City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, it's official. I'm going to recognize a quorum here with my dulyeleed role as the city of Amarillo mayor with the authorities vested in me by God himself and those great citizens of the city of Amarillo hereby delegate that authority to my city attorney to read us legally into exec session.

Thank you uh the honorable mayor Stanley for that. Appreciate that. will do so uh pursuant Texas Open Meetings Act to close session. The Emerald City Council was announced on February the 10th, 2026 at 101 p.m. under the following authority. Section 551.072 discuss the purchase, exchange, lease, sale, or value of real property. A public discussion of such would not be in the best interest of the city's bargaining position.

Council's concluded the executive session. The time is 2:25. Thank you.

one. Mr. City Manager, you got everything ready on your side? Great. Um, okay. I'm going to go ahead and uh recognize our quorum back in here in the room. We have successfully completed an executive session and and um we are now moving into our ceremonial items. Um, if you guys would, I'm going to invite uh Pastor Cobalt up here to give our invocation. Would you guys rise and then please stay standing for the pledges? God bless you. Thank you for the invite. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts for the opportunity of serving this community. Thank you for the gift of this city, its people, and the trusted place that we call home. Grant them wisdom that rises above personal interest, courage to make them make decisions that are just and fair, and compassion to consider the needs of every resident. May the discussion be respectful, their their actions be guided by integrity, their visions be rooted in the unity and the hope. Bless each person here with clarity of thought and a spirit of cooperation so that together they can make this thing work for a common good. We ask for your guidance and protection over our city, our families, and all those that call this place home. It is in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Texas flag to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you'll be seated, we have a few items that we get to do today. It's not always that we we have the honor of um recognizing a few of our local heroes around town. And so, council, I'm going to ask if you guys will step down. We're going to go ahead and and bring up uh Miss Beth Duke for a recognition. And then we're going to move into a couple others. Do I come around? Thank Thank you. Thank you for letting me present today. I'd like to call up uh two other people who need to be up here for this trophy presentation. Uh Jerry Danforth and Donnie Hooper. And then city manager Grayson Path. That was three math. Go figure. Today I'm Beth Duke, executive director of Central City of Amarillo. And today I have the privilege of bringing a trophy back to our beautiful downtown to mark

that we have won first place in the Texas Downtown Association President's Awards for best restoration for our beautiful new city hall. So give yourselves a big hand for this brand new city hall. You know, there are some people to thank. Uh, Sims Architecture, Western Builders, they took this historic building and gave it a new life. And that's what Central City likes to do. And I want to mention that this award, we competed with cities in the 50,000 population and more, and we won. So, uh, I want to thank particularly Councilman Les Simpson, uh, Donnie Hooper, and Jerry Danforth. They sacrificially went to Waco to pick this trophy up for me. So, just so proud. And anytime I can put our city on the map, that's what I want to do. So, uh, here is your trophy. Oh. Uh, oh. Okay. Congratulations to everyone. Thank you for going to pick it up.

No, no, I tell you it was it was an honor. Uh there were a lot of various uh projects uh all great projects uh that we uh that we competed against and and received the award. So, it was a great recognition for uh the work that Jerry and his team did and preserving this building and giving us uh um nice facilities not only to meet in but for our employees to be part of. So, thank you for that, Jerry. We appreciate you. Thank you.

You know, this building was originally designed by Guy Carlander, one of the premier architects of our city, and they said over and over, this building could not be built today. and that it is built like an aircraft carrier. So, uh it's going to be here long after we're gone, but I'm so proud of it for our city. And one other thing I just want to mention um because some of you were here less when we started the uh downtown Amarella action plan since 2007 just before the city adopted the strategic action plan for downtown. Our documented total reinvestment in center city is 8869784344. And you can imagine that we're still working because we would love to round that up. So, thank you again and congratulations to everyone and then we'll get out of here. So, um, Miss Beth Duke is, uh, an ambassador for the city of Amarillo and so she is always out there gladhanding and welcoming and selling and promoting Amarillo. We're very thankful for all you do and it's little things like this that mean the most. And then we'll get out of your way, but there's four words you very rarely hear in construction. And so, Jerry Danfor, thank you to you and your team and to Western Builders. Uh, on time, under budget. Like, that's very, very hard to hit. And and he delivered a building on time and under budget. So, thank you to you and your team. We appreciate you guys letting us do this. All right. You want a photo?

One, two, three. One more time. One, two, three. Thank you. family. Is your guest please come forward? You can come around here.

Yes. as a as a council. We talk about our our local heroes uh on a daily basis. Um and I have the pleasure of being the director at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial. and one of our true heroes um that we tend to forget about uh we honor over there. He's one of 1557 names that of uh veterans from the Texas panhandle who died in combat from World War I through Afghanistan. And this week uh is a recognition of one of our local heroes, Thomas E. Creek who on February 13th gave his life uh for his his company and for the United States. This is a certificate of recognition. Whereas Thomas E. Creek honorably served the United States of America as a rifleman with Company I ranked Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. assigned to company I 3D battalion 9th Marines 3D Marine Division reinforced fleet marine force end whereas on February 13th 1969 near Cam Low in the Republic of Vietnam Lance Corporal Creek distinguishing himself by acts of extraordinary heroism and selfless courage above and beyond the call of duty while engaging enemy forces during a resupply mission and whereas despite being seriously wounded Lance

Corporal Creek demonstrated unwaving bravery by sacrificing his own life to shield his fellow Marines from an enemy grenade, saving the lives of five fellow Marines and inspiring his unit to defeat the enemy and complete its vi vital mission. And whereas for his conspicious gallantry and intrepidity, Thomas E. Creek was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration bestowed by the United States in recognition of his ultimate sacrifice and service to his country. And whereas the city of Amarillo recognizes and honors the legacy of Thomas E Creek whose courage, selflessness, and devotion to duty reflect the highest ideals of military service and continue to inspire future generations. Now therefore, the city of Amarillo hereby recognizes and honors the life, service, and sacrifice of Thomas E. Greek and expresses his enduring gratitude for his heroism and for the profound impact of his actions on his fellow Marines, his community, and his nation. Well, let me just say I knew Tom uh when we were kids. Of course, anybody that knew Tom knew him as a kid because he was 18 when he died, but he was quite a man, though. But uh I'll just tell you

the last time I seen him is something I'll I'll never forget. Um he and uh his brother Ross behind us uh were on Emerald Boulevard and I was there. I I was in the army at the time and I uh had come home for a long weekend and met up with some friends. We're on Emeralda Boulevard, Route 6C in Northeast 8 at the time, and uh we were talking and all of a sudden coming across the Northeast was these two people marching arm in arm singing the Marine hymn and marching in perfect perfect step. And I couldn't figure out who they were. I thought it was a couple of drunks, but anyway, they came over and they come over and and uh got with the group and we talked for a while and um you know, I recognized it was Ross and his brother Tom. So, um as we were talking, I'd asked Tom, you know, why I found out he was in the Marines and officially go to Vietnam. So, Tom, why did you join the Marines? you know, a lot of other places, you know, I was in the army. I didn't think that was cushy, but I knew it was better than the Marines. And uh so he gave me his reasons and they ended with the words to keep America free. And after he said that, him and Ross got together arm in- arm again and walked marched out in the distance into the darkness and just disappeared. It's like a dream. But uh I'll always remember Tom has been the most patriotic person I've ever known.

And you know, for somebody to win the Medal of Honor, I know a lot of people say, "Well, you'd never expect him." uh Tom, you would expect it. So, it was a pleasure to have known him. So glad I got to tell you this story. Hello, my name is Jim Ditz. Um I'm married into the Creek family. Uh, and I just wanted to thank everyone that was involved in getting us taken care of for us, especially the especially Tim and uh, the rest of the council. U, it really means so much to us to finally have Tom recognized in town other than, you know, of course, we have the VA. Um, but that was um, that's a federal thing. We wanted a state or a local thing for for Tom here. So, this is a this is a great start. We're going to continue as as Ross kind of is going to, you know, stop doing all the things that we go to and everything, but Candy and I will carry on the torch and our sons will after that. So, we're going to make sure that we keep him remembered and this is a humongous step forward for our whole family and we just really from the bottom of our hearts appreciate every every bit of you, every one of you. One, two, three.

I'll keep us moving right along here. Could I have uh Mark Zimmerman join me up here? I saw him earlier. There he is. Um, winter storm Fern, right, turned out to be way less impactful up here than it did even further south. Peculiar weather patterns, but still, even though we didn't get the ice and the snow that can cause all the havoc, we had some extremely cold temperatures. And so, um, there are parts of our community that are residents, they're just unhoused. And there are good people um that find themselves in hard positions at different times and we rely on our community stakeholders. So Mark Zimmerman with Transformation Park is just one example and uh I want to hand the microphone over to him to speak just to like the preparation and the willingness to work all night all weekend to continue to provide shelter and warmth and food and uh clothing and whatever whatever was the need at the time. And then also um you know animal management. We have V Victoria Medley back here. you know, our furry friends out there and just telling people the the common sense of bring your animal inside, put them in the garage, do something is something that we take for granted as well. And so responding to that over the weekend, uh our hats are off not only to all of the people that care about animals in the community, but especially uh those stakeholders that they work 365 days a year, but this is an example. Um well, he's a great example of like what could have happened during Fern. The lights could have gone out, start getting cold in here in a minute. Um so, uh Mark Zimmerman, if you don't mind, if you'll say a few words. Thank you. Appreciate you, sir. Yeah, when we uh heard that we were going to have 100 plus uh hours of below freezing temperature, we were talking with Dopper Dave about that and he was like, "What are you going to do?" And I

was like, "Well, we've got to make more room." And so we figured out ways to bring more people into Transformation Park. Uh we housed about 120 125 every night and every day through that. Then we also decided to take the old Guy Saunders building and keep it open 24 hours a day. And so along with the community development department of the city, we mandate 24 hours a day and we have between 100 and 150 there and 25 dogsish, you know. And so uh there were really honestly very few problems, a whole lot less problems than I thought there were going to be. I had somebody ask me, "How'd you get permission to do this?" And I said, "I didn't know I was supposed to get permission to do this. I just did it. Said we were going to do it." And so the guy in Saunders, the old guy and Saunders staff jumped in and they were gung-ho. my whole staff and we we partnered with Salvation Army and Faith City and like I said the community development department um tons of volunteers and other citizens who had a heart and um and I'm just proud of the way Amarella responded. Yes, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but still the freezing temperatures were actually our reason for doing it more than even the snow. And so, thank you for your support the city and from community development. Um we greatly appreciate it and thank you for all you've done for us. Could I get everybody in public infrastructure to go ahead and make their way up here if you would? super happy to present this today because we get to recognize some people today and this is just a minimal amount of people who responded to the wintertorm firm from our public infrastructure groups. Uh so as they make their way up here, I want to give you a few stats I think would be very important for the public to know about all of the work that they did during

