San Angelo City Council 10-3-23

[0:00:00] October 3rd 2023 city council meeting it is officially called to order at 8:32 a.m. this morning as usual we will start with our prayer and um pledges and we have today with us our chaplain Ralph Dawkins to lead us in both and we're pleased to have him here today push the button and Z till the thing goes green till the thing goes green it went green good morning everybody let's pray father we thank you for the opportunity to invoke prayer and your word into this Gathering of City officials leaders and concerned citizens your word declares in Jeremiah 29 and11 that you already know the plans that you have for us plans to prosper us plans not of evil and plans that will give us a future and a hope so we ask your blessings upon the people who have been called to lead our community in a way in which we live and work and play you are a God of Justice wisdom and mercy so I ask that your character would help them to listen with understanding and Good Will and a sense of fairness with all that come before them pray that you'll give them a spirit of service and remind them that they are stewards under your Authority so I pray for the mayor her staff and assistants the city council members the city manager and every person and Department that is instrumental in leading and directing our city I pray for the police chief and the entire police force the sheriff's department that they continue to protect and serve the residents of our city I pray for the fire chief and the fire department and all First Responders who serve our city and lastly I pray for continued economic prosperity and safety for all of our city may you draw in and

[0:02:05] attract our city and Community industry businesses and corporations that will produce jobs and revenue that will help it to grow and prosper in Jesus name I pray let us all say Amen let's do the pledge pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of America the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for Allon the Texas flag I pledge aliance to thee Texas one State under God one and indivis thank you we have three proclamations this morning and we will start with a proclamation of October the 2nd 2023 is World habitat day and affordable housing day is it the two of you it's not our item it's Pam she's not here today so you'll take it on we'll take it on okay perfect on Monday October the 2nd 2023 Habitat for Humanity of s Angelo joined with Partners around the world in raising awareness educating and mobilizing individuals and communities to act on the current Global housing crisis Habitat for Humanity of s Angelo joins our partners to rededicate ourselves to recognizing the basic right of everyone to adequate shelter we ask everyone to join us as one Global Network and communicate the message that every one of us deserves the opportunity for a better future a decent place to live can remove barriers to opportunity health

[0:04:08] and success for growing families now and for generations to come Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a Grassroots effort on a community Farm in southern Georgia the Christian Housing Organization has since become a leading Global nonprofit working in more than 1300 communities throughout the US and in more than countries families and individuals in need of a handup partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home habitat homeowners help build their home alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage everyone can help families achieve the strength stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves locally Habitat for Humanity of s Angelo Galilee Community Development Corporation and the City of s Angelo stand together to help ensure we can all provide affordable housing throughout our community Through shelter we Empower therefore I mayor Gunter mayor of the city s Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim Monday October the 2nd 2023 as World habitat day and affordable housing day in St Angelo Texas and call this observance to the attention of all our citizens who would like to speak oh think I that perfect uh good morning everyone um the rep for the habitat of humanity is not here this morning so you guys you're stuck with me uh I do want to say that um affordable housing is really a challenge and a problem Across the Nation if not across the world uh having affordable housing takes uh a lot of hard work it takes uh Partnerships between the government nonprofits and the private sector uh and with that I think with the Partnerships we'll be able to come up with some solutions hopefully solve that problem um on behalf of the affordable housing um Coalition if you will I want to thank the mayor and Council for this

[0:06:12] Proclamation for this very important U issue thank you gy CDC is excited to partner with the city and Habitat for Humanity uh to provide affordable housing in different ways so um we know this community needs more affordable housing and we are trying to come up with good ways and different ways to provide that for them so we're excited to continue to do that um hi Pam come on up um and habitat is a big part of that so we appreciate them Pam would you like to offer some words two two seconds okay thank you mayor Gunter and distinguished Council people um sorry I'm late I live a long ways from here so um actually out at the lake but it feels like a really long ways um I just want to thank Stephanie and Bob solz for being here this morning and um honoring us and making sure that everybody remembers that it's very important to have a safe affordable home to go home to and um Everybody deserves that and that's why habitat exists the city of St Angelo Stephanie at Galilee that's why they are it's so important to them is to have very affordable housing and to make sure that um that everybody has a chance to make that happen so I want to thank you all this morning thank the mayor thank the councilman for uh for this Proclamation and for everybody to remember that it's important to for your kids to be able to go home to a safe affordable home thank you absolutely our next Proclamation is for

[0:08:22] fire prevention week so those in the audience here for this Proclamation please come forward the city of s Angelo is committed to ensuring the Safety and Security of all those living in and visiting our community fire is a serious Public Safety concern both locally and nationally and homes are the locations where people are at the greatest risk from fire fire departments in the United States responded to 338,000 Home Fires in 2021 resulting in more than 2,800 deaths according to the National Fire Protection Association cooking is the leading cause of Home Fires in the United States unattended cooking is the leading factor of most kitchen fires causing nearly 31% of all Home Fires between 2014 and 2018 residents should turn pot handles toward the back of the stove keep a lid nearby when cooking maintain a 3ot kid-free Zone around cooking appliances and always set a timer as a reminder those who have planned and practiced a home Fire Escape Plan are better prepared and more likely to surv to survive a fire working smart smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a home by almost half St Angelo's First Responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of Home Fires and fire related injuries Through Fire Prevention education San Angelo residents are responsive to public education measures and are able to take personal steps to increase their safety from fire especially in their homes the 2023 Fire Prevention Week theme cooking safety starts with you pay attention to fire prevention serves to remind us to stay alert and use caution when cooking to reduce the risk of kitchen fires now therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the

[0:10:26] city s Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim October the 8th through October the 14th 2023 as Fire Prevention Week in s Angelo Texas and urge all citizens to check their kitchens for fire hazards use safe cooking practices and support the many public safety activities and efforts of St Angelo's fire and Emergency Services thank you for being here hello I'm Billy Clemens I'm the city firearm Fire Marshall uh mayor Gunner thank you for the reading of the Proclamation thank you council members um for allowing us to be here this morning again kitchen uh safety is a very important uh item uh this year's theme um hits that topic very well uh I want to also thank my staff uh for their diligence and uh preventing fires uh going out and then educating the public on what to do uh in case of a situation where they they need the fire department um I I promise we're going to continue to do our very best to get out there into the public and actually uh educate the public on the prevention of fire safety and uh again thank you very much for allowing us to be here this morning do we have folks for the United Way here today welcome how are you good good to see hope happen here the mission of the

[0:12:30] United Way of the koncho valley is to provide the means by which a crosssection of our community may join in a CommunityWide effort to provide and deliver Health and Human Service programs which address current Community needs in a collective and collaborative manner in 2022 more than 78,000 local Kell Valley residents benefited from the United Way the cono Valley contributions through social service agencies that provide emergency food and shelter day and after school programs for children Mental Health Services substance use treatment and Prevention Services for victims of child abuse and domestic violence and many other social services the objective of the United Way the conso valley is to assist in the expansion or the development of service programs promote preventive activities and Foster cooperation among local state and National agencies serving the community the United Way is ready to assist all individuals with whatever needs may arise in the city of St Angelo the city of St Angelo supports the United Way of the kcho valley and we ask that you do the same therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of St Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud United Way of the Kono Valley for its achievement and positive determination to make a difference in our community the first go yes well thank you all this for this morning thank you to Mayor Gunter and the city council and of course the city of St Angelo uh the United Way is 98 years old this year and so we have been able to provide impact and provide service um for this community as well as our surrounding communities for over 98 years uh just that 78,000 over 48,000 of those impacted were right here in the city of St Angelo and the only way the only way that we can do the work that we do is with our Community Partners um and then this Community the generosity the support the volunteers um everyone who

[0:14:32] comes forward every or each and every year for the United Way We are truly truly grateful um that we get to do what we do and we get to do that it's because of you so thank you all so much out we will now move into the public comment section of the agenda issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the deas Begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to Less Than 3 minutes do we have individuals in the audience today who would like to come forward and add some public comment seeing none I would like to just make this comment Lucy Gonzalez reminded me to remind everyone that the uh meter made or gentleman are out issuing tickets based off of overstaying in a parking space so our parking limitations are 3 hours and if your car is in the same for over 3 hours you could get a ticket so be very aware that the meter person is out there issuing tickets so

[0:16:39] thank you very much we will move into the consent agenda Larry is there anything you'd like to pull from the consent agenda G item G Karen M Harry item f f Tom nothing to pull Tommy with that may I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda with the exception of items f and g mayor yes Lucy I have nothing to pull either oh thank you I forgot you're on camera thank you dear for speaking up thank little fomo out there yeah all right so we have a motion by Larry do I have a second second a second by Tommy any public comment on the consent to agenda items with the exception of f and g seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say I I I motion passes 70 or the consent agenda passes 7 to zero with the exception of f and g item f is consider approving a contract with the Sanel Museum of Museum of Fine Arts SFA allocating $50,000 of Hotel occupancy tax hot receipts for eligible activities and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents carry my question is is this the time that we should be really allocating money to an entity that is really not open and does not have an executive director I think I think the mum does a great job but they're closed right now because they're doing renovations on the

[0:18:40] roof they do not have an executive director I wonder if we should push this for a few months until they've got some of those things resolved I will add comment to that number one obviously there is a roof that has created damage the roof is almost complete they are open in the fort cono Stables facility so people still have a place to go and look at the exhibits they might not have an executive director but they have a president and they have an acting executive director at this point in time so I see no reason to put a hold on a a pro a a project or a business based off of the comments just made they actually have more visitors who come in and put people in beds in this city than any other nonprofit organization we can't stop that the onplay air event is the end of this month October and they bring in people from all over the United States to attend that event and so that's in October they're here they're open and they are working like crazy to ensure that our Cultural District and the Museum of Fine Arts moves forward so um I strongly support giving them the $50,000 of hot tax money mayor that's why I brought it up so that you could make that comment you're such a sweetheart Harry that's why I like you all right with that um move to approve there's a motion to approve a seconded by Tom any public comment seeing none uh we will take a vote all those in favor say I I I I motion passes Z Item G second reading and public hearing of an ordinance deleting the juvenile curfew from chapter 8 article 8.07 division two of the code of ordinances and Larry you asked to pull

[0:20:43] this so would you like to make some comments uh yes I understand that in passing this ordinance we're essentially tidying up the paperwork we should have an ordinance that agrees with state law be that as it may we need to seriously take a look at the state law and will or we want this to continue I believe it's it's atrocious what they're what they're doing it's a legislative overreach of the worst kind if the state can dictate how we in St Angelo control juvenile Behavior then the state can do virtually anything it wants to hamper our self-government next the state law does nothing to reduce crime in fact this law virtually guarantees raising crime rates in San Angelo this legislation effectively ties the hands of our Police Department in preventing crime if this law is allowed to stand it restricts our law enforcement to solely investigating crime rather than preventing it it is unimaginable that anyone in this community objects to a reasonable curfew in many cases excuse me in many cases a curfew frequently prevents our citizens from becoming victims of crime furthermore it protects our youth in giving them and their parents well outline behavioral expectations in other words curfews helped to keep juveniles from committing crimes and suffering the repercussions of being arrested it is not a stretch to believe that if House Bill 1819 continues in place it will result in significant if not extraordinary increases in neighborhood crime lives will be lost and lives will be destroyed thank you Larry for those comments I think that we as a council are are um support those comments and are very concerned about removing that

