City Council - Regular Meeting

Uh pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act closed session, the Admiral City Council was announced on January 13, 2026 at noon under the following authority. Section 551.074 discuss the appointment employment evaluation duties of a public officer employee. Section 551.087 087 discuss commercial financial information received from an existing business or business prospect from which the city is negotiating for location or retention of a facility or for incentives the city is willing to extend or financial information submitted by the same. You're good. I'm good. Thank you.

Council has completed executive session. The time is 1:44.

manager, you got everything you need down there, sir? Okay. Um, well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending our public meeting here. It is a business meeting that we are going to conduct here today. We've got several items that we want to get to. So, we will try to be effective and efficient with your time and we greatly appreciate your participation. Um, we will call ourselves back into session and into order here today. Um, and we will commence with item number two, our ceremonial items, and we'll start by having an invocation followed by the pledges. If everyone wouldn't mind, uh, please stand as David Richie is leading our invocation today. Thank you, mayor. Let's bow our hearts for a word of prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, we give thanks today for the gift of this city, for its people, for its history, its wide horizons, and its shared hopes. We are grateful for the opportunity to live in Amarillo, Texas, and for all who work each day to make this community a place where life can flourish. And as this new year begins, we ask your blessing upon these leaders gathered here. Grant them wisdom in their decisions, integrity in their actions, and compassion in their care for all who call this city home. May they listen well, think clearly, and lead with humility and courage. We pray for a city marked by peace and cooperation, where neighbors treat one another with respect and kindness, where differences are handled with patience, and where the common good is always held above personal gain. We ask that Amarillo be a place where the weak are lifted up, where the struggling find support, where the least among us encounter dignity and a helping hand, and where no one is forgotten. Lord, we bless this city with economic vitality and opportunity so that families may thrive here, businesses may grow here,

and meaningful work may be available to all. Guide our leaders and the wise stewardship of public resources so what has been entrusted to them is used carefully, fairly, and for the benefit of the whole community. Lord, I pray that you would grant these leaders a bold and hopeful vision for the future. a vision that looks beyond the moment and seeks long-term flourishing for our shared life together. May this next year be one of progress, cooperation, and renewed commitment to the well-being of all who live in Amarillo, Texas. And we pray these things in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America stands nation council. We have one proclamation to get to uh read here for um youth leadership month. So, if you guys will join me down there, we're going to honor this fine group of young men and women right here.

Okay, what a great group. Whereas the Young Marines is a national youth organization, education and service program dedicated to strengthening the lives of America's youth through leadership, training, community service, citizen development, and drug demand reduction education. And whereas the bomb city young Marines of Amarillo, Texas demonstrate exceptional commitment to building strong character, discipline, responsibility, and civic engagement among among the youth throughout the Texas panhandle. And whereas the Balm City Young Marines provide thousands of hours of volunteer service supporting veterans, civic events, and community needs across the Texas panhandle. And whereas the Young Marines program is nationally recognized for excellence in youth leadership, development, mentorship, and strengthening American families. And whereas youth leadership month highlights the importance of developing capable, confident, community-minded young leaders who strengthen their communities and the future of the state of Texas. Now therefore, we mayor and city council members of the city of Amarillo, Texas, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as youth leadership month in Earllo and recognize the bomb city young Marines for their dedication and service to the developing youth leadership, service, and civic responsibility given under our hands and seal of office this 13th day of January, 2026. [applause] Thank you. Um, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Young Marine Sergeant Lambert and I'm the platoon sergeant for this unit and I wanted to thank you for giving us this proclamation of the youth leadership month. I have been in this unit for about three years now and I

um I've made some good friends and good memories here um in this unit and just thank you for giving us this proclamation. We have really worked hard for it. Thank you. [applause] Everybody, two, three. Do we have any parents? Any

[snorts]

Absolutely. As always, ladies and gentlemen, we really appreciate you guys uh joining with us to honor um these young Marines and and the Bomb City group. And then uh anytime we can take the microphone and share it from up here and continue to bring some acknowledgement to all the good service over self that we do as a panhandle community. I think it speaks loudly. Um okay, at this time we've been called to order. We're moving into announcements. Do I have any announcements that uh you need to make, Mr. Path?

No, sir.

Okay, perfect. We'll move on to item number four is a little different. uh Council Member Reid uh reached out to me originally and said, you know, as we step into 2026 with everything that 2026 represents, many many milestones from, you know, a hundredyear birthday for Route 66 to uh our nation's birthday, 250 years old. uh and the the line of service that I think we are trying to walk out. Uh Councilman Reid had said, you know, it might be a good opportune time to allow each council member to make a few remarks if they'd like to to speak really about maybe what their independent role looks like and their vision is on how they serve their community. So, at this time, we have uh councilman remarks and I think we'll start with uh Mr. to read down here on the end.

Well, thanks, Mayor, and uh I may have my own self to blame for this suggestion, but we'll we'll find out. Um and uh I appreciate everybody being [clears throat] here. We don't get an opportunity very often individually to address you and I thought this would be a great opportunity with the beginning of the new year. Um the relationship between council and staff uh here in the city should be one of natural tension and there's a reason for that. As we examine the city's organizational chart, we both work for you, our citizens, but we have very different roles in what we do. This natural tension doesn't mean that we don't appreciate the work of our city staff or that we don't trust them. But it allows us to continually ask a question. How do we know? And I think that's an important thing as we go into this new year. We are required to ask because we represent those who are here in attendance, those who are watching today, and for those who never have a chance to make their voice heard. So, as we begin the new year, I thought it was essential for our citizen staff to hear in a public forum what our individual areas of priority are for the year as council members. The most important area for me is public safety, which includes police, fire, uh, animal management, and even our health services. Without a safe city, nothing else we try to do can be easily accomplished. The other area I will focus on is our parks and recreation. Our parks should be the crowning jewel of our city. For too long, we haven't maintain these areas to the standards they deserve. We need safe and appealing spaces for our families to play, rest, and exercise.

When people consider a move to Amarillo, their view of our public spaces and parks speaks volumes about the pride we have in our city. Our parks should stand out. We have 52 parks that encompass 2400 acres and all require upkeep and are in need of repairs, ranging from very minor repairs to major. I firmly believe that people will respond positively if a visible progress is made as outlined in our parks master plan which was adopted in 2021. This is about priorities for our city. As council and staff, we have an obligation to ensure that our priorities are in order and align with our citizens and what they expect from their city government. I anticipate a robust civil debate to help guide us in our decision-making. Remember, as citizens, each of us has a role to play and we should take pride in our city. It's not always about what the city can do, but also what we individually can do to make our city better. Thank you.

You can definitely applaud for that. Thank you, Councilman Reid. We appreciate those remarks. Yeah. So moved. So moved. Councilman Tips.

Well, m we had no idea what to expect from this. This is obviously this guy's uh idea. So mine will not nearly be as professional as that or maybe not as well spoken. You know, to go along with what Tim said, I mean, I think our our uh role here is to be a partner with you guys as our citizens. In fact, I had a discussion yesterday and there was an issue uh with the city and I said, "Why why haven't you come to me?" Like, "Well, we didn't know that's what you did. I mean, we didn't really want to bother you." I'm like, well, that's what I am as a as a representative of yours to the city. So, I would just uh reiterate that again is I mean, that's our job, every one of us up here is if there's an issue, if there's any a concern as a taxpayer, we're your representative. You know, that's what we're here for. So, also with staff, uh you know, to continue to build good relationship with staff, um to walk alongside and help and these guys provide great resource to us. Uh all of us up here have our you know own professions. You know we do our uh own thing but we've committed to be here for the citizens. Uh but it's the staff that we really that does the a lot of the work a lot of the heavy lifting for us to come to uh as a resource. So to continue to develop that relationship with our staff u also public safety. I mean you know I've been here for uh almost going on three years. I think we that goes unsaid. I mean, we we will continue to focus on public safety. Uh again, like Tim said, if we don't have a safe city, we just don't have a city at all. We got to make get people to uh feel safe, understand it, uh and provide resources needed for these guys to to perform their jobs. A focus that that I'm really involved in is is tourism. You know, trying to get people to Amarillo. Um, and the main reason for that is it relieves the tax burden off of you guys. Uh, with the state, you know, pushing and pushing to, uh, get

the property tax rate down, which is a great thing. Uh, you know, where we can actually own our property and do those things. That also affects uh, the municipal uh, governments. Uh, that that is money to pay wages. It's money to do uh, road work. So for for me, what I'm really trying to focus on is, you know, to preemptively think, okay, where can we get the resources to continue a city to even grow it, and that's tourism, right? Our sales tax dollars, our hot tax, uh those kinds of things. It's even better because the burden is off our citizens and it's off those that come to Amarillo. So, I think we've made great headway, but there's so many things that I will tell you guys that that every one of us that we do behind the scenes. What you see up here, uh, is is just a small portion. Um, we're always working with uh, staff, talking with citizens, having meetings, uh, to do these things. And I guess my commitment is I will continue to do that. If you have any issues, you know, please reach out. Uh, but that's my commitment to you guys for this this coming year.

Thank you, Councilman. We appreciate you. Councilman, you have any remarks?

I do. You know, I woke up this morning, my house was heated. I got in the shower, the water worked, went to the restroom, the toilet flushed, left my house. My house hadn't burned down in the middle of the night. It was safe because of code, you know. The police kept me safe. I drove to work and uh all the street lights worked. Were the roads perfect? No, they weren't perfect, but they were adequate and they were safe. I got on I40, made it into the office. All my employees made it into the office this morning. We have We have jobs. We have opportunity. We eat safe food. Are we perfect? No. You show me perfect and and something something's hidden behind the scenes. But are we doing a good job? We are doing a good job. And I applaud all the staff members for that. and all the all the all the folks that are that are working hard every day in so many different areas. Um, are there weeds in the garden? There are. Is it is there is there things that we can do better? There are. And that's why we're a team. That's why we work as a as a as a professional group of leaders and and and staff to to get these things done. What is important to me, I think we moved the ball on the uh the wastewater treatment plant. I think that we've got a really good plan. We've got an excellent team moving forward that's going to help us uh solve a decade long problem of uh not getting getting it uh updated. I think that we need to continue to look at technology and use technology as a force multiplier to solve the problems that we have. And then finally, business development. We all want better jobs and jobs will increase the the economic vitality of this city.

Thank you, Councilman.

Great. Thank you. And [clears throat] I appreciate opportunity just to share a couple of thoughts uh from my perspective and and looking at this year. Um I I think if I had to look at one thing because all of these u topics that we've we've presented here are are obviously important for the community. But one thing I think that often happens when you uh when you get to serve on a council is at any given time, you know, you you serve for a two-year period and and your focus is rightly so on that that two-year period. You're focusing on, you know, the things that come up in this meeting, the things in dealing with the budget. But one thing, you know, with a with a two-year term and a constant uh uh turning over potentially of every two years of some or sometimes all of the council members there there really sometimes, I think, is is a lack of opportunity to have a longer term strategic discussion. That is, you know, what are we wanting this community to look like, not just this year or this budget cycle, but what is important to our communities? You say, for example, parks and recreation. and and we sometimes have these these uh conversations kind of in one-off conversations or a plan or that type of thing. But one one thing and and while we spend an enormous amount of time as we should uh looking at the budget, the financial, you know, part of of what we do and oversee, you know, I I wouldn't mind spending a little bit of time maybe looking at strategically not only what do we look at doing, you know, this year or this budget year, but what things do we want to accomplish or if if we come five or 10 years from now saying this community now looks different because of this, because of that, what do we want this community uh to look like? I think for a variety of reasons, a lot of how this operates and how government operates keeps us in the here and now. But what I would hope and and and I'll think about this and maybe make a proposal for a future agenda item at some point is maybe a time outside of the budget cycle to to talk about

issues, to talk about strategy, to talk about priorities because we're going to face nothing. Uh the the financial pressures that we see now are going to continue to increase and there's nothing that we can really do. We have no control over that. So it's it's going to be a matter of priorities. Every meeting that we have is a matter about priorities. So before we get into the focus of the specific decisions, I think making sure that we all know strategically where we are on these priorities helps provide guidance. We come to that point that we say no, we've identified this to be a priority. This that which is why we move forward or others may not be a priority. So I would hope that we um would maybe be able to carve out some time uh and maybe early in this year. you know, just talking about a strategic plan that's that's prioritizing what this council and community feels that we need to be working on not only this year, but what do we want to set the path for going forward, 5, 10 years down the road.

Thank you.

Well said to each member. Thank [clears throat] you for speaking up and lending your remarks. I I will uh close this out by by reminding us of of what I believe needs to remain and what I believe has been uh our main goal. And it's summed up pretty pretty well in in just three little words, service over self. We are a great example of how politics uh is part of policy. Um and how when we come together in an attribute of service for the community and it doesn't have to be about any one person or one one accomplishment or or somebody's way. And and we look for common ground and we look for um peace, you know, that that benefits everybody. in the right way, then we agree and we move forward. We move forward very well. When we come together in disagreement and we criticize policies, that's fantastic. I think the being critical and critical thinking is critical and and criticizing policies is the way that we get better and we continue to listen to everyone, make up our own minds and try to represent you all as best we can. I would encourage us to continue to be good leaders and good stewards over our city and to avoid criticizing people. Where we fall apart is where we become critical of a person and we um try to remove that person's credibility, tear them down. We're no longer f focused on a policy. We're focused on self at that time. And it becomes very very obvious. It's glaringly obvious in social media when

our kids look at the adults in the room acting like children. And so we are different than most communities. We haven't succumbed to that. We have people here that walk out that local hero mentality and they're they're right back here on the back of the room. Those men and women back there that are badged officers along with those civilians that run your public safety department. These men right up here on the front, it's service over self. And I think you guys can see that. I hope you can see it. We'll continue to set forward good policy and we continue to invite the criticism of that policy and and I thank you for an opportunity to lead um on what I believe is a very dynamic group of men. I think it's easy to see expertise to my left and my right in different areas and we complement each other even when we don't agree and so um that would be my direction my remarks and I think that we are well on our way. Uh, I sit on a very strong team. Thank you guys for letting us do that. [clears throat] Item number five, public comment. Uh, very important part. I'll hand it over to city secretary.

Thank you, mayor.

Thank you for participating in today's city council meeting. Your input and your opinions are important to us and we are glad you're here to share them today. At each posted meeting, we invite our fellow community members to address city council regarding posted agenda items or topics related to city policy. During public comment and any public hearings today, each speaker will have three minutes to address the council. At the end of two and a half minutes, a warning beep will sound to alert you that you have 30 seconds left to wrap up your thoughts. We do have one public hearing today. If you're here to speak on that item, we ask that you make your comment either during public comment or the public hearing, but not both in order to keep accurate minutes. It's your decision at which time you'd like to speak. When you come to the microphone today, please state your name and whether or not whether or not you live in Emerald City Limits. If you're addressing council on an agenda item, please state your position so we may reflect it properly in the minutes. If you are speaking to an item not on today's agenda, the Texas Open Meetings Act limits how our elected officials may respond. Council may respond with a statement of fact. They may ask your topic be placed to a future agenda, or they may refer the matter to the city manager who can have staff step out and visit with you regarding your topic. Again, thank you for being here today. We will utilize both podiums. And so, we will call up a speaker and then the speaker on deck will come up to the other podium. We will start today's speakers with Levanda Mosley. And as Miss Mosley gives her comments, we would invite Craig Bucker to come up to the other podium.

