columns or whatever since we don't we haven't seen it so we're asking for 20 to be carried over an additional 25 000 to be put in there and then Carl would need to bring that back to you all to show you for the pictures and then when they get the exact bid so this is an estimate at this point but so that budget will be a 20 000 carryover and a 25 000 addition to that okay cool thank you Julie you're on uh ma'am oh yes wait a minute sorry Larry uh Carl Wade after Mr Jolly's passing we did a we agreed on a one-year contract for the current do we need to discuss that more or is there going to be something reported at a later date on whether that Phil has been successful we had we do have a Wonder contract with a possible winter extension and he's doing quite well he's got the collection going you know he started a little bit late and it's been very hot but it has been he's successfully running the collection um he's doing everything he's supposed to be doing by the agreement and he's he's been good to work with as well he's very intelligent when do we need to reconsider the an extension to that contract for that gentleman

[3:05:10] he approved it earlier this year so my guess is about January around then and if it needs to be sooner than that it's just bring It Forward on a city council agenda so um we want to make sure again we keep the Lily Garden yes managed so whenever we need to do that just make Larry's Point make sure we bring it forward and we have an opportunity to discuss it and solidify that he's helping to coordinate this year's Lily Fest on the 16th of September thank you are we going places Julie yes we are hopefully I am Julie should be pink it should be a pink suitcase but this is that's a whole little thing right there I am Julie Raymond from Martin uncommon places and this is Dr Gigi Perez Langley and the smarter of us too so here we go uh you want to see what you got for your bang for the buck for what you gave us last year we are so pumped okay and she's got a slideshow that we'll present we got pictures I might need the clicker I don't know thank you okay okay we uh are we what we presented as the project for this money was uh augmented reality murals and we are so excited about what's happening with this uh we have got nearly all of them up uh we lack one that is not on the gamut but we have used our money what we did is we paid the artist and we provided uh their supplies to all the materials that it

[3:07:15] took for them to produce these paintings uh I feel like we've got some world-class art with what we've achieved the augmentation which is not going to go live yet is being done by Central High School students which we tried to get tech companies to do it and they're like oh it's too difficult we walked into Scarlett Rodriguez class and she said we've got this so okay I'm not changing that one down arrow I guess if I'd put my glasses on laughs okay these are the partners that we partnered with to make these murals happen we are so lucky for your support and the support of all these people we always try to make it a very big Community effort when we create something and we had the drug and alcohol Council say pack the city of San Angelo downtown San Angelo keep San Angelo beautiful discover San Angelo and our Texas our future HEB this is the one of the first ones we did and it is on sipak we did it for an opening for the show that we have called artist for artists which is the local show which is bringing people from all over the country to this show and so we wanted to open with this mural which shows what safeac is about and Yuki said this is where the Arts come alive and it does now would you like to see the augmentation we're going to try to make that happen I have my glasses but I know it's too small we can take it we can do it like this you touch something [Laughter] can you put that up here put up here closer

[3:09:20] [Music] okay can you just put it on this top of this right here nope you're doing that not me there we go much better there we go okay okay this highlights all the things that happen at the Performing Arts Center you have the mic you have the ballet um and then you have some local pieces that you see in San Angelo specifically and we brought the students that produced this and they got to come see their work come live so this is only one that's going to be done this way but one thing that we're doing is we're bringing a whole new demographic in to watch people that younger people that have not been involved in arts and we work daily on trying to figure out how to make that happen because that's who our future is about and this is definitely going to bring that crowd we because of the open air museums that we've created before which is pop art and paintbrush alley as well as the red Aurora those um have they're open and they're free to the public 24 hours a day we are we are on the cultural map of Houston and Austin Texas so and we've been revered