this storm. I'll wait for them to get up here so they can hear it as well. They've been all very well organized too. So this is a very small group we had. Is there more back here? Yes. Come on everybody. Yeah. Come on. Mayor, thank you for the idea. And you see behind us here a group of people. It represents about 40 or so of the people that responded to Wintertorm Fern from our public infrastructure group. But this is a this is about well, it's a small percentage of over 200 uh in public infrastructure alone that responded uh to this event. So very proud moment for us to be able to recognize them publicly. And I want to tell you what all they took care of during this event. First, we'll start with water distribution, wastewater treatment, wastewater treatment plant, wastewater collection, uh wastewater treatment plants, that entire group in utilities had about 90 employees that responded uh during this event. Uh and

when we talk about heroes, man, minus 10 degree windchill, water leaks like crazy. We had uh main brakes, we had over 30 of those uh that they responded to during this event. I personally was out a few times and visiting some of those sites and they didn't even care that you were there. They were just working. I mean, they are getting it done and moving on to the next one as quickly as they could. No one's complaining. No one said, "Hey, I'm not coming in and working during this winter storm." They wanted to provide the services to Amarillo. Uh, and they did it. So, great job to all of them for taking care of that. They have other duties as well. Uh, some of them are assigned to snow removal responsibilities of some of our public parking lots. They have to keep our water plant, wastewater treatment plants functional. And you don't get to see that uh when you're in a winter storm and we're sitting at home. You don't even think about it really. Then breaking ice out, literally breaking ice so they can keep the water moving through those plants. Breaking ice in the wastewater treatment plant so that the filters can continue to work. All those things so that people at home could enjoy the comforts of their home during that time. Uh monitoring the SCADA system constantly to making sure that pressure is up where we have a leak and adjusting those pressures so that the system will work appropriately. Our street department had over 80 personnel that responded to the event. They drove over 8,885 miles removing uh salting and sanding some of the overpasses and arterial signalized intersections. And they also did snow removal in the drifting areas that we have identified in our snow plan, plus breaking up the slush at the end of it to get it to go down the drain so that it goes away and it doesn't stay out on the streets. Over a thousand tons of salt and sand used from our street department. Our fleet services group is represented here as well. They work 24-hour shifts so that they could keep the equipment moving. When something breaks down, they take it straight into the shop. They make the repairs, get it right back out on the street. Big important part of that. Also assisted in uh starting the equipment, too. Some of these vehicles will not start, as you know, uh when they've been setting outside and it's 5° outside. So, assisting in getting those started. Our traffic department placing traffic

signals on steep grades into flash mode just so that vehicles coming over. In fact, the one that I went down was Pierce. Come over the top of that hill, the lights in flash down below that. so that you don't slide through that intersection as there was some ice out there. Just thinking ahead about things like that were so important. Assisting also in repair of traffic signals impacted by moisture and extreme cold. Our solid waste department, additional collections up in advance of the storm coming in and then after the storm getting and doubling up those routes so they could get them caught up and also uh plowing and grading of landfill roads to ensure the landfill could be opened on Tuesday morning, which it was. our drainage utility department really there were utility players in this group because they took on a certain role when they started this event and that was to keep some of the parking lots cleared they're assigned to that role quickly shifted because Alan Harter director of public works said hey we can backfill these water leaks with our equipment and our crews so that the water repair crews can move on to something else and get to the next one teamwork and collaboration they did that well compaction and back filling of excavation breaking up slush as well that's in the gutters our parks department has assignments as well and keep keeping certain areas clear, but they were also transitioned into other roles also. So, they helped us with areas that we couldn't get to. Um, helped us with certain parking lot responsibilities. Our facilities group, uh, the prep work that they did, and you wouldn't realize how much goes into keeping facilities from freezing up during this type of weather event. have to completely winterize places like the civic center so that they make sure and by the way closing the civic center is is was so valuable because we didn't have big bay doors open freezing up the plumbing in those facilities but prepping those buildings all across the city uh to make sure that they didn't freeze up and I know we're going to leave some people out but I wanted to mention as well emergency management who worked this storm from the beginning to end they're not a they're not a part of our purview and public infrastructure but they are because they coordinated the entire event Dunlap and his team was there round the clock making sure that everybody had their things done uh and

the the tools that they needed to get done. Mayor mentioned animal management agree with that. There were also just other so many other people that were involved in this storm that um uh need to be recognized. But for me, I think the greatest thing that I saw in this event was the collaboration. There was never a time where we said, "Hey, we need you to go do this instead. We need you to go do that instead." They just said, "All right." And put their workbooks on and they went and did it. Uh, and we made it through it. Uh, and it was it was it was really really terrible conditions out there. So, I just I'm so glad we're be able to recognize them. And the other people that are not here today, if you would just give them a big round of applause so even they can hear it on the broadcast, that'd be appreciated. Good luck.

Okay, we can get a little closer. One, two, three. One, two, three. All right. We are uh truly thankful and grateful for all the men and women that we get to live in the city of Amarillo with and work around. Thank you once again. At this time, I'll officially call us to order and would ask for any announcements. Miss City Secretary,

no announcements today, mayor. All right, we'll move into public comment. Um, before anyone gives public comment, I would like to notice item number, make sure I get this correct, 7.3. Um, we will table this or push it. uh not quite ready for everything. We had noticed it in the newspaper how many month you know weeks ago like several it was in December and then we had to renotice it.

So we've renoticed it. So it's important that we keep it on the agenda that way that if you're reading something in the newspaper you see that it's shown up on the agenda but this is not an item that we're ready to move forward on. So the $30 million potential borrow and ask for all that will not be discussed or considered here today. Uh catching back up over to public comment. Miss city secretary, if you'll read us into that, please.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you for participating in today's city council meeting. Your input and your opinions are important to us, and we appreciate you taking the time to share them today. At each posted meeting, we invite our members of the community to address city council on posted agenda items or topics related to city policy. During both public comment and any public hearings, each speaker will have three minutes to address council. At 2 and a half minutes, you'll hear a beep to let you know you have 30 seconds left to wrap up. Please stay within your 3minut limit. We'll be using both podiums today. When your name is called, please go to the open podium. When it's your turn, start by stating your name and whether or not you live inside Amarillo city limits. Then you may begin your comments to council. If your comment is about an item not listed on today's agenda, please note that the Texas Open Meetings Act limits how council may respond. Council members may make statements of fact. Request that your topic be placed on a future agenda or refer the matter to the city manager who can have staff step out to visit with you. If you'd like to speak up today, excuse me, if you'd like to speak today and have not signed up yet, please come see me now to fill out a speaker form so we can add you to our list. We will begin public comment at this time. Our first speaker today will be Hank Brown. So you may come to the first podium. On deck after Hank will be Leavonda Mosley. So you may make your way to the second podium and be ready to speak next. And Hank, you may begin.

Good afternoon, Mayor Stanley and council members. My name is Hank Brown and I'm the general manager for Emerald Neplex and I reside within Emerald City Limits. I'm here today to continue to ask for your support in reszoning Amiral Neplex from a general retail district to a general retail district with a specific use for alcohol sales and service. Netflix has followed the same process as every other applicant, completing an 18-month journey that included addressing challenges and overcoming initial denials. In August of 2024, with no restaurant tenant in place, Netflix initiated the application with the city of Amaro Amarillo and TABC. Because of outdated zoning and sweet alignment issues, there was no clear solution. In October, Netflix applied for the MB license limited to the restaurant footprint. By December, the city approved the application and TABC awarded the license meeting all city and state requirements. In January 2025, a restaurant tenant signed a lease and Netflix gave up that license at a cost so the tenant could move forward. After continued engagement, the city accepted a resoning request in December 2025, which was approved at the first public hearing in January last month, bringing us to today. Neplex is a privatelyowned communityfocused multi-use sports and event venue serving seniors, adults, youth, nonprofits, and corporate groups. Alcohol is not the focus. It is a responsible adult amenity. We have full flexibility to operate alcohol-free during youth and family events, which is already standard practice across the youth sports industry nationwide. This is not a bar with courts. It is a professionally managed sports facility following proven models already

operating successfully in Amarillo. This resoning allows Neplex to responsibly serve the full community while maintaining a safe, family-friendly environment. Thank you for your time and consideration. Okay, next will be Thomas Warren to the empty podium. And Miss Mosley, you may begin your comments.

Thank you. Um, I'm going to go ahead and give my public comment even though you pulled it um from the agenda item today because I may not be able to make it to the next meeting. I'm Levanda Mosley. I'm a resident of Potter County. Um, I'm here to oppose the $30 million certificate of of obligation on the agenda. I know that several of you own businesses and look at budget numbers annually. As a taxpayer, I don't understand why a budget cannot be reviewed, discussed, and put in place for the annual term. I understand that these are un that there are unknown circumstances that might happen and that's why we have savings accounts and so in government it's called fund balance I believe so I would ask what is the balance of that account today if I'm not mistaken city personnel are educated at a higher level in the areas of accounting engineering development and the city manager what is it that they missed in the budget process that city council has to even talk about a 30 million CO. As I looked at the items on the CO list, a couple jump out to me because over the last 5 years, I've stood at this podium and I've asked for upgrades for drainage and sewage improvements in our area. Floyd Hartman sat in a room of residents from Tascosa Acres 3 to four years ago and he told us that the sewer system would be replaced. We're five years out. Nothing has been done. Nothing's been talked about on that system. I know there's been two development expansions in our area that have been approved which run sewage and drainage downhill to the River Road plant. Um so then we moves another thing that moves me to the bridge. Um what are we doing in bridges? Text dot rebuilds our bridges and then they turn them over to the city if I believe for maintenance. So, I would be interested to see what's on the bridge um expenditure

um street and road that jumps out at me because I call and I ask for this the weeds to be sprayed in our street. One of the council members has told me he uses his own chemicals to spray his weeds in his street as do I. I pay a drainage fee and I pay taxes. I'm tired of using my resources to help the city. Um, so those few things just jumped out at me. Um, I'm going to talk about you five guys. I think a couple of you ran on a platform not to increase our taxes and here we are increasing taxes after budget. I understand there's already been a 10 million CO passed and now we're talking about a $30 million CO. I just don't understand what your educated guys are doing that they're missing that you have to come and ask for 30 million from your taxpayers. Um, I'm going to ask you to take another look at that. Take that off the agenda. Um, put it out to vote for your taxpayers. I'm not opposed to helping the city, but I want to know what you're going to do with my money, and I want you to show up in my neighborhood without me calling you. Um, I don't want you to get in the same position that your predecessors were in, and they got sued and taken into the courtroom because of a CO. 30 million I think is excessive, guys. Thank you for your time. Miss Mosley, thank you for speaking. Um, Mr. Path, could we get She had a list of items. Could we get a staff member assigned with her to go ahead and go through as many of those as we could to address uh all that we can for her?