Good afternoon. I'm Levanda Mosley. I am a resident of the city of Amarillo. Um I'm here today to talk on two agenda items. one being your decorative um lights expense and then also the closing of the city pools. So, why am I talking about the decorative lights? I was here another time and I thought decorative lights, there was a big expense for that. So, I went back July 11th of 2023. It was a $620,000 item and I drive downtown every day. So, I was like, did that project happen? And so as I'm coming to work this morning and I'm coming here, I'm like, sure enough, that that project happened. And so I look at the agenda today and I said, um, we're going to spend $172,000 for 19 lights, which averages to about $9,82 per light. And so I that gives me pause because the pools are on the agenda and public pools um are important to me. I grew up in the public pools. I grew up on the north side of Amarillo. And so I know that the city of Amarillo and AISD does not go hand in hand. Um, but AISD recently slammed the doors on three of our elementary schools in our communities, North and South East Amarillo. And now the city is talking about closing two of our public pools. Um, it gives me pause that we are leaving our next generation of children behind. We're we're taking resources away from them that they can enjoy in the city of Amarillo. So, as I moved forward, I was like, can we can we think about these decorative lights um and the expenses that probably are spent on the nice things Emerrella needs? And I agree, Emerila needs nice things and we need our streets to look good. But I also think it's important

that our children have some place to go. And so as I look at the dynamics of Amarillo, um I'm going to ask you guys to keep Southeast pool open. There is not a pool on the southeast sector of Amarillo that our children can go to. Thompson Park is north side, though I would like to give some comment on North Side. Um, the fee is triple of what it is for Southeast and Southwest pool. If you want to spend your entire day at the pool, which when I grew up, I spent the entire day at the pool. Um, you have knocked out most of the north side sector kids that want to spend their day at the pool with that fee. Think about a community pass for truly kids that live in that community and can comprove it. Bring that fee down. Um, Southwest, it's a nice pool. kids go there. But the southwest side of town has other options. They have Vdor. They have Emerald Town Club. So even though those come with memberships, there are still pools in those areas. But I would encourage you to make a decision to put resources into the Southeast pool to have something for those children to do in the summertime. And I appreciate everything that you guys are doing. Okay. On deck for the other podium will be Beth Duke and Craig Bucker. You may begin.

Hi, my name is Craig Bucker. I live just outside the city of Amarillo, but I'm a property owner and business owner of the city. I want to start off by thanking the council members for being so transparent and bringing to our attention the pools. Because of the way you conduct your meetings, we were able to watch your investigation of the pools. Now, we know we have problems. They're real problems, but I think they're a lot more manageable than what you've been told. With me, I brought Joel Ramirez of Lonear Luxury Pools and Daniel Cheryl of Dan the Man Plumbing. Because of your videos, we were able to analyze them and look at them. The one pool that has a drop in water, we believe that that is a lot less significant than what you think. And so they had mentioned that it was evaporation, but he believes that it's a tiny hole and he thinks he can probably get that fixed. Between those two gentlemen alone, we believe we can bring the cost down on the repair of the pools. So while others may say, you know, that they uh don't want you to close the pools because of memories and fondness and this and that and others are going to shame you possibly. We want to help try to provide a solution. And so we believe that leaning on your community members and your business owners is probably the best way to solve this problem. These two gentlemen own businesses in the city of Amarillo. They're willing to step up and lower that cost for you and see if we can't get an accurate number to get this solved. Um I'm going to wrap up by saying every predecessor of yours seen the value of those pools. Every one of them. This is something the community needs. We believe in it and I believe you'll have more business owners that are passionate about this. And so together hopefully we can come up with a solution to give you accurate numbers that aren't inflated that truly represent the people of Amarillo by business owners who are passionate about our community just as much as you are.

I'm going to go ahead and yield the rest of my time to Muk. Thank you very much. On deck will be Claudia Stravado and Beth, you may begin.

Thank you. Thank you and thank you for your remarks. Uh you know, we're all trying to make our city better and I just wanted to share what I shared with the uh Center City Tiers meeting last week and that is concerning the Herring Hotel. In the 20 years that I've been at Center City, every time I speak to a group, big, small, young, old, the first question is, "What about the Herring Hotel?" And I have not studied the numbers. I don't know all the finances, but I know it's something that the community would like to save as a historic landmark. And I grew up in Amarillo. I'm a native of Amarillo. And um I have a story about almost every building downtown. My father with the helium activity had an office in that building when it was on its last gasp when the government uh rented it for the social security administration and the helium activity. And um I've just watched it over the years. I know its fine history. I know the the art that was in the Tescosa room. Um, I just feel like it's really time to do something before the building really falls into even more disrepair. And I thank you for considering this. The tears meeting was very interesting and a lot of ideas, lot of good vision was expressed and I appreciate you taking that under consideration.

Thank you. On deck for the other podium will be Hope McCoy and M. Stravado, you may begin.

Thank you. I'm Clauddio Stravado and I live in the city of Amarillo. I want to start by reading the definition from the Texas Water Development Board of Water Conservation. It's those practices, techniques, programs, and technologies that will protect water resources, reduce the consumption of water, reduce the loss of waste or waste of water, and improve the efficiency of the use of water or increase the recycling and reuse of water so that a water supply is made available for future or alternative uses. I'm speaking again today in support of the city of Amir Amarillo uh to implement a formal water conservation plan with the Texas water development board that the city has worked with the water development board on conservation in the past and most recently you've worked with them on the wastewater challenge um in recognition of the building of firming uh in our community and the water we have contracted to give to them. It is incumbent that the city implement a water conservation program to protect our water resources for future generations. Um, a water conservation plan for Emorillo must include odd even lawn watering days and diligent monitoring and fining of those residents and businesses who allow water to flow down our streets wasted forever. Uh we do not know what the future holds

that could impact our water resources even though now they look positive. But it's both prudent and logical to have a conservation plan and not to do so would be a lack of due diligence. All you have to do is direct the public works department to start working with the Texas Water Development Board to start a water conservation plan. It takes time and we should at least have it. We should have it before they operate, but certainly concurrently with when Fermy operates. Thank you. On deck for the other podium will be Craig Galtier and Hope. You may begin.

Good afternoon. I'm Hope McCoy, Emeraldo Citizen, live in Pleasant Valley. I wanted to announce that Pleasant Valley River Road Revitalization Group, Inc. is now officially a nonprofit. So hopefully in the future the oversight committee will consider them for the next recognized neighborhood association. And the main thing I came here to talk to is when I signed in, she asked me what did I want to talk to talk to y'all about and I said harmony. I'm hoping 2026 we can end on a better note between the dis and the public as you said mayor social media can be a beast. Uh Mr. Reid what you said about natural tension. Yes, that is true. There is tension and some of it is natural and I think some of it is unnecessary. Mr. Tips, you said that uh open door policy contact you anytime and I know this because I've emailed y'all and y'all always email email me back. Prescott, you talked about hardworking employees and not just ones like yourself. I'm talking I refer to even all the way down to a grocery sacker that's just starting his first job. And uh Mr. Prescott, I like what you talked about is uh strategic planning. And so when I come here today, I want to talk about harmony between you all, the citizens, city management. Why can't we have that open dialogue as a committee have a mediator? Like parents are getting a divorce, they have a mediator that helps them talk out their talking points, their frustrations, you know, what am I not getting? What do I want? I think there could be more transparency, you know, citizens talk back to us. So, yes, a a strategic committee, you know, with some other

different citizens, you know, with Mr. Fisher, Mr. Ford that always bring out good points that I understand their frustration. They're trying to speak up for the public. I understand you guys. Y'all have a a civil duty to do. Um, I brought today the new USDA USDA food chart as an as an analogy. Up here, you got the cheese, the cheddar, the men with the the money, the elite. Then you've got the men, the blue uh the bluecollar workers and the white collar workers. And as I mentioned, all the way down to like the little grocery sacker. for this food group to work, for this city to work, we need to come together and not just work in tension back and forth and name calling. We need to come together and make Amarillo a city that works cohesively in harmony that other cities will be uh envious of. So hopefully this analogy I mean I call myself the avocado cuz I like guacamole. And then like you guys, y'all are the steaks. And then we have some turkeys in the group. And you know, let's just try to come together somehow. Thank you.

On deck will be Allan Fineold for the other podium. And Craig, you may begin.

Uh Craig Old here. I do live within the city limits. Uh I came to speak about obviously about the the pool closures. Um, I as many probably in this room, probably all y'all up there spent your summers in our in our pools. And uh, I guess when I start thinking about what Mr. Council Member Reed brought up about the st strategic plan uh, that that the that they the parks department has been working on since 2021. It got me to really thinking and I know that I get accused of having this tinfoil hat on. Uh but I'll I'll leave it on here because I believe the fix has been in. Uh, I believe the parks department has wanted the park the pools closed for a long time just like they closed all of our school park restrooms and it has been brought to my attention that the city has great intention of bulldozing those assets uh and never to open them again at our school parks. Uh my point is is when I look and when I watched the meeting before in regards to the closure of the parks, there were some pictures put up about the you know obviously the the trials and tribulations of the mechanics of the of the pools and I thought to myself being a business owner for many years why would I ever let my assets get to that point? I mean it it is like almost almost purposeful like we did this on purpose. I mean, you look at some of none of you would ever run [clears throat] your businesses like that to allow a piece of your equipment to get to that point unless you wanted it to to fail. And my point is along here is that this is we really haven't had as far as I know maybe they have. We

haven't really had a true engineers or multiple I mean multiple professionals to come and look at the system. Have we put out an RFP RFQ to evaluate it other than city employees who've been working on this for decades? I mean I respect their opinion but you know when I have health issues I don't I actually went to another physician. I want a second opinion. Uh, I think we should instead of taking a quick vote to close our pools, let's step back, breathe, and let's really evaluate this because the real discussion should have taken place if we're going to close these pools down should have taken back in during budget. You know, I know two I I attended a parks uh board meeting and two when when uh council members uh which was our mayor just was elected the very first time, they had a meeting and they wanted to hold a vote to close the pools then after y'all just did the budget. And I'm like and their reason back then was is the usage numbers for Southeast and Southwest Pool. Now it's mechanical. So, uh, I would really wish that y'all would take a moment and let's, uh, evaluate this before we're quick to a vote.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Okay, Mr. Fineold, you may begin.

Alan Fineold, I live in the city of Amarillo. I agree with Mr. Gareth that you should have a professional independent of the city evaluate the condition of those pools. If it is found that the pools are simply not repairable within a sensible budget, don't destroy them. Make them into botanical gardens. I could give you a long lecture on it, but I have other things to discuss. There are items 611, 614, and 615 all related to water and sewer. I would consider 611 first. It says that you are planning to award a contract for approximately $3.6 million to a company for wellfield service and supply for the Carson County well fields and the Potter County wellfields. I think the public has a right to know the condition of those fields. Obviously, there is a lot that needs to be repaired. I think you should issue a comprehensive report on the conditions of those fields. how much water we are drawing from them and what you anticipate in the way of future requirements for maintenance and new equipment. Similarly on 614 and this is even more important a an award for a motor and starter for a fluent pump at River Road. We need to know just how much needs to be done at River Road. We know there are probably millions of dollars of expenditures that will be required to bring it up to the standard which we should have. You need to issue a report available to the public specifying what has to be done at River Road to make sure that it functions well

in the future and what happened to the plant that caused it to be in a condition not adequate for the uh public service that it should be doing. We also need to know how much it's going to cost to bring River Road up to the standard that is required for uh the state of Texas as well as for the general safety of the plant and you should have a specification for each major item. Then there is the matter of the change order, the automatic metering infrastructure system on which the city spent something like $29 million to install. It would be very helpful if the city of Amarillo issued a statement about the maintenance cost for that automated system in the future. In general, I think you should separate your expenditures from expenditures on the water system from your expenditures on the wastewater system. The revenues are separated. You should have a separate accounting from here on out and not co-mingle the funds. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. You need a wastewater account and revenues from wastewater that goes only into that account. You need a separate account for water revenues and water projects. Again, I hope you will consider separating that in the accounting and do so promptly. Thank you, Mr. Fine Gold.

Mayor, that concludes everybody that signed up today.

Okay. Um, as we always do, we appreciate everyone for signing up. I know that Miss City Secretary has asked you guys to go ahead and uh fill out the paperwork. We've we've ran some good long meetings. We've had a lot of uh public comment in the past and from time to time we get to moving quickly. We're not getting names down accurately and and recording our minutes correctly. So, we are asking if you guys would continue to fill out the paperwork as you come up. Um, I do see one hand in the back. Do I have anyone else here who would like to give public comment that hasn't signed up? Okay. So, uh, two gentlemen here to my left. If you guys wouldn't mind, uh, coming up front, we'll go ahead and and just fill the paperwork out for formality sake. And then, uh, Tim, if you go first and then Mike, you you as well next. And after is great. Not that we don't know who you are. So, yeah. So,

I'mma wing this one. So, first of all, I'd like to talk about the first first thing is is uh the herring. Okay? You know how I am about this deal, but there is more evidence coming to light. I would like you guys to table this right now because I can promise you when you see this evidence, it's going to blow the lid off this developer and you're going to wish you did not get into an agreement with this guy. That's all I'm going to say on that. The other one is is the check registry. It's time. It's time to open it up. It's time to show the citizens the full books. It's been hidden for years. It's time to show it. You guys got to agree to this. It's It's time to show this. Let the citizens see the numbers. Let them see the facts and we'll leave you alone. That's all I'm asking. Thanks for your time. My name is Mike Fiser. Live in the city of Lillo. Before my time starts, I'd like to ask Cole Stanley for a statement of fact. Um when when a recent uh during a recent conversation, a a citizen told you that you were losing your supporters. As a statement of fact, is it true or false that you told them you didn't care because you weren't running for reelection anyways?

Statement of fact. That's false statement, but um glad to speak to it um at a later date when it's appropriate. So, if you would go ahead and start, Mr. Fischer's time. Are you ready, sir? Yes, I am. All right. Thank you.

As um Tim just stated, I'm still looking for that check register. Maybe now that we have uh your CFO out of the way, uh maybe we can get the rest of the check register posted. I ask that one of you uh put it on the agenda and let's talk about it again. Let's get We're still missing on the check register. No deposits, no AC transactions, and no financial transactions related to the agency relationships that we have such as the ADC. We don't have any of their checks, credits, anything. I'd like for that to be put on the agenda if one of you guys would please do that. Regarding this uh this presentation that at the last council meeting with the pool, if you just look at one thing that they said, first of all, the guy said, "I'm not an engineer or anything." And it's no fault to him that you drug up a guy that's a maintenance guy to come up here and and advise the city to close the pool. But it's these guys, these guys with their agendas. Mr. Freeman accusing me of having an agenda. You didn't have an expert. You didn't have an engineer, a stamped engineer, whatever that is. You know about that, Cole. I guess you're in that in that world. Um, they talked about a leak. I have a pool in my backyard. On any given day, like if the weather conditions are right, it'll drop an inch in a day, like overnight. They said, the guy came up and said it dropped four and a half to 5 and a half inches. You can see on my document I gave you, it's it's backed up data that in the Texas panhandle between October, September and October, it would be expected to drop 4 and a half to 5 1/2 in. He said 5 and a half inches. How on earth could you even consider this? I mean, they gave you nothing in the packet. There wasn't any any real experts like that that told you this need to be closed. How can you consider anything these guys did? Did Path look at this? Did he look at this? Did Did they talk? Because why on earth would he

bring up a guy that's in maintenance to to give an expert opinion that's saying this is dangerous and that we need to close it, that it's it's crumbling and and it that's an agenda. That's a policy thing. That's you're not doing what's good for the city. That like like Craig said, there's an agenda here to close the pools. And you know what? Ginger didn't even close our pools, man. Come on. Come on. Like, seriously, Cole, two of you said you grew up poor. I won't point those out. I talked to to two of you guys. If you grew up poor, then a pull is is crazy important. Like, it can divert kids on a on a different path and maybe keep them out of trouble or maybe like like a life-changing thing because when you when you're poor, you have nothing. And this east side of town is ridiculous that we're even talking about this. This is nuts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Um, so appreciate everyone for coming here today and and everyone who offered public comment. It is very important. Uh, and I do look forward to continuing dialogue, uh, as it is appropriate. I know this time is just to listen to you, but um, we are listening and we are hearing some things. So, uh, we'll close public comment before we take up, uh, consent agenda as an example of listening and and hearing from you. Uh, Miss Stravado, um, you and I have been around each other, uh, for for it feels like quite some time, even though it's been a few short years. They've been action-packed. And so, uh, I would like to put a future agenda item up for, um, not only our landscape ordinance and how we require new construction to irrigate and and put out, um, you know, things that that consume a lot of water and require large areas to be watered where the wind around here does happen to blow and and we are seeing that runoff. but then also to incorporate maybe a water usage understanding and and start there. Uh now whether or not it ends up at the the development board or not, I think it starts with the conversations about what's our current policies and are we driving the city towards that that conservative effort. And so thank you for bringing that. Glad to um to work with you on that and we'll put that together. So uh Mr. Path, if you'd put that as a a future agenda item. Um, do I have any remarks from from council? Anybody need to say anything before we move forward? Just give you one more opportunity after hearing your public. Thank you guys for all speaking here today. Um, item number six is our consent agenda. U, I do know that item 6.8 is not ready. Uh, procurement office does a very good job of making sure that

those jobs that are construction jobs are let accordingly and that we meet all that criteria. We didn't quite have um everything documented the way it needed to be. So, we need to remove that one just because it's not ready. We would anticipate it coming in the next two weeks. Do I have anything from council uh that needs to come off for further discussion? I'd like to uh bring number seven off, please. 6.7. Yes.

