San Angelo City Council 7-21-20

[0:00:00] good morning everyone and welcome to the july 21st 2020 city council meeting we will call this meeting to order we have every council member present today so of course that means we have a quorum today we will have chaplain ralph dawkins uh uh give us uh the prayer captain dawkins you were on yes good morning everyone i apologize that it might seem a little dark i'm in one of the back rooms here but i'm thankful that you guys have given me the opportunity to uh open this session in prayer if you would join me for a word of prayer for just a moment and then we'll resume father in the name of jesus lord i pray for those that are in authority in this city i pray and lift up the mayor her staff and assistants this city council the city manager and all the people and departments that are instrumental in leading and directing our city i pray that you would bless them to work together in unity to tackle the items that are on the agenda today may you keep division from among them and i pray that you would give them godly wisdom directions and instructions on how to lead manage and operate this city and all of its departments i pray that you would give these leaders knowledge and guidance on how to deal with the community facilities and businesses and all the problems that face our city and its people thank you that there are steps already being taken to reduce the number of coveted 19 cases in our city for the past few days the war declares that in psalm 91 that you would give your angels charge over us and keep us in all of our ways i pray for the police chiefs and the police force i pray for the fire chief and the fire department and all the first responders who serve our city and lastly i pray that you would bless our city with economic prosperity that you would draw in and attract to

[0:02:02] our city industry businesses and corporations that will produce jobs and revenue to help it grow and prosper i commit all these things concerning our city to you god regardless of how things may look in a natural i confess your word that you are well able to bring all things to pass that we have prayed over this city council meeting today it is in jesus name we pray amen and amen thank you all for the opportunity to pray again have a great meeting i gotta head to san antonio but thank you and god bless stay safe we appreciate that all members of the public counsel and staff should begin speaking by stating their full name and smd address smd position or role within the city we will move on to the public comments section of the agenda and we'll start with a public comment from allen press and he says i appreciate mayor gunner's leadership and many steps taken to stem the spread of coven 19 in our community the situation has deteriorated since council's 7-7 meeting as a member of the public trying to do my best to say to stay safe but also understand our local public health response i would be grateful if public health officials could present to city council at its upcoming meeting questions in my mind include one what is the difference between the pcr test and antigen test two what numbers go into the positivity rate now 25.8 percent and how has that rate changed over time what rate would indicate a community with low spread three now that testing has a seven to ten day turnaround time what do officials recommend for people who begin displaying symptoms in which to be tested four depending on the type of positive test

[0:04:03] is there a different protocol for the patient person to follow five what people resources are needed to conduct proper contact tracing as active cases grew from 436 on 77 to 802 on 7 16. six 10 of the 11 deaths occurred in the last three weeks currently hospitalized rose from 15 in late may to roughly 40 since 7-7 i would like to hear public health officials address these concerning increases and what it pretends for the near future seven what do public health officials need from city council at this time what do they need from the public to decrease the rampant spread a nearly 26 positivity rate city council members have relationships in their districts and can influence behavior mayor gunter has been out front on the issue and taken considerable flack strong support from council members could impact citizen behavior and improve the situation on the ground over time sincerely allen press resident of district number one we also have public comment from coco simpson san angelo city council members the recent decisions coming out of your office are quite alarming i'm speaking in reference to the cancellation of tournaments races and other outdoor recreational activities amongst others these events bring in millions of dollars to the san angelo community these are dollars your constituents need to pay their mortgages put food on their tables and house their kids that money from the softball and baseball tournament specifically would have also gone to support a massive city park that has zero income not to mention these events being outdoors poses little health risks to anyone on the topic of health risk your office should always err on the side of freedom in this age of information ignorance is a choice most of us are smart enough to wear the wrist sorry most of us are smart enough

[0:06:06] to weigh the risk associated with our actions and make adult decisions based on the information at hand we are also going to live with the consequences of those actions not you that being said if people feel the risk us worth their work if that being said if people feel the risk i think it's supposed to be versus worth the reward you who are you to stop them then there is a science about how sunlight and hill heat kill corona who would have thought heat killing of rise variety a virus good thing it's sitting at 100 degrees every day here in san angelo which makes you uneducate make which makes your uneducated one-sided decision that much worse this is america and we are supposed to have the freedom to choose many things freedoms the generations before us fought and died for but those freedoms are slowly eroding and it's noticeable mayor brenda gunter and her private sessions with no input from the rest of the city council or other outside council have got to stop quite a few of us know about the happenings of the bring the heat tournament cancellation two days before the tournament and it should be brought further to light and dealt with what happened in that particular instance is absolutely abhorrent and is not tolerable you city council members should absolutely hold her accountable for the loss of over a million dollars in the san angelo community and now the black listing of san angelo with the softball community the people at the parks and recreation department busted their homes to get that tournament here and just like that all that work was for not and never will be again millions of dollars just gone and for what to say healthy people from a virus they aren't scared of this has got to end now let adults make decisions on how they can best live their lives those who are scared of the coronavirus can mask up or stay home the rest of us are ready to

