San Angelo City Council 1-3-23

[0:00:00] to year 2023 it's hard to say but it's here and we welcome you to the city council meeting on January the 3rd 2023 and as usual we will start the meeting off with our chaplain prayer and today we have police chaplain art Movado Morocco thank you I'm assuming you're going to lead us in the pledges as well okay let's pray heavenly father I thank you for having the privilege of serving our city and I pray father that as our council members discuss their agenda and craft policies for our city we will always put the people's interests above our own remind us father that we are in this position not to be served but to serve the public I also pray father that we will uphold what is moral and rational in Jesus name I pray amen Now ladies and gentlemen the pledge of allegiance to our 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 congratulations today we have one Proclamation so would all the ladies that are here today to receive this Proclamation please come forward you can just surround me I need all these women today this is

[0:02:06] great thank you Happy New Year hello the Lakota Society of San Angelo was founded January 8 1983. the society had its Inception in the Rosary Reading and arts Club the home of narcisse Stokes was the setting up a branching ceremony on December the 16th 1982. members from this group formed quote the Saturday group on January 23 1983 the group voted to name itself Lakota Society of San Angelo Pat Hawkins and Irma Jean Moreland submitted the term cotery and Hattie MacDonald added the French article Le the group elected Nelly Joe Gardner's president Odessa McDonald vice president Lily may Smith recording secretary Lola Andrews assistant recording secretary Hattie MacDonald Treasurer Opel M Allen chaplain Ella lemon's music Minister Hazel blockman historian and Pat Hawkins the liaison officer a constitution committee chaired by Melissa Booker and a ritual and ceremonial committee co-chaired by Mary Frances Willis and Nellie Joe Garden Gordon were formed Melissa Booker Dolores Jones Clara freeze and Hattie McDonald submitted the organization's Constitution through the years the members have recognized various needs in this International Community and have contributed to the community in many ways including awarding academic scholarships to graduating high school seniors the Lakota Society remains an active Group in San Angelo today by reflecting this philosophy of uniting and maintaining a harmonious Society of women with common interests who are dedicated to the concept of Sisterhood while developing and enhancing service projects that are culturally rewarding to both members and to the community therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of San Angelo do hereby Proclaim Saturday January the 14th 2023 as Lakota

[0:04:11] Society of San Angelo day in the city of San Angelo and encourage all residents to join the society in contributing to the community in meaningful ways who would like for Christmas good morning on behalf of the ladies of the Corey Society willing to thank mayor Gunter and the city for this Proclamation we are very happy to serve our community and giving scholarships to graduating high school seniors and we have one charter member that continues to serve with us and we definitely want to recognize and that's Miss Clara freeze it's been here the whole 40 years foreign [Applause] foreign we will now move into the public comment section of the agenda issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the Diaz Begin by stating their name and address or single member district and limit their remarks to less than three minutes do we have people here today who would like to make public comment

[0:06:13] if so please come forward Zane white District Six a year ago this month I proposed a hotel Cactus rooftop sign renovation project to hotel owner Lee Pfluger and also to San Angelo municipal government officials Lee pfluger's illegally disrepared 14-story rooftop sign has shamefully defaced the entire downtown Skyline since 2005 when plumer removed over half of the original letters reportedly in order to update their interior illumination since that initial project proposal a year ago several officials have accelerated the city's 17-year campaign to illegally avoid issuing sign code violation citations to leave Pflueger in the same manner the federal government continues to corruptly Shield Joe Biden from responsibility regarding blatant undeniable illegal activity found on Hunter Biden's laptop the city of San Angelo municipal government sleazily continues to Shield Lee Pfluger and or the city itself from responsibility regarding blatant undeniable illegal code enforcement issues due to time limitations I'll only be able to publicly offer the following 2023 predictions and or promises that one the city's ridiculous Supreme Court decision excuses regarding signed code enforcement refusal will be established by outside authorities to be legally illegitimate to outside authorities will establish Lee pfluger's Hotel Cactus sign to not be legally maintained in a presentable condition and therefore Pfluger will immediately be issued sign