Got it. Anything further, council? [clears throat] So would be looking for a motion to pull 67 68 and then uh the rest is presented. Please I move to approve the consent agenda less items 67 and 68 as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second. Um as stated all in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Um item 68 will come back. Probably not a need for discussion on that at this time. Um item 67. Uh Mr. Path, what direction would you like to take that?

Yes, Council Simpson have any questions? I do have Bo in the audience with us tonight. Well, uh a couple of questions as to exactly kind of how this plan is going to work. Uh, you know, I had had some talks with Rich about uh, you know, whether people would be required to well m maybe just give a overview for the public of what this agreement is about, why we're doing it, uh, the benefit of it, and then maybe I can have some questions because as it relates to the specifics of it for civic center uh, clients that that would be using the civic center using these sound services. Sounds good. Yeah. Well, if you could explain what this item is, how we use it, and then go from there.

All right. Thank you, Mayor Council. Uh, glad to explain this just a little bit further. Um, the civic center, of course, puts on many ticketed events every year. Uh, some are standalone events, uh, uh, nightly concerts. Uh, some are are arts groups, sporting events that have multiple, uh, events during their seasons. Um, a lot of the individual nightly or one night events that we have are also set up as co-pros. That is where the promoter and the civic center uh go in 5050 on the settlement of that event, sharing in the cost, sharing in the revenue. uh in those cases, many of those cases, uh it's our obligation then if the sound and video the AV needs of that event are beyond the scope of what we can offer through the civic center itself, then we have to reach out to outside vendors uh either here in town or here within the in the tri-state region uh to get quotes on providing those services uh for that event. And uh of course we pass those quotes back to the promoter that is bringing the show in and uh uh we have to select the best best option uh the best feasible option for that event. Um it it gets problematic in the fact that usually there's a short time frame in which we need to be able to get multiple quotes back and get clarity on what is specifically needed out of an events writer which describes the uh elements that they need and uh and to try to come to that uh agreement

as to what vendor we're going to use for their concert. Uh, this contract um is basically set up to where we're we're trying to cut through the red tape and the time frame that it's taking to get these quotes for these events and uh be able to move forward with contract uh proposal on those shows. uh this will this particular RFP that we put together we sought either a a discount format, a revenue format for the civic center or a combination thereof. And uh we had three respondents to this RFP. Uh one had some issues that uh did not make it eligible to be considered. Uh we had two others that were very good proposals and a very strong strong proposals and although they were very close in the price aspect, one was solely discount to the event on the cost of the equipment. Uh one did propose a 50/50 discount on their equipment as well as revenue percentage to the city. uh all of the features that they offered in their proposal uh were very beneficial to both us and the incoming clients for our events and uh they were selected as being the best proposal that we received. So under this, when people want to have an event at the civic center, do they have the freedom to choose who does their sound or audio or does it have to be this vendor? for this contract. This is uh this contract is for only those ticketed events that ticket through Panhandle tickets, our box office. And uh it's not

for the non-ed events, the the banquetss, the the parties and so on. They can utilize whoever they want to use. Uh this is just relegating this this uh business to those ticketed events through our box office. And uh the only exclusions there and it's written into the agreement that we've developed is that it will exclude our three arts groups and our three sports groups at this time because they're in the middle of their seasons or about to start their seasons. Um, if an event were to present the fact that they can produce or provide all of the sound and and lighting needs that they need for their event, uh, then they're excluded from having to utilize this vendor. This vendor is going to come in with their equipment, supplement city equipment, and provide the best overall service uh, process for these concerts. Do we know kind of approximately how many events each year this would impact or or affect or

I look back at the 2425 season uh there were 37 possible events that could have utilized or would have utilized uh these services. Uh in addition to the 16 arts events that we had last year and 40 sports events that we had last year, those those are excluded by the wording of the contract. Out of those 37 possible events, we had a list of 14. Two of which actually did have toured with their own sound and lighting gear and were not uh did not need the outside services of of a sound company. So,

okay. And do we have any idea between I guess the discounts and the rebates? I mean, what that can mean from a revenue standpoint or for these for these 12 events that we had listed here? uh under this uh agreement, the proposed agreement, uh the discount would have been somewhere in the $12,000 range and the revenue would have been about $12,000. Okay. All right. And that can grow or or decrease a little bit uh each year based upon the number of events that we bring in. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Council, other questions for both. Um just a few here for you, sir. So currently we do a competitive bid process for different promoters and they can utilize local sound and audio or they could maybe have any of them bring somebody with them or I'm thinking like entertainment

typically where our production managers are having to reach out to two or three vendors trying to get quotes based upon the rider what the rider says that they need and try to get quotes from these folks there. And again, uh, you also have those same vendors that are doing a lot of business in other areas of the country or in the state. They may or may not have availability on the dates that you need. Well, this contract then will zero in on one provider that has to be able to provide those services.

I understand the benefit in that single source provider where it obligates them um to handle that business. Maybe when if we just reached out to the market, you didn't have uh enough vendors that that would be illustrating that point. What what creates what mechanism in the contract is going to create the competitive uh capitalism that you need to see so that we're not suffering the criticism I guess from you know a a promoter or somebody bringing an event that says well your your audio video wasn't affordable. That's three times the cost of what we're used to seeing everywhere else. So, so what mechanism is in there?

Well, this contract with this discount structure that's uh that's in place is going is going to be able to bring that cost down to where they're not having to travel with this equipment constantly. They'll be able to store some equipment here. They're going to come in and take inventory of the equipment we have to see what they would need to supplement with. and uh they'll be able to modify their expense based upon that.

So market availability always justifies price usually like you know high demand, right? You have a higher cost. So, uh, does do you guys have anything in here and can we allow for something that may could help us in in the event that do have a promoter or somebody that's bringing an event and for whatever reason, even with the discounted price, it's it's what they would u that they would state is, you know, excessive. Are they are they able then to uh propose a price that that we can enforce be honored or or would there be any kind of ability on on your behalf to negotiate um the oneoff issue to keep us moving forward where we're continuing to attract we don't want to push people further away.

Well, most definitely. you you want uh to have the prof professionalism of the group that you're bringing in and their capabilities to to perform and uh the companies that we've reached out to uh certainly present that. Um uh uh the the concept of this contract as well is is that the company that's getting the contract will be working directly with each one of the promoters whenever they they're setting up their contract and working on the rider

and negotiating that rider with them as to what elements are specifically needed, what items could be cut out. they can trim back the cost with uh through that negotiation and provide the best possible service. Okay. Councilman Tips, you got anything on this one? Yeah,

I guess just to I mean the problem we seem to be solving here is being able to have somebody on call that we know that we can depend on to provide the sound for these particular events that we have here because it takes a lot of I guess civic center staff time to be able to weed through the needs as well as who can provide it and they've said we'll put you on first priority if you if you need us I guess this company correct uh and then The second problem I guess it it solves for us is uh a revenue or expense savings problem that that we can either get a little bit more revenue or expense out of this than we could the way that we're formally handling it. Exactly. It'll be cheaper and and more profitable for us

and it's really only a handful of events. I wasn't I wasn't sure because when I had the initial question or conversation, we didn't know at that point or I I wasn't told whether the arts groups and others, but the vast majority of people will still have the freedom to be able to use the audio video that they want. If if they don't have someone, then you could help them find that with this company, I'm guessing. Sure. And we we will we will propose that there will be an option for those non-ed uh occur in our building. uh they can they can advertise to them and they can negotiate with them or any other vendor that they want to use. So good. Thank you. I do council.

Yeah. So Bo, you you you reiterated that it's non-ED events. Um but for ticketed events, if they use panhandle tickets, are they required to do they have the option if it's a ticketed event and they use panhandle tickets? I'm sorry, one more time. So, if it's a ticketed event and they use Panhandle tickets, right, which is our vendor, are they required to use this service or can they still shop it?

Uh, they would need to use this service if they cannot pro uh prove that they have the equipment and the ability to put their show on themselves. Uh, fully self-contained. Some some shows come in and they've got all of their sound and lights gear and so on loaded in their truck. How do they they come in? They come in and set the show up, run the show themselves.

Well, how do they prove that? If I mean, you know, I decide that I'm going to bring my show here and that's eight months from now and we're talking about this lighting deal and you're like, well, we need proof that you got it. Well, I'm not shipping it all there. I mean, I've got several other shows I got to do. Well, the writer that's provided for that show will indicate what equipment that they need, what equipment that they're providing and so on and their capability of of producing their show themselves. So, you'll just go off their word of like, hey, we do have this equipment, then you're hands off. They don't have to use this service. Correct. But if they want to, you know, to Les's point, they've got priority. They can use it. It might be at a discount, maybe lesser than Okay. All right. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Bo. Appreciate you, council. Any further discussion on item 6.7? Uh, it's up for consideration. I move to approve item 6.7 as presented. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. We will now move out of our consent agenda into section seven, our discussion items. We're going to start with an update on uh AMW from Mrs. Medley.

Mayor, if I may real quick, I apologize. We are experiencing some technical difficulties with our video right now. Okay. We have audio and people can see the slides, but they cannot currently see the see the video of of of who's talking. So, u might be a good time for a reset. One option could be a reset so we can reset the system. And I that's what I recommend. Okay. Glad to do it. We'll see you back here in 15 minutes. Thank y'all.

I'm going to go ahead and call us back into order and session and um ask if uh Mrs. Medley's ready. We'll go ahead and jump into that update from you, ma'am. Item 71.

Okay. Well, thank you. Um I'm just here to give you an update on the voucher pilot program. It was one of the initiatives um or something that an initiative we were doing with the money that was set aside by our council to look at the issues dealing with animal management and welfare here in our um community. So what we looked at was we did our very first pilot program. What was going to look like to partner with our local uh veterary uh services and see what it was going to look like? How can we address the whole idea of we're having unwanted litters, we're having stray issues, we have some significant areas in town that we have seen uh a high influx of that. So, as we were starting to address with the pilot program came up and what it is is a voucher program that we uh partnered with our development uh and planning and we focused on our um empowerment zones. When we looked at the empowerment zones, we're like, hey, we can actually put the data there and saying this is where our biggest incidents are and our highest rate um of unp um unhomed animals. So with that, we started with the voucher program when we started with the uh Saneno Neighborhood Association. It's really a builtin with our empowerment zones that we already have a relationship with them. Um, so we did our very first one and we really had to focus in on how are we going to get the word out and how do we get it to our target population. Um, so we had two different times um, just to see what would work better. Is it a morning thing? Is it an afternoon thing? So you'll see there that we uh did it on June 21st at 10:00 a.m. to 2 and then July 12 from 5 to 8. Um, we were able to issue and it was our very first one. So, as we go through this and if you guys recommend that we continue doing this, I think we'll be able to get a better response because we'll be able to do it

in a long-term fashion. So, as you'll see that we issued 87 of them redeemed were 52% which is anybody that's working with social services will understand that that's you can get it out there but it's going to be really up to the resident to get him to get them to that service. Um, one of the reasons we also think the neighborhood associations is the best place for us to have these voucher events is that they um supplied us with interpreters because a lot of times in these neighborhoods maybe the city or animal management welfare not might not have somebody that can translate. So that was there. We also had with Saneno neighborhood where they were talking to people and if they didn't have a ride to one of our uh partner vets that they were helping arrange the rides. It's their neighborhood. they're working with their community. They wanted it addressed too. So that we saw that as a real win. Um this first one was a cost of $8,400 and basically that was just for what we paid our partners. We were able to absorb the vaccinations and the microchipping um through previous donations that we had gotten from private partners. So what it looks like is you get a voucher. That voucher everybody goes, "Why don't you just hand them out?" Well, we've got to be really good partners with our private sector partners. And so at that time, we decided we will as the city and in partnership with Texas Tech Vet School is that we will have the actual clinic and so that we can assure our our private practice partners that at least they've gotten vaccinated, they're microchipped, and before they ever get to their um to their clinic. The other thing is we also after talking to several places throughout the state that have done something like this, you know, you always worry about fraud. How are we good um stewards of this money? How do we put in those those checks and

balances? So, what we did with the voucher is every animal that comes to the clinic gets a microchip and gets vaccinated. And we have an actual vet, either a city of Amarillo contracted vet or a Texas Tech University vet school um one of their um doctors and we put our hands on it, they see it. It's just a real initial, but they at least have the idea. They're vaccinated and they're microchipped. That microchip number is then put on the voucher so we can track it. So it's ways that we can try to avoid people duplicating or any of those such things and we can ensure that it's also being used in those targeted areas that we know that are going to have the biggest impact on the community. So with that, we did all that and our vets, our vet um our local vets, we had four local vets that were um amazing that they wanted to be at the beginning of this and they were Emerald Vet Clinic, Canyon Road, Animal Hospital, Cadillac Vet Clinic, and High Plains Vet Clinic. And so they were kind of spread out throughout town. And these were just such good partners and can recognize the problem and they wanted to be a part of that solution. So they were able and worked through the system. How do we reimburse them? What what kind of problems do we see? So some of those challenges was some no-shows, which we knew would be an issue and really talking with those vets. The larger the animal is, that $200 is is a tough cover. So we're working on that with them. But right now, it's $200. We will pay our vet, our vet partner, our private practice, 200 for dogs and 100 for cats. All the numbers that I'm going to give you on this next one is going to be based on if we did all dogs, it was all 200. So, we'd know if we'd maxed out the program. But from this, we really thought we can make this program work. Uh in the October uh animal advisory board meeting, we did present it to them and the advisory

board uh approved and recommended that that the CL the council um continue with this program on a on our larger scale. So this is our recommendation for the path forward is that we have that current um funding cap um capacity that fortunately um city council has given us in the past and it's there and I think that's a huge uh commitment with that we would um looking at having a minimum of four voucher events per year 150 vouchers per event um and that's actually 30,000 um per event um so I apologize for that and number right there at at 120,000. Now, that's the very that that's if we just do the bare minimum, right? So, that would give us the opportunity to have this program up um and running for and consistently available to our citizens for four years. Um it also builds in this model that we can start building in this operational we'll find out what it's really costing. maybe we we can add more uh local um service providers and that they would we would be able to have more clinics. So that is the bare minimum um that we would be able to do. But this more substant we want to look longterm. It's not going to be an issue as I've said for the last couple years. Um Amarillo didn't get here overnight. Uh we are starting to make some real strides on consistent. Yes, it's not a just one time flood the market and everybody's getting a vaccine. This is much more sustainable and it's much more long-term to address our issues. And it's not just going to be fixing animals, but we're also going to be microchipping. We're vaccinating and just the level of education working with these empowerment zones really puts us in an area that we can start really educating our public on the responsibilities of owning an

animal. So, that's where we are. Um, and we would love to to take this path forward and go forward with the voucher program.

Thank you, ma'am. That's a good presentation. And you guys have uh ran that pilot forward and it sure sounds like you've you've alleviated some of the pitfalls and then there may just be a few other things that I think as you move it forward to ensure we're getting uh everything that we can out of it. Council, do you guys have anything um for Mrs. Medley? I just want to I was in the meeting of the the uh the board there and I think you know they said uh I think boy we we you know we sure like to see more numbers but what I think we learned is there were a lot of devil in the details on these things

um because we want to make sure that they're going to be used and going through that part of it also you know the the the veterinarians are they're using this this is not a this is not a big money maker for them they're doing this to help us solve the problem absolutely

and as we've identified forward. There's not going to be one solution. There are many different solutions. But I think this is one where I think, you know, as I kind of learned through this, we really figured out how to do this uh more effectively going forward. And I think the board was uh uh was supportive of continuing to move forward in this because this is just one of the solutions. But uh I mean, if you can just imagine if one animal gets neutered and over the course of the lifetime, how many litters they may have had or that type of thing, it's a way to begin to significantly have an impact on that. And so I appreciate everything that went through kind of doing this and particularly those private sector veterinarians that that helped us with this. So I I hope it's something that we can find the support and go continue to move forward and and roll this out in a much larger scale.

