City Council - Regular Meeting

If you so choose, please stand and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let's pray. Holy God, through you all things have come into being. It is out of the abundance of your love and the working of your hands that we stand gathered here today. So today we, with gratitude, look at the work of those in this community and the work given to them. Works of service, works of assistance, works of building, of maintaining, of financial wisdom, of community, of safekeeping, works of love and grace, every single one. We give thanks for the gifts you have given these who do this work, and we give thanks for those in this community whose work makes this city a gift. Holy God, we also look to the work of those in positions of leadership, tasked with the hard work of ensuring that the many that make up this city are able to flourish in their diversity. Give them the wisdom and discernment that they require in order to uphold this place. Allow them to see all as worthy of attention and service, but with a special eye toward those most vulnerable and in need of support. Holy God, we also look at our own hands and feet, knowing that communities like this aren't built from the top down, but from the people themselves. Make us all to feel a sense of responsibility and ownership for the good of this place. Let us all see ways that we might seek the good of our neighbors, looking out not just for ourselves but for the most vulnerable around us. Give us the gifts and wisdom we need to respond to the presence of violence with peace. Grant us ways of knowing one another that allow us to speak with charity and humility. and lend us hearts of compassion and ears to hear, so that the strangers around us become neighbors, become friends, become windows into seeing and knowing you more. We give thanks and praise to you, holy God, the one in whom all things hold together. Amen.

May I have roll call, please?

Mayor West.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Turner. Here. Council Member Durio. Here. Council Member Hilliard. Here. Council Member Williams. Here. Council Member Sherwood absent and Council Member Crenshaw. Here. Thank you.

Today we have two presentations and our first one will be the City of Beaumont communication update.

Good afternoon. In this week's announcements, the City of Beaumont Office of Emergency Management is continuing to closely monitor Tropical Storm Bertha. While the current forecast shows minimal impacts to our area, City crews are already taking proactive steps by clearing drainage ditches and making sure emergency response equipment, including high-water vehicles, are ready if needed. The City's Emergency Operations Center is coordinating with local, state, and federal partners to stay prepared, and also we encourage residents to do the same by reviewing your family's emergency plan, keeping an eye on the latest weather updates, and following guidance from local officials if conditions change. Stay weather aware, and remember you can always sign up for City Alerts and get registered with the SAN and STEER at beaumonttexas.gov slash alert. School starts for BISD students on August 12. And now is the time to get registered. You can find everything you need to know about student registration and enrollment on the district's website, bmtisd.com. And help your students be prepared for that first day of class by attending some back to school Backpack Drives, I think back it up just one if you would, Tina. Legacy Community Health will host its Back to School Festival this Saturday, July 25th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at South Park Middle School. And then on Saturday, August 1st, Communities and Schools Southeast Texas will host its Mind, Body, and Wellness Back to School Bash from 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at Cathedral Faith Baptist Church. These events... offers school supplies and community resources, so be sure to mark your calendars. In the meantime, the free ride is still on for students. They can continue to hop on board any of the City of Beaumont buses for free for the rest of the summer. Just remember to grab your student ID. To view routes and schedules, visit beaumontzip.com. Speaking of our city buses, you can now take your business for a ride by advertising on one of our City of Beaumont Zip transit buses. Whether you're promoting a business, announcing an event, or just getting the word out about your organization, this helps put your message in front of thousands of people across Beaumont every day. To learn more, go to beaumontzip.com slash zip dash advertisement program and see how you can be on our side. Beaumont Animal Care needs your help. The shelter is completely full after taking in 29 new animals and is in need of medium, large, and extra large travel crates to safely transport dogs to rescue partners. If you have a gently used crate that is in good working condition, please consider donating it to the Beaumont Animal Care on Pine Street. The shelter is also in urgent need of adopters, fosters, rescue partners, and financial donations. So stop by the shelter today and you might just leave with your new best friend. This Thursday, July 23rd, join us for Jazz at the Lake at the Downtown Event Center from 5.30 to 7.30. This is a free, family-friendly concert featuring saxophonist Dean James. So grab your blankets and lawn chairs, relax by the lake while enjoying a complimentary beverage and an evening of live music. And finally, you have two more chances to catch a free movie in the park this summer. This Friday, catch a showing of Hoppers at Sprott Park. Then on Friday, August 7th, it's Zootopia 2 at Central Park. All movies are weather permitting and each starts at dusk. And that's all for this week's announcements.

Thank you. And now we have a presentation by the Beaumont Main Street presented by Susan O'Halloran, the executive director.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of city council and city leadership. I'm Susan O'Halloran, the executive director of Beaumont Main Street. And I'm honored to present our annual update to you today.

For those who may be new to our work, the Main Street program. Yeah.

For those who may be new to our work, the Main Street Program operates on a proven national framework designed to preserve historic downtowns while driving economic vitality. Our focus centers on the four key pillars, which is economic vitality, design and beautification, promotion, and organization business support. We're actively pursuing a $3,000 security grant to directly support three downtown property owners in modernizing and security their buildings. This targeted investment proactively upgrades public safety and enhances property values downtown without putting a strain on multiple municipal resources. We're applying for additional grants such as the CDBG and infrastructure funding which would support sidewalk connectivity, pedestrian accessibility, and downtown streetscapes. And for state preservation capital, we're looking into closing financial gaps on critical preservation programs and are applying for an Annise Reed Fund grant through the Texas Downtown. Economic impact downtown and transforming vacancy into value. Since our founding, Beaumont Main Street has facilitated over $200 million in private investment, property acquisitions, and structural rehabilitation right here in our historic central business district. Every dollar spent downtown isn't just cosmetic. It's actively revitalizing real estate and restores tax value to our city. While we have strong momentum, we face a critical rebuilding phase as roughly 25% of our historic buildings downtown remain vacant. Our goal is to convert these underutilized spaces with investors to active retail shops, restaurants, and professional offices to expand Beaumont's municipal tax base. Interests from citizens, small business owners, and entrepreneurs is strong. They want to be downtown. The primary barrier lies in getting property owners aligned to active ADAPT and to sell these long vacant structures. We need catalytic winds that will initiate development and lower barriers to entry rather than waiting for a single all-in-one solution.

Program and community highlights.

Beyond economic incentives, vibrant downtowns require active foot traffic generating events. Our flagship community festivals like Dogtoberfest brings thousands of residents and visitors into the city center, showcasing local storefronts and creating measurable economic surges for downtown restaurants and retailers. We actively connect residents to Beaumont's history, waterfront assets through diverse programming, which includes our adult and school port tours, regular wine tastings and quarterly speaker series that are planned for 2026. And these are designed to educate the public and to keep downtown top of mind as a cultural hub. We've had youth civic engagement with Westbrook High School Key Club and Kelly High School by Westbrook participating in key events like Dogtoberfest and a beautification program planned for later this year in downtown. Kelly High School has an... initiated a Junior Beaumont High Street Club. This initiative teaches high school students the principles of historic preservation and urban stewardship by preparing the next generation and civic leaders right here in Beaumont. We're aligned with city goals. Our work directly aligns with city's priorities for downtown revitalization, tourism, and small business support. Looking ahead to the coming year, our key focus areas include more events downtown and closing the gap financially for investors with our revolving loan fund, tax credits, opportunity zones, and targeted grants. I want to emphasize that Beaumont Main Streets doesn't operate in a silo. We exist and thrive as a true public-private partnership. We are deeply grateful for the City of Beaumont's direct support. Your contribution provides a foundational portion to our annual budget, which directly funds our operational staff and daily advocacy for downtown. Simply put, the city isn't just funding an outside organization. You're investing in a dedicated team working on the ground for downtown every single day. Here's where the real value comes in. We match the city's investment dollar for dollar. For every dollar provided by municipal funding, we raise an equal dollar through membership investments, corporate sponsorships, and signature events like the Oktoberfest. The means to the city investment is effectively doubled before we even start our project work. We use that leverage funding as a magnet, bringing private developers, grant opportunities, and new small businesses to the table to invest their own capital into our historic center. Sustaining momentum with budget alignment by sustaining this core shared funding model, it guarantees we have a steady, dedicated staff to execute long-term strategic plans downtown. Our call to action is council engagement. We would want to invite you to be active champions of us. Beyond joining us at events like Dogtoberfest, we want to team up on grants and partner on downtown preservation policies with an open line of communication. Our doors and lines of communication are always open. We aim to work closely with city departments to make things smoother, whether that's guiding property owners through historic tax credits or bringing new business into Beaumont. That's all I have.