Yeah, we'd be happy to try our best. Yes. Great. Thank you, sir. Okay. We'll invite Douglas Abby up to the empty podium and Mr. Warren, you may begin.

All right. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, council members, Mr. Mayor for um allowing me to speak today. Before I get going, um I want to thank uh Mayor Stanley and and Council Member Prescott for um our conversations a few weeks ago about the board appointments and and I really do appreciate both of you gentlemen for for listening and and being open to your constituents. Uh like Miss Mosley, I'm I wanted to speak about the um the certificates of obligation today um since it's not an action item today. Um, I'm not demanding anything, I guess, but I wanted to bring something to your attention. You know, this is my second year, I just finished it, um, of being the tax assessor for Potter County. So, just finished our second tax season and, uh, inevitably at the end of the tax season, I always end up having taxpayers in my office who are talking to me about making payment arrangements because they can't afford to pay their taxes. and uh we work with them and we we try to do as much as we can to be understanding. But having many taxpayers, including some this morning who are in your office talking to you about the fact that they can't afford to pay what's already being levied on them, it kind of gets you thinking about how much should government be spending and how much should they be levying. And so I just wanted to bring that to y'all's attention. You know, I think you know this um well, so I'm not trying to tell you anything you don't know, but I mean it's not pretend money. And uh when we borrow it, it inevitably is going to increase the tax rate, even if just a little bit. Um and really, I am a I'm a believer that when you have uh quality infrastructure in your community, you have to make investments u to keep up with the infrastructure. I'm sympathetic to that. I'm I'm a firm believer in that. We want to have nice things in Amarillo, but also we need to understand that the taxpayers are pretty leveraged now. and uh they are they're feeling the strain. So, just wanted to bring that to

your attention and I appreciate your consideration today. Thank you.

Tim Benson will be next and Mr. Abby, you may begin your comments.

My name is Douglas Abby and um this is just an observation and it's not a criticism to the police department. um sometime around um September or October last year, I had a ticket. So, I went for the hearing and there was an uh there was a senior citizen um there who also had a ticket. The prosecutor came to the hallway and tried to talk to us about how to go about it. when it got to her turn in the courtroom, uh, she was told that the case has been dismissed. And I think the prosecutor or somebody could have called the elderly lady, told her that um, this would be dis dismissed instead of her coming all the way to the court in a cold. Um, that that's one. And my second um point is the ticket that I had um the officer said he stopped me because I was speeding yet the speeding wasn't on the ticket. And so I said um I I wasn't speeding. I was in the neighborhood. I was going a little above 20 22 23 definitely not uh 30 miles per hour and so uh the hearing um I was found guilty which I had nothing to do about that. I mean I understand or I don't agree with the verdict but I understand it. Um

the third issue is um somebody had run into my vehicle, a parked vehicle. Um their registration plate got stuck on my vehicle. So I reported it to the police. They couldn't um file charges on the person because I couldn't identify the person during the lineup. And what if somebody was killed? Could that be avoided? I mean, could uh the line now be an issue? I don't think we need to wait till a serious issues arrive before we deal with those issues. And um I want to commend officer Rudy. I think he takes care of cover um either primary or elementary on the north side. my car broke down. He um out of nowhere stopped, jumpst started me and um helped me out. So to all the good police officers, I commend you. And to those that are not up to um that are not really helping, please consider helping the um community. Thank you.

On deck will be Hope McCoy. And Tim, you may begin your comments.

Tim Benson, Amarillo. I'd like to uh see if we could put another thing on the agenda for next time about uh board members signing a conflict of interest agreement. I believe every board member needs to sign a conflict of interest. I think as many that comes and goes, we can't keep track of who's on there, who's not, who has signed it and who hadn't. But I think it's it should be mandated mandatory that it should be signed. That's what I' I'd like to be put on the next agenda. Thanks for your time. Thank you, sir. Uh Mr. Path, I believe we have uh well, I guess booklets for council member orient or not council member, sorry, board member orientation. Do do you know are there several that have a conflict of interest clause in it or is that something you would mind looking for? Maybe we can get it directly to Mr. Benson.

Yeah, we can look at that. Okay. Which boards require that already? Which ones don't? Thank you. Afternoon, Hope. Okay. Next, Dennis Pzled, if you'll come to the second podium and Hope, you may begin.

Thank y'all for pulling the agenda on the CEOs, but I'm going to go ahead and give my seat speech because I'm here to say no to more certificates of obligation. I recently sat in on the Emerald ASD strategic planning study and learned that over 70% families are economically disadvantaged. 70%. These households are stretched to their financial limits. These families can't afford wants like a fitness center. They need money for groceries, mortgages, utilities, medicine, and gas for their cars to get to their one job or more. You've already approved a 557 million city budget. So when you ask for another 30 million in cos the question isn't can it be done. The question is why ask disadvantaged families to pay more when half a billion dollars is already on the table. 30 million more dollars for all of Emerald have to pay back on top of taxes from the last years last two years cos it's ironic there's always seems to be urgency enough money for buildings infrastructure for south southwest Amarello but when it's for the northern Amarillo no new business projects no new growth from 1960 until the vineyards were built no real infrastructure like Southwest gets for their tax breaks and bill hikes and CO burdens. All while Potter County northside struggling families fund the urban core of downtown and cover shortfalls for hotels that are thriving. And Randall County and Southwest Ammerllo pay less taxes and benefit the most from the growth of all of Amarillo has to pay for. That's not shared sacrifice. That's an imbalance. No more I mean more cos mean more burden on the families that are struggling. Remember that 1,700 families just lost

their jobs and the firmy workers on furlow right now. You all be you'll be asking these types of families to shoulder more debt again without a vote for priorities that don't put food on their tables or lower the cost of living for them. How are they supposed to pay for the ECOS when debt comes knocking? Just because a few can afford it doesn't mean the other 70% can't. We're not asking for perfection. We're just asking for some restraint from the administration. We are asking for leadership that understands timing matters. All of Ammeral citizens matter. Please don't overfill your plates with more projects before you're even done eating. Finish what you started with the budgets that already approved. Let these struggling families catch up. Let us see some progress on these streets first before asking for more money. Please work within your means like all normal households have to. Emerald only works when the burden is shared and right now it isn't. Please don't make struggling families pay for the imbalance. Thank you.

Okay. Katie Alexander will be next to the empty podium and Dennis, you may begin your comments.

My name is Dennis Pzel. I'm a local contractor. I'm hoping y'all will reconsider the vote on the Herring Hotel in regards to the developer, Todd Harmon. I have I have a lot of experience dealing with him. I finished out the Barfield Hotel. I have finished two hospitals for him, one here in Amarillo and one in Temple, Texas. And we were supposed to do another one in Bumont, Texas. In Bowmont, we mobilized last year and we had all the subcontract bids in hand and ready to pull the permit with the city to start in June of 25 with the promise that I would have in hand a signed contract June 1st, 2025 from Todd. We never got a signed contract or a phone call from him. He has owned this building for 5 years and he has not even started the project as of January 1st, 2026. The city has called me numerous times because weeds have grown around the building and it gets broke into all the time. He owes the security people over $40,000 and he owes us over $130,000 on that project. We have put a $130,000 loan lean against the building due to no payment. And now to his house. We're out around $400,000 due to paying on his house everything. subs, concrete, garage, doors, everything for a year and a half. And after five years, his house is still not completed. I talked to code enforcement last month and he has no finals on his house and is living in it. I'm not sure if you know this, but Todd Harmon cannot even step in step foot into the Barfield Hotel due to a no trespass and he cannot use a Barfield's hotel's name in any capacity either. I know this due to a court settlement in Stevenville, Texas between the owner of

the Barfield and Todd Harmon, which I attended and testified at. I just wanted to bring this to your attention because he owes a lot of people and he cannot finish most projects that he starts. I am for the Herring Hotel rebuild, but not with this developer, Todd Harmon. He can't be trusted. Thank you. Next will be Mike Ford at the open podium and Katie, you may begin.

Hi. Um, my name is Katie Alexander and I wanted to talk about the Netflix resoning and um, I wanted to start off by stating that I think the most important thing is keeping our youth safe. And um I know that at the last meeting uh a lot of the I guess arguing points were that um the elderly the senior citizens were wanting a beer after pickle ball was like one of the bigger arguing points about it and I don't understand why there's already a restaurant there that serves the alcohol and as previously said they went through all the trouble to get the license and application and all of that and then they didn't do it because they wanted San Jose restaurant to succeed which is now kind of just being held over the restaurant's head and it's one of those if they wanted it so badly they should have just continued when they had the application and all of that because that sounds like a whoops on their back I mean on their part because they had it all and they said that they did everything the right way, but they didn't follow through. So, I I just don't understand why we're trying to fight so hard on this for the alcohol. And they said it would be at their discretion. And how do we how do we know what their discretion is and what it's going to is it going to be the same a year later from when if it was approved, you know? Um, I think that in the end it's all about money and alcohol sales are going to be taken away from San Jose. It's inevitable to say that it wouldn't be.

Um, and I think that no nothing is going to succeed there if we allow Netflix to serve alcohol. And it's it's not even the if and just because we can do it doesn't mean that we should. I think that we've talked about upholding integrity in the community and I don't think that us adding alcohol to and I mean it all goes back to the discretion. I mean it says it won't be during family and children youth events but how do we know that that's going to be upheld? And I just think that if it was such a important thing to them, they should have just continued with their license and we should be thinking about our community and that's not adding alcohol and creating more problems with the alcohol. We've seen what it does with Kids, Inc. and that's with sober parents. I just don't think that this is the solution and I think that we're advertising for senior citizens, but we should be worried about the youth. Thank you.

Next up will be Mike Fiser at the empty podium and Mr. Ford, you may begin. Got some things to pass out.

I'm hoping that they're going to be have that in front of them. Thank you. They will. I was just going to start your timer when you start. I won't I won't I won't start talking until they have it. Okay.