Um I agree with that and then I I'm I think that this is the better long-term solution. I think because it has taken years to get here and we do have an overpopulation. um you have looked at everything under the sun, barn cap program, you name it. And so it we we can reduce this through spay and neuter and and working alongside and with those uh pet owners. I think the financial barrier right there, $200, a lot of times keeps that animal from getting um that procedure and and then they end up with the litter multiple times over and we are going to continue to see that. So, I think this may be the best impact for our community long term. I like the fact that you're looking at $120,000 a year of getting that out. This is a four-year look. Um, the one question that I would have is with the let's say you issued 87, you had roughly 45 redeemed.

Can you put an expiration on those? So, they they all do have a 60-day expiration.

Okay. And so we really did that because we've got to also look it at the financial piece, the invoicing, the expectation for when we do it in a 60day block, then our our partners, our private practice partners have an idea. This is all that's out. We can book it. If we just start overflooding the market, it would be overwhelming and invoicing wise and and all the moving parts that we have with our vet clinics. So, um, we did it at 60 days and then there have been situations where they're going to say, "Hey, I wasn't able to. I had an emergency." We've had people call and say, "Okay, as soon as we get the next one, you'll be first in line for the next voucher." Okay. So, we're working with the community because we do absolutely understand that thing life happens. Um, so we're still working with those citizens and uh Sano uh neighborhood association has contacted us on a few things going, "Hey, we found this out." and we're like, "Okay, that makes sense. This is a better time." When we looked at the two different times, we were working with that neighborhood association to figure out what was best to to address that neighborhood specifically.

I think that's really good. So, if if you push this forward, four events a year, $30,000 per event, right? And so, you're you're going to get $120,000 out into the community at a 50% redemption rate. That money is coming back to you roughly after 60 days. You're going to know those are expired. Hopefully, we're reissuing those.

Yes, we'll be reissuing them. And then we'll be able to also look at strategically, okay, these first two, this is how much. Can we add some? Can we talk to our local vets? Ultimately, the a great case scenario is we would have more um local partners so we could, you know, increase the amount of service providers. And I think this pilot program was really to kind of ease the fears that our local vets had and of our community. Okay. So I think that it definitely has the ability to grow. This is when I say that the 120,000 a year that is really just a bare minimum, but we know that we can grow within that.

Okay. So really you start off with there tracking for a year maybe 18 months. If you push that out and you're getting good results, uh hopefully word of mouth helps as well. And then if you burned through all 500k in three years, then the intention would be to metric this, bring it back to future council and refund that. Go ahead and put the funding back in there and do it again because

right and we're going to have the data and we're going to have the statistics to be able to explain what we did with it, how it worked. And it also gives us an opportunity to see what's working in the community where we can possibly put money in our our base budget recognizing this is what we're seeing. This is something that we want to build towards the future that isn't going to be relying on onetime monies. Great. Thank you. We appreciate all your hard work on it. Uh tell your board thank you uh for working it forward as well. Council, anything further? Okay. One question I did have because I noticed we just released I guess today the intake numbers for uh 2025 and I saw the I think the total intake of animals was around 8600.

Yes. I know two years ago we were over 9,000 last year went down. Did we go down again this year? Yes, we did. We've seen an overall decrease in animals intakes and and we can after three years contribute that to what we've been doing with microchipping. um we've had so many of those clinics that were we're seeing the fruits of that that are returned to owner before they ever come to the shelter has also increased. So there's a correlation there. Yeah. And then microchipping is part of this program as as well.

Yes. Every animal that um before it is going to be what is tied to that voucher for the animal sake, for the owner's sake, and and and fiscally to make sure that we're tracking it appropriately. Well, I mean, when you just look at the decrease in the number of animals that are just coming through the door, I mean, that's that's a cost savings that we've seen over the last two years of not, you know, of animals that never had to go there because they were microchipped and you could take them back to the owners. Yes, we've seen great results on our microchipping campaigns. Our officers have done a good job at doing that out in the field before it ever comes into the shelter.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, that takes us to item 7.2. 2. Um, we are going to get a good update from Mr. Doug Nelson from AEDC here today. Welcome, Mr. Nelson. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. I do have a brief update for y'all today. Uh, just to give you some idea of what's happening uh, with some of our clients. We do have three current construction projects in process uh with um companies that we've assisted and we have one that is going to start construction actually this month. So Sage Oilvac uh their expected completion date is in October of 26. Uh that is a $23 million capital investment. uh coast packing under construction. Their expected completion date is December of 26. Uh that's $35 million capital investment. Uh Injuries Enterprises, a $16 million capital investment. They'll be uh starting construction in Centerport Business Park uh this month. They expect completion in October of 27. And of course, producer own beef is still under construction. That's a $840 million facility. Uh that expected completion date still December of 2028. Uh just for y'all's edification of the projects that we have that are ongoing in 2025, we had 26 active agreements that reported on their performance. Um so there we have quite a

breadth of companies that we've assisted that are still under their performance agreements and um 26 of those reported in 2025. to give you some idea of the new activity that's occurring at AEDC. Uh on the recruitment front in 2025, staff responded to 13 RFPs for site selection. Uh we also had 61 RFPs that we had no response to for for any number of reasons. Could have been that uh we didn't qualify for some reason, population or another reason. Many times it's because we didn't have an existing building that would suit the needs of that proposal. And so we did have 61 that we did not respond to. In addition to that, we did business retention and expans expansion visits with uh staff made 54 visits in 2025. And so we continually operate um and try to visit with the existing businesses in our community that might have expansion needs. And so by going out and visiting the visiting them uh we can find maybe a diamond in the rough that really has an opportunity that we can participate in. In total in 2025, we assigned 26 project numbers. Uh to give you kind of some basis of what that really means, those are projects that we believe have a real chance of coming to fruition. Uh we meet the criteria. We've responded. We've had additional conversations with either that site

selector or that business. And so 26 of those numbers were assigned in 2025. To give you an idea, in 2024, 32 project numbers were assigned. So you can see the volume uh is fairly consistent even though we were down especially in the first half of 2025. And just for fun, let's talk about workforce just for a minute. because the numbers really uh say something about how our community is growing. So, I looked at the civilian labor force numbers from September of 23 to September of 25, which is the most recent that's out there by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our civilian labor force grew by 5,585 people. Uh our employed number of people grew by 5197 people. So almost every addition to our civilian labor force was employed. Very few that were not. Uh, in September of 23, we had a 3.1% unemployment rate. In September of 25, it was 3.3. Um, September of 24, it was 3.1. So, we've been very consistent, but we've been consistently growing our civilian labor force, which is a great sign for our community. That's really all I have for you today, unless you've got questions for me. Doug, we appreciate it. We may Any questions for Mr. Nelson?

No. Um I know you uh you guys are um out in the search. We've got some candidates that uh have come in. We've got some strong internal and strong external candidates. Um, we wouldn't ask you to speak on anything in depth, but just kind of an overall of of expectations on that search and when you think you may you may be looking or the the EDC may be looking at trying to to move that one forward for uh presentation.

Yes, sir. So, just from a timeline perspective, um, our search firm uh closed the applications on January 2nd. uh they sent applications to qualified applicants in the applicant pool that they received. Uh they will begin an interview, the search firm will interview applicants over the course of this month and then we expect that our board of directors will interview and ultimately hire somebody in the month of February. So, we would expect that person to probably start in the month of March.

Okay, real good. We appreciate that. I know that's a high level update, but I think it's good for the community to hear that um that is moving forward and then uh you guys are off to a great start for this year. Um I think you said in a very polite way, you know, we we as council previously did uh press the brake pedal down. Um it slowed things down. we we reset and and you guys have some tremendous momentum moving forward and we look forward to continuing to see the growth that you bring and then the the growth around Amarillo is good as well. So, uh thank you for the update. Yes, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you.

Gentlemen, that brings us to item 73. Do we have anything requested for a future agenda item? Councilman Simpson. Yeah, to my previous comment, I I I would like to maybe look at the idea of having some type of uh meeting where we may be able to talk about topics more strategically uh as a discussion item amongst ourselves. U you know, I I don't think, you know, we need to spend as much time on that as the budget. Uh uh although maybe an appropriate amount of time may be something where we could, you know, [clears throat] where we could uh make the most use out of that time uh to be able to talk about strategic issues, long-term issues, even issues that we to put some meat on the bones to provide direction to staff as to as to where we want to go. One thing I I would think about it, and I wouldn't want it to be u um something that would be um uh I mean, we don't we don't need to meet for days. We don't but but if we do meet we need to make an effective use of the time that we do have together. And if I know one thing is we can chase down some rabbit trails and we can talk a lot. Uh I think it's going to be uh if we do something like this, it's going to be important that we have somebody I think to help facilitate this to keep us on track to make sure that not to to limit the discussion but to make sure that whatever we want to accomplish in the x period of time whether it's four hours or eight hours that we're able to to do that and kind of ride herd on us. Um, I I would suggest that maybe, you know, get your input if there's some some type of outside facilitator that might be able to to do that and to be able to uh to help facilitate the discussions uh to keep us on track and to help kind of gear those those discussions so that we're getting a chance to talk about these issues. Also, I I I really don't think it I think staff needs to be listening those discussions, not necessarily having to be the one to ride herd over them. So they need to be kind

of hearing that and and being that. So I would just propose if if we could uh you know try to put something uh on the agenda in in the foreseeable future, maybe even before we get into budget season so we could at least set the table what maybe our priorities are short-term long term for uh uh for long-term strategic look. Councilman, let me let me uh drill in there and make sure um we're being definitive in in what we're trying to accomplish there. So what what I heard was strategy. And so that represents a little bit more of the how do we want to accomplish not the what priority may be a better word. Priority.

I mean to to figure out what our priorities are. I mean again we we have lots of priorities. We have lots of things that people want to come to today. Uh outside you know just looking for an opportunity outside of the heat of the moment where we're voting on whether we continue this service or or not continue that service or whatever. But talking about overarching, where do we want to go? What does that look like? Council member uh Reed mentioned parks and recreation. How does that weigh against other services that were provided? Where do we kind of prioritize that? So maybe not so much strategic other than the strategy of where do we want to go and where do we want to put priorities on uh in in the coming years. Are you are you talking about like like [clears throat] what we did few years ago but that was the strategic pillars but it kind of sounds like that's what you're talking about similar to that is that

there may be something to look at and just a chance to maybe have a little bit of more uh I mean there may be some detail that we would need to provide on parks and wreck you know moving forward but yeah I think you know some where we're discussing the issues not specifically to the issue that we're talking about at a council meeting but just gen generically what do we see as these major things we've talked about business development, what what could that look like? But maybe yes, readressing those pillars, our priorities uh moving forward, but thinking out not only just our term, but trying to put a little bit of longer term thinking as to what the priorities should be. So, uh, what I'm not hearing you say is like a a retreat, uh, council retreat type setting where it is multiple days on end and it really drives more towards uh, I mean, we do everything from mapping personality profiles to, you know, mission and vision statements and and there that that's that workshop setting. So, I'm not hearing you say that. I am hearing you say you want a targeted uh strategic and priority conversation where you would like to be able to talk uh overall and conceptually about the directions we're going and then maybe take that a step forward from there.

Yes. No, I don't think we need to get touchyfey. Perfect.

You know, just just but I think it just without, you know, just to be able to talk overall about the issues that that face us. I think we we all know our personalities by now. Well, we and and we uh we definitely are are working well together and we're getting a lot accomplished. Plus, um I think the strategy and priorities meeting, if we if we label that a workshop, here's what I would like to do. Uh give this body one opportunity at it before we run it through uh the machine and you task staff with an additional project of they've got to go out, find a consultant, they've got to bring the consultant in. There's lots of phone calls back and forth. there's a cost associated to that and then yes it is nice to have those those entities represented to keep us moving forward. However, what I think we could do is we could test ourselves just a little bit. Maybe put up a three four hour meeting time frame to do a uh strategy or strategy priority uh workshop. Let's try to work it forward with what we have and with staff. And then out of that, I would tell you if we if we're running in circles, if we're a little lost, if we're not getting what we need to accomplish, then I think we could bring the consultant on board um for step two. Mr. Path, I see you lit up.

Mayor, I may suggest that maybe perhaps you, myself, and councelor since we might we might just tangent off this and meet together and talk about what that looks like. Sure. Yeah, we can have a conversation and then um we could push something back out through your office to uh check schedules and then I don't think we have to to overdo it. I think we could easily schedule a workshop that puts us together. Um you think three four hours would get you far enough into those conversations.

Well, may maybe the three of us could strategize on this a little bit because I've met all of us. I mean, I just say if if we if we don't focus on really accomplishing the task, I've just got I would have to say what's the framework of that's going to look like so that we're that we're effectively using that time because no, I don't want to spend multiple days doing this. But also, I don't want to spend four hours and we've talked about one topic and we haven't gotten really that much further than we are four hours ago. If we could if we could do that on our own, maybe that would be great. But I I know we have all robust opinions and so just thinking about how the best way if we're going to spend if we're going to spend time together, how do we maximize that so that we're that we have a chance to talk about this and we can provide something that is concrete uh for the staff to be able to to move forward with and and for the community. I mean, this may be something that may change a little bit as we're talking about it, but yeah, I mean, if if maybe we can talk a little bit of what this this may look like and if we want to start out with a four hours, I think as long as it's structured and and we kind of stay on target and and figuring out how we want to set that up,

I think we could easily take a uh a review of our current pillars, see how well we're prioritizing that up next to our budgets, what our metrics kind of look like in outcomes. we can be critical of uh you know where we're not performing like we expected and uh I think that would be a good one. Let me ask if you didn't have anything else. I I did want to ask you had brought up governance and ends a couple times maybe going back and reviewing that document again

seeing if we understand what it says. How are we all operating within that document? That would be more like I would say like if we sit down together maybe step two if you bring a consultant in and we're going to do that the governance and ends document is where for us I I like having that professional outlook where I've had some really good conversations previous mayor you know I mean we we were reading some stuff in the governance and ends document and I asked the consultant does it say this and they said no absolutely not you know it was very good as a council member to to kind of get that that third party understanding. Yeah. Okay. Was what do you Well, I guess let me say is that am I getting off topic?

And I wouldn't say I wouldn't say I don't see a need for a consultant that we're going to have to spend all I do I do see the need patient talk about a facilitator, someone that comes and helps facilitate the discussion and and keeps us on track and being able to, you know, to allow it because also that just kind of relieves the the mayor of the responsibility of having to keep it on track. I mean that that we're that we've got somebody that's saying, "Okay, let's let's be sure that we're, you know, that that each of us are providing that input that we're doing that, but somebody's making sure, okay, let's make sure that we're getting all these topics and issues addressed." And we leave something we leave with something concrete and definitive, okay, that that's providing uh instruction for moving forward.

Uh, okay. Really good. I appreciate the the the request and the feedback. I'm watching my uh screen click in and out. Can we confirm? Do are we still live stream everything good back there? Okay, great. Uh let me know if we if we have another interruption. Um Councilman, what were you looking for next? Um Grayson, can we get the can we get an update on the check register? What's going on? I thought that that was rectified and that we were moving moving forward. I knew that there was some timing issues on the start of the year, but can we get an update next meeting on if there are any deficiencies on that

and and specifically because I know Mr. Fischer is still here and and I appreciate you not giving a comment and then leaving because um you know, Councilman Prescott here is addressing this specifically like what can we not see? What? And when I say we, what can the community not see that's been redacted or has not been produced? It was Tim though. I think Tim Benson brought that up, didn't

Oh, you know what? It was Tim. I apologize. So, Mr. Benson and uh and he is somewhere back there. But um as as a a frequent request from from Fiser as well that there's there is the issue of if we're going to put out the check registry, we need to put out enough information that these guys can see the day-to-day operations. And if we aren't able to do that, then we're really not helping ourselves. And so, uh we feel that up here because this has been a a continued point. So, can we get what he's asking for, but then identify what what is not being produced and why? Yeah. Yeah. We can we can bring that back to y'all again another next meeting.