Thank you very much. And for those that were here for presentations and you would like to leave, now's the time to do so. And we're going to be moving into public comments. So if you have, it looks like we're using green sheets today. So make sure you fill out your green sheet and get that turned in if you would like to make public comments. And you may make public comment on the consent agenda, regular agenda items one through six, or any other topics. Citizens wishing to speak on item seven and eight will be given an opportunity to speak during the public hearing. The city clerk will call your name when it's your time to speak. When you approach the podium, Say your address, city, and state if it wasn't said when she calls your name. You will have three minutes for your public comments. The green light will come on when you approach the podium, and the red light will come on when your time is up.

Kevin, I think it's Doran, 5595 Gale Drive by my Texas. What did I say?

You said Kevin.

Kevin, I'm sorry, Eddie. I was looking at another green slip. I apologize. What's the last name? Doran. Doran. Okay.

I live at 5595 Gale Drive. Okay. My two agendas are number one is the sewer issues. I'm not having no sewer issues when it doesn't rain. It's when it rains. That's when it rains. That's when it really, I can't flush my toilet. This has been going on for about five years. And the city put a check valve on the sewer line, meaning that the pressure from the water going into the sewer is not backing up to my house. But then I don't have that much room to where I'm able to use my restroom or my toilet. So... That's been going on for five years. I'd just like to know when where I live at is on the agenda to where they're going to start fixing that area. I live in North Beaumont. And the other thing is I called the city about trash on 69 by the mall. The city says it's TxDOT's responsibility, but then TxDOT said it's the city's responsibility to cut the grass. Nobody picks up trash before they cut grass. They just run over the trash and it just spreads all over the place. So they're saying it's y'all's responsibility and TxDOT's saying it's yours or vice versa. So I don't know. It's just little issues of just beautify Beaumont. Because when I have people come and visit, they see all the trash. It just makes this area look really bad. So if I can get a call back or my email about the sewer, I'll talk to Mike Harris. It's just getting tiresome after five years. Every time it rains, the sewer line is compromised. That'd be great if y'all can call back and get in touch with me with both issues. Thank you. Thank you.

Albert Harrison, 1240 Ashley, Beaumont, Texas.

Mayor, council member, other city employees, I have a consensus at present. Today my comment is precisely pertaining to trash pickup. This morning, the truck that picked up the large trash, I waved at him to stop and pick up the grass that I put on the corner. To keep from letting that grass get into the sewer lines. Because I understand that grass in the sewer lines can cause problems. I had an agreement with the previous driver to pick up that grass on that corner. This particular driver seems to don't pay any attention to anything. Furthermore, he's also leaving certain trash. After picking it up with that gravel and little pieces or whatever that may be on the ground, they're leaving it there. As I have called 311 to address that particular issue, and they transferred me to Solid Waste, and they addressed the issue. But still, no one has picked it up. And the reason I'm saying this comment is because I used to live in the West End at one time. I actually saw the drivers get out, pitchforked. break the trash and then pick it up. They don't do this at the north end where I live. So it's a big old difference there. Also, I would like to make somewhat amends or apologies to council members. I realize and understand that you may have approved for the contractors to mop out the ditches. My apology to you is all you did was approve it. Your workers, such as director of the program and so forth, recommended that this be done. All I'm saying to you is that they're wrong. They're incorrect. I've never seen ditches in this area where exposed pipes. So they dug too deep. Now I'm seeing stagnant water, which is, in my opinion, creates and causes mosquito infestation. Now, all I'm saying to that is that it does not take a rocket science to figure this out. You dug the ditch too deep and water is now stagnant. This area where I live had never flooded. I even had people to come live with me During Hurricane Harvey, because they couldn't get in the house. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Charles Paul, 5615 Phelps Road, Beaumont, Texas.

Good evening. Charles Paul, 5615 Phelps Road, Beaumont, Texas. I live out in Terrell Park. And I just want to talk to y'all because y'all can't be everywhere. I don't know if I got a problem or a situation, but I want to make you aware. When you call the city, city code's about cutting the grass. I got two and a half acres and I got like five neighbors adjacent to me that touch my property. And two of them don't cut the grass in the back, in like a field, I guess you call it. And it looked like a wooded area, a heavy brush. But I'm here today because if you look at me, I'm a small person. I'm like 63 and three quarter inches tall. I killed a snake that was 56 inches less. On the ninth, the snake was 56 inches tall, long. And that's pretty scary. And I would like to see COVID enforcement, but they told me, this one, come here. As long as they cut the front yard, it's okay. In the back, it's back to its natural state, which I don't understand because I cut mine like every 10 days, two weeks, unless it rains sometimes, three weeks. But I use the city services. I got armadillos, raccoons, possums, get their cage and they come out and get them or I take them, get rid of them. I had alligators in my cupboards. The city had been working on the drainage, still ain't right in front of my house, but the last two years they had five alligators. I think the biggest one was 47 inches. But if you live in the park, it's nice. I don't mind looking at rabbits and squirrels, but it's not good when you got your backyard and you go and cut it and they got like a little forest over there. So I don't want to like be a bad neighbor to the other residents, but I wish y'all could look and see if it's the policy or ordinance or something that could be done to say everybody should do the same, you know, because I keep up mine. I guess maybe they just rent them so they don't care. But I know y'all are trying to do a good job, and that's all I can say. Thank you for what y'all are trying to do.

Thank you, sir.

Addie Allen, 9695 Gross, Burma, Texas.

Good afternoon to the mayor, city manager, and council, and administrators. It's been a while since I've been here, but I've been stacking it up. The hurricane season, we're here. And today, unlike most Tuesdays, it's not raining. It's beautiful. It's hot. And I'm sweating. But you know what? That's a good thing. I still would like to see council going into your budget period looking at an evacuation plan. And I know you have one in place, but as far as the citizens, you know, the alarm, the alarm. You know, if a hurricane or tornado come in, usually it's early in the morning and you're asleep, you're snoring. But that's dangerous. I've been in that situation in Oklahoma. And it's not good. And we're still sitting on it. You know, it's time to look at it seriously. You know, if you have to get with the county, I've talked with them. They say it's the city. So it's round robin, okay? The other thing is I was reading in one of the packets about an environmental administrator for the city. And I'm wondering who or have you advertised for that position? Because when you're talking about an environmental administrator, you're talking about like this water's crossed up with this sewer. And who is an industrial hygienist in the city? So are we just playing with words? You know, I need to know that. Somebody talk to me. I've been in health and safety and I understand that. Now, as you were an environmental administrator from TECQ, then you got a water problem where it was crossed with the sewer. Then you got a problem with, I listened to your budget hearing or workshop, and it seems like there's people that are not being charged, undercharged, overcharged, don't know where the meters are. So how can we see when you get ready to go into budget period where you've recouped money, we're always getting money. We're always charging fees. I'm sick of it. I paid my bill online. I got to pay $199 to pay my bill. You know, so I understand. dollars and cent. But let's see where you're showing that you're recouping some money that's being lost. And the other thing that I wanted to mention, since I've been gone a long time, the change orders. When is there going to be an ordinance for change orders, whether it's no money, some money, or what? The ditch digging. I'll talk about it next time. Thank you for your service. That's all I have, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. There's no other public comments. We'll be moving into the consent agenda. Is there a motion and a second for the consent agenda?

Move to approve.

There is a motion and a second for approval of the consent agenda. Are there any questions or discussion? All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, would you take us into the reading of item number one, please?

Yes, sir, Mayor and Council. Item number one is to conduct an election for Mayor Pro Tem. Councilman Turner was elected Mayor Pro Tem on May 20, 2025. And according to the city charter, the city council shall elect one of its members as Mayor Pro Tem for a one-year term. The mayor pro tem shall perform the duties of the mayor in the case of the absence or inability of the mayor to perform the duties of the office. And if a vacancy occurs, shall become mayor for the unexpired term. And the administration recommends that we conduct an election.

All right. Thank you. Is there a motion for anybody would like to make a motion for mayor pro tem?

I make a motion that we select Corey Crenshaw as mayor pro tem.

All right. Is there a second?

I'll second.

There is a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor of approving Corey Crenshaw as the mayor pro tem, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? No. The motion passes. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number two?