I promise. Council members, um Mike Ford, Emerald, Texas. You were entrusted to weigh consequences before committing the people's water. If this council chose to enter into a water agreement with Firmeny America without study, without transparency, and without with the exception of Council Member Simpson, a single expression of concern for the environmental burden placed on our community's doorstep. When those charged with oversight fall silent, responsibility does not disappear. It passes to the people. Panhandle taxpayers for Transparency did what this body did not. We organized lawfully, identified impacted members, retained qualified experts and secured standing in the state air permitting process because no one on this displace power plant in the world beside our homes, schools and workplaces. And the evidence we presented is not speculative. It is sworn, technical, and now part of the official record. Our expert analysis shows and this is based on a six gawatt plant that had 93 turbines not an 11 gawatt plant that firmy is now talking about with its shareholders for with 140 turbines. Number one, air pollution levels are likely to exceed federal health standards for nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter in the ma in the multiple populated areas including residential neighborhoods, schools and major employment centers. The modeling used to justify number two, the permit is materially flawed, underestimating short and long-term pollution impacts by relying on inappropriate assumptions, incomplete emissions data, and unrepresentative background measurements. Backgrounds in Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso, those are highly

representative of the of the High Plains. Large portions, number three, of the affected community received no meaningful notice despite being located in areas where harmful pollution levels are predicted, denying them the chance to observe, question, or respond. Number four, health risks from toxic pollutants were never adequately assessed by the applicant even as emissions of ammonia and formaldahhide are expected to increase across a broad area, including our right here where we stand. These are not abstractions. These are foreseeable harms identified only because citizens were forced to step forward when their elected representatives would not. Let the record show PT4 did not seek conflict. We sought light. And where this council would not look, the people did. You were called to be stewards. When stewardship failed, witness arose. And that witness now stands for the record and for the community you chose not to hear. Thank you.

And Mr. Fischer, you may begin. We've got a handout council that I'm going to pass along from Mr. Fiser.

While you guys are receiving those, uh, my name is Mike Fischer. I live in the city limits of Amarillo. And I know you guys, as everybody else has said, the CEOs are off the agenda, but I'd just like to point out the original intent of CEOs. And this was from, I believe, what legislators intended CEOs to be. It says, quote, a tool to finance urgent or unforeseen public needs without waiting for an election. So that means emergencies, right? and and I didn't see anything that really was an emergency in the in the CEO. So, I'd like for you guys since you have a chance to sleep on it, um I'd like for you to think about that and how you handle your own personal finances and and hopefully you'll handle ours the same way. Um the the next thing is the is the item that you have the handout in front of you. At the last meeting, the city secretary, the last thing she said was, uh, city code does not include a daycare. But if you look at that, I I gave you the law from TABC. And if you look at the first part that's highlighted in yellow, sales 109.331, sales near daycare center or child care facility. So, she's right. The city's ordinance ordinances doesn't mention daycare, but if you look at the law, it says um rules that apply to public schools quote also apply to daycare centers. So, in other words, when you're talking about schools, you're also talking about daycarees. And another thing was, uh this is for Don Tips. You said something that was really profound. You said about the city polls. You said u if if this was just a decision, a business

decision, it's easy. But the constituents want it. And that's what I have to take into consideration. And I don't believe that a single person that's come up here that didn't have a dog in the fight like the gentleman here. He works there. Everybody that spoke in favor of this worked there or had some kind of ownership or management. Not a single citizen spoke in favor of this. I believe everyone spoke against it. Everyone spoke against it at the board meeting. So, I'd like for you guys to to take into consideration uh what the law is and and and you have a second chance here. I guess that's why we have a second reading. And I hope you guys take into consideration that the law is pretty it's black and white and yellow in this case. And so, thanks for your time. Mayor, that concludes everyone that signed up for public comment.

Thank you, Miss City Secretary. I would like to acknowledge that um we've had several people speak on different items, some that they are very very invested in and even financially committed to. Everybody was respectful um addressed everyone, you know, respectfully, made their point, kept within the three minutes. So, I I just can't tell you how much we appreciate that. You make running public comment easier. Uh we thank you for being willing to sign up and just be in an orderly fashion so we can get all of the business work that we need to done. Um would ask if I've got anybody here that didn't have an opportunity to sign up that wants to give public comment. Okay, we'll move forward. Um right now we're going to move into our consent agenda. Do I have anything that needs to come off of the consent agenda? council. Okay. With no questions on that, would entertain a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on item five? All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Motion passes with a 50- vote on the consent agenda. We're going to move into our discussion items. Um, we've got one good one here. Uh, Mr. Hooper, if you want to give us a good update on streets and what we've done.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Excited about this update here to tell you what we've been doing over the past year or two uh for our uh streets and as far as repairs, maintenance, construction, things like that that we've been talking about many times over the past few years. So, kind of give you a recap. I know we have a couple of new council members here that were not a part of the original discussions that took place about this. I want to take you back a little bit and talk about just what we uh talked about back and I believe this was in late 23 when this happened. I didn't have time to research the date on those meetings, but the previous council actually gave us some direction that they wanted us to entertain the idea of issuing debt each year to for street maintenance and street reconstruction. The idea there was that we would spend a little bit on capital to be able to do a lot of work with capital each year, revolving that plan from year to year to year uh to be able to fund our street maintenance and our construction. So, we gave a presentation to council back on February the 25th of 2025 after we put everything together in a package and we really had to go back and look at what we were doing, the methodology and the way that we were doing our condition assessments, the methodology in which we were scheduling street maintenance over the summers and we really revamped that whole process. So, we came back and we discussed PCI in depth. That's our pavement condition index and what that means to our streets. Uh we explained that in in depth and detail and we talked about how we wanted to change that uh re-evaluate that where instead of doing every single street every 5 years and that assessment that it was more important for us to do the arterials the majors if you will every year so that we could see how those conditions are changing and also so we could see the effect of the new program and if it is actually raising the PCI that we had instead of staying flat or declining. We discussed five planning priorities and goals that we had for street maintenance and street reconstruction. Four out of the five uh council agreed to. There was number five on that list, which was us building an

internal uh mill and fill crew, if you will, uh internally and running that operation. Instead, we decided to contract out some of that work. So, but the four other items uh were completed uh during the process. We also discussed a yearly cycle for street maintenance, getting that on board and getting street reconstruction planning and executed as well. Then of course, as I mentioned, we asked for council feedback. Uh the feedback was very positive. We didn't receive any negative comments on that and so we proceeded to move forward uh with that plan. And again, the original request really was that we would devise a plan that we would be able to fund street repairs on an annual basis uh where we had really limited funding on that. Uh so that's where all those CO discussions uh took place. So, I want to take you back and look at this is a slide that was actually in that presentation from February of 2025. And the reason I'm taking you back to this just for the new council members to get up to speed so you can see where we were at that time. But we began street assessment in November uh for the following year's projects. Uh that was one of the goals that we had that we would start doing that in November instead of waiting until we would do the assessment later in the season so that we would have that data available. that would give us the uh opportunity to design new maintenance projects one year ahead of the paving maintenance season. So those were in the in the folder, if you will, and ready to go when we got to the following year so we could move right to those projects. Use a method of best first scenarios on our streets. And what that means is we have all kinds of conditions in that PCI. We want to take our streets that need repairs the most, but they're in the best condition out of all of those so that we can extend the life furthest for those. Street assessment will produce datadriven decisions for upcoming budget years and it has already done that for us just in the past year and a half, two years we've been doing this. We also discussed project needs to be out for bid early enough to get plenty of interest from contractors. One of the challenges that we had were putting bids out for summer maintenance and it would go out and get let and the contractors would get awarded that in in August. They would

literally have a month and a half, two months to get the work done. So, we started trying to really ramp up how we were doing our designs and how we were uh getting those out on the streets earlier so that we could uh get those uh out in time to have a full season of paving and repairs in front of us. Check that box. We've done that and I'll talk about that in a moment. And we also talked about awarding street maintenance projects earlier so that again they could be utilized earlier in the year. I want to take you back to this slide here. I know it's a bunch of jumbled mess in there, but I want to go back and talk about what we talked about in February of 2025. This was from that presentation. If you scan down to February, part of that plan was that we would award and issue debt in February for the next year's projects for the up andcoming projects, if you will. And that would put us on that cycle so that when we got to May, we could start awarding our projects that would run all the way back through June, July, August, September, and we would do the maintenance projects, the reconstruction projects. we get back to November, we would start our new street assessment. Then that would roll into December and we would do our evaluation of the streets that needed to be in the next maintenance project. And then we're back in February talking about the same thing. So, we were really behind on this. Uh this is, you know, the last year's contracts went out in August. Uh this year's contracts are ready to go for summer maintenance to begin on time in May. Uh should we be awarded the money to do that, we would be able to move forward with those quickly and have a full season in front of us. This was the map that we gave you last year just to remind you the streets that were already under construction or or rehab that we were working on. Uh just a replay of that that you had. We also gave you a list the last time as well. Here's the important uh piece I want to touch on here. The project status of where we're at right now with all these projects. If you look at the amount that we had, we had a street maintenance bond of 11.865 million. Uh we have spent to date 4.9 million. We still have 5.4 4 that's remaining in an APM contract. And

the reason that that is remaining is because they got that contract in August and they had basically a month and a half of paving season left uh before they could finish that contract. So they will be back to finish that this summer to expend that 5.4. We also have 1.5 million that was unspent and uncontracted as a part of that. And the reason for that is when we put this out for bid, we got our prices were better because fuel prices are better. Fuel prices it came in a lot lower. but we didn't have a single project that we could put that 1.5 to. So, what we decided to do is roll that into this year's projects and add to that contract. So, again, advanced pavement management mill and fill overlay uh contract was 6.5 million. They've completed 17% of that contract, but they'll be back to finish that this summer. Inter Mountain Slurry Seal was a $3.8 million contract, and they finished that 100%. And did a really good job for us, and we're really pleased with the work for that. So, the other pieces that are important here is the 2425 summer street maintenance program. One of the other things we promised you as as a council is that we would never get ourselves back into the proper one situation where we're scrambling at the end to try to spend money that we would make sure that we're meeting those deadlines. We're meeting those time frames. We have 87% of the bond under contract as of August of 25. That will be finished this summer. We're going to come in well in advance of that. You talked about under budget and and on time. We can say that about this our street uh funding as well. remaining funded will be added to the 26 summer maintenance project as I mentioned a moment ago and that'll be completed also in addition to that we had the 2425 pothole patching contract it's not bond related but that was with Fuller and Suns and APM APM actually had two contracts they were awarded in that the total for that 5.1 lane miles have been completed contract cost to date 6.1 million and remaining in that is about 900,000 and we'll be finishing that up in this paving season as well so we've got a lot of uh lane miles done. And we we call that pothole patching, but this

was really more of the long uh bigger patches that we saw uh Fuller and APM doing. We were doing the in-house pothole patching. And there's our Dura Patcher numbers. We told you we'd report that back to you as well. Since the inception of that program, we have actually made 12,618 patches. And that's in the I know it sounds like a big number, and it is. That's a lot that we've accomplished. And and on top of that, and we don't have the the data for it. I didn't ask Allan to get to provide it, but we also have our regular pothole patching crew that's out doing the traditional hot mix pot pothole patching that they're doing as well. But I thought that was very good uh for them to start that program and already be in that position uh to have completed that much work. So, we just really wanted to come back and give you an update, let you know where we're at and let the public know where that money is being spent and how much we've been able to get done in the past year with that program and look forward to continuing that. and I can try to answer any questions or I have a host of professionals behind me that can certainly come up and answer anything else you may have.

