San Angelo City Council 5-6-25

[0:00:00] on this wonderful day of May the 6th. And I think everyone in this room probably got a big shot of rain last night. So, we're in a really great mood, right? Yeah. We apologize again for the brisk weather in here and the darkness, but we're going to have a great meeting. We will start today's meeting with our chaplain prayer and pledges, and Chaplain Marcela Jenkins will lead us in both. Good morning everyone. Good morning and welcome to our council meeting. Send some heat around. Warm up the room. Amen. Okay, let's pray. Precious father, please instruct us and teach us in the ways that we should conduct this meeting. Please counsel us with your loving eye on us. Let our aims in this meeting be aligned with your direction. Let our plans be orchestrated by you. Father, let your will be done in this meeting so that this can be a meeting that is based upon your desires for us. Whatever it is that you want to result from the meeting, Lord, let it happen. continue to protect each one of us and our families today from all hurt, harm, dangers seen and unseen, especially our first responders as they seek to bring peace that St. Angel be a city of unity and love. In Jesus' name I pray and Lord, thank you so much for the rain. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one

[0:02:06] state, indivisible. Thank you. We have four proclamations today and we're going to start off with a pro pl proclamation of April 13 through 19th, 2025 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. So, if you're here for that, would you please come forward? Public safety telecommunications professionals play a vital role in emergency response. Their responsibilities extend far beyond relaying information between the public and first responders. In critical situations such as cases involving missing, abducted, or sexually exploited children, the information they gather and the actions they take often lay the groundwork for a swift and effective response. When dealing with incidents involving suicidal callers or hostage situations, public safety telecommunications are frequently the first point of contact. Their ability to remain calm under pressure and their communication skills can be lifesaving, preventing further escalation and providing critical support in real time. These professionals serve as the first and most essential link between citizens in distress and emergency services. They

[0:04:10] are the calm voice on the other end of the line during what may be the worst moments of a person's life, offering guidance, compassion, and assistance. They also serve as a crucial lifeline to law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel, providing real-time information, monitoring field activity, and ensuring responder safety. The public safety telecommunicators at the Stanel Public Safety Communications Center have made outstanding contributions to our community, helping to apprehend criminals, suppress fires, provide life-saving medical assistance, and uphold public safety. Despite the emotional and physical demands of their job, often working long hours and around the clock, these dedicated individuals remain committed to their mission. It is essential that we at every level of government and within our communities recognize and honor their life-saving service. Now, therefore, I, Brenda Gunter, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim April 13th through the 19th, 2025 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in St. Angelo, Texas, and encourage all citizens to join me in expressing our deepest gratitude to the men and women whose diligence, dedication, and professionalism help keep our communities safe. Thank you, Mayor. Um, my name is John Bellini. I run the 911 center here in St. Angelo. And, um, I have a couple people with me that, uh, that are your 911 dispatchers. Uh they're the convoys on the other side of the line. They're there for you 24/7, 365. It doesn't matter what they dealt with on the previous phone call, they hang it up and they pick up the next one. Um these are the first first responders and our community could not function without these people. So it's been an honor leading y'all for the last almost three years. Let's have a picture.

[0:06:51] The next proclamation is the proclamation of May 12th through 17, 2025 as National Salvation Army Week. Would you please come forward if you're here to receive this proclamation today? We'll read it anyway. Oops. The Salvation Army's only business in this community of St. Angelo, Texas, as everywhere is still human business undertaken with joy for the family of humankind to the greater glory of God and through sound, innovative, and professional services. The Salvation Army serves the people of St. Angela with unshakable faith in all no matter how desperate the situation and views all people as people with possibilities. The Salvation Army acts on behalf of all the residents of our community with neither salvation nor any other condition prerequisite nor expecting any thanks yet nonetheless welcoming community support. Therefore, I Brenda Gunter, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May 12th through the 17th, 2025 as National Salvation Army Week and urge all citizens to join me in saluting the steadfast men and women who bind up the brokenhearted and renew the heart of our community by their quiet service of compassion. And we are thrilled the Salvation Army is back up and running again. Our next is a proclamation of May 2025 as motorcycle awareness week. And I know we have people here for that. Come on, you'll always all show up. Perosis MC as members of the te Texas

[0:09:19] Council of Clubs and Independent Riders with support from the National Safety Council, Tex DOT, and local motorcycle enthusiasts throughout the area would like to remind all local road and highway travelers that the month of May is nationally designated as Motorcycle Awareness Month. During this time, motorists are reminded of the seasonal return and greater frequency of motorcycle enthusiasts to our Texas roadways. Due to the smaller size of motorcycles in comparison to other vehicles, motorcycles are often easily ignored or overlooked in regular traffic flow. This is why all motorists are encouraged to look twice for motorcycles at intersections, when performing lane changes whenever passing whenever passing other vehicles, including other motorcycles or just when generally traveling near motorcycles. Also, motorcyclists are encouraged to operate their motorcycles in a defensive manner that is within the laws and regulations of the respective roads being traveled. Respectfully, all motorists and motorcyclists are equally encouraged to look twice as they drive or ride both during motorcycle awareness month and throughout the year so that we can all promote safety and end the streak of accidents, injuries, and deaths on our Texas roads. Therefore, I, Brenda Gunter, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of city council, do hereby proclaim May as motorcycle awareness month in St. Angel, Texas, and encourage everyone to share the road safely while remembering to look twice for motorcycles. Good morning, Madame Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the council, and all present watching today. My name is Gypsy Sedan and on behalf of motorcyclists in our community and all across the country, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to share with you one of the most important days we look forward to each year in the hope that it will help to save a life. Today's proclamation joins the national

[0:11:21] recognition offered across the country and naming May as motorcycle safety awareness month. For several years now, I've had the honor and privilege to stand before the forum and remind our local community that those of us who choose to ride motorcycles are just like everyone else. And that we all wish to return home safely from our destination, whether riding to work, school, appointments, errands, trips, or to and from wherever, just as others do in their vehicles. And our greatest desire is to remain safe. We are all daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, family, and friends of others who care for and worry about us. And we all hope for the same as you, to make it safely back to our families and home at the end of our ride. While such a consideration for those who choose to drive in in a four-w wheeled vehicle or larger often take the idea this idea for granted, we as motorcyclists cannot. We all consider ourselves brothers and sisters of the road and hold each other in such regard because we've watched and witness so many of us be injured or even lose lives every year due to senseless and preventable actions that could have been easily avoided. If only everyone could take a few extra moments to look twice for motorcycles. This is why we take this time to remind everyone to imagine your family members or friends standing here before you in our place just for a moment. And then the next time you get into your vehicles, please remind yourself and others to take those extra few seconds upon your driving journey to be aware that there's a life riding on every motorcycle on the road. And each life is loved by others just as you are loved by your family and friends. So again, we as motorcyclists ask you to please look twice for motorcycles, particularly in intersections when changing lanes and before turning because it could mean the

[0:13:24] difference between life and death for motorcyclists. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, please. The last proclamation is of May 2025 as historic preservation month and I know we have people in the audience for that. Monica, Historic Preservation Month was first recognized as an annual week-long celebration in 1973, commemorating preservation progress and the benefits associated with such efforts. The National Trust later extended the week to a month in 2020 2005 to provide an even greater opportunity to celebrate the diverse and unique heritage of our country's client of our country's cities and states in our city. Downtown St. Angelo, Inc. serves to revitalize and preserve St. Angel's vibrant historic downtown by employing the main street four-point approach, design, economic restructuring, organization, and promotion to develop the historic central business district of downtown St. Angelo into a unified element of cultural and economic vitality. With over 20 official years invested in St. Angel's rich history, downtown St.

[0:15:26] Angelo, Inc. has seen the district grow and transform while preserving our city's historic charm. Preserving historic buildings not only improves the appearance of our city, but also safeguards and tells the story of where our town came from while guiding our community to where we are going now. Historically preserved sites like Fort Koncho, the Roosevelt Hotel. Hope you've driven by the Roosevelt Hotel lately and seen the new sign up there, and Old Central Firehouse all capture what was and is even now important today, our people and needs. Preservation connects our past and future in a way that benefits every citizen and local business re relationally and e economically by weaving together a strong braid of legacy and further growth. Therefore, I, Brenda Gunter, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2025 as historic preservation month in St. Angelo, Texas, and urge the community to celebrate and recognize the progress of preservation and revitalization of our distinctive and diverse history. Good morning. Monica Ramos, executive director of Downtown St. Angelo, Inc. Each year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has a theme for Historic Preservation Month. And this year's theme is the power of place. This emphasizes how historic places and preservation strengthens communities and revitalizes neighborhoods. It's important that downtown Stangelink and the rest of us as citizens and the city continue to embrace our history and our culture and that connects our past to our present because without it we wouldn't have these wonderful stories to tell. We wouldn't have unique characteristics to our community. This is something um that not every city has. And even though um there could be a shift to modernization, there's a way to mix modern with historic preservation to

[0:17:29] where if you have a good solid successful business, no matter what your um property, the age of your property is, it's still going to be something that's viable and even better actually with it having the historic preservation to where you can tell the story of what that place once was and then you can also tell of what it is now. Um, so please join us in observing Historic Preservation Month and thank you mayor and thank you council for receiving this proclamation with us today. We will now move into the uh public comment portion of this agenda. Heather, do we have people here wanting to offer comment this morning? Yes, ma'am. U Mona Lisa Fiser. Good morning. My name is Mona Lisa Fischer. I'm a traffic safety specialist for the Texas Department of Transportation here in St. Angelo. So, although it sounds like I do road construction and guard rails and potholes, I do not. Um, however, I do go out within the public and raise awareness and educate people about traveling safely, which means not

[0:19:32] texting and driving, not um, drinking and driving, wearing being in a seat belt, getting a right car seat, you know, slowing down your speed, all these things. But, you know, St. Angela, we have a problem because right now we a we're averaging right now we've got 14 fatalities since January. So since January to May 6, 14 people in our community have passed away. Now statewide over a thousand have passed away on an average of nine people a day. And so what's happening here in St. Angela is this. Half of those people could have been would still be alive had they just buckled up. It's not wearing seat belts. It's not taking the time two three seconds to just buckle up, hear the click and then get on the road or babies are not properly uh restrained in a car seat or the car seat is not properly installed to the vehicle. So, this is a really it's it's it's sad and it breaks my heart every time I have to wake up and see that number go up every morning. So, I prepared a packet for all of you in a bag. It's got my brochure in there. It's got my business card. It's got some stuff about our campaign. So, what I'm asking you all is get me out in your community. Give me a call. Uh we've got a lot of great things that we can do to raise that awareness, to educate. We uh we have a program where uh if families are in need of a car seat, we can give them one. I am nationally certified as a car technician to uh install a seat. So, I'm asking for the the council members. We we need help. Just bring me out to your community. Let's raise that awareness of buckling up does save lives. Thank you very much, Mike Bernett. Morning everyone. Mike Bernett, single

[0:21:43] member district 1, executive director of Koncho Valley Community Action Agency. As you know, this is our first council meeting following the May 3rd election. For some of you, your journey on the council is coming to an end, while others will continue to serve. Over the past few years, we have discussed many topics, and you as a council have worked diligently to make St. Angelo better, stronger, and safer. While we may not always agree on every issue, each of you care deeply about our community, the diverse perspectives and passionate debates have only strengthened our collective resolve to improve St. Angelo. The partnerships between the city and its nonprofits, its for-profits, faith communities and educational systems, and Goodfellow are incredibly valuable. These partnerships are the backbone of our community's success. Government alone cannot address all the challenges we face, but by working together, we can achieve remarkable progress. As elected officials, you chose to help your fellow citizens out of civic duty. And I admire that. Despite the criticism you sometimes face, your dedication is appreciated. And today I want to express my immense gratitude and appreciation for your service. First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Mayor Brenda Gunter. Your leadership through the COVID pandemic and vision for what St. Angelo could be have been a great part in guiding our city. Thank you, Council Member Tommy Heert. Your dedication has made a significant impact on the lives of our residents. Thank you for your service. Council Member Tom Thompson, your commitment to improving our city is truly commendable and moving forward as mayor elect, I look forward to continuing the work with you. Thank you. Council Member Harry Thomas, your passion for public service and your tireless work in representing our community, especially our veterans, has been invaluable. I am grateful for your contributions. Council member Lucy Gonzalez, your advocacy and support for community initiatives have helped foster a sense of unity and progress. Thank you for your dedication. Council member

[0:23:46] Karen Hessie Smith, your focus on enhancing the quality of life for our residents has been remarkable. Your efforts have made a lasting difference in our community. Council member Larry Miller, your commitment to the public and our veterans has been crucial in ensuring the well-being of our city. We appreciate your hard work and dedication. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge city manager Daniel Valenuela and assistant city managers Rick Weiss and Michael Dayne. Your leadership and support have been vital in executing the council's vision and ensuring the smooth operation of our city. Thank you. As we look to the future, we know there is still much to do, but let's remember the positive changes and progress that we have achieved together. Thank you for all Thank you all for your unwavering dedication to make St. Angelo a better place for everyone. In closing, I want to share the promise of community action. Community Action changes people's lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other. You all certainly care about the entire community and are dedicated to helping the people of St. Angelo. Thank you, Mike. It I hope that's not a farewell speech because some of it kind of sounds like you're moving on and doing something else. and we're hoping that that's not true because you've truly been a great leader in supporting uh the less fortunate and shown some terrific leadership. So, thank you. So, just to everybody, he's not leaving, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. I'm not leaving. No, this is my last opportunity to address you all at once. So, thank you. Thank you all. Mayor, last we have a staff announcement from Brian Groves. Okay. Morning, council. Brian Groves, the communications director and district 6 representative. Wanted to let you know that um back in the fall, you guys approved funding for a new website and we will be launching that new website next Tuesday. Um the key component of that was to bring the city into ADA

[0:25:47] compliance on the website and it's a huge step to get us in that direction. Uh I just wanted to acknowledge our our website team who's been working tirelessly on that and I just wanted to give you a heads up that there's some big changes coming to our website next week. So, good. Thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes the public comment section of the agenda. So, we will move into the consent agenda. I will ask each council member if they want to pull any items from the consent agenda. I will start with Larry. V. B is in boy. No, it's in Victor. V is in Victor. Okay. Karen P. P is in all Paul. Lucy N. N in as in Nancy Harry. No, ma'am. Tom, nothing to pull. Tommy, no ma'am. All right. I would like to have a motion for approval of Oh, I'm going to pull items I, K, L, and N, which N has already been pulled. So, what I need is a motion for approval of item A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, M, O, Q, R, T. No. S, T, U, and W. May I have that motion? So, moved by Larry, seconded by Tom. Public comment on any of the items of consent agenda which we are approving right now. Seeing none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda items as read, please say I. I. Motion passes. 70. We will now go to item I. Consider amending the current contract with Bentwood Country Club Estates to allow pumping of water from Lake Nazworthy and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all necessary documents. Shane, would you please

[0:27:49] explain this? Yes, mayor. Um, this is a we have an agreement with Bentwood Country Club uh for them to utilize water with their water rights out of the Concho River out of Lake Nazworthy. And uh this um in as part of that contract if the south pole of Twin Butes drops below 1925 then they cease pumping out of Lake Nazworthy. So uh what this does is because of the excuse me Lake Nazworthy um the Lake Nazworthy trunk main project we had um we during construction there was some issues with one of their private lines. Does somebody have some water for Shane? I'll get it. This this drainage. And so with one of their private lines and so um what this does is this just allows them to continue to pump if uh Twin But Southpole drops below 1925 while we repair and and uh make sure that their their private line is flowing properly. So, uh, and again, it was, uh, again part of our construction that caused the flow to disrupt, uh, in their private water lines. So, we just want to make sure that they're protected as we move through the summer months. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, Larry. Yes, sir. I have a question for Shane. This is nonpotable. Is that correct? Correct. This is this is just irrigation water out of the lake. It is it is it is nonpable water. Processing or anything. Thank you. It's being directly taken out of the source and provided directly directly from the lake. Yes, sir. Correct. Thank you. Yes, sir. Other questions or comments for Shane? Okay. Thank you, Shane. Move to approve. Move approved by Tom. Second by Tommy. Public comment concerning this item. None. We'll take a vote. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. What we might do instead of individually

[0:29:54] approving each of these items, we'll go through them and then approve the balance of them all in one motion if that's okay with council. Okay. All right. So, we're going to go to item K. Consider ratifying Kosa DC's approval of the sale of approximately 27 acres of land at the industrial park to ATI group at the appraised value of $65,000 per acre according to a December 31st, 2023 appraisal report by Robert W. distribing the board president to negotiate and execute all related documents. Michael, welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Michael Dayne, interum economic development director. Do you have specific questions on this? Yes. Tell us about ATI Group. Uh Mike Barry is here and he is the one who has put this deal together. I'm not sure what we can say publicly and I'm going to lean on Mike for that. ATI Group is a development firm based out of Iowa. uh they are specifically have a portfolio of over 15 different properties throughout the US um where they specifically develop and manage either industrial parks, rail parks, business parks. They have a particular interest in St. Angelo. Um they really like our business in industrial park because of its uh logistics capability. So their intent is to come in on the acre. This is the first parcel of acres that they're actually interested in purchasing and what they plan to do with it is plan to build speculative or semi-speculative industrial space. Why that's important is that everybody that we compete against from a development standpoint has open land. The way we set ourselves apart is to have movein ready buildings for businesses to go right in. Whether those are existing bu businesses within St. Angelo or those are businesses outside looking to set up shop here in in our local area. So that's what their intent is to do is to come in and help us and put product on the ground so that we have something ready to sell. Thank you. Questions for Mike. Thank you very much. Well, we are going to wait on that.