[0:08:09] keep on living sincerely coco simpson and from shirley spears she submitted a proclamation too late to be included in the city council meeting today but we will say the following we received a public comment from shirley spears member of the fort council museum board requesting a proclamation of july 28 as san angelo texas national buffalo soldier day in 1992 a joint resolution was presented by congress recognizing the service of over 180 000 african-american troops fort concho served as a military post for the 9th and 10th calgary regiments and the 2nd and 25th infantry regiments from 1869 to 1885. the city of san angelo recognizes the service of those soldiers at fort concho and recognizes that san angelo became the home of many of them additionally fairmont cemetery in san angelo is the resting place of many of those honorable soldiers for more details the full proclamation is attached to the city council background packet so i think most of you receive that community spread is in the hands of our community our citizens each and every one of you play a part in stopping community spread if you care about our local economy if you care about our family-owned businesses your hairdresser your barber your nail technician then you should care about whether you're playing a part in the community spread of cobit 19. if you care about your neighbors co-workers friends family and fellow citizens then we need each of you to take personal responsibility for your actions community spread happens in your front yard

[0:10:11] your backyard your street and your living room going outside does not stop the spread community spread happens at house parties pool parties backyard parties and street parties each of you are accountable for your actions and each of you play a part in stopping the community spread mask or no mask we definitely know people have strong beliefs concerning wearing masks positively and negatively yes we know in march the news reported masks are not necessary why was that the storyline in the news it was the news headline then to make sure our health professionals had plenty of ppe or personal protection equipment or face masks gloves medical gowns available for the hospitals for the doctors and the nurses the controversy continues on mass boring but i ask is it too much to ask you to wear a mask at a time when we need the best from everyone we know medical issues prevent people from wearing masks we know people believe we have infringed upon their constitutional rights however by not wearing a mouse you may be endangering others which in turn endangers small businesses the debate on wearing masks will continue but i ask you if your doctor tells you you have high blood pressure do you wait to react until you have a heart attack to listen to his advice with that being said we cannot afford another shutdown in san angelo or tom greene county tom greene county is considered a hot zone or red zone meeting our increase in cases our positivity rate has put us in a category that we should not be proud of two weeks ago our seven day positivity rate was 25.8 percent this past week we had a 31.3 percent positivity rate

[0:12:16] the state considers any positivity rate above 10 percent to be a cause for concern on may 1st we had 58 positive cases and one death today we have 1560 positive cases and 13 deaths many people have said that the number of deaths relative to the number of positive cases well they would take those odds any day in las vegas if you're making that gamble you're not only taking you're not only risking your life but others as well the number of deaths however is not the only impact on our community the virus has impacted lives financially emotionally and mentally as someone tests positive there is a loss of income medical bills and potential long-term impact on one's health those hospitalized end up with substantial hospital bills with or without insurance and no income if you work for someone and have tested positive then you impact your employer's business which could lead to closing the business for a two-week time period the business then due to loss of income is forced to lay off more employees it is incredibly selfish of you as an individual to think only of yourself i do not want our city to be a city that governor abbott shuts down due to our positivity rate i do not want him to declare more categories of business to shut down or occupancy is reduced i believe all businesses are essential to our local economy and essential to a family's livelihood we should not be in the business of picking or choosing which businesses and essential and essential services will be allowed to be open or forced close every business is important in terms of services or products offered family income employment and reinvestment back into our economy but once again it is in your hands

[0:14:21] as a business owner or an employee or a customer so if you're going to your hairdresser your nail technician your barber or your favorite retail store remember to wear a mouse and practice six feet social distancing major big box retailers are mandating masks as they know their employees deserve the extra protection from being exposed for possible asymptomatic customers or individuals who do not who do not care if they expose someone else to the virus our statistics show a heavy impact of positive cases in our hispanic community of the total positive cases 55 of the positive cases are hispanic we have over the past two weeks work to get the community spread message out to the hispanic community we now report the daily numbers and information on probit 19 in spanish we have asked our hispanic community leaders to help in the messaging on facebook youtube and satv channel 17 all in spanish we have also reached out to the hispanic radio station to help us in communicating the message on how to stop the community spread our largest age group testing positive is the 20 to 29 year olds even the zero to 19 year olds are testing positive greater than our 50 to 59 year olds the 0 to 19 age group has more positive cases than the 60 to 69 and the 70 plus age group they might not have the strong symptoms or health impact as the older age categories but the 20 to 29 year olds are a major problem in regards to community spread why would you want to risk giving to your parents or grandparents we know the community needs faster results from testing the longer it takes to get results from testing the longer one has to be away from work shannon announced today that they have purchased more than sophia tests