[3:11:24] in magazines for the work that this happening so what we like to do is we like to pinpoint another area that we think would bring in a new crowd and new Vibe all of these are um down in town in the Art District because we want us to look artsy in their proximity Is rather close we will be one of the first augmented reality tours so we're going to promote this where people come in and you can get in your car and it's going to direct you to the beautiful things of our city such as our Fine Arts Museum and other things in that District it's very exciting that y'all have given this money we have used all but 3 000 because we have that set aside for the last mural which should be completed or we're going to try to before the Dead deadline but everything else is on time I have we have miscellaneous expenses broke out that we have paid for and contributed this project we bought two iPads we had to get the buy the the app right here which is called Eye Jack and that hijack will go on a Q on a a plaque besides each mural so that you and then you'll have to download the app and to make these come alive but you'll have to be present you'll have to go to this we will have a big opening we hope by the end of September we haven't set that in stone yet and then you'll be able to have a public anytime everything that we produce has made it where people can go around the clock and it's free entry so I I we are really a lot of the visual content for anything that's being produced right now the background is the artwork of all these lovely artists what I'm so so grateful to you most of all is that the things that we've done in the past the artists have just volunteered they all gave freely to paintbrush Ollie they gave freely to pop art and this we were able to pay them and I think it's

[3:13:28] we need to honor their work and make them feel valuable so we're very excited about that we do have a whole sheet of where everything went GG each check it was in a separate account we're very excited that you know we got to do this we do repair and installs on every piece that we have we coat the paintings and pop and paint once a year we pay for the electricity at pop art alley we have a repairman that we have to hire to do that um and we have and we create all the signage so we have the signage that talks about the piece that has the artist that has a QR code that goes to that uh the one that was done about Eva Tucker it goes to their foundation so you can learn about Eva Tucker um so and then we are working on the Lone Wolf Bridge that's in bad repair and we've met with the city and electrician but we're going to have to meet again and work on that and we are constantly keeping everything up to code or to what we think is a good representation of that um let me see what else we need to be saying the west Texas Sun I'm sure has created some damage and maintenance issues as it relates to um the red arroya projects I mean the sun's just so intense here so I don't know what on an annual basis you're you're spending to repair and maintain but what um and and you probably ought to identify that total number sometime but uh what you're presenting today this new idea is so important because we have been designated the visual capital of Texas and we don't want anyone to come into our city and go why did they get it we want to make sure it's obvious why we've been given that designation of the visual arts capital and these outside murals are so important I know you've done of someone I'm assuming it's with

[3:15:30] direction from you all have worked on that warehouse back of that warehouse that's on South Oaks as you cross the road yes that was our 230 and she's so amazing she hand painted every bit of that when that piece is augmented it will be the folklorica dancers and the music will be the Mariachis from Central it is I the detail on that thing is mind-boggling well they they have really uh the variety and we tried to do a vast variety in these murals so that would draw different crowds in we have Willie coyote and the Road Runner and then it's called The Rules of Engagement I didn't know there were all these I mean rules of the road okay and it has all of like the only sound that could be in that was beep beep the dynamite could only go off so far so that will all be in the augmentation which I think will be exciting and fun uh the other thing that we're really trying to do is give you numbers we quoted how many people are attending pop and paint and all the events that are having there from a wedding to um uh okay what's her name yeah oh okay here no no here just I'll go ahead anyway Jaton Hampton is doing that event uh that she has quarterly events and there's about 2 000 people attending each one of those events then she also has had um oh in that space we've had uh anyway glow in the dark by the Girl Scouts we've had a rave by Lucky hand ten two we've had the Ambleside fundraiser there the tamale Fest a wedding an endless uh photo opportunities for everyone and the photographers just love these spaces I think yes ma'am I was just going to

[3:17:34] let you know we seem to have lost slide connectivity for the rest of their photos Brian said he needs to do a hard reset so if we were planning to take another break he could do it during that break um if not that's up to you all how you want to well no I think it's important to Showcase these so and probably time for a break anyway so you want to take a lunch break a restroom break and come back with full video okay the only thing I'd like to say before is we're trying to get away to count how many people are visiting this and with this QR code and this app ijac which we pay for and with more views we we have to pay more but it's gonna it won't click and we'll know how many people viewed it if they would register we don't know and they will give us their um zip code we also know where they're coming from but we've got to pay extra so that's what we're hoping to do in the next year I'm proud of the work and proud of it's just fun to drive around and see a blank wall turn into something fun exciting vibrant and now with this moving thing going with it it's just thank you is terrific do we do you want to stop here or what do you uh we can I mean let's do this so it says to be determined so in my mind in my mind I believe that just like we do some of these other organizations that we should consistently keep twenty five thousand dollars in the budget to continue to support arts and in common places as a constant not certainly you have to present to US every year and give us good information and talk about progress but I I believe strongly we need to keep funding arts and common places and you know many organizations apply for Grants from the cultural Affairs group and the one most important part to say this they only fund people who pay their executive