[0:31:59] Okay. Mayor, special thanks to Mike for working on this deal. He's been working on it for quite a while and uh we think it's a good one. Thank you. Item L, consider resolution approving updates to the existing sidewalk standard construction details S-- FFF-1 and S-- FFF-2 to align with the latest requirements of the City of St. Angel sidewalk ordinance and Texas Accessibility Standards to pursuit to the American with Disabilities Act. You're on again. I'm on again. Any specific questions, Mayor? Just want to explain it. Okay. Uh what we're doing here, we're just updating our our design standards in our design manual that uh actually go along with updated ADA standards and also to go along with our ordinance that we passed a couple years ago, our sidewalk ordinance that we passed a couple years ago. So this just updates our standards. tells it tells developers or builders how far from behind curb that they need to build the sidewalk, the width of the sidewalk, uh which specific ramp design they need to use in specific situations uh as they're coming off the curb, entering entering the rideway and entering the street. So, that's what this is. It's just better aligning our design standards within our manual. Larry, I'm sure you're happy about that. Okay, good. I read it thoroughly. It's what I want to hear. Thank you, Shane. Item N is consider resolution amending the schedule of fees and charges to add fees for airport food truck licenses. Tina, you're on. Yes, ma'am. Tina Derki, director of finance. Um, this is just like you said, adding the fee. You approved that food truck um idea a few council meetings ago out at the airport. And so, the fee would be put onto the fe uh fee schedule at a cost of $300. And we're doing the food trucks there because of That's a good question for for Justin probably. Well, but I think that he said so that there were would be more options

[0:34:02] um for agreed. So because the airport's one of our big economic development strategies um this works with that strategic plan. So if you'll please explain it. Yeah, correct. Uh so you know we we we the cafe the Chinese cafe closed and also the grill is currently not operated right now. So we are short food opportunities at the airport. So the idea was to bring in food trucks to satisfy demand from passengers and also tenants military. The military us utilizes our airport so when they come and go they're looking for a quick lunch idea. uh they can go grab lunch and then head back to the office which also is an announcement. If anyone's interested in opening up that Chinese restaurant space or the grill, there's an opportunity there. Please come talk to us. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Item P, second. Oh, nope. Sorry. Lucy's on. She has a question. I had one for him. For Justin. Justin, sorry. Come back. Yeah, I had just pulled this item so the constituents that are watching would be aware that that was going to be available to them at the airport. My question is, how many food trucks do you think you would have out there in that? I guess you're going to have a lot that's going to be just food trucks. We've designated a vendor lot. It's it's a milling space right across from FedEx at the airport and we're going to open it to probably six food trucks. I think that'll be plenty for our staff to manage. Uh but if we get six, we can rotate them out throughout the week and they'll be able to provide service to the tenants. Will there be certain hours that they will be out there? We'd like for them to support the air carrier. So work around the air carrier and then specifically lunch hours out of You mean American Airlines? American Airlines, correct? Okay. And one more thing, I think you mentioned the permits would be $300. Okay. That's annual. Annual, correct? Okay. Great. Well, I just want and I wanted also for the food truck owners to be aware that this is available to them

[0:36:06] as well. We're talking to a couple and if they're if they're interested, we'd love to love to have a conversation with them. Do they still use the ballpark out there? Yes, ma'am. So, we would also maybe want to make sure that they're aware that they're there's practice going on out there and that could add an opportunity for the families that participate using those fields. Absolutely. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. One more question. Wait. Oh, one more question. You're We're not through with you yet. Sorry. Uh, another thing that that it also would appeal to is the uh ASU students out there for flying training. So, I just want to point that out that that would be a a great feature for them to have out there. Absolutely. They're close proximity with the Jet Center and also the terminal. Quick walking distance to uh to the food truck lot. Any other questions or comments? We're gonna tell you to go to the back of the room and then we're gonna ask you a question. Ask you to come back forward. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Item P. Uh, who pulled item P? That was you, Karen. So, I just have a quick question for Well, let me read it. Second reading of ordinances amending the following provisions of the city code of ordinances related to signs. One, chapter 12, planning and development article 12.04 signs and two, chapter 12, planning and development exhibit A, zoning ordinance, article 4, specific use standards by deleting section 420 of offsite signs. Erin, when this amended ordinance was presented to council at last meeting, there was a a very robust conversation and there were three people in the audience that came forward and spoke requesting future considerations. Will their ability to request those considerations be affected by an approval of the sign ordinance, the amended sign ordinance today?

[0:38:09] No, ma'am. Uh, as you know, there are some other items within that ordinance that we want to work through with the sign committee and keep working on uh particularly uh what we would call uh temporary signs or uh signs that are on vehicles like say a trailer and they go and park in a space uh as well as actually the sign permit fee. And so that would be a separate process that we would go through. But no, adopting this today does not prohibit or inhibit that in any way. We're going to continue those discussions because we want to get it right for our community, for our small business owners, as well as what we want our community to look like as far as signage along our streets and boulevards. Perfect. Thank you. I I I want to add to her comment because we made a joke out of it, but I really was serious when I brought this up. Those men that do this that are air I guess airactivated. Yes. versus the person who goes out there, which two weeks ago there was a person out there on a sidewalk in a costume that was a bag of French fries, inviting people to go to whatever restaurant or whatever. I just don't understand the difference. If you can put a costume on and walk up and down with a sign, what difference is that versus the airborne or the air inflated man? Th those are great questions and that's where our ordinance is not very clear. And so we want to continue those conversations with our our sign companies and with our business owners to find out what makes sense as well as our citizens to what do they expect when they're driving down the street. Do they want that type of advertisement for them to say, "Oh, that's where this business is." But we need to do we do need to have some clarity within our ordinance and that is our goal over the summer and into the fall so we can bring something back to city council uh through the committee uh so that we have something to move forward with. Okay. All right. So then we are going to item V is in voice second reading of public hearing of ordinances for SMD

[0:40:11] number six annexation of 9.712 acres out of the Wilky survey S-2 abstract A-8211 in the Prestonwood edition and two annexation of 7.477 477 acres out of a Wilkkey survey s-2 abstract A-8211 in the Prestonwood edition 3 Z25-11 a request to reszone from the ranch and estate zoning district to the single family residential zoning district of Pinion Ridge and four Z25-12 a request to reszone from the ranch and estate zoning district to the single family residential zoning district on Trippington way. Okay, Larry, you're on. [Laughter] My question goes to this document and whether this can exclude future builders and developers from once we get to that stage. These are baby steps getting there once they start setting out the plats and so on. Does this document say, "Well, we abided by the city rules at the time and we're not required to put in a park." Well, this document has the annexation documents and it lists out the service agreement between the city and the developer of what type of services the city would provide that developer once they develop the area. And then you have the resonings that would actually lay out the prop the private property lots. So, there's nothing there that would prevent a park from coming in the future. Um, depending on how a future ordinance is written, it would depend on the development stage. And so these are different stages of development with annexation being first, platting being usually second. This is a final plat that they've gone through and now they're reszoning. And so it just depends on how the wording of the ordinance is is what happens in the future. Now, there are some detention areas in there. There is future growth uh projected through their preliminary plat of this area. And so there are some

[0:42:14] opportunities in the future if we require parks as a requirement of development to obtain parks in that area. I'm not sure if that answered your question, but um that that's our that's our step right now. Really, this is just about those acreages right now. At this development stage, we don't have the authority to require parks in that area. uh if something changes in the future then we would have to look at the development process in which that developer's in to see if we could require or not require at that time. So is that a yes or a no? I would say currently it is a no that we would not be able to require park under our current rules today in that area. they they have through this process they would have u already gone through those development steps because as you know uh the bluffs doesn't have a park the area out there by Ardan Road and 2288 that is going to be developed in the future has no parks as far as I know now we're building these two areas up as well as the rest of that expansive area southwest that um don't see a whole lot of movement towards parks. I I believe that's something that's critical for our community and I know there's ongoing discussions of how that looks and working with our development community as well. Um there are some other items that they're working through as far as detention areas and how those could u facilitate some parks areas as well as impact what the costs are uh for detaining water and trying to prevent flooding and things like that. But it is a complex discussion. Uh but we are continuing to have that discussion with our development community and as as we have the ability to come forward as a unified group, we would come forward to planning commission, city council as necessary to to ask for certain items to be changed in the future. Any other questions or comments for Aaron? May I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda items I, K, L, N,

[0:44:22] P, and V? So moved. So moved by Larry, seconded by Lucy. Any public comment concerning any of these items? No, ma'am. Take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes or consent agenda passes 70. We'll now move into the regular agenda portion of of today's meeting. Comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk. If you haven't done it yet, it's too late. Uh prior to the beginning of the meeting, speakers will be called in the order they signed in. Comments are limited to less than three minutes. And applicants, proponents, and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes. We'll start with item A which is a presentation of the downtown St. Angelo Inc. bianual report and Monica's here to present today. Thank you, mayor. So, I'm back on. Monica Ramos, director of Downtown St. Angelo, Inc. I'd like to start by welcoming a new staff member with Downtown St. Angelo. Ever since the organization started, we've had two staff members in our office, which is an office manager and a director. And as um nonprofits know, we wear many hats and we are every department of communications, administration, um any department you name it, we do it with just two individuals. And then we have our board members of course who are very helpful in providing guidance and direction. Um but our staff members are the ones that really handle the hands-on um tasks of the day. And so I'm really glad that we are able to have a part-timer join us. Um, she's an ASU graduate and she also was part of the ASU Rampage. She was a writer and journalist and she also has some experience with working with nonprofits and working with volunteers. So, I think she's going to be a great asset to help us do more. Um, her name is Jade Marty and she was up here with us with the

[0:46:25] proclamation and she actually also wrote the proclamation for historic preservation month. Um, so I'm going to ask Jade, she doesn't have to come up here but just to wave at council. See her once more. All right. So, it's a really wonderful thing that we have such a walkable, breathable downtown. It's familyfriendoriented. There's always activities that are happening each weekend. In fact, many activities even start on a Thursday. I know um some of the entertainment venues like Plateau Brewery and Fat Cats Gaming have trivia nights and family-friendly games. Um just a couple weekends ago there were a couple events happening all in the same day which was really wonderful for our city because you could visit one event and go on and visit the other. We had Paintbrush Alley Market Days. Jaton Hampton has done a really great job of bringing merchants to downtown and um activity to downtown. There was frontier court cono frontier days, the museum ceramic invitational. So much happening all in one day and that continues on and we hope to see that continue on um in the future. Downtowns are the heart of every city. Um they're the main impact of the entire city. And so that's why it's important to have people that are always looking out for and caring for and supporting our downtown neighborhood and its atmosphere. Staying positive and proud of our city will only inspire others to recognize and appreciate the hard work and the care that every small business puts in and organization puts in to um creating a wonderful downtown neighborhood and making our downtown special. And so what makes um our downtown district um special and what's special about our organization? Well, downtown St. Angelo has been a part of the Main Street program since 2005.

[0:48:30] That's 20 years. And we've maintained Main Street accreditation for 16 now going on 17 years of accreditation, showing that we're doing what we need to do of meeting those four points of design, organization, economic vitality, and promotion. All things that help boost and revitalize our community. And we learned these things through this Main Street program and through visiting with other resources, other cities, and helping us um keep this special Main Street alive and going. Um some notable projects for downtown St. Angelo. I'll mention our a project from the past is our rendevous trash recept receptacles that are the purple trash bins all along downtown. I bring this up because we've had a Main Street retreat and we had compliments about how clean and beautiful our downtown is. So, I think that is a a tip of our hat to those trash receptacles, having those trash bins for cleanliness so people walking down the street can toss their their litter through um those bins and it really enhances the appeal of our downtown. Of course, the TEI program, we helped initiate this program with the city of St. Angelo and this plays a key role in economic development. And then our wayfinding and pedestrianfriendly projects like the historic gateway and the street lining that are near the YMCA and First Financial Bank have really made a big impact of um helping clear a path for pedestrians, especially those that are uh walking along the Concho River. YMCA, the families leaving the Y have the street lighting available to them and this nice sidewalk. And I appreciate it, too. I have now a 2-year-old and I was just in downtown um enjoying the nice weather this past weekend and getting the stroller out and pushing that along the sidewalks. That was a plus. So, I thank the city for really putting into place the initiative to have sidewalks because for myself and my family, that's something that is um important for me and helps me get around more easily. Um, as part of being with the Main Street program, we submit quarterly data to Main Street and then also to the city

[0:50:33] of St. Angelo. But what we see here on this slide is our reinvestment report, and we submit this quarterly. Um, and what it has is a total number of rehabilitation projects, private projects, and we keep track of these numbers. So, um, to date for 2025, the total reinvestment is $3,569,500. last year um for 2024. Since I haven't presented since then, I'll give that number. The total reinvestment for the year was 15,24,110. And so that's a pretty significant number um considering all of the um properties sold in reinvestment that has taken place in downtown. The map here, I keep mentioning Main Street. That green boundary is our main street boundary that um we consider being our main street district. And so we hope to grow our central business district to one day and meet those boundaries of Main Street. And you can kind of see it there lightly, the central business district in in blue. Another report that we submit that is very important is taking an overview look at our sales tax and our mixed beverage tax. Um this chart shows St. Angelo, our central business district and our main street classifications. And um this does take a little bit of time and effort to put in the chart and analyzation, but what I've seen for here as a plus is the city's increased um three out of the four quarters of last year. It's a comparison of 2023 to 2024. And so overall, the city had that general increase and that looks good. As for the central business district, we did see a higher decrease in the first part of 2024, but that decrease minimized towards the later part of the year. Is that decrease based off of sales tax or liquor tax? I would say that that was more off of um from what I looked at that was more off of

[0:52:35] the liquor tax there. And that you need to explain because that's you want to always see growth in the sales tax, liquor tax. But we had several bars that changed ownership and closed for a while impacting the trend line. Not because the trend line was negative. It was that there were fewer people adding to the dollars. Right. Absolutely. So, the liquor tax is really any of the mixed beverages that are purchased at the entertainment venues, bars. Um, and that attributed to that because we did have a couple of locations that closed. Um, and so we saw that drop there. Um, however, I do see for this quarter, which I didn't represent that on this this uh presentation today, but the first quarter for the central business district does have an increase for this year. And then Main Street, which encompasses the central business district, had just a slightly higher decrease since the prior year. Um, but again, that could be attributed to the closures and then as well as the election last year. I think that could play a big part in the spending habits of um people that are out and about. Going on to our um tiers for south, we had um this is really three projects. I believe Aaron with planning will um get into more detail about 123 North Chadburn. So it's really 16 North Chadburn, 200 South Magdalene, and 220 South Abe that um were recently approved for tiers. Um there is a before and after photo here of 223 South A where they added ADA improvements and a rail rail guard and so that looks much better and it also improves um the accessibility for anyone that's walking through that area. Um 200 South Magdalene was approved for um parking lot for Old Central Firehouse. And then 220 South Abe is right across the street from this loca 223 South Abe. That

[0:54:39] confused me for a second there. 220 is right across the street from 223 and th those are apartments that are being rehabilitated. The these were projects here that I'm going to go through next that also completed their work and there's a significant dramatic change in this one here. This is Jo landscaping. You see the before and after of how the visual appeal has just really been enhanced. He did really well in utilizing his funds to improve the facade and landscaping of this property. And this is in what I would see as being a blighted area. And we're seeing some new improvements pop up in this part of downtown. Sango's Pizza Parlor, which is now open and operating. Um, he had some new windows and paint provided on his facade going into our TEI marketing initiatives. Um, downtown St. Angelo has been assisting with marketing and promoting the TEI program, especially in the north. So, I just wanted to share that today of what we've been doing, what our progress has involved. And so we've prepared some documentation that we think might be helpful in the north um by providing a Spanish incentive policy. We see that more of the property owners in the north side are Hispanic and so that could be the disconnect between them stepping up and um submitting an application. So we have this Spanish version ready readily available to our clients that come and visit with us at downtown St. Angelo. and we've had 11 consultations as of April 30th. Um, our media interviews have done a really great job at helping us get the word out. Our most recent interview uh was with Fox West Texas and we actually had quite a few phone calls to the office inquiring about the TEI program from that. So, we thank Fox West Texas and St. Angel Live and KLST for allowing us to go on and interview and talk about the TEI program.

[0:56:43] We've also been working on um a simplified guide. Mayor, I heard you mention it at one of our past council meetings about having a condensed version of the TEI process and the policy because it is a few pages and it it is quite a bit of lengthy reading. So, we brought that down to about one and a half pages. and to touch on the important details. We've also created a flowchart like we see here in the presentation um to make it easy to view and see what the process is, what the steps are, the review for determination for the TEI application so that people know what to expect when they're coming in to apply and submitting their application and they know the length of time that it's going to take for this process to complete. The new business report um shows 11 new businesses. That's quite a few. We have a mix between tattoo studios, dance studios, a retail. Um this does have Main Street as a whole. So we see Hippie Hysteria. That's at 103 North Main Street. That's right next door to um Sugar High Bakery. What I like about this is I heard of people talk about popup shops and this is a popup shop. there are um craft vendors or retail vendors that can go in and rent a space within that property and sell their goods. And so this is a good example of having a pop-up shop in downtown and hopefully many others can take advantage of having a popup just as Hippie Hysteria has done. um mentioning some upcoming projects along Concho, we have Signature Stag, which is a men's store opening up to fill the void where Marshall Pint left, where it's unfortunate that Marshall Pint has gone, but a great thing that we see something else coming in and plugging in. So, that will be Signature Stag right across the street. Um where Legend Jewelers is located will be Newsome Sellers. This is a winery coming

[0:58:45] in from Leick. They've already started on um getting things going in the interior and we hope to see that open soon. They'll be participating in our upcoming stroll. Ranch 25 replacing Whiskey River on Concho. Um we'll hear about these other two later today. Um Vita and Tipsy Pink replacing the Dead Horse Bar. And then on Borugard, we have Coleman Olive Company. So, um, again, and this is usually how this goes is we we see a few doors closed, but those vacancies are filled very quickly. And so, this is a positive for our downtown and a positive that we have some new activity coming in. And actually, I want to go back real quick. I wanted to mention this. I have it on my notes. Um, the Bosoncho has really turned around. It's fabulous. the new management. Um, I've seen the difference in just the appearance. The concessions are improved. Um, the activities are open and available consistently. And I believe just this past weekend there was uh food trucks at the BOS as well. And I believe music and live entertainment will be added as well. But the volleyball court nicely shaded. There were people cooking out and grilling this past weekend as well. Um, I really like that for downtown. I think this is going to be a really great thing for us for the summer and moving on um to really enhance our downtown neighborhood. So, I just wanted to mention that um to give a little positive note to the Bosque there and the new management. All right. So, our marketing and promotions that we do, we have our historic downtown magazine set to debut this month. We're going to have a double-sided cover for the historic magazine. Um, of course, we want to with the may outgoing mayor, we do want to highlight all of your contributions that you've given to the city of St. Angelo

[1:00:48] as well as downtown. We appreciate you and so you are very worthy of being included in this magazine and we're also going to have articles included about downtown development. So, this goes hand inand um and so we'll see that debuted soon. Our bruise use and barbecue event went really well. You'll see here in the photos of photos of our kids queue, the food truck area as well as um some of the teams grilling. We had 30 teams come in and participate in our event and they traveled from all over Texas. We had 14 kids participate, 40 vendors, and we're very appreciate appreciative of our local entertainment that we had. Angelo Express Athletics always comes out and does a great job of um bringing um the attendees and bringing a great show for our guests. The Rocks and On Belly Dancers, Billy Dance, oneman Blues Band. He's always a big help in our MC and helps us organize our entertainment, the Nasty Nate band, Warchild, and the Darren Morrison band. So, lots of entertainment filled on Bruise and Barbecue. Next year will be our 10year anniversary for Bruise and Barbecue. So, we're looking forward to going out with the bang with that one. Um, we have, um, been working with the organization Concho Christmas Celebration because we will soon, downtown St. Angel, Inc. will soon manage the Concho Christmas Celebration. I believe that we've been doing very well um, since we've started with working with the organization and its leadership. Um, we've coordinated with Media Jaw to enhance the website. We've enhanced the social media pages. Destiny has done a really great job of streamlining the electronic methods of announcements by utilizing text messaging and sending out meeting reminders. And we've also improved debit card donation capabilities as well and managed the volunteer coordination. So, we're ready to roll for this year and um keep on this tradition of the Koncho Christmas Tour of Lights.