[0:16:24] that will produce faster results this will make a big difference to help stop community spread and to limit the impact on families finances lisa curry owner of the waterford announced she can now administer antibody tests and as of this wednesday we'll be able to administer pcr tests with 24 to 48 hour results she cannot take insurance but the ability to get faster results is important so what else are we doing as a city i have created a working group to review tabc licensing to determine if we can get support for more categories of licenses other than the just the simple 51 i believe we need to be able to separate wine bars live entertainment venues beer pubs vineyards and tasting rooms from the simple 51 too many businesses were impacted and forced to close due to a few bad apples to abuse the guidelines in sports even against opponents that are better rated or have a better record you still go to the game with a strategy or game plan to win your coach will not allow you to throw in the towel before the game even starts this spring season many athletes in junior high high school and college have had to give up their passion for competitive sports so many athletes lost their big moment to showcase their talent and perhaps earn an opportunity to get a scholarship and be accepted at a school of their choice we do not want to be in the business of canceling events those are difficult emotional decisions that are very hard to make but for the san angelo community we must make the tough decisions that we believe will help us win against copen 19. with rising hospitalizations positivity rates and more deaths the best game plan will always be the strategy that gets us to the finish line and protects the greatest number of citizens we financially need to win this game what are we going to have to do is the

[0:18:28] following learn to live with code 19. whatever it takes we must understand the precautions that must be in place to ensure safety in providing services safety and living our lives and making sure that we maintain and protect the freedoms we have always enjoyed as americans this virus cannot be used to take away our cherished freedoms but we also know that in order to continue to enjoy our freedoms every citizen must do their part in helping to stop the spread i ask for your help in making san angelo a city that takes pride in standing tall and doing the right thing to protect our families friends neighbors and fellow citizens san angelo has always been a city to take care of its fellow citizens our businesses need our support our local businesses success depends on you you as citizens to help them survive by doing the right thing wear a mask social distance and remember it is in your sanitized hands thank you mayor yes ma'am um before you go on i'd like to um kind of make an announcement regarding mr press's comment he had a number of questions for the medical or medical folks and dr freda's is going to be on facebook live today at 3 30 um on and on satv suddenly channel 17. so if people have questions they are able to send those to him and he will be answering this today okay thank you mayor yes ma'am billy dewitt single member district six mayor i just want to say that i appreciate your leadership in handling covet 19. i know that you have a group working with you and i really

[0:20:32] appreciate all the hard work that's going into this i know that it is distressing sometimes when we get comments um of people feeling that we are trying to take away their freedoms which i don't feel that way i feel that as we see our numbers increasing and you stated those statistics that it's important for us to use good common sense in the decisions that we make for our community so i know it's not easy for you or those on the task force our city manager dr varedis sometimes with all the negative feedback but i am getting some feedback from some of my constituents that appreciate what we're doing in encouraging face masks that appreciate what some of our big box stores locally are doing in um requiring face masks before you enter their establishment and i think everybody agrees with you mayor that we don't want to uh see any more shutdowns in our city but unfortunately some people i don't think take that to heart so i just wanted to go on record this morning saying thank you for all the work that you and the working group that's with you are doing we appreciate your efforts in trying to keep our community safe thank you thank you billy with that we will move into the consent agenda are there any items from the consent agenda that council would like to pull i'm going to pull item h so with item h being pulled i am going to ask for a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda items a through g billy dewitt single member district six i make the motion to approve the consent agenda with the

[0:22:34] exception of item h thank you do i the second second mayor tommy hebert single member district one second by tommy hebert all of those in favor of the consent agenda please say i i execution passes seven zero item h second reading of an ordinance amending the budget for the fiscal year beginning october 1 2019 and ending september 30th 2020 for grants reimbursed expenses and capital projects i want more explanation on this insurance hundred thousand dollars that's my question is again explain to us is this simply about the light poles that have been damaged or is this due to increased accidents creating an increase in our insurance costs mayor my understanding is that this is due to an increase in accidents and so they're get running low on their their expenditure budget and need to budget for additional insurance proceeds should they have additional accidents in this fiscal year but i think that either shane or patrick should be on the line to speak more clearly to that all right so i i don't need them to explain it any further i know what they said last time i just want to make sure that that is the only reason um due to people running into our light poles that we've had this that we need to look for additional funding for is that if that is the only issue then i accept that yes ma'am and the only reason we would receive insurance proceeds would be in that instance and so again it's just to have the expenditure budget in place should they need it this fiscal year there wouldn't be an expenditure without the offsetting revenue thank you tina with that i will ask that a motion be made to accept