[3:19:36] director arson and common places Julie the group work for free they don't pay people to oversee that organization they do it and up until now the artists have added to the City Escape for free and we've all benefited and I think you're an important organization to continue to fund on a regular basis for twenty five thousand my recommendation I think we're all good with that okay oh my goodness we're grateful thank you very much so you don't have to come back and show us the pictures okay but we are going to take a break okay that'll be great thank you ever so much a thousand left which she should spend by September 30th no I was looking at the next three items just the transfers that were just an accounting issue weren't they um yeah I said everybody sort of start taking their seats and getting organized we're waiting for one more council member who's on his way and then we will in fact get this show on the road and continue with our normal lives whatever they are yeah yeah describe what that looks like okay we're we're called back to order waiting

[3:21:50] for you it's okay I should have done that too mine feels very empty no okay it feels kind of empty perfect True Rewards have never been spoken um but okay so our next item on the agenda is Fort Concho and I know Bob has been waiting patiently for us to call him up excited to be able to present afternoon I was kind of hoping you'd cover me before lunch when you were hungry and we'd move quicker but so be it energized the fort for goodness the last 15 years or so has received fifty thousand dollars money for which we are very grateful and I thought I'd give you a quick overview of some of the things that have happened in the last year and entertain any questions most of you pretty much know what we do but just some numbers and highlights the money goes into the general operations maintenance support and programs at the fort it's typically here we will cover all 50 states 175 Texas communities and 25 30 foreign countries including Oklahoma all right guys that was funny joke we have a broad base of programs and activities throughout the year oh I will admit the heat wave has done Us in this year

[3:23:52] we try to have new things throughout the year and this past spring we had the polo event with the symphony which was rousingly successful and I think they want to come back we host other events throughout the year forever non-profits that bring people to our community we have a person coming to the board meeting tomorrow we'll talk about a Renaissance Fair uh coming perhaps next spring and of course in a typical Year we will do all sorts of programs festivals activities Calvary competition Halloween events Buffalo Soldier days and on and on and on um we're open 360 days a year we only close for Christmas New Year's and Thanksgiving and the scattered day in front or back we're open seven days a week we're here nine to five Monday through Saturday one the five on Sunday we are open more hours for the public than virtually any other Museum of its kind in the territory now this is not a great business model because some days yes we don't see a lot of people of our days we do but we're a service organization this also helps our rental business which has grown in recent years we make ourselves available to the public and I think that you're 50 000 in the hot money has been well spent uh with that stop and entertain any questions you may have my first question would just be um where are we in the progress of repairing all of the wood heat related damage to the Fort it was immense I know but where it was immense and we finished all the contracts that were let out and we are back in the best physical shape that we have been probably in history that's the good news bad news is

[3:25:56] there is well not that bad news but there are still things that are ongoing as the joke goes when you finish painting the Oakland Bay Bridge what do you do it again start over but now that we are at a catch-up mode I think that we can stay at or ahead of the game we fell into Dire Straits eight to ten years ago and thanks to you and other funding sources we were able to climb out and I think about every day how we can stay at this point in maintenance and I think that's part of the budget discussion to make sure that we have methods to stay abreast of ongoing maintenance issues but right now we are virtually done with the exterior stuff talk to us about the two tariks that are the barracks three and four and their rear mess Halls are been under construction for the past year and the architect reported that they should be substantially completed by the end of September we will have some exterior landscaping and access work to do but that'll get us right into the Silly Season as we prepare for Christmas at all of Fort Concho so I don't anticipate any move-in until early 2024 but we are in the home stretch fantastic they look great they look marvelous and some of us have been waiting 20 years to see this done and it will be and in some cases longer counselor and this will also be a fever on our cap and may be indirectly a bit of Tourism because we get researchers from all across the country everyone from a PhD researching a doctorate to someone doing a Gothic romance novel and everything in between and I'm sure once the word is out that our Holdings are reorganized and in proper facilities we'll see an uptick in that this year