[0:08:16] code violation citations three if justices sir served the District Attorney's ongoing criminal investigation of city manager Daniel Valenzuela will lead to a conviction regarding his illegal actions against me last August while I was attempting to file a code enforcement complaint number four if justices served results of a comprehensive investigation regarding Daniel valenzuela's unethical and or illegal actions related to the city of San Angelo Development Corporation will lead to appropriate criminal convictions of Valenzuela five in addition to the Cosa DC Scandal whistleblowers will expose extensive long-term corruption regarding other City issues involving multiple staffers and elected officials and those individuals will hopefully be criminally indicted and convicted six Lee Pfluger will be forced to take appropriate construction related actions regarding his rooftop sign unfortunately Pfluger will most likely attempt to have the sign removed as he has already done in recent months after requesting City taxpayer funds to do so number seven San Angelo voters will replace corrupt city council members here whose terms are ending number eight 2023 will not be a good year for corrupt individuals in San Angelo [Music] for the public comment if so please come forward morning Mike Burnett single member in District One as you know Concho Valley Community Action Agency provides assistance for our low-income neighbors over the past few years this has included working with our homeless population as you're aware extreme weather puts our homeless Neighbors at extreme risk to that end cvcaa has been working with the Concho Valley homeless planning coalition to

[0:10:18] provide Safe Haven and extreme weather the out of the cold program run by the Salvation Army and the end of the warmth program run by the Homeless Coalition Place homeless neighbors into hotel rooms when the temperature drops to a certain point so far this uh winter over 70 thousand dollars has been has been spent providing temporary shelter in addition the code spelled the week before Christmas saw the city open an emergency warming shelter and I'd like to thank the city for providing that shelter the needs of our homeless neighbors go beyond just having safe shelter on extremely cold nights there are many essential services that could be provided on a regular basis if San Angelo had a homeless shelter since the shelter closing several years ago San Angelo has become one of the largest cities in the United States without a homeless shelter it is absurd that our city has not risen to meet the ongoing needs of these individuals this is not just the problem of these individuals or the Homeless Coalition or the agencies that work together to provide assistance is the problem of the entire community of San Angelo and we'll take unified front for this to be handled and that includes the involvement of the city of San Angelo's government over the past few months I've repeatedly asked to have conversations with you the members of city council to be fair I've met individually with the mayor and two other council members repeated attempts to contact the rest of council have not been returned I've invited Council to our homeless navigation day so that you can see firsthand the need and the work that is already being done but you have not attended our next navigation day is January 26th which is also the point in time count where we attempt to count all the individuals experiencing homelessness in our city I hope that you will participate in the count as well as meet the needs as well as meet the individuals and agencies working on the 26th again I'm calling upon the city council to create a homeless shelter task force I'm also asking that the council adopt a homeless Bill of Rights I'm also asking that the city consider a sanctioned campground to temporarily house our homeless individuals to that end I am asking that these topics be placed on the agenda for Council San Angelo has gone too long without a shelter for our homeless neighbors and

[0:12:20] The Time Is Now to act thank you further public comment good morning my name is Sharon Troy I reside at 401 Rio Concho drive thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today I strongly encourage the city to help create a shelter task force that Mike Burnett has previously talked to the council about I believe having the city involved in a shelter task force is vital to re-establishing a homeless shelter as the safest place for the homeless in our city it was disheartening for me to learn that the efforts made in the past by a non-profit to purchase the closed altar building on Second Street were unsuccessful I believe most people in the community realize the importance of working together to once again have a shelter homelessness in San Angelo is personal to me I worked at the Salvation Army shelter as a shelter manager between January 2016 and May 2017. the shelter provided the public and residents with free meals and showers and residents paid ten dollars a night to sleep there several people have told me they only ever heard negative things about the shelter I know when I worked there I only ever filed to Criminal Trespass complaints several residents at the staying at the shelter had jobs at buddies in Ballinger through people ready jobs at restaurants and fast food businesses and jobs in construction and Landscaping to name a few having a shelter allowed for case management to also be done and I networked with multiple agencies to help residents apply for everything from Health Care Services to replacement IDs to permanent housing I also invited one agency each month to provide Outreach such as HUD so residents could get on