I know it's complex and I know that uh when there it's lumped together, but still move forward with that if we can. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. We'll work on the governance and ends as well. Councilman,

that that was going to be my issue. Um, you know, unlike the federal government that has top secrets and confidential information, we're in a city that doesn't have top secrets. We don't have that information. And so I I mean, I'm a little frustrated in this that we have it. Why Why can't we just give everything? I know there's going to be a few things that but that should be the few things that are redacted as opposed to here here's what we're we're bringing in and here's what we spend money on. I think it's a simple equation and I'm a little frustrated. This is the third time and we've only been on the council for seven months and it just keeps coming up,

right? I appreciate that, sir. Councilman tips, you good? Okay. Uh we're going to keep us moving forward. Thank you staff for understanding those requests and getting them uh worked in over this month and the next month. Um that takes us through uh section seven. We will now move into section eight, our non-consent agenda. Uh item 81, consider approval amendment to a uh incentive agreement. Mr. Nelson, if you'll explain to us um what you have somewhat renegotiated with uh our partners at Texas Tech.

Yes, sir. Um basically we're seeking to amend the location and incentive agreement uh back that was dated back in 2018. The amendment that we're proposing today would alter the payment schedule that is in the agreement. Um the Emerald EDC approached Texas Tech University uh to inquire if they were interested in receiving a lumpsum payment. That would be a discounted lumpsum payment in lie of the original payment schedule. Um, we went back and forth a little bit about what that looked like, but ultimately ended up with our current obligation to them is three years of payments that total $15.6 million and change. We are proposing to pay them a lump sum payment of 13,653,467.33 which basically is a net present value calculation taking a 7% discount. That discount amounts to a savings of $1.95 million. So, it is literally a win-win situation for us. Uh, less taxpayer money going out and Texas Tech can benefit from receiving that cash early and deploying it in the university. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Yes, sir. Uh, Councilman, uh, Doug, we we spoke and I think it's it's important that the the community understands that, uh, if we carried that out to three years, correct? It was what 1.1 that we would have received at a 3% 4% 3 and a half% three and a half% return. So, we're still, even if we hold the money for the three years with the investment that we're getting, we're still going to see what 900,000 $800,000 $850,000 savings on top of what we would have received in interest, right? Yes, sir. All right. So, well done on this.

Um, Mr. Nelson, how old is that agreement? How many years? It was in 2018. So, 2018. So, seven years anyway. Okay. So, um

previous previous council came together and and along with EDC under, you know, you were there and and some other leadership and and uh Texas Tech Vet School, you know, uh worked alongside this. The deal was made. Um they have seen success over the last four years. Um they they're accredited. uh they are turning out some of the best veterinarians in the state of Texas. Uh they are competitive with another really good school down south. Um so there's some metrics that I know everybody looked at the price tag on that one and I'm just saying it openly and candidly. Um we are not bringing back the deal to talk through like did you know did we or did we not. Uh what we're saying is is they fulfilled what they needed to. We had an obligation through the EDC to fulfill this final payment. You took it upon yourself with the uh the help of your board and the direction of your board to go and see if we go ahead and make a lump sum payment, what are they willing to take? Uh that's a reduction. And so you've stewarded those dollars very well and and you've kind of pushed that over the edge, right? So, I just wanted to say that to make sure we understand um th this is not something new that we've done. This is not a proposal. It's not an incentive agreement that we're entertaining. Um it's something that was was negotiated and mapped out seven years ago.

Yes, sir. That is correct. Mr. Nelson, thank you for being here today. We appreciate all you're doing over there. We appreciate your leadership as well. Thank you. Thank you. Um we do. So it is before you for consideration of an approval. I make I so moved. I have a motion. Second. I have a second from place one. All in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. On to item 8.2. Brady Kendrick. Our favorite presenter is here before you today. Uh good evening and council. Um this item 8.2 two is a public hearing and consideration of ordinance 8229. Um this is to a public hearing and first reading to vacate a 20 foot wide public alley located within block 136 of Plemen's edition um which is located in Potter County, Texas in the vicinity of Southwest 11th Avenue and South Van Beerren Street. And the applicant is OJD Engineering LLC for First Presbyterian Church of Amarillo. and uh they are requesting vacation of this uh alley within this block as they own all the property within the block and have some expansion plans for a parking lot and other accessory uses related to the church that they would like to complete over the coming years. So that is the reason for their request so that they can essentially create a unified site within this block. Uh the city and the local utility companies did review the request and there are utilities in this alley. However, First Presbyterian is granting a public utility easement over that alley at no cost to the city. So, utility loca relocation will not be needed and with that uh the city utilities departments and the uh franchise utility companies did not object to the request. Um and as it pertains to fair market value payment since they are dedicating that easement at no cost to us, fair market value is not required for this item. Um, we did post notice and send notice as required by state law and we have not received any comments as of the meeting today. I'm going to be planning and zoning commission did recommend approval of this with a 50 vote.

Mr. Kendrick, thank you. Any questions for Brady? Okay. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you being here. No problem. This is a public hearing. Uh, at this time I will open a public hearing on item 8.2. Do I have anyone here who would like to speak for or against this item? With no one here to speak for or against this item, I'll close the public hearing and would consider a motion. I move to adopt ordinance number 8229 as presented. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. Any oppose? Motion passes. All right, Mr. Kendrick, you're up on uh 8.3.

Yes. 8.3 is a consideration of ordinance 8230. This is to um consider vacating a public utility easement that is located within lot 10, block 14, city park unit number six. This is located in the city of Amarillo in the vicinity of Andover's Drive and Spencer Street. And the applicant is Steve Satarite and they are requesting or he is requesting the vacation of this easement to construct a accessory building that will encumber portions of that easement. And uh given that he's wanting to cover it with a structure, uh typically that is not allowed unless the easement is vacated. In this instance, um the easement was dedicated by platt to the public and the city in 1985 when the developer of this subdivision originally was um constructing the subdivision. However, utilities were never placed uh within this easement. So, it essentially gone unused since the time it was originally dedicated. So, and with that being the case, um the city nor franchise utility companies object to this request. Uh the applicant uh did get a third party appraisal on the easement and has made payment uh to the city for the fair market value of what that easement would be worth since that is technically a public asset and that was a value of approximately $1,800. Um, so he they have made that payment to the city. And with that being the case, uh, the planning and zoning commission is recommending approval of this item with a 70 vote.

Gentlemen, you have any questions on 8.3? Did Did you have to send anything out for for this to the community? No, this is a little different than a public street or a alley for example because that's a asset that you know the general public can readily use. So that's why the state requires notices for street and alley vacations as well as our ordinance and easement's a little different and essentially that's just for the utility companies in the city itself. So that's why there's not an obligation to send notices on a pee vacation versus a street or alley. Um, any further questions for Brady? Um, man, as you can tell, Mr. Kendrick knows his job very well over there. I send a lot of people his way and he is constantly taking care of our customers and this is a great example of an individual that didn't get hung up in the system and uh, so people like you are what make that happen. So, thank you Brady. It's

No problem. Um, gentlemen would ask for a motion on 8.3. Move to adopt orders number 8230 as presented. Second motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes with a 50- vote. Item 8.4. Mr. Ballsin is coming up here to talk to us a little bit about a tech stop item. Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh, item 8.4 is a consideration of resolution number one 13261. Uh this item is uh to consider a resolution of support uh for a grant application to the text off-road or offsystem rail grade separation state fund program. Uh this is a [clears throat] 9010 matching grant. Uh the total construction amount is 22.5 million. Uh we do have a commitment from BNSF for 5% of that 10%. Uh the city's other 5% match there would be that 1.125 million. Uh we do have or we have had a award of the the FRA rail uh railroad crossing elimination grant. Um you will actually see this acceptance coming to y'all in a a upcoming uh city council meeting once we get the final documents back from the FRA. Um that grant is specifically for engineering, environmental, and the railroad act rail rideway acquisition. Um uh this project is consistent with the 2022 East Rouge neighborhood plan implementation goals and strategies which it did implement. It did identify this location as a hazard um for rail crossing with uh the neighborhood kids going and walking to school and different things. Um I will say due to the application deadline of January 19th, this is uh why staff is recommending the waiver for the second reading under that section seven of that resolution. Um I did include a couple of pictures from our application there. Uh the image down on your bottom uh left screen of your screen there is actually from our OE and I group. Uh they were able to actually uh catch a photo of uh

the train actually blocking this intersection. Uh the image there uh uh the map there you can actually see uh some of the implications of that road being actually blocked. That red line is kind of our emergency route uh back around. you actually would have to go almost a full section around uh that crossing if you had an emergency on the other side of it. So, um I I'll gladly answer any other questions on on this resolution, though. Thank you, Cody. Any questions for Mr. Balsin?

Okay. [clears throat] Thank you. Um with that, council would ask for a motion including the acceptance of the waiver of the second reading. So moved. I have a motion. Second and a second from place two. All in favor on uh item 8.4, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Um not sure who we have up here. I have Kashuba, but okay, Donnie, you're lit up. Item 8.5. Um we do want to talk about these two pools. So, Mr. Hooper.

Yeah. I just want to [clears throat] a point of clarification to before we move forward and we have a video we want to show you as well if you haven't seen those but want to talk about there were a lot of comments today in in public comment referencing the lack of a professional analysis that was done on these pools but I want to point out that there were many discussions that have taken place over this over many years I mean this has gone through many pool cycles each year that we talk about this related to having a professional analysis done uh it's an engineering study if you will done uh for these pools Um and and there was actually an agenda item that was created in August during the budget process that during our one-on-one meetings with council, we talked about that in general with each council member about what we wanted to do with that professional services contract. And uh it was determined at that time cooperatively that it would be better for staff to go and do an analysis initially and look at this and see what we could uncover under that decking because we knew what a lot of the issues were mechanically. Uh so we had our staff go out and do that and that was the agreement that we had at that time. So then the decision was for us to come back with our findings so that we could take it to the parks and recreation advisory board which we did uh and have them look at all of the findings that we had internally make a recommendation to council and then of course come to council and bring the same information back to you along with their recommendation so that there could be a decision that would be made. And secondly, we plan we plan to, you know, bring the item with the recommendation uh of what the parks and recreation advisory board had so that you were armed with plenty of information to make a decision publicly out here in front of the public. We've just so you know, we've spoken with our pool consultants, which their name is Sunbelt. They do some work for us. We've talked now this these are not the ones we were going to use to do the actual evaluation, but Sunb Belt we use for our pool repairs. They're doing some work at Thompson right now. They've actually come out and looked at the Southeast pool with us before. In fact, it was prior to the last seasoning that we were uh opened the pool to look at the voids, take a look at that and see what their

recommendation would be. At that time, I think the recommendation, and Michael can speak to this better than I can, was that this pool has run its course. I mean, it's it's it's old. It was built a long long time ago. If you think about when both of these pools were built in the 60s and 70s, uh that's an awful long time. So, uh, their recommendation at the time was for us to evaluate it further. They felt like we could open it up for this season because we were bumped right up on the time when we were going to be opening those pools and it wasn't wasn't the proper time to to have that discussion. So, then fast forward to August when we had those discussions with you as council and now that's where we've arrived at uh today in making the decision. So, I just want to make sure and point that out that uh you know our and and here's the other thing I want the public to know and you to know and I think you know this because we've talked to you enough about it. our our our issue is not about closing pools. Our issue is about safety of the patrons of the pool. And I think when we feel like we've reached a point that people can no longer be safe there, we've got the public in mind. You also have to consider that either way, whether we go and renovate the pools that are there or we we we put new infrastructure in and build new things that you guys would have to evaluate and look at those recommendations as well moving forward. Either way, you're spending money. And I think the way that we we're looking at this is what is the best use of the taxpayers's dollars, which is what you charge us with doing uh each and every day. So is it is it better to evaluate and rebuild or is it better to look to the future and try to figure out another way to provide the citizens a safe place to go for those water features, pools, water parks, whatever that may be that we decide to do uh in the future moving forward. So that's just the process of how this works. Um, I just want the public to know that as well that there's been a lot of thought that's gone into this and it it's all geared toward that one topic and that's safety. Uh, so with that, we've got a video we'd like to show you. Then we have Mr. Kosuba is here to answer any questions that you might have before you render your decision.

Southeast Pool is actually constructed in 1965, uh, which makes it 60 years old this year. Southwest Pool is a little bit newer. It was actually built in 1974, which makes it 51 years old. So, you've got facilities that are really starting to age. Um, you don't see a lot of vehicles being driven around from the 1960s. Uh, and the same thing with the pool. A lot of infrastructure that's starting to fail at those facilities. City Council has been looking at this issue since last summer uh when the parks and recreation staff came to us uh to say that there were real issues with the uh southwest and southeast pools. The two main issues that we're dealing with are one equipment uh that is outdated and needs to be replaced. A lot of the equipment u in both the pools is decades old and is going to have to be replaced at some point. And the other uh issue is um leaks underneath the pool that has caused a tremendous amount of erosion which makes it a real safety issue. Uh so council had really been made aware of this and uh approved uh the parks and recreation u staff and the board to go ahead and look at this issue and then come back to us with a proposal on how much it would cost to uh remedy these these two issues. The makeup of our board is really a cross-section of citizens and taxpayers. We're we're appointed by the city council u to three-year terms. Um the professionals of the park and wreck staff, they bring us ideas like the pools, the problems, the the solutions. They're looking to us to to get input for the public, to listen to things over time, and then to make a decision of what we see as our opinion, our viewpoint as a board, and then those ideas filter over to the council and they're presented and and ultimately the council votes.

You know, if the shell of the pool was solid and you had some mechanical stuff, we think that's probably something that could be salvageable. Uh but when you start to see the pumping systems failing, the filtration systems failing, and then we start to see these voids and other issues around the actual structure of the pool, that's where we have some major concerns. As the structure of the pool, the water pushes against it. There's nothing supporting it from the backside. And so, uh the concern is that you start seeing cracking, you start to see pool failure, uh you start to see that structure moving, which then becomes a much more significant, uh fix. you start seeing safety concerns with voids that are underneath concrete and things like that, it really gets our attention. And I think that again, they've done a really good job of maintaining it to this point and modernizing as much as they can. But, uh, safety is just something that we can't waver on. Uh, it's time to make some choices, time to make some tough decisions, and that's where we're at today.

I think they were looking at doing anything that we could to to keep those two facilities open. But I've had several parks and recreation board members uh tell me that once they looked at the amount of damage and the amount of money that it would take to be able to to facilitate uh rehabilitation of those that really that they felt that you know approaching $2 million in uh reinvestment in those areas is uh something that you know we just have to really take a hard look at at the amount of money that would take to be able to uh to do that. We have realized over time that these pools which are both of South East and John Stiff Pool, they're 50 years old. They're old. They've outlasted their life expectancy. And we've come to the conclusion, it's time not to put any more money into those pools. It's time to move on and do something different. It's it's not a good use of taxpayer money. The significant investment that would be required would be about $2 million to get both Southeast and Southwest uh keep them at an operational level, but that does not address the general layout. That does not add new amenities. That does not address the structural concerns. That does not address the decking. But really to make any kind of significant improvements, you're looking at 10 to 15 million per facility. [music] And that's where the conversation between the park board and council really occurred is trying to figure out what is the the direction from the city council. Our job as staff is to provide information, provide reports, give them the information, but ultimately the decision makers are the council. Uh, and so we want to make sure that they've got accurate information so that they can make the most informed and best decision for the citizens of Amarillo. It's not a a conversation that we take lightly. Anytime that you're going to affect quality of life with the things that uh people ask for, you know, that's a tough decision on a council. I think the parks board has done a really really good job of evaluating this. I think our staff has

done a really good job of evaluating this. So now the next steps are it goes to council. Council gets to take a look at that. They get to hear from their constituents, the people in the public and and are going to basically determine what comes next in this process.

The plan is uh on our first meeting in January. Uh right now the plan is to have this on the agenda and we would certainly welcome any uh feedback uh from the community. uh they can go to the website and our uh email addresses and contact information is on the the city website as well as they're welcome to come and share their thoughts during the public comment period. You really always appreciate the public uh you know sharing their thoughts with us and we'll take all those things into consideration when we look at u you know making a final decision on on whether council wants to move forward with this or not. Of course, we invite uh anyone who has an interest in in our pools and what we do with our parks and recreation department to come and and have their voices heard or reach out to your city council members and let them know. Uh reach out to staff, let us know so that we can have those ideas as we move forward and we can make the best decision based on what the citizens of Amarillo want.