Questions over the street update. Council, have we seen the numbers of our index? When how often do they do that? Because I know we agreed.

So, so we uh every year we're going to do that street assessment on the arterials. And surprisingly enough, even after the first year, we thought we'd probably see them level out or decline just a little bit, but the overall street assessment is actually up just a little bit. So, and you're going to see, you know, streets are going to degrade. I mean, they're degrading right now as we sit here in this in this chair, but we're we've seen positive results. We we're looking forward to getting the results of the next one to see if the work that we're doing now uh how it's going to affect that as well. So, it would be glad to uh Allan and I were talking about it this morning uh and Jerry and uh we were we I think we're going to need to compile a report on that as well because I want to see exactly uh how what this impact has been. It's positive and it's exactly what we wanted it to do. You don't want that PCI to start declining when we which really the overall PCI is at a fair to good level across the entire network. Uh but we want to see that all at least at the good level and if we're doing the work in the right places where we're doing the assessment and behind the scenes I don't get to see all the work that goes on between Jackson and Allen and all the crews that are really analyzing what we need to do with the amount of money that we have so that we can raise that PCI and put it in the best places possible. So, I'm curious to see those numbers, especially after this summer.

Good. With the funding and uh the debt instruments that we've been using for this, are y'all because I know there was an issue there for a minute of I mean, sometimes we can you can have too much money and not be able to get the work done. Are we at a good balance right now of of the funding that's coming in and the amount of work that your your team and the crews and the uh contractors can do? I mean, are we at a good spot? I would say that now that we're on track scheduling wise, it's it's it's right in the sweet spot. Um I think when we were behind and we're starting those contracts later in the year, it really puts the contractor at a a detriment and then it also u you know, you're waiting a year before you do it. So there's more degradation that takes place in those streets. So yeah, I think we're in a really good spot the funding. Uh absolutely. And we're able to spend that. I think I think you're going to see this summer, if this answers your question, uh that we're going to get everything done in the contracts in one summer season. That's our hope and I think we're going to see much improvements because of more improvements because of that.

Good deal. Well, we appreciate you and your team. It's we've seen a big in big improvement. I've I've heard from citizens as well that I mean, you know, there's a few cones out there, but they appreciate it and appreciate the roads that are being improved. So,

thank you. I appreciate that. And credit goes to the team. They've done a great job. Other questions, council? So, um, I know the debt issuance is going to come back up and we're going to continue to struggle to to make sure that we understand the timelines and and ladies and gentlemen, it's very difficult when you're FY2324, we talked about it. FY 2425, we put it in FY2526, we funded it, right? Keep keep in mind how that overlaps and so much that goes from one budget to the next and then did we spend it well FY23 24 we budgeted a rate we didn't fund so we came back in 2425 we needed to get the work done but the work doesn't get completed now till 2526 am I lo I mean we're it's so easy to get lost in this right so I want to be very very clear and accurate on how the council is trying to move forward with responsible debt issuances. Um, the other thing that I want to make sure we're talking about is, and this isn't your department necessarily on this topic, but there are things that we've advanced uh the rate for on say a water rate that already cover the debt issuances that are going to be issued later today. So, Mr. Hooper, I know you're not my finance guy, but you do understand like you're managing all this and and you you're tracking this, so you you put a timeline together. Do you want to comment on any of that or are we we following where we need to be on specifically? It's that 11.2 million that you're already getting out.

Yeah. 11.865 that we were actually was in this last uh contract. So, yeah. Well, I I'll say this. um go back to the original reason we had the discussion and that was that our PCI which an acceptable PCI is going to be in around the 72 range. That's your pavement condition index. Not to get a lot of detail about that. You want that to be healthy 72 75 somewhere in there. We were at a point where we knew we were fixing to get into the high 60 range. We were seeing the degradation of those streets. The condition of them was going down. We needed a funding source for that and that was the solution that was provided and agreed to at that time is that this would be a good way to put it on a cycle. It's been so much better for us as a staff to be able to address all of the issues as we see them because now we know hey we know what we can plan for next year because we know the amount that we have to having a budget for that and knowing what we have to plan for we can go in and look at those streets and make some very good calculated decisions. So, it's been very beneficial for uh for us, and I say for us, and that that's not staff, it's beneficial for the citizens that we're getting the repairs done that need to be done. If we have no funding source, then we're not going to be able to make the repairs and do the things that we need to do to keep those streets up. It's just as simple as that. Um, and so, yeah, I it's it's been very positive for us and we've seen a big difference in the way we operate and do business. And I think the other thing that I would say is that council told us early on back then that we we need to run this like a business and that it feels more like a business. It acts more like a business now. And it's just that being able to plan out a year ahead is is always a great way to go for us. So,

well, I've been very appreciative of your willingness to go and grab those CIPs and hold them tight to like you can't create the project until you have the funding. You can't put it out. I mean, there's a lot of design and prelims that go in, but you have a good uh protocol set up now that I think is really going to help us. It's when we look in that rearview mirror that, you know, it's hard for us to to remember exactly what happened. So, um let's see if we can help each other here just a little bit and it's really good for the citizens to hear what you're managing just in the streets department. So, streets department budget in this current year around 15 million, right?

Yeah. For operations of the street department. Correct. included in that 15 million is 2.5 million of your annualized um would would you say that is large street repairs or or what do you what do you

the 2.5 is used for any repairs that we need outside of those uh cos it doesn't get a lot done but we find little areas where we need to do an extra or add that to the tailpiece of another larger project to make it go uh so we've used that in various ways originally set up for us to do a mill and overlay or for chip seal or or whatever we needed to use that 2.5 for. It's a maintenance item. Uh so we've been able to use that effectively in conjunction with the other funds that we've received to do this. So yeah, it's been utilized very well. So you're managing the budget very well and you're getting a lot done. The Dura Patchers are included in that 15 million, right? Correct.

So that's giving a little bit of life longevity. When you see the snow, um that's a great example. snow and rain, everybody drives right next to that concrete curb and they're just hitting that pavement and as it splashes or floats, those are where those big potholes come in.

Yeah. Uh and and and what's been nice about this this last storm is it was revealing for us because we we were really looking forward to an ice event. Not that it was going to damage the street, but be able to get out there and see what we could do right after that. We had the patchers out right after. In fact, I think I received a message from you saying, "Hey, what are the Dur Patchers doing?" Well, we were as soon as the the snow was cleaned off and we were out repairing potholes and we haven't been able to do that in the past except for with cold mix. And if you ever worked with cold mix, it works for a little bit, but but it's not very effective. I think we have seen some really good results with that and we're excited to be able to use those in the colder temperatures without having to wait till spring. So, one thing that you didn't see, um, when you went out there and you looked around, and I didn't drive all the pavement, but I drove plenty of miles. Um, you know what you didn't see? Those Dura Patchers that looked kind of like, I don't know. I mean, they're just throwing some tar down. They put some loose gravel. Everybody's driving across it. And then about a week later, we looked at it and we would we would say, "Well, I'm not real sure where it was." Kind of blended in.

Well, you know what you didn't see? you didn't see the the ice the cold event uh pop every one of those loose. So, the quality of the repair, not only is it timely and you're getting 12,000 plus repairs done, but we didn't see during this event the uhoh, man, that's not really going to hold. And so, I I'm encouraged by that. So, I I think we're going in a good trajectory. We we are making progress. If I had you guess at um you know the the pavement index and and what the cost could be if if we needed to get caught up let's say we wanted to get everything paved in the next five years that's going to need to be paved in the next five years. You want to take a guess at the total cost of what that burden would be?

Oh gosh. Uh no I don't know that several hundred million. Well I mean it's so dependent upon what happens between now and five years but it would be several hundred million. Yes, I I've heard it all the way up to 400 million. I know we couldn't get that much work done in

there was a point in time when we were first discussing this. It's a good point you brought up that that was the number we used was if we were actually going to get the and I would and I'm I'm cautious to use the word caught up. I don't know that any city anywhere ever is going to be caught up because as soon as you put it down, it starts, you know, deteriorating. But I would say that in order for us to get everything repaired and replaced that needed to be repaired and replaced at one point in time, that was our estimate that it would we had the money in hand, $400 million would do it. And so this was a way that we could chip at that uh one piece at a time with best first so we could we could u make make things much

well and and knowing like you you're not going to get caught up, you know, until the rapture, right? We're all get caught up like at that point, you know, we're we're just trying to get a little closer. So, um, with that, if we're getting 10 $12 million worth of, uh, mill and overlay, you know, mill and fill, uh, chip seill, slurry, micro, then we are making gains. The the issue would be, do you have $12 million in your 15 million that you could allocate to that? Absolutely not. Okay. So, I need to come up with $12 million a year cash just to keep that that pace that that you now asked for. When I got elected, the first thing you said was, "We need consistency." We do.

The hardest thing for us is we're having to plan years in advance. And then what we get is we get we have no money and then we get, "Well, we're going to borrow a hundred million." And so, you know, we would go from hot to cold and and you said, you know, if these contractors could get some level of consistency knowing that we're going to do $10 million a year worth of work, we really could run this like a business and start to catch up. Well, you know what is consistent is in understanding the way good debt works. And we do this in a business sense. We do this in our in our homes as well. Um, very few of us, I don't know if anybody goes and buys that $80,000 new pickup truck uh and pays cash. We go and we buy that pickup truck and we make payments on it. So, the philosophy in that is, yeah, I'm paying interest, but I also don't want to part with 80 grand because I might could do more with it somewhere else. So here we don't want to not borrow money that we need to within our budget. And so what you guys may not understand is you you feel like every CO that's being brought out is something you're going to have to pay for next year. That's not true. We took our first year in 2324. We instructed our CFO to build the debt uh the debt issuance rate into our overall budget. And she did. she built it in there is less than a penny, but it would have borrowed all that money. We weren't able to advance that money because we found the 34 million that we still had to spend. So, bond council showed up and said, "Can't loan you the extra 10 at the time. You need to go spend the 34." We said, "Great, we'll go spend it." Well, that rate was in there in the previous year knowing that when we were ready to issue the debt, we had it built into the rate. There's nothing wrong with doing business like that. But when we got into 2425, we had that rate built into the budget.

It's currently in your budget right now. Meaning the monies that he's spending right now, we already voted on. We already built it in the rate. Same way with uh water and sewer. We have a $6 million expenditure going out today for water and sewer. That is already in your rate. We're we're not going to come to you next year and say, "Hey, I've got to raise your water bill because I borrowed $6 million nine months ago." That's not the way that's working now in this 30 million. That's where the change is. And we're now looking into Osage. So, can you tell me a little bit about Osage, like the status of it, because that's been one that I've been wanting to get done, and I know the community at large wants to see that happen.