[0:22:47] curfew uh it doesn't seem to be um the right thing to do but it is state law and we have no authority to enforce a law that the state has mandated over all of our cities so but thank you for those comments well said thank you all right with that uh may I have a motion for approval reluctantly I'll make that motion is there a second there's a second a nod of the head I accept that nod any public comment on this item seeing none we will take a vote all those in favor of approving item G say I I I I sounds like we got a tie here so it won't I would vote nay and support the other Nays except it won't make a difference because the state law um if well these two did not say yay these three did so I'm going to join these three in my vote to make it four to two but Lucy how did you want to vote I would go with nay a nay so it's now 4 to three and I'm going to support the approval of it simply because vetoing it and not supporting it doesn't get us anywhere is that correct Teresa that is correct mayor if we leave it in the books it's just going to cause confusion with our citizens as to whether or not we have a curfew and if we ever did write a citation under it it would be immediately dismissed by a court so with that it passes 4 to three and we can say barely passes barely pass reluctantly don't support it don't like it wish it would go away and go back 1819 can we pick on Drew for that you can all right we'll

[0:24:51] call Drew all right with that that does complete our regular I mean excuse me our consent agenda so we will move into the regular agenda comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above applicants proponents and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes so item a is an update on the city Endor service line warranties of America slwa program and you're on uh good morning um Council requested an update on the service line warranty program that began in January 2015 as a reminder the city entered into an agreement with service line warranties of America to allow the use of the city's name and logo on letterhead and marketing materials to be sent to residential property owners across the city at no cost to to us in return the the provides royalty fees based on percentage of local sales and which is total to 142,000 little over Haron 4 2000 since 2016 which has helped us uh uh assist 81 homeowners uh with uh emergency repair programs um so um anyway we have um let me introduce Ali tomasic she's from She's an associate account manager at slwa who's here to provide you an update hi my name is Ali tamasic thank you all for having us here today um I also have my colleague Steve barnowski here as well so as Bob mentioned we had um began the partnership with San Angelo in 2015 some of you may be quite familiar with the program some of you may not be um

[0:26:53] but we are the only service line program that is endorsed by the National League of cities um of course this program is offered at no cost of the city um so the nature of the program is really designed to help um address the public policy issue of Aging infrastructure um we provide the residents of San Angelo with protection for their external water lines and their external sewer lines um what we had found is that a lot of times residents are unaware of the responsibility for these lines so we seek to educate them on their responsibility um we do so by providing a um letter to Residents that are not currently enrolled this letter would be distributed periodically um I do also have a copy of the letter that I will leave here with Bob um this would be what the envelope looks like and then it's followed by some educational material on their responsibilities for the lines and follow Follow by a um the option to enroll in the optional coverages so so the it is not on City letterhead um the envelope the second page the second page has a dual logo um it has the city of San Angelo's logo as well as the logo for the service there where the confusion lies is because it's on city of San Angelo ladder head or the city s Angela logos at the top so people believe that it's the city of St Angelo program and it also makes them believe that the city isn't taking care of the problems with the septic coverage or the water well line coverage I'm not sure we can't take it away but we need to be clear that having the C City letterhead on that does not mean the city of St Angelo was selling this program and receiving the income from this program

[0:29:01] understood hi mayor if I can jump in real quick I just wanted to add there's lots of ways we can do that yeah our goal is to avoid that confusion so we're apologize if there is any confusion from the residents and they reach out to you so um whenever a letter goes out we can do something on social media uh we can do something on the website just as a reminder of the residents hey these letters will be hit in the mailbox this is uh a separate program that slwa manages if you have any questions reach out to them um you know something along those lines so there there's definitely options for us to do that and we're happy to do whatever we can tresy you want to go through the legal aspects of this in other words we have we are working with them as a city to allow citizens to make a decision about this insur basically policy that they have signed up would you just go through it very specifically in terms of the city's connection to this and the city's role in this program yeah Bob might be able to do that a little better because I do believe we get some funding from this program um but basically we are telling our citizens by putting our logo on that um document that this is a program that the city is receiving funding from and that we are authorizing to be sold in our city so there could be other insurance companies or warranty companies who would warrant those lines that are the city the citizens responsibility um that are not associated with us we wouldn't receive any benefit from that but this because our logo is on there we do receive benefit that same concern um these uh this program came out around 2015 that time across the state and I know that was a concern Statewide about City attorneys and Mayors and city managers that City logos were going to be on it but um I think that ultimately what has happened is that people have some assurance that this is a program that's dependable because we do have some control over it okay go ahead um so just to break down what the program actually covers um there are coverages for both the sewer

[0:31:04] um external sewer line and the external water line and these coverages are pretty much identical with each other in that they both cover um where the homeowner becomes responsible for the line um both of these coverages cover up to $88,500 per repair and that is on an incidence basis so um there is no annual limits there's also no deductible or fee at all that could you know potentially deter a resident from filing a claim um and as of today the sewer coverage starts at $658 per month and the water line is at $458 per month can you pick one or the other or do you have to do both you don't have to do both um could be you know optional for one one or the other so just to give you an update of um the program as it sits today in s Angelo currently there are 2005 active policies um and that covers about 1275 customers um so about three and a half% of homeowners are enrolled in this coverage um and to date we've completed just over 1100 repairs in San Angelo that saved customers a little over uh 1 million point $1.1 million um and I put a timeline in here for you it was just in April of 2023 that we reach that uh $1 million Mark so wanted to also provide you a breakdown of of each of the policies here so for the water service line there's um just over a thousand policies we've serviced about 389 claims thus far saving residents um just under $300,000 um for the sewer line there's about 944 policies um almost double the amount of claims at 731 and we've saved residents $827,000 for the sewer line why is there such a big difference

[0:33:08] between the two number of claims it's like age of or so it it just depends on on the individual uh the how the the water and sewer line how while they're probably the same age it just depends your neighbor could have a completely different you know it could flip-flop where there'll be um you know a higher average cost for the the water line instead of the sewer line but uh you know typically with the the sewer line uh the recently since Co essentially when residents have been home more often um been more use so that's why it kind of drives those uh numbers and claims uh an average job cost up okay and a customer Sation customer satisfaction really is what we pride ourselves in and driving force behind everything we do so we're currently at a 4.8 um overall score in San Angelo out of five stars and I put some recent testimonials up here um I've also shared this uh PowerPoint slide with you all today so you're able to take a look um these are the addresses that they're associated with um so we've had some really good um reviews and work being done here and just wanted to switch over to um some ways that we're giving back to the community as well thanks Ally so uh the home serve Caris Foundation is something that we take seriously with it with the uh uh throughout the company and and partners throughout the United States so uh the main thing thing I like to talk about is caring for people and the uh caring for vets so uh with the caring for people uh I like to bring up every time I we speak to a partner because this is something that it's good to keep in the back of your mind this would be if a resident

[0:35:11] has an issue that pops up and they're not currently a customer um but whatever the issue is uh really will'll put them in a in a tough position uh either the the resident or the city on the resident's behalf can go onto the home serve care website and apply for C well we'll work with a local contractor for uh no cost to the homeowner to fix whatever the is whatever the issue is uh and I do like to point out it does not need to be uh water and sewer line specific if there's you know problem with the electric at the house we can cover that too so um it's just good to keep in in mind if you hear that one of your residents uh maybe on a fixed income that something tragic happens and and they're really in a tough position please let us know and we'll be happy to help help out anywh we can uh then the the caring for vets uh if you know of any veteran that might be looking in to get into some type of trade uh let us know and we can help uh put them in touch with a local contractor uh whether it be a plum or electrician either uh for employment or some type of apprenti ship so um another thing just to keep in the back of your mind if you catch word uh that uh veterans looking to um get in the trade please let us know and we'll be able to help them however we can and then lastly one thing we wanted to point out was a uh new program since uh residents have done so well uh in saving money throughout uh the partnership um one thing that Partners have been asking us on the flip side um you know we can fix whatever the issue is but a lot of times residents will have still have that high water bill water sewer bill that they have to take care of so uh we came up um right at uh the beginning of 2020 right before Co so the worst possible time you can create something new um we purchased a serve line where it helps protect residents for uh those high water bills but it also protects the city itself instead of

[0:37:15] having to write off the badw debt or having to work with residents to uh come up with some type of payment plan uh we would pay uh the overage to the city and the residents would pay whatever their average so if it's a $500 uh water bill when they typically pay $50 a month they would pay that $50 and we would pay the 450 directly to the city so that they can uh credit the the account for their residents so um again it's just something we wanted to let you know about it is a newer offering um it was late last year beginning this year uh the city of El Paso adopted serve line um and it it's starting to spread out w it it started in uh Tennessee uh but we're seeing more and more cities throughout the United States interested so again we just wanted to to let you know if there's uh any interest please let Ally know and we we'll definitely um you know have that conversation all right that's all I had thank you guys the question I most citizens would want to know is is this on their water bill or do you they receive a separate invoice to you as a company how uh how is this processed just clarify for serve line correct so there's there I mean for the whole program oh for the whole program so for the the NLC program that's currently in place uh a resident when they sign up they become our customer the billing everything is through us it's not through the city at all um they get a welcome packet with you know the terms and conditions everything that they signed up for if they need a file claim all that important information um and then Ser line it's it's completely separate than this current current program we have in place um there's a couple different ways to implement it um there is the option to do um on the water bill it's usually about a dollar a month uh for water sewer coverage but um the the city can also just include it in rate and make it a benefit to the uh

[0:39:18] residents so th those are kind of the two ways for for Ser line to be Implement does council have questions or comments Larry uh concerning the use of the city seal is there a possibility you could put a disclaimer on there essentially saying allthough city of St Angelo recommends this service that they do not do not in fact I'd say strongly recommend the service but they do not endorse it or some wording like that yeah so we could put a message in the content of the letter to specifically call out um you know this program is recommended or however you would like to word it um I would recommend we have the City attorney come up with the language if you want some addition to it versus us making up the language so we should ensure that yeah we stand behind what is written typically um anytime we're going to send out a campaign letter we will provide it to you to for your review and approval so any changes that you would like to make um you'll have the option to do so and we can kind of go back and forth and make sure it's um really what you would like to see in the letter other questions or yes Tommy how often do you make this available now that we've had this conversation today I'm going to guess there's may be some interest generated so H how will you follow this conversation up and then how often just in general do you make this available so the program has been available since um the agreement began in 2015 um the letters would go out anywhere from one to three times a year um but there are a couple other ways that residents could have awareness of the um program so typically we recommend that Partners Place something on their website um also if you have any form of social media um we would provide any content that you would like to publish um so we could do that you know even if you had like a newsletter or something that you would like to um you know publish this information um and then

