City Council - Regular Meeting

Just talking about today. I don't know that much. a little bit.

I'm not going to say what I'm calling I'm basically breaking news and they like you know not everyone Whatever. later

us here. It's a little after 3:00. We're going to kick off our business meeting um on the 24th of February. Officially go ahead and call ourselves into session by recognizing a quorum. Um I'm going to lead us into our ceremonial items. We have uh Pastor Trevor Brown. Um, if Trevor wouldn't mind coming up, you guys stand as he leads us in the invocation and then stay standing for the pledges, please. You can bow with me as we pray. God, we pause today just to be reminded of what a gift you've given us in this life and in this day and that each day is a gift from you. We pray that you'd give us the wisdom and the discernment that we need to be good and faithful stewards of this gift that you've given us in the way that we live our lives with one another and in honor to you. We pray that you would bless uh this meeting. We pray your blessing over our time. We ask that you would lead us and guide us in all that we do in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible to one state. You may have noticed that is a little quieter in here today. Um, Councilman Prescott was not able to join us here. Uh, he sends his best regards. He'll make the next meeting. So, I've asked Councilman Simpson to slide over here and uh, kind of protect my left side at flank. So, um, if you notice he starts feeling left out or alone, just let me know and we'll bring him a little

closer. So, um, we're officially called to order. Uh, would ask if we have any announcements. No. Okay. Um, we are going to go ahead and move into our public comment period. I believe I have two people that have signed up for public comment. If you know you're here today and you have something you would like to address the city council on, please go ahead and come over here to see our city secretary. She'll get your name and your information so we can keep a good public record. We greatly appreciate you guys doing that. Um, and then we'll get through public comment. Miss city secretary, if you don't mind reading us into that.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you for participating in today's city council meeting. Your input and your opinions are important to us and we're glad you're here to share them. At each posted meeting, we invite our fellow community members to address city council regarding posted agenda items or topics related to city policy. During any public comment and public hearing periods, each speaker will have three minutes to address the council. At the end of two and a half minutes, you'll hear a warning beep letting you know you have 30 seconds to wrap up your comments. We um excuse me, if you're here to speak on an item with a public hearing, we would ask that you make your comment either during the public hearing or during the public comment section, but not both. In order to help us keep accurate records, it's your decision at which point you would like to speak. We will utilize both podiums today. So when we call your name, please make your way up to the empty podium. Upon your turn, please state your name, whether or not you live within Amarila city limits, and then you may begin your comments to council. If you are speaking to an item not on today's agenda, the Texas Open Meetings Act limits how elected officials may respond. Council may respond with statements of fact. They may ask that the topic be added to a future agenda or they may refer the topic to the city manager who can have staff step out and visit with you regarding your topic. If you are here to speak today and you have not signed up yet, please come see me now to fill out a form so we can add you to the list and call you to speak. At this time, I will invite up Tim Benson and after Mr. Benson Allen Fineold will be next. Hey guys, how y'all doing? 10 minutes in umbrella. I was just uh uh gonna ask again. I know they I've heard they've been working on the conflict of interest agreement. Uh I will tell you I've been to numerous board meetings myself and I've witnessed it firsthand where some board members are voting on stuff that

they're connected to and that's a gray area. I think that that needs to really be looked at and I I would appreciate if you guys would would really look at that situation and uh stop the gray area. You know, that's what I'm asking for. So, thanks for your time.

Next is Alan Fineold and after Mr. Fineold will be Mike Fiser. Alan Fineold. I live in the city limits. There was an excellent article in the February 15th edition of the Globe News. I'm going to read a few excerpts from it. The uh author is Michael Kiello. a winddriven grass fire that burned about 60 acres near Amarila Boulevard and North U Street, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service damaged two structures and forced evacuations Monday afternoon. I'm going to uh skip some of the paragraphs. Ammerila Fire Chief Jason May said crews initially believed that they were gaining control before debris ignited and shifting winds fueled a second surge. We had a moment where we felt good about what we had, May said. But when those heavy fuel sources caught, especially old tires and debris, it sparked a second round. With winds like that, once you get open flame, it's going to move quickly. The fire was managed under unified command between the Emerllo Fire Department and the Texas&M Forest Service with additional resources deployed through the Texas Interrastate Fire Mutual Aid System known as TIFF Mass. I'm not going to give you the complete article. I think most of you are quite familiar with what happened. I have a question for the city manager or whoever is best qualified to answer it. What plans does the city have to prevent such an event from happening in the future, especially in the land around Wild Horse Lake? Thanks.

Mike Fischer, you may begin.

