San Angelo City Council 3-19-24

[0:00:00] on this March the 19th 2024 we will as usual start our meeting with our chaplain prayer and pledges and we have Ralph Dawkins here to lead us in both if you'll please come forward and if all of you will stand please good morning morning let us pray father I thank you for the opportunity to invoke prayer and your word into this me Gathering of City officials and leaders and concerned citizens your word declares in Jeremiah 29:11 that you already know the plans that you have for us plans for prosperity and plans not for evil but plans that will bring us a future and a hope so during this lint season may you lead and guide them with wisdom courage and integrity to hear the concerns of these citizens and make and make decisions that will benefit our city and our community I ask that you would move mightily through them today so come into this room and cause them to have a productive meeting and let there be a sense of agreement and cooperation to come peacefully to come to Peaceful solutions for the benefit of our community so I lift up the mayor her staff and assistants the city council the city manager and every person and Department that is instrumental in leading and directing our city I pray for the police chief and the entire police force the sheriff's department that they may continue to protect and serve the residents of our city I pray for the fire chief and the P department and all the First Responders who serve our city and even in their executive session may they think and strategize in ways that will achieve great results lastly I pray Lord that you would continue to give our city and Community economic Prosperity safety may you draw in and attract to City industry businesses corporations that will produce jobs and

[0:02:04] revenue and help it to grow and prosper in Jesus name amen let's do the pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all honor i al toex St God indivisible thank you good morning everyone and welcome to city council and the first of our proclamations today which is for the S Angel Federal Credit Union's 85th Anniversary so those of you in the audience who are here to receive this please come forward all of you yes just a small of my team I know it is but it's a good piece of the team s Angel Federal Credit Union established in 1939 was founded with the mission of promoting Thrift among its members by providing opportunities to accumulate savings and access Credit for Provident and productive purposes purposes as the oldest Federal Credit Union in the area the institution is dedicated to delivering exceptional Member Service daily individuals residing working worshiping or attending school in Tom Green County or having a relative who is a member or eligible for membership at St Angelo Federal Credit Union the credit union takes pride in being a fullservice financial institution continually evaluating the latest technology to offer members the most advanced products and services for 85

[0:04:07] years Sanel Federal Credit Union has stood as a Pillar of Strength stability and service throughout this time the institution has provided valuable financial resources and support to over 4,000 members s Angelo Federal Credit Union remains steadfast in its commitment to empowering members to achieve their financial goals and dreams enriching lives for decades therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of St Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim February 10 2024 as s Angel Federal Credit Union's 85th Anniversary and invite all members to participate in commemorating this significant Milestone by attending their annual membership meeting on March 21st 2024 congratulations on 85 years thank you would you like to offer some comments sure thank you so much for this honor and recognizing our 85th Anniversary we are blessed and proud to be the oldest Federal Credit Union here in St Angelo pardon me as the oldest Federal Credit Union we were established originally to serve the City and County Employees so sometimes I think maybe we're the best kept secret that people still think that um but in 2006 we did open up to the community so if you are a resident in Tom Green County we would love to let you be our member when you're remember you're an owner and we would love to help you meet any of your financial needs thank you thank you would you like anything then let's go have the picture come on to the front our next Proclamation is Texas Small

[0:06:15] Business Development Center day and I know we have people in the audience for this so please come forward good good yes yeah you tall people in the front small businesses are the backbone of our economy contributing significantly to job creation Innovation and Community Vitality which is why the National Small Business Development Center or sbdc program was legislated via the small business Act of 1976 as a prog of the US small business administration sbc's play a Comm Comm a crucial role in supporting the growth and success of small businesses Across the Nation by providing expert guidance resources and training to entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1990 the Angelo State University Small Business Development Center has been instrumental in empowering small businesses in our community by offering no cost consulting services and training workshops with the mission to Foster small business success the ASU sbdc strives to educate and and assist entrepreneural in various areas of Business Development including access to Capital Market resour Research assistance and Human Resource Management the sbdc has demonstrated unwavering dedication to fostering Economic Development and the entrepreneurial Spirit within the city of St Angelo contri contributing to the resilience and prosperity of our local business EOS system with over 9.2 million in capital infusion from sbdc clients therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of s Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim March 20th 2024 as Texas Small Business Development Center day in St Angelo Texas and call

[0:08:19] this observance to honor their contributions and celebrate their achievements congratulations would you like to speak I'm going to give you the proclamation offer some words thank you I would just like to thank everybody for their support and their time today especially our host Angelo State University um our Economic Development partners that help us serve the small businesses of St Angelo and all that they do in the various areas of economic growth and then most importantly I want to thank my team we have here uh with us our student team uh Julia sunby and Zang they are part of the Norris Vincent College of Business and assist us in our day-to-day as well as supporting clients as well under the toolage of our professional advising team which is Miss Elizabeth danler Angelina osoro Torres James lville and very special attorney Dave Erikson he couldn't stay away I'm I appreciate his mentorship and and am excited to have him back on the advising roster to continue to support small businesses and like the mayor mentioned it's our goal to be here to serve the small businesses in San Angelo and that's anybody that's 500 or fewer employees so if you are a business here in the Concho Valley or in our surrounding tin County area we're here to support you in whatever opportunities or hurdles that you face so thank you mayor and thank you [Applause] councel we go thank

[0:10:28] you our next Proclamation is for the developmental disabilities awareness month do I have individuals in the audience to come forward for this good hi Greg how are you to see got the crew today goodone stand next to me March 2024 marks the 37th anniversary of national developmental disabilities Awareness Month the disabilities assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 DD act ensures that individuals with developmental disabilities and their families can access Community Services personalized support and assistance to promote self-determination Independence productivity and Community integration and inclusion National developmental disabilities Awareness Month serves as a platform to celebrate the contributions of individuals with livid experience across Texas and the conso valley while raising a awareness about the barriers they encounter in achieving complete Community inclusion nationally approximately 57 million people have a disability with around 3.5 million in Texas having a developmental disability and approximately 475,000 having an intellectual and developmental disability Texas residents both with and without developmental disabilities greatly enrich the communities of Texas and the Kono Valley through their strengths ability and contributions while celebrating a brighter future and

[0:12:32] expanded opportunities it is crucial to acknowledge the existing obstacles that hinder individuals with developmental disabilities from realizing their full potential in various aspects of life such as school work home or as members of their families and communities therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of s Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim March 2024 as developmental disabilities Awareness Month and encourages everyone to learn about how systematic barriers still exist that limit people with disabilities from enjoying Equitable experiences and living independent productive lives within their communities thank you great may you accept this and may I have well thank you thank you mayor and thank you CD Council you know MHMR we can't do what we do without our partners our sponsoring agencies like the city council uh and we we greatly appreciate your support um I have brought as usual just annually I bring our basketball team I bring our cheerleaders some of them and I like to recognize them because they're the ones who work so hard and make this month one of the the best celebrations we have at MHMR um I also have our coach Rita over here she's the tallest basketball coach I think I've I think I've met she dedicates hours upon hours every year coaching folks in not only basketball but flag football bad mitton bowling track unbelievable amount of time this is our 20th anniversary going up to Big Spring Howard College we play other teams we play uh abene Midland Odessa Big Spring Sweetwater some of the other communities and it's a huge tournament it's awesome time to celebrate people with not disabilities but abilities and um I I'm really proud of our team our services and what we do