[0:41:21] residents can enroll at any point by visiting our website so they'll just type in their zip code and it'll pull up the program that's specific to San Angelo um so that way if you do have things on social media or online um they'll just be able to visit the websites to enroll um it also has a phone number as well if they would like to call in that may be something we would want to consider since again since we've had the conversation today is make it available now um we have um I think we touch nearly all the social media platforms so um that would be also something City attorney would need to be involved in just to make sure all the all the verbiage and disclaimers are appropriate and as needed so I would suggest maybe you you talk to our public information office before you leave here today there in the back back there um and work with them on uh getting the word out because it obviously works just based on the numbers that you've presented here of the folks that have it it it pays something so just a thought Lucy do you have any comment you'd like to add yes ma'am my question is for Bob and uh he had mentioned that uh we had since 2016 we had gotten close to $143,000 and I just wanted the constituents to know what is it that we have what do we do with that income yeah the funds uh that we get the fees we get uh the royalty fees what we get from the company we put them into our uh emergency housing support program and we provide um uh typically um sewer line water line replacement for low-income individuals they can't afford the the insurance and we also use it for other emergency programs um uh the things like um electrical support just basically it's on um uh it's it's funding that's uh relatively uh open that we can use

[0:43:24] for our any of our emergency program um uh trades and all the things that we do out there thank you B by the way I just wanted to remind the council again that uh when we started this um there was a master contract from the north central Texas Cog and we went we were were basically piggybacking off of that contract to agree to to make the agreement with this company that's how that works so legalities did go through our legal the verbiage that first went out uh went through legal um we did require the logo at first I think the logo on the envelope is no longer there I believe correct so they don't get a they don't get a a little city emblem you have to go you have to open up the uh the envelope to see the legal the the the emblem when I first started off we get a lot of complaint a lot of confusion like you were saying mayor we did have a lot of confusion but over the last four or five years it's been relatively quiet uh the questions I yet is is this true is they're reliable and we say we endorse this company we know that they we have a representative we have contacts with them we can we will endorse this company that's how that works so anyway for the comments or questions yes Tom so who does y'all's repair work do y'all use local companies or do y'all have somebody we do we um anytime we enter into a new partnership we have a contractor recruitment team that goes out and um recruits contractors to join the network um we also give you the opportunity if you have um any preferred contractors that you would like us to kind of um you know recruit into our network uh we invite you to you know provide those to us otherwise we'll we'll use local contractors cool thank you so if I have a if I have a plumber who has consistently done the work at my house but might not be on your list

[0:45:26] can I still use the contractor that I typically use for repairs at my house or do they have to be in your network so we like them to be on our Network just because we cannot guarantee uh work for anybody outside of the network but that's a conversation that we're we're not going to definitely say no and argue with like if you have somebody we'll reach out to them see if we can get like an understanding with them and and and utilize them um but typically Ty Al we will ask to use a network contractor first uh so just so we can guarantee the work all right fur I think You' have a pretty good chance using who you want anyway no I back to the to the logo I think we're just trying to establish we don't have ownership of this program but the proceeds and royalty we get all this we do good things with it helps us so I I'll make a motion to approve as presting do we need an approval or is this just information only I think information only good J yes I believe so um when we have a new campaign starting I will provide you with the letter that you know we can go back and forth and make sure you guys approve of it thank you very much for being here today thank you thank you Item B is uh consider approving a resol a resolution of no objection for lowincome housing tax credit lihtc project an smd3 by thf Riverpoint LP to rehabilitate and redevelop the Riverpoint Apartments located at 1173 Benedict Drive and I believe Bob you're back on yes yes ma'am um kcg companies LLC is requesting a resolution of no objection uh to compete for Li for lowincome housing tax credit funding uh to rehabilitate and R develop the Riverpoint Apartments which is a 204 4 unit apartment complex located at 1173

[0:47:29] Benedict Drive just right down the road uh here this morning we have uh CJ litner he's the vice president of development for kcg and like to talk to you about it okay welcome thank you for having me Council mayor appreciate you giving me the time uh I will uh go through a brief presentation here and obviously take any questions you may have so again uh CJ lintner representative for kcg companies um kcg companies is new to St Angelo but we are not new to Texas uh we have a long relationship with several Texas communities and have invested across the state as well as across the country since uh our company was formed in 2016 I'm sorry 2015 uh we uh last year were ranked the eighth largest affordable housing developer in the country uh I just mentioned that uh to kind of drive home the point that we are a fully built out firm we do have uh all divisions of from development to design construction and Property Management all inhouse um we are not a build to flip investor or a build to sell investor we are longterm owners long-term investors in the community uh and should this move forward and come to fruition next year uh we'll be invested in this property for at least 30 years so uh very much look forward to becoming a longtime neighbor and and working to you know not just to do something in the short term but ensure that this renovation leads to long-term uh value for not just the residents but the surrounding Community uh just a little bit of uh detail on Riverpoint Apartments as mentioned it's just down the road at 1173 Benedict Drive uh this property has been in the community for quite some time uh it was originally built in 1970 as a HUD property and in 2009 it was renovated using uh low-income housing tax credits uh to preserve the affordability that uh preservation is running out uh at the end of this year it would be up for technically a conversion to market rate housing or just to be operated as it is currently

[0:49:33] uh frankly it's being operated uh as currently it it um without much maintenance without much attention to preserving it long term uh so while the property is habitable and and fully occupied uh it is in need of a renovation uh substantial renovation um and what we're looking to do here is put about $660,000 per unit into uh the property uh the property itself does not have a lot of structural damage or structural repairs needed so this is going to be mainly focused on the Mechanicals the electrical the plumbing and the Interiors of the units themselves getting them to uh more or less like a market rate quality or a new construction quality uh upon completion uh we're overall looking to invest about $24 million between uh the acquisition of the property and the renovations uh that will start off uh assuming we move forward next September take about 9 months uh we will not be displacing any residents we'll not be forcing any residents out uh we will temporarily house all the residents on site in kind of like a hotel building we'll use a couple of the buildings on site to move residents in and out while we do the actual renovation uh and as I mentioned earlier our company will be around for the long-term managing and operating the property for literally decades to come um would you go through the those statistics that you have there so people better understand obviously they understand the bed count yes but then as it relates to the 50% Ami 60% Ami and the hap units talk to us about what those numbers are yes uh that's a great question so the 50 and 60% Ami units refer to the area median income level so um those units which make up 2third of the overall properties units will be rented to Residents making add or under those income levels so add or under the 50% level and add or under the 60% rent level so in other words the one beted at 50% they would pay

[0:51:37] $542 a month correct correct and that the one bed at 60% would pay a bit more at the 693 per month the hap units are uh the balance of the units on the property it's about 30% of the 204 units um those units are covered by a contract with HUD so the rent is a lot higher because HUD pays us directly for those units um residents qualify for those units based on submitting a voucher to HUD um and if approved then again HUD pays the the property directly for the rent on those units so so the the customer would still pay 1082 or they receive a check back that says even though the rent is 1082 we're going to give you a $500 voucher so you're really paying 400 yeah so that the these vouchers actually cover 100% of the rent so the uh tenants listed in the ha column there there's 16 one beds 12 two beds 16 three beds and 12 four beds um they pay Z per month and that is how the the property has been operated since uh it was built in 1970 and that will just continue on those same uh units those same 60 total units and then the rest of the units the 60 50% units and the 84 uh 60% units those tenants will pay their own rent as they do presently today okay mayor I do have a question please so uh you mentioned that no one's going to be displaced but you look at the 50% of the 60% how much more are redin going to be paying with the with the remodel after everything's done uh or is it going to be staying the same as far as what they're paying the 50% rents will not go up they're already at those levels the 60% rent R will go up between $25 and $50 and we are going to be uh as as we have historically pretty sensitive to if that's a burden on our residents um that's not something that we need to achieve with residents that are there now so it's kind of part of our

[0:53:40] financial underwriting uh we we generally model about 3 to 5 years for residents to move out so it's not something that we rely on for feasibility so you will work with them then uh in that instance so if you have an individual or a family can't afford it at that point uh that increase you will work with them on that correct correct and uh not only will we work with them uh because we think it's the right thing to do we are also under their uniform relocation act uh which is a a federal rule through HUD we are required to do so so that is that is something that is is not on the table so let's say um a person has been living on the streets for a year or two years and have have no proven income is this a facility that individuals that have been living on the streets would be allowed to have their rent covered and move in uh it is not so to live here you do have to have an income you do have to qualify as a tenant so the difference between this and a market rate unit is just that the qualification threshold is a lot lower because the rent is lower uh but we this is not housing for the homeless um and and this is housing for those who do have income that income could be retirement income or work income but they do need to have a a W2 or similar so even though under the hap units HUD covers a 100% of that cost but they still have to have an income correct correct we we have we still have the same leasing requirements for the HUD units as the the others that just the the income threshold is much lower could be down to either 30% or 40% of the area median income and say what the area median income is uh the the area median income is the average overall income for the Metropolitan statistical area which is more or less compris or more or less

[0:55:44] um St Angelo and some surrounding rural communities and so that income is what um La last year on by Huds measure it was just under 70,000 it was 69,000 for the 100% of median income so the uh 50% is is just half of that just under 35,000 so if you made $70,000 you could qualify to live in one of these HUD units so the 100% median income is 69,000 so 50 a 50% household has to make 50% of that so they have to make just under 35,000 and then a 60% household um is just under 42,000 I think my my quick math is right so that answers the 50 and the 60% but what about the 100% so none of these units are available to tenants making over 60% so the hap units um are available up to 60% Ami as well they just the HUD pay rent payment is higher because HUD um is trying to incentivize these to be restored and be renovated so when you do a renovation they look at what kind of quality housing you generated as a result and then they pay fair market rent uh which is usually higher than 50 or the 60% level and that's their way of incentivizing preservation of affordable housing uh because we're on this page and before we move on are there questions on any of the information on this slide Larry um it's admirable you have lighted Ada pathways on your list of amenities but that leads me to ask a question about interior modifications to meet ADA compliance yeah that's a good question um we will be uh fortunately uh the so the Interiors were upgraded to meet 20072 2008 ADA requirements when it was