[1:02:53] We've been meeting with some small business owners and developing collaborations and plans for ways to keep on boosting traffic in downtown. So, a few things that have come up was um Sunday Funday and we tried that with the retail and that went okay. Um, but we've now switched over to Sunday Funday with pub crawls. And those have been pretty successful for the restaurants and the bars to participate and have some fun holiday pub crawl activity happening on a Sunday evening with games included and prizes to um promote our downtown, not the organization, but our downtown and talk about entertainment and shopping and activities and all the great things that are happening. had some speaking engagements at ASU as well as with the Emanuel Esco Esco Episcopal Church. Our Mini Miss Wool pageant happened in November. This turned out to be a really fun pageant to host. Um, this was my first time hosting a pageant, but I had some support and some assistance to help out and it went really well. So well that we plan on doing it again this year. Um the parents were um very um thankful for this because they remember the Miss Wool pageant and they actually have family members that either participated or helped organize the Miss Wool Pageant. In fact, Miss Satie Grace Pucket, her grandmother and great-grandmother and namesake helped create the Mini Miss Wool Pageant with the Texas Sheep and Goat Razors back in the 1950s. We had um five participants in each age group category and we also um brought in Dolores Vernon. She creates wool and mohair designs and so this was a fun um element to plug into the pageant. The young ladies got to um model her wool and mohare fashion and that's what you see the little girl with the cowboy hat. She's modeling one of the coats from Dolores's designs.

[1:04:56] Um, we had families from Ballinger and Wall come and participate. And then of course we got to talk about the history of the Miss Wool pageant that pays tribute to the original Miss Wool pageant of the 1950s. Um, the performing arts center and of course city of St. Angelo and Dolores and the Sheep and Goat Raisers and the Concho Cadre and the community action team were grateful for your support and helping us make this event happen. Some projects that we have ahead um is our celebrating downtown banners. They are printed and ready to go. The next step fast signs will be marking the street poles and then installing 40 banners all across downtown and designated locations. Um it's a mix of different elements and photographs that describe downtown from um entertainment to activities and things to do in downtown. Our Star Spangled Banner concert and fireworks planning has already commenced. That will be per usual on Thursday, July 3rd. Um we will have a local band keeping in tradition 12mm perform as well as the St. Angelo Community Band. This fireworks display is the largest display in St. Angelo. It was phenomenal last year. Um and this is free admission to the community to come in. Uh we're also adding um a few other things that I think will be a plus and a positive, but we'll announce those later. Um we've listened to feedback from the community and so we've made a few um changes to the event um but that will be in everyone's favor. Um our sheep spectacular continues to take off. We've had 11 sheep sponsored thus far and that just keeps on growing and growing. Um, the sheep spectacular is really important. I know some people ask why why the sheep. Um, why do y'all have them all over St. Angelo? Well, like I mentioned for historic preservation month, this is a story that we get to tell. We get to talk about the Miss Wool pageant and how this pays

[1:07:00] homage to that pageant. And you know, back in 1971, we were the largest inland wool capital of the world. And we may no longer be, but we still get to talk about it and tell that story and tout that that doesn't that's 11. But how many total? How many total? Um 163 total sheep have been sponsored. So quite a bit. And um even outside of St. Angelo, there's one in Big Lake and Menard. Um we have phone calls from other cities that want to mimic this project and some of them have in other ways. Um, but this has really been something that has been successful for our city and you know guests from Goodfellow and ASU families come and take pictures with the sheep and they enjoy looking at the artwork and this is um really great for the artists here in St. Angelo as well because they get to showcase their artwork and their talents. Um, and I know we had our recent unveiling. It was a private unveiling with Goodyear, but those employees were very very happy to have this sheep. This is something that meant something to them to have a sheep. Um, so we're we're glad to keep this going. And, you know, this also helped helped us gain our visual arts capital designation as well. The DMO um applied for that designation, but the sheep spectacular was a part that helped boost to to get us that designation. Um, something that I missed before I conclude is with our upcoming events. Um, the city of St. Angelo Parks and Recreation just started planning for Riverfest 2025 downtown St. Angelo is very happy about that. We really want to see that come back. This is an event that takes place along the Bosque and Bart Dwit Park and all kinds of activities are lined up from entertainment to flag football games um to food vendors, craft vendors. It's just a variety of fun entertainment happening during Riverfest. And so downtown St. Angelo is happy to be assisting with logistics and

[1:09:04] helping host a mermaid pageant in conjunction with Riverfest. So, we'll see that date pop up soon. Yes, we'll see that that event come up. We'll have a date scheduled for sometime in the fall of 2025. Um, people always ask, you know, what's going on in downtown? Where can I find information? Well, we understand not everyone has social media. Not everyone is on social media, and that's okay. Well, we do still have our website downtownsangelo.com. There is a tab that's labeled events and on a weekly basis, we update that events calendar with anything and everything that's happening in downtown. Um, I do also want to mention that, you know, today is St. Angelo Gives Day. So, when you're thinking about giving to a nonprofit organization, please think about downtown St. Angelo and help us give back to the community like with this wayfinding archway with the historic downtown and the street lighting. we can continue to do more and keep on going with contributions through St. Angelo Gives today. So, please think of us and thank you, Monica. So, I'm glad you have that sign up because we will start the uh new streetscape program sometime late June, which will go from Boa Guard all the way up to transportation bus station. And there's another gateway that's going to be put there. So, I hope you guys are doing some good fundraising to get that gateway paid for. Yes, absolutely. And I've been speaking with Patrick to keep up and I'm glad you've mentioned that today to give a timeline. We know how construction goes. Um, but this is good to have this recent update so that we know when we can plug in this archway to coincide with the streetscape. As well as I want to bring back up the Roosevelt Hotel. If you haven't driven up Chadburn and see the progress on the Roosevelt Hotel, no one ever thought that project would get done. And it is I think they still don't, but I know. But it looks great and there's windows and there's doors and there's a lot of work going on and

[1:11:07] the sign is up and I think that's really encouraging. Um, you talked about tears and the uh people comment on how clean our downtown is. I just want to say thank you to the tears board for approving and city council for approving hiring someone to watch over the landscape that's been invested in and making sure that we do look clean and Republic services who pick up the trash in downtown to help keep it looking clean. So you've got great partners there. But again, streetscape from Boagard all the way up to the uh Houston heart will start in late June. So there will be some traffic issues. Yeah, we know we're familiar with that headache, but that's okay. It's always looking forward to the future outcome and we see what it's already done for um the southern part of Chadburn. It's really opened up the sidewalks. It's really enhanced downtown and this is what we want. You know, people complain about parking, but we can park and we can walk. We do it when we go to other cities and this is the purpose. You do that when you go to Walmart, too. You park and you walk. Yes. And so to have a beautiful environment as you're walking is is a plus. Other questions or comments for Monica? Just wanted to thank Thank you. Thank you. We will now move on to item B, presentation, discussion regarding the animal services task force recommendations. So who's who's leading this? Daniel mayor. Um we have our chair which is Judge Alan Gilbert will be coming up here. But before he does that, I'd like to express my gratitude uh to this group. Back in November, city council members uh gave me the directive to move forward with appointing uh this task force. And I can tell you right now that my focus was just on objectivity, making sure that we had knowledgeable individuals uh that were willing to look at all possible solutions to address some of the concerns at the animal shelter. And of course, one of the things I have expressed was uh humanity humane solutions is absolutely

[1:13:10] important, but I wanted to make sure we focused on the public health and safety as well. So again, I can tell you right now that this group has been super dedicated uh since their appointment back in December. They have been meeting every Thursday at 4:00 uh from 1 hour to 4 hours. It's been incredible the dedication they've put into this and I'm quite proud of all the work that they've put into it. And uh again uh with that I'd like to introduce a judge who will come up here and actually start this presentation for us. Judge. Thank you Daniel. Members of the council uh we appreciate the opportunity to come back with you today with our report and recommendations. But before I do so, Daniel mentioned uh the committee and uh I worked on a lot of committees and this committee was without a doubt uh they pushed everything from all directions which was great and I want you to know each of these people. So I would like to introduce each one of them to you and if you would members if you would stand please as I call your name. Sharon Hoffman she's been in St. Angelo since 2001. She's volunteering a director for Critter Shack Rescue. She works to educate and spay and neuter. She began a lowcost spay and neuter clinic, worked to begin a lowcost cat voucher program in 2021 and helped to launch the fix it your critter fix your critter dog and cat voucher program. Kim Spooner 2008 she started volunteering with local uh rescues. Her passion is helping persons who have lost or finds a dog or a cat. She carries a microchip scanner with her everywhere so that she can uh determine if the who the owner is. She educates persons of the need of spay and neuter. Kim spends her hours spends hours per week volunteering to help reunite pets and animals. She works in retail. Dr. Katie Morris, a local veterinarian, owner of Prickly Pair Veterinarian Clinic

[1:15:14] Hospital. She is an Air Force veteran, served as a public health officer at Goodfellow Air Force Base in 2013. She is passionate about spayer neuter and preventive medicines in public health. Mary Golder, an attorney and partner at Web and Stokes Sparks. Along with her legal career, she is deeply involved in animal rescue efforts, serving as a foster. As one of the founding principles of Sades Rescue, she's worked in transporting dogs to adoption events. She's helped to successfully find home for and shelters for dogs and placed others in foster care for adoption. Adam Scott. Adam is our assistant chief of police with San Angel Police Department. He's lived in St. Angelo for over 30 years. He's a veteran of the US Navy. He's been a He's been with our police department over 20 years. He reached the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, and now he's our assistant chief. Heather Morris. He's a San Angelo native raised in a dog show world. Was lead vet staff for Emergencies Wildlife Hospital. She did training for vets and wildlife medicine along with other volunteers, was involved with the Houston Zoo and other community organizations. She's worked with many domestic animal rescue and spayed and neuter groups, and she currently rescues and finds home for dogs as individuals. Christopher McGuffin, he has been with Cassie's Place Rescue since 2017, is now the operating and program director. He is a veteran of the US Air Force. And Mark Lack, he's a 30-year resident of St. Angelo, has served on two ordinance review committees, a responsible pet owner, and cares deeply for this community. I wanted you to know this

[1:17:16] committee. you heard in those all of the things that dealt with community and dealt with animals. Uh so it's not a committee that said what do you think the people that know about this would do because they are the people that know about it. Uh, I was so impressed because I'm a dog owner and a dog lover and a cat owner and a cat lover, but I'm not an expert on this. They are, and I realized that very quickly. Uh, because this committee knows what they're talking about. Uh, my job as the chairman of this committee was merely to tell you here's the lanes. Let's stay between them. and they did a great job because their passion for the love of animals and their passion for the care of the community is so immense that it just it shine through every every time we had a meeting. You know, as the task force, our purpose that was given us was to review the current situation of animal services in the city of St. Angelo and make recommendations for its improvement. Boy, did this committee. Did they review? Did they review? Did they review? I want to just show you this. This is 110 pages of dogs that were loose in the city of St. Angelo in one week. One week. Now, when I talk about work, they did it 110 pages and there's three dogs on some pages. So when we're reviewing, that's part of our review. That's part of our work as a committee. We spent approximately 30 some odd hours in

[1:19:20] meetings. We spent time at the animal shelter. We spent time at PAS. We spend a lot of homework time because I'm really good at assigning homework and stuff and and they're really good at doing it because they know what they're talking about and they spend hours and hours on homework and research and bringing up events. I just want you to know this about your committee because my estimation is that the total number of hours for this committee was over 370 hours. I've never been on a committee that did that. We reviewed city ordinances. We didn't go chapter by chapter. We went sentence by sentence. We reviewed the state law. Once again, we didn't go chapter by chapter. We went sentence by sentence because they wanted to know and they wanted to learn and they said they couldn't make decisions without this. And so this is what we did. We went through it step by step. Before we start into our program where we're going to tell you some of the things that we found and some of the things that we recommend, I think there's a couple of things that you really need to know. When I showed you this picture of 110 pages at any given time in the city of St. Angelo, there's over 500 dogs running loose. estimated there's between 20 and 30 animals in the city of St. Angelo. 30,000 animals in the city of St. Angelo. And on any given day, we have approximately 500 or so. Our dog bites are up. Our dog attacks are up at 512 dogs. And you're going to see a chart on this in your information if you haven't already looked at it. 512 dogs on our streets today uncontrolled for two years is over 10,000

[1:21:26] dogs. So, we've reviewed and we know a lot of what our problem is. We reviewed what's happening at the shelter. We spent time talking to citizens, hours and hours talking to citizens, talking to other agencies, other locations, reading articles, finding out everything that we could find out. And we have some good recommendations. These recommendations are good common sense recommendations and things that this committee has totally agreed upon that we believe are things that can help the city of St. Angelo to gain control of the animal population and the animal boy issues that we have in the city. So, we're going to begin because everyone on the committee is going to have a part today. Each one of them has a specialty and they're going to speak about it and give you our recommendations and then we will do a summary at the end. I hope you don't have a dog bite. No, I No, just old man syndrome getting there. Okay. Um I want to thank the mayor, the city council, city manager um for letting us speak here today. Um when we as a group came together, became the members of the task force, uh we were all selected and we were first met, we needed to figure out what our goals for this task force were going to be and how we would achieve them to the benefit of city of St. Angelo and its citizens. Um there were certain things that stood out. Number one was community safety. Um we truly do believe the health, safety, and security of the citizens of St. Angelo in regards to animal services and animal control is of the utmost importance and needs to take top

[1:23:29] priority from the animal welfare perspective. We need to look at how we can best serve those animals that are running around on the street that are strayed, that have been forgotten, that have been neglected. Um, and we need to figure out how we can protect the health and well-being of those animals and the population of dog and cats in St. Hangs low that has become quite too large to manage at this point. And we finally need to look at the goals that might be there in an organizational perspective for the city and for animal services. um what are the ideas, the innovations that we could bring forward to the table after reviewing everything to move San Angela Services and Animal Control into the position that it needs to be to be able to be responsible and not only fix our situation, but be an example to other cities and communities around West Texas where this problem is happening. I'm going to have Adam come up. Morning. Good morning, Assistant Chief Scott. the police department here in San Angelo. Thank you for your time today. Uh I I hold in my hand approximately six calls for service that we've received since January of 2025. Of the 841 calls the police department received since January, I want to read a few of them. Uh January 11th, Pitbull got into my backyard and killed my sheep. January 17th, four dogs attacked the complaintant. Dogs are chasing people, too. One of them had to be beat in the face with a rod to get them off me. February 2nd, four dogs killed neighbors goats and cat. March 29th, dog ran and charged at my husband this morning was a dark-coled pitbull. May 4th, dogs got into her yard again and killed more of her cats. And May 4th, again, pack of dogs bit complaintant terrier corgi and two large dogs. just a handful of the calls for service that the police department and animal control responds to daily. Uh

[1:25:33] 841, like I said, since January, 841 calls to deal with for animal problems. For animal problems, some of those problems aren't necessarily vicious dog bites. Some of them might be deer carcass, unfortunately, livestock in the roadway. So, to be totally upfront there, but a lot of those calls do deal with vicious animal bites, dog bites, per se. uh police department received over 30,000 calls for service since January 1st. Again, almost a thousand of those were animal related calls. The immediate focus of this task force uh was reading and reviewing the animal control city ordinances. Uh discussions were focused on making small but considerable changes that have a lasting effect on enforcement. Uh making enforcement of ordinances more streamlined as well and making recidivism in the shelter less likely. seeing those repeat animals in the shelter uh is unfortunate and we want to prevent that. Uh an example of a city ordinance that we recommend some changes to are changing the definition of owner. Currently city ordinances says the owner is if you have an animal in your possession for 3 days, you're considering an owner. Changing that to 10 would give citizens more time to maybe even accept that pet into their home or decide whether it's not a good fit. let's take it to the shelter and maybe it will find a home at the shelter when people come and look for animals to to be part of their family. Uh we focused on four points as a task force. Uh speaking uh of community safety uh those four points were dangerous animals speaking specifically about dangerous dogs, vicious dogs, strays, uh facility intake at the shelter and our spay and neuter city ordinance requirement. Uh in reflection for dangerous animals, uh vicious dogs, the def definition of a dangerous dog is not specifically stated in our city ordinance, but it's stated in the state uh code health and safety code 822.041. Any dog that provides that

[1:27:36] attacks and causes bodily injury is considered a dangerous dog. Also, any dog that makes an unprovoked action that a reasonable person would consider dangerous would also be defined as a dangerous dog. 407 vicious animal calls for service. Of those 841 animal calls for service since January, 407 those have been classified as vicious animals. Now, those aren't only dogs. Raccoons, wild boar, snakes, bees, those are all under that call type. But to say also 56 of those since January were confirmed dog bites. If we go back to last year in 2024, 161 dog bites for that year, 142 in 2023, 173 in 2022. So things don't seem to be getting better. So, a recommendation regarding dangerous animals would be to add the definition of a dangerous dog to our city ordinances to be more specific, to be more exact, to come along the lines of what our state code says as well, health and safety code. In regards to stray animals, microchipping is a is an ordinance already already on the book. Uh, it needs to be more readily enforced, helping return animals faster to their owner if we can immediately scan that animal and find out who owns that dog. Uh currently we have a problem with scanning animals and the address not being accurate. So another thing that we uh recommend also is uh going back to using registration tags. In 2015 when microchipping was brought on board we believe that was the end of registration tags thinking that microchipping would be the answer for it all. Well, unfortunately due to the owners or the transfer of dogs and the owners not updating that microchip, it doesn't help. So, keeping those together, a physical tag and a microchip tag would be a force multiplier in getting those animals back to where they belong. We'd also would auto maybe require vet clinics to report unchipped animals and maybe chip animals before