[0:14:36] here in the community how we enhance lives for others so thank you very much thank you thank you very much picture all right big smiles thank you we will now move into the public comment section of the agenda if if you choose to speak please come forward and state your name and address or SMD area each citizen can speak just once per item unless asked to comment by councel public comment is for three minutes unless extended by councel or translation services the proponent or opponent five minutes unless extended by councel or translation services Council has no obligation to respond to comments or questions from the public any response from a member of the city Council to non-agenda comments is limited to one a statement of specific factual information two recitation of existing policy and three directing

[0:16:38] staff to place a subject on a future agenda do we have people in our audience public comment welcome um Sylvia Martinez 827 uh 818 San cinto I'm I came today because um as I'm supposed to be a a businesswoman but um because of um the circumstances they never uh let me open because of my parking um uh I knew that uh because of that I I let it go I just let it go but I went to go pay my taxes and I was I'm kind of upset because I feel that they should uh let me um I went paid them the young girl that was the cashier told me you do not have no say toward the building I I was upset because all these years the city has not let me do nothing last year it almost got burned down okay I live with it I have lived all these years I turned 70 this year I'm going to be 71 in August and I lived now we're we're going to going to take our they might take our rights away I I've you all have taken all of this from me not letting me open if I was downtown I bet you because I don't have parking y'all would have let me open now these people don't want me to have a say so toward my building that I paid $2,000 but they took my money and I'm just here so people out there can hear what the city of San Angelo is doing to us you take my rights as a businesswoman you're a businesswoman how would you like if they did it to you mayor I'm here as a businesswoman first and then a woman I wouldn't have to live

[0:18:44] like I live right now if yall would let me open look at those people in Sonora they have buildings but they're opening for what for taxes but no y all can't let this Mexican woman open because she don't have parking but you all live with it every day I pray that one of these days before I die youall have the decency to tell me Miss Martinez you're a businesswoman you can open and I leave it at that further public comment second to get set up here yeah I don't know if the timer is working I noticed I don't know if it is or not and I didn't bring my manual one I assume it is cuz y'all are going to cut me off at 3 minutes I know well I just didn't see the lights going on or off I was assuming it does and you're I realize I've tried to be very careful that okay and and I'm doing some pictures this time which I've not done before so I'm a little a little less organized so maybe you could bear a second or two as I get get it together to do all this at the same time okay my name is Jackie Chestnut I'm a woman as a woman I have worn many hats over 67 years this is international women's month which we haven't recognized yet we all get a month and a week and a day and we 50% of the population are going to get this month to speak so I am an engineer I'm a Rancher I'm a patent holder of an invention of a round Bell hay feeder I have been arrested twice illegally I've got a spouse that was taken into this city and murdered um and I have been through the hell of that I have now recovered from

[0:20:49] that not financially but I have I've been robbed and many other things so I've got many many hats I've worn now not some of them not too happy to have worn so now in 2020 this government uh decided to shut us down which was illegal and you all acted like you were the parents that could send us all home and the whole thing was illegal so since then I consider y'all hostile and I don't approve what y'all do so um in 2020 is when it led to the atrocity that's occurred to me over the past four years so and I'll go from there Joe hod said nobody likes me don't really care Jo okay um next we're going to lead into the topic of some specific things about the city that I want to talk about we have a big problem in this city with sewer gas every facility you go into from City Hall to uh the cour houses to every place you go and I've been in all these places now over the past three years with the atrocities that have occurred to me we have sewer gas regularly now as an engineer I'm I'm tasked with not having sewer gas in facilities that's one of my biggest jobs so I'm going to hand over to you all the regulations on sewer gas and and leads to the fact that we need to do some serious serious things in this town relating to sewer we know we have water issues big ones with sewer because this is deadly gas it will kill you I don't like breathing it I don't want to breathe it I don't want to walk into a facility in the city and breathe it so I'm going to hand that to you all and let y'all study that next thing is all over this town in many many many of the houses around here we still have Federal Pacific electric panels which will burn your house down and they do regularly they happen to have caught the house on fire in the ranch that I live in out in nicker Bacher because it was a house that was moved out from Houston art freeway and they told the told everybody these were supposed to be out of our homes and we are selling homes all day along in this city two people I have three friends that were sold homes with these in them they were told they were illegal and they sold them the homes anyway and they're living

[0:22:52] in them and now they' got electrical problems and they're about to burn their houses down y'all need to do some studying now next thing is I got nine seconds let's look at it look at the pretty picture right here that I bring up of our facilities in St Angelo Texas this is our railroad Depot that we remodeled and did and I just want you to take a look at it and we'll go from there okay and then we'll bring some more pictures and I've got 300 because I'm going to ask for an agenda item because I want this as an agenda item because I want to do a whole presentation on condition and I'll shut up because that's what you want me to do okay thank you and I don't am not pleased to be here at all this is this is like going to chemotherapy which I've been to never seen people so unbelievable yeah look at that you want to go sit in that seat go take a look at it further public comment everybody see me cuz I'm you know little little uh my name is I'm lovingly referred to around town as cat the repo chick I work for Texas Truck World and do asset recovery my name is Katrina furstein recently we inflated a gorilla for advertising purposes and the day we got it we inflated it just to see how big it was going to be Our intention is to put it as a permanent structure on top of our building which we were told I or I was told by Code Compliance would be then advertising for the business as signage and everything was fine we received a citation not even a warning and we were told that it was distraction to drivers so it was every billboard that's up in the town and one that really gets me is the ones that say we heard you don't text and drive or something with the cow so you don't want people to text and drive but you want them to pay attention long enough to read a billboard and that's distracted driving I mean come on we were just testing it out it could have been a warning and not a citation and all day

[0:24:54] long I see inflatable bouncy houses at businesses and I've spoken to them they have never re received a citation or a warning those Wiggly little men that you see nobody's ever received a warning or a citation because the code says the Code Compliance says anything inflatable has to be 20 in or under that's not even two foot and as I stated there's plenty of businesses in this town that have Inflatables and they've never been cited so I would like the Code Compliance looked at and changed and perhaps granted a permit will pay for it great we don't mind that pay for a permit but just cut us some slack we do generate a lot of business a lot of jobs in in the city the county and plenty of other counties in the surrounding area we sell over a 100 cars a month and that's unheard of for a used car dealership so you know just like a little consideration like the Code Compliance looked at and would like some immediate feedback on whether we can get a permit to put that on top of our building as advertis M thank you further public comment excuse me at a January oh Zane white district 6 at a January 26 2023 dhrc meeting Lea Luger submitted his proposed Cactus Hotel metal canopy replacement and storefront repainting project for dhrc approval in order to subsequently be eligible for a

[0:26:55] $75,000 taxpayer funded tears Grant R since only awnings and not canopies existed at the caas hotel Bluer dhrc application should have been automatically considered invalid based upon Federal Secretary of the Interior historic restoration standards which were formerly adopted in 2022 by the kosa city council dhrc chairman David Missour expressed specific concerns that metal awnings might not possibly not qualify as his torically authentic replacements for the original fabric Hunnings kosa principal planner Sher Bailey misleadingly stated the following to Chairman Missour looking at the city's historic preservation design guidelines metal canopies can be considered it is in the interior secretary's Design Elements if they maintain a similar look and color to the existing cloth canopies end quote it's a fact that Federal historic restoration standards indicate that such replacement is not permissible within the downtown historic overlay Zone however based upon the misleading official information presented to them by Shirley Bailey dhrc Commissioners quickly approved fugger's corrupted illegitimate project proposal fluger dhrc project approval was then next addressed at January 23rd 2024 TI board meeting where the ti application some how now included two non dhrc approved items door unit Replacements and installation of ADA entry systems erroneously believing that dhrc had legitimately approved fluger project proposal TI's board members approved fluger Grant at the February 20th 2024 city council meeting council member Karen hessy Smith requested a detailed review regarding the facts I had presented mayor Gunner expressed a critical importance of honoring