All right. My name's Mike Fiser. I live in the city limits of Airone. I talked to Chief our what is the assistant chief now? uh Jimmy Johnson. I talked to him and he kind of talked me off off the ledge here about the BMW bikes. Um but I do ask, you know, is it a toy? Is it something that that the guys really like because it's fun and they go out and do the contest on the BMW bikes. Is it did we have accidents before and now we're not having accidents? And we we have to draw the line between fiscal responsibility and economic responsibility. I mean, we're guaranteeing that not a probably a single penny is going to be spent in Amarillo when we buy bikes from a dealership in Amarillo or in Dallas. From the service to the profits to the to the profits of the c the company. I mean, the the profits are probably going to some of it's going to end up in in Germany. And that's all I have to say about that. Jimmy's kind of talked me down on that. It sounds like it's a good deal. Sounds like they're good. They're uh good bikes. And and uh Jimmy says I believe him and I think he's an honorable guy, so I'm going to take his word for it. Um I have something to talk about in your line of work, Cole. And it's in your favor. It's in your industry's favor. I'm going save that for last. See if you cut me off. Uh, a couple of weeks ago, Katrina Owens, from what I understand, she's our interimm uh, financial person. A couple of weeks ago, we're making our rounds to all the boards and now it really starts coming together after we go to all the board meetings. And we were talking about conflict of interest at the TIE One meeting and Katrina chimed in and when I call the conflict with um a person that's on the board that works currently works for CMS, the the audit

company or the financial company that audits or has audited the city, the AEDC. I think I've seen them at at the uh ASD meetings. and she chimed in and and said, "Well, they they don't have contracts with the city anymore." And I I still feel like that's a conflict. I still feel like like at any moment if we have a um if we have a forensic audit like they're about to reveal tonight at Emerald College, then they're one phone call away from being hired or could be hired. And I think that their knowledge of our of our finances creates a little bit of conflict. It just doesn't feel right. So I think that something should be looked into regarding uh the CMMS business and the former employees and current employees. Now on to yours. Um I still think that the city should consider paying for infrastructure for construction. I think that uh and and I me and Cole are at odds right now. So I'm not we didn't meet and talk about this, but I feel like basic economics tells you that when you turn a a a piece of property that's making no taxes into making a lot of taxes that the city should be able to carry that debt to to pay for the infrastructure. So thank you.

I appreciate your comments, sir. Thank you for being here. Mayor, that concludes everyone that signed up today. Real good. We always appreciate uh public comment and the way that you, ladies and gentlemen, handle yourselves, the decorum and respect that gets shown. So, uh, efficient so far today. Um, we'll take just a pause, see if I have anybody else here who'd like to offer public comment. Yes, sir. If you don't mind coming forward and then after you give your public comment, if you can fill out the piece of paper for us. Good afternoon,

John. Dear, I just wanted to talk a little bit on the motorcycles and I wanted to remind everyone that in 2016, we got a fleet of motorcycles from Harley-Davidson for free and now we're buying them in Dallas, buying BMWs in Dallas. And the main issue I have with that is everyone up here ran saying that they support small business. We could have bought Honda makes a police motorcycle. Kawasaki makes a police motorcycle. We have two dealerships here in town that sell both of those bikes. We could have kept all that money here and kept the maintenance responsibility and everything local and right here, but we're going to Dallas instead. It's kind of ridiculous if you ask me. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Adair. Um, do I have anyone else here who'd like to offer public comment? Okay, seeing no one, we'll go ahead and close that section. Um, that moves us into our consent agenda. Uh, council, do you have anything that you'd like brought off or further discussed on the consent agenda? I'd like [clears throat] there's been some public comment but also some other I want to pull 15 just to okay bring some truth to the reason why that these BMW bikes are chosen as to what was out there.

We will pull item 4.15 for further discussion. Do I have anything else that anybody would like? Yes, mayor. Um 19 on the consent. I'm not sure we have to pull it. Um, I just would like to ask a question on 19. Um, because I believe as the second reading, the initial one when it was read, we asked that the uh that they go out and get bids, additional bids. Is that correct? So, I'm not sure that that one was ready in time and I don't know that that's the actual second reading.

Yeah. Yes. So, this item has not been brought to you yet, but but but yes, the behind this one here, we had planned to have the last council, but we had not pulled multiple cooperative purchases. We've done that now. And so, we've pulled three, I think minimum three cooperative purchases. Those have all been reviewed. And now, this one is still the best best offer, best bid for the city. Okay. And that was my question whether or not of those three still was in line. Yeah, this is still the best one of the three. Yes. So, it it was brought to you. I believe you were made aware of it, but it wasn't placed on the agenda uh because it wasn't ready and we wanted to make sure they had done their homework and that everything had been procured correctly. So, um we'll leave 419 on councilman as long as you're good.

Okay. Anything else you guys need discussion on? Would ask for a motion um regarding the consent agenda less item 4.15. I move to approve the consent agenda minus what number was that? 4.19. 4.19. No, 4.15. My bad. Yep. Okay, we got a motion. Second. Have a motion and a second for the consent agenda less item 4.15. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed?

Motion passes. Let's go to 4.15. I'll ask the city manager if he wants to bring up uh police chief. Yeah. Yes. I'm gonna turn this over to Andrew and Tom and maybe Alam as well. Afternoon, Chief.