[1:29:38] they leave the vet. That's also an option. Maintaining a city- managed database for registered pets and microchips is also an important facet of microchipping as well. Animal intake. In regards to animal intake, intake was fully reopened in February of 2025. And in order for us to be able to be proactive in enforcement, it must remain open for community safety and viable pet adoption. An open shelter gives valuable time to allow dogs and cats to find that perfect owner. We also need to a recommendation would also be to increase cooperation with not only PAUSE but other organizations in the area that specialize in rescue of animals to find permanent homes for adoptable pets. Very important there. And the and the uh task force met and had many conversations about our spay and neuter requirements. Probably our most important ordinance on our books that could be enforced a lot more. uh need consistent enforcement to control the cat and dog population throughout St. Angelo. With consistent enforcement, we can see a dramatic decrease in St. Angelo's animal and dog population within a 3 to 5year time fra time time frame. Strong proactive spayneuter enforcement today will prevent over overpopulation tomorrow. Some base recommendations that the uh task force would recommend. Currently, we have four animal service officers uh with the shelter assigned to the shelter for enforcement in the field and one supervisor. We would recommend that four be increased to eight. Basically, doubling that number, putting a force multiplier in the street uh to readily increase enforcement for not only microchipping, spay and neuter, but also more importantly probably for dangerous and vicious dogs that are on those streets. Animal service officers and law enforcement officers regularly work together and should continue this relationship. obviously and will to improve community safety throughout St. Angelo. St. Angelo part the San Angelo Police Department utilizes a drone for many of their criminal elements as well as maybe we assist we assist we have assisted animal control several times in

[1:31:41] finding vicious animals using that drone using our night vision and fleer uh abilities. We can locate animals easily in the dark. Continuing that relationship and maybe bouncing more technology off that would help us also in the field with enforcement. Professional development of our animal service officers is important. Currently, the state only mandates 12 total hours for a new animal service officer within that year. That have to have 12 hours. Currently, our uh animal services officers receive 24. Good on them for doubling that, but more professional development I think is needed. Investing in professional development of our ASOS, animal service officers, ensures proper training and limits liability for all. So those are just some of the recommendations that we recommend when regarding about community safety. Uh all are important and we appreciate your time on accepting those. Any questions at this point? Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Wait, I think so. Maybe. And so Chief, you have given us a detailed accounting of places where we could improve. Um could you do just a quick summary of those things because I think it would help us understand how we got to where we are today. No problem. Uh the main thing would be the enforce the increase of animal service officers in the field. Uh we believe they are under manned uh underpaid. If you walk through the shelter any day of the week uh you'll notice uh the conditions are not pleasant. Now, being a field service officer, you're not there all the time, but you're there a lot of the time with a vicious animal during intake uh and other obligations that an animal service officer may may entail. So, uh with increasing a uh a uh service like animal service from four to eight officers is going to require probably a pay

[1:33:44] increase to be honest. Uh professional development is important. Training our officers is important as well as our animal service officers. It's it prevents liability put to be put back on the city as well. If they have more more training and experience, it uh gives the uh uh animal service officer more competence in the field. Some other recommendations that I outlayed earlier on is obviously adding that definition of dangerous dog to our city ordinances as well as the numerous other city ordinances that we recommend changed or or uh adjusted to be more uh friendly for enforcement as well as uh uh more streamlined within the city ordinances code chapter 3 for animal services or for animal control, I'm sorry. Uh microchipping. Uh we would recommend that we require vet clinics to report unshipped animals if possible uh and uh chip animals maybe before they leave the vet. Uh maintain a city- managed database not only for microchips but also for registration tags. So going back to registration tags as well as microchipping. While it might cost more for the owner, it's a force multiplier for us in the field to get that dog back with that owner. Um, increasing cooperation regarding animal intake, increasing cooperation with local organizations is important. Pause obviously, but also other rescues. There are plenty of other rescues in the area that are very proactive in fostering dogs and adopting dogs as well. Uh, not just in the city, but also in the outer areas in in the county too as well. So increasing those relationships are also important as well. And obviously probably our most number our number one concern is the spay and neuter requirement. More enforcement is needed. Obviously spay and neuter. When we speak of spay and neuter, we're not going to go into someone's house and make sure their dogs are spay and neuter. That's obviously a

[1:35:45] reactive a reactive enforcement tool. We find a dog on the street, we find the owner, we see that it's not spay and neuter, that owner may get citation. Right? So it's a very reactive ordinance. We can't be very proactive on that, but enforcement, more enforcement. Do you consider part of that um ordinance that if one isn't spayed and neutered that that fee or the cost of not having that animal spayed and neutered would be increased from our current ordinance? I think uh we did talk about that. I don't recollect the dollar amount. I believe we did talk about uh increasing just simply increasing. Yeah. Yes, I would recommend that as well. I guess ma'am. Uh but with with more constant now span like tomorrow if we were to double up on enforcement on spay and neuter, we're not going to see an immediate difference the animal population. This is a a current city ordinance that can be more readily enforced now to be a uh benefit in the future. Three possibly more likely 5 years out we would see a dramatic decrease in the animal population, cat and dog population. So, it's not an end- all beall right now, but it's definitely something that we need to be utilizing to plan for the future. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for letting us be here. And I'm going to speak up. I think they've got microphone ready for me. Okay. So, our animal crisis is not unique to St. Angelo. The shelters across the country are full, rescues are full, fosters are overwhelmed, and we can't continue to ask the public to play animal control or take in every single animal that's been dumped or allowed to roam. They're all people are tired and tapped out. City ordinances have been ignored the past few years. We've dealt with closed animal intakes, limited code enforcement, and and a let

[1:37:47] them roam policy. Now we're forced into having to talk about things rather than ignore them. We have animals in the streets which are starving, being hit by cars, being abused, attacking other animals and attacking people. So in the interest of public safety um as well as for the safety of the animals, these animals need to be removed from the street from the streets when appropriate. Removing them from the streets does lead to an increase in the shelter population, but we have no alternative. We can't continue to let them roam. is no longer an option. Spayneuter programs, the education programs, and enforcing ordinances all need to be implemented and they'll all work, but we won't see that immediately. We won't see the results of that. So now we have to deal with the crisis at hand. When the ACOs pick up an animal and the own animal is lo the owner is located, a citation should always be issued. If the animal is not spayed and neutered, spayed or neutered, um, citation should be issued for that as well. And as an option, the acco shelter to ensure that the animal is spayed or neutered when it's redeemed by the owner. If an owner cannot be located by an acco or a finder, the animal should be taken to the shelter. Right now, our public is being led to believe that taking an animal to the shelter is a bad thing. they're going to be killed in three days. And that's not true. Taking the animal to the shelter will provide at least some hope for the animal and getting him off the streets and keeping it from dying in the streets. Last year, this dog right here was dumped. No one made it to save him in time. He was found by rescuer. His lower jaw was broken. He was shot. He was beaten. And he was paralyzed. So, what would have been best for for Bryant? This is how he ended up. Um, if animal control had picked him up and taken him to the shelter, he

[1:39:52] would have at least stood a chance at life. He could have had a foster. He could have had an adopter. But intakes were closed. Let them Rome was in place. And Bryant's option was to be euthanized after being cruy treated, suffering horribly. So when animals are taken into the shelter, people we need to educate the public about checking with the shelter for their dogs and not just using social media. Um we have to do that in a positive manner. Get it out, get the information out to the public. A designated shelter employee or volunteer should immediately begin looking for potential adopters when those dogs are brought in or an owner relinquish after that 3-day hold period. All adoptable dogs, whether strays or owner relinquished with no bite history, should be given the opportunity to be adopted. All potential adopters should be carefully screened, and there should never be any no questions asked, free, or $5 adoptions. Those methods typically end up with dogs being back out in the streets. Transportation of animals to other locations um only adds to an already overburdened place somewhere else. because this is going on all over the country. You can't just transport to another facility because they're overwhelmed as well and that shouldn't be an option in the interest of live release data for dollars. The dogs which have been which have terrorized or attacked other animals in the streets or people um there's no choice but to euthanize and this is the same for dogs with a bite history. Dogs with a bite history should never be considered adoptable and should never be placed in the homes where children, adults, and other animals are put in danger. Euthanization is not something that any of us like, and we don't even really like to talk about it. But there are certain animals who will never do well in in a home. And that's a fact. And that's it's it's heartbreaking, but it's it's still a fact. We don't have

[1:41:54] any choice. And we do hear shelter dogs matter and save them all. Both of those phrases pertain to animals within the shelter, but the lives of dogs and cats that are not in the shelter matter just as much. If you're an animal lover, you love them all. It's not just the dogs in the shelter. And we have to look out for them as well as public safety. So, it's more humane to take an animal off the street and euthanize it than to leave it roaming and suffer and die a slow death or a tragic death. It's also more humane to euthanize an animal than to wait for it to attack or kill a person or a child, an adult, an older senior citizen. Um, one day we won't be having this conversation. There won't be euthanization for space. There won't be packs of dogs roaming. Um, there won't be puppies and kittens born in the street. There won't be dogs and cats starving in the streets. But until that time, we have to do what we have to do in the interest of public safety. Thank you. Questions, comments? No. Yes. Thank you. Wait. Yes. There was a very brief mention of citations. A couple of you have brought that up. Um can can you share with us that that progress if the acco issues the citation or the police presumably and and then what happens is animal services following that citation until resolution? They should be. That's a recommendation. That's a recommendation, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's a recommendation. I you do that one. I kind of know something about that part of it. Um what happens is animal shel animal control officer issues a citation. Uh the citation then's filed with the court system and then the court of course sends out proper notification. If they contest the case or have circumstances then they can go through the city attorney's office uh

[1:43:57] for pre-trial things of this nature. So they're given an opportunity or they can go straight into court on their case. So, there's a follow-up procedure after the citation. If it's a dog bite case, the individual that's been betting can come in and file a case if they wish to do so, or the animal control officer itself can come in and file the case with the city attorney's office based upon information and evidence presented. So there is a follow-up system for the whole thing, but the courts are going to need to be firmer in their actions taken when these citations are written because we can't have a pleading case. So we just drop it. So then they're still not spayed and neutered and they're still loose and there's still a problem. Well, there's a uh there's limitations of what the court can or cannot do on that. The problem is is that if I get a ticket, uh it's kind of like if I get a ticket for no driver's license, I can go out and just drive again if I want to and all you can do is find me again. If you give me a ticket for spay or neuter and I don't get a spay or neuter, then you can find me again. And that's it's just a process that has to continue over and over and over in some cases. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. But the court can certainly consider number of times when when setting appropriate fines. Yes. and amplify the penalty. Yes, ma'am. So, I guess the the question that the mayor posed is um how many times does that happen? If you've had if if 500 citations are issued, how many of them are resolved as cited, I guess? Well, uh there were roughly over 300 over 300 citations issued last year by animal control. A large number of those were for uh spay and neuter. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, I don't have my paperwork with me, but it's 200 and some odd of

[1:45:59] those were were filed for spay and neuter. Uh but there again, one of the recommendations is more animal control officers because you basically at this point right now, you really only have two out there on the road, three sometimes. uh and that's not near enough to cover what needs to be done between do animals being loose and trying to work on the spay or neuter also. But with that being said, is there not a concentration of these loose dogs in specific areas? In other words, it's not the same problem in all districts that there's seems to be a problem a bigger problem in certain districts. I think that's that's the answer. A bigger problem. There is the problem is all the pictures I showed you a while ago are all over town. So yes, there's a bigger problem in certain parts of town because people tend to go to those areas to let animals out is what it is. That's why they have a larger concentration of loose animals at that. Yes. I have a question Lucy. Judge Gilbert, whenever you uh they you know go to the people go to your court and you find them um and they don't pay their fine. Do you do they issue warrants for those people? Yes, ma'am. Uh however, you need to the court system has changed drastically in the last eight years. If if you get a if you come into court, you don't show up to court, then the court has to send you a second notice when to come up to court. And so we have to go the second notice, then if you don't appear the second time after you've agreed to appear on that time, then we can bring you in for a show cause hearing for you to explain why you didn't show up. And if you don't show up for that, then we can issue a warrant for you. Okay? So it's no longer one time and that happens. It's the third time now. So the court it's 90 days

[1:48:03] because you have to allow x number of days between each one. So it's basically 90 days before you can put a person in front of you in front of the bench or you can issue a warrant. And are these people are are is the court following up on these uh cases as far as like whenever they do get a citation, do they go and and actually find out or the person comes to court and then he does not pay, do they actually follow up and send him another letter like you said, you get they get three chances. Yeah. If even if you're fined and you have a fine amount, you don't pay it, then the court has to send you notice and set a show cause hearing for you to show why you didn't show up, why you didn't pay before they can issue what's called a capius profile warrant. So there's two on that one, three on the first one. That's how many chances. Yes. Thank you. Okay, that answer. Thank you, ma'am. Yes. I have a question I believe for the lady that was up here before and it concerns u handling in the shelter. Uh there are certain dogs, beautiful dogs that wouldn't hurt a fly and they linger there for an eternity and don't get adopted. What do we do with those? That's a tough one because the the long-term effects of animals in the shelter with them mentally and emotionally is not good. [Music] Um there right now with adoptions being at an all-time low, um those dogs that are purebred, there are purebred rescues and somebody within the shelter, a volunteer or an employee can reach out to the purebred rescues for helping with those dogs. Sometimes they'll even take them if they are cross like a border collie cross or um such as that. And I think if

[1:50:08] everybody works together then I think you know there's no reason why these animals can't be found homes and but you can't leave a dog in the shelter for three years. You can't leave a dog in the shelter for two years and especially ones that don't get to go outside. Um, right now the current situation at the shelter is that dogs either get to go outside or they get to eat. They, some of them haven't been outside on a leash in weeks, months, and that's not good for the dogs. And at that point, then honestly, you have no choice but to euthanize that dog after a certain period of time because of the what it does to the dog mentally, and it will never be okay. I won't hold you to this, but do you have a figure for how long that is? Um, I don't and it just depends on the dog and their characteristics, what what type of dog it is, what they come in with. You know, if they're coming in from an abusive situation, um, or if they've been roaming on the street for three months, four months, you don't you don't know what that dog has been through as a background. So, you know, a limit on a dog could be six months, it could be a year. I wouldn't go over a year, especially not in the current situation that we have where dogs don't ever get to go outside or interact with people. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, let me offer just as a suggestion. Um, let's hear them give their report to us. We've got lots of questions for them. Maybe we need to have them back um for another question and answers because we can probably ask every one of these people a multiplicity of questions. But we've got a lengthy agenda. We've got other people in the audience with agenda items. I would just suggest we hear their report. If we've got questions in the big picture, let's ask those. But if we've got smaller questions, either we can visit with them privately or we can maybe schedule another meeting with them. Just a just a thought. Well, I

[1:52:10] want anybody who has the big question to have the opportunity to ask it today. I know there's a lengthy agenda, but they've worked hard on this program. They've spent a lot of time and hours, and I don't want to diminish the importance of the questions and the comments attached to this presentation. So, thank you. Good morning, city council. My name is Dr. Katie Morris. We as a task force believe that spay and neuter is the foundation to solving St. Angelo's pet overpopulation crisis. It has been proven time and time again that you can't kill or adopt your way out of overpopulation. Prevention is the key and without strict changes and enforcement of the spayneuter ordinances, San Angel will never get ahead of the problems. Our current city ordinance states that all dogs and cats must be spayed, neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated by four months of age. Sadly, this ordinance is rarely enforced or encouraged. We are recommending changing that requirement to state by 6 months of age. We believe that increasing the time frame, it will increase compliance and make it easier for people to accomplish. Bay and neuter doesn't just decrease the numbers of puppies and kittens, but also increases the overall health of the animal. This is a win-win for animals and the city. Studies show that life expectancy increases, cancer rates decrease, and animals are less likely to roam and fight, which will dramatically decrease transmissible diseases. Many of the stray dogs in St. Angelo are out on the streets due to excess hormones, giving them the urge to travel and look for a mate. Intact animals are also much more likely to become aggressive. If you start to get multiple animals in one area, they are more likely to pack together and create a dangerous pack mentality. Sadly, this scenario is seen more and more often in our community and is a huge risk to the people and animals. It is no secret spaying and neutering is going to take time and

[1:54:12] money and is not a quick fix. But we believe it is the solution rather than a short-term band-aid. Research shows that organized spay and neuter programs are less expensive and more cost-effective than a traditional trap, shelter, euthanized system. It is also going to be much healthier and happier for the people and animals involved. Thank you for your time. Sharon will now discuss lowcost programs. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Sharon Hoffman. Um, yes, I'm going to talk about spayneuter. the overpopulation of dogs and cats, the large numbers of strays on our city streets, the failure of the local spay neutator ordinance, and the failure of the shelter to implement reasonable humane policies are problems that we need to address now. Research shows that many owners of intact dogs and cats would choose to alter their pet or sterilize their pet if a lowcost option was available. Several local organizations offer lowcost vouchers for spay and neutering vaccinations. The participating veterary clinics accept a set price for their services. Pet owners pay a portion of the cost and these organizations subsidize the remaining part of that. The partnership between vets, pet owners, and nonprofits is successful, resulting in the sterilization of hundreds of pets each month. We strongly recommend that the city join these efforts by establishing a city sponsored voucher program to increase these numbers. Another recommendation is to reestablish at least a part-time clinic at the shelter to provide services for shelter dogs and cats. Local nonprofits successfully work with area veterinarians to provide these services and the shelter can follow these models. These recommendations will cost money and will take time to produce results. Shelter problems have grown dramatically over the last decade as a result of failed policies that limited or completely closed intake, followed the let them roam method of dealing with

[1:56:14] strays, and refuse to allow most surreners of owned or found animals. All leading to a dramatic increase in stray dog stray dog numbers. A significant financial investment and a serious time commitment on the part of the city will be necessary to bring about change. Addressing dog and cat overpopulation at the root of the issue is a more humane and financially responsible solution than spending so much time, effort, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to care for the end result. Money spent on intake, care for large numbers of animals in the shelter and euthanasia can be greatly reduced if the city focuses on measures that limit or prevent unwanted litters and strays. We recommend these changes so that citizens will see a safer environment for both pets and people. Thank you. Thank you. Um good morning. Um I'm going to talk about um intakes at the shelter. And just before I start, um just yesterday I seem to get a lot of uh messages and phone calls and um messages on Facebook about loose dogs. Um just yesterday um somebody sent me a picture of a dead dog that was found. Um somebody found a dog yesterday on Bell Street with a collar. She couldn't take the dog, keep the dog because she has four dogs. She gave it to somebody on Spalding Street and the owner was looking for their dog. Um, and the dog did get reunited, but um that was just a case yesterday. And then there was also a dog yesterday that I received two photographs of. It was a pit um wandering in a couple different in the same area but by different people because nobody wants to touch the dog. And today somebody found the dog and now it's injured. Um if you know that's just the benefit of intakes at the shelter.