[0:24:37] item h mary thomas single member district three i make a motion that we approve this particular item do i have a second a second by lane all in favor say aye aye with that the motion passes seven zero we will now move into the regular agenda item a consider approving a public hearing of the 2020-2024 five-year consolidated plan for the use of cdbg and home grant funds and authorizing the city manager to execute all related documents and certifications bob solis you're on good morning mayor council of bob wallace director of neighborhood and family services uh the city's five-year consolidated plan is a road map for the allocation and expenditure of cdbg and home grant funds over the next five program years which covers 2020 through 2024. as part of the plan we assess the needs of low-income residents identified services and resources available throughout the city and then we created a strategic plan to meet those needs here's a sample of the key areas the plan covers it includes housing needs and market analysis public housing issues barriers to affordable housing lead-based paid abatement citizen participation issues and a homeless and special needs assessments we began the process with public meetings and interviews with the key stakeholders such as service providers citizen groups affordable housing stakeholders and then we held a virtual public meeting on may the 28th and finally we collected data and conducted the research to create our plan this is a list of some of the uh excuse me some of the key resources we use to put the pam to put the plan together it includes the recent housing study conducted last year the latest american community survey estimates

[0:26:40] the census data pha strategic plan and hud's strategic plan and the hud chas data here's a graphic depicting the funding trend over the past several years well it's been on a downward trend it appears congress is positioned to increase the national allocation substantially in the coming years and of course we look forward to that increase here are the goals and objectives we are recommending um they are based on the hud mission and strategic plan local needs based on citizen and stakeholder input and of course staff analysis we plan on rehabilitating at least 125 homes under the creating decent housing objective uh we'll provide down payment and closing calls for at least 30 first-time homebuyers replace siding and leverage volunteers to pin the lease 125 homes during our annual blitzes have co-compliance expect at least 1200 properties and neighborhoods targeted for revitalization construct at least 15 new homes in those same neighborhoods and assist at least 105 special need clients with rental payments as part of the comp plan we are required to develop excuse me to develop and submit annual action plans that outline the funds and expenditures for each year of the comp plan starting with 2020 we anticipate receiving 718 662 of cdbg funds in this year and we recommend 136 000 for admin 112 000 for program delivery 168 000 for blitz rehab projects 125 000 for emergency repairs 38 000 for compliance and 139 000 for debt payment services and for home grants we anticipate receiving 379 663 and we recommend

[0:28:44] 75 000 for admin 93 000 for first-time home buyers programs uh 75 000 for tbra and 135 000 for galilee cdc total set-aside uh that's that's it for my presentation i'll be glad to answer any questions we ask for council's approval do i have questions for bob from counsel um i do mayor billy dewitt single member district six um bob in both the both home and cdbg funds um the administrative dollars are those salaries and um supplies office supplies that sort of thing uh they are uh basically the um the uh they are for we break it up with cdbg we have uh two parts of admin one is for program delivery those are for people who actually work the project um and the program and the other is for the overall admin uh salaries benefits supplies equipment uh computers those kind of things okay and um the 38 000 for cdbg uh funds for code compliance what does that cover that will actually pay for the salary of an actual uh code compliance officer to be out in our target areas and we considered that this year because we expanded as you know we expanded our our target areas to bel air into lakeview so we're hoping that uh the the focused attention on those two errors is going to help us with our revite program okay and um bob i know that um kind of one of the issues that we face is our homeless population and in the uh report it was the special needs population one of the goals was to continue to expand efforts that eliminate or prevent homelessness um can you tell me what has been done over the

[0:30:46] past year to address the our homeless group absolutely as you know the um the salvation army closed the shelter which kind of uh created additional problems uh we were now and got a grant for 179 000 uh from the hud continuum of care that program is going to create a rapid rehousing uh program for the homeless we're going to work with public housing authority to earmark some special vouchers to get folks in and out quickly get them out of the street get them into housing permanent housing right away and we're going to include case management that's the one thing that's always been missing uh you can get someone into a house but without the case management to help them navigate through the problems they face to get the support of services they need um i think this program is going to help a lot okay that's our major thrust for the uh for the homeless okay and then just one final thing uh bob i think um i know that in the past what you've shared with us is that we have about 25 to 30 um people in the homeless population that want to be home well i don't know that they want to be homeless but that you know they resist moving into a shelter or anything and it seems like our panhandling activities on street corners and a particularly on the corner sixth and chad burn um where you know there's an inordinate amount of trash gathered there and you know it's just kind of an eyesore is there anything at all that we can do about that well unfortunately um we we do have an ordinance that allows us to move folks from uh not allow them to camp in our right-of-ways however that is predicated on the fact that we have afforded we have a plenty of shelter for them with the closure of salvation army shelter uh we really can't uh enforce