[0:14:24] the HUD waiting list Church groups and organizations volunteered their time several of the residents ended up moving into apartments that they are still living in today which means five straight years of not returning to the streets or living in their cars the monthly homeless navigation Day events by Contra Valley Community Action Agency have provided a tremendous number of Direct Services I work in mental health and have participated in all the monthly events we were honored to have representative August Pfluger and judge Carter accept Mike's invitation to attend the December event representative Pfluger visited with staff from each of the agencies present to talk about what Direct Services they were providing and what were the greatest needs representative Pfluger also took a tour of the clinic sbranza's mobile unit who has provided medical services and immunizations at these events having a shelter again would prevent the continuation of spending thousands of dollars on Motel stays and allow for case management to be done as Mike is matching previously having a sanctioned Campground would be a great start in providing a safe place for the homeless I know from personal experience from not that many years ago how hard it can be to get the necessary services and supports that are needed to not only function but be able to work and become self-sufficient in the community thank you for the public comment good morning my name is Sarah negovic I live at 3310 Cumberland Drive first I want to thank the city council and the city for its decision to open the warming shelter shortly before Christmas I can guarantee you that lives were saved due to the actions of the city and providing a warm safe place for folks when we were experiencing such cold weather however homelessness is not an

[0:16:26] issue that we can only address when the weather drops cold or when it's advantageous for us to do so we have a large homeless population here in San Angelo despite the fact that many of us don't see them because they tuck themselves away for safety over and over I hear the phrase that there's jobs available so why don't these people just get a job and stop living on the street so today I'd like to address that issue first off there are numerous barriers to individuals obtaining a job the first of which is documentation many of us come from households where we left home with everything that we could possibly need but the folks living on the street for many of them that wasn't the case they started out in households that didn't have the things that we take for granted like stable housing or families that knew what they were doing or that knew to obtain those documents and keep them many of them started out without anything obtaining these documents is extremely difficult complicated and costly so for some of our homeless neighbors getting a birth certificate so that they can obtain the proper documentation to get a job means choosing between buying a piece of paper or paying for meals for the entire week a decision I'm not sure I could make if I were in the same place but let's say that they're able to overcome that barrier and obtain all the documents that they need to be able to apply for a job when they walk into those jobs how many of you sitting in the hiring manager's position would hire someone who walks in who hasn't showered recently doesn't have access to be able to wash their clothes and has every worldly possession they own strapped to their back how many of you are taking that job application and considering it seriously but let's say they're able to overcome that and they find a hiring manager who's willing to overcome and Overlook all of those objections and they're able to find a job now it's not going to be a very good job but we've all seen the signs outside of McDonald's hiring at 14

[0:18:29] an hour right so let's say they're able to get that job at 14 an hour working for an entire month give or take a little bit to take out taxes they're not taking home enough to pay for a first month's rent a deposit utility deposits not to mention insurance it's going to take them several months to save up for that all while they're also trying to eat and pay for transportation on top of that they'll be lucky if they can keep that job since they don't have access to be able to have an alarm clock or proper hygiene and they still have all their worldly possessions strapped to their back it's not easy to just go get a job and the city needs to find a solution thank you very much further public comment good morning city manager mayor members of council my name is Tim Davenport Herbst and I am the pastor of Saint Paul Presbyterian Church I am also a resident of single member district one Saint Paul has been involved in Direct Services to homeless folks in our community for decades over 20 years ago we attempted to organize Family Promise here in the community it required 10 to 12 churches to be willing to take on The Residency for homeless individuals and families for one month per for one week per month and we never could get enough people to do that so Saint Paul did what it always does and said okay we will do that and we opened up one of our Sunday School classrooms and held people in them for 15 years a whole lot of different folks came through there a lot of people with mental health issues a lot of people with substance abuse issues it was sometimes very difficult work but we