[0:28:58] historical restoration standards and an approval motion regarding fluger tear grant funding was tabled at a March 5th 2024 council meeting with mayor gunar and Karen hessie Smith not present the remaining five council members completely disregarded my evidence and swiftly authorized fluger $75,000 TI Grand funding the dhrc board should immediately be directed to review fluger latest project TI Grant application prior to any tiar and city council approvals lastly I wanted on the record that I was recently told by assistant City attorney Rick Weiss that there are no options whatsoever for appealing the illegitimate TI funding authorization to pluger thank you right Rick attorne assistant City attorney manager excuse me further public comment with no further public comment we will move into the uh consent agenda portion of today's meeting I will start with Larry do you have an item you'd like to pull from consent agenda no ma'am Karen no ma'am Lucy no ma'am Harry no ma'am Tom no ma'am Tommy no ma'am with that we I will ask for a motion for approval on items a through F on the consent agenda may I have that motion Mo so move by Larry and seconded I believe by Tom any public comment on the consent agenda items seeing none we will take a vote all those in favor of approving the

[0:30:59] consent agenda please say I I are there any opposed hearing no Nays we will approve the consent agenda all items we will now move into our 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 in stead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes the first item on the agenda is a keep s Angelo beautiful annual report for 2023 and Charlotte Anderson is here to present Charlotte Anderson executive director of keep St Angelo beautiful good morning mayor Gunter and city council it's great to be with you today um so again uh we want to thank you all for the opportunity to review our annual report um provide you an overview of our activities and events for the past year one project we've been working on which we completed successfully I'm very excited are our signs that show we are a keep Texas beautiful affiliate and tex. installed four of those in our Gateway areas we're really proud of them as you're coming in 87 from the south um you'll see it on the right 87 from the north we also have two signs coming in 67 from the North and then headed out 67 West out by Sam's Club so we hope you take a look at that and we hope we can remind our citizens that in San Angelo we don't Litter well we should tell everybody that that as they drive on Houston har and loop 306 that we don't Litter that

[0:33:04] would be nice if they all new maybe we need to buy a few more signs yeah okay so let's talk a little Trash here we go uh for the year um we did 15 cleanups 51,000 lounds of trash and hazardous waste again um for our four years we're starting our fifth year 46 cleanups and we've removed over 156,50 58 lbs of trash so here hopefully um again we send that message that real Texans don't Litter we've got about 200 volunteers at our Texas trash off 587 volunteers on our fall sweep so we do have an upcoming Don't Mess with Texas trash off April 6 so if you don't have anything to do we hope you'll join us okay now we're going to a little rolling and stacking according to tech tire debris is one of our largest on our highways we're excited to report we've removed right at 2,225 tires in our community over the past three years said it before say it again you haven't lived until youve rolled in stack um I want to uh send out a special thank you to Harry for his Challenge and inspiration for our work with the tires um he's been at every single event in and he's rolled and stacked just like the rest of us so these tires are taken from our community they go to Bernard Texas where they're chipped into 1-in squares the metals are removed and sent to a steel foundry where they are turned into rebar and angle iron products and then the 1-in squares are used for tire derived fuel um most predominantly in the Texas area so our hazardous waste team you go back to that slide yes ma'am Okay so says wrong way here we go here we go so it says $2 donation per tire do we uh ask for that or do we just have a sign

[0:35:09] that requests that I mean that's a lot of work and effort and a lot of tires so what are we doing and how are people reacting to the $2 donation per tire so typically in the past we did not charge anything or have a suggested donation um we've had an overwhelming response and um it is quite a challenge depending on how many volunteers you have so we thought with the $2 donation maybe that would help curb that a little bit um but from our last event not necessarily so um we see our our community and our citizens definitely donating and making a huge impact um we just want the entirety of the community that comes out to bring their tires especially those that may have 50 tires may have a 100 tires may go back and get another load of tires you know we don't are these businesses or individuals because I would assume that if you're a business and you take tires off or tires part of your business that they would be responsible for their own tire disposal not keep St Angelo beautiful in the city of St Angelo it's one thing if you're an individual it's another if you're a bus business right and uh what we're doing this year to curb that I would say 99% of the time the people that come up are not in a vehicle that's identified as a business so you know you kind of just don't know you just see a lot of people with a lot of tires and then you tell the person who's executing the event send that truck over there not to our truck but um we do try very hard to accommodate everybody that comes to our events um this upcoming event that we will have on September the 7th we are limiting it to 25 tires per person oh my yes the average individual who's got tires in their garage or maybe in the yard or um

[0:37:14] someone may have dumped some tires in their um on their Ranch property um sometimes our um our storage do we allow people in the county to also bring their tires yes ma'am we do yes ma'am we do we get a little County funding so we we want to help as many people as we can and I try to get as many trucks as possible our last event we keep thinking we're making a dent we're making a dent we typically have four trucks at every event and we only got three trucks um the last week we got a lot of phone activity so I went ahead we added an extra truck so one truck will hold 800 to 1200 tires so with four trucks 1 2 3 four you know potenti of over 4,000 tires um this event was um heavily attended um we had several people that um were not serviced at the event we did take their names and numbers and assured them we would have trucks on Monday and Tuesday and we did we got two more vehicles in 18 wheelers again that hold up to 12200 tires and we were able to service about 45 to 50 of those people came back and brought their tires um to be disposed of so we're doing everything we can um again um the citizens are our priority and we're going to make sure that their tires are taken away um our events start about uh we have event check-in at 7:30 um try not to kill our V volunteers too much because we want them to participate I can tell you I'm there at 5:00 in the morning and there are people already in line at 5:00 in the morning and I think that's where our challenge is because if they're already in line so early then the people that come later at the event are not going to get served because we're going to run out of room and we do really try hard to have that backup truck for every single event so we'll plan better um and again

[0:39:18] um we are very happy with the results and we are making an impact in the community and we'll continue to do that the good news bad news that's right and it's going to be an ongoing problem um it's just um you know part of communities people have tires and they have to find a way to get rid of the tires and hopefully um our businesses will will use the prudent method and pay for disposal because they are paying for removing the tires so hazardous way um had a fantastic event um 59 volunteers 28 organizations 287 hours about $99,000 in value to our citizens um fun fact um the providers for this event provide their services for free except for our hazardous waste disposal unit that comes from San Antonio so uh Buss recycling comes in for free secure documents comes in for free uh our um Partners take electronics and we are not paying them with our funds for that Alliant recovery takes the oil for free um safe harbors comes from San Antonio and we pay them so they get uh 90% of the funding for this event and it is very costly but we're very grateful for our local Partners um Big Country Recycling again uh they're very generous of their time um and come out to service our community and the volunteers as well they're just amazing 3,000 lb of oil 2,000 on the shredded documents 150 lb of cardboard 2500 lb of electronic weight 10,491 lbs of hazardous waste chemicals and paints typically we're removing about 85 85% of paints from the community we have a great art community