Afternoon, mayor, council. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Uh first and foremost, uh while I don't understand necessarily the purchasing process that happened before I got here, I can tell you from my experience on the BMW motorcycle itself. When I started off my career uh back in 2001, I was a motorcycle officer for about three and a half years. And in that time, we too tested the BMW motorcycle compared to the Harley for a very short period of time. At that time, BMWs were way too expensive, right? The parts weren't available. Uh the process in which to procure those were were so much different than it is today. But even at that point, it outperformed the Harley in many different ways. Uh and then fast forward as an assistant chief over the Irving Police Department, having the opportunity to look into this exact uh this exact scenario, there's two different things that happened. One is you have the test that happened out of Michigan, right? That was in 2020. There's also another test that happened in California. Same thing through the Los Angeles uh county sheriff's department. They tested a group of motorcycles and a variety of different reasons and and procedures on which they did it. And both came up with the same conclusion is the BMW 1250 at the time well outperformed every one of the other motorcycles. uh one in the speed uh and acceleration rate, two in the braking uh as well as the handling itself. And so we in Irving did the same thing. We we bought two motorcycles that tested against exactly that of what the Harley was. We had some challenges. One is the fuel is different, right? The Harley-Davidson requires a 91 U fuel rating, uh which can drastically affect the motorcycle if you go under. So there's a cost associated with that. The BMW, however, can accept up to 85 and still perform how it's supposed to. We also looked at the braking and acceleration and handling, and it well outperformed uh the Harley. If you look at acceleration, right, one of the biggest things that we have to do in the

motorcycle world is when you're doing the chase downs, right? Highway speeds, 70, 80, 90 miles an hour. If the officer's at a standstill, he's got to overcome that speed, right? The BMW outperforms that. It can reach a speed up to about 100 miles an hour and about 800 feet. If you did the same speed for Harley, it's almost 1,800 feet. So, you can see the goal is to have that speed less time at that high rate of speed. So, you can overcome the vehicle in a shorter period of time. Also, braking some of the distances are almost by half uh the braking distance when you start reaching speeds of 60 and 70 mph. So, it's a safer motorcycle. the technology that's based upon these motorcycles too about how it adjusts the weight uh for the rider, right? There's a linked braking between the front and the back. So, the stopping distance is even more increased because those braking is linked. It's also there's technology that pushes the forks when the officer's weight is traveling forward. Those forks will extend in the front to push that weight to the back so it's even braking and and they can be more effective when it has to come to emergency procedures. the weight of the of the BMW compared to the Harley is almost 400 pounds difference. Um, so longevity for the rider, longevity for time on that motorcycle and the comfort also goes into how that that bic that bike is heated and cooled with a liquid and air cooled. Uh, and then you go to the overall riding performance. The angle of which the officer's on. It's slightly different than the Harley, but that motorcycle was specifically built for the rider in those types of conditions. So regardless of the cost, you can see it outperforms a multitude of different reasons why it happens. And I can tell you here locally, if I understand correctly, while we may be purchasing the motorcycle in Dallas, it is going to be serviced here locally. Uh so all of those factors come into it, um as far as the overall purchase, and I'll stop here and uh let let the other folks

talk about the actual purchase or procurement process.

Chief, thank you for that. I appreciate that, John. I hope you're paying attention. I mean, this was your issue. Um, a lot of good facts here. You know, it's safer, it's faster, less maintenance, uh, costs less, longevity, weight, comfort for the rider. At some point, you know, you pointed out that we're all small business. We're all for small business. I'm also for free market capitalism. So, when there's a better product, that's what you go for. And that's what'll generate hopefully the push for Harley to get better. Now, I'm not knocking Harley. I think they're a great bike. Indian, Harley, everybody else. But that's going to push them to get better would be would be my hope. But when when there's this many things that are positive about this bike, it's not about us going foreign. It's not about us doing, you know, just leaving Harley or anything like that. It's about choosing the best bike for the situation. So, I mean, I hope I hope that you heard all that. I mean, we can talk about procurement as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And the only thing I really can add, chief touched on it very well, is that uh preventive maintenance and services being performed here in town by Lonear Powersports uh on on East I40. Uh we had our first unit put on the streets in July of last year and to date we haven't had to send any uh units down to Dallas either for maintenance or service. That's really all I can add. He did a great job. So I would ask on the procurement side um open bid process. So Honda, Kawasaki, Indian, any of them could have bid. They chose not to. They don't they don't build that type of bike. They didn't meet the criteria. Anybody want to speak to that?

Well, Allan probably knows the details of the contract, but no, this was we knew which bike we wanted, so we went and looked for a co-op that would allow us to to purchase it the most efficient way possible. Yeah. The only difference it it was an interlocal agreement with the city of Fort Worth. They had put out a bid uh previously for police motorcycles. BMW did win that bid. Uh, and so through an interlocal agreement, we were able to to basically piggyback on that contract to purchase these units.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Further questions from council on this item? Okay. I I'll wrap up by saying I know we went through this already. It it it's not a new thing. So, we we purchased I think half of the needed fleet of motorcycles 6 months ago or so. We we've been driving them. Um, we couldn't get them all at one time. So this is the second goround. So I I really enjoy continuing to listen of I won't call it criticism. I'll just say being critical of looking at the process and making sure we're doing our job. I hope you uh you guys that that are listening and paying attention as taxpayers see we are listening and and the great thing here is we're listening to our experts that ride those motorcycles daily and have their life on the line out there at high speeds. And so we took the advice um and the guidance from our local leadership out of the APD that said this is what we want and then we as council came together and we moved budgetary numbers around to make it happen and that's our job. And so uh highquality services core services delivered uh as a priority is what we're still leaning into. And I think that goes very much into exactly what you learn as a small business person. Um, you got to have your priorities and you got to stick to them. So, um, thank you for giving us an opportunity to speak to that. Thank you for your questions. Would ask if council doesn't have anything further, we could move along with item 4.19.