Yes, sir, Mayor. Item number two is to consider an ordinance to establish and adopt child safety zones within the city. On July 7, 2026, at the request of Council, a work session was held to review an ordinance that would establish child safety zones within the city. The proposed ordinance before you prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a designated location where children commonly gather, including schools, parks, and daycare center facilities. The ordinance also restricts property owners from knowingly leasing residents within the restricted area to registered sex offenders. Establishes enforcement provisions and provides limited exceptions for existing lawful residents and other circumstances authorized by law. Additionally, if approved, it would require software to be purchased for use by the police department. Violations of the ordinance constitute a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500. The administration recommends approval of the attached ordinance with the exception that the administration is recommending a distance of 1,500 or 1,500 feet instead of the 2,000 feet.

All right. Is there a motion for item number two? There is a motion and a second for approval of the item number two and Councilman Crenshaw. Excuse me, did you?

No, I was going to make the motion, but it's already been done. I'm assuming his motion, though, is with a change to 1,500 feet.

Yes. Yes. Councilman Turner.

Madam Attorney, can you help educate me and people in the public because I've been asked why is it only a punishable violation as a misdemeanor class C? Is that state law or how does that work?

That's state law. So ordinances that are enforced by city unless you have additional authority from the state are capped at $1,500. There's special considerations for health and safety laws that allow you to go up to 2,000 feet, but that's by state regulation and state law. So that is the cap that you can do for municipal ordinance.

Yeah, I think the main thing they were looking at is just the misdemeanor Class C, but I told them we can't operate within the city anything outside of state law.

Yes, sir. So that's the motion that an ordinance can enforce the Class C misdemeanor and the fine range is confined by state law. That's what the authority of the state gives.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Williams.

Have we had any success on getting anybody else in the county to yes, actually so glad you actually actually looked at a contract this afternoon or early this morning and the surrounding I think it's going to Jefferson County groves in either Lynn. I'm looking for my chief is there yes, chief plunkett is. Port Arthur is that all the ones put out there is it Jefferson County groves in the inland damage anybody. Yes. So those are the ones that are participating. Obviously, per the contract, we'll upfront the cost, and they'll reimburse based on the MOU.

Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye for item number two. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number three, please?

Yes, sir. Item number three is to consider a resolution authorizing the city manager to award a contract to Texas Materials Group Incorporated of Beaumont for the Street Pavement Preservation Citywide Phase 3 project. The Street Pavement Preservation Citywide Phase 3 project consists of pavement milling and profile milling, localized asphalt stabilized base repairs, and the placement of a thin asphalt concrete pavement overlay on 22 streets throughout the city. On June 25, 2026, five bids were received for furnishing all labor materials and equipment for the project. It should be noted that a total of 628 vendors were notified of the available work. The engineer's estimate for the contract was $4.2 million. The bid totals are indicated in your packet. Staff reviewed the qualifications and supporting documentation submitted by the apparent low bidder. Based on that review, the bidder did not demonstrate the experience, equipment, resources, or self-performance capacity required by the bid specifications for a project of this scope. In addition, the project references provided did not demonstrate comparable pavement preservation experience. Therefore, staff attempted to obtain clarification regarding these requirements but was unable to receive the information necessary to address the identified deficiencies. As a result, the bid is considered non-responsive. The Public Works Engineering staff recommended rejecting the apparent low bidder. and awarding the contract to the second lowest bidder, Texas Materials Group, Incorporated of Beaumont, in the amount of $3,503,036.85 as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Contract provides 245 days, calendar days, rather, for substantial completion. Funds are available from certificates of obligation.

the administration recommends approval of the resolution is there a motion for item number three so moved second there's a motion in a second uh for approval and councilman turner you had a question and yes councilman we have 22 streets in here can you explain to people exactly where they can go to locate what 22 streets are going to be addressed throughout the city

So I know if you go right now to the Public Works, if you, essentially if you go to the Public Works project map page, you can see phase one and phase two. And I'll defer to our public works director, Molly. I assume phase three will be posted pretty short order.

It'll be posted this week.

Yes.

Yeah. Man, it'd probably be helpful if maybe, I don't know if we can probably work with communications, just get a post out there. I would say our productivity with phase one, phase two, and this is upcoming for phase three. So, you know, you can just notify people what's going on and where it's going on at.

Yes, sir. We can do that.

All right.

And Councilwoman Sherwood and Councilman Crenshaw.

I'd also like to see when we get with communications, make sure we have complaint information out there if there's a complaint or issues with communication. the work that's being done or things of that nature as with the ditching and the ditching was touching other things or trash being left in other places and all the things inside of that communication of what streets are being done, where do you get the complaint of an issue that's happening, something out there where people can access that easily. Also, in addition to the 22 streets, I like that, what is considered substantial completion of, What does that mean? Can somebody help me?

So substantial completion means that they have completed, as far as the contractor is of the opinion, that it is complete. So that means that they're submitting what they consider the final pay estimate for all the quantities of the contract. then we conduct the final inspection, and then that is where, when we're ready for final inspection, that means that they are substantially complete. The final inspection typically will reveal deficiencies along the way that they need to correct, and then once those items are corrected, then we can issue the final pay estimate, which releases the 5% of the contract that we withhold until everything is finally complete.

Okay, and on a last note, I know that the first lowest bidder did not complete the process in order to be considered, and the second lowest bidder is what we went with. What I'm finding is people don't want things for free. They want them done right. Do we have a relationship with these people where these people have been bidded and we've used them before? Do we know their history? I mean, to make sure that we're getting people that are going to do the job right for the You know, the money is the total is one thing, but the quality is imperative as well.

Yes, ma'am. The recommended award contractor is the Texas Material Group. We have had a long relationship with them. They are also the material supplier for the asphalt. So we have a demonstrable history with them. If there's any documentation of projects that they, I believe they are also the contractor for the Highland Avenue project. Thank you. You're welcome.

Councilman Crenshaw. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. To build off of what Councilwoman Sherwood just went into detail on, Texas Materials Group, I'm very pleased to see get awarded this contract. I've learned a lot more about concrete in the last year than I ever thought. I would know in my life. And Texas Material Group was responsible for the, if you're driving down Cardinal Drive and you're headed towards Lamar from here, there's a large section of the feeder road that TxDOT redid within the last year or two. And in my opinion, that is some of the smoothest, best constructed concrete roads we have in Southeast Texas. A different contractor had the same stretch on the opposite side on the feeder road coming from Lamar into Beaumont. And that, while it's good, it's a noticeable difference. And I was told that that contractor, that was the very first time they'd ever done that type of a concrete road before. And is the reason why we have a little difference there in quality. That said, I think Texas Material is a good company and I'm pleased to see them get this contract. So well done to staff and getting this done and asking some additional questions with the low bidder. Because as we've learned in the past, unfortunately, the low bidder isn't always the best. But I think in this case, the group getting it is, in fact, going to be the best bet.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor of approving item number three, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number four, please?

Yes, sir. Item number four is to consider a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute change order number two to the contract with East Tex Utility Construction for the Phelps Road Drainage Improvement Project. On November 4, 2025, the City Council awarded a contract to Eastex Utility Construction of Beaumont in the amount of $1,080,289 for the Phelps Road Drainage Improvement Project. Previous change order number one, the amount of $5,300 is attached for your review. Proposed change order number two in the amount of minus $56,363.70 is needed to adjust the estimated quantities in the contract to reflect the actual quantities used to complete the project. If approved, change order number two would result in a new contract amount of $1,029,225.30. and have been available in the project from certificate of obligations as well as community development block grant hazard mitigation funds through the state the administration is recommending approval of this resolution thank you is there a motion for item number four second there is a motion and a second for approval of item number four is there any questions or discussion

Councilman Durio.

Yeah, this project, it hadn't rained at the house. And for y'all to know, I live on Phelps Road since last week sometime. And these newly dug ditches are still holding water. The boxes are still holding water. It's not draining off. It's like evaporating. It has been a while, and I mean, are they finished? Because it doesn't seem like they have the flow right. Some places, the ditch is way lower than the culvert under people's driveway. Have you all done the final inspection?

The final inspection has been performed, and we're going to go take a look and see what is happening in those locations.

I mean, it's with the mosquitoes and all that?

Well, we're also... There is, since we're not placing sod and that's going to be the only way to make that go back so that there is no water visible until where the grass is there. And so sometimes you are going to have a silting effect because right now it's just hard clay and the grass isn't going to grow on that. So we do have, there is until the silt accumulates and get the vegetation back. And sometimes they will leave some room for that to happen. But if they have over excavated and they need to go back and address it now that it's rained, because when we had the final inspection, that was about 60 days ago, we hadn't had any rain. So we're going to go back and take a look at it and see what we need to address. And there's still a one-year warranty period as well.