[0:41:21] um and then 3100 plastic bags are removed and they are sent to merzon we have a group of ladies called The Prayer Shaw Group and they take these plastic bags and they shred them into strips and interweave them and make a ball of yarn and they knit and what comes out of that is this blanket right here that's made of plastic bags so the gray are the Walmart bags and the red and white are the HB bags and these are um handed out twice a year to our homeless community and they look like a rug but it's a it's a plastic mat and they're very durable um they're washable so they are reusable uh this year we did do 500 trees in the community about 130 went to our schools and the rest went to St Angelo uh we've done 950 trees over our four years and really proud of um enhancing our school campuses so our students will have habitats shade and fresher air we also recognized our saisd partners at the end of year last year with a case of coffee so they could finish the year strong so the coffee that they drank is the only coffee in Stan Angelo that changes a landscape and we went to the Star Spangled celebration cash here who's the president of our youth advisory Council um is featured we handed out about 2,000 hand fans and probably just as many trash bags for our citizens to help that clean up effort at the end of the event we also celebrate here with Miss Ella Elkins who saves the oceans again um she's collected over 30,000 plastic bags at all of our events she also collected over 500 lb of plastic um it was about 820 lb total and and she was awarded a

[0:43:28] netrex recycled bench which was placed in her Elementary at Fort koncho um trees here just beautiful trees the community was very excited about that just remind everybody that St Angelo givs is May 7th we have 250 nonprofits that are vying for your contribution so make a plan and give generously okay education this is just absolutely fantastic um we were able to meet with our honor students at Angeles State University so our education reach is far and wide um the students at the top are celebrating their book that we published with a book signing event um just incredible uh rolled out the red carpet for them and they were so pleased um here's cash again working on his Trias Research Institute project where he learned how to put together his own cleanup crew which he did bring to the next cleanup event there were 18 on his team we also work with Black Shear Heights back to school and handed out about 500 backpacks for kids and did a San Angelo Reeds awareness so Don't Mess with Texas and Water Wisely messages to our community um help us to keep top of Mind awareness that we don't litter in St Angelo we're proud sponsor of kst coffee talk on Wednesday mornings and are grateful for our partnership with kis D and dakot coffee on that we hosted a board retreat this past year and Harry says it was the best ever so thank you for that um we like our our board to be up to dat and given the best information and have a time to collaborate with each other in in in a little bit of a um beautiful setting we had a great opportunity to reach out to our ASU basketall ball team um with a request from um Coach George

[0:45:32] so we we did contact their coach and asked them to help us remove some paint uh and it was a great lesson um from Coach George and a great lesson for our basketball students as he gave us the clues to a long and prosperous life any guesses discipline was his number one key um so it was great to be with him and enjoy that time Harry Council Harry councilman Harry Thomas with our young leaders uh we're grateful for all of our proclamations May Gunter um and the opportunity to share with our students uh a Civic lesson and beautification so these are what the balls of yarn look like here's a lady cutting the strips um from the prayer Shaw Group they meet every Wednesday in merts and I got to spend an afternoon with them incredible women and doing really great things um we did two art murals this year with art and uncommon places and we're very proud of the collaboration with them um the first one is Rio uh that's on the river Corridor and they're just absolutely spectacular the second one is recycle of Nature and if you're ever on the river if you go by any of these murals you can um um click on the QR code download the app iack app and it'll pull up uh the process which electrifies the mural and it's really quite spectacular and then of course our students with our recycling um we sure appreciate uh the Christian Academy coming out and being a part of that Proclamation okay and a few of our highlights first I would like to thank mayor Gunter um City uh city manager sorry uh Valenzuela thank you all and Harry for coming out a meeting regarding our Awards with tcq we're just very grateful for your time and um appreciate that so much so um we did win the 2024 Texas

[0:47:36] environmental Excellence award for community and Civic regarding our tires to go project we also won the state of Texas alliance for recycling Texas environmental leadership award for Extraordinary recycling event for the tires and outstanding public Outreach um with keep Texas beautiful we are a gold star affiliate for four years now we've received the governor's Community Achievement Award of sustainable Excellence for four years um and then this year we also received the keep Texas beautiful beautifi Texas award for public education Outreach KB HB greenbag winner four years and a recycling winner for 2023 which assisted with those murals so great Partnerships we're also a judge for the Governor's Community Achievement Award um that gives us insight to other communities submissions and is the best training we've ever been to hopefully we'll see some fruits from that maybe this year um also keep Texas beautiful conference webinar Mentor Apache tree Grant we've received every year uh and again um the Tucker Foundation matched that Grant so we could give away more trees this year we'll also be working with our A&M AGR life partners for their Spring Symposium that will be at the 4 Center and they're going to have a demonstration on how to plant a tree and every person at that event will receive a tree um who donates the trees uh we get those from a tree life Farms out of Houston they're kind of in Angleton so uh the Apache Corporation does the donation of 200 the um Tucker Foundation we apply to them every year we give them three or four options and depending on what they pick is where we use the resources and they selected the trees so that was able to uh enhance our purchase of double the amount of trees that we received this year so you don't purchase them they're

[0:49:39] granted to you absolutely yes ma'am um so let's go to um publication sanal Lifestyles Texas town and City Tires to go 22 Beauty in the book um was in the August edition of 2023 we're real proud of that um we received recognition from teot and they granted us that Don't Mess with Texas Barrel they're very costly and we're just really proud to have that the kids love it love taking pictures with it and we did publish our book ABC 26 ways to keep St Angelo beautiful and with our sponsorship of HB we were able to inate initiate a youth advisory Council this year so very proud of that and last but not least we want to talk a little bit about gratit so in closing we participated joined and hosted over 220 events last year with over 1,000 volunteers 4,085 businesses 3,496 hours with 112 $381,000 value to the city in waste removal education and beautification we want to thank the city of St Angelo for the opportunity to be a conduct to the community and for supporting safe Environmental activ activities to engage our families our students and citizens in addition to fostering a love of the environment we are building better businesses and communities through relevant Community needs with intentional acts of service and purposeful team building we too share the joy of our volunteers and let them know they're always wanted needed and valued and we're grateful for all those who serve to keep s Angelo beautiful we think you would agree that St Angelo is a remarkable Community worth preserving and safeguarding where citizens and nature can coexist in Harmony and Champion the sustainability of the environment and not just for today but we're planting the seeds for

[0:51:42] our future with our amazing students so please like follow and share to stay up with all our activities and events again our Don't Mess with Texas trash off is April 6th May 7th St Angelo gives our has waste this year will be June 15th we will have a presentation by Dr Alper who is the Kenneth a Kobe professor in chemical engineering and executive director of the center for biomedical research support at the University of Austin his most recent efforts include development of enzymes and microbial processes reversing or stopping damage of plastic waste and other waste carbon sources demand is incredible and it will be a phenomenal presentation um that will be August 23rd and we'll make sure you get more information on that um September 7th will be tires to go and our fall sweep will be October the 12th I'm going to put a challenge out to you all and that is to get start with $5 a vehicle on your tire it's one thing to say $2 a tire I think we can charge we can ask for a $5 donation per vehicle I will reprint that sign immediately okay I I think it proves that they need this service I think the efforts that you all have put together and have done to help improve the quality of life in St Angelo is is worth $5 a vehicle to get rid of their tires thank you mayor M yes so um and thank you for the invitation last week sure all let to go interview but before I interviewed I did a lot of research and I actually researched other communities to see what they're up to which you are and is impressive uh in talking to the tcq representatives that were here for That interview they had mentioned to me as well that uh there's a lot of communities looking at St Angelo as that example and you're doing it right you're doing a wonderful job and I just want to make sure that I express that to you keep up the great work uh you're doing an nining job but