I move to approve item 4.15 for the purchase of the BMW police motorcycles as presented. Okay. I have a motion and a second. I'll clarify. Uh, your motion was for 4.19. 4.15. Okay. 4.15. I had it wrong. So, got a motion and a second to approve item 4.15. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes with a 40 vote. Can I get a clarification? Who was the second? Uh, place two.

Okay, we'll move into um a couple discussion items. And so before we get into um discussion item 5.1, do I have any future agenda items requested by the city council? No. Okay. Um item 5.2 is a presentation on our animal management welfare department. Um we'd like to report some statistics and also uh give an update on some initiatives. Mr. city manager. Um, if you can walk us into this one.

Yes, sir. Happy to. So, we have Victoria Medley, our our director, uh, coming to present to you all some historical trends we've had the last several years. And so, I'm turn over to Victoria.

And Mr. Victoria, before you get going there, um, I just I didn't know if anybody on council had anything that you guys wanted to to lead in with or or I know you sit on the board and have volunteered over there. Well, I did want to say because I I asked if if this information could be uh put together uh on some uh I think some um some information that I think uh the council will be pleased with and proud of of what uh the city has accomplished when we're dealing with the the issues of animal welfare uh management, which is obviously I've I've served on the u uh on the board uh since I took office and uh uh 2023 and a lot of attention and resources and support by this council has been uh paid to this. It's a very important issue not only for obviously we want to take care of animals the best way that we can in our community but it's also a public safety issue for uh uh neighborhoods in our community where uh a lack of people keeping control of their animals has really become a real public safety issue. Uh over the last couple years uh there have been a lot of uh various um methods and and strategies some you know which we have uh kind of approved to fund some of which have been uh developed by our uh our staff and uh I think we need to uh we need to celebrate wins every now and then and I think some of the numbers that you see today will be some wins uh of uh in several different areas not only of you know doing a better job with taking care of animals uh getting them back to owners uh but also saving taxpayers an immense amount of money with several things that they they were doing. So, I just felt uh this was something that I think the council would want to get an update on and uh hopefully you'll be pleased with the work that's been done uh by our animal welfare management department. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Afternoon, Miss Medley. Hello. How are you guys? Good. Thank you.

Okay. Well, let's start off. Well, really, it's going to be short, but I think uh Councilman Simpson was correct as the staff out there's been doing a lot of stuff. I think it's time for you guys, too, to see the investments that have been going on. I know that originally when I was temporarily assigned to this position, um it was real uh clear that it was going to take a while. It wasn't going to be instantaneous. It took us 45 years to get where we were. And so now we're starting to see that chip turn a little bit. So I'm really proud of the staff out there. Um so really want to talk about the community focus and what we've been doing. Um our vaccination and microchip clinics have been outstanding in the last three years. That's something we've leaned really hard in. We've worked with national partners and local partners on getting donations on microchips and vaccinations. Um, and I don't think a lot of people really understand the importance of that and why we you guys are going to see in the data what that effect is finally looking at like what it really looks like. So, when you're talking about microchipping, you know, that pet re reunification, it helps get pets home. It keeps them out of the shelter. Uh, the health protection when we're doing vaccinations, it helps um vac those vaccination rates have gone up. It has reduced the speed of preventable diseases in our community. I think one thing too that we seldom don't think about is a lot of our citizens maybe didn't have the knowledge or the the money to be able to do that. Um, one of the top violations that are filed in municipal court is uh failure to vaccinate and wear tags. So when we are able to educate our community and we're able to give them that, then that makes them in compliance with our ordinance and that's what we really want. Um so we have seen a great increase in that um where people are obeying the law and the ordinance and it makes for a better

quality of life and a healthier healthier community. Um it also when we're talking about keeping animals out of the shelter, it puts a less strain on our staff. Um it helps us focus on resources on the animals with the greatest needs to where back in the day it was just a revolving door. or anybody at any time could just drop off an animal. Um we also have seen with our vaccination, our microchipping and some of the um new uh approaches that we've taken from managed intake and such is that it has strengthened that community compliance. Like I said, it also makes helps them become responsible pet owners and that is what has been one of the biggest issues Amarillo has faced in the past. So you'll see here, this one is remarkable. Um, I know those numbers don't look huge to a lot of people, but when you look at it from 2023 to 2025, you'll see that huge increase in animals that were returned to their owner, that directly correlates with the start of our free microchipping. And so when we're talking about 1,300 animals that did not come into the shelter or didn't stay very long because they had a microchip, that's huge. Um we also look at infield where they're not even our officers are not taken out. They're able to take calls because they are able to right there microchip them and get that animal home. So just the in uh when you look at those numbers too, they don't look like big numbers, but when you're talking 60 to 70 calls a day um and we're starting to see those numbers come down a little bit, then it has a great um impact on us. It has a great impact on the community um and quality of life when we're talking about animals getting out because sometimes it's just a case of you're not a bad pet