[0:57:49] renovated in 09 so uh there will be some in interior or unit upgrades to comply with Ada but they're pretty easy to accomplish they're mostly just more grab bars and more accessibility in the kitchens and in the uh bathrooms and otherwise the property is is 95% in compliance as it is today so there's actually very little Ada updates that need to be made to the units how about bathtubs and showers though I'm sorry what was that bathtubs and showers yes we're replacing all the bathtubs and showers and we'll do um we do some Rollins and then we do some that are easier for people uh kind of need to push in and out of a wheelchair to get in fantastic thank you okay continue so yeah I appreciate the questions those are great questions um and the kind of Next Step here moving forward I mentioned we aren't going to start the renovations till September so we've got quite a bit of time um a full year here almost and in that time we're going to be reaching out to some of the groups that came up earlier habitat United Way the Housing Authority um to do what we think is kind of the real most important thing is focus on operational success connection with Community Services um we're not going to go looking for free money or free services what we try to do is connect our residents with in place successful programming and service opportunities here locally and then we also have uh a pretty healthy budget in our operating financials for on-site resident Supportive Services so we do like after school programs we do adult uh GED training income tax preparation um help people get connected with trade jobs things like that and we run all that through our our uh clubhouse for for the resident specifically mayor this is in my district Harry go ahead uh this property really needs some help so from my perspective I'd like to make a motion supporting this resolution to to go forward with this well are you through

[0:59:51] with the presentation I don't think we're quite through with the presentation so I'll make it real quick but I certainly appreciate that council member thank you OPP in conclusion I am I will conclude no I I will mention though we we we do have about a year before closing we will be doing a lot of community outreach you'll probably see us uh myself back here again to pass some kind of final financing documentation on this project uh but I I really do appreciate you giving us the time and look forward to working with the community moving forward any further questions before I take on and accept the motion for mayor I have a question yes please yes uh you said that we would you would be starting September of 2024 what is the finished date that you're looking at uh it should take us no more than nine months to renovate the property so we'll be looking at late spring or early summer the next year okay since go ahead Lucy oh I was just going to say if Harry's going to make a motion I'll second get that motion I think the only thing that I'm concerned about and I'm sure you have a good good plan but that is moving them out of their apartment into another apartment that just seems very complicated and I'm sure you've done this many times so you know how to get it done but that picking them picking people up and their possessions and moving them to another F uh apartment um do you do this like six people at a time one at a time how do you do it to accomplish efficiency yeah and execution that's a good question it is it is the most complicated part of the the renovation we actually hire a third-party uh renovation consultant uh relocation consultant that not only helps us facilitate all that alongside our construction team and our property management team but um make sure we're not breaking any rules and and giving ample time and notice so we will

[1:01:53] actually start sending out notices on this um impending renovation next month and those will go out at least every 60 days between now and then we're going to have three uh tenant meetings before we start the renovations to kind of let them know what's happening the schedule everybody will know when in that 9month period they are going to be the ones being moved um and then when it actually comes time to moving day uh we have a team that will come in professional movers box everybody's stuff up move it across the property to the hotel building um get the tenant to review that move and make sure nothing was damaged or broken in that 30 minutes of transition and then do the same thing when we move them back uh tenants will not be out of their units for more than 30 days probably two weeks um and and we fortunately have a kind of an easy uh easy site plan to work with here we've got 22 buildings on site so instead of one really large building where everybody's being displaced and kind of has hled by the construction uh we're going to do the hotel buildings off to kind of one side of the site and then work that way towards it so when you say hotel building you know all of us know hotel rooms are a bed and a bathroom is that a bed and a bathroom no they will that's some bad uh some bad industry speak I'm using so we'll just be taking two of the apartment buildings on site that are full apartments right now um they'll actually be all three and four bedroom so everybody will be moving into a unit that is at least as big if not bigger than the one they're they're living in currently and have a full uh operational uh apartment unit and we will renovate those Hotel units before we move people in so when people are being moved into them they're not moving into someone else's old dirty apartment they're moving into a brand new apartment Daniel just for clarification so the hotel units as you call them um so you're saying right now they're capacity correct they they are at 92% occupancy

[1:03:56] yes so because basically you're going to have to have people that actually are gone from those Hotel units uh in order to be able to move as far as I'm thinking logistically how that works yeah so yeah we have 18 or we have 8% vacancy right now at the property and we've got the current owner to agree to stop leasing so if anybody so right now we have enough attrition they move out and then you get that space Y and and if nobody moves out today we have enough right now have a full empty building and that's really all we need I just wanted to make sure that no one's getting kicked out just to get those Hotel units no no that that uh is not the foot we we were wanting to start off on very good thank you you call them hotel rooms does that mean we get hot tax money on them just asking we'll have to look into that with this the city legal team watch what you say cuz yeah okay yeah I appreciate it and it was great to come on uh your guys inaugural affordable housing days good good coincidence appreciate that further questions or comments then I will um Harry has made a motion to approve this resolution and Lucy has seconded it is now open for public comment is there any public comment today seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor of approving this resolution please say I I I motion passes 70 thank you appreciate the time thank you item C is consider a resolution nominating candidates to serve on the board of directors of the Tom Green County Appraisal District for the 2024 2025 term and Heather yuron there we go um so this item comes before you um every two years for you to have the opportunity to nominate um five board members for the Tom Green County Appraisal District um the five current board members are willing to serve again however um this would be your

[1:06:00] opportunity to nominate um a different board member and then in about six to eight weeks we'll come back and this is that will be whenever you actually put forth your your votes all right so what we I I think candy is in the audience I don't see her now she's back there okay what I ask originally was that we have an opportunity to have a conversation with these board members um because very often we take a vote and we've never had a conversation in terms of this past year or the future year any comments that you might have or questions that you might have so today is our opportunity to have a discussion public discussion and I think it's important because as you all know this past um appraisal cycle was full full of lots of frustration questions concerns problems Etc so now is your opportunity to ask some questions and make some comments so candy would you come forward and is there another P yes I okay Scott here yeah if you'll both oh three people yay come on and Tyler so mayor and Council uh candy p i serve on the board of directors for the Tom Green County appraisal district and with me today is also the uh Chief Appraiser for our Tom Green County Appraisal District Tyler Johnson and also a new board member of taking the place of John Khan who retired earlier this year is Scott tankersley thank you if you have questions we'd be glad to answer those I'll let Tyler sort of speak and then if you have specifics to myself or Scott you can do that thank you Tyler you're on thank you very much uh thank you for

[1:08:03] allowing me to be here this morning just to add a little bit uh to uh Heather's comments um I sent the uh allocations for the voting process uh before October 15 before October 1 uh y'all will return the nominations by October 15th I will then send out ballots by October 30th and you'll have uh time to vote inside of the next two meetings to uh send your votes back to the district um if there's any questions you have be happy to address well the first one I would have is new legislation has been passed that allows for three elected officials um to be on the board yes ma'am when would that election be held so Senate Bill 2 will be voted on uh in November of this year in relation to uh the increased Homestead uh for Tom Green County and the rest of the state as well with that bill there is uh like the mayor has stated an additional three elected at large members of the board of directors uh that election will take place in May of 2024 with a um office date of July 1 along with uh the County Tax Assessor Collector will also become a member of the board as well um that that that like I said that me that election will be in May at this point have all uh Property Owners had an opportunity to come forward and protest their appraisal or are you still in the process of those meetings yes ma'am we are almost finished um we've heard almost 177,000 protests this year um we will finish that at the end of this month of October does that 17,000 number tell us that there was obvious obiously lots of frustration and issues with the tax appraisals as they received them and based off of the fact that October 1 our fiscal year started here at the city of

[1:10:05] s Angelo and if you're still hearing protests how does that impact the our um total property tax dollars at this point um I think in terms of how many protests we've had I think over the past several years there's been a lower number of protests also we have been doing our job which is to appraise it market value um I think because of that along with an assortment of other issues um there has been an increased amount of of protests I want everybody every taxpayer to always protest their value if they feel it's needed uh we want to make sure that they have their chance to speak before the appraisal review board uh to hear their complaints their their concerns about their property value that way we can address those matters um in terms of uh the levy Associated to the city uh we are uh this Friday starting our first round of tax statements now that all tax rates have been adopted uh we will start that process this Friday hopefully with the first round of statements hitting the mail second week of October so the only thing that will be uh lagging will be this month's um uh accounts that have not gone through the ARB process there will be a supplemental uh run of tax statements probably at the beginning of November at that time every every account that has gone through the process will have a tax statement sent to it so if in November uh we have the uh ability to vote on the homestead ex exemption correct so with that said then how do how is it that these um letters are going to be mailed to property tax owners not knowing whether this legislation has passed or not yes ma'am according to Senate Bill 2 uh when it was passed by the legislature um we were to every District was to to act as if the uh Bill had been passed um we will send tax statements so we updated our Homestead when that happened and now the tax rates have been adopted um the Senate bill to requires us to act and

[1:12:07] operate as if the bill has passed every tax statement will have verbiage from the bill that states this is the amount you will pay if Senate Bill 2 is passed in November if it was if it is not passed this is what your tax bill would have been if it does not get passed a supplemental bill will be sent clear as mud so thank you for that and um I'm going to open up the floor for other questions or comments from my city council members Tom so Tyler I mean we've all filled a lot of a lot of phone calls this year um it just it is what it is some of us are having trouble seeing how this house can suddenly be valued at this house and their 30 years difference things like that of the people that have protested how many of them that I would say I won't say be successful but have been um adjusted back down to versus how many of you denied and said no we're at where we need to be and I I'm not looking for a definitive number I'm just saying is the gap where you said 90% of the people that come to us we have adjusted back down or we have according so the process did the process work yeah according to the code I cannot give those exact numbers but I can tell you that um everybody that has come to the district I feel they have either um maybe not left happy but left satisfied with an understanding of what we did or why we made a change when they came in um I would say well over half of those protests have been done informally with one of my staff members and an informal agreement instead of having to go to the appraisal review board keep in mind we do not have access to people's homes um we do our appraisals from the street um so at that with that being said we don't know the condition of people's homes on the interior so we that's why I welcome every every piece of information that comes from my office I want uh the taxpayers to read so that they

[1:14:08] understand what their value is so that they might have a concern over that to file a protest they might have more information regarding their home than we do U so I welcome I want people to file the protest we hope to uh deal with as many informally as possible um so that we don't have to uh prolong the ARB season but at the same time we we know that the ARB is there for its purpose and the ARB is chosen uh was chosen by the local administrative judge with Senate Bill 2 uh that will be coming back to the board of directors as well um but we have a relatively new ARB um all local individuals that are either involved in real estate banking uh former superintendents uh they understand public awareness they understand what it means to hear somebody's complaints and issues about their value they're very well respected I think they've done a fantastic job this year so so a big question I get a bunch of tiers what rates are locked when you turn 65 what rates what rates are locked here as a resident of St Angelo or locked when you turn 65 when you turn 65 you have an over 65 freeze related to the taxable value or the taxes on your home um so uh the school district has a mandatory over 65 the City offers an optional over 65 as well um with Senate Bill 2 uh and the compression of tax rates um Cate Bill 12 actually allowed for the recompression of uh over 65 value meaning that if your taxable value ended up being less than what your your Frozen amount of taxes paid would be it lowered that to what it is now right so and then along with with Senate Bill 2 um it also uh with that with the homestead increasing to 100,000 it's going to decrease people's amount of taxable value which in turn will lower their freeze as well so when you turn 65 the year you turn 65 you have an over 65 freeze that is associated to your home