They also had some spots where when it rained real hard, the side of the ditch just gave way and fell into the ditch where they had just dug it.

It just collapsed. That was an additional erosion issue. There was something else that took place in that location where we had the big washout.

Okay. Well, as long as y'all know about it and keep an eye on it and get it done right.

Yeah, there have been some vegetation that have been stacked there. And then I think that when that vegetation went to be picked up, it destabilized that edge of the soil. Then when the rain started, it washed that corner out. So there was a little bit more. It wasn't directly related to the ditching work that was done.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman Crenshaw.

Yes, to echo on what Councilman Durio said earlier, That's not the only complaint. There's been numerous complaints about the same issue. And last night, the local news coverage of city issues was hard to watch. If you serve and love this city, it was one broadcast after another of people with complaints about the city. And what's frustrating about this, Molly, and you do such a wonderful job, your team does a wonderful job, but this was done to improve things. And it seems like all of these complaints are telling us that the situation has gone backwards. since our improvements that you know ditches that didn't hold water before now holding water so it's just it's extremely frustrating to get those types of complaints when you know we're telling people that we've just spent a million dollars and things are going to get better and And so as the engineer here and the expert here, Molly, why would a ditch that was draining previously that's now been, quote, cleaned out, not draining? Is there a particular reason why I wouldn't be doing that?

If there's issues with the grading of it, then yes. If there's low areas for its whole water. But that is different from the fact that we have increased the capacity of that ditch to carry more water. In a rain event. And that's what we've done. That was what this project's intent was to do.

Okay. So in layman's terms, what is grading? Is that cleaning?

Grading is the slope at the bottom of the ditch.

Slope at the bottom. So the purpose of this project was to expand capacity of the ditches to, in essence, hold and let water flow off as opposed to cleaning them out so they flowed better.

This was an improvement project. This was not just the maintenance of the mopping out of the bottom of the ditch.

Okay. So it was both mopping and grading?

Yes.

Okay. So it looks like we may have been successful in the grading, but the mopping...

We increased the sizes of the ditch. We increased the sizes of the culverts for the driveways in this ditch. It was to increase the capacity in response to the major run events that have impacted the flooding in this area. This was not like the roadside ditching contract, which is just the mopping, which is only going to excavate the bottom flow line of the ditch.

Okay. And in particular to this, who on staff has been out to inspect the problems on Phelps that have developed since the project was finally inspected?

The latest issues that were brought to our attention were brought up earlier this week. So my engineering staff has been going out there to take a look at it. I just got into the office this afternoon, so I haven't had a chance to get more information.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Councilwoman Sherwood, then Councilman Duria.

And I'd like to echo kind of what Councilman Crenshaw is saying. I think that when we're doing these projects and we're spending this money, we've got to make sure that it's being done right. And I don't think that they're not doing it right. I think that perception is reality when we're dealing with constituents. When I perceive there to be a problem, in my mind, there is a problem. There may not be a problem, but my perception is reality. When we've got news people and constituents coming with problems that we've technically addressed or fixed, but it does not appear to be addressed or fixed. As a council, we are being held to the fire that we are completing projects that are not complete or are not being completed correctly or whatever the case may be when they come up to our face and start saying, well, y'all spent this money and y'all did this, but I got this now or y'all spent this money and y'all did this, but now I got this now. We're not necessarily attacking the work that's being done, but we've got to be honest that perception is reality when we're dealing with our constituents. So if we can kind of speed some of this along with particularly projects that are complete or considered to be complete, that's going to be important. Thank you. Councilman Duria?

No, so Well, I'm understanding y'all increased the capacity of the ditch. So basically, instead of doing the work for it to be able to flow more freely, you made it bigger so it could hold more water?

To carry more water. We don't want to hold. We don't want to hold it. These are not for a detention. It's to hold. Now, going back to the roadside ditching complaints with the utility crossings is that the reason why we were doing the roadside ditching contracts is because we've not been able to maintain anything. the adequate depths of the roadside ditches. And over the years, they have filled in or they were never there in the first place, which led to utility lines crossing and holding water. Or the ditching contractor that is doing the excavation is ahead of the contractor that is doing the culvert replacement. So it becomes a timing issue. So even though that we may be holding water at this moment, maybe there's additional work that needs to be done. Could we do a better job of coordinating the utility line crossings? to have them lowered, absolutely, where we have that control. We have control on the water utility side, working with Mike Harris and his team to get the service lines lowered. We don't have control over the gas company and their schedule to lower their lines. So there is that challenge where the ditch has been excavated. The service lines are still there in the way holding water. Or even more complicated than that is a sewer service line that is too shallow that then has to be lowered and is going to be a barrier until we are able to get that adjusted to restore the full flow of the water. But to your question, Council Madurio, it was to increase the capacity to make the ditches larger in line with the ditches that are in that neighborhood that were improved by Drainage District 6.

So it's different companies that excavate the ditching and replace the culvers? They're not working together? Different crews. Different crews.

Yes. And so they're going to go faster doing the excavation and then come back and then to do each individual driveway. But it is separate crews. And so the ditching... The ditching crew is going to go out there first and establish the grades of the ditch. And then the ones that need to adjust the driveway culverts are going to come behind that and do that. And then last would be the crew that actually restores the pavement on those driveways.

But the one that put the culvert in, they are the ones that are supposed to make sure that it matches with the ditching so the water will flow the right way, correct?

That's the goal.

That's the goal.

Well, and that's where we're going to go back. I'm getting my phones blowing up because they're. Yeah. So there's there's more. They're trying to send me information and my brain can't process it this fast right now. Sorry. But yes, they are supposed to. It is supposed to align. Now, we're only adjusting the culverts that are three inches or more out of grade. So that can be three inches higher or three inches lower. Now, if they're three inches lower, yeah, you're going to have up to three inches of water in that culvert, and that is not going to affect the carrying capacity of that culvert. But if it is, and also too, if it's going to be within three inches higher, there is going to be a little bit of water being held until that bottom of that ditch silts in and the grass starts growing.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome.

And City Manager, do you have something? I know Councilman...

I think Molly explained it pretty well. We may work towards getting a communication piece out on, because we have miles and miles and miles of open ditch, and it's a critical part of our drainage infrastructure. And so, you know, I think it's important to maybe try to explain how that system works. And it is tough, you know, especially when you're increasing capacity to make sure your grades are level so that you absolutely retain no water. I just know from, you know, observation and experience when you when you graded an open ditch like that it tends to hold a little water until the vegetation grows back so we can try to get some information on that but having said that on the Phelps Road we're certainly sounds like Molly's getting back out there to make sure that everything's in order.

Just one quick question. Yes, sir. You keep saying when the vegetation grows back. So I notice people, a lot of them are not weed-eating their ditches. So should they weed-eat the ditch or leave that vegetation there?

Vegetation would be grass, but if the grass starts to grow too high, then the whole purpose of cleaning out the ditch is lost because that becomes a barrier to the water being able to flow in the ditch in a rain event. Yes, they should be mowed. I think there's an ordinance to that effect. If the ditch is four feet or deeper, then we would need for the city to go out and keep that ditch mowed.

I think mine is deeper than four feet because it's over my head. We can take a look at that. Because I used to, I could drive my lawnmower in there. I can't anymore because it's so steep and deep. I can't. So I have to weed. Yeah.

Well, again, that's where we're increasing how much water those ditches can carry.

Thank you, Councilman Drew.

Councilman Turner? I guess on Phelps Road, y'all got a height requirement because you went over the par. But no, seriously, the ditches, when they're graded, are they supposed to be a certain level below the culvers? Is it like a certain height requirement or measurements that has to be below the

All of the ditches, when we went through the design, they were surveyed to make sure that they are flowing in the right direction. So then once they do that survey and establish those grades, they also shot the elevations of the culverts. And so any culvert that was three inches either higher or lower from that proposed sloped line is Those are the ones that were going to be adjusted. But if they are within that three-inch or six-inch range, they were left in place.

All right. And my last question is, you don't have to answer it out loud, but I've kind of been keeping tallies on which contractor we're getting the most complaints about. I'd like to know who done this project.

I was just going to say the same thing. The ditching project, who's the contractor on that? But we don't have to answer that right now.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. Councilwoman, that was it? All right. Thank you.

It's public record.

It's on here.

Go on and say it, Dan.

East Texas Utility Construction.