[0:53:45] keep Anan Angela beautiful and the volunteers it's incredible thing that you're doing just keep up the great work well thank you and we appreciate that other comments from yes Harry I want to say thanks to Charlotte also uh but I also want want to say thanks to the to the board um and the volunteers that that Charlotte has has gathered for these events um I know getting up in the back of those trucks and stacking those tires is not easy and this old man can't do that anymore but I can still get him off the trailer so uh I will tell you some of those young people are impressive for the way they they get up there and do that uh what we've done in in the four or five years that you've been leading this organization is is tremendous uh there are many communities that have more mature um keep beautiful uh organizations in their cities that are not where we are today uh hopefully that doesn't mean we have more trash than other cities well we I could I can tell you for a fact there are a lot of people in this community that want to see uh these events go on because there is in West Texas we know that wind blows a lot and there just happens to be trash in a lot of places but we do a good job but I want to say thanks uh we've come a long ways in in a short period of time thank you any other comments yes ma'am uh let's talk trees trees yeah well as you know the the city is concerned and has taken actions on preserving the trees that we do have in the face of a horrible drought my question is the trees that you're planting are they Texas Hardy yes they are um they're all for our region so we do Red Oaks Live Oaks pistache we work very closely with um our horiculture

[0:55:48] Specialists um with A&M Agro life we work very closely with um Carl White's team in s and wreck and we also donate a portion of our trees so they can grow a Little Bit Stronger before they are put in the ground so we typically you're going to get a five gallon tree um the Live Oaks may come out about 4 foot tall but the Red Oaks are at least 6 feet tall um maybe about um an inch on the trunk um but they're beautiful thriving trees um and of course you know we're we're going to get shade fresh air just um uh beautiful for our city so we're going to continue to make a focus on that our board is um very very um insistent that we do trees every single year so we'll continue to apply for that Grant and hopefully we can continue um to recruit some matching funds for that as well so we can distribute more trees but really really proud that we got to do as many as we did this year so um 500 at that event we'll also do another hundred with A&M AGR life and we'll post some information about the spring symposium I think it's $30 to a 10 which is nominal you're going to leave with a tree you know and um a lot of information about um your yard um plantings this time of year in the spring um fertilizing it's just a great information session and we're just really happy to be a part of that is there any accommodations for Continued Care of these trees um I know with saisd the maintenance team plants the trees on the campus and they do put them near a water source I think um once their Roots uh are are stabilized and grow in a little further um that they'll take less water um than what it takes initially maybe the first um four 6 eight months um I I would like to thank anybody that gets up at 7 or 8 and waits

[0:57:52] in a line maybe for an hour for a tree um would be invested in taking good care of that tree and seeing it grow they're they're already beautiful as they are so um we hope that that's the case thank you other comments or all right thank you Char oh yeah sorry that's okay I just wanted to say thank you thank you so much for keeping s Angela beautiful oh it's a pleasure every day and thank you all thank you for your support and um thank you for making it a great day to keep keep s Angelo [Applause] beautiful we'll move on to Item B second reading of an ordinance for z23 D21 a request to expand the open structure overlay map to include the falling area of Angelo Heights neighborhood the 1,000 3,000 and 4,000 blocks of Catalina Drive 2,000 and 3,000 blocks of new ASAS Drive 1,000 block of Louise Drive 1,000 block of Cordell Drive 2700 block of Unice drive and the 2700 block of Earline drive and Aaron you are on thank you mayor city council Mr Valenzuela Aon Venoy director of planning and development services so this is our second reading of our op open structure map extension into that area in Angelo Heights uh we did uh want to bring it back for for the public to hear again as well as any answer any questions that you guys may have uh so I've got uh some more on our our presentation um of course this is the area in Angelo Heights it's kind of a what I would call a culdesac neighborhood it's just at the end there really aren't the only way you come out is coming back to Edmund or 29th Street uh to get back to town very nice neighborhood uh very nice amenities very close with Kirby Park and things like that I think it was very well

[0:59:54] thought out when it was placed in back in the uh 60s uh and houses have been developing all the way into the early 2000s so I think it's a great neighborhood uh it's in Tom Thompson's area uh again Angelo Heights so again this is that neighborhood um this is just an older slide we have gone back and looked at these um very specifically uh to see uh we've asked for a deep dive with permitting uh and with planning to see if we had any of these that we were just not uh looking at open structures which for most common folks call those car ports maybe porches in this case most of them are car ports but we call them open structures so I want to get that but there's a couple of properties on here that we have determined that actually have permits went through the process and have gotten everything completed so they're really some of these red uh pins uh will be actually taken away uh so like 1731 Catalina Drive 2907 Catalina Drive and 27 um 13 uh earlene uh have all gone through the permitting process in the past and some of them may have gotten a variance from zba way back before there was even an open structure overlay back in the late 90s and and some of those even before um there's also one at 3029 Catalina that also received a permit at the very very end one uh very close to the towards the end of Catalina Drive um so we're very excited that those folks have as we did our Deep dive we we looked at those and said okay these guys have done the process they've done it right so what does uh uh here's our notifications that we did send out again most of the neighborhood that did respond and I would say as you guys see this is one of the higher response now we did send out 231 notices uh but to get that many people in support of bringing this overlay to that area is is very telling um so what is the open structure overlay so this quote up here is just a

[1:02:00] part of a quote right out of the ordinance and it's the supporting structure of a carport sh and it talks about where they are because open structure overlay allows you to place something in front of the 25t standard front yard setback now carports could always be to the side of the house carports could always be in the backyard and there's some zoning rules with those but these are talking about open structures car ports that are in front of that 25 foot set building setback line so the S the supporting structure of a carport shall not be located within the minimum front Andor side yards except specifically allowed within the open structure overlay so we're talking those vertical supports they shouldn't be in front of the 25 ft um yard setback unless you have the open structure overlay will this neighborhood does not have the open structure overlay yet we see carports that are in front of that 25 foot setback so this is kind of step one to allow those car ports then it's going individually working with those Property Owners how do we get your carport to conform to the standards because they still should be 5T back from the front property line they should be at least 10 ft back from the front uh back of curb um and so those are things we need to work with them some of them may be eligible for a zoning board uh of adjustment variants some of them may not we just have to look at those individually to see what we what we can do there now our section 513 it did allow it did kind of Grandfather if you will th some of those carports in that area and in fact not just that area but this is for the entire town so things that were built before March 8th 1995 if it meets those six criteria they're allowed so that's one of the things now they're not allowed in the front yard setback but they're allowed as carports and so we we try to look back at the rideway and the

[1:04:03] easement we look at the back of curb we ask the building official and their team who have are the experts of how is this built structurally is it sound is it substantially open uh we have Charlotte go out and make sure that everything's clear of junk and debris now she just became a code enforcement officer she doesn't want to do that so we have our code guys that check those things uh and it's an accessory to the principal structure um that it's not the the main structure on the property so on the open structure overlay open carports and porches shall be allowed to extend into minium minimum front and side yards which otherwise are required to be free of any buildings subject to the conditions expressed here within this section so it must be substantially open in character that means to us in layman's terms that means no walls now it still could be connected to the house and they be the back wall to the house or the the front wall to the house we're talking about sides in the front is it substantially open minimum 5T from the front lot boundary and 10 ft from back of curb roof nor ver vertical support can encroach in the rideway that means you don't need to have that overhang or the vertical support in the rideway that causes problems for our utility installers uh that causes problems for people going in the public RightWay um It also says no more more than 30% of the front yard can be covered we rarely see that we rarely see that request but it also protects the uniformity of that neighborhood or neighborhoods in the open structure overlay that you're just not building this huge uh front yard carport that's taking up a lot of the yard the other things it comes down to and it's the the words are generally consistent and that's where there's some interpretation by City staff by our zoning Board of adjustment and those that are looking at these that have to come in if they need a variance or things like that talks about materials and character talks about pitch and shape should be integrated and consistent with the character of the