[1:58:19] It just prevents all of these issues. Um certainly they can't always be prevented but the increase of them being prevented can it can increase that the dog safety and public safety is um is is benefited by the intakes of the shelter. So, I'm going to just talk about briefly um that um an open intake animal shelter is committed to accepting without barriers every lost or stray animal regardless of their health, age, breed, or behavior. The shelter provides a safe haven for animals that find themselves neglected, unwanted, or homeless, though no through no fault of their own. Um, intakes must remain open for the sake of a finder who has a very small window to assist with a found dog and has no option to secure the dog. Intakes must remain open. For the countless victims of dog bites, remind uh requiring minor or extensive medical care and hospital bills, pain and suffering, intakes must remain open. For the roaming unaltered dogs who have been abandoned, intakes must remain open. And the number one dog killed on the street is an unaltered male dog. Um, countless litters will not be born when intakes remain open for the sake of owned dogs and cats who have been mauled to death or injured by stray dogs. Intakes must remain open for the driver on the loop or the or other roadways who have hit and killed a dog or cat. And for those who have to drive by a dead dog laying on the road, intakes must remain open. For the emaciated, frightened stray who has been attacked by another loose dog and suffers in the field left to die. Intakes must remain open. For our police officers and animal control officers who deal with public complaints daily about loose dogs, often aggressive, intakes must remain open. For a loose dog who roams in a local business or the business of a parking

[2:00:21] lot, intakes must remain open. For the sake of a dog who flees for their lives from thunder and lightning, such as last night, the and the multiple dogs who flee for their lives every Fourth of July from firework celebrations, intakes must remain open. For the owner who lost his dog when the plumber didn't latch the gate, intakes must remain open. For children who play at parks and schools and sports complexes or in their own front yards, intakes must remain open for the sake of an owner who's had who have had their chickens and goats and their livestock killed or injured by loose dogs. Intakes must remain open for dump dogs who form packs and parks and alongside rivers. Intakes must remain open for the sake of contagious animal diseases. intakes must remain open. For dogs who will burn their paw pads and hot on hot concrete and die of heat stroke or freeze to death, intakes must remain open for the sake of enforcement of spay and neuter and microchip ordinances and educating responsible pet o ownership. Intakes must remain open for the pre pregnant mama dog who gives birth in an alley. Intakes must remain open for owners who dump his nine puppies at South Koncho Park. Intakes must remain open for the sake of a found dog given away to a stranger without an owner having several days to claim the dog. Intakes must remain open for the sake of wandering neighborhood cats and litters born in residential bushes and backyards. Intakes must remain open. There is no magical place for these dogs to go. We cannot ignore their need. If all pets are worth saving, aren't the dogs and cats on the street worth saving to? Our animal shelter must be a safe harbor for our city dogs and cats and other other animals as well. I'm not ex just excluding to dogs and cats. Um, all dogs and cats should have an

[2:02:26] equal opportunity to be claimed or adopted and evaluated in a compassionate, caring environment. But most importantly, for the sake of public safety and animal welfare and their safety, intakes must remain open. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? There was nothing mentioned about breeders because that's a problem. I was going to ask um that could be on another presentation. I was just um speaking, but yes, breeder permits need to be addressed as well. Okay. Thank you. We have a couple more to go, but I'm going to address this issue because we believe and would like to see the animal services placed directly under the city manager's department and we believe that it's an important enough issue for public safety. We believe that uh we would like to see firsthand for uh the city manager's office to have control of this in an area until it gets to the point that it can move out on its own because we do believe that this is such a big issue within our community uh that uh the city manager having control of this would would help us to speed up our ability to be able to get control of this and also helping in the enforcement of the ordinances and making sure that the process is being followed uh through and by the animal shelter. Good morning. Good morning. A qualified animal services director is an individual with the expertise, experience, and skills necessary to effectively manage public safety, animal welfare, enforce ordinances and policies, develop educational programs for animal owners, establish volunteer

[2:04:29] programs and shelters, and secure funding through grant writing and development. This person should have a strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills, along with a deep understanding of animal care, community management, and regulatory compliance. We advocate for a professional, an animal welfare care professional be hired to run the animal services for the city of St. Angelo. Okay. I want to emphasize this critical importance. Okay. This person will be a leader who can transform our community's approach to animal welfare and public safety. This role is not just about managing a shelter. It's about building a compassionate, safe, and engaged community for both people and animals. A qualified animal services director is the cornerstone of effective animal management. They are tasked with balancing public safety and animal welfare, ensuring the stray and dangerous animals are handled humanely while protecting our neighborhoods. This requires expertise in animal behavior, crisis management, and a deep commitment to ethical practices. A qualified leader doesn't just react to problems. They proactively create systems to prevent them. One of the director's key responsibilities will be enforcing ordinances and policies. This means ensuring compliance with all of our laws from leash regulations to licensing requirements. This qualified director understands that these regulations inside and out, has the diplomatic skills to enforce them fairly, fostering trust within the community. They don't just uphold the law, they educate the public about why these rules matter, turning compliance into a shared goal. Education is another vital piece of the puzzle. A qualified director develops programs to teach animal owners about responsible pet care, covering everything from spaying and neutering to proper training. These programs res reduce pet overpopulation, will decrease shelter intakes, and prevent animal neglect. By empowering owners with knowledge, a skilled director creates a ripple effect or a force multiplier like we heard earlier today of positive change, strengthening the bond between the people and their pets. Beyond

[2:06:32] education, this qualified director builds bridges throughout public volunteer programs. Volunteers are at the heart of any shelter, providing care, socialization, and love to animals that are awaiting adoption. A great leader knows how to recruit, train, and inspire volunteers, turning community members into advocates for animal welfare. These programs not only support the shelter, but also deepen the community's connection to the cause. And then finally, a qualified director is a visionary who secures the resources needed to sustain and grow these efforts. Through grant writing and development, they unlock funding for better facilities, medical care, and outreach programs. This financial acumen ensures that the shelter doesn't just survive, but thrives, offering the best possible outcomes for animals in the community. In short, hiring a qualified animal services director is an investment in our community's future. It is about choosing a leader with the expertise to manage complex challenges, the compassion to prioritize animal welfare and the vision to inspire lasting change. If we can commit to finding someone who will not only meet these but exceed them, we can create a kinder, safer, and more connected community for all. Thank you. One last presentation. May I ask a question? Yes, you may. Uh, sorry to call you back. Yes. Was the job description a creation of the task force or is that something that already exists in our city? To my knowledge, there was not one within the city. Uh we did research from other areas and we have some sample ones that we have compiled. Uh but they all meet that definition that um I gave at the beginning of Thank you for doing that. I'm curious if the task force requested job descriptions for any or all shelter positions. Yes. Did you receive them? Uh, yes, we did receive them. Not one for the director. Okay. Okay. Will you will you provide those to us? Yes. In the packet along with the uh uh

[2:08:36] the ordinance recommendations uh that we have for the council. We we will So there will be a packet that summarizes your slides and your findings. Thank you. That's correct. Thank you. Morning. I'm Mary Golder. Last but not least, I get the happy topic and that is adoptions. Why should the shelter resume adoption responsibilities? Because it has successfully done so in the past and is fully capable of doing it again now more than ever. In the past, the shelter managed adoptions effectively, partnering with a range of local rescues, including breed specific rescues, volunteers, and foster networks. This collaborative approach was not just effective, but it was a critical part of the shelter success. First, the shelter staff are directly involved in the day-to-day care of the animals, and they possess an invaluable intimate understanding of each pet's personality, temperament, and health. This in-depth knowledge allows the staff to match animals with the right homes, resulting in better fits for both the pets and their new families. A well-matched adoption leads to more successful lasting homes and fewer pets returned to the shelter. Secondly, when a city shelter handles its own adoption, it builds a stronger, more meaningful connection with the local community. This direct involvement offers the adoption coordinator, which we recommend be under the director. that gives the opt adoption coordinator the opportunity to nurture a base of volunteers, develop a foster program, and engage in socialization efforts that help shelter animals thrive. By taking on the adoption process, the shelter becomes more than just a place for animals to sit. It becomes a place where they get a

[2:10:39] second chance at life. And the joy of a happy ending is observed firsthand by the shelter employees. It's not just a place for euthanizing an animal, but they get to see this animal go to a good home. Thirdly, if you look at job descriptions, which you just asked about, we looked at them from all over the country. Not one single shelter director is not responsible for adoptions. And I do not believe we will be able to hire someone if we don't allow them to handle adoptions inhouse. That's the fun part of animal rescue. The direct involvement in adoptions benefits the animals, but it allows the director to engage with potential adopters, volunteers, and donors because we used to have donors making donations to the shelter. This interaction streng strengthens the shelter's reputation, deepens it ties with the community, and positions it as a trusted go-to resource for animal adoption. In conclusion, resuming adoption responsibilities aligns the shelter's mission to provide the best care for animals and creates opportunities for deeper connections with the community. It's a proven, effective strategy that benefits the animals, the staff, and public intake. May I address the question about the breeder permits, please? We asked for those, and in 2024, not a single breeder permit was issued. in 2023. And I could be off on my numbers. I think it was 10. It may have been 12 were issued. Most of those were for mixed breed dogs. Most of them were for pitbull dogs. None. We believe only one was for an AKC breeder breeding dogs that are going to be placed in homes. So, and apparently there's no followup on those breeder permits from year to year. If you had 2023 issued, why didn't you have any issued in 2024? Why wasn't there a follow-up with these breeders to find out what was going on? Well, you

[2:12:40] would also think that they would have to get that renewed that it doesn't last like forever, right? But if it's not enforced, why spend the money to have an a breeder permit? Thank you very much. I know I know our presentation has been long and we could have we had to cut out a whole lot to to get it to where it was. I want to sum it up very quickly for you. We need to update our ordinances. You didn't see us present any new ordinances because we don't believe you need any. You have the the laws there. We need to amend a few of them and we need to see that there's enforcement to this. But that enforcement, I believe, is because of lack of not having. So, we're recommending four additional animal control officers, hire full-time qualified animal services director, purchase new software for the shelter, place animal shelter under the city manager, set up affordable spay and neuter programs, set up adoptions programs, and set up adoptions through the city. Have a control the euthnasia program just when necessary. Remain open. Have intake and adoption with the special edition and special emphasis on spay or neuter because we totally believe that if we can develop the spayer neuter program, if we'll spend the money to take care of that, then later down the road we won't have to spend the money to be chasing dogs all over the city. We won't have to be spending more money to hire more personnel because the numbers will come down. It's going to be a three to fiveyear program if you work at it very hard. So, we believe that if you take these recommendations, and we hope you do, that we believe that within three to five years that we can see a decrease in the issues that we have and and a more available opportunity for

[2:14:43] those that we do have to be adopted and for not so many of them to be out running loose and be destroyed out in the community itself. We thank you for your time this morning. Thank you, Daniel. because this has been your organiza, this group has been created by you. Do you want to give any lastm minute comments on this? Uh, no ma'am, really again, and I talked about it before, they put a lot of work into this and uh I know that that this would be wasted work if we didn't take a look at your recommendations and say, "Hey, these really are some really good ones that we really need to make sure that we consider." The issue becomes now that you've given recommendations that requires resources from the city. My recommendation is as we go into the budget workshop, we start talking about the recommendations they made, we can start putting a cost to that, you know, to put a value to that and make sure that uh during those meetings that we have, we we discuss that and say, "Hey, uh this is definitely a priority. We want to make sure that we're budging the monies toward that." So, again, great information. Uh I really want to make sure that I'm sure all of y'all would be more than willing to meet with us again if we did some type of a workshop here right along with the the budget workshop. And uh again I'm really I'm excited with what I'm hearing. Uh and and judge you said that a lot of stuff is common sense stuff. Actually it really is. And uh I have a great interest in implementing and making sure that we look at what does this do once we implement it? What changes does that make for the animal shelter? I think there's going to be some pretty positive ones. But with that said, mayor, uh, we'll move into the budget workshops. We'll talk about the cost connected with that and we'll move forward with this. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Yes, Larry. Mr. Hever suggested the opportunity to ask further questions and I think everyone here should have a number of them. I don't want to delay the process we have this morning by flooding them with questions, but is there going to be another opportunity? Well, what I think we should do is in fact each council

[2:16:47] member should turn in to Daniel questions um issues, ideas so that um they can be addressed. Um knowing that what we heard today was a lot of information, a lot of statistics and a lot of concerns and a lot of big dollars and as we all know dollars speak relative to the budget process. So, I think questions I think we should have an opportunity for a sum summary of questions that everybody has and then you're going to need to meet again to go back over this. So, today was just an overview, a lot of specifics, a lot of asks, a lot of requests, and a lot of dollars. Um, but thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the work and effort that put into it. And this isn't the end of that conversation. So we'll move forward and come up with the next steps. Okay. Mayor. Yes. Let's take a five minute. Five minutes. Five minutes only. So in and out. Mayor. Yes. We had one person that wanted to make public comment on this item before we break. Juliana Evans. I'm not sure if it's still morning. Good morning or good afternoon. I'm Julia. There's no window so it wouldn't really matter. I'm Juliana Evans. I live in single member district 3. I want to start with a quote. It was a quote from you Manta. You said in 2024 with regard to animal services and the shelter, if you see something, say something. I saw plenty. I gave your city attorney an 18page statement about the things I saw when I was employed as animal enrichment officer at the St. Angelo animal shelter. I never heard a word. The things I saw at our animal shelter include filthy dirty kennels and crates. Five to six crate six crates in dirty bathrooms. Crates lining hallways. Crates hidden in locked rooms that the

[2:18:51] public could not get into. An unconscious dog left without treatment for over 24 hours. I took that dog to the vet. The dog died that night. Dogs chained to a fence at 3:00 in the afternoon when the temperature was 108°, screaming, writhing in pain as their paws burned on the hot concrete. A puppy being isolated, left outside in a crate during a storm and torrential rain with no shelter. No one knew she was there. No one helped her. I took that dog in. Cockroaches falling from the ceiling, from the pipe work, from the laundry shelves, from cupboards. Cockroaches covering the floor. People went on TV publicly and said it was just a moment in time. Well, I can tell you for the time I was there, it was a 14-month period of time. It was not a week. It was not a day. It was not a month. a man who was not an employee of the animal shelter, hosing the kennels through the kennel doors with the dogs still in the kennels, pointing a high-powered hose at them. He was being paid $10 per row of 24 kennels from kennel staff's own pocket because it was the only way they could keep up with the workload to pay a friend to come in for $10. Dogs left in dirty crates in the breakroom where the floor tiles are long since worn away and the exposed concrete is now covered with a layer of feces from the boots of the kennel staff. Dogs with severe rashes on their bodies burnt from the ammonia in the urine in which they were forced to lie on end on end. Dogs with fleas leaping off them competing with the ticks. Dogs with nails so long they could barely walk. Dogs advertised as perfect pets for months, sometimes years, end on end, only to be suddenly euthani euthanized for aggression early one morning without notice. No assessment. Basically, an excuse to reduce the numbers whilst not affecting your live outcome data. I have more things, but I'm conscious that everybody needs to move on. But these

[2:20:53] are some of the things that I saw and which I said something about. Nobody listened until today when we have a task force. I'm grateful, Mr. Valenzuela, that you allowed the task force and I'm utterly grateful to the task force for the work they've put in and I hope this is the beginning of change. And lastly, one thing that wasn't mentioned, I'm conscious of a time. You said pay the ACOs more. Have you ever thought about paying those poor little people, generally unqualified people who get $10 an hour today? Thank you. With that, how about a break? Five minutes in and out. Doing item C right now. And so item D is discussion of possible action on the Concho River Legacy Trail project, including the following items. One, consider resolution endorsing private fundraising efforts to commission and install a series of sculptures entitled Koncho River Legacy Trail, which will depict the history of the Koncho Valley. These sculptures are proposed for placement along the Concho River Parks and within Santa Fe Park, and two, authorize city staff to develop and issue a request for proposals or an RFP for the reinvisioning of the Concho River Parks in Santa Fe Park. The RFP will seek professional services to create landscape plans that incorporate the proposed sculptural installations as part of the Koncho River Legacy Trail. And the presentation is going to uh be uh presented by Carl White. We also um have the privilege today to have Tim Newton and we'll read his biography in a minute as well as Steve Stevens who has been the creator of the concept of this project. So, Carl, you're on. A relatively quick introduction. Um, we're asking council to consider two related items this morning. First, we're requesting adoption of a resolution

[2:22:55] authorizing private fundraising for an exciting and ambitious initiative, a series of sculptural installations entitled the Concho River Legacy Trail. These sculptures uh would be located along portions of the Concho River Parks and extend into Santa Fe Park. Because this will be a connected series of sculptural sculpture clusters, the project will require require thoughtful integration into the surrounding park spaces, including appropriate landscaping and site planning. That leads to the second matter for council's consideration, authorization for staff to solicit proposals from qualified firms to assist with planning and design services for this project. staff would return later this uh this this year, hopefully within a few months, with the formal request to award a selected proposal along with associated funding allocation. The scope of this planning effort would would include all of Santa Fe Park as well as the portions of the river parks where sculptures are proposed. This aligns with ongoing conversations we've had been having with the Santa Fe Park Commission regarding a a renewed vision for Santa Fe Park. As many of you know, Santa Fe Park is a particularly special place in our community. It's one of St. Angel's oldest parks with a colorful colorful and compelling origin story. Marked by railroad rivalries, Santa Fe railroad shenanigans, the termination of early St. St. Angeloans and some strategic land acquisition acquisitions. Santa Fe Park is centrally located sits along the Koncho River and has been the proud site of community traditions such as the Fiesta del Concho. It's also hosted a golf course for over a century. Um so what have we been discussing as a potential future for this cherished park? First and foremost, we're mindful of the original deed restrictions. Uh the deed states that the Santa Fe parklands are to be

[2:25:00] kept, preserved, and used by said city of St. Angelo for all future times as public parks, playgrounds, and places of recreation for the use and benefit of said city and its citizens. That language clearly guides our planning and ensures that uh the park remains a space for public enjoyment. With that in mind, the future vision for Santa Fe Park could include several amenities currently under dis discussion. A six-hole par 3 golf course on the north end of the park, a botanical garden potentially connecting connecting over the river with sand um civic league park with the iconic waterlies, open green space. A park has got to have green space, trails and walkways, picnic areas, a new playground to replace Kids Kingdom. Kids Kingdom is on Santa Fe Park property, updated irrigation systems, and thoughtful landscaping, and of course, art, which brings us back to the exciting proposal for the Concho River Legacy Trail. I'd now like to introduce the team leading this creative and transformative effort. First of all, Mr. Steve Stevens. Thank you, Carl. Madame Mayor, members of the council, city manager, it's a pleasure to be here, and I want to commend you for your cost-saving measures in cutting down on the electrical use here today. A number of years ago, my wife and I were on a vacation in another city and we went to a tourist attraction that was an outdoor uh civic uh an outdoor park comprised of large sculptures and we were very impressed with that and thought, wouldn't that be nice to have something like that in St. Angelo? Well, that seed was planted back at that time some I don't know decades ago. And as time passed, it it occurred to me that