[0:20:32] did it because it's something that needs to be done when the shelter shut in our community several years ago we lost a really important resource that is critical to a community responding to its homeless population I am also the chair of the Statewide Community investment committee for the Texas homeless Network for the balance of State balance of State means us people that are Rural and it is embarrassing to go to those meetings and find out places like Bonham and Palestine have those shelters and we don't the entire program to get people out of homelessness into productivity is set around having a shelter it requires that as part of its plan we are missing out on an important opportunity by not having that it's not something we can depend on somebody else to do what we found out when Salvation Army closed their shelter is that their decisions are not made locally people here locally didn't want to do that but those decisions were made in Dallas we need to do something to bring those decisions back to us locally I believe that that is a homeless shelter is Mike and others have said this will provide a way to help get people through the entire process and into permanent housing and productivity I want to thank you for your attention and your time and I want to thank you for opening up the emergency warming shelter thank you or the public comment no are y'all District Five I'm here today to keep our tax-funded animal shelter and animal services

[0:22:35] problem in sight during the last council meeting I talked about how closing the shelter the intake was not a solution to anything other than lessening the fecal matter at the shelter it does nothing to address the animals that the city is allowing to run loose I said I said that they would suffer from Hunger the cold attacks from other animals and injuries from being hit by automobiles I also brought up that the animals if left of run the streets would attack people as I spoke as I spoke last meeting this is exactly what was happening a dog was a trying to attack a person they showed themselves with a trash can a neighbor came out with a shotgun the dog turned towards him and he shot the dog he here in the city limits in residential area don't get me wrong this man did not have a choice since it was a shotgun it was probably a slug and not a single bullet projectile what if they shot it scattered and hit a person do you see the position that you're putting the citizens in later today there is a reading of a budget amendment if this can be done why can't the city find the funds to hire an additional code enforcement officer and start enforcing spay neuter additionally why can't the funds be found to offer spay neuter vouchers for first-time offenders if you feel leniency should be shown when enforcing the an ordinance that has been around for seven years what are I don't know what we're waiting on I think most of you believe that this really isn't important to a whole lot of people my friends are sick of getting up here to ask for help they feel anything they say falls on deaf ears on Tuesday Mornings there are some are some that have day jobs but I am here to tell you that many of them are at a spay neuter clinic on council meeting days they have at least one Clinic a week where they spay neuter with pain meds and vaccinate at least 35 animals

[0:24:39] they are volunteers and they seem to be doing more to solve our pet occupy pet overpopulation problem than our city why is our city not hearing any feedback from we're not hearing from anybody on this thank you further public comment there's no further public comment we will close the public comment section of the agenda for today and move on to the consent agenda I'll start by asking council members if there's any item on the consent agenda that they would like to pull and I'll start with Larry Karen Lucy Harry Tom was in the pool Tommy with that may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved by Harry is there a second second by Lucy any public comment on the items on the consent agenda seeing none will take a vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say I'm say no Nays it is the consent agenda is approved seven to zero we will move into the regular agenda comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above applicants proponents and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes item a discuss and consider adoption of an ordinance authorizing the issue and sell of city of San Angelo Texas combination Tax and Revenue certificates of obligation series 2023a appointing a pricing officer and delegating to the pricing officer the authority to approve on behalf of the city the sell of the certificates the terms of the certificates and offering the documents

[0:26:43] for the certificates establishing certain parameters for the approval of such Matters by the pricing officer approving the use of a pain agent register registrar agreement leveling an annual ad valorem tax and providing for the security for and payment of said certificates providing an effective date and enacting other Provisions relating to the subject Tina you're on thank you mayor Tina darski Director of Finance this parameters ordinance is the next step in issuing our debt for the lake nasworthy sewer project that we discussed we began this process back in November so this is the next step it is appointing the pricing officer so that when we put the debt issue out to bid when that comes back we're able to facilitate that quickly and efficiently and take we will always take the lowest bid when those bids do come in we're expecting the well the bid deadline is January 12th and we expect the bond to close by February 3rd and that will allow us to have the money in hand when Shane's ready to bid the project the estimated interest rate on this is 4.52 percent that's based on the rate as of December 21st plus 25 basis points to be conservative and again those are the dates that we're expecting to see who's been our pricing officer in the past it's always been the Director of Finance so um we would assume then that as we speak about this we will today say that once again the finance director is our pricing officer yes ma'am and and it'll be basically the pricing officer signs and approves the bid the lowest bid that comes in when Vince vialer analyst puts that out for bid and do we believe that there has been any changes in projected expense of this like Nas or the project since it was first presented in November I'm not aware of any but I'll let Shane speak to that we are um we're not expecting any