[0:32:50] that um we do encourage them to move on uh there's not a lot we can do for someone who is chronically homeless and wants to does not want case management does not want supportive services refuses to participate uh we can't do anything about that that's unfortunate but i think most cities face that problem okay so um all we can do at this point is encourage them to you know to disperse and move on um we can't really do anything if if we don't have a shelter for them to go to at this point i think we do encourage but however saying that we do have the opportunity to encourage them to participate in our new rapid rehousing program so i'm hoping that once we get the contract which is coming soon uh we'll be able to uh engage with these folks and try to convince them to stay off the road off off the uh of the streets and into his permanent housing uh it is a tough roadhole uh for chronic homeless i gotta tell you that uh we i think again most cities face the same thing we do all right thank you bob yes ma'am bob i have a few questions uh one in the public meetings how many people attended those meetings uh actually we had over 80 car views on our public um in our youtube um statistics and we had uh i believe we had over 13 actually participating and we had several comments so um and those comments were why the comments were mostly uh a lot of them were on homelessness uh they're asking us to look into programs to assist homeless and then some that were supportive of our affordable housing programs we have uh encouraging us to uh not only continue but expand those uh programs all right you also say on here that you are using the census uh information from 2010 are we using that specifically from 2010

[0:34:54] without new projections on what the census might be in 2020 uh that's actually a little misleading because although the official is 2010 there's the american uh community survey that we use that's uh that's updated to 2011 to 2019. so uh a lot of the data is relatively new um but the official uh census is only the 2010. to be honest with you we use very little of that we mostly use the acs all right so then if you'll go to the slide that breaks down the dollar amounts and there's one for a debt payment of a hundred and thirty thirty nine thousand talk about what that debt payment is uh that is our payments for the section 108 loan that we received uh years back to build the producers park and renovate the real vista park uh it is uh unfortunate we have to pay cdbg funds using cbg funds to pay for that that loan and we expect to afford to mature in i think 20 30. look at my staff member here in what year does it expire i believe it's uh we're shooting for 20 30 is the i think it matures 20 30. we have a few more years left uh talk to me about because we have um obviously issues with um rent payments etc the cares act that has been approved allows for people to apply for monies relative to their inability to pay their rent and or mortgages how have we worked with people to make sure they understand what the cares act is and how they might qualify well we have uh we have the guidelines and we have the application online uh of course they call us they email us we've been working with a lot of folks to write the information they need ultimately though these are cdbg funds so we have to handle them like cdbg funds which means that they are

[0:36:57] income limited uh they are uh there are some stipulations we got to cover so we we do ask for identification birth certificates those kind of things that normally we ask for cdb in any cdbg program um it seems a little onerous but unfortunately it's required so we are limited on who we can assist we just can't help everybody unfortunately yes but my i think my question is the educational element that we offer people understanding care so even though you're limited in terms of what you can do are we making people aware of what that cares act will allow them to do and how they can apply outside the limitations of what you do uh brian did in fact uh put out a psa uh we've done a couple times already uh and every time we do a psa on this on this program we do get a lot of responses so uh that's that's our effort just to try to get the word out through brian and uh that's the best we can do at this point so when are we um it seems to me we probably need him to go out again on that psa so i think we need to do that on a regular basis so i want to make sure we follow up on that yes yes ma'am we actually did it the other day uh i think friday we said we said we sent out the uh and they got good coverage um i think the papers carried it the news carried it uh the media pretty much across the board carried the uh the notice that we're still uh entertaining uh applications all right on your blinds blitz rehab projects talk to me about the neighborhoods we've have we done a blitz this year uh we did we did we kind of uh coordinated with the uh bradford storm recovery and focus on the bradford area unfortunately we didn't have any volunteers we did it through uh contractors um and we were able to uh i believe we had 21 homes that we uh resided and paid it but it was through professionals okay all right do i have

[0:39:00] um any further questions or comments from counsel with none do i have a motion to approve the five-year consolidated plan for cdbg and home grant funds mayor tommy hebert single member district one i make a motion for approval thank you tommy do i have a second i said thomas thank you three thank you harry with that we will take a vote all in favor say aye non-opposed motion passes seven zero item b consider approving a policy waiving fees for animal pickup morgan you're on thank you mayor i'm just bringing up my powerpoint what i have before you today is an opportunity for further improvement you'll recall that we spoke about this is i'm sorry morgan chegwin assistant director of neighborhood and family services uh back in february we did talk about some changes to the pickup fee of 25 we made that change in february to exclude wildlife and further improvements were identified to identify make a policy to allow the city manager or his designee to waive that 25 pickup fee in certain circumstances you want to go back to that first slide because i i think i thought what we approved the pickup fee waiver was because of wildlife so the deer the foxes or whatever we said so okay so i'm confused so that's already approved so the 25 fee still stood for domestic animals so what's before you today is an opportunity to waive that fee for the pickup of domestic animals in certain circumstances for example if the citizen requesting the pickup is