Thank you for allowing us time to show that if you hadn't seen that yet. Um and with that, we we are available to answer questions should you have any. And Mr. Kosuba, he is here to uh come to the podium and talk about that as well. Real good. Yeah. Uh Mr. Kuba, if you don't mind coming up, I'm sure we'll have some questions here on this discussion. Council, do I have anything that you guys would like to lead on? I know we've talked about this before. Michael, what? Give me attendance again on Southwest and Southeast. You got that?

Yeah. Let me just give me one second. I I may actually have to get that for you. I don't have that on this. Um but I can I can get it for you. Yeah, Becky's got it for you.

Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So, for Southeast Pool, the total attendance was 10,414. For Southwest, that number was 9,781. Uh Thompson was 31,017. Okay. And I know we heard from several people today and and we've done our, you know, we feel like we've done our due diligence and you looking at the pools. Um, I don't know if it was Fiser or who it was that asked about it, you know, an engineer that's looked at this. Have we had an engineer to look at it? I mean, I don't know. I don't remember if we did or we

No, we have not have had an engineer. We did bring uh an item to council back in August to do an aquatic feasibility study. Right. At that time, we were directed to do it internally, which is the the report that we presented last year

to save the money. Correct. Right. That's what we were looking at. Okay. um you know after the numbers and you know I think there were some good good points brought up uh with Southwest Pool. I mean I think that there's several other choices to be made over there. I mean there's there's a lot of different options over there and this is just my opinion. I mean I think that Southwest I think there's a good argument to shut it down. I mean I don't I don't think there's there's just too many other options over there. Southeast is a different story uh to me. Um, what I would like or what I would like to see is and if we could get this, uh, you know, a local pool contractor or somebody that knows what they're what they're looking at. Not saying that our staff doesn't, don't hear me say that. Um, but to go out there and look at it mechanically and see what it would take to get up, you know, um, if they're not if they're not capable or they're not qualified enough to look at the the plaster, you know, um, the voids that we were talking about, are these pool is this pool empty right now?

Yes, both of them are empty. And and so just to go back for a second, uh the information we pres presented last week or the last meeting, uh those estimates, we actually get budgetary estimates on all of those types of things from uh qualified vendors. So we actually reached out to a pool company to come out and give us those numbers. So those numbers we presented to council that 450 for replastering, the 300 almost 400,000 for the mechanical, those are all numbers that came from a vendor that we've used in the past. So before we bring a budgetary number to council, we're going to run that through a vendor, a contractor to give us some budgetary numbers so we know the the scope of magnitude of what we're dealing with. And so that's where those those numbers that we presented last time came from that approximately a million per facility. But again, that doesn't address the structural, the decking, um some of the bigger issues.

Yeah. Are those vendors that we that we've used in the past, are they local or no? No, they're a a national firm. that do this stuff all over largely because of the scale of the pools. A lot of the local vendors um don't do pools the scale of what we do with our public pools.

A lot of it is because of the pumping systems and the way that they're design they're they're larger than you know you're not going to see that same thing in residential pools. Sure. It's a lot different. It's more along the lines of what a water plant or waste water treatment plant would have in the in the mechanical sections of it. So, I think I think what I'm hearing from constituents is, you know, we we've got a I mean, we can talk about whatever, but you know, a billion or two billion dollar wastewater treatment plant when we think that really that's a crazy number. You know, we think we might do it for less. We don't know. I mean, uh uh you know, tearing down a a bathroom is going to cost $250,000. I mean, to stuff like that, I mean, it it makes us kind of question of like where are these vendors coming from? because I felt like I could tear down a bathroom for less than $250,000. I mean,

the the restroom numbers, they're actually a lot less to tear it down. To replace one is about a quart of a million.

Okay. So, I mean, where I'm leaning, and this is again just just my opinion, is if we had those hard numbers, if there's somebody local that we have, I mean, I don't I don't know who these vendors are. And I mean, y'all y'all have a better idea of who that is. Uh, if they're reasonable or if these are kind of the government contract kind of a deal, you know, you you know, getting a municipal discount, like kind of a joke, you know, they're charging us more. if there is anybody local that can do it that we that we know of uh that could get us numbers to look at it for Southeast um so that we do have a hard number. What I hear from not just who what was spoken today but several emails and everything else is do we really have a hard number? And I know we had that. You know, we had that discussion. I think y'all did a great job. Um but I didn't see anything that was you know as concrete and maybe we already have it but um I don't know who it is that's that's giving us those bids. But I think if we had that bid to look at it, I think that we've already passed the point to have an operational pool this summer. Correct. If we're going to make any repairs at all, it's not going to be it's not going to be operational this summer.

And really, that's where this conversation started was the replastering of the pool because it had been long overdue. Uh and so that was where we started having conversations with the park board of is this money well invested and stewardship of taxpayer dollars. So, um, yeah, I mean, we've got the the budgetary numbers from vendors to provide the plastering, the replacement of the pump equipment. So, we've got those numbers. The numbers we don't have are going to be the structural issues around Southwest, the decking. Um, Southeast Pool right before the season was when we identified the leaks in the pool and we actually had Sunb Belt come out and address the the void underneath Southeast Pool. But again, that was a temporary fix to try to get us through the season while we could kind of evaluate some of those options. So, um, again, that was something that we did as kind of a a stop gap to get us through the season.

I think we could entertain putting something together along the lines with what you're talking about. But you have to know ahead of time that I think opening the pools this spring is not going to happen if we go that direction time we get RFPs out or whatever process we have to use to get qualified uh people to look at that it's going to take some time right I mean that and I think when I think we've talked before I think we're already past that I mean it to get them operational and safe that's the biggest deal you know like you keep bringing up it's a safety issue

um but it is an amenity it is a quality life issue especially in you know for Southeast. Um if there's a you know if it was possible and doable then we need to look at it. Um Southwest I just think is I don't think the numbers the numbers just aren't there in my opinion. Uh and the amount of work that it's going to take but but I would I would appreciate that if we could do that get those numbers for Southeast the hard numbers. Um did we verify there is a leak in that pool like there is you said sunb belt.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes sir. when we so we actually started with some leak detection. There were some leaks in the pool. They started kind of at the top end of the pool. They would make a repair. We'd fill it back up. We were still draining water. So then they would make another repair. And ultimately what we found out was at the bottom of the pool we were still leaking. And we do you have the old presentation, Stephanie? Um so again, back when they did the um the Virginia Graham Baker Act, they actually had to repair those drains in the bottom of the pool. Um, and when they did that, you can kind of see the outline of here. I'm just going to kind of flip through to um Yeah. So, this was what they we opened it up this spring to try to identify the leak. These were the the images that we found. Uh when we got underneath it, this is where we identified the void underneath that pool. Um

to clarify, Mr. Kushiba, this was a year ago. This was the uh well, it would have been spring of 25. And these repairs, do you remember how much they cost? I think it was around $50,000. 50,000? Yes, sir. That's it. But we didn't with that void. Did you Did we use flow fill? We used flow fill and I think it took 5 yards of concrete to fill it up and that's where it stopped. We don't know that addressed all of the issues, but obviously that addressed that for a temporary fix. But you feel like that this is leaking again or or we verified that it's leaking again. Yes. And it's the pool. It's not the plumbing. Plumbing is easy to find. We can pressure pressure test it. Pressure test those. So,

it's fine.

So, staff has been monitoring it since we did these repairs and obviously this fall. And you can kind of see I think that was the numbers that Brad presented, but this is kind of the the shows the cutout of where those repairs were done. Um, and that's kind of where we saw those voids happening underneath the pool was in those areas uh where previous work had been done. And in communicating with the public, you can see that's a [clears throat] large uh removal there on the left and then you can see what it looks like on the right. Can can we validate or just confirm that that that cost is accurate? I don't want to um misspeak, but as far as like $50,000 to repair it, uh far less than what talking about right now.

We'll we'd be happy to get those numbers. Yeah. And I think that the point is that it wasn't it wasn't really a repair. It was a temporary fix with flowfield to get it operable. That's okay. It wasn't a repair. Council member Tips, just to just to confirm, when you say hard numbers, are you talking bid numbers or are you talking budgetary numbers? Yeah. I mean, I I mean, I think if we're really looking at doing this, I mean, I think we need bid numbers. I mean, to look and see like what is this really going to take?

So, so to do bid, we'd have to procure this. So we'd have to get an engineer to help design the project so we can do a proper scope and so we can give it to bidder contractors to properly bid. So is that if that's direction we'd like to go we can we can definitely work towards that direction. And again that's just me talking. I mean you got four other guys up here. So I mean I I can't direct you to do that but

uh I just think it's worth looking at. I think of value and value for our community. This would be I think in my opinion the one to you maybe look at and see uh especially if we if we shut down Southwest what does that [clears throat] do to the numbers at Southeast may not may not even move the needle right they may not even move at all um but I we don't know so that's just my opinion I think it would be great to have those hard numbers I just don't know that we have those and I think before we make that decision it would be good to have just my opinion

thank you councilman so you know we look at attendance numbers that really isn't a good barometer. Um, one is because of options. If you if you have uh pools in the south part of town, whether it's east or west that are maintenance- wise, they're falling apart, we're having problems, and you have other options as a family, you're going to take those options. So when you look at that and Canyon just built a a great water facility and a lot of our our residents are going to Canyon and I know that because I've talked to people down there and it's a lot of people from South Amarillo they're coming down because it has a great facility. Um you know I I think where people are having the frustration is we're looking to close these pools before we had a plan on at least what they're hearing. we don't have a plan to hear that they're just not going to be closed, but that we're actually going to put something in in its place. And I think that's what their their big concern is that these these pools are going to close and then there's not going to be anything there. And I I agree with Don that uh you know, the southeast is probably more important as we look at it. Um just because of the neighborhoods and everything that are there and they're going to rely on that just like the north part of town relies on Thompson Park. So I don't think those numbers when we look at attendance um is the best barometer uh to look at. Um you know we can build the greatest complex we have but if we don't maintain those buildings and those that asset it we're going to be in the same place 30 40 years down the road. um you know what is the investment that the citizens have in these pools over the years, right? It's not our investment as the city other than we're all taxpayers and we're all paying into it, but what is that investment that they that the the councils back in the 60s and the 70s when they built those pools and and what we've done in upkeep, right? Um and a

lot of people I think they're they're correct. um our attempt at maintenance has has been average at best in in keeping that asset going and I commend you for the for that ability to keep them going the last few years. Um but we've gotten to this point. You know, we look at these these leaks. Um you know, we're built uh you had spaces in there, but we don't see any movement of the pool, right? It's not it's the walls aren't moving out just because there's space behind there. We don't see that the that the pool is sinking in any way. So, do we really know what the issue is that that if we say it's a it's a leak, is it something that is new or is it something that we go back to the original construction on and say, "Hey, look, this is this is what the issue was."

Yeah. I mean I mean a lot of that is just from a staff perspective. We went out and did an assessment based off of what we could see. Um, when staff was out there, they were t tapping on the the concrete with a hammer and you could hear a void. That's what led us to open up the deck at Southwest. Obviously with Southeast, the void underneath the pool was we could see the water going down. Now, where that water is going, we still don't know. Obviously, if there's a void around Southwest, that water's got to be going somewhere. The void at Southeast, at least we've temporarily patched, but again, that water could be moving somewhere. So again, we we're not structural engineers. We're not engineers. You know, we were asked to go do a staff uh assessment of it, which is what we've done. Um we'd be happy to bring back a a further study if if that's what council's direction is. Um and again, when we brought that feasibility before, part of that was also looking at the market demands. you know, not only addressing the concerns of the structures, but then also trying to figure out what does the market support in Amarillo, you know, looking at what would be a suitable replacement, where would that go? What would that look like? So, again, that was something that we could always go back to and and provide more information or get a consultant to help guide through that part of it.

Anything further, Councilman? No, not right now. Not right now. Yes, sir. Couple questions. What is the swimming season in Amarillo? Uh, Memorial Day to Labor Day. So, what about 75 days, 90 days, something like that. And what what I remember hearing last last time was we had 480,000 for plaster, something like that. Yeah, it's about 450,000. And that's a that's a true validated number. How much was the mechanical repair? It was about 385. I can actually go to the slides. So, we're we're somewhere right around 800,000

for for this this just one pool and we're not even talking about the the integrity and the the engineering piece. Um, with what you've seen with the the failure and the engineering components not being an engineer, would you let your kid swim there? I wouldn't. No.

Okay. I don't want it on my my conscience that we're we're trying to find something here. If we're gonna if we want a pool, let's build a new pool that we can trust that our grandkids and and others will will be safe. Safety number one. What would happen if a void failed? What would happen if we had 30 kids in there swimming and there was a failure? What would happen?

Obviously, you'd have a lot of water loss. Um, I I don't know. I'm not Again, I'm not an engineer. We We don't want to talk about safety and life safety. Obviously, we want to try to avoid that as much as possible. I think that this this city, if we are committed, and this council is committed to a pool on the southeast side of town, we don't put them in a station wagon that was built in 1974 with the gas tank under them without safety belts. We we make a commitment as a city to build the right facility that's going to protect these kids. Period. and and I agree with you on that council, but um we've gone to the to the citizens to build an aquatic center. And I'm not talking going to aquatic center. Um in order for us to do this, we have to go to the citizens because it's not something we have in the budget and we're going to have to we're going to have to finance it somehow. And if we don't do the job on the front end communicating to people exactly what we are looking at and what they want from the city, what they want us to build, we're not going to pass that vote again. And so if we're going to do that, um, we've got to have a a plan that is is reasonable and was it within the price tag of what our citizens are willing to pay for.

Can I want to comment on that? You and I had this discussion the other day and I think it was a very uh fruitful discussion and we talked about the plan. Well, the the plan has to be step one first. You know, what are we going to do with the two existing pools? We're either going to rehab them, make them new again, or we're going to close them down. That's step one. Once we get past that piece, I think that's where we start developing that plan. That's where we get the feasibility study that we brought forward before. That's where we start talking about that with the community and finding out what is it that they want at at Southeast or at Southwest or do they want anything at all or do they want something really elaborate? then it goes through that process, but we can't start with that plan until we determine what we're going to do with the existing structures. But I think obviously that's going to be the next step on our plate depending on what council decides here and what we're going to do next. I don't think the discussion dies today at all. I think it's the beginning of more discussion, more discussion as much as the public and as much as you have an appetite for

and I would add too I mean go back to if we look at repairing or it's not using duct tape and bailing wire like it's got to be safe. It has to be fill the voids do all the things. It's not like just halfway and whether choice would you take your kids or grandkids there now? Yeah, but but if we move forward and keep it open, it's got to be the full deal. like it's got to be the full deal. Um, just want to make that we're not trying to just get by and get it open for this season. That's to me that's passed. I think

I wasn't alluding. I know we all want safety, but I think that we need to look above and we're going to commit. When was the last time we had a a aquatics bond passed in this city? When was the last time we put money into aquatics in 1972? It was the last time park bond passed was 1972. The bonds are actually issued in 74 because the market was better and there was $400,000 that was set aside for parks and that was the funding that was used to build uh Southwest Pool. There were some other things that were done but that was when it was built. Well, but specifically $9 million at Thompson Park.

Um large large improvement to have that pool. So important to keep that in the conversation. We're not getting out of the pool business. We have a new asset that we are maintaining very well over on the Thompson side of town. So, uh, go back to your comments, sir. I was just going to say, I mean, there's I think there's all the intent in the world of this council or myself and what I've heard of getting a pool, but [clears throat] we have to come together as a city to do this. I mean, it's going to be an expensive proposition. And is that where we need to put our monies?

Councilman Simpson. Um, Michael, why do you think um over both of the individ southeast and southwest, why do twothirds more people from each of those go to Thompson Park rather than Southeast or Southwest?

Well, I think what we've seen is just the trends in aquatics. You know, Southeast and Southwest are just big rectangular pools, I think, which was the fad back when they were installed in the 60s and 70s, but a lot of cities have gone to more of an aquatic facility kind of like a Thompson or the Cap and Canyon. uh that tends to be where most families want to go. They don't want to just go to a big water body like we have at Southeast and Southwest. And I think that's where um we see the attendance decline. I think that's where those cost recovery numbers go down. I think more people are going to those aquatic type facilities. Um, and so, you know, if if the council is willing to spend money on Southeast and Southwest, you know, we're we're looking at just under a million dollars to make those repairs, but that still leaves you a rectangular pool that doesn't address any kind of amenity changes or any kind of structural changes. It's leaving it the way it is. It's just fixing that shell essentially.