[0:29:01] changes currently we believe that the opinion will probable costs that we're given for this project are still valid they did I actually put in a bit of a oh just a touch of a percentage of a increase in there just to make sure that what their opinions would be would carry on if inflation did continue to creep as we move forward to the um to the bid letting in to the award has there been interest in this project we have been in contact or been contacted by two or three outside outside of the city Bender or contractors so we know that their people are looking we will have a meeting this Thursday where we will meet with any uh proposers people that will actually give us a proposal on this project and so we will after Thursday we'll have a very good idea of of what we're looking at from contractors that are they're looking to to bid on this project so when we assign this project how do we uh get informed if anything has dramatically changed relative to pricing so that along the way because this is a two to three year project right so once in the bids or the proposals are due to us at the end of at the end of this month and so at the end of this month when we receive the proposals at that point in time we'll know if if the if there were any increases over and above what we were expecting from the opinion of probable cost at that point in time once the council awards that bid we will lock in those prices those those contractors at that point once we issue the PO and we issue them the notice to proceed they will they will lock in those prices for the pipe and all of the other products that they're going to use during that construction process and what is the contingency amount on this project

[0:31:02] anticipated Let Me Andy you remember I believe it was 10 but um 10 to 15 so it was a substantial contingency but Andy probably has a better memory than I do more mayor council Andy vasolio assistant director of water utilities uh unfortunately I don't have a better memory than Shane I do think it was around a 10 to 15 as well I'm guessing it was 10 but we did have a an additional contingency in addition to their cost opinion included for this total price does anyone on Council have further questions or comments to make concerning this item just a couple of comments tell me um for those that may not remember this isn't an issue I I was first introduced to an issue that is created by one of the reasons we are looking at this project and that was back in 2017 we had some businesses over and you're all going to think this is crazy but some businesses over around the Post Office Annex on Loop 306 that had to close because of the noxious methane gas and it was due to the lack of capacity of the sewer that the problem originated at and around Lake nasworthy so this is going to eliminate and upgrade much of our sewer system but it's also going to allow us to do some development that we have had to turn down simply because we have not had the capacity in our sewer system to um get the sewer from where it originates to where it needs to be so um

[0:33:04] having said that mayor I would approve this item as presented by Tina I do your comment Tommy we also want to make sure we protect Lake nazarethy in a piece of this project as assurance that Lake nasworthy will be protected redundancy yes and so that's hugely important I think the only questions and the only concern is about the dollar amount and so when we all started talking about this project we always talked about a 32-ish million dollar project so there's not from my perspective um it's a huge priority from my perspective I think it's one of the biggest things that we will accomplish over the next few years for economic development and as well as all the other issues what we've talked about but we are signing off on a huge dollar amount over and above what we all thought was going to be a projected dollar amount so the question and concern is not about the importance it is really about wow it's a big dollar amount is it needed yes will it increase Economic Development yes it will do many things and we we get that but we're looking for someone to make sure that they have their eyes wide open and look for any opportunities to reduce these costs yes Tom so in this this one will probably go back to Shane Andy Tina I have yet to see one of these come across that they haven't had to go in and kick in uh an additional expense for it and go over and go into the contingency do we ever check that I mean whose word do we take do they have an initial bid and say this is what this cost is and when they get to it 12 16 months later and they say oh hey the cost has gone up we hit the maximum do we actually have something that can validate that I mean other than their own word we do we haven't we actually we have inspectors throughout the entire process on-site you know ensuring that every step of the way that they're doing