[3:28:00] you brought up the polo thing which was terrific I think the big hiccup on that was the calvary competition the week before the polo match which kind of tore up the field not as bad as we thought a little bit my hope is that in May of this next year when they intend to I think it's May 4th that they're going to do the polo match again correct that we work around that and plan around it so that we don't have that conflict it will probably work out a little better for staff it was a wee bit of a stretch to go from the calvary competition right into the polo um of course weather is a critical Factor we had some decent rains ahead of time the symphony was good as there were they paid their water bill they pumped a lot of water on that field and that and the timely rains kept it at a decent level although I know it was very dusty and that's something we probably need to work on a little if if possible um but it was a windy day too Apollo match was a really windy day it was extraordinarily windy and not things that we can have any control over but I think overall everybody had a good time I'm going to open up for questions or comments from Council Members for Bob do we have any I think Larry looks like he does I just wondered if you anticipated an increase in visitors as a result of the Buffalo Soldier Memorial and is that part of your advertisement your marketing we will certainly advertise that as a part of anything that's directly related certainly at the Christmas event and certainly for our two Buffalo Soldier events that we do one in February and one in July I think it may go as much in the reverse in that people coming to see

[3:30:05] the fort we will direct them across the street to see that I've also been pleased to see just what I call The Casual visitor just drive by walk by I saw a fellow riding a bicycle the other day he stopped parked his bike sat down read some of the memorials and then went on I do think that this Memorial was done in the absolute positive fashion it was well located and I think it will be more effective in any other Memorial I've seen of its ilk across the country it was it was done very well Ms Spears and her team and all the volunteers are to be commended it just came out absolutely well Bob as it relates to your conversation a minute ago about being pretty current on the maintenance and the upkeep of the fort does your budget allow for us continuing to be caught up and maintained as we go along so that we don't get 10 years behind on the maintenance because my hot winds hot days winds deteriorate wood product frames doors fillers boardwalks something terrible I don't want us to ever get to where we were again neither do I so I want to make sure that the maintenance Budget on an annual basis and of course I know we're taught in hot talking hot texts but I want to make sure from a budget perspective that we have budgeted to keep us current on any deterioration that this climate creates out there I share that concern and I think that we need to look at maintenance from a two-fold approach the first is our staff can handle the day-to-day stuff but I think what we learned is we do not have

[3:32:09] the numbers or the talent to do things in bulk rate and the way we avoid getting into that hole is to year of the Year Farm out for modest amounts of money repairs to groups of columns groups of Windows groups of fascia board that would take our people forever given the other duties that they have now where does this money come from well in the last 10 years we have built up our fund Reserve our fund balance to a little over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars I am told by the budgeteers that my fund balance needs to be by either statute or custom 90 days we've got that times two and what I would propose to City Hall and to you is from time to time fiscal year to fiscal year we target over modest amounts of money farmed out projects that keep us where we are on where we want to be I support using that fund balance to keep this fort in in the shape that it needs to be in is the best preserved for it west of the Mississippi we appreciate that so um that's an ongoing it's never going to end every day no no and without sounding modeling here I'm trying to think of the future I won't be here in 20 years I won't be here in 10. I'm trying I'm trying to sing along vacation add to what you said Bob that those while he's got Reserve in there I mean those repairs are costly they just are and so that doesn't mean that his reserve is going to be able to cover it I will say that the great part about things going on Fort now is that you know there was a plan put in place for paying off the debt associated with the state office complex and so forth and as that is rolling off here real quick

[3:34:13] um that may offer you some opportunities then to reallocate some of those funds to things like this where you're not having to take more from the general fund So when you say real quick what's real quick September 30. Rick is correct and since he brought it up let me just give you a quick overview the 25-year Bond certificates of obligation that were floated to rehab the Chase and the workforce buildings they are totally and fully paid off September 30 of this year now that means that some extra money in that fund 201 which is a restricted account could be available over time to do two things first to take care of the capital needs at those two state buildings indeed we just finished seven of twelve heavy duty air conditioners on the roof the other five we hope will be coming shortly that's part of a five-year plan because those are all original issue and there would be some money left over year to year to take care of some Ford issues so it's a blended approach but I think we are in as good a financial position to tackle this as we have ever been okay so we have an area to look at a fund to look towards helping keep that so we cannot get we cannot let it deteriorate to the level we've come too far to get it the way it is and we need to make the effort to keep it that way it's designating funds to do that there are there are options there we just have to pay attention year to year for the questions from Council comments I agree totally with you mayor we need to stay on top of it I I think that's very important good and good job getting us where we are Bob well it was your generosity in both hunt funds and other funds that got us there and two targeted hail storms I will admit although I for one do not want to see another hailstorm three in one year is