[0:41:03] elderly and low income uh that the city manager would have opportunity to review that our staff would request the necessary uh documentation for proof of that and then take before the um city manager for opportunity to waive that fee so that citizens have that flexibility that if they are over 65 and if they are low income as defined by our other programming in neighborhood and family services that the city manager at that point may weigh the 25 fee for the pickup of domestic animals so that is what's before you today assign that opportunity to the city manager all right do i have questions for morgan from council mayor i do this lane card district five just to just to clarify is it is it elderly and low income or elderly or low income our recommendation is that the citizen would be both elderly and low income all right lucy i think you had a question yes ma'am i just wanted to ask also would that include somehow in the situation or circumstance would that include the disabled also that's not being considered at this time but it would certainly be the council's um option to add that to the policy i would like to see that happen i also just have a comment uh we don't have very many people that call us in their time of need and especially when they're elderly that they call and they say we need help so i think this is the perfect time to be able to weigh the fee and help the people that are elderly that are disabled that have low income that we're able to help them out and and especially when they want to stop the um animal uh like say for instance cats to keep them from mating their dogs or whatever and i know that everybody says well stop feeding them

[0:43:06] yeah well surely they can stop feeding but the animals can go someplace else so that's just moving the problem on down so i think this is a great opportunity for us to take to be able to help our community and especially our elderly low-income and disabled thank you may i ask a question if we would give consideration to the following if that cat or that domestic animal was registered to that homeowner or is it a situation where if it is not my great concern of people who do have feral cats in their neighborhoods so i don't think if a feral cat dies in your front yard that you should be responsible for a feral cat on the other hand if that animal is your animal registered to you and has tags would that change any consideration or should there be any consideration sure so i think the first clarification to make is that this pickup fee is for deceased animals or live animals so for example if you um have caught a cat in a trap for example and want it picked up then this fee uh so it's a live animal uh the fee is generally 25 for that service um and we would come and pick it up the um there would be this opportunity that citizens who qualify could have the fee weight now if it is their own pet we do have a different process uh for that so this is um not this this policy and this opportunity for fee waiver doesn't speak to editing our practice for the owner release of pets for example um the animal shelter advisory committee in 2019 approved a policy whereby um citizens wishing to surrender their own pet cat dog whatever it may be um come in for a counseling appointment first to identify um

[0:45:08] other opportunities to re-home the pet responsibly or provide some kind of relief to that property the pet owner um to still provide some relief to the shelter um that really goes into more of our core missions related to american pets alive and the efforts that we've made there uh as as you'll recall you tasked me with i'm getting to 90 live released within three years so our goal is september 2021 um getting a hold of our intake and decreasing our intake was the first task we were assigned uh by american pets alive they recommended that our community's intake at the shelter was four times um the national average for a community our size that um based on our population we should be taking in about 1400 animals a year and at the time we started pets alive we were taking in about 5500 animals a year so we have a great disparity there so our intent with this policy is not to make it easier to bring pets to the shelter it's simply to make it easier for those citizens who are in need if you're both elderly and low-income and if the council does opt to add disabled to that as well then we want to be able to provide relief to those specific citizens it's it's not intended to open the door for easier intake into the shelter as we can't handle a live release for um a large volume increase to our inventory all right do i have comments from someone i can't see who might be asking or wanting to ask a question so you'll just have to speak up so who would like to add some more comments or questions no one all right so what i hear and understand is that what we like to do is to add disabled to the pickup fee waiver so it would be circumstances that may warrant the waiver would be elderly low income and disabled yes is that what council is asking

[0:47:15] yes well um mayor i have billy billy dewitt single member district um six what i understood earlier was that um both of these circumstances elderly and low income would have to apply for the feed to wave be waived if we add this disability does that mean that all three circumstances would have to be present for us to waive the fee because i'm not sure that's what we would want it is not what we would want you know i'm glad you brought that up i mean i think elderly and low income work together i think or separately disabled but i don't think that we are intending and you you guys might say different we are not intending that someone would have to be disabled first and then low end comes second and then elderly third so it wouldn't be a three-pronged qualification okay well i just wanted mayor that to be clear that you know we weren't saying that all three circumstances had to be present yeah okay does that make sense any comments on that from anyone may or may i ask would is there opportunity to say both disabled and low-income or both elderly and low-income or disabled at any income that's my only question for clarification lucy you want to add comment to that i will i would uh i would like to see disabling any income because or like you said earlier that it would come to the city manager to look at to review it uh i would like that to to come across as if if they're disabled and they cannot go out there and uh take the cat or the dog or whatever i would like to be able to help them so i i think it would be