For Phelps Road, it's East Texas Utility Construction. The first two phases of the roadside ditching contract were done by Texas Drainage. The third phase three is MK Constructors. And at any time that there's any complaints or concerns, I really cannot emphasize enough, call 311. If there's a problem, if there's an issue, call 311. They'll connect you with engineering, and we will investigate and address.

That's the same MK that did Crow Road?

Yes, sir.

I guess you don't know who it falls on when it's three full contractors working on one project, but okay.

Again, different crews and capacity to do work, and that's what we take a look at.

Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor of approval of item number four, please signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number five, please?

Yes. Item number five is to consider a resolution authorizing the city manager to award a contract to CF McDonald Electric, Inc. of Houston, Texas, for the Pine Street Surface Water Treatment Plant Generator Improvements Project. The project consists of improvements to the emergency power generation and fuel supply system at the Pine Street Surface Water Treatment Plant. The work consists of relocating an existing generator, removing an existing generator and fuel tank, and installing a new generator, fuel tank, and associated equipment. The project also includes the installation of fuel piping and related structural, electrical, and instrumentation components. July 2, 2026, four bids were received for this work. Engineer's estimate for the contract was $898,000. Water utility staff concurs with the recommendation from Freeze and Nichols to award the contract to the apparent low bidder, CF McDonnell Electric, for the base bid item in the amount of $1,137,115. Funds are available from water revenue bonds, and the administration recommends approval.

Is there a motion for item number five?

Move to approve.

There is a motion and a second for approval of item number five. Is there any discussion or questions? Yes, Councilwoman.

I'm less concerned about them being the low bidder and more concerned about do we have a history with them or any knowledge of prior work or have we worked with this company in the past to make sure that this work is done properly.

Previous relationships, I don't have that information at hand, but they are required per the terms of the contract to provide references and resumes with relevant work, and then we reach out to those clients to make sure that that work was completed appropriately. And so we run through all those conditions before we recommend a work.

I'd like to make sure that we get that or get updated on that, that we can verify the work.

yes ma'am thank you any other questions or discussion all those in favor of approving item number five please signify by saying aye aye any opposed the motion carries mr city manager would you Read item number six now. Yes.

Item number six is to consider resolution authorizing the purchase, assembly, and installation of two PAX tank mixers for use at the Northwest and prison elevated storage tanks. The Northwest and prison elevated storage tanks currently do not have tank mixers. Tank mixers can improve disinfectant residual control reduce tank corrosion, eliminate stratification, reduce disinfection byproducts, and reduce water age by thoroughly circulating water within a tank. The total cost for the mixer's assembly and installation is $127,570. Pricing for each location was obtained from Pax Water Technologies. of Milpitas, California, the sole source provider of the patented mixing system. The vendor quotes and sole source documentation are attached in your packet. Funds are available from water revenue bonds, and the administration recommends approval of this purchase.

Is there a motion for item number six? So moved.

Second.

There is a motion and a second for approval of item number six. Is there any questions? And Councilwoman Sherwood.

Have we suffered any consequences by there not being this for some time, or am I understanding that they've never had this before? What is the implications or consequences of them not having had this prior to now?

I'll ask Ms. Villarreal to answer.

We have had issues with these tanks. Well, any elevated storage tank, especially this time of year, what happens is with the sunlight heating, you get thermal stratification of the water, which means that the As the water heats up, the warmer water's on top, cooler water's on the bottom, and the water has potential to become stagnant. And also with that heating, you can off-gas the chlorine that is in the water. If there's any defects in the paint, you're going to get rust inside the tank. These tanks... have been recent within the last several years have been rehabilitated in order to preserve them keep that water mix prevent it from getting stagnant we recommend putting these mixtures the rest of the tanks have mixtures installed and it appears that it is helping with the water quality and also to to extend the life of the tanks themselves. And this is the same vendor that has installed the mixtures in all the other tanks.

So the answer to the question is basically lower water quality and improved?

Yeah, improved water quality, which also extends the life of the tank. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor of approval of item number six, please signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, would you take us into the first public hearing, please?

Yes, sir. The first public hearing is finding and ratifying the determination of the public health director that public health nuisances exist on the property owned by North Star Multifamily Beaumont Portfolio Manager LLC at 2450 West Lucas Drive with a legal description of Calder Highlands, the North 132 feet, Lot 5, Block 3A, Lot 6, Block 3-1, and order the owner to abate public health nuisances within 10 days. If the property owner fails to comply within 10 days, staff is requesting city council authorization to abate said property without further notification to the property owner of city council action. And I do believe we have our health director, Mr. Kenneth Coleman, to present this item.

You can go to the next slide. This is to give you a history of this property. It was declared a public health nuisance in December of 2025. Owner directed to correct violations within 10 days. Property owner then abated violations appropriately within the 10 days. But as you can see, I'm back before you again. The property was referred back to the health department and re-inspected on June 24th of this year with some of the same violations. Next slide. stagnant water, offensive water on private property, sewer overflow, discharge on the property. Of course, when we have standing water, those conditions are conducive for mosquito breeding, which, as you know now, we put out on yesterday. We do have West Nile virus in our community. Jefferson County Vector Control have identified several pools of mosquitoes that tested positive for West Nile. Next slide. So this is some pictures so you can see what's really going on on this property. Next slide. And that's the overflow of the sewage water. Questions?

Yes, Councilman Crenshaw.

Thank you, Mr. Coleman, to you and your staff for addressing this. I know I've reached out to your department and to Jimmy about this multi-family property. And I'm glad you've identified these public health problems, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. There's all sorts of problems at that property. And with their history in the past of lack of compliance and then taking some changes, I guess, in order to get back into compliance, this situation is very bad for the people that live there. It's not their fault that the People that own this facility are doing such a poor job of maintaining it. But then the neighboring community, I got a call yesterday from someone who lives right down the street on West Lucas complaining about the condition of the property. I mean, it's things that they could easily fix, like... having the trash container dumped more often. It fills up, it overflows. There's been a mattress out there sitting on the side of that trash container for months and no one that owns and operates this apartment complex wants to be a good neighbor and do the right thing and get that issue resolved so thank you to your staff for doing this and this absolutely needs to be addressed it is a nuisance thank you councilman all right with that i'll open the public hearing thank you thank you mr coleman anybody signed up to speak in the public hearing

Kevin Foster, 4190 Delaware, number 11, Beaumont, Texas.

Good afternoon, you all.

I'm a resident at, I'm sorry, my name's Kevin Foster. My address is 4190, but that's the opposite side of the property on the back side where the sewage leak is. When I moved to this complex, it was very nice. And over the past, maybe like seven, eight months, everything is starting to go down. Some of those pictures are some of the similar pictures that I've sent in. The sewage is leaking over into the parking lot. So we have to, well, we parked back there. So we have to come in today. And there's children that play as well. I sent a work order out maybe a little bit over a month ago. I didn't get any responses. Also, when I sent this work out, I started seeing the sewage come into my apartment. So, the second bedroom where I live at, the carpet's been saturated for over a month now. Now there's mold, and I haven't been able to stay in my place for like the past couple of weeks because of the mold. I have bad allergies, and also I can't stand there for longer than maybe an hour or so without getting a headache. So I'm fortunate to have good friends and family, but it just takes away that comfort of being in your own space and things like that. So there's, again, I can't tell my neighbors upstairs not to use their restrooms and showers, anything like that, because it comes straight downstairs. It comes filled into my tub, into my bathroom floor, and so it's just becoming such a big issue. But I haven't had any, no one's responded to my inquiries or anything like that. But I was hoping that maybe someone can do something about this. I would think that the owner would mean well, but THEIR ACTIONS AREN'T SHOWING THAT THEY MEAN WELL TO DO SO BY THE TENANTS THAT LIVE THERE. SO WHATEVER NEEDS TO HAPPEN NEEDS TO HAPPEN. HOPEFULLY SOON BEFORE, YOU KNOW, IT BECOMES MORE OF AN ISSUE, SOMEONE GETS SICK. LIKE I SAID, THERE ARE KIDS THAT PLAY IN THIS PLACE. SO HOPEFULLY SOMEONE CAN STEP IN AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE. THAT'S ALL I HAVE.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, SIR. YES, COUNCILMAN DURHAM. Mr. Coleman, in a case like this where the whole apartment building has to be abated within 10 days, and if it's not, what happens to the occupants of the apartments?

Once we go out and do the follow-up in the 10 days, and if the property is not brought into compliance, then we refer the matter to legal. And then from that, legal takes over.