Sure. So, we have two pieces of that uh item you're talking about. You had the 12 million that would be for for reconstruct or for maintenance items that we've been talking about, but we've also had a reconstruction piece in there as well that we've been talking about. Now, if we really wanted to go out and give you a list of the streets that need to be reconstructed in Amarillo, it'll be more than Osage Street. However, based on the assessment, based on the condition, that's the first one we wanted to pick off the list. That's about an $18 million. Uh, let me think about that. Is that right, Alan? Yeah. Is it 18?

Yeah. It's it's a very expensive rebuild that would go from 34th all the way to 58th. It's a large segment of roadway there that needs to be done. It's it's it's even to the point where uh I wish we would have done it a couple of years ago, but this would be the mechanism to have something in place for us to be able to fund that to go out and repair and replace that street. Otherwise, we do not have the funding to go out and and rebuild that street. That's a very expensive process to go through. We have other streets that we're already working on. Georgia Street is a good example of that. We have another one that's coming up very soon and in fact, we're in plans for that and that would be Culter Street. Back to Osage. It's at 30% design right now. So, we have a good opinion probable cost on that. We know where we sit on that and it's it's almost ready to go out the door uh for bid. We think that if we were able to get the funding for that that the construction would start in 2027 uh on Osage after we get design done. So it's one that we've been looking forward to on our radar uh to get done. It needs to be done and we have to have the funding in order to do it

and that's included in the 30 million that would have been considered but wasn't ready. Correct. So how much time do we have? Because I know that the citizens want to discuss it. They want to see it. They want to get into budget. They want to see us build that into that cost so that that that it, you know, doesn't feel to them like we already raised taxes the 3.5% then we came back and and asked to borrow money. So tell me does, you know, budget discussions will come up honestly May, June, we'll be into a budget workshop into July. When is the best time to to look at borrowing that 16 million to keep 18 million to to keep us on that cycle? We typically would do that in February.

So why would you borrow that in February if it wasn't going to get issued and or I mean like the job led start construction till 27 because I would rather build it into the rate and just not issue the money till later. I'm going to defer to Grayson to answer the part of the 28 part of the 30 two of that is going for the college pit. So I'll set that aside for a minute here. So 28 there 12 of that is for the summer maintenance program. So that that part there is what we're ready to get started on right now. So yeah, the the other part there for construction is uh is yeah, we're in design and uh so the main part there is for the for the maintenance portion of that. So

so the summer maintenance program essentially we're we're just not getting it done, you know, as annualized as we would like because it was kind of the ramp up. The first year we had monies existing that we needed to go pay down. Then we put it in the second year, but we're just now getting to it. So, does it slow anything down if we if we put that 11.2 million, the next 11 to 12 million in the You're not going to issue the debt until after the budget, correct? The the one that was on the agenda for today, right? Yeah. The the summer maintenance program, if we're borrowing it right now, issuing the debt today, payments would not be due for a year. For a year,

you would you would start construction. you would they you would start paying contractors this summer for this fiscal year. That's for this summer maintenance. But as for debt payments, debt payments always happen about six to eight months after you issue the note. And so

so let me let me summarize because I don't want to get too in the weeds, but I really appreciate you being willing to just get over in the weeds a little bit, get off the pavement for a second here and then just look at it. So as an overall eval, uh I'm incredibly encouraged by how well you run that department and and uh also with your team behind you. And so, um, you have a really good plan. You identified one of the best things that I had heard as a business guy and being constructionoriented, you needed consistency. And we just couldn't ask you to go and plan for six, nine months and then turn around and not have any any wherewithal to know what are we going to spend. So the plan to issue debt and build it into a rate, whether that rate in increases the overall tax burden or holds the tax burden within the 3.5%. Depends on a lot of factors. Sales tax being one of them. You know, we are doing really good in the economy and sales tax is up month over month. And so do we want to budget just a debt issuance on sales tax? Probably not. But we're talking about the overall architecture of the organization. So I think you are doing a really good job. I still like the plan. I just think we need to do a better job at me messaging to our citizens how we're building this into a budget so that we're not popping up in February saying, "Hey, we want to, you know, issue 30 million, but we're really not going to pay for it until 27. Oh, and by the way, we're not even going to we're not even going to spend any of that money because we can't get to it until the fall." Now, if you're pulling these jobs forward and you're moving faster than what we think, then I would say that's a good message for us to be able to tell our citizens, we're doing this here because we just sped up. We went from third to fifth gear and and it'll level out as we move forward. The fleet services is a great example of how we built it into the rate in order to be able to buy vehicles annually every year

and it's already built into your rate, but we did that through a CO. Was it an emergency? No. Can we use cos for more than just emergencies, Mr. City Manager? Yes. Okay. And that's legal? Yes. Okay. So, a CO has a lot of different uh opportunities and it can be done in in a healthy and a right way. It's like saying that a credit card is always bad. It's not. You can use a credit card in a healthy way. Um, council, I'm talking through way more than was just necessarily about the streets, but it's it's messaging that we've got to start getting in front of. I might have spurred a little additional conversation. I don't want to cut you off if you got something else.

No, I just I want to remind everyone also that one of the strategies we had was that when you would issue that debt, as it would go through its time frame and roll off, we would be ready to continue that program and moving on. So, as it rolls off, we issue more uh as as it gets to the end of its life cycle. So that was part of the overall.

I really appreciate you bringing that back. So what you're hearing him say is we have debt that as it rolls off, it's built into your rate. So think about the future council that will get to say, "Oh, you mean I don't have to go out and find $15 million for fleet?" No, we built it into your rate. Now the cost increases as inflation go, you're going to have to absorb that. But this is cyclical. It's it's a pay down line of credit that you can read without raising the rate of the taxpayer. So, we got to keep that in mind. Councilman Simpson.

Well, I would say one thing. I just want to make sure. So, when we're funding the city, there's two buckets that property taxes go towards. There's the maintenance and operation side, which is I don't know that pays for today. that that keeps that keeps that that pays for police, fire, basic services, pays the bills and that is capped at 3.5%.

But when we but the other part is the interest and syncing fund that's a separate part and that is when we issue debt and and staff can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but when we issue debt that's paid out of the interest and syncing fund that we get from the property tax. I I think just to be transparent, yes, we are capped on the M side, but we are not capped on the interest and syncing fund. And and really, I mean, I'm not sure what you were meeting by building into a rate, but when we issue a new debt, that's going to raise taxes.

And and so and and the reason why we got to where we are today is because we raised those taxes to pay for those debts. So there's no limit on the interest in syncing fund. So that can go up more and it as I as I recall that rate did go more up more than the 3.5% but it's because we felt that we needed to issue debt but but I think this point in time so I just think we need to be transparent about that that yes if we're issuing debt there's going to have to be it's going to have to be paid from somewhere and it's going to come from taxes and unless debt is rolling off and I don't know when the next time our debt rolls off anytime we approve that it's going to continue to go up but I think what this brings up is really the more pressing issue that I think we need to be transparent about and we all need to be thinking about this because what we are seeing is we're seeing years of of deferred maintenance, decades of deferred maintenance. And when you're looking at saying, okay, what are we going to do? Um, you know, we have several options to do. We can do nothing and continue to do that. We can keep the taxes and fees flat. Uh but that's that's what's been done for decades. And I think that's why we're in the position that we are now and it has consequences. What what are the consequences? We have flooding in paramount when that problem should have been taken care of before that. We have streets that need to be maintained. Even in the last thing we deferred and we deferred pool maintenance and what have we got? We got pools that have all kinds of issues and problems because we never went you know to the maintenance. So the question is, and listen, I I hear when people say, "Boy, you know, we don't want to raise taxes and fees." I don't want to either. We all we all pay them. So the question is, as a council, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to continue to hold back in and in in the last couple of years, we've issued debt to be able to do those things? But we're really here because of

decades of deferred maintenance. Our wastewater treatment plan is failing. Um flooding prevention. And deferred maintenance doesn't necessarily save money. It just delays the bill of and the bill's the bill's going to come due. And so we can sit here and kind of decide because this is going to continue to come up. I I don't know what will happen with the swimming pools if it comes back and we say, "Well, to bring those pools back is 2 million, 4 million, 6 million. I don't know how are we going to pay for that. What are the options, you know, to be able to do that?" So, I guess, you know, just kind of looking at that, you know, I just want to be clear though to to pay for them, you know, to pay for all these needs, you got several options. One is, well, can we do it out of M? Well, not really. I mean, we've committed that Money. We gave record, you know, uh, pay raises to our public safety, which we needed to to do, but that M is capped and we're not going to be able to depend on that to pay for ongoing. We can look at certificates of obligation on these things that you know they do allow us to move faster, avoid rising construction costs. Uh but if I'm not mistaken, they usually they they can have a higher interest rate than maybe a go bond. Uh they don't have to be approved by voters, but there is a clawback that voters can file a petition. And then there's general obligation bonds, which they go to voters. They usually have lower interest rates. Um the downside is time and risk. They take longer. And then what are we looking at? And and this is not only us that's facing it, but other places. Potter County is facing this right now. They've got a jail crisis. They've got to build a new jail. Uh they're trying to determine how to do that. Some people are saying, "Put it to the voters." Great. There's opportunities to do that. Some people are uh saying, "See, if it goes to the voters, there there's things that we want to have and there's things that we need to have. But if it's something if if we can't have a city without streets, if we can't have a water and sewer system, those types of things, you know, how are we going to fund those things if we do put them on a general obligation

bond and send them to the voters? And what if the voters reject them? Then where are we on those things that are nice to have? You know, th those types of things. I I I'm very supportive of sending those nice things to have to the voters. Um, and I would be I think the other thing is we got to think if it's larger amounts of money, do we want to go for a CO or do we go want to go for a go? I don't think the option of just sitting here and continuing to do nothing, you know, is the right option to take. But you've been in three elections, you've been in two ele and I have been in two elections. What was the number one thing everybody talked about? What was what did we say we're going to get this done? It's infrastructure. That's all that's ever what everybody's talking about. So, I think what we're going to have is, you know, streets are not going to fix themselves. Fire check, you know, trucks don't last forever and ignoring these problems don't make it cheaper. Um, but we're in a reality and we can either keep avoiding it. We can say we can do it. We can talk about general obligation bonds. I mean, there's all types of options that are out there that are on the table. But I think it's going to take this to be this mindset and we're going to have as a five of us have to figure out how to solve these problems. We're already facing them with deferred maintenance that has occurred over decades that's continued to be ignored. We can kick it down to the next council and continue to ignore it or we can continue looking at some of what we've done. But I think this is not going to go away. We're not the only city in the state of Texas that is u facing this. But the question is what do we want to do to be able to solve this problem or do we want do we want to continue to let these things uh decay? I I totally agree and I understand where you're coming from on the INS side. Um interest in sinking would be nice if 50 years ago every time they built the building they said, "Well, it's a million dollars, but let's pay, you know, an extra $100,000 for upkeep, you know, into that." We never did that. So, when we when we cashed