[0:35:06] exactly what the bid proposal whatever the bid was and we have everything line itemed out so every foot of pipe is line on out every cubic yard of dirt excavated is line item to out ever um well again I'm looking at the price of that Shane I mean every time it's nearly once a month we come in here with a you know we just did all the pipe here last month and that was how many million yeah that was a big one and so you know you go out and you check with people well there's pipe stacked here there but it just it seems to me every time we do it there's always over running I'm not I don't mean to be hostile about this but I just get tired of hearing going every time it's 10 15 and do they really does that really Merit itself or does it not and there are there there are times that sometimes the bids depending on the the bidder and and the vendors and all of that stuff sometimes that their their percentage the that they put on for profit and overhead are greater than the other companies are bidders that they are and sometimes unfortunately here in San Angelo isolated the way we are from the larger metropolitan areas where a lot of times on some of these moderate size projects which of course we think a lot of these we start getting into 30 million dollar projects these are huge projects and they are for the city of San Angelo but they're just not enough to attract a lot of those larger companies to come out of Dallas and San Antonio and Houston and those areas to come out here to San Angelo to actually work and so a lot of times we are just we're limited to one or two contractors that actually bid on our projects and and so that lack of competition sometimes does hinder us a little bit in that area as well too but no we we will go through those bids um when we get and these are actually going to be proposals and so when we get these proposals in from these contractors we will go through them each of their proposals and we will validate to make sure that the prices that they're giving us are relative to what's what the marketplace is what we're seeing in other places and at least get the lowest one as close as we can to the relative markets that we're seeing whether that's in Lubbock

[0:37:09] or Wichita Falls or you know some of these other markets around um that are again not Dallas Fort Worth or San Antonio many of our contractors are verbally integrated that they Supply themselves internally from you know I have this company supplies this company and it's it's a smart business model but point of it is it's a way to just change your cost one or two above or below and there's no way to validate was is that actually a true cost or yeah we just have to take the word for it yeah sometimes we have in certain situations like that we have to take their word for it and this I mean we can look at we can look at the you know what the PVC pipe Market is doing um across the country and not just in San Angelo Texas and so we can those are top things that we can validate and we can make sure that we are getting I mean we've all discussed it when does it quit you know everybody just turns a bid when I think they throw it and go well I'll be able to make another 10 on top of it in the long run and it just irritates me so I think the point is to find that when we already establish a price point for this project 52 million people work their proposals up to the 52 million instead of saying okay well if we didn't throw a number out there at you what would your number really be but we've already established a number so you get concerned that it's it's a number that they're going to work a bit up to regardless of the weather is yeah a valid number or not and so again I say all eyes focused on this because it's much larger than we ever anticipated it's a number that has shocked us all including you city manager Michael Dane everyone it was shocking number so we want to make sure that we get an honest approach to this and that San Angelo Texas gets a great project that comes in under the estimate yes ma'am and and we'll again we'll go through the in the in the driving in the biggest driving factor of all of this was the inflationary rate on PVC pipe I mean that was that was what

[0:39:12] really drove the the cost of this way up was um the just the cost of PVC has just skyrocketed uh since the time we actually put the plan started putting the plan in place to start design and start all the work to get to where we are today to the bidding phase we've just seen such a huge increase and that's where the majority of the increase of this came was just in the cost of the PVC pipe a little bit in labor and a little bit and things like that Machinery things like that have are factors in it but the majority of the factor was the increase was the PVC piping again I want to repeat we think this is a really necessary project for the protection of Lake Nazareth the water redundancy Economic Development it's much needed and we're glad we're at this point in this project but it was still a shocking number so again all eyes on it with that there was a motion by Tommy to approve this and so I'm going to ask for a second a second by Karen any public comment seeing none will take a vote all those in favor say aye are there any opposed with none opposed this motion item a on the regular agenda has been approved seven zero thank you mayor we will now move into the closed session of which there is none we will move into the follow-up and administrative issues which there are none and then that leaves me at a point of do I have a motion for a German in a second I think I had a lot of those out there so one of them must be a second anybody opposed to adjourning this meeting at 9 11 A.M on January the 3rd with none take a we'll we're dismissed foreign

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=qD4_PuX-O4U