What happens to the occupants?

I don't think you want me to answer that on the record, but I will.

Essentially, it's a constructive eviction. Those individuals will need to be relocated. And so they would either seek civil litigation against the property owner or other remedies that they have available. But once we condemn the building legally, they cannot reside there.

So they have to be relocated and I guess they take civil action against the

So the last time we were involved in a health or nuisance or property abatement of a property where they had occupants was the Ridgewood. And that was a elder community. And we were able to relocate those individuals. Most of them were in dire need of medical care, so they needed to be sent to a hospital. Most of them went home to families, but others of them, because they required care and couldn't live on their own, had to be placed in other nursing home facilities. This is a residential neighborhood, so obviously these individuals need to be placed in areas that can accommodate them and their families. I don't know if it's income restricted, but as you know, that there is a housing, you know, shortage involvement as it relates to low income housing. So there's a lot of factors at play. Obviously, staff would be working with them to do that. It's a group effort. So our housing department, Jess and her team, as well as Demi and others would need to step in and assist in that. But essentially, they would not be able to live there. You can't say a property is a health nuisance and allow people to live there.

But the city will help with the relocation?

Yes, in any way we can.

Okay.

Councilman Turner, then Councilwoman Sherwood. Mr. Coleman, thank you. First and foremost, has the owner facility been responsive to you guys going out?

Well, once we go out, of course, we initially speak to the property manager. And what we find in a lot of these cases, the property owner doesn't live here. And sometimes it can be a little difficult locating the property owner. But once we do, that's who we send all the information to, is to the property owner. And so the inspector goes over everything with the property owner. He walks or she may walk the property with the property manager, pointing out all the violations and what needs to be corrected. And sometimes they're responsive, but a lot of times they're not, you know, because most of them doesn't even live here.

So has that first step been taken and now they have 10, if we give you, well, we authorize you as a council, you guys now have 10 days to kind of move forward with the whole process.

So I want counsel to not be restricted so much by the 10 days. If someone is responsive after it becomes a public health nuisance and they reach out to code enforcement or even to my office and say that they're actively trying to abate the issue, we don't go straight to the lawsuit. We understand that these things take time, but there has to be an active response. motivating factor and so declaring it a public health nuisance does give more authority to the public health department to be able to do something but it also allows for other civil litigate remedies for the tenants and for my office and so it takes it out of the hands of the public to have to kind of make complaints to the property owner and now the health department has a little bit more authority so essentially what you're doing is allowing the health director to kind of have more authority to mitigate some of these factors. More authority than building codes would have, more authority than code enforcement would have. The health authority has a lot of authority once it's empowered by council that it's been determined that it's a public health nuisance. It's almost like, think about Mario. When he hit the star, that's what this is. You get the extra juice. So right now, obviously, they can do those things. And like I said, code enforcement, all those options go out. But the clarity of the public health news increases the authority of the public health authority to implement some things.

I understand. Well, I'm 107 and I'm ready to hit the store so I get it.

Typically what we do in situations like this here, we'll go back out, we'll reach out to the property owner, even though they would send a letter notifying them that they had the right to come to council today to speak on their behalf. But like for the sewage issue, then we ask them, okay, what's your plan moving forward? So they have to show us that they have a contract with a plumbing company. They have to show us all this, that they have contracts in place to get the work done. It's not that we just take their word for it, but if you have a plan, a plan of action, you have to show us in writing that you have a plumber that's coming out to rectify the issue.

Okay. Councilwoman, my question was along the lines of if if or when this 10 day notice would affect those people that may have to be relocated, things of that nature. This open dialog gives them a heads up to kind of be prepared for what could be coming. However, as I understand it, this 10 days could be mitigated through some repercussions as far as them getting the work done or doing some other things. However, if it's unsafe while the work is being done and those people have to be relocated, does the city play a part in any of that? Or is that just something that they got to bite on their own and figure it out as they go?

What part do you mean? We can assist in any way we can, but that's a service we're providing. That's not a responsibility of the city. Their contractual obligation is between them and the landlord or the property owner or property management company. The city weaves that line very carefully not to interfere with contractual relationships. If we go to court and a judge orders, the judge could easily order that the property be vacated. He could also order that the property owner relocate these individuals or pay for them to be in hotels. There's a lot of things. Like I said, there are very few times when we deal with properties that are occupied. And the last one, like I said, was a nursing home. And in that situation, the property owner wasn't willing to pay. And it was declared a public health nuisance. We did determine that it was dangerous for those individuals to be there. So because they're elderly and infirm, there's some services that are available to them through the state. And we partner with them to make sure that these individuals are relocated. This is a different situation because it's family. So it's not as easy. But obviously, the city will assist in any way we can. But there's nothing we could do to essentially pay for them to stay somewhere or give them vouchers to stay somewhere. That's not something that the city can do.

Mayor, in response to Councilwoman Sherwood's question also, we will, our hope is that the owner is responsive and works to address it within the 10 days. We will monitor the situation to make sure that if it draws out that it's still a safe situation as they're trying to abate the issue. I will say in my review of the file, I think the owner is listed. There's one address in Houston and one in, I think, McKinney, Texas. And to my knowledge, the review of the file is they have not been responsive at all.

And that's what I'm concerned about, because if people are going to be needing to be relocated, we're going to get a bunch of calls about that. So, yeah, just thinking in the front.

All right. Do we have anybody else that signed up?

No, sir. That was it.

Okay. The public hearing is now closed. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number seven, please?

Yes, sir. Item number seven is to consider an ordinance finding and ratifying the determination of the public health director that public health nuisances exist on the property owned by North Star Multifamily Beaumont Portfolio Manager LLC at 2450 West Lucas Drive with a legal description of Calder Highlands, North 132 feet of Lot 5, Block 3A, Lot 6, Block 1, and order the owner to abate public health nuisances within 10 days. If the property owner fails to comply within 10 days, staff is requesting the City Council authorization to abate said property without further notification to the property owner of City Council action. And the administration is recommending approval of this ordinance.

All right. Is there a motion for item number seven? So moved. Second. There is a motion and a second for approval of item number seven. Is there any further discussion or questions?

Just one quick comment.

Yes, sir.

Chris, if we could please, I realize that the public health nuisance is separate from code enforcement issues, but God willing, this apartment owner does respond to us escalating this. I'm optimistic that in addressing the public health nuisance, we also can please get them to try to address the code enforcement issues as well.

Yes, sir. We're aware of high grass issues. We're aware of the dumpster issues. We're aware of property maintenance issues, and we will certainly work to abate all of those.

Great.

Thank you. All right. All those in favor of approving item number seven, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, would you take us into the next public hearing?

Yes, sir. Next public hearing is to conduct a public hearing to receive comments regarding a grant application to the Federal Transit Administration and Texas Department of Transportation to receive operating assistance funds for the Beaumont Zip transit system.

The public hearing is now open. Has there been anybody signed up to speak on this item? Okay.

Yes, so as part of... What we're asking today is something we do every year, because as you're aware, the transit system is supplemented by a variety of funds. Of course, there's city funds, general funds that go into the system, tech stock funds, FTA funds, and then, of course, The fare is paid by the riders. So we just want to give you a brief overview of the system since this is an opportunity to do so. So the first slide you see here is just an overview of the routes of the system and then the time of operation of the system. So you see Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. through 9.30, Saturday service, 7.15 to 9.30. And then, of course, we have a special transit service which supplements our fixed route service. And a little hard to read, but this is the map of the transit system with all the different routes. And as I mentioned, there is a special STS service. And again, this is essentially a supplement to our fixed route, which allows certain eligible riders to have essentially door-to-door service. It should be noted there is a capacity issue. There's a scheduling issue. It's not unlimited because it is a very good service, but again, it is limited to a certain clientele. So I showed you the map earlier of the system. This is the count provided by ZIP of the 2025 ridership for each route. And a little hard to read, but I'll show you. The next slide is essentially the same numbers by route. So you see, of course, our highest ridership, most popular routes are Parkdale 11th and South Park. And then as you look to the left of the screen, you can see the least used routes, Laurel Pine and the Refinery route. And so, again, as I mentioned, the system is supplemented or funded from a variety of sources. If you look at the top line, you'll see FTA providing about 51% of the funding. TxDOT, 12%. FAERS, as I mentioned, about 312%. And then we also, you'll see in the agenda item coming up, there are toll credits, which is a tech stop program, which helps us offset local match. And then, of course, you see at the far right, 35% of the system cost with funding by the general fund of the city. Um, below that again, just the total expenses, um, also broken down is the cost per trip, uh, per service. So you see there, the fixed route, uh, trip count $289,702 in 2025. So again, just kind of dividing that by the total cost, it's $1,720 per fixed route. The STS, obviously a much higher service level and much lower capacity, so the supplement is much higher. and then you see the total and then again the cost breakdown per trip is shown there between fixed route versus STS and the total and with that questions or comments we also have Claudia San Miguel with our zip transit if we if we have additional detailed questions on the system But again, just wanted to provide that overview of the system since this is an opportunity to do so as we look to accept some federal and state funding supplement.