owner, your animal just got out. wins. Oh my goodness, you can only imagine. So, I think that's a a really impressive uh stat. Our officers have done a really good job and through donations we've been able to where our officers actually will catch an animal, find out where it's from, and say right on the spot, hey, can I microchip it for you right there? And that's huge. That's a a great community outreach. So, animal intake. Um, so over the last three years, our total dog and cat intake has trended downward. Um, the interesting thing about that is that it's trended downward. We're having less animals come in, but our officers are actually able to pick up more and respond more out in the field. So, our numbers are coming down. It goes to the RTO's return to owners. It goes to um our managed intake. uh the expanding the microchip obviously um increased the stronger return. Um the other thing is the managed intake and I think probably myself the staff and some of you guys up here uh got some push back on this managed intake. It wasn't what we did since 1974. And so with the managed intake that was one of the um best practices throughout the state and so historically you could just drop off any animal. There was no checks or balance. staff had no idea what was coming in. And so it really took away some of that owner accountability. If I don't want it, I'll just drop it off. So now that we have managed intake, this is helping us create some shared responsibility because that's one of the things too is we want our citizens to also take responsibility. We don't want to be just punitive in nature, but we also want them to understand the reality of owning an animal. So when a person wants to surrender their animal, they are given an appointment. Many times it's three to four weeks out and what we found is they're rehoming them. We give them

information. Hey, this is where have you tried this? Have you put it on social media before they ever come to the shelter. So, I think it's been an excellent um way to balance citizen accountability and humane access to the services at the shelter. So, I think that has it was a hard change as change is um but it is really starting to show its fruits. Um, right there you'll see our dog and and cat intake that where we've dropped the intake. And it's not because we're not taking them. We're an open shelter. We take animals. Our officers are bringing in more than they were, but we're seeing less just being dropped off and abandoned at the shelter. So, that's a huge win. Um, one of the other things we wanted to talk about is the veterinarian services from the 2016 bonds. Um, this is was a real push. the citizens said it was something they really wanted and so they have a service building out there and we were able to um spin up a veterary clinic. Um honestly with a partnership with Texas Tech Vet school we have grown with them. We opened about the same time they opened their vet school with their very first students. And during that time, we have been able to increase our medical capacity, our service quality for both shelter animals and residents. And when I talk about not just shelter animals, we can triage. who can treat animals when they come in, but also residents because through our partnership with Texas Tech Vet School. Um they provide us so much volunteer hours is we're doing spay neutering and vaccination um clinics at Transformation Park. We are going to the homeless areas. We are when we have these huge vaccination clinics that are huge. We had over a thousand people come out to the um depot um last summer. Is Texas

pack has provided not only its staff has helped us but its students and so I think it's also a great learning tool for our vets because wherever they go they will face a community that will too have issues with animals and so I think it's just a real um a real view for them to see like you're not just going to be inside your clinic people are going to come to you in small towns and say what do we do so I think that's been super beneficial and I can't speak highly enough of the vet school and what they have provided us. Um we have also seen our more efficient uh neuter services. Um when we're talking Texas Tech and their students are now that we've gone through four years and we're in that student rotation that we're they're doing 40 to 50% of those surgeries. If you think about what that would cost just base, not ancillary costs or anything, you're looking at $650,000 that the city of Amarillo's taxpayers did not have to pay through city taxes and the city didn't have to provide. So that I can't speak enough for what that school has brought to our community. Um at the time in at in 2020 2022 21 there everything that the all the medical services were being outsourced to local vet clinics. It was hugely expensive. It was tying up officers. It was tying up staff. So now that it's right there, it keeps where it's a quicker turnaround. You adopt a dog, everything's going out fixed and we can do it instantly. They can pick it up the next day. So that in in itself is huge. These are the surgeries. That's an impressive number. Um when you talk about uh 2021 not being able to do any on site to now having these numbers and you can see they grow as we have a combination of our contract vets and Texas Tech and their rotation. So that's

that's a great number and like I said that's a big number when you're talking what veterary cost out in the private sector adoptions we have we have seen an uptick in adoptions uh which is uh unusual because most of the nation right now is seeing it is a very hard time economically. Um renters's rights and and and landlords aren't wanting pets at their at their rental property. So, we're seeing a lot of that, but um our community and our team at the shelter has done an amazing job to really focus on that and to think of creative ways to get the word out. Um I think you guys all see the doggy day out. We have dogs that come to city hall. We have dogs that go out with residents just for the day out. And um 90% of those dogs are getting adopted. And it gets the word out and it's not costing us anything. Our volunteers are amazing. Um here this one looks doesn't look great and I can let's talk about this one our rescue transfers. Um so we had a lot of in 2023 and then we saw this steep drop. Well what happened in that time is that our three uh most prevalent uh rescues uh no longer provided services. Basically they went out of business. And so that really and you saw a lot of rescues. You saw people across the country really struggling with getting animals placed. Um and so we saw that drop. Um we have now I will say that that 24 to 25 that increase that we're seeing right there is directly related to the money that we had received from council and um being able to provide spay and neuter services. So all the rescues that pull animals from our shelter are um their animals are fixed before they go out. That's a huge cost because historically rescues were going to have to incure those costs out