[1:16:11] as well okay I get that question a lot and then I think there's not a lot of clarity into that M and when you when you get a phone call from somebody that's a constituent within our district and and they don't want to do the research to come out with the fine details on that it's going to end up back up with y'all but I mean my largest concern is they get treated fairly when they come in and they go out absolutely and that's the best thing we can hear is when they leave there if they agree that it's fair fine but some of the things I have seen in a comparison of houses have been a lot of variance between the two and you know houses that differ 30 40 years end up at the same appraisal those I hope they go to y'all and they get adjusted properly they have been one thing I would also ask of the city council as well is that when you speak to the uh your constituents um my staff is members of your constituency as well and um we have had a few issues of some overly anxious and angry people I understand that I would also ask that you pass along to your constituents that uh as professional and polite as they can be as well my staff is there to do their job that's it um and they're members of the community as well uh we don't want we're not trying to get into any kind of arguments we're trying to do what is put forth to us in the tax code um and the tax code is uh mandatory that we appraise at market value based off the information provided um also there's another issue there the district is only as good as the information that it has it's able to receive or able to find um that's another reason we ask that people protest so that we have more information to use to produce better quality appraisals as well uh well very often I hear this that you're required to appraise that piece of property at 96% of market value so people throw out these percentages so what you've just said is it's not a percentage it's flat market

[1:18:13] value yeah there's there's a there's a there's a difference in how people understand that uh the tax code in section one I believe uh is states that district is to appraise it market value um then exemptions are applied okay then your homestead exemption is applied but where people might get that percentage misconstrued is the fact when this District goes through State Testing okay State Testing requires that we be at 95 or in between 95 and 105 of market value there's a range there that our values can be at so people automatically assume well you're only supposed to be at 95% no that test is based off of a whole Mass grouping of properties that they're trying to make sure that our Market values fall between it has nothing to do with how we appraise from an individual standpoint or a group of properties we are the code States we already appraise it market value 100% market value so that's that's what we appraise at so explain what happens to a city or a county if in fact they come out and do tests on apprais values relative to market value and we are at 90% not 95 to 105 so describe how the state approaches that and what happens property value study is in place so that school funding for appraisal or for school districts is appropriate and across the board from County to County um this year will be Tom Green County Appraisal District's third year in a row of state of property value studies um because of a lack of market value approach uh in 2021 we were out of compliance from the state level 2022 trying to get back to where we're supposed to be mind you that was through one of the highest spiked Market values of residential property in the history of Texas um which is why we're still trying to get back to where we're supposed to be according to the data um so if if after a certain amount of time

[1:20:18] um market value or incompliance is not met uh that can start to affect local fun or state funding to local school districts so then you would be put on a warning saying that you've undervalued properties so the funding for our school district would be negatively impacted because we didn't produce the numbers that the state says we should have produced to a certain extent yes um that's why we're in our third year here the after 21 and 22 we met qualifications to um be given a grace period uh local value was kept at the state level they accepted our numbers in 2023 if we do not meet those standards uh that could in fact start to affect state or local uh State funding to local school districts then the next question that comes up all the time is okay so last year and the year before there were a lot of bidding wars for homes there was inflation there were people paying over listed price for their homes the question becomes that was you know a two-year window of activity so now the question is that's over things have calmed down we're hearing across the board that um home sales have slowed down that uh the Market's not as hot as it was so at what point do those home values come back down to a reality or do they always stay at that number because again during um time periods when the oil and gas industry was explosive home again were high but they never come back down so explain why they can go up during inflationary time periods but they never go back down I think a lot of the increase that we've seen at the district has been not only Associated to the market but also Associated to getting neighborhoods to where they should have

[1:22:19] been in the first place I will tell you that if the market data shows that I should decrease property value I will be the first person to do it um I I want to do what the data shows me uh you are right that the market has shown that there's more homes on the market now I've only seen about a 2 or 3% drop from list to sale price um so I would not I would not say that that's necessarily been a decrease in the market just yet um I would say um that the average sale price is relatively the same as it's been I see I think think we're seeing more of a plateau at this point at the third in the third quarter of the Year hopefully towards the end of the year we might see some different information um but my job is not to get the highest value or the lowest value my job is to get the most appropriate and correct value and that's what I intend to do um whether the data shows the value to increase or decrease based off the data that the district has I think that's important uh note there at the end to recognize uh the data that the district has um we might not always have all of the sales related to uh what might show a decrease in property value which again is another reason why it's important for taxpayers to protest their value questions comments from Council Larry I have a question you were talking about the grace period we were given yes sir and now we have to deliver in 2023 how optimistic are you about us meeting the state's requirements I'm always going to be optimistic um I I will say that I believe my staff U and the whole the district as a whole has done a fantastic job of hoping to get to where we need to be um just a little understanding of where we've come from I have four residential appraisers in the last two years they have reclassed almost 40,000 homes in saisd along with some of the smaller school districts in Tom Green County um the job we have undertaken is a Monumental one

[1:24:24] for it to be fixed in two years would be a fantastic result in my eyes um I've Express this to the board um they understand that a 2-year window is a relatively anxious one but at the same time it's something that we're shooting for I do feel optimistic that we will be where we're supposed to be I do Lucy yes ma'am thank you um my question is next can you speak a little louder Lucy yes ma'am excuse me my mic was there um my question is kind of like with Tom Thompson's about the age of 65 when one is 65 or is turning 65 do they have to come into the office to notify or does it automatically happen if they have a homestead exemption on file they're AO the year they turn 65 that that exemption is increas or is uh implemented onto their account if they have a hom set on file um that's another thing I would strongly encourage members of the of the community to recom or to consider is if you own and occupy a home in Tom Green County and you do not have a homestead exemption it is the single best piece of property tax relief that you can have as a homeowner uh please if you do not have a homestead and you do own and occupy your home please come to our office and file an exemption through our exemptions office we'll be happy to assist you you forget to do that is it retroactive where you can go uh oh I forgot so uh help me out this and go backwards it's a current plus two years if you've occupied the home uh for extended amount of time and you have not had a u homestead exemption I believe it's current plus two it might be current plus 5 I'll have to check that but I'm pretty sure it's current plus two either way whatever requirements we can meet per the code that allows us to go back and apply an exemption we'll be happy to do all right the next question I have is the following we have Tom Green County

[1:26:27] Appraisal District board which we all vote on those members what does the board do and how much Authority do they have is it just for nice that we have this board because the state pretty much dictates what has to be done so is this board a board that really gets to vote on something that's actionable ma'am would y'all like uh the board's um primary purpose is to First hire the chief appraiser and to set policy for the district they adopt a budget and they approved contracts for vendors over $50,000 um their job is to make sure that not only they communicate with the chief appraiser their only employe to make sure that laws are being followed uh procedures procedural matters are being handled and also that we are doing our de level best to serve the jurisdictions and the taxpayers themselves um so they do serve a very very precious purpose um they serve a purpose in making in counseling me helping me decide what policy uh is best for our employees our staff our community our district um but also that making sure we're keeping in with State Statute as well I think overwhelmingly what we would like to see happen as well as most citizens um in Tom Green County is less drama this next year and less shock value when when um these appraisals come out the tension the stress the anxiety that came with this year's appraisals was tremendous and um so I'm sure there's some PTSD involved in um the appraisal district because that was I know what I went through and so I know other people did as well so we would hope that by communicating up front and perhaps we need to do this next year before praise go out that there's some indication and some conversation publicly about what taxpayers might

[1:28:29] expect I I would agree 100% uh nobody has had a more difficult time this year than my staff um they have Beed the brunt of mandated requirements that we're supposed to handle um I would also say that I am open and willing to have conversations at any time to present to the city council mayor uh Daniel anytime that it is needed um I would be happy to come back before notice next year to give presentation on what we've seen in the market what we think valuation would do um I'm I'm an open book um so I'm happy and willing to serve at any time needed for the questions or comments counil Larry when the problems first came up uh I checked through some of the property roles and there were folks that that should have been homesteading and weren't uh I think it's problematic out in the community but I wondered if your folks are are advising people on possible comps not just the homestead exemption but disabled veterans over 65 etc etc yes sir there is information in our um notice packets along with our website that give all the qualifications for any type of exemption that that you might qualify for um most of my appraises when they sit down with the taxpayer one of the first questions they ask is do you own and occupy this home do you have a homestead exemption uh are you a disabled veteran U that you might qualify for even further a further exemption um we welcome uh application for exemption uh we want people even if they don't know if they will qualify we would like to see their information in order for us to determine through the code our attorneys things of that nature whether or not they do I would say there have been times where somebody's qualified and said I don't know if I do it ends up being that they do uh so we want them to take that extra step um but I I I don't not have the staff to go out to everybody that that has a owner

[1:30:31] ownership of the property to see if they own and occupy the home right there's certain requirements related to the homestead exemption uh that's why we we stress that if you do own and occupy the home as your principal residents that you do come in and file the homestead exemption thank you yes sir so if I own a home and I have have a homestead exemption on it but I sell it in the month of July M and move into a new one in September does that homestead exemption automatically move to the new one or do you have to re-qualify the new home for the exemption you can only have Homestead on one property in a single tax year you can do a a homestead transfer that would take place in the following year but you can only have Homestead on your principal residence in one location every calendar year regardless if you sold one regardless if you sold one because technically speaking you might be buying a home that somebody else has a homestead on as well you'll be getting the benefit of that person's exemption for the remainder of the year right just like the person that buys your home is going to get the benefit of your home the remainder of the year that answers a lot of my questions and and comments and concerns that I receive from citizens so I appreciate you being here and um bringing a lot of this information forward absolutely thank you thank you Scott candy thank you all too for serving Tyler thank you one of the other things I'll say just uh letting you know about the market that the mayor brought up and and Scott Brer talked to that he's an appraiser um the market has changed some uh because the interest rates have uh gone up substantially but we're still seeing a lot of um purchasing of s Angelo proper has less than three months of inventory a normal uh month is 6 months

[1:32:37] our normal year is 6 months worth of inventory we've been lower than that we've been at 1.3 back in 22 of the early part of this year it's moved up to about three so uh we're about half of what's normal and 6 months is normal so the market is changing a little bit but um not substantially real quick but those MLS those are um MLS listings so there are there homes that a developer has available to be bought that might not be listed so that that number is AR is I don't want to say artificially low but low relative to that yes it does not include new construction uh those figures uh are basically MLS as you said through uh the Texas Association realtor who keeps up with all the stats it does not include for sale by owners uh things like that or a developer that's remodeling one going to sell it or something like that does not include those thank you thank you thank you okay we will um move on to Mayor oh yes um Council does need to um verbalize if they want to nominate the five existing board members or if you would like to nominate somebody new do I have anyone who would like to nominate somebody new Karen are we allowed to nominate more than one we can only nominate five so you could say two names but in total we can only nominate five okay so I'm a little confused we will vote on a final five in two weeks is that correct uh or a little bit more than two weeks but yes so we can add names for consideration now to the existing five go sorry just to clarify your question uh what will happen is uh all J dictions that are eligible to vote will send