I've got Councilman Williams and Councilwoman Sherwood.

Looking at that graph, it kind of showed a pretty stark difference in ridership amongst the routes. How do we determine if a route... What makes a route viable? When do you go, you know, maybe this doesn't make sense, or is there a process that you have in place?

Yes, sir. I'll invite Claudia up, but as she's coming, yes. I mean, one of the things we do is we, of course, look at our statistics. The other thing we do is we rely on our input from our drivers to say, look, this route is dropping off, and then Tina, if you can go back one slide, one more slide, one more slide. OK, to the map. So again, part of the challenge, too, is as we talk about our low ridership routes like Refinery and Pine, know the reality is they are low ridership but we want to try to cover as much of the city as possible and so that's a challenge too well while we look at those decisions that's also part of it too is because if we start you know start removing large sections of the city then that that can impact the uh the whole system so claudia did you have any more feedback on kind of how we because because as you all know we've done some route adjustments uh lately um one of the things we've done in the past and we'll probably do again is a more widespread efficiency study we'll go back and take a fresh look at all the routes to see what makes sense but One final thought I'll share is that a lot of them have been in place for decades, and so we do try to make changes and tweaks to improve efficiency from time to time, but a lot of them have been in place for a long time. But, Claudia, any other thoughts on how routes might be changed?

Well, there's a good afternoon. Miguel, your general manager for transit. There's always going to be opportunity for improvements. And we've been discussing a couple of them for the last couple of months and presenting opportunities. If you remember, we did a couple of minor realignments. I WANT TO SAY ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO, THAT THOSE WERE MORE AIMED TO BRING SMALLER EFFICIENCIES AND TO ADDRESS SOME OF THE CONCERNS CAUSED BY THE TEXT CONSTRUCTIONS AND DETOURS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE CITY AS A RESULT OF THE CONSTRUCTION. SO IT WAS NOT NECESSARILY 100% DRIVEN BY RIDERSHIP. BEING HERE FIVE YEARS NOW, SOME OF THE AREAS THAT WE'RE BEING CHALLENGED WITH, WHICH IS Talk about earlier you know the refinery routes is it's not problem word is just city of baltimore right pretty much everything is going to go through this. Process where some of those neighborhoods or even business areas mature and people start moving somewhere else. So what used to be thriving neighborhoods, families, and this and that, that's not the case today. And that's what we're faced with, where we see some of those refinery, pine, and even some of the magnolia. They're older neighborhoods and not necessarily where the new constructions are coming in, where these multifamily apartment complexes are in, where you're TRANSIT DEPENDENT POPULATION PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LEAVE SO THE NEED FOR REALIGNMENT IS DEFINITELY PRESENT EVERY TIME YOU DO THAT AND BECAUSE OF LIMITED RESOURCES IS YOU REASSIGN RESOURCES SO REMOVING SERVICE SOMETIMES IS NOT AN EASY DECISION BECAUSE There's still population there that's going to need the service. So options are going to involve frequency, where instead of removing service, you reduce the frequency. So instead of seeing the bus there every 30, 45 minutes, now you can see the bus every 45 minutes to an hour. So there's different options that we can definitely put together and consider to address those low ridership areas, routes, WITHOUT REMOVING THE SERVICE COMPLETELY BECAUSE WE KNOW TRANSIT, IT IS A LIFE LENGTH FOR MANY, MANY RESIDENTS DEPENDING ON THOSE AREAS. THEY DEPEND ON US TO GO TO WORK, GO TO SCHOOL, DIFFERENT DESTINATIONS AND I CAN DEFINITELY TALK FOREVER ABOUT THE PAD TRANSIT SERVICES, HOW THEY DEPEND ON US TO, THEIR BASIC NEEDS. THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE, SO IT'S JUST PUTTING THAT TOGETHER, YOU KNOW, WITH THE DIRECTION TO MOVE FORWARD WITH REALIGNMENTS THAT INSTEAD OF JUST REMOVING SERVICE, POTENTIALLY JUST REDUCE THE FREQUENCY. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SEE THE BUS AS OFTEN. THAT WILL BRING IN EFFICIENCIES SAVINGS THAT AT THE END OF THE DAY EITHER THE CITY CAN DECIDE TO JUST KEEP IT A SAVINGS OR EXPAND THE SERVICE WHERE IT'S NEEDED SOMEWHERE ELSE SO THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE IT'S DRIVEN PRETTY MUCH FOR NEIGHBORHOODS THAT HAVE MATURE BUSINESSES THAT ARE YOU KNOW NOT PRESENT THERE'S NOT THAT MANY WORKERS TRYING TO GO TO THIS AREA OR NOT SO THAT'S PRETTY MUCH WHAT WE'RE SEEING THANK YOU COUNCILWOMAN SHERWOOD AND COUNCILMAN HILLIARD

I was trying to find a text message that I had received from a lady about the bus routes, and I'm kind of glad that this was going, but I can't find it. But what she was saying was... that the routes are dilapidated. Basically, they're not updated enough, and there's a long hour wait, and we're not using the most out of our transit system, and she'd like to see it revamped and all of these things. I mean, the text had so much stuff in it, I was trying to pull it up because you're here. But basically, that the routes needed to be changed, the wait time was too long, it only went in one direction, something else. So I'm happy that we're I'm happy that we're looking at this to be able to put together something different and new. I just hope that we're considering thinking outside the box. She's from another city and she came here and she was saying how the transit system was not up to date to move people around easily, basically. And so I'll find it and get it to the city manager, but I'm glad that we're revisiting this to update it.

So how is the ad campaign going for the bus wrap?

So the advertisement campaign came in strong at the beginning. We have a lot of inquiries, a lot of people asking, and we were providing information. But somehow it's taking a long time for those people to actually come in and go ahead and execute the contract. Yesterday morning, I received an email and it was interesting. I've not been able to share with Demi, but there is an advertisement company that wants to advertise on every single bus. I'm still waiting to see this thing coming through to fruition. So hopefully, the next time you see me, I want to bring great news and you're going to see that money coming in. I was really excited to get that email. We're still going through the details. Apparently, it's an advertisement company. They're going to sell the advertisements so it's all good they're going to be doing the network for us so it's all good so hopefully by the next time in common speak to you all being bringing good news.

Can I go can you forward one slide. One more. So on these numbers here is this I would assume that this is the same riders riding 2 or 3 different times. Do we have any way to, I'm just guessing that when they get on, they say one rider. They don't say, oh, it's Pete again. He's been here three or four times. So a lot of these numbers are going to show these riders that are riding more than once on these buses.

So it is hard to tell. Obviously, the person is going to board a bus, pay their fare, and go on. Really, we don't have a way to identify each specific passenger. But traditionally, your transit-dependent population is going to be the same day in and day out. Our biggest challenge is to attract the non-passengers. transit-dependent population, which is where you're going to see on the bigger cities where transit is pretty much the preferred mode. Obviously, we're not there today. Hopefully, we'll get to prepare to when we're there, where transit is going to be a good option for everyone, not just those that really need to take the bus.

Now, what does it cost to ride a bus?

It's $1.50 for a regular passenger, and your pad transit is $2.50.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Councilman Crenshaw.

Yes, and I'd like to talk some numbers, just so I'm clear. The overall annual budget for transit is $6 million, thereabouts, correct?

6.142285 estimated for 2025.

Okay, and what for 2020, well, let's talk 2026. What are we budgeted for 2026 that the city contributes? Is it similar to this 2.1 million?

It's similar.

If you hold one second, I'll get... 6.2 million.

6.2 million.

Okay, so this year 6.2 million and the city's contribution in 2026 is 2.1 million?

Okay, the 2026 transfer originally budgeted was $1.9 million.

And that's what I was getting to. So in 2025, we got all the grants and the additional funding from the feds and the state, so we came in at only the $2.1 million. But in 2026, we've already spent $3.2 million, correct? And we still have three months left of the fiscal year?