[2:27:04] with the wonderful gift of the Santa Fe Park to the city of St. Angelo, its location along the river, pretty much in the center of town, wide open, and by deed uh restriction, as Carl just mentioned, required to be a park for the city, for the citizens of St. Angelo. What better place that could there possibly be than that to have this giant bigger than life outdoor sculpture park. And I got to envisioning what things must have been like in our history here. You go back a couple of hundred years or so ago prior to the movement the westward settlement of our country. This land and in fact right along the river where Santa Fe Park itself is it has to have been occupied by thousands of buffalo by Native Americans. Then along came the cattle drives. The goodn night loving trail itself goes right through here. And and why were all of these animals and people attracted to this area? Because of the water. Think about the rivers we have here, West Texas, that is so unique. And we've got such a a wonderful story to tell in our history. And then uh again, because of the water stage coach line ran through here, because of the water, Fort Koncho was established here. So what we are envisioning is a display of our history with herds of buffalo, a cattle drive, u covered wagons, Fort Koncho soldiers, Native Americans, all of these things being placed in and around Santa Fe Park. Uh this has been a dream of mine, as I mentioned, for many years, and it hasn't really gone anywhere. Rather recently, I was having a conversation with Julie Raymond and she had heard about this and asked what was going on with it and I said, "Well, frankly, nothing. It's just an idea out there." She said, "I love the idea. Can't we get it

[2:29:07] revitalized?" And I said, "Well, only if you'll be chairman of it." And uh, as you know, Julie uh operates art in uncommon places. And so, she agreed to do that and was very enthusiastic about it. Now, coincidentally, and I might even say providentially, a few weeks ago, we got a new couple that moved into St. Angelo. They happened to move in across the street from Julie and Jim Raymond. As the Raymonds were getting acquainted with them, and I'm talking about Mr. and Mrs. Tim Newton. As Julie got acquainted with them, she realized that Tim had an extensive background in art and in particular western art and uh had in fact gotten acquainted with St. Angelo through on plane air, our annual art uh program here, and had fallen in love with the city and many of the people that that he had met. So, they moved here. So, she told him about this dream, this concept. He got excited about it as well and offered his assistance. And with that, and by the way, hopefully by now you all have gotten a little brief bio on him so you know more about him. But I want to introduce one of our newest citizens to tell you more about uh what we we think we might do in that park. He, by the way, we're we're bringing him on as the director and curator of this project because he has extensive art knowledge and connections. So, with that, let me introduce Tim Newton it. So, if you could tolerate this for a minute, I'm going to read it. Okay. Tim Don is widely known in the art community and is respected by artists, collectors, and art professionals alike. For eight years, Tim was chairman of the

[2:31:11] board and CEO at the legendary Salaguda Club on Fifth Avenue, New York City. During his tenure of leadership, he helped to lead Salaguda. I'm probably saying that wrong. through many years of unprecedented growth. Most notably, Tim proposed and initiated the fundraising for the renovation restoration of Salaguda's Skylight Gallery, a project that was completed in the spring of 2014. He is the founder and curator of American Masters, an annual art exhibition and sale at Salma Gouda. How how do you say it? So, Salma Gandhi Salma Gandhi be corrected here. Beginning in 2008 and concluding in 2018, the show was one of America's premier events for representation art. An art collector for 34 years, Tim along with his wife Kathy have a notable art collection. Wildly acknowledged for his discerning eye, Tim was a frequent judge of national art shows and competitions. He is a sought-after commentator on the subject of art and collecting and is often a featured speaker at museums and events. An award-winning photographer, Tim credits his eye for good photographic design to the hundreds of thousands of artworks he's viewed. Tim serves on the board of directors for the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum in Cody, Wyoming, the Salma Gundy Club in New York, as well as the Cal Sharp Foundation in Tal, New Mexico. He serves on the board of adviserss for the oil painters of America and the Stoart Foundation. In July of 2019, Tim assumed the role of publisher at Western Art and Architecture Magazine, one of the finest art publications in America. In May of 2024, he became the curator of quote, "A night of artists and special exhibitions at the Brisco Museum of Western Art in San Antonio." Night of Artists is the Brisco's biggest annual fundraising exhibition. He remains with Western Art and Architectural Magazine as Publisher Emoretus. He and his wife Kathy live in St. Angel and in Cody,

[2:33:14] Wyoming. And with that, Tim, you're on. Thank you very much, Madame Mayor. Council, thank you for letting me be here and thank God for the rain. I'm honored to be here today, especially on May 6th, which happens to be the anniversary of the first day that I visited San Angelo. And you greeted me at the airport that day. Uh, I was in town to, uh, jury and judge Plane Air, Texas, thanks to Barbara Rolo. Little did I know that six years later to the day I would be living here, a proud resident of our great town. Everyone loves a good story. And boy oh boy, we do have a great story to tell. Our vision for the Concho River Legacy Trail is that it will be one of the great artistic historic narratives in all of North America. It will pay tribute to our ancestors who paved the way across the American West and very specifically right here in St. Angelo. It will be comprised of vignettes, small groups of larger than-l life sculptures, each telling a story of our area. It will include approximately 15 individual narratives and groups and will will portray cattle drives, buffalo soldiers from Fort Koncho, chuck wagon scenes along the trail, a prairie burial, a prairie schooner, herds of buffalo, pioneer women, wildlife of the prairie, Native Americans, cowboys, and more. To provide integrity and harmony, each vignette will be sculpted by just one sculpture. So maybe we'll have 12, 14, 15 different sculptors that we'll do each group and and uh we provided little vignettes there that you can see the clay models of some of the kinds of scenes that we'd like to portray and these will be in larger than life size. So we think probably 110%. So when I stand up to look at one of the sculptures, you know, the sculptures, the the figure would tower above me by maybe a foot. So they're they're quite

[2:35:18] the magnitude that will make quite the impression. These uh we we'll highlight the cont contributions that all ethnic groups have provided to our area. And these stories are primarily from the 1860s,7s, and 80s. It's just going to be a celebration of our history and the the history of the American West. The scenes will be placed along our beautiful Concho River waterfront and on trails that meander through a revitalized Santa Fe Park. We picture changes in elevation and great uh vegetation that is natural to our area. The the artists will be sculptors of a high quality the who have achieved the highest level of quality and professionalism that is second to none. uh they will be the ones that will be making up this um this great sculpture park and it will put San Angelo on the map as one of the great western sculpture destinations in America. I picture young children walking around and and looking up to these larger than life-sized narratives and having a sense of wonder that brings joy to themselves and to their parents. I can see students and families discovering the history of St. Angelo like they have never known it. Storytelling at its finest. Generous donors will be making this possible. This is an unprecedented and all at once a lifetime opportunity for St. Angelo. It's an amazing gift that will serve as an inspiration and education for generations and generations and generations to come. Everybody loves a good story. Let's tell ours. Thank you. You know, I think there's this six degrees of separation that exists in life. And one of those stories is the fact that Victor Payne was hired u to do the lady in blue, which I think is one of the most beautiful uh bronze presentations we have in this city. Well, Victor Payne's grandfather, right, had businesses on

[2:37:23] Chadburn. Victor Payne lives in Cody, Wyoming where Tim lives, but he was born here. But he was born here. And Victor Payne's grandson is going to the PI No, great grandson. Vic Payne's grandson. Yeah. I'm sorry. Vic Payne's son. Son is going to the pilot school here at ASU. Well, that's right. I stand You have it right. Yeah. His grandson. And his son uh is the sculptor that I have spoken with. I've known his son Dustin, Dusty, we call him, for a long time. And uh he's one of the finest sculptors that I know and I asked him if he would participate as the artistic lead in the project. You know, assuming that we're allowed to go forward with this and he said yes. What I did not realize at the time that I asked him was that he had all those San Angelo connections. It was completely out of the blue, completely. And he had just sold his home near Cody, Wyoming. and has moved to Stevenville. And so he is most excited about this. And he is the the artist that created all these little models that you see here in two hours or something. Yeah, he just blew him. It was crazy. He's he's a genius. He just uh at the Brisco Museum. He just won the museum purchase award for a a a scene of Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore as that was being sculpted by Gustav Bor Borglham, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore. So, it's um it it's pretty fascinating how things have come together. I have a a video to show you, just a short video, and then I'll be happy to take your questions. So, I'll just start right into the video and tell them what this video is, where it's done, where where this video came from. Here we go. And you please feel free to speak to me. and uh uh ask uh questions as I go. We fig we figure maybe 110 or 120 of

[2:39:31] these life-size sculptures and they'll be again groups of maybe uh well so if you note the prairie funeral here there are four figures above a grave site there but maybe we'll have a chuck wagon with a campfire scene of you know uh six or eight people around the campfire. We we especially enjoy the idea of the goodn night loving trail. And you'll see the the lead wrangler coming uh up out of the river and the the Longhorn behind him and maybe even in the river. That's yet to be discussed, but it's a great picture when you see just the heads of the of the Longhorn breathing as they merge through the the depths of the river and the uh we lost that. Oh, well, I'll take that. Um, so it's it's just, you know, the the the genius and the art artistry behind everything is really uh exciting to think about and we're because we are in the early stages, we're open to comments and suggestions of ideas that you would have that you would like to say, hey, let's do this. So, uh, we're it's it's really thrilling. So, St. Angelo Area Foundation, Art Uncommon Places. These are, you know, partnering with us in this our our team here, Steve Stevens as the founding, you know, the founder of this great idea. Uh Dusty Payne, lead artist, Mark Lewis, Mason Brooks, Julie Raymond, who's really been the uh instigator. She came across the street when I about a week after I'd been in the house and she said, "Well," and we knew each knew each other casually for, you know, many months, maybe, maybe a little longer. And she said, "Well, I've got a plan for you." And I said, she said, "I've got a project." I said, "Well, I I have a project already. I I'm at the Brisco Museum. I'm not leaving that. And I'm not I love my my role at the Brisco Museum. It's a great honor for me to curate that show there." And so I'm staying there, but she that's not a full-time job that I do there. And you

[2:41:36] know, you do I think you can't tell Julie no. And so we met with you and with Steve and I said yes. So and Howard Taylor, president of Maris of the museum here is one of our committee members. So again, the the vignettes along the way, maybe 15 of them, uh sculptures will be um life and a quarter life and you know, we we got flexibility there. The real key here is that we have a an exceptional opportunity, really a once in a-lifetime opportunity for the city of St. Angelo to uh if if this is allowed to go forward to have private donations that will maybe in the end the project will be 25 maybe $30 million and it's anticipated this is all privately raised uh funds. no public money is being requested and uh through the amazing generosity of of of local residents of which you know even today I would be happy to accept the first million dollar gift if there's someone in the room that envelopes outside the front door and this will be about a five maybe seven-year project you know this is it take a while to to get it all together and we'll dovetail with the city in terms of the the landscape engineer ing and the planning for the park. So, we'll work hand in hand with the the planning on that. It'll be a great joy to do that. Uh we recently visited um Omaha, Nebraska, and you'll see some here's a here's an image where we've thought about the uh the river crossing. It's a spectacular spot right there by the Girl Scout building. You'll recognize that. And uh this is again the river crossing concept by Dusty. Um, we visited Omaha, Nebraska that has a similar trail and these these certainly will paint the picture for you. You know, I can talk all day, but a picture is truly worth a thousand words. So, when you see the

[2:43:38] things that were done in Omaha by three different sculptors that did this the all of these. So, here you see the uh the scout conferring with the Indian guides and you know the the drama that you have in these is second to none. And so it's virtually an outdoor museum. The fellow here in the hat is Dusty Payne. So he's uh grandson of Vic. And actually Dusty uh assisted him while he was working on the lady in blue down on the river. It's so ironic and I had no idea about the connection when I asked Dusty. It's just for me when I look at art, all art, whether it's flat art, oil paintings, watercolors, or sculpture, it's all about the gesture. I want to see a very convincing it's the it's the the position of the body. It's the turn of the head. And even Dusty was showing us on the prayer funeral when he just turned the head of he bent the the the the morning father's head over just a little bit. It changes everything. And that's the beauty of sculpture. And you can see here how they integrated the uh the stone in the sculpture. There's a gesture for you. stuck in the mud. Don't you love that dress? Look at the folds in the skirt. Well, and I proposed having a Miss Hattie added to the vignette. So, just FYI. Well, of course. Isn't that great drama? It's incredible.

[2:45:42] I mean, just incredible drama. This is a video. I may need help making this play. Will it play? Yeah. Ah, okay. Look at this. You know there's one more video here. I don't know if it will questions questions. I have a question. Think I really think this will put St. Angelo on the map and draw a lot of people visitors to come in and see what we want to do. So, and you know, city's not putting any dime on this. So, I think it's I move to approve. Well, let's get some other comments and questions for for Tim or for Steve. So, Mr. Newton, nice to meet you. I'm your neighbor as well. Nice to meet you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you for the the uh terrific presentation. So, I I do have a couple of questions. Um, of course, as you know, we advocate for the citizens in our parts of town and Santa Fe Park has its own board, which we we haven't heard much about how they feel about this. Have they been involved in the conversations with you? Um, and I'm also curious how you feel this makes h how this is different from all the other cities work that you have

[2:47:45] showed us. Well, it's I mean it's it's beautiful work. There's no question about it. But but we're seeing lots of other cities that are doing something similar. So, but they're not our their this is our history. That would be that would be the primary difference there. And I've been to many many of the great sculpture destinations in America and we will learn from all of those. But specifically to Brenda's point, you know, this is St. Angelo's story. This is the history of West Texas. And I have increasingly learned that West Texas history and Texas history is monumental in so many different ways. You just and just the the subject matter of the various vignettes are unique to our area. And so, uh, just because it's there's been great sculpture like this done in other places certainly means that, you know, we're 800 miles from Omaha. There's no reason that that would keep us from doing something equally or, you know, even more beautiful. Does Omal have a river running through their downtown? No. There you go. That in itself changes the dynamics. And you know, I I love my position in San Antonio and Brisco and their river, but their river does not compare to our river. the the the nature, the peace, the beauty, and everything about this is my intention as a curator. I'm a fussy guy when it comes to art and artistry, and I expect things to be ever so rightly done. It cannot be garish. It cannot be commercial. It just needs to meld with the vegetation in the most delightful of ways so that it it be it becomes part of it. it it's not in contrast to it. It's it's it's more harmonious than even what you're seeing here in Omaha. So, it's very exciting to think of the potential to lay it out. So, I completely agree

[2:49:50] with all the remarks being made being particular about the quality of the art, the value of the river and the importance of the river. Everybody here knows that because I talk about it a lot. Um, again, this bo this body has talked for a couple of years about the need for a strategic plan, uh, an updated strategic plan. So, I'm concerned with how this fits in for the vision for the whole park, and that's where the concern about the Santa Fe Park Board enters in. Now, I do understand that what we're approving today is the ability of your group to begin to fund raise and that um that that could be a long process. And I'm assuming and would like verification that as indepidual pieces come forward, they will pass through the gatekeeping of the public art commission and then on to the council. The public art commission about four questions in the public art commission met last Wednesday and voted in total support 100% support for this project. So they've already been presented. Second of all, the second part of today's discussion is to authorize a RFP a request for proposal to look at the park because part of that park area is city-owned and city managed. Part of it is Santa Fe Park. So we need a comprehensive plan that pulls all of that together in combination with the art. So it's not just about Santa Fe Park, but the whole coming down from the museum going over. It's a big project and we their ability to move forward on this project depends on our ability to get an RFP out there to design the park areas to enhance the sculptures because in some cases you're going to have to have some height because you're going to have an outlook for looking for the Indians or the whatever. This is going to be a realistic depiction of our history and what went on. This is a great story for our kids to hear and to

[2:51:52] understand better because art will tell the story and storytelling is part of the art and we need to make sure that we support I believe the beginning of the fundraising and the beginning of uh looking at what these vignettes are going to look like, how many of them are, what stories need to be told and then working with Carl White to put out an RFP so that we have a game plan so that You can't really do these vignettes unless you kind of know the game plan and where the art might be placed. So, is this going to need requirement for height? Is this going to be where they cross the rivers? It's going to be when the whatever happens, but they've got to be hand in hand and it's going to take a lot of public input. It's going to take a lot of people with expertise who've done these projects. This is not for the uh you know this is a major investment not only on the uh fundraising aspect of it but will be in terms of the city's ability to finance and make sure what needs to happen in these parks has some financing behind it. Other questions? I've got a motion. I was going to say I I think we've got a motion hanging out there. Don't we have without a second? Not second. Oh by Lucy I'll third. And this is for item one and two. That's correct. Okay. So, item one and two, a motion and a second. May I have a vote from um No, I have to have public comment. So, I'm going to offer an opportunity for public comment. Julie Raymond, you don't want to. She passes. Okay. And Steve Eustace. Good morning, Madame Mayor and Council. What a great day to be in St. Angelo. I got a little over three inches of rain this morning. Yeah, we have St. Angelo Gives is today and we are one of the

[2:53:59] most giving communities in the United States and Matt Lewis has got the data to prove it. We have a lot of really great givers in this town and Steve Stevens is one of the top. Uh I first heard about this project from Howard Taylor about four years ago and I think it is just really spectacular. The opportunity for St. Angelo is here now. We need to seize that opportunity while it's on our plates, not something we can just kick down the road. So I encourage you to really uh cheerlead this. Yeah. Get and we'll we'll get all those thing. I think great great comments, Karen. I'm sure everybody will massage it and and get a great piece of art done. And Steve, thanks for all you do. With that, let's take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Or one one nay. So, six to one. Motion passes. I'd like to comment on my nay vote. Is that permitted? Of course you can. because because Mr. Stevens is somebody that I've known my entire life, have a great deal of respect for. Julie as well, who has had put so much energy into keeping putting us and keeping us on the map for public art. I just am hearing from constituents that there is concern that it's the cart or maybe I should say the art before the horse um that they want to plan before you fund raise and that they think a feasibility study determines needs. But I've been soundly outvoted and I've had my say. So, you know, time can kill a project and enthusiasm and life. And so, the part of the issue here today is Steve has said, I'm 86 or 87. I'd like to see this done within my lifetime. And we're going to use that on this because it's now. You can't spend another two years or three years on a feasibility and then hope that there's still enthusiasm for this project. It's now. It needs to happen

[2:56:00] now and let's move on to the next thing as Harry said. So that's what we're going to do. Six to six to one. Thank you very much. All right. Now we're going to go to item C, which is consider awarding bid PK-01-25 to Blink Manufacturing Incorporated, DBA blank signs in the amount of $29,453 sourced from hot bal from hot fund balance for Koncho River wayfinding signage and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Yes, this is the same wayfinding project that we brought to council a few months ago along the river. Uh council authorized us to go ahead and solicit bids for this. We did that. We got six bids back. Um the lowest qualified bid is 29,000 some change. We had anticipated the project costing about 240,000. So we're within a budget or an estimated budget. We there was one local bid, but they weren't within the 5% allowed by local preference to award to. So, we're asking to award the to link uh marketing and to approve the budget amendment for this project so we can move forward. Well, I think we authorized the 240, right? Did we authorize 240 originally? The 236 236 and this came in at 209. You know, we've authorized 236. And I want to make sure that if we need to spend the 236 to execute this and do it correctly that we do that. uh if we only need to spend 209 if you find bring it back. But I think you might be able to leave that as a contingency for the project awarded at this if for something comes up we have contingency. Yeah. If we could do that I think that would be good to bump it up to well to use it as a contingency. So the contingency from the 209 is up to the 236 or the approved dollar amount. So there's a leeway for