[1:34:39] their nominations before October 15th by October 30th I will send a ballot of all those nominations each jurisdiction will be able to vote based on the number of votes that I've sent over um they'll be be able to vote for whoever is on the nomination ballot right so um whether you nominate one person or the five that have have that are currently members um we still have to go through the voting process so the the ballot will include every every nomination that is made by any jurisdiction that is eligible to vote so we added five to the five that exist you can only nominate five total so yeah okay so so if you wanted to put forth a new name you would have to select a current board member that you don't want to nominate yeah well technically speaking the jurisdiction can nominate anywhere up from one to five whether it be the jurisdiction nominates one or it nominates five uh you can do what is acceptable from the jurisdiction itself but the maximum number is five the maximum number is five yes because in the end there will be five appointed members corre thank you so do we have a list of our ex of our current we do yes we do right Lis Gomez candy P Bob Reeves Scott tankersley Eric Wilson okay mayor I'd make a motion that we nominate those five folks second second by Harry any public comment seeing none we will then vote on the no we don't vote today we do vote today on those five you're voting to nominate those five board members there's a motion to uh keep with the same five that are currently serving there's been a second on that and is there public comment with no public comment we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I I 70 do you want to break you want to keep

[1:36:51] going we want to well break or keep going keep going keep going we're going on all right item D consider approving a request for funding from the infield empowerment Zone Program for infrastructure funding up to 50% of costs for water sewer fire hydrants and related costs in an amount not to exceed 16,8 54 for the Shriner Point subdivision section two located on Bloom Street south of 40th Street and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents John you're on thank you John James director of planning and development services uh this is just a map showing the general location of the site that we're talking about uh it is uh just off of Armstrong here uh and then Bloom Street and 40th are right there so it's it's kind of a vacant area and you'll see that better in a second uh this is the proposed preliminary plat uh so this shows the entirety of the subdivision uh in that area so so all of this area is vacant now uh but this has all been preliminarily platted uh with the Lots as you see them uh but the red area is the one in question today so that's the area that they're requesting the funding for so this is kind of a zoom in of those uh lots for this particular request so as you may recall that we have two really two different infill incentive programs one is the uh what we called option one at $5,000 per home so if you want to build a home in an infill designated area uh you can come in apply for the building permits and then we would hold $5,000 for that home once it's completed the Builder would get that $5,000 for each home the other option is the empower Zone incentive uh and that is not on a per home basis uh

[1:38:56] but it is for uh costs like sewer and water cost and that's what they're asking for in this case so they're asking for sewer and water extensions to help serve into this infill area explain an empowerment Zone that's just the term used uh in the state law that allows this type of funding uh for basically what we're using it for is infill development so the summary of their costs uh as proposed they're proposing water sewer and fire hydrant installation of about $321,000 uh the city engineer has reviewed their engineer estimate and said that's a reasonable estimate for what they're doing uh under the program they're eligible for up to 50% which would be a little over $160,000 it would serve 19 Lots uh at which comes out to about 8,466 per lot I will point out and they can probably address this more but this is extending service into and serving these Lots but it will help provide services beyond that to to Lots you know the further south Lots in the future so explain that because the the way one look would look at it is saying that it's this amount of money for 19 Lots only and you say it's not just for these 19 Lots but it's for additional water lines sewer lines that will be put down for the rest of the development no it's it's and again the applicant can probably better answer this I don't think it's extending the lines into that undeveloped area but by developing this it it goes a long way towards helping them uh then be able to develop those additional Lots how's that just by getting the first set of water and sewer lines into the ground um for the first part of this development um I'll note that there is a

[1:41:00] currently available funding of $200,000 that's actually a little off we just checked and the um the $2,000 is what you've allotted for the current fiscal year that just started October 1st there is about $568 left over from last year not a not a huge amount but uh that does put this currently available funding to a little over $25,000 um you'll note that this 160 that they're requesting is is a little over 34 of that available funding and when a similar request came two or three years ago uh one of the concerns raised by the council was um giving that much of a percentage of the full amount to one development um at the time you discussed possibly limiting the amount to any one developer to a certain cap uh that really never never never got fleshed out so there's there is no cap you you are able to uh authorize all 160,000 that they're requesting um and as you can see with with the 5,000 we didn't quite use all of that 200,000 this year um and so in the past we've had some additional carryover me ask a question sorry for interrupting is uh but on in the program they only qualify for the 5,000 and can only apply for that 5,000 once the home is completed if they use the option one funding yes they could only get to a maximum of 5,000 per house and they would only receive that after the house is completed that's right so when you say there's 5,000 left over there could be homes that are being built right now but are not completed that might come forward and ask for funding no once they come in for a building permit for an infill home that 5,000 is set aside so it's no longer available thanks for that clarification now the reverse could be true if there are some people who came in for permits we set aside 5,000 for them they didn't end up completing it or

[1:43:04] they didn't do it on time um some of that could come back into the pot in the future I don't believe that's ever happened but that that is a possibility uh I think I covered all this uh basically um in the past you had had a concern about granting too much for one project um staff is recommending funding of this project we're just kind of deferring to you all how much is the right amount but we do think it's a good project that should get funding Tom it's in your area so I'm going to let you go first so John how many people typically request funding every year so I and I will lead with I'm telling you why I this it's a large amount of money it's a high percentage of the available funds love the project we we love the goal of doing things and we need this housing but I don't want to short and going back on to what I brought up a couple weeks ago in Council I hate to give it all to one and then have the risk of others coming forth and not being able to apply for you would say worthy projects that were just as equ in value so do we run a risk of not being able to fulfill other requests and have we seen that many requests in the past it just varies by year like like I said this past year that we just completed we spent it all except for about 5,000 uh I think in other years we've sometimes had a little bit bigger of a carryover where not all the money was requested so it's kind of a risk both ways if you know you you give this all to them uh and then we get a bunch of people wanting to come in and you don't have enough money to help uh the flip side though is you say well let's let's cut theirs down and then we don't get those more requests and so we're we're then we're carrying over more money because we didn't spend it all it's really hard to guess you know in any one year how much how many we'll get Bob um just your question councilman um the first year we had 39 applicants uh the second one we had 20 uh the third we

[1:45:08] had 19 and this last year we had 47 because of the carryovers we were able to do that so the numbers do fluctuate quite a bit right but I mean so we've had anywhere from 20 to 47 applicants absolutely I I'll go with here's where I'll throw this out the council and we I think we kind of need to discuss this is there a way to go in and I'll just throw out a number if we give them 5,000 for the 19 or 20 houses and we go with that and we keep a 100,000 in Reserve at the end of the year if that hasn't been used we can go back and award that to them to go and try to do the second part of what the empowerment move I I don't know but I have a risk of giving out a hundred or I have a concern with giving out 100,000 160,000 to one person when we have had a minimum of 20 people come back and ask and I've had some people call on this saying I might be doing something in this this construction not in this District but you know where I'm going with that so that's my concern of keeping it fair to everybody but if it's not used I have no problem going and giving it and I say retroactively going back but I don't know if that's even possible I think the question would be based off of this plat and the request for 19 units how many total units are in this plot I think I'd have to defer to the applicant for that uh unless somebody wants to count all those real quick but yeah it's a 110 I'm hearing okay so there's a potential of 110 houses that could be built or based off of this plat approval that's right and the question mark would be is the intent of the developer to do all 110 over x amount of years or are is their intent to sell off some of these plots plats I mean plots to uh other people to build on so is it contained or not contained would you come forward because I think there's a lot of questions that you can answer better than anyone morning guys thank you for having

[1:47:10] me um I'm Eric Von Rosenberg I represent Mission Land Company um we would be doing this in phases so this line that that he's drawn out in the red that would be considered phase one um we'll probably do I think there's four four phases total so that would probably be over four to five years okay other question Eric do you Eric do you think you can complete one a year like each one of your phases totally get it completed within a year the way it's gone so give you a little background uh how we got here we acquired 19 Lots on 39th Street then we acquired five Lots on uh buoy we knocked those out in about a year's time which meanwhile those on buoy look really good thank you yeah it's you know I think most people probably know me as a custom builder we jumped into this because there was a need um we've kind of taken the same concept but making them as affordable as possible um so that being said we knocked out 39th Street we're currently over on Medina um and we have a waiting list we've stopped taking contracts because we just we we don't want to you know overpromise and we really need to get going on this because there are six lots that are currently on 40th that have water in sewer we've already begun on those but we need to get these going uh for next year and I I don't think there would be any problem if anything we'll probably be trying to get this developed these houses going and then start almost immediately once we get to a certain percentage of of uh completion on these houses for the second phase you know it's kind of like what we were talking

[1:49:13] about earlier with affordable homes it's there's just a need in this area uh in this town in general this area has been really good um a lot of the people in the area we've gotten a lot of really good feedback from them uh we've worked with the Shriners which is who we bought this property from um we made a deal with them that we're putting a plaque in their honor so we you know we've we've tried to do everything to make everybody in the area happy I think originally there was an apartment complex designed to go there and they were not happy with that oh no they weren't yeah I agree but there was a need for it there's definitely been a need for housing I just from what I gathered from everybody the apartment was not what they were wanting they didn't want the three story it was the issue of the three story that was the complicating Factor but I understand the McDonald companies have pulled out and you bought the rest of that property is that correct yes ma'am originally we bought the southern portion and then when McDonald pulled out we bought the rest from them which really helped the problem you know and it kind of ties into what we're asking for here today the problem with this property is getting the water in the sewer so that's why it's it has sat for a while um we've figured out with Erica's help how to make that happen but the biggest hurdle is affordability so in order to keep the prices down and try and continue to build the houses with the same price that we've been able to provide talk about that price uh So currently we're 225 to 230 235 on the highest side um without trying to sell this you know or but the reason we've been able to do that is one with the 5,000 infield money we've just basically taken our lot cost and deducted it by 5,000 and passed it on to the sales price now with this what we're kind of running into because