of their own pockets. So we're starting to see that uptick and that is great news. And lastly is uh some of the capital improvement that you guys have uh approved in the past. You'll see um where you see those uh those conxes and you'll see the insides of those conxes. What had happened historically is that the shelter had nowhere to store dog food and so we were getting it in small shipments and it was costing us more money. Now we can buy more in bulk and because we were able to put these in, we have a place to store it. It was the most costefficient way to do it. Um, we bought the conxes through the money that was provided to us and then our facilities department actually did the wiring and um, so it looks great. Um, it has helped tremendously. We use a local vendor now um, to receive our dog food and we can get it in bigger bulk and we can have it on online. Um, the other thing is is that we have worked really hard to have to work with tui.com. we'll get a a semifull donated food and items that our citizens need and now we have a place to store it. So, that's been huge, too. You will see our construction um where we're doing the new concrete. I think most of you had been out there and saw the horrible condition that was not only a safety hazard for our employees and the animals, but for the public who were coming in and trying to adopt animals or look for their animals. Um, so the concrete has been pulled out on the north side. I think it is a classic example of when you start tapping into 1975 infrastructure, there has been issues. And so, uh, a project that would have taken not as

long as they had assumed once they pulled that concrete up, conduit that was like paper thin. There were just so many things because from 197475, our facilities department just didn't have the information of what was under it. So once you touch it, you guys can only well imagine what that construction is going to look like. So it it is a bit behind. Um, but that is where it is as of yesterday. I took those pictures yesterday so you have an idea. That is the north side. The north side, they're saying that it should be done by March. We'll we'll see how that goes with weather and and all the other um things that can come into play. Once that is done, um we will move to the south side. The south side of the shelter um will probably be the trickier one because we have a lot of drainage. Um, you know, anybody that's been out to the shelter knows on one side we have a pool, on the other side we have a treatment center, a facility, a water treatment facility, and behind us we've got a golf course. So, um, there's a lot and it's uneven. We're next to a creek. So, there's going to be a lot of work that goes into that. Um, our staff has done an excellent job of looking how do we still adopt animals? How do we still have accessibility for the public? Um, and they have done an excellent job working with the contractor and with facilities on how to to do that. And our team has worked really hard on getting stuff outside of the shelter so we can get eyes on our on our animals and what we're doing out there.

So, that's what we got. It was really good. [clears throat] Council questions uh for Mrs. Medley or maybe comments on the job our animal management department is doing. Well, I really appreciate the work that you're doing out there. Uh I know on my tour I was a little a little shocked and amazed uh what you've been able to do with not having the funds and it was a good thing that we were able to provide you some funding and I think you're doing some good things with that. So, thank you.

Yeah, a great job. Appreciate you and everything that you've done like you said on shoestring budget and the resources you have out there. I know being landlocked. We'd all love to build a big new shelter and everything. um uh up to date, but good job on what you've got. Yeah, I would say just to kind of recap and I I think my numbers are right, but when you look at return to owners in the last two years, it's increased 7.2%.

So that's the increase in the number of dogs and animals that are returned to owners that don't have to stay there, which saves us money. return in the field looks like it's up about 47% over that same two-year period of being able to get them in the field that they never have to come to the animal shelter. Again, saving taxpayer money. Adoption rates, it looks are up about 34% uh over that 2-year period. And I and as I recall, if we go back, I think you had the 23 through 25. If you look at the 22 numbers, I believe we took over 9,000 animals in in 2022. Yes, we do.

Which is more than the city of Austin takes in annually. And so we're down nearly a thousand to that, which again, you know, a lot of good things are happening that not the le least of which animals are being reunited, but we're saving taxpayer money. And then, you know, the thing that I think does not need to go unnoticed is what the vet school is doing for us. And you know, there's been all kinds of controversy about the vet school and what's it doing and was it a good investment. Well, you look here at the hundreds of thousands of dollars of services that they're providing that taxpayers would have to provide otherwise if not for the vet school to not only do that service but to provide them and uh you know the uh students experience there. I mean you you you couple this over 5 10 15 20 years we're talking about millions of dollars of savings that are that are going to benefit the taxpayers and not having to be able to pay that or being able to use that for other services in the community. So, I appreciate you allowing Victoria to take a couple of minutes to kind of go over that and appreciate the headway I think we're making and and what's a really important issue in our community.

Councilman, I I would like to talk about leadership and and you put this on the agenda. You brought it and I think it was really good for for us to hear it and see it. I know you're closer to it than the rest of us, so you're you're seeing these changes. Um, [clears throat] but I think Victoria, you you've got a very difficult department. Um, and and it has it comes with lots of old problems, but then new problems with growth and, you know, in county, out of county, and then um funding, you know, difficulties and everything. So, what we've seen you do is is build a good team below you. And I think that's the sign of good leadership. And so, um, we appreciate the the ladies and gentlemen that you have working, uh, over there and that they are spearheading some of these initiatives. And so, we get to work the budget uh, exhaustively to try to put just a little bit of money into a few things over there, which it really is. $500,000 is just a little bit of money when you look at the need. And so we're thankful that you guys are a really good return on that investment and that that the department's a good investment and and we'll continue to see these numeric changes that are going to be really good. But we'll also see I think the cooperative collaborative increase. So if if people are watching and listening, one of the best things you could do if if you love animals, you have a passion for this, you care about your community and stray dogs and cats is support your local rescues and then understand that your AMW department support your local rescues. We are looking for ways that we can continue to provide everything from food and and vaccines and microchips and everything else that we've got. So, uh, we want to continue to be a good partner for that department and and push some monies into the community that will will move the needle. Thank you for your leadership

and your time over there. We know it's a difficult job and uh and we understand it and and we're we're grateful for your team. Thank you. Thanks.