Andy, you may not know this right off hand, but I mean, what are the trends of these three facilities on visitor? I mean, if you if we would look back five years ago, what what are the are more people using these than five years ago? Fewer people using these?

Obviously, Thompson has gone up. We've seen Thompson has done very well and I think the other two pools have we've seen kind of a steady decline. Um, but I think that's not just an Amarella thing. I think that's a national thing where you start looking at a lot of cities are having to evaluate what they do with pool facilities. Levit closed their three and turned them into three large splash pads. Um, so I think you start to see the upkeep, the cost, the the staffing. Um, one thing I I I failed to mention is what we've also seen is more of a significant drop off in the second half of the summer. So we see really good numbers at the start of the summer, but as we get closer to August, end of the year, we see more and more people doing back to school activities, whether it's band or football or things like that where they're not attending our facilities anymore. They're actually going back. We see the same challenge with staffing. We see more and more high school kids that have to leave early because they're going back to school activities.

Well, it's kind of when we looked at the aerial views on the video of those two. What we did not have is aerial views of Thompson Park.

We didn't have aerial views of VUR. We don't have an aerial view of Canyon. And I guess the question I think we just need to think about is if the trend has been in a in a rectangular concrete bowl of water that that we're seeing a decrease, you know, is is there a demand for that? Will there be a demand in the future? And I I think we just just as if we were investing in a business or trying to do something that's that's catering to people. I mean, if there if there's a less and less of a demand of this, and we've seen that over time, is it putting good money after bad to just put another rectangle pool and bring it back up to speed if if if the decline is going to continue in attendance and we can't, you know, pay for it or is it better to look at something else? But again, it's it's it's it's all going to be what you're going to pay for. But I just think looking at I do think the attendance trends give us a little bit of the demand of what this looks like. And if if we've been seeing Thompson Park go up and the other twos go down, well, number one, Thompson Park, it pays for itself, the other two have to be subsidized by by tax money. And I guess a question I think we need to ask is, you know, if we reinvest a million, who knows when if we look at it if it's two million, if it's $3 million to bring Southeast back up to standards where it's safe. Is is there a demand for that long term to say wow that's a good investment because more people are using it and what evidence can we see that says yes there's a because I'm not seeing a whole lot that says there's a demand for a rectangle pool what I'm saying is there there seems to be a demand for things like we built at Thompson Park things like canyon are so I think we've got to weigh is this is this a good investment uh for people to use will they use that or is it putting good money after bad where several years from now we'll say we're not seeing intendance up. We're still having to to subsidize it. I think it's a question before we is I think the question before if we move forward with it, is there

enough of demand for this type of pool that it's worth that type of investment to bring it back up up to speed so it's safe and it's something that people want to use?

Councilman, before Mr. Kos will probably have a much better answer than I have, but I was talking to a citizen the other day and our conversation turned to pools. I mean, I'm I'm a 1968 model, so when I was a kid growing up, that was one of our things to do. We went to a hotel or you know on on a trip and the pools were just packed with people and you see less and less hotels that have that rectangular pool at them. Now they have something different either they have an indoor pool that's a lot smaller or they do have you can find a lot of hotels now that have a lot of water features at them uh that have become very popular and people in fact make those destination vacation destinations. So, I think the trends have changed over the years. Um, alto together, not just in municipal pools, but alto together.

I mean, I just have a concern if if we just bring Southeast back to up to where it is now, is it going to have that type of demand, or is it going to, you know, we're just going to continue to have to, you know, to subsidize it? Or is there something in between where we could add features there at a fraction of the cost it would take to build a whole new facility, but may be able to to provide those things. if we say we'd rather not go to just one Thompson Park, but you know what would be the cost? But I think at the end of the day, it's what what's the what's what's the cost and and do we do we get some type of return on investment because we're we're focusing on cost recovery in a lot of these things. The budget's going to continue to get tighter. How can we make this work? Uh I think it's got to we've got to figure out is this going to be a a good investment? Is it going to be used or are we are we looking at status quo on the the attendance there longer term and then we've spent on something that there really isn't a demand for in the community?

Jump in there coun. So what is the what is the burn rate for the 75 days to operate the the facility like Southeast? What do we what's it cost us to operate that for the 75 days or 90 days? Was it 60 a month? Our expense for what I'm showing for Southwest was 122. Uh for Southeast that's 154 for operations. For operations and we had how many how many kids or how many swimmers? Uh Southeast was 10,000 just over 10,000. Southwest was just under 10,000.

And then we're talking about a million on top of that to get the pumps and the plaster, not even taking in the safety. So we're we're getting ready to invest a million million million one in South. You're looking at Southeast. I mean, just to do the plaster and the mechanical and then the burn rate for the the 90 days for how many 10,000 people? Yep. What's your price? Yeah. What's your price on? I mean, that'd be at one what? One, two for 10,000 people. How much is that per swimming event per person? You're looking at $5. $5. What's the fee at uh Thompson? $7 per session.

Okay. But what I'm saying is I mean if we have 10,000 at at a a million two a million four I mean what is that per swimming event that the city is paying for that swimming event at that location? Is that a good return on our investment in business? Right. No close. It's a one time deal. It's not over a 10-year period we would [clears throat]

correct. I think when you're looking at the asset and the life of the asset, you you treat that separate. I'm sure then you know what we're saying is a cost recovery. You know, we've directed uh city manager in a lot of ways to you know at least attempt cost recovery. That's how Mr. Prescott was pushing for you know it's one golf ball out there. Ra raise a little bit on the green fee. And so um on this I I guess we're looking at $5 uh entry fee at Southeast. We charge the same over at Southwest. Yeah. Southeast and Southwest are both $5. and then Thomas seven.

Okay. And then um I think probably like the the market share uh I would I would assume if uh and and I'm just going to speculate that we have some private company or enterprise pools that are around. They compete very well and offer different concessions and and u amenities. Maybe it's 1012 per person down the street over there. So, we are subsidizing something there for affordability. I think that comes in uh importantly when you're talking about like maybe a larger family, four or five kids and and mom and dad work, you know, I mean, it's a $100 to go to the pool or it's $40 to go to the pool. Um, so I think we want to keep that in mind. The overall organization, the the entire system needs quality of life. uh and we need to balance that somewhere with with how we subsidize. I think you can see some market share uh go to Southeast if if I was to agree, you know, with uh Councilman Tips that um Southwest looks to be in a much more competitive market. If we're looking at this as business people, that's our location that we don't necessarily have the market share. So, could we step away from that pool, justify the savings of the cost, and then go and and uh you know, potentially update Southeast uh and keep two pools open, or do we look at just the one pool over at Thompson? Um 110 square miles, that's your corporate city limits. So, walkability is a nice word we throw around when we have meetings, but we don't really do that here. And so I know that's offensive to some people and they want bike lanes, you know, everywhere and and I love it. I think it's great if we have bike lanes and I love bike safety, but the the simple fact is is is

like there's not a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds walking back and forth um to get to and from the pool um as our business model. Our business model says we're a large community. We drive. So talk about transportation. Could we do transportation from southeast or southwest both to Thompson for those 90 days where we see high demand where if we did have a portion of our community that can't drive back and forth across town. What does that look like?

I think that's something obviously we could work with transit on to see what kind of options they have currently. um possibly sharing the existing routes that may be in place that already serve those areas, but then looking at maybe a partnership to see if there's a way to get people from those locations up to Thompson. So, we would have to work with transit to see what those options could be. Okay. Yes, sir. You're just talking about a short-term solution, right? Yeah. Just looking at the short and the long of it. if in closing both pools, giving access to Thompson Park until the decisions made and we start building a new pool if that's the way we decide to go. [clears throat]

If if I go back a little bit further, uh Mr. Kosuba, you and I had talked about originally, do we go out and do we do we hire a firm to figure all this out or does your staff internalize this and try to bring something back to council? Um, you know, we don't always need that consultant to know what we know better than they know. A lot of times those consulting firms come to town and ask you to tell them uh what they report. And so I I have confidence in your staff knowing what the market conditions are and that some of these costs are reasonable uh for these repairs. I would say my my understanding at that that meeting was that we were going to talk about like what does the future look like in the pool environment before we discuss closing them down. So the only thing that that I see here is the step of one close both pools, two then go out and talk about what we can do. I I would have preferred to have talked about what we can do, identify monies, uh how the the affordability would be with the understanding of okay, we're going to we're going to need to close these pools down if you know if we choose this or do we keep what we have. uh because we've shaped it in this context, I think we are where we are and we're at least having a very candid conversation. So, I I want to discuss money uh and available money here briefly. I don't want to look back three months from now and go, "Oh, well, I didn't know we had that money there." So, in a previous conversation with Miss Katrina, she was very helpful in looking uh for some interest earnings. And so, you know, we've we've had and we we hold uh large amounts of money as an organization and we earned interest on that. We project that. I went back through my budget for 2425. We projected that at 12.5 million and we're verifying that it is close to the 28 million. 26. You're shaking your head now. Do we have a do we have a number?

Um you think it's closer to the 13

to the 13 million. Okay. Um, I I looked at it in the and and I would love to see those and and I want to get those council. You may have just interest earnings out there that that we haven't factored into our budget. And so I think that in making a decision like this, what I don't want to do is I don't want to make a decision close down some pools because we we didn't have any money and then find available monies. So, you know, the interesting math on it is is 4% interest earnings is what we averaged last year. And um you know, it averaged over the 600 million mark. So, I don't know how we would only have the 13 for the organization as a whole. And and maybe you're referencing just the general fund, Miss Katrina.

Okay. We have this topic. We also have you Neil and and you know Donnie and several people looking through our CIP projects that we've closed out and do we have potential savings and so I want council to make a good decision here based on what does the market look like? What's the the the value return but also what are our current finances look like? I would like to have some conversations about those CIP projects, knowing exactly where they are and if we do have any available funding along with interest earnings and and being able to verify those because uh I I still feel like we are looking at a good problem to have that we have some available funds where staff has done a good job closing out projects um and then we've managed projects well to bring them in within budget or under budget and then this council obviously viously has some projects that are old. They've been identified several years old. There's not a costbenefit analysis on those projects. If you bring me a project from 2018, then we don't have a costbenefit analysis for that. And those projects need to be held uh kind of in reverence to our current needs. So, with all that, I I don't know if if council would be willing to refer this back to the board so that we're not putting it on us to go and figure this out. We have a good board down at parks and recck that doesn't mind working hard and they've they've come to a conclusion right here, but Councilman Tips, you're looking at a a re-evaluation and a study to really get some numbers before you make your decision. And I heard you say earlier you're you're not necessarily comfortable closing both pools down with what you know right now.

Right. Okay. Councilman Reed, what where are you at? I'm right with Don. I'm not I'm not comfort anytime we start closing things in the city that the that the city depends on for their quality of life. um that's not a good direction to go unless you have a really good plan uh on how you're going to meet that need. So I I I kind of agree with with Don and would rather take a little bit more time looking at this. Okay, Councilman Simpson, I saw yours light up first and then we'll jump back to you, President.

Well, I think I think we're dealing with two different issues here. The pool and a pot of money that's out there. I mean, we now we've been through those discussions time and time again, so I'm not too encouraged that we're going to go back again and find all this money, but that really doesn't have to do with this. I mean the question is you know what do we need to do? How much do it does it cost? Do we need to do additional study to say uh I mean but are we are we are we now saying we want to look at what it costs to renovate both of them. We don't want to close down any of them. I mean you said anytime we need to look at something closing down we need to be concerned. Are we I mean to to me if if we look at maybe the potential of maybe doing more due diligence to say okay a how much does it if if we're going to do a study of what's underneath that's going to require additional work. Correct.

We don't know that. So that's going to that's going to be additional investment that we have to make. But I think if we're looking at Southeast, what does it cost just to to get it back where it's safe to use? But I still go to I I'm gonna need some evidence that says, "Wow, there's really got or or for extra million, could we add amenities like we have at Thompson Park to be able to say, wait a minute, we can, you know, we can probably get more people using that or I I don't know what may happen in in the next summer. Maybe a lot of people would go to Thompson Park. Do we do we need to have this? Where is the demand?" And I just I understand that that but it's a quality of life issue but is the quality that people are wanting that the place of where they are going spending their money. I just think we need to take a look at what the investment is to make sure that it it is a good investment for the long term and that's got to be where we're keeping money because there's a demand for it and there's a demand for whatever we're putting out there because there's no sense in investing $3 million if people aren't going to use it.

Right. I'd like to make a amended mo motion. Can we make amended a motion? Amended motion. Yeah. Let me make a comment real quick if you don't mind. Before you doing that,

I think if it's a if it's a business decision, it's easy. It it just doesn't make any sense. But we're sitting up here representing our citizens and there's a whole another aspect to this because every one of us would look at the numbers and say it's closed 100%. It makes zero sense. Doesn't cost recovered. certainly doesn't make money, doesn't make a profit, but there's just that whole other aspect of the quality of life and and what what do taxpayers expect? What what do they deserve? That kind of thing. And I think that's the difficult decision. And but I think that with this added a little bit more uh to come back with those numbers, I think that that helps us make that decision because if it's just straight numbers, it's easy. We close them both down. That's so easy. But there's that whole other aspect that you know like you're talking about demand. I don't know a rectangular pool is terrible. Actually a really deep rectangular pool is no good. But I would agree with you too for an extra million. Could we do something you know that's more uh in demand. Uh I think that that's something that we look at. So,

I'd like to make a motion that we close Southwest Pool and then we send Southeast Pool back to parks and wreck and the board to come up with solutions to take a look at that and then we really dive into what those solutions might look like. I'll second that.

Okay, we have a motion in a second. We're going to pause for just a second, see if there's any further discussion on that motion. I think we I just want to be clear. So, we have some good definitive direction as to what the council's asking us and authorizing us to do. And so, so I think we we are being okay to spend money to study this further. Is that okay? So, council, the consideration of referral back to parks and wreck, can you give uh can you give a comfort of say less than $50,000 to be spent on a study and an eval?

I think what's the challenge with that is what are we going to take back to the parks and recreation board that's different than we've had before. We don't have anything else to give them to make other decisions on. You see what I'm saying? I think that's that's where we need some clear direction on what what are we what are we presenting to them? Can we on the motion amend the motion to allow for an engineering to go out for an engineering study proposal to see what that engineering study would cost and bring that back to council? I think that would make it easier for us to take something to parks and recck for them to evaluate. Okay.

I mean I I agree. I think the missing component here is the cost for what we don't see and what's underneath there. And maybe it comes back and it's $100,000 to fix and then we can take a look at it. But uh and maybe you know the parks and recck board I I just I just think I I understand that it's a quality of life issue, but uh but there's no sense in building something if people are not going to use it. and uh and and I don't know whether they would whether it would skyrocket up if something like this and we'd all be surprised and people are using it and I understand but there's this balance between all the other things we're going to have to continue to pay for and and and those types of things that are are are you other types of uh projects that need to be done. But I I think at this point figuring out if we're going to revamp this to to make it safe as is and what things could we put in that that are going to boost attendance to help us uh to to provide an amenity not just that's standard but an amenity that we think people would actually use.