[1:51:17] majority like on 39th Street and some of the other ones all we had to put in was sewer and water with this one we've got the sewer the water you know the streets the curbs the clearing everything else that's involved so it's a little bit more difficult to maintain that price point but that's what we want to do because that's what we've established with everybody that wants one of these houses and so that's where this funding would significantly help us so with the funding Eric would um because you mentioned Street streets and curbs so does this only um put in the streets and the curb and gutter within that red District or fur the way the program works um with the infield it is strictly sewer and water so that's that's why you know we are we're responsible for streets curbs um all all the rest of the infrastructure that has to go in and that sewer water would simply be for those 19 homes so there's no sewer or water extended into this further than the red marked area correct but kind of what we were talking about earlier John was talking about what it does is it provides access for the future phases so once we get it down south coming down Blum Street then once we begin phase two our Taps are there and they're ready to go so kind of kind of knocks out two birds at one stone yes Tommy oh wait a minute Harry wanted to say something a minute ago so let me back to yes sir thank you I appreciate that I agree with Tom this is a project I it's needed uh especially in this particular area I'm just a little concerned spending $60,000 out of $200,000 I I'd rather we go back and and take a look at the $5,000 per per unit

[1:53:24] uh and and and see if that will work Tommy occurs to me maybe what we might consider is a onetime addition to the program another 100,000 another 200,000 just to the program to to to assist this project this this this is on a much larger scale but uh we had a a project um two weeks ago um one of your uh colleagues here in town over on Edgewood Street um so uh I assume these may be similar T that's not not not the point here but maybe we would consider um a one-time addition to to to the to the program of whatever amount Council deemed appropriate to to help with this but then I guess somebody could say well okay then we could come back and do that if we have other projects if we have more projects than we have available funding for we come back and do that a later date I think Mr Von Rosenberg is is correct there is pretty obviously a need for this price point in town um our housing study bore that out um so that there's there's some more food for thought Council maybe we consider an addition to to the program on a one- Time basis right now this is the consideration is to vote on the 160,000 a separate conversation can be had later but that's not on the table uh based off of this line item I got some questions Mr Roser Eric thank you very much for this I'd like to bring John James back up and ask some questions to John so John looking at flexibility what we have with the basically the funds here um is it possible to award him a a part

[1:55:26] now and then come back and say if this is not used and there and these and there's a balance remaining you know at the end of the program we can go back and pick up the balance of what he asked for so if we give one and then come back in and say ifone and I just want to be fair to I mean we've had 19 to 20 applicants for that so I want to see if there's a way to actually do that I mean we get him half the way or or a little more and then you know I was thinking more like 6,000 a spot you know which would put him I think around 114 and then go cuz I mean if you split out the the shortage there versus the 160 we're not too far off it's a couple thousand a plat but I mean a a lot but anyway at the end of the year if we're not if we haven't awarded the 2,000 we come back and pick up any of the balance I just don't know how well that works for for Eric on pricing his homes and doing that but I mean if he's already got them sold and contracted it is what it is it doesn't affect what we're looking at today yeah I think I don't I think we could do that um and then again at the end of the year if we hold that money if there's extra then then it gets them I guess that's a question for them if that how that works financially for them but I I would guess they'd be happy with whatever you give them but well I I have gotten a couple phone calls and it's been in the past you know 48 hours but there's people that have these and go is that all that's going to be awarded going back to what Heber just brought up is is that all the funding that's available and I'll go back to what Brenda said we're voting on what we're working on today I don't know the scope of where that will go in the future but this is what we're working on tomorrow and I am so glad to see this thing started I just don't want to cut somebody out for just not being here today Eric what time frame um would these so you start work tomorrow when would the first house be completed or these be completed for purchase so to give you an idea the first six right there on 40th

[1:57:30] that's not included in this red section um we have four pads down right now those will be completed in roughly three to four months after that you know it's you Pro we probably have another five or six months easily just getting everything in the red zone zone right there to the point where we can even begin construction so we're kind of not necessarily behind the eightball but as far as inventory or what the demand is there might be a gap there um because there's just there's just a lot of people who need these houses so I don't know if that answer your question or not it does okay thank you yeah well um further questions for Eric I have mayor go ahead I just I just wanted to make a comment um my opinion or my state on this um item is that I believe that we should go ahead and I mean I think it's a great project I think it's wonderful people do need the homes and everything but I still think that we need to stay with the criteria that we had for the infill incentive funding program with option two and just uh award them the 50% for the sore and water extension so that other people if they do need this um money to for them to do another project that the money will be there and I'm not opposed to uh doing what Thompson said as far as at the end if there's money left we can award it but I do believe that we need to stick with what we originally stated in our criteria because if we don't then we're going to be changing this and not only in this program but in other programs so that's my stand on that I think by developing these 19 as you said Eric there's already a demand um that are people asking to make a

[1:59:33] contract on yes ma'am one of these Lots you just can't fulfill those right now so you're holding back that tells you that the demand is there and when this F project first came out we were thrilled because we believe this area of town is is an area town that is and based off of the earlier uh new home homes that were built obviously the reaction was very positively yes at that point uh unfortunately because of of um commodity costs um and other Associated costs with that the home prices have gone from what would have been what 159,000 to to to now this I doubt that there's been a whole lot of upgrades from those original houses it's just the cost of labor and the cost of um the supply chain and and commodities so um they're good homes for the value and it's in today's world I think something that's really needed I will say in the very beginning when we started this prices skyrocketed on materials labor was an issue and it was extremely challenging but uh we made it through and things have kind of come down a little a little bit you know they're not they're not perfect on on the prices but um we have found a way to still maintain you know the house that we want to build and the price that we want to keep them at and I want to command City staff because when I brought up to Daniel when we started this program we had to do something to help develop this area and the staff came back with our support with this infill program and that infield program has been a good Catalyst for development in this area and what we found was that when on a block when a home had been built then the neighbors all of a sudden started painting their homes and started

[2:01:34] cleaning up their yards and that it improved the neighborhood so all the things that we wanted and Daniel you supported this infill program and we came up with the funds to do it back then and I thank you for supporting that thank you it is important and it is an important uh project um we can decide later what the future might be but today let's make a decision on the requests for these 19 lots and um allow him to move forward so at this point I would accept go ahead Eric let I want to run this by I'm gonna make this motion and I'm going to kind of tell you my reason for it but I want a motion to give you 6,000 per lot which is 114,000 okay all right and then at the end of the time period if the balance is not used when this period is done with that leaves us a balance of like 46,000 you're eligible for that 46,000 is that legal Tre I mean to make that but that only leaves you about $2,400 short per lot but I don't I think I was thinking three or 4,000 per lot but looking at it at least you're going to pull the utilities it's worth 6,000 per lot and I I want to understand it wouldn't this only wouldn't be to you but it would be anybody else came in and asked for all this I wouldn't want to deprive you of a chance to come get some more of this for future projects the same way I don't want somebody to come back in year and say well you let them have 60 70% of it last year I want it to be eligible to play the whole time so that that's my motion if everybody understands it it's 6,000 per lot at the end of the time frame if there's any balance remaining in the infield you're able to apply for it for the 19 laws well I think we want to clarify that just a little bit more and that would be the following so because based off of um his time frame in building these homes so he could come back with six more homes to apply for it so it doesn't mean necessarily the 46,000 being applied to

[2:03:39] these 19 homes but it would be funds would still be available and I just want to make sure we clarify that because um build them they're sold opens up an opportunity to build more come back so we would amend that to say he'd be eligible for the remaining 46,000 under your construction agency okay so I have a question on that is that 46,000 is that left in the pool for anybody in the program that wants to okay it's and it's kind of a risk factor yes sir it is a risk and it's it's 2421 bucks lot is is your risk factor it would mean I guess also so let's say um somebody comes in and says I want to buy Six of these lots for Brenda Gunter to develop within this project those funds would be available for that person to build those six as well so just to be clear so there's no gray matter here so okay so we're not in the gray matter is the 46,000 left in the infield program or is it allotted to this sub the vision to be used based on kind of like what she okay yeah so it's it's anybody at that point yeah got you just making sure mayor I'll second that motion okay there's a motion in a second further public comment I don't know how you're going to document that well we're basically committing 6,000 per lot and period that's really period there's no other right it's period so because that remain that leaves funds in the infield fund for other developers or for future development of this project by anybody is that clear so I'm going to sit with Eric on this one at the end of the program if those 46,000 or whatever balance is not used he can come back and apply that for future houses or for this project or for these 19 for anybody that's anybody okay but also remember

[2:05:43] this so because you own this development right you own it all let's say come October 1 2024 you decide to put in another 20 having committed to this project this year doesn't limit your ability to come back next year for more so it's not a onetime only per person it is a commitment to these 19 period today without trying to sound greedy no just there's this grave area that I'm trying to based on what you're proposing right say we get the 6,000 for this development as up today okay for these 19 yes for these 19 that leaves the 46,000 that we were just discussing in the infill program um let's say that we finish these 19 Lots in a significant you know a quick amount of time and we're ready to build on those can we apply for the infield program on whatever houses we build if we finish them in time for the 5,000 per lot based on the 46,000 that is left in the is there not one of those 19 yes okay that's that's what I was asking the dollar amount today is these 19 perod just making sure then if you come back in three months and say I've sold these already and I'm ahead of my construction time frame and I now I'm ready to move move on to 10 more houses okay you would be able to come back and apply for additional funds but not on those 19 houses got you teres yes well we're only counting 18 Lots so I don't know we want to make sure the map is correct because we are essentially phasing your project for you here well yeah we ought to be correct on this

[2:07:44] before it is play America for this 18 our computer can't count you can poke on that screen and it'll light up well they're all numbered so where do you they're not necessarily well they're not in sequence but good catch okay let the record show the lawyer got the m get you in trouble every time don't they go let's be real clear on this let me go this may be my error let's see surely not surely not surely not yeah this lot eight right there at the bottom should have been in the red area so you see here so there are 19 bring that line down there so we're just going to need an exhibit so if this is the better exhibit to show what we're talking about then let's use this instead of the okay okay and I just want to clarify one thing that was said earlier I think there was a question asked that um any of the money does need to be reimbursement for this project he can't apply it to whatever houses and I know to some extent that's just ACC accounting but if for some reason he comes back and whatever that total amount isn't the 50% is less than what is left over that he can only get the 50% under the program well what we have very clearly said was this money approved today applies only to these 19 houses yes ma'am very clearly I've said that is there any confusion because I've said that two or three times got it so your question may I have a question yes Lucy I wanted to just clarify you said uh so instead of given him 5,000 we're allowing 6,000 per home is that correct correct

[2:09:49] okay that's the motion on the floor okay the motion on the floor is for $6,000 per lot with a total number of 19 Lots that's the motion did we answer your question Teresa are you clear on the remainder yes Heather's clear so okay okay we've had a motion and a second any public comment with no public comment we will take a vote all those in favor say I I Lucy Nate motion passes 61 thank you guys get building yes ma'am all right we do we want a break please let's take a break um let's take 10 minutes is that does that work for everybody 10 minutes break good okay back to order at 10:55 a.m. we will go move on through the agenda so we are at item e which is consider approving a resolution electing to participate in tax abatement agreements suant to the property Redevelopment and tax abatement act chapter 312 of the Texas tax code and Michael you're on good morning mayor and Council Michael Dane interim economic development director items E and F uh go together really they're both related to a tax abatement program so item f is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance reauthorizing article 1.09 taxation division 3 uniform tax abatement policy of the city code of ordinances which expired November 15