[3:36:16] enough for any man them okay thank you very much thank you foreign how are you all doing here to speak on Civic events um this year of course we did a lot of Renovations um certain different needs in different areas for the Coliseum one of the biggest items that we did uh complete over there is the two new boilers um that was definitely needed over in that area plus we had a lot of maintenance issues that was taken care of for the convention center we completed our Renovations which included the replacement of the sewer line retiling uh vinyl and vinyl to the walls repainting as well we're still working on the landscape and irrigation project which should be starting in November and will actually taking care of the seal coating coming up in August uh we should have that complete moving forward there are some other items that we're needing to look forward to which would be replacing the HVAC units over here at the convention center we have 16 of those um that's been our probably our most costly maintenance item that we do have currently right now but moving forward I would like to bring that to council and see if we can get that approved for a future Improvement for the convention center can those be paid for with hot tax money yes I believe so and okay so right now if you look at the conference center the updates that you need with the exception of the HVAC have been completed yes ma'am we've completed like I said the sewer line the retailing of the main Ballroom re-carpeted the

[3:38:18] hallways as well painting the interior Ballroom as well in exterior we also did the window tinting too and all of those were complete here this weekend this weekend we did have a quinceanera that was in here and then we had a Teachers Conference that was here on Friday I believe that was moving out are we seeing strong bookings of the convention center we're seeing great bookings out if you know of course we closed down from November to January and uh we're still at budget for this year and stuff so we're actually seeing great bookings uh weddings king size um we're doing pretty well at the convention center I will say now were we doing updates to to budget for something with upgrades in here yes or have been a Brian Gross project I believe but then wasn't wasn't there something else we were doing here we did the security cameras as well so we did have an addition of security cameras but that came out of our regular budget and Wi-Fi I think it's the Wi-Fi I'm thinking about the hookups that have been problematic yes we've we've uh had Wi-Fi issues um but we've we did add Wi-Fi to uh Convention Center as well as the Coliseum and the river stage but we're still working through some issues with that going on right now there's some big issues on the July 3rd event with the Wi-Fi connections or yeah something going on with the bandwidth and them being able to um I guess when everybody comes and they're pulling out their phones they're pulling all the bandwidth so we're needing to get basically like a hard line I believe out there to be able to do um Live Events being able to Showcase those okay questions from Council and so on the million eight what does that primarily go towards that definitely goes towards our

[3:40:20] operations so that's your just day-to-day operating our facilities yes ma'am how are the bathrooms at the Coliseum bathrooms can definitely use a little bit of work not a little bit a lot of work I was wondering how he's going to answer that because I was getting ready to answer for him that's that's also the same thing with the convention center we need to probably look into upgrading the bathrooms over here of restrooms over here at the at the convention center it's still pretty nice we don't beat it up like you guys do I guess because they're pretty nice the girls we're definitely having a few issues and that's another item that we've been having to call out for some uh maintenance needs for our restrooms of course we haven't had a complete renovation since 2008 so a lot of those bathroom um mechanics are starting to go out mechanisms are starting to go out and and so we're having to replace those as well what about that um trailer that we bought the restroom trailer that we bought are we finding that to be useful we did use the restroom trailer whenever we were shut down for the sewer line replacement but that's the only time that we've personally used it it's really autoplexes aren't using it it's out at the sports complex so it's used there for recreation things typically not anything Sid would use it for so it's not being used as much as we thought it would be I can't answer that question but because we envisioned when we bought that that special events or other Parks or whatever that it would be a facility that would be useful so they they primarily bought it because of the the sports complex some of the quads don't have restrooms so it was a way when we are having tournaments we get requests well they don't like to walk all the way over there so they use it primarily for that that's what it was bought for and that all revolves around how many tournaments you're able to draw in secondary it was to be used for special