[1:06:05] home and it says talks about whatever portion of the residence is closest to that open structure it should match that kind of uh pitch and shape it says flat roofs not allowed unless away from street view and that means really a traditional straight flat roof one that has no slope and that's how we've interpreted that in the past has no slope it's just a flat uh perpendicular to the ground carport those should be in the backyard and you've seen some of those in backyards off Alleyways and things like that so in front yards we want them to be fairly consistent to the design of the house sometimes that can be challenging um because the design of the house can be very different you could have Gable roofs you could have some hip roofs you could have different types of roof lines on a house and so as City staff are trained as well as working with zba is all right where does that open structure that car pter porch connect does it make sense does it have at least some slope does it have a considerable pitch if there's a pitch behind it say if there's a Gable end behind it does it kind of match that Gable end or is it just a sloped front um uh front carport so I've got some images I believe so here are some ones that we're just kind of looking at that um we're like okay well potentially if you look at these roof lines they're both kind of um they are sloping down they're at a higher pitch but you can also see that these have a pitch so that water is rolling off and really the pitch for roofing is about rolling off water but it's also of when you're in that neighborhood are things looking fairly consistent not that you don't have individuality between each home but you're looking for some consistency so these things are things that staff would look at to work with them to see if anything needs to change more than likely from the carport standpoint the open struction standpoint we would

[1:08:06] probably work very closely with the applicants to to to allow these to move forward if they um needed permits or something of that nature but here's a couple of others that are um a little bit different uh obviously you can see this one's just a little higher um so we'd have to maybe look at maybe a variance for that just because it's hired does that mean it's wrong we're not sure we need to talk with them to see uh what some of the decisions were how can we work with them to make this blend in maybe um on this side this is one that's right up at the property line again um obviously the owners are trying to protect their property and so we want to respect that but at the same time we also have to respect our ride of way which is all the folks um property and so we have to make sure that everyone can utilize that space as needed so we may have to work with this individual a little bit Oh wrong way excuse me unless those are duplicate slides all right they're duplicates how about that so here we have a couple of them um that have actually kind of done everything they can to try to mimic the uh Gable end of the house see this one is is very similar to those to that um it's built fairly consistently while it may be offset it still has that roof line that allows it to be kind of offset and then you see these two open um what I would call the first one is a porch and the other one is kind of a partial carport I don't know we didn't really look to see if the car could get all the way under there but again they they're both in the front yard setback and so these would be considered open structures um we would say the they're very very consistent and these if they needed permits they would probably just need a permit would not need to go to zba uh or any other staff interpretation to allow them and again here's another one um that they they went uh kind of all out

[1:10:11] uh which actually looks great with the house I think uh folks that would drive by it say well that looks like it was built when the house was built it's integral to the house they have a a very good um way that Blended in they brought the shingles over uh and so I think they've this one's done a very good job you can see that there's a pretty good significant distance from the curb line as well as whatever the property line would be so again this one uh is is very conforming to what we would look at that might be my last image so with that uh we did take this to Planning Commission it's been a a fairly long process uh but staff is recommending approval of the open structure overlay map being extended into that neighborhood and then we are working on we have a draft of a letter to uh send to ones that we just need to get more information from those property owners have a a talk with them and visit with them of all right what can we do as a city staff to help you become compliant and that's really our goal is the health and safety side of it is to get them to be compliant um several of those structures don't have permits now there there maybe have some documentation and that's what we're going to ask for you have documentation that you came to us at some point somewhere in the past we want to work with them we don't want to come and say okay we're we're we're wanting to penalize you we want to help you guys so mayor yes ask question so at that point in 95 where the grandfathered a bunch of those in it stipulated you need to come in at this point and get a permit if you were existing you were needed to come in and get a permit you just couldn't be there and just continue to go forward correct okay and I think that's where we will have to work with with uh Property Owners um to work with them and a lot of it is is just being honest with us and us being honest with them of trying to work with them we we want to help them we don't want to come and and penalize them because they have this open structure we want to just make

[1:12:14] sure that we're following the right rules Aon one thing to just clarify a little more and he covered it there I think on item number where do you talk about the building official number three so one point is that you know if these structures don't have a permit they have to still meet minimum building requirements so basically just to give a little history the city years ago did a process where um if you're building a carport any structure has to have an engineering stamp on it to show that it's it meets the building criteria St Angelo went above and beyond and got some pre-stamped uh engineering for a carport which made it easier for people to come in and we say you don't have to go to engineer here's a pre-stamped option for you you can build to this standard and will accept it so a lot of these carports some of them you saw on the screen today while they looked nice the poles may be this big which do not most likely meet the standard for our construction so in those scenarios those people can either bring us an engineered stamped plan that shows that that is compliant and we will accept that if they can't produce that then they have to meet that requirement so St Angelo kind of I think goes above and beyond trying to help people have that without having to go get an engineer but you got to come in and get it so Tom you were going to add more comment so we had after the last Council on that Tuesday that following Wednesday we had I think it was probably a hour hour and a half call to discuss this and it was you know there's been a lot of time and effort spent in here and we what we've done is we've taken something made an overlay to make things better and you see a lot of people in favor of moving forward with this so they can develop along these guidelines there's some people that how we're going to go back and look at and say structurally are you safe and if you are then you move forward not a problem but right now everything's illegal we need this to move forward and that way we can

[1:14:16] turn around and say you have a probability of moving forward with exactly what you have all right so it's it's the first good step to go through I know it's been kind of painful for some I've talked with two or three different people here one is going to have to make some changes but they like what they've heard it gives them a chance to come in and talk um Gary cortiz was there and there's you know ways to come forward with the variance but you know when we look down at it a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into it to move forward and make all these things legal and I looked at the process and I I'm in in agreement strong agreement of what we're moving forward with but but I want you to know that everybody's looked at the people that have something and there isn't going to be anything discriminatory against somebody for not having a permit you just come and like what Rick said proof it up that it's structurally sound and safe and you move forward well it seems to me that there's been a lot of work and effort put into this conversation and to the situation the question I have is that's a lot of houses that's a do we have the staff available to really go through this process as it's lined out out here and work through that because it seems to me that we already have a staff issue in terms of work that needs to be done and this looks very timec consuming it looks um like it could tie the planning it just looks like we could have a long line of people with not enough people to manage the situation so I just want to make sure if we say yes this makes sense yes it allows people to move forward with confidence that we really can do this so to answer that and I'll let Aon and Rick correct me if I'm wrong we we looked at that some of these pin are going to come out because they do have permits and I think what we're going to boil down to is maybe 10 to 12 people that are going to get a notification I mean if if I