anything in the city, any asset, um we left it with no uh no funding for rehabilitation, right? And so because of that, we're sitting in a place where you realize paving costs tripled from the time that you and I voted to pass a hundred million dollar debt 2016. So we got a third of the paving done that we could have if we had just gotten out there and gotten the work done in 2016. And so things are not going to get any cheaper. I want to give you a metric, a one penny on your tax rate. Your tax rate is what? 44 cents right now. Is it 40? A little less. 44 cents. One penny will revenue $18.7 million. Now, that's rough math depending on how long you fund it or or look out and and what it is. But in the general fund, one penny of tax rate increase is 18.7 million according to the the math today. So, I need 6570 cents uh of one or 6570% of one penny to issue the $12 million debt and to do that every year. I feel like it's more communication than anything. You realize we have raised your taxes every year. Nobody ran on lowering taxes. I've never said it. I showed up and I said, "I will raise your taxes, the 3.5% that I get to every year without bringing it to you. I will not come to you and ask you to go vote on a go bond um for maintenance and operations. We will figure out a way to do it within the budget." We did that. And then we only spent the additional money on our two priorities, public safety and infrastructure, right? We cut the budget in several other ways. We we are not falsifying anything. Nobody's ever I don't I shouldn't say nobody. I I don't believe any of us have ever told

you we're going to lower your taxes. I I don't see it. I think we could abolish property tax in the state of Texas first before anybody starts trying to bring anything down. So, it's just a very real honest conversation. We have got to look at this as there's not one solution that's going to solve this problem. There are multiple ways that we're going to figure this out and it's with good business leaders. And so, I've got four of them up here. Uh I'm learning a great deal from them. I appreciate the discussion. I I know we probably need to move on, but you guys have got to hear us say it's not about just advancing a CO because we get to and we're not asking your permission. We are carefully considering how we are building this in an annualized budget. And we'll look forward into next year's budget this year to make sure that if we are pushing COS, one, we're not taking them out early, so we don't ever want to do that again. And two, these guys have what they need to go and do the job efficiently. and we're getting our our money's worth. Council, I I'll stop there and ask if you guys want to add anything before we move on.

Just and I think you hit on the on on the biggest issue, at least what I would see uh from the public. And there's a great line from a movie, what we have here is a failure to communicate. And if we if we wait to communicate to the public what the needs are to keep this city going, not to build extravagant things, but to keep the city going, we wait till a city council meeting um to to have that discussion. We're behind. We're not communicating out to the public what they need to hear so that they're not coming in here thinking that we're adding these huge dollars to their tax bill. They have to be prepared if we want them to agree with what we think is best for the city. Since we're the ones that get to vote on it, we've got to communicate that out to them at an early basis and it has to start at the beginning of the year before we go into the budget cycle so that they have an understanding of why we have to do these things. If we fail to do that, then we haven't done our job as the elected officials. I agree. I know we've got a five o'clock deadline. Can you tell me, Mr. City Manager, Bob, are you are you running this one? I think Okay, I think we want to pull up item 7.2. 2. But but to get to that, is that due at five?

So 7.2 and 7.4 Katrina by 5:00. Let me let me do this. I'm going to go ahead and close the discussion on item 6.1. Mr. Hooper, thank you. Uh I'm going to ask if we have any uh future requested agenda items. Item 62. Hearing none. We're going to move into our non-consent agenda. I'm going to work out of order here to meet a deadline. We're going to go ahead and pull up item 7.2. Miss Katrina Owens.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I appreciate the discussion. That was great. Today, I bring you Ordinance 8235, which authorizes the issuance of the sale of the city of Amarillo, Texas, public property finance contractual obligations, series 2026, or PPFCOs for short. The debt would cover 4.7 for fire apparatus paid for through property taxes. City Council approved the purchase of the fire apparatus on the November 18th council meeting. This locked us in at the price for that fire apparatus and the city was required to make payment to the manufacturer within 60 days. That did take place before the end of the year. Staff also presented information about this debt issuance on the December 9th council meeting. At that time, council approved a resolution to rem reimburse the city for future bond proceeds for the purchase of the fire apparatus. The debt was sold this morning and the funding will come in on March 10th. And we have Jason Mays here if you have want an update on the fire apparatus. And then we have Paul Jason with specialized public finance for the results of the sale. Good afternoon, mayor, council, city staff. Paul Jason with Specialized Public Finance. Uh just wanted to go over the bids we received this morning. Uh very pleased with the results. Uh we hit seven bids. Uh the final interest rate was 3.02%. Uh when we presented in December, uh we were anticipating a higher interest rate. Uh that's a testament to the city's AAA credit rating. uh these PPFCOs had that AAA rating and that's a fixed rate uh for the 13-year maturity. Uh as Katrina Katrina mentioned, if you decide to move forward today uh with this ordinance, the funds will be available uh March 10th

bid uh that came in seven bids. Uh TD Financial Products was the winning bidder. Uh very uh appreciative of all these firms that put in bids. some of these firms uh have bid on your previous bond issues. Um so very pleased with these results. You can tell because of the AAA rating uh strong credit. This was a very tight grouping of of bids between high to low. And then as far as the uh the payments are concerned, the first principal and interest payment will be 215 of 27. Uh that's when the first payment will hit for these PPFCOs. Uh the sources and uses uh it will fund roughly 4.6 uh 6 million of the fire apparatus for the projects and then the financing costs are included in these debt service uh figures. This is the second installment of the program that I know was introduced probably maybe in 24 maybe even before that as a mechanism to fund uh these public safety uh items. Uh very pleased uh with this uh second installment. we're on track to hit our our net debt service target of 2,950 and that was the direction of of council at the time. So unless there's any questions, happy to answer those. But we would recommend that the city of Amarillo award uh 4,515,000 ppfos series 2026 to TD financial products. You know, it's a good point and I want to just reiterate what mayor said before, but like the first payment of this is due February of 27, correct? So, this will be figured in the budget, next year's budget. And I think that that's what mayor was talking about earlier. Uh, and I think that's important for the public to understand is even though this, you know, we go out and uh secure this, the payment is not due until the next budget cycle and therefore it will be considered in that budget. So exactly.

So let me let me make one clarification then we'll get to Councilman Prescott. One penny revenues roughly to like rough math today's rate everything moving along one 1.775 million. That's what it revenues. I had said one penny revenues $18 million. That 1.775 million is debt service at that point. That's the conversion calculation. We're able to go and borrow $18 million then up to that and you guys correct me if my math is wrong. We're just running numbers. So we can borrow on raising the tax rate from 44 cents to 45 cents. We have a borrowing power of 18 plus million dollars. Now that comes at a debt service of 1.775. So I I I stated that in context but didn't specify it. So want to make sure we're saying that rightly. Councilman,

I move to adopt uh ordinance number 8235 as presented in the agenda. Second motion and a second from place four. Any discussion on item 7.2? All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Miss Katrina, will you take us to item 7.4?

Yes. So, ordinance 8237 which authorizes the issue of the sale of city of Emerald, Texas water sewer revenue bonds. The debt would cover 6 million for a water main extension. The rates were in place as of October 1st, 2024. Uh but we're not we were not ready to issue the debt until now. We locked in the rates on October 1st by creating a new tier for commercial users over 10,000 gallons per month at a rate of $4.15. Staff also presented this item to you at the December 9th meeting in which time council approved a resolution to publish notice of the intent to to issue cos in the December 15th and December 22nd newspapers as well as the city website. I don't know if you want an update from Donnie on the water main and then we'll have the results by J Paul Jason

council. If we need an update we can get one. Otherwise we uh we can move along to Paul. Nope. Okay, Mr. Jason.

Thank you. We had a busy morning. Uh this was uh our second uh uh bond issue that we bid. Katrina was obviously part of that. Watch that. But this is for the water sewer project um that we mentioned also received seven bids. Um the winning bid was RW Baird. The rate was 4.22%. The reason it was higher rate, it was a 30-year term where the PPFCOs were a 13-year term. Um as far as the rate we showed council in December, we estimated a rate of 4.7%. Final rate was 4.22. That saves roughly $370,000 of the life of the project. Um, as far as the credit rating, these bonds were rated double A plus. Very strong credit rating, uh, testament again to the city. Uh, this credit rating also took into account the updated CIP, uh, for the city. Uh, so that rating was maintained and also on a stable outlook. Uh, the closing is anticipated March 10th. That's when proceeds uh, will be available to the city. RW Barrett, again, the winning bid 4.22. This is a fixed rate uh for the life of this 30-year issue. Uh it's callable in roughly 10 years. You could prepay or refinance. Again, we appreciate all the bids by these firms. A number of these firms have supported the Amarillo's uh debt issues in the past. Again, this is the debt structure. This is just a level debt service structure for 30 years to illustrate that. Uh the first payment here uh is going to be October 1st, 2026. Uh typically we like to have water sewer payments due after your summer uh revenue season. So that's why this first payment is due October 1st of of 26. And then sources and uses will generate roughly 6 million in proceeds. Uh investors uh the winning bidder bid a premium uh that covers the cost of

issuance of roughly 87,000. Uh so 6 million will be available for the city uh at closing. Then we would recommend the city award 5,945,000 waterworks and sewer system revenue bonds uh series 26 to Robert W. Baird and we're happy to answer any questions. Also Bob Dansfield's here as your bond attorney if you have any legal questions. So thank you sir. Thank you. Questions?

Okay. Um, I would only say this is one of the uh only times I can remember that that we as a city have put in water and sewer based off of a revenue bond like this that reaches out to benefit an entire community for future development. And so we get some push back that um you know southside ever Amarillo is getting you know all infrastructure north side of EM of Amarillo is paying for it. you know, this is going on the north side of town. It'll provide close to 1,500 houses just to one location that needed this. There's another uh development that's thousand or more homes. There's all sorts of commercial. Did you have anything, Mr. Hoover?

I might mention that this this project is actually in our 2021 master plan. uh for system improvements for water distribution is really the main reason for this and that's to resolve some pressure issues that that issues that are in that pressure plane and it's also to continue to loop an area a large area that is that is unlooped now now it will provide the opportunity for development in there but the original intent of this was for system upgrades that are needed in that area where we've seen growth to the north I appreciate that and I I just want to talk about the rateayer so we're all rateayers because we're paying that water bill. We act like we're the last ones that are ever going to come along. You realize every time we build a home and every time they put in another business, that's a new rateayer that pays into your system because you've got water lines that are over 50 years old that need to be uh replaced. How do we get to replacing more of those water lines before we just go repair main brakes? We grow. We add housing. We add development. We grow and we stimulate economy. That continues to pay into the system. How do we not get to that? We die. We stop growing. We tell people we don't want them to move here. We don't like business. We become unfriendly. So, we are on a really good plan, but it is a master plan, right? And and it calculates an ROI that we've got to get. Um, this rate was built in back in 2425. So, we've all already known about this. This is a revenue bond, not a CO. They're a little different, but they they're functioning the right way. And so really appreciate the staff and pushing this forward. We're going to get this done by 5:00 here. Uh council, any further questions?