Yeah. And I think the cost savings if we do eliminate a pool that does you know there's some cost savings there if we looked at to your point putting those dollars towards that to do some other amenities. Now I know it's not huge like we're not you know put splash pads whatever but even just covered areas I mean just different water features I mean it's possible that we look at that maybe that's for partial right board look at the savings of with that savings what could we do to pour into another one I think we can definitely look at it I think the one challenge here is now we're landlocked to the north uh you've got a fairly small parking lot so we would have to look at what those expansions [clears throat] could look like because we're going to be fairly tight on that that site

and you have to also look too. I mean, there's been discussions about is that is that the right location for a pool or aquatic facility and whatever we do and so there's been talk of recline there's been a lot of talks here that's where this could be expanded and so to get back to the motion um so as I understand the the motion would be to permanently close southwest but temporarily close southeast because any study we do we will not get this thing done in time to open southeast because we need to start that immediately and you cannot unknow the dangers you already know that's a liability you guys we we now have and so that's an issue we we have to we have to deal with I don't think anybody expects it to be open this year I mean no way

yeah so but we can certainly start the process but I think I think the council I mean if if you're willing to I think we look at is there in fact a need from our community for a southeast aquatic type facility whether it's a rectangular pool or or a splash p whatever and so do we go that route or do we go the route of of replacing repairing the existing right now because you're going to spend money either way. Do you spend money one direction or the other direction or do we go do we go both direction? Spend money twice. So I think that's kind of what you're we need to decide. So let me let me clean this up just a little bit. Let's give direction to staff. Staff is being directed um to go out and and get an evaluation study uh put together on Southeast Pool. Um, I would also like to direct staff to look at transit transportation from those two locations as we move into a temporary closure of Southeast and a permanent closure of Southwest potentially. Let's see if there is any demand and make arrangements for that so that when summertime gets here, if we have families or or individuals that need public transportation to Thompson, we could help accommodate that and how much maybe that would cost. Um, then we have our motion on the other side. So, we now have a motion that uh I would ask I would ask Councilman Prescott to to just restate uh that he he's proposing to close Southwest Pool um leave Southeast Pool temporarily closed

uh for this season and request the evaluation along with it being referred back to parks and recck board. Yeah. to give us I mean close of the season to give us the time needed to come back to the council later this year with a with a proposal on the on the southeast quadrant of our community as to what are the needs of our community whether it's that location or a different location. Um I think that's what my recommendation would be if if we want to pursue that route. And so

if the engineering is not sound then all the rest of the stuff doesn't matter. If we do not have a structurally safe concrete structure, then then this is off for not. We'll have to we'll have to move directions. So once we determine that, we'll be able to move to step two. But until we can determine if it is structurally safe, then there's no reason to look at any anything else. That's this bottom line. So we we have a motion with a second on the original. Then we have your amended motion that we've restated. So I I do need a second on that. Is that correct? Second on the amendment. Second. I had a we had and tips did a second.

Technically technically you would you would you would make a second on the amendment and vote on the amendment and then go back to the main motion with that amendment. Okay. So I think if if you could restate the amendment that way everyone's clear about what the amendment is and then that goes back to the motion of southwest closed southeast temporary closed. Let's do this. Uh, Councilman, uh, will you withdraw your motion? My motion is withdrawal. Okay. There is no motion on the table at this time. Um, after all of the discussion, I would entertain a motion.

I make a motion that we close Southwest Pool and that we close Southeast Pool this year until adequate engineering study can be conducted. We're handing it back to Parks and Recck and the Parks and Rec board to conduct that engineering study. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes. Thank you, sir. Um, item 8.6. Uh, an appointment. We have a vacancy. So, do we have Miss City Secretary coming up?

Yes. Hang on. I'm writing that motion down still.

Take your time. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, on December 19th, we received notice from Daryl Wartz of his resignation from the hospital district board due to some personal reasons. So, we're bringing this one back for your consideration tonight. On the board is your list of members. Mr. Wartz's term will go through the end of this year, and so we would look to fill his position for that remaining term. Just a reminder on the hospital district board, these are actually two-year terms. Um, we've got a list of applicants to the right there. There is one applicant not on this list because in her application she actually checked that she could not make the time requirements to meet which is quarterly at 7:30 in the morning for the hospital district board. So one other note you have Thomas Warren the third on your list of applicants. He's got an attendance percentage there just because he actually did serve on this board through the end of 2025.

So there are any questions I can answer? No. Uh that I know of. Let me ask. Okay. I I do have a statement. Did you have a question, council? No. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Um I did uh have a conversation with Thomas Warren III. Um and so in talking about that, you I think they held 10 meetings and he he missed, you know, two out of the 10 or or maybe three. there was something about a um you know a discrepancy there on a meeting time change and something else. But in the attendance issue uh I also know we voted on this earlier in in all of the the boards when when we were pretty rigid on sorry if it's under 75% it's under 75%. Um I did ask him I reached out to him and I asked him I said you know it would be nice to be able to put somebody on this board that still wants to serve. Um, I know it it stings whenever you don't get asked back, but he has been trained. He he is up and running. And so with it being a vacancy like this, uh, and us needing to move forward quickly, um, I just ask council if, you know, Thomas Warren II might be an easy one there with a commitment to him that he won't have a problem filling the attendance requirements. And that is something that we put in place after he had missed those meetings. So, um, he definitely understood the the need to to be there. Council questions on on

I had a conversation with Thomas Warren as well and that was similar. So, I would support that. Well, I I got a question. 62% that didn't add up to three out of 10. Make sense? Correct. I mean, so they only had 10 meetings, right? They had eight meetings that he during his during his tenure, they had eight meetings. They have four a year. In 2024, he attended three of four meetings and in 2025, he attended two of four meetings. An equal 16. So in in the discrepancy, you know, he had told me he missed two meetings. So can we is that correct? He missed three meetings, not two. He missed three during his term out of eight, which is your 62%.

Okay. Re regardless, I know we had a few other people that we did allow to to remain and serve on a board that also had some attendance issues. Um, and I I feel confident that um with his commitment of of at least having the conversation with me and also Prescott that um he would be able to fulfill uh the meeting attendance requirements. So, I would nominate um Clarence Thomas Warren III to fill the vacancy. Second motion in a second. Any discussion?

No, but I mean we didn't go back and talk to other people who were on the bubble. I mean we kind of said here's what the expectation is. Maybe there was somebody that was at 72%. I can't remember but 62% didn't attend the meetings. We've got other people here who signed off that they could they could they could said that they could attend the meetings. So I I just think I think it's a good policy to have. And I mean, but we didn't go back and interview the other people who might have been on there when we said, "Hey, we're we're we're not going to renew it." So,

so I would I would say this. Um, consistency matters and we we have wavered a little bit in trying to implement this new policy. Uh, I think we're we we all were on board with it. If we want to remain on board with it, maybe we need to take a position moving forward um that everybody now is informed. We can do a better job of informing them as they are serving that attendance is is mandatory. Um and then we need to hold to that which would mean you you are going to put yourself in a position where you have a really good board member that has a circumstance that should allow for some grace, but we're not going to. Right. No, we didn't we didn't say that. I mean, what we did what we said was if for some reason that they miss two consecutive meetings, we're going to talk with them. I mean, it's not going to be a you're automatically out. I mean, I think what we said is that they're going to have a you know, if they miss two consecutive meetings, they're they're going to be warned, hey, you can't I mean, maybe if by some chance there's two emergency room visits that just happen to coincide, but I don't think it just I don't think it means necessarily, oh, you No, we're just going to cut it. Well, I I think that's very helpful then because uh Thomas didn't miss two consecutive meetings. He just missed the one.

Well, no, that was previous year, correct? He missed he's missed the two last meetings in 2025. Oh, okay. So, do we know the reason he missed? Well, you guys talked to him. Why did he miss? What was the reason? Um I understood that we rescheduled the meeting. Okay. I don't believe so. Do you remember, Katrina? So, we don't know. I don't think we've rescheduled any of them. Those are set three months out. So I guess I I'm just having a hard time with the attendance and I get now talking about my NPO. It's fine. But uh that's that's my only concern. I know he he serves on several. Is that correct boards for us? No, I think this the only board he's This is the only one. Yeah.

But he didn't you don't know why he missed other He serves on the Pratt board, but that is only because he is the tax assessor county. So, he has a seat on.

Um, going back to the motion and the second that we have, I mean, he he is qualified, he's trained, and he's willing to jump right back in. Um, I I would like to hold pretty true to what Councilman Simpson said. If you miss two, we reach out to you and we talk to you and then and then we make sure you understand you're on the bubble. You can't miss the third one. We didn't do that for uh Mr. Warren, you know. I mean, he missed the two. We didn't reach out. We didn't have that understanding. So there there could be a little grace allowed here in kind of how we are implementing this. Well, and if you would like, mayor, if he is reappointed, we will reach out to let him know that he cannot miss the next meeting.

Uh, yes, I think that would be fine. Hey, Stephanie, how are we notified? Are you going to notify us of these to so that we can reach out?

Yes. And so we'll work with our board liaison on that. are watching attendance and if we have one that misses two, we will reach out to them with a letter and we will also notify council so that you can reach out if you'd like to and so that you can be thinking because if they miss a third and and council member Simpson is correct. The way that we drafted that ordinance, it's a may council may replace them if they miss three. Um and and we did that because some of our boards like planning and zoning, for example, they meet every two weeks. If you have someone out for an eight-week surgery, it's very likely they could miss three meetings, but but have great attendance the rest of the time. So, the 75% rule is also at council's discretion. You may replace somebody that does not meet 75% attendance, and that has been in our code for many years.

Well, I I like the discussion. I think I'm much more comfortable after hearing Councilman Simpson in, you know, you you get the two if you miss the two for whatever circumstances, we're reaching out to you and then, you know, you can't miss the third. And so I I I understood it different. I thought it was just what if you didn't hit the attendance, that was it. You were mandatorily not allowed to serve. Okay. So motion is before you. Any other discussion, gentlemen? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? No. Motion passes with a 4-1 vote.

Welcome back, Mr. Warren. Um, item 8.7 uh is a pretty big one in in uh direction of the city. And so we have Mr. Freeman here to walk this one forward.

Yes, sir. So, hopefully we saved the best item for last. Uh this evening, the item before you is confirmation of the city's offer of employment to Thomas Hobber as the next chief of police for the city of Amarillo. Um, so this marks the culmination of a national search and extensive local engagement process designed to reflect what our community and our officers told us they'd like to see in their next chief. So over the past six months, the city conducted a comprehensive recruitment effort. This included community input sessions, surveys, listening meetings with APD staff and stakeholders, and the feedback we got was clear. Amarila wanted a chief who demonstrates integrity and fairness, communicates transparency, transparently, builds culture and morale within the department and will be deeply engaged with the community. Uh the process also included multiple interview panels uh and careful evaluation of each finalist's leadership style, track record, and fit for APD. From this work, uh Mr. Hoverber emerged as a candidate who most closely align with those expectations. Uh he brings more than two decades of progressive law enforcement experience. Currently serving as an assistant police chief with the Irving Police Department where he oversees field operations bureau. This includes patrol and special operations. He's also been responsible for a broad portfolio of operational administrative functions ranging from patrol and investigations to special units, crisis response, and major event management. One of the strongest themes from the APD staff and the community was the need for a culture builder, a chief who will address morale, ensure fairness, and reinforce accountability while recognizing the dedicated uh men and women who serve Amarillo. Uh his leadership style is rooted in servant leadership, performance management, and the development of future leaders. He's also known for being collaborative, disciplined, and mission focused. He's led many different different initiatives, including those that support officer wellness and peer support. and he has a reputation for listening, communicating openly, and setting clear expectations. Uh, our residents also stress the importance of a chief who is highly visible, accessible, and engaged in the community, someone who build trust with

the neighborhoods, our businesses, faith communities, and civic organizations. Mr. Hover has led community oriented efforts, including a comprehensive homelessness strategy uh that combined outreach with fair enforcement, partnerships with service providers, and policies designed to connect vulnerable residents with resources. Uh for one example, another priority for both APD and the community was a crime reduction leader who embraces proactive evidencebased policing. Uh Mr. Hover has implemented innovative programs such as a real-time crime center, a drone first responder program, all leveraging technology, data, and those regional partnerships to improve response times, enhance officer and public safety, and increase the effectiveness during those in progress calls. This background of course aligns well with initiatives we already have well under underway in Amarillo and was critical experience needed for our next chief of police. The city also sought a chief who could be a strong partner to city management and city council. Uh with sound fiscal stewardship and an understanding of operating within a complex civil service environment. Uh Mr. Hoverver has overseen sizable budgets, managed staffing challenges and align technology and deployment strategies with those organizational goals and resource constraints that we will also have here in Amarillo. His experience working in a large diverse city uh in Irving with multiple law enforcement and community partners positions him well to collaborate with our executive team uh and regional stakeholders on a shared public safety priorities. Finally, in terms of qualifications, uh Mr. Hoverver meets or exceeds the educational leadership expectations that we advertise for. He holds a bachelor of science and criminal justice from Texas State University and a master of applied liberal arts in criminal justice from Charlton State University. He is also a graduate of multiple executive leadership programs including the FBI National Academy, the police executive research forum, senior management institute for police and the law enforcement management institute of Texas leadership command college. Taking all this together, his experience, leadership style and commitment to community engagement and record of innovation aligned closely with Amarillo

residents, APD employees and this organization said they wanted in their next chief of police. Tonight's item asks the council as a city's governing body under chapter 143 to confirm the city's offer of employment to Mr. Hoverver as chief of police for the city of Amarillo. Uh this concludes my my presentation, but as you can see, Mr. Hoverver is also present. He's happy to answer any questions or listen any comments that you might have before you take action. So, thank you, uh, Deputy Freeman. Um, let's clarify. Offer of employment has been made. Yes, sir.

Offer of employment has been accepted. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, council, any questions for Deputy Freeman before we would ask uh for the new chief to give a few remarks, I believe. Okay. Chief Hoverver, would you mind coming up, please? Just want to give you the microphone to give you an opportunity to speak and address the city uh before we we formalize a vote.

Council, mayor, Mr. Path, Mr. Freeman, I really appreciate this opportunity. Moving forward, I'm excited to listen and learn the Amarillo way to to build relationships with the community as well as the men and women of this organization. Emerald Police Department has a fantastic group of officers. They're passionate and driven and I'm just excited to be part of the team.

Thank you, sir. Um council, you may have a few remarks. I would just offer um full support. I believe that you have the full support of your police department and your other local law enforcement agencies. I believe you have the full support of uh the staff. I believe you have the full support of uh your city councilmen that understand the need for public safety to remain paramount and for us to continue to drive forward in the direction we're going. I say all this recognizing um Chief Johnson uh back there knowing that you have his full support and that we are not losing um the value and the asset that we have in Chief Johnson. We are adding the value and the asset that I think Emerrella looks forward to to have Chief Hoverver as well. So, thank you for uh putting in the application and we look forward to working alongside you. If you don't mind, can I help congratulate for the time that Chief Johnson spent with us as the interim?

Yeah. Thank you. [applause] I appreciate you doing that. And I I do know that um that it's been a long process to get there. Um, we are very thankful to have a brand new year and a and a good outlook and all things moving in the in the right direction. So, thank you for your remarks. Council, I would just offer the microphone back to you if you have anything further.

I would just say thank you again, Chief Johnson, for holding it together and uh thank you for staying on and leading with us. We appreciate that. Yeah, I'd like to to again thank Chief Johnson and welcome the the new chief today as well. And I I do want to uh thank Deputy City Manager Freeman and City Manager Grayson Path who uh did this with all due diligence to thoroughly look uh everywhere uh and do this search. And I think we uh we completed a great search, very thorough uh appreciate the uh the hard work that you guys put into it. you knew the importance of this position uh in our community and worked hard to to find the best person and I appreciate the work that went into this and thank you for that.

Yeah, I would I would echo the same remarks. Chief Johnson, thank you very much. Mr. Hoverver, welcome aboard. Uh big responsibility. You know, this this council is definitely about public safety and you being the the head of that. It's a big deal. So, welcome aboard and uh we appreciate you guys going through the process. It was tough, you know. had some good candidates and think you made a good decision, but uh appreciate it, Jimmy. Um it's a tough one and I understand it. Uh you did a great job uh leading this city for the last year and uh we all appreciate that. I also appreciate the citizens that were involved uh in helping make this make this pick. I think that was an important part. Um you know, the people of a city, who's your mayor and who's your chief police? So, um it was an important thing to involve the uh the citizens and uh Tom, welcome aboard. There were times in my career I thought I was more of the APD than I was the FBI. So, um there's a there's a uh a love in my heart for the department and I just want to see it continue uh being a department that it is. Thanks.

Very well said, council. Item 8.7 is before you for confirmation. I move to approve the confirmation of Thomas Hoverver as chief of police. Second. I have a motion and a second for the confirmation of Chief Hoverver as the chief of police. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Welcome to the city of Amarillo, Chief Hoverver. I I [applause] gentlemen, can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. motion in a second. You're adjourned. Thank you guys.