[1:16:20] have to go talk and meet with them I talk to uh Mr word and said hey here's what it is here's going to come forward we'll probably have a a notification and try to get all these people together at one time and say we're going to set aside a time for all of y'all to come forward and meet with us and talk and to answer these questions but I think what we there's going to be fewer than what we have BR I want to say we may have so these are the only ones that you think are problematic except you listed some of them already as they've met the in compliance yes that map is not going to the Count's not going to get bigger yes ma'am this map represents everyone that we saw that had an open structure so that that's what this map represents here and we have gone through the research and determine that out of this map we're able to take four to five of those properties off of there and so we're really working like councilman Thompson said between 8 to 10 actual structures that we need to work with and it also gives a guideline to the rest of the neighborhood if they want to do a carport in front of their home they already know what to expect it puts that expect out there it allows them to be able to find a path to move forward I think that's a key word path to move forward so that people understand you just can't do it but here's how you do it yes and then I want to make sure when we talk about the word grandfather that we Define what grandfather means is it a date a time of month that from this date Etc that this goes into to effect so we don't come back or next Council come back a year from today or two years from today in this open structure scenario comes back up and we debate one more time about this March 8th 1995 I think to clarify grandfathering is not really an option here you you you come into compliance this gives them the right to have that there nothing is grandfathered you have to meet the minimum building requirements and you

[1:18:22] have to get the setback this just gives them the right to do that which before they didn't have I'll also point out that longterm it should help staff a little bit because now this group has the ability to put that carport and if they meet the minimum requirements and do that they don't have to go for a variance they can get a permit and do it so it lessens long term our number of cases we're taking forward to the Planning Commission so the key thing is when it says this section allowed carports built before March 8th 1995 to remain if yeah and all of the newspaper articles or whatever that exist when it said grandfathered it didn't list these six criteria that you had to meet in order to quote be grandfathered in I did not see that list in the in the Articles um so how would one know but but if what was key at that point Brenda was in all of those articles it says now you must come in and get a permit you just can't sit there and say oh I mean you had to come in and get a permit at that time these things would have been disclosed so I think there was fair disclosure on March 8th 1995 on what you had to be that's what I want to make sure is that there was it wasn't just a date and the word grandfathered without language that made people understand what they needed to do or have to do in order to quote be grandfathered in and and as councilman Thompson said the key part of that is coming in and getting a permit had the ones that we had the complaints on had they come in to get a permit we would been able to walk them through the process now now we're going to have if we're able to get the open structure overlay we're going to give them the ability yes you can have something there instead of a no you cannot um this is going to give them an ability to have it build it structurally sound into these parameters and you're able to do that so also just a

[1:20:26] clarify that this open structure language that we're discussing today applies to more than just the area we're talking about but in fact applies to the entire city as it relates to open structure well I just want to clarify what what you yes U so if you're in the open structure overlay and let me come back to maybe this larger map uh it's maybe a little difficult to see but if you're in this pink area that allows you to build to the open structure overlay standards in the zoning ordinance which allows you to build in front of that 25 ft setback if you're not within that open structure overlay you're outside of that pink area you should not have a carport or an open structure in front of the 25- Ft setback and all of those structures whether you're in the pink or outside of that area then you must get a permit for those types of structures I just want to make sure we're clear about that yes ma'am that this overlay is an overlay very specifically to this pink territory yes ma'am and then we we are just extending it to this neighborhood right here so that that they would be allowed to have those open structures now their next step is to get them to come get their permits get them structurally sound and move forward if anybody else wants to build one in that area so are we confident that within that pink area that those individuals with carports open structures currently meet the standard I will say in any part of our town there's a there's a chance that somebody has built something without permits it keys on that permit if you come and talk to us we can get you the right standards are they built sometimes incorrectly they could be and until we

[1:22:30] have a complaint about that structure we don't go and drive up and down the streets just for enforcement we wait until we get a complaint then we investigate it to see what's going on to see if we need to just address that property or if this is a bigger situation in this case we felt that this was an isolated neighborhood it was a little bit easier to solve the problem for that entire neighborhood as opposed to just one property here or there uh council do I have other comments or questions from City Council Members Tom any further comment no um I think we've covered it and we've we've put a lot of time and effort in this with planning department there's a lot of people behind the scenes that have really researched it it's a path to move forward for the best of everybody involved what I what I do want to say is I want to caution citizens since this has hit the books the past since it was triggered probably a month ago I've seen two or three posts on social media where construction companies say we'll come build you a carport what Citizens need to be aware of is you need to have a permit and you need to verify with who you're doing construction are you responsible for the per permit or for or am I because I watched the conversation where a contractor was like No And they were very vague in that and then what it finally got to it was was well somebody's going to have to go get a permit but they tried to avoid that but with everything that's said here and move forward I'll make the motion to approve as presented second by Lucy this is now open for public comment good morning Council Gary cores chairman of the zba Zoning Board of adjustments uh Tom I appreciate the hard work you've put into this to try to work it out and I appreciate your last

[1:24:31] statement about folks getting permits they need permits they're they're building them and then coming and asking for forgiveness after they build them small C contractors I won't even use the word um that's probably taking that word contractor too far are telling folks they don't need a permit and uh so they get them build at a lesser rate I guess less expensive but they do need a permit there's a fine process in the in the code book uh where the folks can actually get fined for doing this and that has not been brought up for very good reasons I'll bring it up um and it's not being talked about it's spread around on Facebook like Tom said that I'm a contractor or a hustler or whatever that I will uh come build your carport you don't need a permit you don't need contractor does not need doesn't need to be registered with the city and so here we are and this is probably not the last time we're going to see this unless something happens in the word of mouth Department amongst the street the street talk the street talk is we don't need a permit do it if they catch you we'll ask ask for forgiveness go on down the road so forgiveness comes with a price tag forgiveness comes with a price tag we need to be very clear on that yeah we need to stop this including it could be torn down that would start the word on the street so let's be clear but I know yeah yeah I will uh it's kind of a political hot button there but uh if it comes down to the zba uh in these illegal car ports I'm probably going to lean on the fine situation get attention if possible and um so that's my statement on that the other part of the uh what we've talked

[1:26:36] about here is the look of them I didn't hear any Clarity on the look uh do we need to get into that what I understood and was the examples in the pictures shown were pretty clear that if it was just a flat structure flat roof structure didn't match the house that it would be questioned in terms of being legitimate now aesthetically what one person thinks could be different what from what somebody else thinks and so the question mark who's in charge of a Aesthetics in terms of deciding whether it's good bad or doesn't work and that isn't our my job so somebody's job will have to be to ensure that we're not trying to say pink is good red is bad I think on on that question a little guidance for staff would be helpful I think some of those you saw good pictures of where it came off of a a hip house and you know it was just a gradual slope it was somewhat flat but it blended with the house it was generally you saw another picture where there was a carport that was very flat but it was up this much higher than the rest of the house to me that doesn't try to blend with the house at all but a direction from y'all that you agree or disagree with that would help yeah I have a real issue with trying to be and Tom I need you to have a voice in this what's your opinion the majority the started with triggered with a complaint on one that that came in there are several of them out there and they're generally I'm going to steal this word from Tommy in a discussion but they were generally consistent with what's in the neighborhood um Carl word who has one he has the the flat roof them but it has the slope structurally he's going to have to make some changes to it um I

[1:28:41] think the the point where I went to at this at this point was structurally safe all right we're talking less than eight of them all right the the couple I saw with flat I think to me consistent for that neighborhood all right it's north side of Angelo's consistent for that neighborhood um Rick talks about that one that's elevated it's probably two feet higher than the Gable for the appropriate house I think we have to look at that but I think we also have to keep in mind how much would it cost somebody to change that are we going to ask somebody to spend 20 $30,000 to change their carport I'm not I don't want to do that I think that's a there is some legislation that I think you or somebody put in um on the end of our discussion where we have limits on how far we can go but I would have a problem going through any one of these that I've seen and asking somebody to do something that was above1 $15,000 knowing that they probably don't have it I mean a lot of these homes are people that are middle-aged it's that point where they don't have 10 15,000 um I have no problem with all the ones I've seen staying in right now but I'm not the entire EBA there's things there but if they're structurally sound I would say we leave it at that and we we make our Mark and we go forward so we're saying they have to be meet safety but they also if they fit within the neighborhood that we're talking about we're not going to get into I like it you don't she does he doesn't aesthetic approach to it if it fits within the neighborhood is consistent with the neighborhood then aesthetically it fits and that I know leaves a little bit of interpretation but it helps to find but that's fair that's fair interpretation there I mean it's we're not forcing anything onbody we're giving everybody a chance to come through Brenda I think