[3:42:23] events like we've used it out at MLK Park when they were having their event because there weren't restrooms there so for those kind of things it is used some but that wasn't the primary reason we bought it but yes you're right it could be used for those but it hasn't been heavily used for those yes Larry I believe on previous meetings there was discussion or contract contracts made about the landscaping for this building I just wondered what happened in the face of this drought what's been done with it is is it still in that's why you said it was going to start in November so we're starting that in November and really putting most of that in not of course right now it's just a horrible time to do that and it's all being done for the most part A lot of it was done in-house by Parks so that's to save money and and and Parks has a lot going on so they're scheduling it into their their season when they can have time to do it so that'll be why it's starting in November thank you thank you that must conclude unless you want to share anything else with us looking forward to tomorrow's discussion on the river stage Renovations hoping that we can get that going okay thank you very much Texas Bank Sports Complex Carl you're on again yes the 50 000 goes into General operations maintenance of the complex it's been a decent year for the sports complex we've kept up well with the condition of the complex despite the excessive heat we've hosted about 12 tournaments so far this year we have upcoming the annual Statewide flag football tournament this fall this will be the sixth year we've hosted it um we still have a decent fund balance as far as outstanding projects we still have the storage facility to construct on the East End

[3:44:27] we are you may have seen the memo about the autonomous mowers that we're looking at purchasing to enhance maintenance out there and to try them out to see how well they work for us and see how well we could Implement that more into the future um so how's your water usage been considering the drought and considering that it's it's pushed it's pushed us to a pushed as far to keep up be surprised how much water it does take to keep grass like that so I asked the question so are we on budget or over budget because I mean I and I'm not I'm asking simply because it's drought and it's hot and it's fine because Council actually changed the way that's approached a few years back you're good you're okay and you've been able to keep it up and keep it in good shape yes we utilize the incentive account that we set up a year and a half ago twice um so that has helped a bit to bring in two tournaments all right then no further questions or comments from Council we'll move on thank you very much okay the last item is a Railway Museum good morning or afternoon got here when it was morning um I'm Susannah Valenzuela I'm the president of the Railway Museum and this is Dr Linda Bond she's on our board she's our secretary and the Railway Museum is in the Triangle in the cultural District it is the third of the triangle um samha and the fort are the others and they are offended by hot tax so um we have diligently diligently been working the last three years to get this where it needs to be and we feel like we're at the point where we need some

[3:46:29] help and so um I provided a sheet I'm not sure if that's been passed to you yet or not um but I believe in our current contract it states that we cannot receive funding from the city based on the previous board so we're looking to get that changed and then also we're requesting 25 000 in hot talks and what are you requesting to pay in addition for rent well we're not requesting right now well currently right now we are just paying to be tenants and to take care of the building and we have programming that we would love to use to make this Museum more of an asset for San Angelo but currently at the moment we are mainly paying fees for intertel for fire inspections and elevator fees that are very large there are very large fees that we have to pay that we've over the last three years spent thirty three thousand dollars on that's many we could have used towards programming and those efforts are for preserving that building and since we've moved in we've gotten an 85 000 Grant from the health foundation for the HVAC system we got a twenty five thousand dollar Grant from the area foundation for fencing and right now we're in the process of getting trying to get a grant from the health foundation for the elevator the elevator needs to be upgraded and so we're a small group and we're putting on tons of events and I've included the information here of what we're doing to raise funds we are an active board all of the board are working members and we have no employees um but one that is our cashier on the weekends for people to come in um on the elevator Grant we should be hearing back on that September 21st if we've received that Grant so these and we pay a grant Rider to write those grants for us and it's not inexpensive it's usually two or three thousand dollars so um we're just we hope that the efforts that we have made to this point have shown the value of the Railway Museum to this community and we've implemented new programming including Arthur Stillwell