All right, we're making good progress. 5.3 presentation by our city manager. Mayor, members of council, members of the public, I thank you very much for the opportunity to come to you today to present to you the conclusion of our chief financial officer search process. Well, as just a little bit of context, as as this council knows, uh, Miss Laura Stores, who did an outstanding job for us for many years, she chose to retire late last year. And so, um, very glad for her her to be able to enjoy retirement and but left a big void for us. And so, we have undertaken the process of doing a search for the CFO position. I'd like to also deeply thank Miss Katrina Owens, our our finance director, who has served as our interim uh chief financial officer. she's had a lot put on her with with with audit and transition and software changes and everything. So, she's had a she's taken on a lot and she's done an outstanding job. And so, with that, so we appreciate her and her entire team for the hard work they continue to do for our community. So, today I am pleased to introduce to you today our incoming chief financial officer, Dr. Omalola Remy. The chief financial officer position is one of the most critical leadership roles in our organization. The CFO reports revenue to myself as city manager. Provides strategic financial leadership to the governing body, oversees citywide accounting, budgeting, purchasing, and financial reporting, and helps manage a total uh total city budget of approximately $557 million in a full service organization of roughly 2500 employees. Because experienced public sector CFOs are are in very high demand in our country, we conducted a robust competitive national search with the support of strategic government resources or SGR. From that process, Dr. Ogen Remy emerged as a finalist who best fits Emerald's needs today and in the years ahead. Dr. Ogen Remy brings impressive qualifications to this role. She holds a

bachelor's in science and accounting, an MBA in in computer information, computer information systems, and a PhD in economics with research focused on financial development and economic growth. She is a licensed certified public accountant with more than 18 years of progressive experience in financial management, business consulting, economic research, and accounting. Currently, Dr. Ogen Remy serves as the assistant finance director or actually the interim finance director right now of the city of Buouie Maryland where she oversees the preparation administration of the city's annual operating and capital budget of more than hund00 million. In that role she supervises staff, coordinates departmental budget meetings, delivers budget presentations, and leads the mid-year budget review and the annual and the annual budget amendment process. She manages day-to-day financial operations to ensure compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, prepares in internal monthly financial reports and forecasts, leads the fiscal year and close and coordinates the annual audit and comprehensive annual financial report. She also serves as a financial liaison to department heads, financial institutions, and other governmental agencies. Experience that translates directly into the collaborative cross departmental leadership we need in Amry's CFO. Earlier in her career, she held senior finance and administrative roles that strengthen her background in strategic planning, risk management, and system implementation, including integrating financial and project management systems and enhancing internal controls, and cost recovery practices. That blend of strategic thinking and hands-on implementation will be particularly valuable as we continue our capital projects, technology initiatives, and work to optimize revenues and manage risk in a dynamic fiscal environment. What especially stands out is her leadership and communication abilities.

Over the course of her career, she has led multifunctional teams, manage organizational change, and overseeing complex financial operations in both municipal and nonprofit settings. She has extensive experience presenting financial information to boards, elected officials, and external stakeholders. And she has taught economics, public finance, and governmental accounting at the university level. clear evidence of her ability to explain complex financial information in accessible terms. In bringing this appointment forward, I have visited individually with each member of the council uh to review Dr. Organ Rey's credentials, discuss the needs of this position, and answer questions uh consistent with the advice and consent responsibilities outlined in the city charter and the distinct treatment state law provides for certain other positions such as the chief of police under chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code. Those conversations along with your individual review of her of her materials has have informed this announcement today by myself as city manager. Dr. Ogremy is enthusiastic about relocating uh from the east coast to west Texas and about becoming part of the Amarillo community. Her references and background checks have been outstanding and there are no no concerns. Everything that we have seen points to an ethical, knowledgeable and high performing public servant. Dr. Ogre with me is here with us today and is able to answer questions. And with this I am pleased to announce our new CFO for the city of Amarillo. Thank you. Dr. Do you have any question? Anything like to say real quick?

Sure. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon, council members, city manager Pat, deput city manager Freeman, city staff, and residents. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead the finance department of the city of Amarillo. I'm looking forward to working with the finance staff and leadership team in serving the residents of the city of Amarillo. And I'd like to thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you. So, um, round of applause, please, if you guys don't mind, for Miss Lola, [applause] we we hope that more so than just applause, what you'll feel uh, here in Amarillo is welcome. and uh and we we do boast hospitality and and we hope and believe that you will love Texas as much as we do in a short period of time. Um so we we look forward to working alongside of you and uh we appreciate your credentials and everything that comes along with that. Um and if we call you uh Miss CFO from time to time, it may just be because we we hadn't quite got the gun remy uh down.