[1:30:42] that's very fair I agree thank you thank you further public comment seeing none let's take a vote all those in favor uh please say yes yes are there any NOS hearing no NOS it passes 70 item C is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending the budget for fiscal year beginning October 1 2023 and ending September nember 30th 2024 for six additional full-time positions in the street and Bridge division all right good morning mayor and Council Patrick fck the director of operations for the city um come before you this morning with a proposal um we as staff have sat down and and tried to figure out ways to take care of some projects and some priorities that you the city council and City management has placed upon us and so this is one of those um proposals that we think will we can make work so let me go right into it um in the end what this is asking for is it's we're going to be asking for six additional FTE to be added to the budget ordinance to accommodate a six-man crew or six-person crew within the street and Bridge division that is going to be primarily focused on Ada accessibility and sidewalks within the rideway that's going to be the primary function for this group um two of the reasons for this request um Lucy I told you a couple meetings ago that I have a plan for you this is my plan so I love hearing about this um the sidewalk improvements along Rick's drive has been a topic of conversations for several years so this will help address this situ this um project as well as the Ada accessibility

[1:32:45] improvements that have recently um become more of a priority for the city um in the last couple of years so again a little history on the Rick's Drive sidewalk councilwoman Gonzalez has been a champion of this particular project and I know that it's been supported by several council members um throughout the years we've heard from a number of you guys saying that we really would like to uh to assist this area I think to anyone that has driven down Rick's drive and has seen um the trails from the students that um there there's a big need for for this sidewalk right here so well warn um It is Well warned warn in um the students thankfully have helped us with that showed us where the path needs to be so um again we have a little history we have applied for a grant for this particular project to put in the sidewalk three times and unfortunately in all three attempts we have not been successful on that so um let's go ahead and do it ourselves um let's just take care of this as as kind of our mentality on this um so we as the city have um scrimped and sced and found enough money within our street and Bridge to budget to take care of Contracting out bidding out and Contracting out this sidewalk to the tune of just over a million dollars which is our engineering estimate is right at 1.1 so we're a little short but we think we could handle it if we had to bid it out again you may all all may remember during the carryover process um you all assigned $275,000 that was left over from last year's streetlight budget into a dedic ated Ada and accessibility connectivity fund for us um we are tasked as in the operations Department to utilize those funds to improve ramps within the briway as well as sidewalk and connectivity um within that um one of the struggles that I have with that is exactly how do we do that um I think it's no secret that we have a lot of work to do within the street and Bridge Department already um

[1:34:48] just taking care of the roads and and whatnot so adding this um burden to that group um created a challenge for us and so we have the ability to contract this work out but when you contract it out you are paying a premium for that work especially on something that would be as small scale as $275,000 of sidewalk work would accommodate so with those challenges um we sat down and and we said we have a million we can build Rick Drive sidewalk and figure out this 275 later or or we can try something different um and we crunched the numbers we put it together and we think um based on what we put together in our calculations we can hire a six person crew within Street and Bridge PR rate that salary for this year and keep those individuals on for two additional years the primary goal is number one finish Lucy sidewalk on Rick's drive we'll get get that knocked out we still have enough money within that $1 million to get the crew provide them some equipment to do the work and finish Rick's Drive in house so that kind of tells you a little bit about um just kind of what we expect that premium to be if we bid it out but the other bonus to this is we get two more years of work out of these individuals for the same money and I can go spend that $275,000 times two years to do some much needed ramp and and other connectivity projects throughout the city um we as staff are proposing that this has a a three-year Sunset to these positions just simply to because that's the money I have available to me right now I think um within that we'll see the need for this and so we can further that conversation later if we want to about what do we want to do after that that three-year Sunset if we want to keep these these positions or through attrition we always have vacancies in

[1:36:51] Street and Bridge we can eliminate those positions on paper but not necessarily have to let go of employees that are in those particular spots so that is my ask that is my proposal to you Council this morning is to allow me to add six positions to Street and Bridge get a sidewalk done and get some other Ada um projects taken care of in the next three years I very much like the proposal and I'm very much in supportive of it I think financially it makes a lot of sense my question is are you going to be be able to find those six FTE because it's one thing to budget and allocate it it's another to hire them and whether you can hire one of them or two of them or maybe three of them but not all six of them how does that impact the project and you don't have to answer that it's just a statement I'm making so for me it makes so much sense it gets a project done that has definitely been on the need to do list um again it's well warn so we know the path that needs to be taken but my challenge is go find those six FTE to make sure that this proposal actually turns into the project you want it to be we'll make it successful okay other questions from Council or comments Tommy thanks Patrick um for your creativity um this is the sort of thing I think that makes San Angelo such a great place is we have we have good employees and we don't recognize that enough so thank you for your for your using your brain power and your creativity to come up with a a solution to to something that was was needed and congratulations Lucy on getting your getting your not done yet don't hold your breath it will get done I will hold my breath but we just don't know the start date that's all we're going to wait for is the start date right right and with that being said I move to

[1:38:52] approve second that thank you any public comment concerning this item M shum single member district 2 um I'm in favor of this project as well mayor but I do have a problem with the full-time employees uh doing the salary back there in my head and on paper it's about $30,000 a year to do sidew work that's pretty hard labor I don't think you'll have a consistent full-time six people consistently every day for 3 years doing that work maybe a year but three years is kind of hard I've done it myself so that's why I'm telling you well that's the reason I asked the question can we find these people Etc because the success of this program which we need to be successful is getting the people hired and sticking with us and making sure the projects get done and and and it could have probably got done had he got the $800,000 Grant but we didn't and we've tried multiple times so we the project needs to be done we're not we're going to do it inhouse which I like the fact that it uh will be done at a a much better price tag than if we had to go out on contract so I think it's the right move and the right strategy yeah I I agree I age thank you for your comments hopefully we get to six all right so further public comment seeing none we'll take a vote all of those in favor say yes yes are there any NOS motion passes 70 thank you very much appreciate thank you Patrick for your hard work we will now mve down to our closed session the executive session on the provision of government code Title Five open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter 551 open meetings sub chapter D exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the following sections a section 55107 2 deliberations about real property regarding the lease with Santa Fe Depot

[1:40:53] we are now adjourned until we finish this convers is officially called back to order at 10:43 a.m. um there are no announcements to make following the closed session so we will move into the follow-up and administrative issues which consist of Item B consider approving various board nominations Fort cono Museum board Ewell letter milk that's a that's a tough name to get out there smd6 to first term ending January 2026 and the Zoning Board of adjustment Richard revas smd4 to an unexpired term ending January 2025 do I have a motion for approval of those two board nominations so move second there has there's been a motion and a second any public comment seeing none hearing none we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I motion passes 70 any announcements and consideration of future agenda items at this point do not see or hear any so I would take a motion for adjournment please a motion by Tommy second by Lucy all those in favor say I stand up and go stand up and go

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=qfJ3zhmbgeg