[3:48:33] and the dream of steam um Arthur Stillwell was an important part to San Angelo history if he had not brought the railroad here this city would not be here and that part of History has never been focused on um Linda does our living history programs so she's been instrumental in helping to bring that history to life we currently have a play that we do and that's done every year now um and one of the slides that you didn't get to see from art and uncommon places was that they're actually going to be creating a mural right next to the tracks by the depot that is going to be Arthur steelwell's a picture of him and like some trains in the depot so I think people are starting to learn that history and um this is pretty much what we've done we want to say um none of us personally benefit from doing this other than that we want something for San Angelo that is special the train Market is a niche market it is something that people travel to see and I'll let Linda talk a little bit about visitors that have come to the museum from all over the world as well and it's an asset it's like you say you look at San Angelo it's like you have the fort you need various places for people to be able to visit and the Railway Museum is part of that and so I think that we've shown that through our events we've shown that through our extended business hours and so um and I think people in the community now know that it's a place to go we've partnered with various entities we do um partner with the chamber on Military Appreciation Day and allow all the military to come in for free and we do Museum National Day with all the other museums and allow people to come in for free and those are monies that we need and we only charge five dollars it's like that only adds up to so much you know and I think that we've shown that we've given a lot and that we're to the point where we need a little bit of help to help us so we can have some of this programming it's like we can't Market

[3:50:35] these events that we're having our Halloween event had over 1300 people it was featured in Fodor and so these events are quality and they are bringing people to San Angelo and if we had the ability to put a little more into them Market them a little more I think it would definitely give a little more and so I'm going to let Linda talk about the visitors we're really honored that Goodfellow puts out a publication that says we're one of the top family opportunities in San Angelo one of the reasons is people come from all over the country to be at Goodfellow and when they come to visit us they bring their grandparents their parents their themselves and their children so we often have four generations at the Museum each one of those Generations approaches it differently some of them want to read everything some want to want to run around and touch everything some want to hear the stories but we have that all available we have educational opportunities on any level that people approach it we are very lucky that San Angelo has been so supportive but we have also gained an opportunity to reach people for for example a troop of Boy Scouts camping at Lake nazworthy got rained out and spent the day at the Railway Museum we were delighted to have them was that a famous one back there we have had rain this year and we have had the Boy Scouts and we were delighted to have them we have a lot of different opportunities we had a stem camp and uh because Railway is so so much about engineering we were able to show gauges and sizes and how trains Changed by size and and we were able to do examples of that we were a we're able to do Hands-On science and I think that's a great opportunity that not everyone gets my big issue is we have a contract and

[3:52:41] that contract specifies that the Railroad Museum will operate with asking for no more money from the city and that contract is in place so that was signed by a previous board it doesn't matter you guys took it on and you're part of it so unless that contract gets Rewritten it says no more funds and today we're not rewriting a contract so this is about hot funds not that contract and until that contract comes forward and is Rewritten and changes the Dynamics on it that contract is there to bring that contract forward re-review it and we look at it but that's what that contract sign said and that was signed specifically because the previous operators of that um Railroad Museum we discontinued that contract and there were some of you all in play when that contract was written I'm not saying this Council won't look at it I don't believe any of our report was on there but we need that contract needs to be re-looked we're there for that all right you inherited it so you're part of it so you inherited it so that to me is the big issue and um yeah is it is it time for us to look at that contract and update it just like we have with a lot of other organizations we can do that and I'm fine we'll bring it back forward and we can negotiate and ask us it then but we have that contract in place right now and that's what we need to honor it's a signed contract so when could we look at re-looking at that well we can whenever Therese has time to look at it and bring it forward so it's a contract what we can do staff is we'll get that pulled and we'll ask Teresa to look at it and then We'll advise you all on when she can bring It Forward in working with the rail Museum when they're available as well so we'll try to do that in the near future the uh

[3:54:44] it's not a complex issue if if Council wants to support this function your direction now to bring that back with the idea that we would support it in some fashion is is a simple change simple Amendment or a simple update to that contract if that's what you want we can bring it back and we can have that discussion but right now that contract is a contract yes go ahead I was curious it seems as though you're basic biggest expense is your elevators causing you all kinds of trouble now right no we actually have um substantial bills from Nartel for the sprinkler system as well that whenever they do the inspection it's very costly but then if there's any repairs that have to be made um which happened right before I came on the board it was about seven or eight thousand dollars to repair those sprinklers and so again you know just kind of like we talked about with art and uncommon places we don't have any paid employees all of the people that are doing this are volunteers to maintain that building for our community for it to be a tourist asset for our community and we have a lot of great volunteers that come in and help with the model trains it's like those are constantly needing repair and we have a great Arthur Stillwell exhibit now that was created and Linda has put a lot of effort into that play and it features you know the mayor of um and the mayor of San Angelo Jenny Stillwell Arthur Stillwell and Pancho Villa like really incorporating that into San Angelo's history and making sure that people don't forget about that so again if this is something that is important to you all to for it to continue I would love to hear that support and if not then you know we just have to go by your decision because we can't continue to invest all this time I mean it's hundreds of hours um we just can't continue to do it if we're not going to get the help well we we you know again not to diminish the work that's been done but that Railroad Museum was restored by