Sure. Right. Well, welcome to Amarillo. We look forward to having you on the team. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Council, do you have anything for uh our new CFO? Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. City Manager. We appreciate you. Um we know that's your hire. We know that you worked on it. We we appreciate the process and the diligence of taking it through everybody to make sure that we we all want to pull on the same rope. So, uh, good job and, uh, and and we're ready to add her to the team. So, u, Mrs. Owens, we would, um, just extend a a thoughtful thank you to you and and the additional time and all of the workload. I know I add to that just myself alone, I can only imagine how hard it is to deal with Councilman Tips. Um, but [clears throat] we we know that you've you've put in some good work to keep the city moving and moving forward during a critical time. Uh we're currently in the middle of an audit that's due here within a month or so. And so um thank you for your diligence over there and and working hard for the city. So thank you guys for letting us do that. [clears throat] All right. So um Miss Lola, we'll see you soon. Uh that's going to move us into our non-consent agenda. So we'll take up item 6.1. Uh consideration here that I believe Mrs. Owens is bringing. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. So, resolution 02-24-26-1 is a budget amendment for the hospital district for fiscal year 2425. This is the first reading of this item. The second and final will be in the next council meeting. So, one of our final steps that we take in order to close out a fiscal year is bring a budget amendment to you. So, the budget amendment is for a legally adopted budget adopted by the hospital district and by the city of Amarillo and we will present this budget in the audited financials that we'll present to the

board at the end of March to the hospital district. Now, the hospital district approved this budget amendment on February 10th. Now, we have a recommended change to the intergovernmental transfers expense account and the local provider participation fund of increasing the budget by 6.5 million. Now, the LPPF fund is a restricted fund, meaning that it can only be spent on the purpose of helping fund state programs. Now, the city is only a fiscal agent for this fund. So, it's really a self- sustained fund. Now the district sets a mandatory payment of 6% of net patient revenues from the various hospitals in the district and that revenue is collected quarterly and then the expenses are called the intergovernmental transfers which are sent to the state comproller to help with the various programs such as indigent care or uncompensated care or disrupt which stands for delivery system reform incentive payments and many other acronyms as well and then the funds will return back to those local hospitals through those programs. Now we have a third party called Alito Healthcare Ventures and they represent the hospitals not the hospital district and they will advise the staff of how much to send for which program by which date and then the staff will go into the state website and put in an AC for the to be drafted. So any excess revenues over expenditures in any given year will stay in that restricted fund until the next year and expensed in a a program. Now this does produce a timing difference of what's collected versus what's expensed to the state which makes it difficult to budget because you can't foresee the requested program needs. So we collected 70 million in revenues

last year and then we sent 85 million to the state for the various programs and we budgeted only 79 million to the state. So those monies are actually in the excess reserves for this fund. There was started the year at 20 million available. Can I answer any questions about the budget amendment? Okay. Thank you. Council, I know this is uh I would say administerial procedural, not necessarily something that we weigh in on, but um I also know that when you're when you're talking about funds to that magnitude, 70 80 million. I the only thing that I would make sure of is that we as representatives don't need to represent anything further to the community. So sometimes we get down off the dis and and you get a few phone calls or emails after the fact. Does everybody up here understand um how this takes place, what what's being taken place, the indigent care piece of this uh that's paid into by the hospitals and then um anything further that we need to expound upon up here as a body? No. Okay, great. Um thank you Mrs. Owens for bringing that. would entertain a motion on item 6.1.

Move to adopt resolution number 022426-1. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, please say I.

I. Any oppose? Motion passes. We will move into item 6.2. Um believe we have Mr. Spanel coming up here and Mrs. Stoutton to talk us through um the health district. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, this is a resolution for the Emerald Area Public Health District cost sharing initiative that we presented, Casey and I presented to you a few months ago. We've continued our work on that um cost sharing initiative with the other member jurisdictions. We've met with each of them over the past two months or so. Um and as a quick reminder, the cost sharing initiative takes our revenue or takes our expenses and minuses out revenues and whatever is left for environmental health, public health, uh certain portions of animal management, welfare, and wick and it cost shares that amongst the member jurisdictions. So we met with each of the member jurisdictions, presented this to them. The the responses we got were pretty pretty common and and almost the exact same. there was concerns over um uh budget budgets being tight but we did not hear any hard you know we we don't want to participate. It was it was very much so uh we we understand the initiative and we'll we'll move you know take take it as it is. Uh so this resolution today is just to continue on that path and we we'd like to implement that cost sharing initiative and happy to answer any questions you have. Any questions on item 62 council?

So you have full participation by all the member districts. We would I think it's best to say nobody said that they they wouldn't continue being part of the district.

And uh Mr. Spanel, you feel like you've adequately explained the the system that's in place. So we're not billing anybody unfairly or in excess. It's not doing anything other than just a a share program. So basically whatever your participation is is is what you're you're paying in for your share um for those services. Otherwise those services to be more specific that are provided outside of the city limits would be the burden of only those living inside of the corporate city limits. So that program and everything in this would be revenueed by tax dollars and then also fees that are paid in those districts but by private business. Have I said that correctly?

I believe so. Close enough. Okay. So [clears throat] I think it's a a good statement to just make sure we're all on board here because you guys are bringing forward something that's common sense. It is business practice and I think it's fair. And then ultimately the reason you're doing it is because we don't want to cut services. we don't want to not be able to get there and to uh maintain the oversight that you guys provide. So, um appreciate you bringing it forward um and for the additional explanation. Council entertain a motion on 62 unless we have further discussion. I move to adopt resolution 022426-2. Second.

Motion and a second on item 62. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mrs. Stoutton. That's a 40 vote. Council, I would ask for a uh motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. So moved. You're adjourned. Thank you guys for attending.