I move to adopt ordinance number 8237 as presented. Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion on 7.4. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Mayor, before we go to the next item, just a reminder, I I the chief was the fire chief was here, but he got his bunny and ran out the door. Uh ju just as a reminder, maybe Andrew, you know this on that on that, what did we what how many ladders? How many engines? What was the money that we were doing for the fire department? What was that going for? 4 million, I think, was for a few engines. No ladders this time around. That was last year's. Okay. Yes, sir.

And then we committed at a time to do those. We're now issuing the debt. And I guess we got in, as I recall, we had a certain deadline to meet to get the lowest cost on that. We did. That's why y'all went ahead and took action at the end of last year to lock in the pricing, which was going to go up if we didn't uh proceed accordingly. Yeah. And then the delivery on this is still they're still couple years couple years out. So, this is long-term planning. As I recall, we kind of had a whole presentation about the aging fleet and where we are on those. And these are just some things that we're going to have to replace at at some point. And similar to the streets, it's really a 10 to 13 year plan to get the cycle going and then eventually you're just rotating the debt to just keep replacing engines. Yes, sir. Good. Thank you.

Can I get a quick clarification? Who was the second on that motion? Place one. Okay. Thank you. Motion from two, second from one. Anything uh else that we need on 7.4, council? Okay, we're going to drop back to 7.1. Who do I have that'll bring this item forward? Is that Brady? All right, mayor. Did y'all have any future agenda items? No, we did not. We We asked and didn't have any. So, thank you. Um Paul, Bob, appreciate you guys being here. Travel safe. Yeah.

Afternoon, Brady. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. So, this is item 7.1. This is the second reading of ordinance 8234. Um this is the consider the reszoning of the 6.73 acre portion of lot 48 block one southside acres unit 25 from general retail to general retail with that specific use permit 208 for on premise primary use alcohol sales and service by indoor sports facility only. Uh since the vote at the last meeting was uh 32 and uh not unanimous, it has to be on the non-consent today for its second reading. So I don't have any any nothing's really changed since the last meeting. So I'll take any questions you may have on it at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Kendrick. Questions, council. Yeah, I I have one question. Um based on what Mr. Ford uh was Mr. Ford or Mr. Fischer? Mr. Fischer gave us this. It says 1,000 ft within a public school um which also includes now a daycare center. But it also says in there that the governing body of that private school or district um has to request it. Are you are you familiar with what this is?

So that so my side of things is the land use and zoning side of things. When it comes to TABC regulations, that's not really planning function other than looking at if a property is zoned appropriately. So, I wouldn't wouldn't really be able to speak to that part of this because this is ultimately a zoning case. This item is Mr. Baldin, will you want to weigh in on that or maybe if we can hit Mrs. Coggins?

I I I can really what Brady is saying is correct. Whenever it comes to the zoning piece, this is strictly a land use piece of it. the TABC regulations on it as well were is is not really a piece of what you're considering today. Now, I did read through some of this as well, whatever it's been brought up. It does appear that there's different rules, a 300 foot rule and a 1000 foot rule. It appears that the 1000 foot rule from public or private schools has to be requested from the school districts or the school itself. The 300 um basically the section that he's doing 109.33 seems to be It's a It's a may. So, the city may adopt these regulations to enforce the distances. What you have adopted, um Stephanie probably knows a little bit better on that than I do on on what exactly you've adopted on the distances, but

So, go ahead.

On the distances, council council member Reid, um and and what Mr. Fischer handed out section 109331 says that those provisions um from schools can also be used on daycarees. And I'm going to look at Brian. So I'm not an attorney. Keep in mind if I if I go out of the the lanes I'm going to have him stop me. But 109.33 says that the governing body, like you said, may elect some sort of regulations. And so that carries over to the daycarees as well because we're a city that's permissive. We could actually do less than um and so it is in our code and we adopted the 300 ft to schools and to churches. So if a school wanted us to go to a thousand then they would bring that forward and and the council at the time would consider that and if if they chose to then they would adopt that into ordinance. So, I guess the only qu and you may not be able to answer this. When the original um application was put in for the the permit, um the daycare didn't exist out there, did it?

It existed. It did exist. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any further questions for anyone in here? No. would entertain a motion on item 71. I move to adopt ordinance number 8234 as presented in the agenda. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this guy. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose? Nay. Nay.

Nay. Motion passes with a 3-2 vote. Okay, we're going to move on to item 7.3. We have the consideration of an ordinance here and I would ask our city attorney more appropriate to take no action on this one since it was noticed or would you rather us uh table this for future?

It's completely up to you mayor. Okay. You can just take no action though. That's what you've done in the past. Okay. Um council if anybody would like to make a motion feel free. Otherwise, we'll take no action on 73. Okay, we'll take no action on 73. We have accomplished 72 74 already. We have a few uh considerations here that we'll run through. They're all similar. So, would ask uh Mr. Brassfield, are you running this one? If you'll bring up item 7.5 and then um I guess stay up there because you're six, seven, and eight, sir.

Yes, sir. So, um, to try to run this as efficiently as possible, talk a little bit briefly at the beginning of this about the history. Uh, we did just talk about this two weeks ago with the, uh, Mirror Street Lofts project. Uh, but we'll discuss each one, pause, give the the council time to deliberate and take action before we move on to the next one. So, as a refresher, the housing tax program is administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. It directs that private capital toward development and preservation of affordable rental housing for low-income households. The tax credits are awarded to eligible participants to offset a portion of federal tax liability, and there's two types offered, uh, competitive 9% and the non-competitive 4%. The housing tax program was designed to provide a source of equity financing to maximize the number of affordable units in the state's housing supply and it ensures the supply is wellmaintained and operated. It also prevents uh losses to the state's supply of affordable housing and the resolutions uh being requested from you uh assist the applicants with points on their application. So the first project uh being presented today is the Emerald Lofts project. This uh the the applicant is Emerald Lofts LP, a division of Ghani Capital. This project is proposed to be located behind the Lowe's up there in the vicinity of Southwest 9th and Bell Street near Emerald Colleg's West Campus. The project uh is proposed to invest 21 million to construct no less than 85 work workforce units. They are proposing to charge rent in the neighborhood of a,000 to,300 a month with the majority of those being at 60% AMI. The complex would include a fitness center, community kitchen, and activity room.

This project is proposed to stay on the tax rose and the applicant is seeking 9% or the 9% competitive tax credits. U Emerald Loft's LP's request is for a resolution of support and in that resolution it also commits the city to a $500 waiver of development fees. And it's worth noting that that is the only city funds tied to this request or any of the other ones been presented. If awarded, the tax credits and the funds would come from the state.

Questions for Mr. Brassfield? Gentlemen? Always worth repeating, there's no local incentive on this one or the other items. These are requests that are made that we're glad to assist in and if they qualify, they'll be granted those uh incentives from the state. That is correct. Great. Would entertain a motion on 7.5. I move to adopt resolution number 02-10-26-1 is presented. Second motion and a second from place one. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item 7.6, sir.

Okay. So, resolution 21026-2 is for 7411 Tuskanyany Parkway. It's the Tuskanyany Point Apartments. This project is proposed to be in the vicinity of Southwest 45th and South Coulter would be built back behind the Blue Sky and Teddy Jacks restaurants that are in that area. They're proposing to invest 21 million to construct around 73 workforce units. Rents would be anywhere from 5 to,200 again majority of these being 60% AMI. Complex would include a dog park, coffee bar and picnic barbecue areas. year pool.

The project is proposed to stay on the tax roles and again they're also seeking the 9% competitive tax rates. The applicant on this one is the uh Tuskanyany Point Apartments LP which is a division of the Elizabeth Property Group. Again, the request is for a resolution of support committing us to $500 in development fee waiverss and if awarded tax credits and funds would come from the state. Any questions for Mr. Brassville? We'll entertain a motion on 76. I'd move to adopt resolution uh 0210262 as presented. Second, I

have a motion and a second on item 7.6. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes. Item 77, sir.

Okay. So, Tova's Terrace 2 project. Uh this may ring a little bit of a bell because last year this council awarded Tokovas Terrace a project. So this is a continuation of it's going to be located uh in at about 1800 Southeast 28th in the Bario neighborhood uh bariohood bario neighborhood association uh is is in support of this. But they're proposing to invest about 18.6 million for no less than 60 workforce units. Rents going to be between 465 and 1085. Complex again would include a secure uh package room, barbecue grills, community laundry. And one thing that's worth noting on this one, because of the Tokovas Terrace project that was approved last year, the Tokovas Terrace 2 project pushes this census track to having a greater than 20% housing tax credit units per household. It's just something that needs to be noted in in this particular resolution. and wanted the council to be aware, but the project is proposed to stay on the tax roles and again they're they're asking or seeking the 9% competitive tax credits. Uh had this project been a rehabilitation project and not a new construction project, the resolution would not have had to include the the uh 20% housing tax credit units notice in it. But again, just wash, rinse, repeat to the other two I've already presented.

Really good, sir. questions on 77 would entertain a motion. I move to adopt uh resolution 0210264 as presented. Can I get you to amend that? I'm sorry. 02 10263. Second. Yes, sir. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this one? All in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? Motion passes with a 50 vote. Before we jump on 7.8, I would take just a minute to point out there's a lady in the back named Teresa Kennedy. She's been one of the hardest working people that I've gotten to know over the past almost five years. When I met her, she was underneath the underpass on 10th uh working some guy a little harder than than I think he might have wanted to with a pressure washer. and she was cleaning up graffiti and gum and all sorts of things. And so the Bario neighborhood is grateful for leadership like you and your neighborhood association's done fantastic things with just very little. And so Tentth Street and the updates and all of that and I know the planning department works very well with you guys because you you get out there and get the work done. So congratulations on on uh all the growth we've seen over there and thank you for what you do for the city of Amarillo, ma'am. All right, Drew. 7.8.

Okay, last one. Also another feather in the bario's cap potentially. This project is Troveta Terrace would be in the vicinity of Southeast 34th in Ross. Uh project is proposed to invest around 21.4 million for no less than 60 workforce units. Again, rents going to be between 460 and 1295. Uh project would stay on the tax rows and they are also seeking 9% competitive tax credits with this project. Pretty short and sweet. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Brassfield? Would ask for a motion. I move to adopt resolution 02-10-26-4 is presented.

Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes. Gentlemen, I'll ask for one more motion unless anybody's got a comment. I'd move that we adjourn. Second. Motion and a second. You're adjourned. Thank you guys for being here.