[2:58:03] contingency and issues that might come up. Well, I was just thinking with this project a few years out, but you can update those signs to add direction to the new right new art and information signs about it. So, perfect. So, move. So, move by second mo and public comment. None. Let's take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. We are now going to go into item E, first reading public hearing of an ordinance approving standards of care for recreation summer camp held at recreation centers for ages 5 through 13. And we have our recreation manager, Jesse Beans, here, Bennis, probably. Is that correct, Bennis? Yes. Uh so Texas Health they require that we uh present a standard of care each year to get approved. Uh our ordinance is staying the same for the standard of care. So it's the exact same that we've had every year, but it's just basically stating that we're not a child care facility for these programs that we're providing. Um any questions on move to approve? Second. Second by Tom. Public comment. Take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Congratulations. That was the fastest one ever. Good job. Item F is second reading of ordinances for amendments to the fine sections of chapter 12 planning and development exhibit A zoning ordinance article 3 use regulations. One, section 311, cultural district overlay zone. Two, section 313 use table. and section three uh and three section 304 commercial district intent statements. Erin, you are on. Thank you, mayor. Erin Venoy, director of planning development services. Uh this is the second reading of this. Um and so we don't have a very long presentation. Um again, this is our map that has our boundary of overall. Again,

[3:00:07] it falls into district 3 and district 5 in the Fort Koncho and the Sanorita neighborhoods. So from the last meeting uh these are just the items for discussion uh for today is residential area boundaries. The proposal from last meeting was to move the RS2 and the RS1 to the RM1 low-rise multif family which still allows the structural types of single family houses, two family houses, zero lot line, twin home, town homes, and multif family. It does not allow, as you can see that last bullet point, it does not allow uh commercial uses in those areas. And I have some maps to show you those areas. Uh the one item that u was briefly discussed was that one RM1 allows short-term rentals by right with the no 500 foot separation. The 500 foot separation for Fort Koncho is still in effect. Um and I say not Fort Koncho, but Fort Koncho Elementary. Um then you see down there, mayor, you had asked some questions about what are allowed as home occupations. So I just just kind of listed those. So, teaching, tutoring, counseling. Um, basically, if you have less than 10 persons a day and do it six days a week, you can do that out of your home. Uh, if you do, I didn't hear you, ma'am. And I am not I So, I will repeat that. So, you're saying that we can do the things you said, but can I run a CPA business, which would be less than 10 people? Can I run a beauty salon, which would be less than 10 people? What other occupations can we do in these homes, residential area? So, our current ordinance, our current zoning ordinance limits it to these really these four things. Teaching, tutoring, counseling. So, you could be a counselor, you could do tutoring on something, or you could do teaching. And we've kind of allowed that to be even like personal training

[3:02:10] as long as you're doing a low volume as far as persons per day. Uh daycare of children um six children or less under 14 or you can have an additional six children that are elementary school age but a maximum of 12 children. So daycare uh if you will. But these really are the limitations. And so a CPA firm um unless you're teaching CPA uh students or counseling and maybe that's kind of a a difference there, but um they probably would not be allowed. Now again, in all the other cultural district areas, we we would allow them to come in and start utilizing those spaces. So this would limit in these two residential areas and may be helpful to remind you where those areas are. The first area up here on the top right is the RS1 and right here is the RS2. And I have a couple of uh maps that bring that into a little bit better perspective. And so right here along Baker Street, Rust Street, along the railroad, Web Street, the alleyway between uh Bird Street and Allen Street and down Porter, that is all currently RS1. and that would move to RM1, but there would be no commercial entities other than home occupations allowed in that area. That's just a red uh a simpler version. Here's the larger RS2 area. Of course, you can see Coenheim here to the west. Um, so if you have Avenue D and you're down the alleyway where this commercial is along the frontage, comes in, goes down another alleyway between Avenue D, Avenue C, Hill Street, then back through an alleyway, comes down Avenue A down to West Avenue B, and so forth. This would again go to RM1 and it would allow the residential standards but no commercial standards in that in that uh outline or that

[3:04:14] boundary. Again, a little bit clearer version. I do want to say thank you to uh Steve Eustace. He has been one of the um folks that has helped uh look through this and make sure that our boundaries uh worked really well. He's asked the the question since the second council meeting for clarification and we've had some good conversations. We've not had any substantive changes u but Steve Eustus obviously cares about our community and we're very proud that we've been able to work with him and and find common ground to to make this area work for our community. Um, so with that, I'm going to ask if there's any questions uh from city council. Um, but our recommendation uh is to approve this area as the cultural district overlay zone, amending those sections of the ordinances being 311, section 304, and the use table 313. And within the C cultural district overlay zone, the two areas uh currently zoned RS1 and RS2 will be zoned to RM1 with RM1 development standards and remain just within the uh cultural district zone, but they will have the RM1 development standards. Questions for Aaron? Move to approve as presented. Second. Any public comment? Steve Eustace. Thank you, council. Did I mention I got three inches of rain? So, uh, I got four, so I mean, whatever. Uh, you know, since I first heard about this project, um, and that was actually from Howard Taylor a few years ago also. But from the time of we got our letters, property owners, I'm all for this. I just had some concerns about the residences and that we hadn't taken time to cultivate. Uh I'm so grateful to the staff. Uh Aaron and his team have done a

[3:06:20] great job answering questions. The meeting three weeks ago with planning and city council was a really working session and a lot of dialogue was done and changes made and I this is a now proposal that I'm excited to support. I also think that with some education and hopefully some associations, homeowners associations, we can gradually get those RS properties into more diverse use. Um, so I'm really hope you'll support this. And I don't know if anyone's ever coined this phrase. You hear it occasionally, but to me, this is the new Soo. Yeah. South of the Koncho River. Yep. South. But O and R. See, that's kind of the problem. So, code south of the concho R. Don't get technical, ma'am. Just saying. You've had a good run so far. Don't ruin it on the last meeting. No. Uh, and I do want to say because I won't be here in two weeks. Larry and Lucy and Mayor, y'all done a great job. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. So, we've had a motion, a second, and one public comment. Let's take a vote. All those in favor of approving the cultural district say I. I. Motion passes seven to zero. I would like to say uh moving forward on this item and future council members which I won't be here but there's been a reason to sort of because there's cultural district is used a lot and I think at some point we need to call it the heritage and art and museum district because it better describes what it is we want to accomplish here. When you say cultural district overlay, it tends to limit the I think vision of what this could be. So I would like that we in the future find a way to rename it as the Heritage Art Museum District because there's

[3:08:25] tremendous amount of opportunity for future museums to be in this district. And when people go online and search for cities, they often look for the word museum. And we'll get a lot more attention if we use the word museum on this versus call it the cultural district. So I want to throw that out there as possible consideration and I think it could make a big difference in terms of grant writing and other opportunities. So it's not part of this, but I would like to put it out there for future consideration. Yes, ma'am. That's uh we did discuss that a little bit uh myself and city attorney and we recognize that there are some other sections that we had need a notice for but we are prepared as as directed by uh council to bring that back uh as appropriate. I think that would be good if you could do that. Yes, ma'am. All right, moving on. Are we going to take a break or we going to keep going? Keep going. Okay, we're going to keep going. So F is second reading of ordinances for amendments to the fine section of chapter 12 planning and oh I just did that one so sorry it passed 70. We will go to G. First reading and public hearing of ordinances for 1 Z24-16, a request to reszone from the general commercial heavy commercial zoning district to the general commercial zoning district at 2830 North Chapurn, 2802 North Chaburn to 2810 North Chaburn and to CP24-06, a request to amend the comprehensive plan from neighborhood center to commercial at 282, 2810, and 2830 North Chadurn. You are on. Thank you, mayor. This is the item that was tabled at the last council meeting and so this is the first reading for this reasonzoning. Uh the discussion then was does it really need to go to heavy commercial or general commercial. We did bring back the property owners as well as this property owner here who had the concerns and talked to them about what was allowed in general commercial and heavy commercial and the decision has been made to move forward with a general

[3:10:27] commercial designation instead of a heavy commercial designation. So, you see the properties here that front uh Chadburn, of course, there's 29th Street there. Uh this is in District 4, Miss Lucy Gonzalez. And I just want to say thank you, Miss Gonzalez, for saying, "Let's let's pause on this and let's get everybody together." So, I always appreciate that uh when when we just need to make sure everything's clarified. So, so this one again, you see here, the zoning, this still has the CGH through this area. So, we're really just changing this area. We are talking with the property owners here to come back with a resoning that would lower that to general commercial, but we would need to properly notice that and so we're working through that and that may come back in the next few months. The vision plan of course is a uh neighborhood uh center and we're going to a commercial just on these front but we would stay with the neighborhood commercial back here at the back to protect the neighborhood back to the east. So with that uh this did go to planning commission on March the 24th with a recommendation of 70. At that time it was the recommendation of heavy commercial but this is coming down to a general commercial um uh status for these properties at 20 uh 2802 2810 um as well as 2830 North Chadurn as well as the comprehensive plan changing from neighborhood center to commercial for those properties at front on North Chadurn. With that, I'll answer any questions. Yeah, Erin, thank you so much. I appreciate your work as well. Um, I want I need to let you know that I had gone by there and I had seen those three uh buildings that were there. So, I had no problem. I think uh in our notes you told us that that auto shop repair shop that's back there is going to stay, but if for any reason it was too close, then it would be coming back with conditional use. Yes, they could. if they lost their occupancy for some reason, they could apply for a conditional use which would then go to planning commission for approval at that point. So, I don't see any problem with it. So, I will uh approve as presented. Thank you so much. Question for

[3:12:28] approval. Question for Yes. Go ahead, Tom. Erin, didn't those top three right there at 2830. Weren't those TIEs funded? Yes, they were TIE funded and this was one step of the TEI process to change that dual zoning to a singular zoning. That's in the policy and that's was kind of what triggered this process. Perfect. Thank you. I'll second. A second by Tommy. Public comment on this. Take a vote. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Moving on to the next item which is in fact H discussion and possible action of North Tier's nonprofit policy update. And you are on Aaron. Thank you. uh mayor uh again Erin Venoy uh director of planning development services. Y'all heard in January of this year a a update recommendation from the TEI board for the non-policy um nonprofit policy for the north. Um currently uh the the policy allows nonprofit participation as an applicant. Um again this is just kind of the summary that we went through is the two projects that had made it one made it to TEI board. They did not receive funding. There is a desire from the nonprofit community to participate in the TEI program. The discussion really today is to keep the policy to allow nonprofit incentive applicants in the north with staff recommendations for updated policy or remove the ability for nonprofits in the north to apply for private incentive applications. But we have done some uh homework uh and I know that u Brandon Dyson our uh interim city attorney has got got some information on tax codes and things like that but we we did go back and look at obviously peers programs in the state were established by state legislature in the 80s. um our city started looking at that in the late 90s early 2000s and brought that forth that program to our community uh 2006 and has evolved a little bit over times. uh in February 2012 was the most recent financial plan that was adopted by city

[3:14:30] council at that time. And it lists these bullet points as their priorities in the financial plan. And it talks about streetscapes, sidewalks, crosswalks, parking, commercial uh uh buildings, um building site renovations, roadways and traffic management, parks and public facilities, utilities drainage, environmental remediation and safety improvements. So thinking asbestous surveys, fire suppression, public safety, how do we keep the the public safe in those areas, they've specifically listed about howing to equip our uh public safety department with more cameras and and things that they can monitor activity. Um creation of new areas and then administration or creation of the district itself and then administration of the district itself was built into the financial uh plan. And so these are the kind of the priorities that the policies are built off of. This is our our finance plan, if you will. Um, and so with that, I'm going to turn to to Brandon Dyson and let him kind of give us a quick update of what he had found working with the comproller and things like that. And so, yeah, so we did a lot of research on this. I I did and also had another attorney in my office research and I think the question from council was um is there a legal prohibition against allowing nonprofits to accept or receive tiers incentives and we look at case law attorney general opinions and I didn't find any that addresses that issue and so one of the things we did we did call the comp patroller they have a local government team that assists local governments and specifically a gentleman that deals with property tax abatement and tax increment financing. And we spoke with him and he's very clear he couldn't give us legal advice, but he did point us to a couple provisions of the code. One of which is section 311.10 that talks about the powers and duties of the board of directors for tiers. And within one of those subsections, it um

[3:16:34] references one of those powers being all the powers that are granted by chapter 380. And I think everyone's familiar with 380 agreements. That's where normally the constitution prohibits the city from giving funding, personnel, resources to a private entity. But where there's a public purpose, especially economic development, that is permitted. And so if you go to chapter 380, uh it does talk about that a mun municipality may contract with a federal government, the state, a political subdivision of the state, a nonprofit organization, or any other entity for the administration of a program. So by that reference, I think that 311 it itself doesn't ever mention nonprofit anywhere in that code. But by that reference to 380, I think it at least contemplates that nonprofits would be allowed. And again, I don't find anything saying that they're legally prohibited. Um, and then Aaron mentioned the project plan, and there is a provision in that that uh says this. It is expected that the city tom green county text and other public agencies will participate in the rehabil rehabilitation of existing and development of new public facilities and infrastructure within the zone. In addition, nonprofit organizations and private developers may also contribute public facilities and infrastructure. They may also undertake effort to remediate environmental and safety deficiencies on existing private properties. So even in 2012 when that ordinance was adopted, I believe the council at that time was contemplating that nonprofits would be a part of this program. All right, I'm going to read from my factual um investigation. Thank you for that. So the comproller, if you go to the website Glennhagars comproller.t texas.gov says the following. Tax increment financing tiff is not a new tax. A tiff is a financing method that

[3:18:37] local governments can use to pay for improvements to draw private investments to a targeted area. TIFFs redirect some of the adorum tax and sometimes sales taxes collected by businesses to be used as tax increments. Tax increment a growth in the tax base. You've got to add to the base of property tax increments as approved by the local government from property in a geographic area designated as a tears to pay for public project improvements in the zone. A tiff project can jumpstart development a bit faster and as a result produce additional quote additional tax revenue. Additional tax revenue. If you continue on to his description of chapter 311, it says a tears project jumpstarts developments to generate quote new tax revenue. Benefits of a tiers include building needed public infrastructure to draw businesses, boosting development which grows property values and long-term property tax collections, and lessening the cost of private development by providing reimbursement for qualified public improvements. If you go on and read, and this comes from the same thing, comproller.t texas.gov, it says lead taxing units can do public improvements in a tiers on an annual basis provided that they are appropriate, financially feasible, and allowed under tax code section 311.21A. Such proper such projects undertaken may include public buildings,

[3:20:41] infrastructure, affordable housing, transit, water, sewer, drainage, facade renovation, parking, historical preservation, economic development, and other public projects. If you go one step further and you go and you read in a Texas tax increment zone tiers, revenue deposit in the tax increment fund increased property tax values can only be used to finance projects within the zone, including infrastructure, facade programs, landscaping, streetscaping, and other public enhancements consistent with the zone project plan and financing plan. Projects may include public buildings, affordable housing, transit, water, sewer, drainage, facade improvement, parking, historical preservation, economic development, and other public projects. There was a um attorney Houston Allan Boone Humphre Robinson LLP attorneys at law in Houston, Texas who say the following examples of public works improvements that may be included in a tier project plans are roads, streets, bridges, transit facilities, pedestrian improvements, water, waste Water drainage and detention facilities, parks, plazas and open spaces, recreation facilities, places of public assembly, affordable housing, schools and educational facilities, rehabilitation of historic structures, environmental mitigation and abatement and removing slum and bright blight. So if you look historically most tiers programs were really a benefit to the

[3:22:44] city's infrastructure programs and they were because it's not. People want to make the city seem as if it's a nonprofit. No, the city is the person who collects the tax revenue from property. They're the ones who decide whether they will be willing to even create and support a TEI program. Most cities use a tears program for infrastructure improvements. We as a city have spent more time on private investment improvements. But the overall concept behind tiers is public projects improving the infrastructure. Taking a blighted area and improving it through the addition of streetscaping, lighting, sidewalks, and things that might encourage other people to in fact invest. If a person owns a building, owns a piece of property which they want to improve and then lease to a nonprofit, that's allowable. But that person still pays a tax on the facility, the building. But you can improve a building and lease it to a nonprofit. But if you go through all of these pages of the comprollers.ex.gov, gov. It talks about infrastructure improvements and generating new new tax revenue. So, at this at this point, Mayor uh and city council, Mr. Valenuela. I have a few other slides to talk about, but are we at the point to decide or make a decision of do we want to move forward with nonprofits being allowed or have we looked at enough of that? I do have obviously what was presented last time of what if you're wanted to see those things of if we were to allow nonprofits the staff has asked to modify the

[3:24:49] requirements for that create a separate fund that would then also require a public improvement with whatever it is that they're doing if they were to receive a private incentive. Um, but I think the mayor's point is, do we want to give nonprofits that ability if the whole goal is to provide increases in taxable uh income in the zone? Um, particularly in in this case in the north. Currently, our policy is the south they're not allowed. The north they are allowed and there is a perception because they are allowed that they go through tears. They come here and if they're denied, they don't under really understand why they may be denied. And so that's what I I pose back to you guys. Do y'all want to have the discussion now or do you want to look at what was proposed um back in January as far as a policy that would change for the north tiers area for nonprofits? Tom, I have come around to the point when I started looking after the mayor brought this up whenever we first discussed this. I've started looking more closely at what she just said. the and you correct me if I'm wrong, Erin, Brandon, because I may I may be, but if y'all quickly correct me. The TEI program was created by the state primarily for infrastructure projects. Correct. Is that accurate? I would say primarily for infrastructure projects to the city to invest in those infrastructure items hoping that private investors would come in and start building the area which would increase the tax base in the area. So let me ask this question. If we in fact changed our focus to put the money into infrastructure as originally intended by tears, would those projects more than

[3:26:53] likely have to be in our CIP? I'm assuming they would have to be in our CIP. Is that accurate? Well, they wouldn't have to be, Tommy, but if in fact u because some of the regulations on some of those, let's say it's a certain dollar amount, it has to be over 25,000. I think we increased that to 100,000 in the CIP, right? Is that correct? We changed it. Yes, I I think that Yeah. So, I don't know. But it also means that if in fact we believe reooking at that and adding some of those CIP projects into the program, then the city could consider some of these TEI funds to do those projects because those projects would then have a funding source. I would assume we have more projects, be it in the CIP or not, that would more than utilize the amount of money that is currently in and I'm talking in total in the TEI fund or that would be available until the end is it 2036? Yes, sir. um until the end till 2036. There would be more projects in there that could be infrastructure projects. And I'm speaking as one council member only. I would like to see us go back to its original intent and start looking at infrastructure projects. So the question is hanging out there probably in some people's minds, what does that do to individual businesses? It goes to the point that the mayor said if we will take care of our responsibilities with the infrastructure, the streets, the sidewalks, that which is under the ground. I think it may encourage it won't