[0:49:18] separated from the elderly lower income so you're saying that circumstances that may warrant a waiver are one elderly who are also low income and two it would be disabled and low income or would it just be disabled regardless just disabled all right so there's two categories elderly and low income as one category and the second category would be disabled that's what i would like to see any further comment man okay harry ah just a real quick question how many of these do we anticipate it's gonna have to go to the city manager to be uh waived well do the question would be do we want the city manager to have to weigh them or do we want the authority given to morgan to waive it so that we don't create more red tape and more time in order to get it taken care of thank you mary that for that clarification because that was my point i'm not sure at this point that we all this stuff needs to go across the city manager's desk uh so if we can do it where morgan can make that opportunity that change uh that call uh bob salas whoever i just don't think it needs to go to across daniel's desk for this type of situation gary would you then please designate who you would like to have the ability to waive that fee we need that to be specific say again harry would you determine who you want to be the person who can waive the pickup fee so do you want it to be morgan do you want to be bonk solace or do you want to be an assistant city manager who has this responsibility well i think that was my yeah okay that was my question to begin with mayor and that is this does morgan have any idea how many of

[0:51:21] these she anticipates that she's going to have to do in a in a period of time so then we can say okay well it needs to go to bob or one of the assistant city managers or morgan can take care of it i mean we just kind of need a ballpark i mean if it's going to be 50 or 60 a month then we probably need to have somebody a little bit higher up the food chain but if it's going to be one or two a month then morgan should be able to have that capability of doing that morgan can you talk about how many phone calls you get on a monthly basis sure we haven't been screening for age or income qualifications or disability i do anticipate it would be about half a dozen a month um just based on anecdotal experience um interacting with citizens i do think the language before you in the policy does allow uh for any designee of the city manager whether it be myself or bob um to to be that person to wait the fee that it already speaks to that without naming a name so that the policy can be evergreen um as staff changes over well i don't want red tape so i don't think we want to allow city management that needs to be taken out so i think we have to specifically say morrigan has the ability to waive the pickup fee in certain circumstances and i don't want to create other this is a this is copied after other departments who have similar policies uh before the council that those also state city manager or his designee so just to for ease of administration uh to be similar to other city departments that's why the language is worded in such a way well that doesn't mean we don't want to change it daniel would you comment on what you would like the language to be considering the fact it's either going to land on your desk or you're going to have somebody that you designate who has the authority to waive the pickup fee but we need to designate who that person will be sure uh daniel van sol city manager uh

[0:53:23] mayor i don't have an issue with the way it's warded right now as far as lounge city manager because i can uh designate and that means that it's really not going to cross my desk and we do have people that do transition out uh turnover uh it'll make a lot easier for me just to designate that individual as that happens and we can move this through there quite quickly so i don't have an issue whatsoever with the way it's worded right now okay but who's the designate going to be right now i would put the assistant director of uh neighborhood and family services i wouldn't say morgan i'd say the position all right is everyone clear on that what what what did daniel say at the end it was either gonna be who or morgan it's the assistant director of neighborhood and family services which is the person who's over the family shelter or the animal shelter okay further questions or comments with none then may i have a motion lucy do you want to make the motion yes ma'am uh lucy sanchez lucy gonzalez of single member district four i moved to approve as presented but as presentatives we can't do as presented because we've made changes that's right we're gonna we're gonna add the disability to the low-income and the elderly and then uh are we gonna stick with the allowing the city manager designate to pick up fee in certain circumstances what we're gonna i think what you're asking to have the motion be is that what we would do is we would consider waivers for the elderly and low income is and then we would also allow a waiver to be on the fee be allowed for the disabled regardless of income and then we are asking that the assistant director of neighborhood services would be allowed to waive the pickup fee yes ma'am that is what i'm talking about

[0:55:28] okay that is the motion do i have a second just for clarification mayor this is harry thomas second member justice 3. i thought i just heard daniel say that it still should be awarded in such a way where the city manager or his designate in his designate in this particular case would be the assistance uh neighborhood services director so i think we need to keep that uh city manager or his designate that's that's what teresa is is nodding about yes i think so if morgan's position for instance became vacant then we would have nobody who makes those decisions but if we leave it written as it stated to allow daniel to designate somebody then he could designate bob for instance if morgan's position becomes fake i agree with that or somebody else so it doesn't have more flexibility but today daniel did designate morgan to fill that role well he designated the assistant director of neighborhood services we didn't designate a name we designated a position correct to be specific okay with that motion is there a second i'll i'll second that with the the city manager and having his uh desi knee and and since it would be the assistant director right now but believing it is designee for greatest flexibility i'll second that motion uh all of those in favor say aye aye with none opposed notion passes seven zero we will now move on to item c first reading a public hearing of an ordinance rezoning property from the single family residential zoning district to the neighborhood commercial zoning district being .138 acres at the southwest corner west avenue v and south bryant boulevard john james is on for this presentation thank you as you mentioned this is a