[2:11:54] 2018 a few weeks back we um brought to you a um ratification of a cad DC item for a project one of the things we discussed as part of that was the possibility of a tax abatement which would would uh uh be some would a tax abatement be something that Council would consider and as I recall the direction was let's jump through the hoops and let's see where the Hoops take us these are these are the beginnings the first few Hoops to first couple of Hoops to jump through um we are required to pass a resolution and then pass an ordinance related to the creation of a tax abatement program so we've had this before they sunset in they automatically sunset in two years this one the one we had went through sunset now that we have a project which we might contemplate an abatement for we need to consider reestablishing the program and that's what we're talking about today the beginnings of reestablishing that program uh typically in the past what we've done is abated The increased value associated with a project so if I buy a commercial property and I've got it's on the books for $100 and I anticipate um incre inreasing its value on the tax Rolls by $50 for an anticipated total of $150 in taxable value we would typically only Abate in the past I don't think we've ever tried to Abate anything except that increased value so we don't take a step backwards we just lose that increased value for those first years associated with the abatement for what length of time pardon me for what length of time because most tax abatement is done because in year two it might go up another $25 in year three it might go up another whatever so to be clear is it one as the example if it went up $50 per

[2:14:00] acre on year one but it went up in year two appraised another $25 an acre are we asking and suggesting that it only apply to the first Year's increase in value or for the increase in value of the length of time that the tax batement applied meaning 10 years or less or more that is a fairly specific question uh and I'm going to need help interpreting the proposed policy I can tell you that the abatement policy that or the the ordinance language that is in the packet um calls the abatement period is defined as seven years limited to no more than five tax years following the timely and successful completion of the project so the project if they were to build a building on it the abatement increase in value would not start until that building was completed so if year one they bought the land it's $100 an acre the building was completed in two years but by then the appraise value went up $1 175 per acre it would only be based off a total completion of the building as well as the occupancy of that building is that correct do you want to answer part of that I'll tell you that that's correct for a period of 5 years after the completion of the building um Bob schaman uh economic development project manager when we have worked with the this will be calculated by the appraisal district so I believe the way they do it is they create a baseline uh evaluation and then the increase above that whether it's uh because of the project or potentially because because of just a reappraisal I believe it's going to get that would get rebated well the the question is does I mean okay so one's the piece of land value of the piece of land the acreage the square footage second is the

[2:16:04] valuation of that acreage once a once a building is constructed and the business is running chances are the increase in valuation of the land would be greater after a building is completed than PR to a building being put on that and being in use yeah that's correct now the other thing I that I believe we could do is you could put a cap on that you can say uh an abatement up to uh say 5 million uh in in value so if it goes above the 5 million then that would not be aat I believe we could do that so I think the question that one would have on this is the following is that based off a new tax law or legislative law the law says today that we can only increase we can only um once values valuations for the total City have gone up more than 3.5% anything over and above that changes the Dynamics and um so one property wouldn't substantially impact that 3.5% so it wouldn't necessarily create a negative impact on the City by doing the tax abatement well it it could create an a fiscal impact to our ability to collect revenue and Tina I'm going to ask you to keep me on the straight and narrow we are capped at 3 and a half% in growth on existing properties but in the example I just gave you that 50 extra $50 is new value associated with new construction C and would not be subject to that cap yes in year one or until the building was completed so that's correct and so we're we're allowed to get our 3 and a half% plus the value of new new construction she's given me the nod and so that's where our environment

[2:18:10] today is a little different than it used to be that does eat into real Revenue that is not subject to cap at this point I'm assuming that based off of this coming forward today which is in 2023 and this um expired in 2018 we have not had a request for abatement since 2018 since this is 2023 that that's my understanding mayor um it if it's a tool in the toolbox it it comes up in discussion if it comes up and it's not in the toolbox then we just say we don't we don't have that ability at this point however if we had a big project came come through and that was a key part of the project we would still approach Council and and make sure you had the opportunity to approve what you thought was in the city's interest questions for Michael Yes Tommy I'm not sure it's a question um it may be a question in the form of a comment regardless of whether we have this this tool in place if we don't have it in place and we have a project we're going to have to go through the very same steps we are looking at taking today correct that's my understanding and and that's exactly where we find ourselves we have a project where they have contemplated the benefits of a tax abatement we discussed that possibility here and our understanding was y'all said bring it back Let's Start begin stepping through that process and see if it's something we're interested in then and so if this does not move forward and next year or later this year we have a project come through we will still say Council we don't have this program in

[2:20:14] place in order to give an abatement to make this project go or to be put a package of benefits together for a prospect we would still say council do you want us to jump through these hoops and create the program so that we can do this if the program is if if the steps have been been uh properly gone through and approved by Council and you bring us a project for abatement we have to say it's an up or down yes or no vote vote on every single project that you would bring to us so we would have the opportunity if the programs in place it seems to me it just eliminates some of the steps that we're having to go through if we want to even consider it if it's in place we still have the opportunity to say yes or no to any specific request for an abatement correct that's my understanding and I wouldn't want to bargain away council's authority to Brandon's got something sayne just to clarify the process so there's essentially six steps I mean the first two steps we're doing today is the resolution saying you want to participate in abatement and the second one is to create the criteria which we had previously adopted by ordinance so it's just reauthorizing that same criteria um The Next Step the third step would be to actually create the Zone where uh properties could apply for the abatement um that has to be done by by ordinance to create the zone so that would come back to you then and then um beyond that then uh a property owner in that zone could apply and say we want to have a batement agreement that agreement also has to come back to you so you you're essentially seeing it two more times um and then you'd approve that agreement then we have to give some reports or notices to the other taxing entities in the com controller so

[2:22:17] you'll You' see it again per project and approval today doesn't mean you have to approve a project the statute and our criteria makes clear it's totally discretionary um to has an up or down vote right got even if they meet um the criteria you can still say no at that point Thank you very quickly as a point of of clarification uh um a Zone can be an individual piece of property so uh somebody comes in and they want a a tax abatement their property has to be has to be declared or declared is a good good word I guess a reinvestment Zone but it can be just that piece of property we don't have to say okay it's all of these properties so just wanted to clarify that is there a project out there as we speak that this applies to we we have talked about the techn Tower project yeah and asking so it's public we did yeah and it's from a practical standpoint creating the Zone I think the way that they're working it through the county and the way we had anticipated working it is that we would create that zone each time we had a project in other words we wouldn't take a big broad brush and create a big Zone we would bring that zone designation for each project and so you would have authority over that also and so from a practical standpoint this makes moving through that process quicker um however we can still move that process if at some future point you want a project to go through that um and uh Council still retains authority over those you're not giving any autonomy to staff if we approve this a tax abatement if we approved a tax

[2:24:19] abatement as a city then the county could also approve a tax abatement and then does the school district also approve a tax abatement or is this a tax abatement on City level only we are working on City only the county would have to approve theirs and I have I I I am not an expert and I do not have knowledge about the school district's ability to Grant tax abatements tresa you know if school districts um do tax abatements I do not know I know that their rules are different than ours and we can do things that they can't do often but I'm not sure but again today the we're just setting the rules for people to come to us they're like if you meet this criteria then you can come to us and start having a conversation about whether or not we're going to bait your taxes it's not making a decision for anybody today that doesn't happen until multiple decisions down the road and I don't believe that school districts are allowed to do an abatement mayor yes sir I in favor of both enf to me it's just a tool that we give um ourselves to work with um someone that uh it may be beneficial it may help us um I'll say U land a deal or assist a an existing business um so um I would move approval if it's appropriate I'd move approval for both items E and F I will ask first if there's any questions or comments from other City Council Members before I bring that motion to the floor Lucy do you have any questions or comments no ma'am I do not okay with that then we have a motion to U Can we lump three and I mean E and F together or do we need a motion on each well we would prefer two votes because somebody might approve one but not the other and so it's just clearer that way if you vote no don't know what you're voting no to so so I'm going to say the fine there's a motion on the

[2:26:21] floor to consider item e which is approving a resolution electing to participate in tax abatement agreements pursuant to the property Redevelopment tax abatement act chapter 312 of the taxes ta Texas tax code that is the only motion on the floor at this point in time you have a second I don't I'll second that okay Harry has seconded that motion any public comment there is none so we will take a vote all those in favor of item e say I I I motion passes 70 we will now move into item F first reading and public hearing of an ordinance reauthorizing article 1.09 taxation division 3 uniform tax abatement policy of the city code of ordinances which expired November 15th 2018 do I have a motion so move move by Karen do I have a second second uh seconded with one finger up and one voice so that would be Tom and Harry and with that there's two seconds so any public comment seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I I motion passes 70 we will now move into item G consider approving a contract with the historic Orient Santa Fe Depot Incorporated allocating $25,000 of Hotel OCC occupancy tax hot money receipts for eligible activities and authorizing the assistant city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents Michael you're on thank you mayor and Council this item has to do with the lease of our facility the uh Depot to the rail Museum um and funding to be tied to that activity we uh pursuant to council's direction we updated the lease terms and executed that update um since our last

[2:28:25] meeting what is before you now is an agreement to provide funding for the operation of that museum uh the fundamentals of the agreement were pulled from another existing agreement um and then modified updated to reflect the uh historic preservation uh char of this agreement uh the amount is proposed at 25,000 which is what had been previously discussed and brought back at your direction the eligible activities are what in this particular um use it's just the restoration and Improvement and maintenance of that facility so the monies must be used for the restoration and preservation or Improvement to the facility itself yes ma'am that's the only use that can be le 25,000 can be used towards that's correct that's correct all right with that um are there questions for Michael all right may I have a motion for approval I move to approve okay I'm going to take Karen I heard her first I'm G to have Lucy be the second any public comment seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor favor say I I I None opposed motion passes 70 item H first public hearing an introduction of an ordinance emitting the budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 2023 and ending September 30th 2024 for historic Orient Santa Fe Depot may I have a motion for um the or amending the budget so move by Larry second second by Tom all those a public comment let's take a vote all those in favor say I I motion passes 70 we'll move on to our closed

[2:30:29] session of and there is none so the item a that was on the closed session has been pulled so we will move into the followup and administrative issues consider items discussed in executive session if none there are none and now consider approving various board nominations ations designer and historic review commission Luke Braum smd1 to the first term ending September 2025 may I have that motion so move so move by Tommy second second by Tom any public comment on the nomination seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I motion passes 70 item C announcements and consideration for future agenda items seeing none here none may I have a motion for adjournment so move second motion by Tommy is second by Tom all those in favor say I I I motion passes meeting is officially adjourned at 11:15 a.m. on this uh Wednesday octob I mean on this Tuesday October the 3

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=XtKn1geYCoE