[3:28:56] incentivize as the tears has monetarily, but it might encourage those individual businesses to go ahead and and work on their business and make those improvements. Anyway, I would like to see us move back towards its original intent and get away from um having having businesses disappointed if they don't qualify re whether they're profit or nonprofit. That's just me. Tom, I'll go back to two key two key points for me. Number one, it's it's to be fair regardless of the zone. I've always had a disappointment in the fact that what decided whether you were eligible for funds was a line drawn down. It's Bogard or Harris Street now. I always want to be fair and consistent. If we did follow that path and you did allow nonprofits, you suddenly open that up to anybody that has any size business up and down Chadburn or Harris uh um Martin Luther King. But there are some businesses down there that are multi-million dollar properties that would now or businesses that would find themselves eligible to apply regardless. And I number one I think about that is Shannon. Okay. If if you opened it up, they would and you treated everybody fairly and and allowed nonprofits suddenly there would be some people that could apply that I think definitely don't need TI's funding. All right. Same argument. But I I will always go back to the point of I I agree with Tommy and Brenda. It was originally designed for infrastructure and to make better, cleaner property for people to go up and move on. It's quite similar to an basically an infill project is basically what it is. It would go back to that original funding. But in my opinion, it was nonprofits never paid taxes. regardless of what type of building, business, church, what whatever you are, there are nonprofits out there, but they've never put money

[3:30:57] in. And I've seen people say, "You've got to have skin in the game to pull something back out." And number two, if we don't make it consistent along the lines from north to south, I think that's highly unfair. So, I'm still on the point that nonprofits need to stay out of this program mainly for the protection to keep um from I would say superersized businesses coming in and hit that. I don't think the sustainability of a nonprofit should be dependable on tiers funding. Harry. Well, I'm gonna piggyback a little bit on what Tom just said, and I've always felt like the separation between North and South and and the differences in how we treat nonprofits is really not what we need here. So, I'd like to get back to the spot if we're going to have two zones that were the same in both zones. You know, the whole purpose of the tears program was to generate property tax dollars of which the city would benefit from because that's the money put in the pot to invest back again. If you're taken out and you're not putting it back in, then it's not part of the original idea behind the TEI program. And that goes back to the original intent. It's to generate potential new sales tax and property tax and improve the quality of life within a district by reinvesting in the infrastructure of an area. My question is why in the world did we even put it in there to begin with? Was we because the board of directors all of a sudden Yeah. I mean it was my very first council meeting two 2017 or the second one. Brenda made a proposal. I had

[3:33:00] taught there are some companies that come into nonprofits and they re rehabilitate buildings like the Roosevelt Hotel and try to make them um senior citizen centers. They come in as nonprofits and kick it back. I'd actually been spoken to by two or three different people about that. And so when I voiced that, that was a concern for me. Brenda made the proposal, I propose nonprofits are not eligible in the south tier zone. It was not an intent to make that any different. It was an error on my part not understanding the whole grasp of what the exposure of that would be. So that's when it came into that back in 2017 is I made an error on my part thinking that companies would come in and try to rehabilitate hotels and things like that. It had nothing to do with small businesses or who was in them or line. It was uh the businesses I wanted to still be eligible and come through. When you have a change of people on a board, very often we forget to remind the people on the board what the original intent is and was. The original intent is what's key here. When you start going off the original intent and new board members all of a sudden have a new idea. They're missing the original intent of what TEI was created to do. And we've got to stick with because otherwise you water it all down. It becomes a program that's a social program. It's not a program intended. The program is intended to take blighted areas, areas that haven't had reinvestment and create a reason for people to do business and perhaps improve their building by the nature that all of a sudden the district looks better than it's ever looked. And so it encourages investment and that's the key to this program. We got to stop getting off of what it was was originally intended to do. Infrastructure to improve a blighted area. Intent or no intent. We were actually we put it in there. The nonprofits were

[3:35:06] eligible. No, it's not been approved. No, but it's been eight years. Why if it was so wrong did it take us eight years to say, "Okay, we don't want this in there anymore." I'm just saying it's very disturbing whenever you kind of know where this is going and where it's going to end up at. So that is why I'm saying these nonprofits, it's $100,000 a year, I believe, that they're eligible for. I think that would was the set aside that numbers they're talking like I said the time before it's not a lot out of $2 million especially if it's a small portion or if it's just a portion that's going to help a nonprofit to better beautify the the place or whatever it may be which will help the neighborhood which will help the north side. So that is my question is if it was so oh we cannot do this why did it take us eight years and in those eight years did we ever approve any nonprofits I don't remember doing that I didn't think so all right with that may I have a motion let me let me I don't know if this is a motion or not but let me make I guess a proposal here rather than I'll say making a definitive today. Again, I'm speaking only for myself. Aaron, could you bring back to us a proposal or well a policy that if adopted would focus again on original intent and that being infrastructure projects. And I realize you have different I'll say time frames right now for folks that can apply and whether it be profit or nonprofit doesn't matter. And we may

[3:37:09] have some of those in process in the hopper that are waiting. If we did this and made and and adopted a new policy that became effective with with the new fiscal year October one this year then then then at that point if it was focused solely on infrastructure we wouldn't have the tears board uh I'll say awarding incentives to individual businesses again be it profit or nonprofit but we would then look at the projects within the entire TEI zone as it exists today that would improve the infrastructure, the streets, the streetscape, the sidewalks. Um to to me that that accomplishes the end goal of helping to raise everyone in the area so that you're not focused on simply and solely one particular entity. So if that's a motion, okay. I don't know if that's a motion or not. That's what I would like. Well, I think Tommy, that's good long term, but we need to do something today. So I think if you want to put that out there for them for consideration, but today we need to take care take action on the north tiers nonprofit. We need to make a decision on that. Then you can go and you can rethink and do this. But we got to this has been going on for too many months. We need to deal with it, do it, and then create a new whatever you're saying. I think it's come back two or three times. We voted on taking nonprofits out. We've always pretty much been at a deadlock on this thing. Um, uh, my fear, and I'll tell this before I make my motion, is, you know, number one, I want it to be treated the same north and south. I don't think you can draw a line and separate and segregate those two just because of where they

[3:39:11] sit. And if you do make that, if you leave it open to nonprofits, you have every church up and down um Martin Luther King or Oaks or Tadburn is eligible for this. First United I mean there's there's several that are eligible for it. Shannon's eligible for it. It take a line on some government agencies that can also be eligible for it. I think I like yours and Tommy's idea of taking it back and focus on infrastructure, but at this point I I'll go back with the motion again. I don't want any nonprofits eligible for tiers in either zone. And that's my motion. And I second that public comment. Evelyn Smith. Hello. Evelyn Smith SMD um five and listen to everything that was going on here. What u qualifies a nonprofit organization. We're in a blighted area. We'll make a significant impact to the community. Um and that would bring more people into the area, bring up more revenue for the businesses, and we could put a cap on those who were u nonprofits who wanted to apply. So you wouldn't be worried about Shannon trying to trying to get in there. But my question to all to to all this and you just said it sound like it was a mistake for you all to uh open up approved for a nonprofit organization to put an application and then now it looks like we got egg on our face because we just wanted to wanted to apply cuz we were eligible to do it. And it's been three years now that this been going on back and forth, back and forth, and you should have nipped it in the bud in the first place. So, you asked us, you say it's okay to put in the application. We walked in the door and put in the application. Then you slam my

[3:41:14] foot in the door that you could have said all this long time ago, took it off the books and said, "Well, you know, we made a mistake. Give us an apology because this is not our fault. this is on the city council that you open up the door to put us in this position. And now the public is looking at Gene Churches like those people they just you know you know and and my reputation also I'm only doing what was decent and in order. So, if you decide to take this off the books and shut down the nonprofit churches from getting anything without trying to work with us more, um I think you owe us a public apology for this that this is not our this is not our fault and I think you should continue to work and I understand about we don't pay taxes. You knew that when you open up the door for us to come in and you said that if we made a an impact and I believe we will. Now, our parking lot needs to be done because the city put a bus stop on there and messed up. Well, the parking lot needed to be done anyway, but in addition to that, they messed up the little area that was around there. We have people coming over there all the time because they're across the street at the Wesley Soup Kitchen. They come on our parking lot. Now, we got a hazard on our church because of the public um bus stop that's there. So yeah, we we make a big difference in our community and we want to make a a big difference in the community and it's not just for our church. And I've talked to a lot of business people there who said, you know, um uh yes, that would that would bring more people in our area if we started making some of these buildings look a lot better, improve the buildings that is in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there are a lot of uh churches in the neighborhood, but we're doing it to improve the building. We put up a a a mural. It's already starting to bring some people over there. People come over there just to look at it, you know, and of course they stop and and it it improves the businesses over there.

[3:43:17] Thank you very much. Other public comment with that. We'll take a vote. All those in favor of May I ask Erin for clarify clarification? Mayor, would this go back to is what we are voting on. If it didn't pass, would then it go back to what you had recommended last time, the $100,000 cap and so forth. No, sir. It would go back to what is there today, just that they are eligible to apply. It would not set up any separate anything. All right. It's either the motion or it would go back to what it is today. Thank you. With that, ma'am, yes. This thing's been kicked back and forth and I want to be clear what I'm voting on. Someone my motion was to exclude all nonprofits from the north and south tiers. So, thank you. You're welcome. All right. With that, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of Tom's motion. Tommy, did did you ask a question about things already in the pipeline? Some Well, but that would be if we were going to change the policy. Okay. Just checking. Just checking. Thank you. Well, and just to clarify to do that, I think we'd also have to change the project plan, which is like an ordinance adoption. So, that's okay. More involved than just the policy. Thank you. With that, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of denying nonprofits on the Northern Cheers um as applicants say I. I. I. I. But the clarification is to treat both zones the same with nonprofits. Correct. Okay. Yes. So the vote here is to deny nonprofits funding. That's correct. I I I. Any naysay? Nay. Motion passes. 61. We are now going to take a break. No. Let's finish this last. Sorry. Sorry. We got one more. One more. Sorry.

[3:45:19] We'll get this done. Consider approving tax increment reinvestment zone incentive funding for three private projects totaling $181,870.3 in the south tiers area. Thank you, mayor. You're on. We do have these three projects that did go to the TEI board uh last month uh and did receive recommend for approval for funding. 19 East Koncho, 123 North Chadburn, 206, and 210 South Chadburn. I'll run through these very quickly, but here's the budget sheet. The fund currently has 4 48,000. Uh we have these funding requests which total 181 which would leave us with 226 in the south fund. And this is round number two. And this is the first year that we've actually had monies left over uh significant monies left over in the south fund. Um whether that be for private incentives or other incentives. So 19 East Concho um what they need is a fire suppression system. Um they have a big project that's 225,000. Uh their match is 150,000. So they're requesting 75,000 for that sprinkler system. Uh this is the former Marshall Pint building. They did include just some images of what they're proposing to do. This is the back patio where they're going to restore the railing. They're going to put up some nice uh screening over there. Uh you can see that they don't have that uh currently now. Um, do you need sprinkler systems outdoors? I would say it depends on the fire marshall's depiction of what is Have we ever asked for fire suppression systems on an outdoor patio? We have depending on what Oh my gosh, that ought to change. Um, but the occupant load is triggering sprinkler systems. They've got the first part that was installed many years ago. Now they're going to actually run the sprinkler system in uh to the full building. Next one is 123 North Chaburn. You've seen this one a couple of times. They actually withdrew their last approval about three months ago because they saw

[3:47:21] that there was a few other things they needed to add and I said, "Let's withdraw it and bring it back." Um, so the total project went up to 44,350. Their funding request is 31,870, which is the 25% match of 12,480. Um, so they're doing painted signage, signage, awning, door installation, and a mural. So, currently this is kind of the front area. They are going to do some painted signs up here. They are going to change a little bit of the coloring up there. Um, they do, and it's hard to tell on this imaging. Uh, but you can see that they're going to lighten that at the top. They're going to put their painted sign there, and they're going to restore this awning that comes out here over Chadurn. Uh, it's got the the rosettes that are already there. uh that show where it would be connected. And so they're working on restoring that awning. The bottom area is going to be a much darker color. These doors are not the doors that were approved at DHRC. They're going to do something more like that as opposed to the mirrored doors. It will be a retail shop. Um there on that corner, it will also uh advert have some artwork as well, but it'll be moving more towards a retail shop. You can see now the awning here on the side. uh that will be coming out. And again, they are doing that uh welcome to St. Angelo mural here on the northern side of the building. Uh you can see it's just going to be right down in this area. So, as you come down Chadurn Street heading south, you will be able to see the mural. Last project is uh 206210, the former dead horse. Their project is 113,000. They're requesting the 75,000 with their match being 28,400. Um they're doing uh canopies, signage, exterior paint, and tile restoration. So there's really two buildings here. This is going to be Vita on this side. You can see how they're going to restore that. This actually is a painted facade already. Um they did a lot of work to go up and look at that. Um and had their contractors come back and were able to confirm that that's

[3:49:22] really kind of a painted facade. It's not really brick and mortar. Uh so they're going to change that, get it uh all nice with a a single stucco, come back down um and continue to paint the area through here. And then down in here, there's actually some of the original tile, and they're keeping the original tile. That's why they're talking about restoration. Uh and so a good historic restoration project there on that side. The next side is this building here. This is going to be Tipsy. Um this is the original brick work. And so they're keeping the original brick work, but where they've got the um the woodwork in here is going to be repainted and and redone. Uh still going to keep the the actual look of the building. They will add a canopy here over the doorway and of course their sign uh over there. Both of these are going to be um bar and entertainment spaces. Uh they may have space that you can rent out u but they will be evening entertainment spaces. So the tiers board did recommend full approving full funding approval for each of these. Uh again 19 East Concho at 75,000 123 North Chadurn at 31,870 and 206 210 South Chaburn at 75,000. That would keep in the south tiers 226,280 if they were all funded today. That I'll take any questions. Any questions? Yes ma'am. Yes. Could you go back to the pictures of VITA? Yes. Okay. My problem with this is the one on the left looks historical and the one on the right um it escapes me. Well, the these were uh historical colors picked out of the historical color palette that DHRC did approve. And while this is kind of a faux front as trying to make it look like it's brick, it's really deteriorated over time. Um, and they're trying to restore something that would be a a better a better long-lasting material that would hold up over

[3:51:24] time. And the applicants are here if you wanted to visit with them. Just to I think they're still here. Aaron, no, they're not. Aaron, are they putting a a porch back on the Yes, they will be putting So, you can just see where this used to have a awning. They are replacing that awning uh back there and of course putting the rosettes along here that would hold the awning back on to restore that more architectural aspect of it. There's some of the I think some of the elements aren't showing as much now. The color is one thing, but they are putting that porch back on like it was originally to give it more of that character. I think so. The color was approved. Yes, sir. That that's one of the requirements. They have to go through DHRC first before they can apply for TEI funding. Is that navy black or dark green? Um, that's a good question. I'm I don't think we've ever approved black in the in the historic the book the for approved colors has never been black. I think the dark knight is the underside and then you see the naval I believe the dark knight is the is the lighter color. If you look at the top of the this is the naval blue that would be there. more of a blue or charcoal because black has never been a part of the color choices available in the design and historic review book. Sherwin Williams says it's a blue with slate undertones. There you go. Well, navy is one of those colors you can do. So, there you go. It has inky depth. Do we have other questions for Is this coming forward from tears with approval? Yes, sir. Okay. I I may I make a motion we approve. Mayor, I second. Second by Harry. Any public comment? Take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. We are now concluded with our regular agenda, the consent agenda, the proclamations, and we are now going to

[3:53:26] move into close session. We shall return. We gota read. Oh, I'm not through yet. You got to listen to me a little bit more. Close session. Executive session under the provision of government code title 5 open government ethics subtitle A open government chapter 551. Open meeting sub chapter D exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the following sections. A. Section 551.072 deliberations about real property regarding 1005 South Park Street. B. Section 551072 deliberations about real property regarding 3415 Johnson Avenue. Section 551.072 deliberations about real property regarding airport hanger lease. Section D. Section 551072 deliberations about real property regarding approximately 200.11 acres out of survey 20 WC Ry comp uh company abstract 8138. Approximately 143.78 acres out of survey 19 WC Ry Company abstract 4018 and approximately 8.39 acres out of survey 4 and a half JW Johnson abstract 8647. Did I get it all? We will be back when we Yes. I'm going to have to leave. I got to go home and get some food to my wife. Okay, go. It was I told her by Yeah, you're good. 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 6. And we are calling this um meeting back to order following the closed uh session. We have one announcement to make following the closed session, and that is a I'm going to ask for a motion authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a purchase and sales agreement with Skybox Data Centers LLC for the sale of approximately 343.89 acres out of surveys 19 and 20. WC Ry Company abstracts 8138 and 418 and approximately 8.39 acres out of survey 4

[3:55:29] and a half JW Johnson abstract 8647 with a purchase price of $50,000 an acre based on a final survey and subject to city council's approvement of an agreement under chapter 380 of the Texas Local Government Code. May I have that motion? So moved. So moved by Tommy, seconded by Tom. All and Lucy and Karen and Larry. No, it was Lucy. I think it was Lucy and Larry. With that, we'll take a vote being no one else is in the audience. So all of you in favor say I. Motion passes. May I now have a motion for adjournment, please? Mayor, excuse me. Oh, yes, ma'am. Oh, come canvasing. We got to figure out canvasing. Yes. Um, I would like to propose that we canvas um Wednesday, May 14th at 8:30. I will need a minimum of five of you to be here um because we require a quorum to call that runoff election for single member district 2. So, is that Wednesday? It'll be Wednesday at 8:30. Wednesday. So, Karen, Lucy, Tommy, and Larry. I'm out of state. Harry will be here, I think. And will be there too. Yeah. The three of you plus Tommy. Okay. Next Wednesday, right? Wednesday the 14th 8:30. Okay. All right. Just confirm with Harry just I think he is. Yeah. I think like to do that. Is that all you needed? That's all I need. Thank Will Go ahead. Let me make a a request for a future agenda item. Um Daniel, we talked about it. Our last last agenda item was the uh tears and have Aaron, if you don't mind, start going through the process to look at that new policy or a different policy to use it for its originally intended purpose of infrastructure. Good. Thank you very much. Yeah, we've got to go back to what the tears was created for and the purpose behind it and start and stop being so creative with it. So that's a great great idea. I move we adjourn. Okay. So with that second and um public

[3:57:33] comment none. So let's take a vote. Is everybody in favor of adjourning? Yes. Okay. We are adjourned officially at 1:58 p.m. So yeah.

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=ZmF2xwJA7Xs