[3:56:47] many individuals in this city they raised the money they saved it they put it together we've had a railroad board of directors Railroad Museum Board of Directors for generations for a long time and it's never been at the level that it is right now not been at the level it is and you've been able to get grants to support that and like all non-profit organizations your board is responsible for fundraising to help oversee a lot of that right and that's what it's a historic building though and there is funds for historic preservation and currently the fort is the only one getting any of that and I think just the way you invested in the Ford and now it's this great asset for San Angelo the Railway Museum can be the same thing so it's just really again your decision if you want to see this move forward and you have the information the events are being very successful Santa Fe Christmas is I think an integral part of our holiday season here in San Angelo there's over a thousand people that come out for that event to see Santa arrive by train but that takes a lot of work and we do get sponsors we have HEB we have Atmos Republic different people supporting us but that can only go so far everybody has their day job you know and even though we love this so much you know if it's not something the council wants to see continue then how you vote and how you move this forward is how we will have to move forward as well thank you very much thank you well I wanted to make a steak oh yes go right ahead you know I'm sure everyone knows Suzanne that at the end of the week you will be leaving the chamber so I just wanted to personally say thank you for all you have done and I wish you the best thank you so much so I want to pour Yoli we all have different I remember talking about it when we took it over and everybody voted on this a couple councils ago um we have to look at what's sustainable and what's not we we elected that hey and you've got a group together to do that and say we're going to try to move forward and make it one of the best things we have

[3:58:49] we need to see you know when we boil down the hot tax dollars it's heads and beds all right we need to see on paper who's coming what's here the events the people all that we are bound by the contract I would say it's not pointing out specifically the Railroad Museum but I'm with Brenda I said we've got that contract in place Rick brings up a good point we can bring it up we can look at it but it's about heads and beds and hot tax money and I've had many discussions with Diane Bayes about this in the past through the rodeo so so we need to go down that path but I just want you to understand it's it's important but we have rules that we're basically Falling by and I will say we do collect zip codes everybody that comes into the museum we take their zip code at Santa Fe Christmas everybody that comes to the line to get a picture with Santa gets the zip code and how many are in your party so that is something that we're very aware of and that we are tracking and have been tracking and I will tell you since the day we took over um it was about three thousand dollars in sales and this year we're at about 30 000 in sales like just in attendance the things that are going on we've invested in a motorized train for the kids to ride train when they come to our events it's participated in parades and we've asked people have asked us to rent the train so we are doing things to be sustainable long term and as you're talking about sustainable um the things that we can't focus on are you know we want to build a patio on the boxcar and make it a wine car and have evenings out there that people can come out and enjoy the evening we talked about turning the Caboose into a bed and breakfast where people who could come and use that so we're not just asking for this um because you know it's too much it's not sustainable it is sustainable it's just right now we're constantly having to work to pay thirty thousand dollars in bills I think that says a lot for what we have done and what we can do and that's just talking about those not like electric bills or any of the other bills

[4:00:52] so I think we have proven it's sustainable and if we are given the opportunity to move it forward that it could be even more so you know stand on its own well there's certainly a mountain in front of us as a group as a city and a non-profit and I've been on both sides of that so I understand but right I think that concludes our conversations on today's agenda and so let me get back to the agenda as a wrap up we just leave our stuff right here yeah for tomorrow yeah yeah so Tina I turn it back over to you or quote I don't know the agenda says a wrap up by Tina so wrap it up it's a wrap okay that's all we need to hear it's a ramp [Music]

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=J3N5KlKrGug