[0:57:31] rezoning you can see the location here on the map is on south bryant avenue this is a currently zoned residential single family and the request is to go to neighborhood commercial this is in the long range comprehensive plan as neighborhood center which allows for neighborhood commercial like this and you can see on the map to the right there are some other corner properties just like this one just to the south and there's more that you can't see on the screen that have recently been zoned to commercial and so this is just one more of those and it is on a major thoroughfare on a corner lot and the proposed use although it could be any neighborhood commercial use the use being considered at this point is a drive-through grocery business a couple of pictures of the lot the one on the left you can see that it's currently vacant and we did send out our notices to the surrounding property owners received one in favor and none in opposition and some of the reasons that we looked at in recommending approval this has been vacant since 1972 uh oftentimes these properties that are right adjacent to a major street like bryant are often difficult to develop as a single family home and so this rezoning to commercial makers as i mentioned earlier this is a continuation of commercial development along south bryant similar properties have been rezoned recently just like this it does comply with these neighborhood commercial zoning standpoints and there is access from avenue v uh in case that x-dot wouldn't allow an access off directly off of bryant theft does recommend approval of this went to the planning commission at their june 15th meeting where they unanimously recommended approval with that i'd be happy to answer any question

[0:59:32] do i have any questions from council yes i've got one for john tom you're on yeah john can this be licensed as a liquor store uh that's a good question it would have to go through our process um i believe that it can and that they could sell uh alcohol but uh at this point that's something we would have to look into in more detail um you know in terms of you know what distance is it from from other uses are there any schools in the area for example uh and at this point i don't know that that's something we could answer definitely okay cool no thanks john it could be an option so the zoning would allow it uh yes the zoning would that's correct all right any other questions with none do i have a motion for approval harry tom a single weber district three this is in my district i have moved to approve uh as presented a second sec gonzalez singapore district four single member member district 4. sorry my tongue is tied with an allergy pill so dry mouth um with that all in favor say aye with none opposed motion passes 7-0 that concludes our regular agenda we will now move into the closed session the executive session under provision of government code title 5 open government ethics subtitled a open government chapter 551 open meeting sub chapter d exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the following sections a 551.071 consultation with attorney regarding water rights and contracts for lake nasworthy and to 551.072 deliberation about real property regarding the ford ranch with that we will now move into the closed

[1:01:33] session okay so we are back into the regular session of this city council meeting so we will consider the items discussed in the closed session tom thompson if you would make your announcement please like to make a motion to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute all necessary documents for the sale of approximately 575 acres of the ford ranch for a price of no less than 1 950 per acre to be sold to adam and kimberly ellison do i have a second i'll second second by lane carter um all of those in favor say aye with none opposed motion passes seven zero we will now go into item b consideration of approving various board nominations for the tax increment reinvestment zone john mark code for smd one greg gaylord smd2 and jim cummings for the mayor to their second terms and denver butler smd-4 to a third term all ending july 2022. do i have a motion to accept these board positions okay harry made a motion tommy hebert seconded all in favor say aye aye with none opposed those um board nominations have been approved and with that uh we will go to see announcements and consideration of future agenda items does council have any i've got one uh mayor gunner tom thompson single member district two i like to bring jeremy harveston up again from the airport i'd like to know the status of our airport study and kind of looking at some development of specifically potential places to build and erect t-hangers that may not involve anything else that we might be able to work out with somebody in an interlocal agreement

[1:03:35] tom we have that scheduled for the for the master plan for the airport to be presented to council the first week in august so the first rental meeting so it will be presented then so your timing is good so we'll see soon and then i want to make sure i had asked in march to um review the ordinance in terms of the time frame that people are no longer allowed to knock on people's doors and this selling them something so if we would make sure we bring that back with that do i have emotion lucy go ahead question mary are we still having the guy from suddenly come up and and discuss their business no we're not but we are continuing to ask all citizens to take the survey on sudden link if they could and to continue to send their comments their questions their concerns their complaints to city hall at 72 west college avenue and that is 76903 so we'll ask citizens to continue we take those and send to the fcc a packet every week so you can do that and the survey i believe is on city of san angelo tx dot us slash suddenly for those of you who still want to give input because of the governor's orders we are not allowed to meet in person although i said we would meet in person today the governor has said no we cannot do that so we will continue to meet on zoom until we are authorized to stop doing that or to meet in person so continue to send your information in regards to suddenly with that do i have a motion for adjournment i'm going to make a motion to adjourn tommy hebert in a second by legacy so all in favor of adjourning say i i motion is carried and meeting is adjourned

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=ZSO1-_z2rqs