We've spent. Yes, so we're past like the halfway point. I think we're 10 months in, right? So I would have to pull up NAVILA. I'm sorry. One moment.

And the difference of the 1.9 and the 3.2, the estimated 1.3 million, that was just due to lack of additional funds from... Grants and state and fed correct correct, and it was not an increase in expenses Correct it did have a wage increase. Yeah, they had a wage increase and what was the cost of the wage increase? So yes, so five percent is five percent of what five percent of the total wages and

That is current.

They're under contract. They're contract employees.

My fear is that, I mean, $1.3 million in our current budget overage for 2026 is significant. Between employee benefits and transit, we nearly doubled our deficit. And so here's where I'm going with this. Of a $6.1, $6.2 million budget, if we reduce the frequency of the routes by, say, a third, does that reduce the budget spending by a third?

You're going to have fixed costs.

Correct. So what – I guess that's where I'm getting at. What is – if we were to reduce – you don't want to eliminate routes, so you just – you say we want to reduce the frequency of some routes. What if we reduce the frequency of, say, all the routes? We did an across-the-board route frequency diet. Okay. what does that shrink percentage-wise our overall budget? I'm trying to figure out how much we would have to decrease the frequency to make up for this $1.3 million this year and what we should probably anticipate is going to be $1.3 million next year. Yep.

I think we would have to look at those numbers because you'd have to look at each line item individually. But I mean, your fuel, obviously that's, you know, you're traveling. less, your fuel's going to be useless. Okay. But, I mean, things like, you know, you're going to have your insurance, you're going to have your maintenance costs, none of those are probably going to substantially change.

Okay.

So, I mean, you'd have to go line item by line item. I don't think that's operational, yes.

All right, so it doesn't sound like we have that data right now.

Well, we do have an early estimate. There's still some fixed costs that we would have to run, but we can go ahead and And we've taken, I will say, an early look at perhaps, in other words, reducing some frequency on roads.

We might need to carry that over to the budget workshop on August 4th because this is more about the grant application rather than just budgeting. I mean, these are good questions that we need to have, but it's a little outside of our scope.

But we can provide this ahead of time.

We can get that information.

Is the subsidies we receive from state or federal, is that based on what we spend? So just in other words, if we spend less, would those go down?

It's supposed to be... half of the operating. So in other words, it's supposed to be the gap between what it costs us to operate versus the fair. It's supposed to be the half, but the reality is there's also some formula based on population and all kinds of things. So it's a complicated formula, but it's supposed to approximately be half.

Okay. And we'll be able to get additional information on the grants to be able to make this decision. ANYTHING ELSE? THANK YOU. WE HAVE THE READING OF ITEM NUMBER 8, PLEASE. PUBLIC HEARING IS NOW CLOSED. SO I GUESS THE ANSWER IS YES, WE CAN CLOSE IT.

Okay, item number eight is a resolution authorizing the city manager to submit a grant application and execute a contract with the Federal Transit Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation to receive operating assistance funds for the Beaumont ZIP. The city of Beaumont, through its transit operator, Beaumont ZIP, has prepared a grant application for the FY2026, 5307, and 5339 grant funds from FTA and the FY2026 state urban grant from TxDOT. These grants will help fund labor, fringe benefits, parts, as well as cleaning and shop supplies, purchase services, utilities, insurances, licenses, and all other miscellaneous expenses needed for the operation and maintenance of the Beaumont ZIP program. In addition, funds will be budgeted for the operation and maintenance of facility improvements, shop equipment, paratransit vans, as well as other bus facility improvements, including bus stop improvements, shelters, signage, lighting, benches, and other amenities. Grant period for the grant begins October 1st, 2026 and ends September 30th, 2027. Staff intends to apply for Texas, or excuse me, transportation development credits through the Texas Department of Transportation to reduce the city's required local match, the $57,476, ideally to get to zero of our local match for the 5339 grant. Under TxDOT's revised process, TDCs may only be requested after the FDA grant application has been submitted. Funding source available for this is from the FDA, TxDOT, as well as the general fund. The administration recommends approval of the resolution.

Is there a motion for item number 8? So moved. There is a motion and a second for approval of item number 8. Councilman Hilliard, you have a question?

Have we ever applied for this before? Have we ever applied for this? Yes. Have we ever gotten it?

Yes, this is annual allocations.

Okay, cool. Thank you.

Councilman Crenshaw. So, was this part of the 1.3 in an extra transfer that we had to do that we didn't get approved for 2026?

I'll defer to finance.

This is an annual allocation that we get every year. Okay. And it's fixed.

Okay. So we did this same request last year?

We do it every year, yes, sir.

Okay. And what we didn't, I guess what I'm trying to get, what did we not get in 2026 that made us have to do the $1.3 million in transfer? What does the $1.3 million represent?

I think, so as, you know, we're talking He, like, or we, every year, so if TxDOT or these grants that we get, because we have some federal, some state, they're covering about half, right? But maybe our transfers haven't gone up the same, and so some of it's going to be shoring up.

We budgeted $1.9 million for 2026, and we've so far in 2026 spent $3.2 million. What I'm trying to figure out is the money that we're asking today to approve, is this money that we asked for last year that we didn't get, which is why the city taxpayers' contribution to transit increased from $1.9 million to $3.2 million?

I'm not aware of any grant that we have not received at this time. I would have to look at it and I can have that for you on the 4th, but we should have all the grants.

I thought we were specifically told that the reason why we had to spend the extra $1.3 million in transfers this year was because we did not get the grant money we thought we were going to get for 2026.

So the additional transfer was to cover their negative amounts, which in essence is because expenditures are more than revenues coming in.

For the budget for the next August 4th, if we could have a breakdown on what that increase is, I think that's what We're alluding to this.

And it's in operations. I mean, they had a 5% wage increase in 26. They had a 3.5%.

I get there was a wage increase. I'm just sort of confused here because I thought I was specifically told previously in a meeting either in council or with the city manager or with finance or with someone that, you know, why did we have this giant... additional payment, and I thought we specifically said that it was related to the fact that between the federal grants that we get and the state grants, that we did not get as much money from the feds and the states as we thought that we were.

There might have been a miscommunication. There was in 24 where there was a delay in receiving funds in 24 because it was some... federal stuff that happened. And so we did not get all of our funds at 24, but it came over into 25. So in essence, we still did receive those funds. We just received them a fiscal year later. So that might have been some of that confusion.

And just, you know, looking back at the budget, you know, the revenues for FY24 is $3.4 million. Then the revenues for 2025 is $8.7 million. And then back down to $5.6 million. So ideally, we would get the same thing every year or keeping up with expenses from the feds and the tech side, but it's not. But yeah, there was a delay in payment.

Maybe it's just the timing. I guess the impression I got was that staff was looking at additional ways to get additional funding to help our budget situation with transit. And that's what I thought we were voting on today was, We were trying to get additional grants to try to help us with this funding because, you know, we now have a serious problem with our fund balance and our budget. And I thought that that's what we were doing. But it looks like this is just... normal, routine grants that we apply for every year that you're wanting us to vote to approve. And this isn't in any way going to fix the fact that we're 3.2 million, the city taxpayers have to contribute to transit this year.

That's correct. This is a normal thing we do every year. There's no additional new money. Okay. The point of the presentation today was just to update and overview the system. But, yeah, there's no – we're not anticipating – all the numbers on this item is not new money that we expect.

Well, in addition to the budget, maybe we need a workshop specific to the budget of transit because that's a lot of money. Mm-hmm. And we're talking about right now $6.5 million over budget for 2026 as of right now. And if we're spending $3.5 million from city taxpayers that normally we only thought we were going to spend $1.9 million, That's a big enough number there that I think it warrants a little bit more than, oh, we're just over budget this year, so let's spend that out of the rainy day fund and move on to the next thing. I think we need to take some, you know, we need some decisive action here.

Me.

Councilman Hillier, then Councilwoman Sherwood.

So I have a question. We did a 5% rate increase for the employees of transit, correct? Last year? Was it last year?

Yes, sir. And they have one coming for 27 as well.

So did we increase rates on travel? I mean, because usually when a business or a corporation does that kind of thing, they offset the cost by raising rates. When was the last time we had a rate increase on the transit system?

Probably about 10 years ago. It was $1.25.

It's really a waste to increase the rates. I mean, it's costing us $17 per rider. What are they paying, $0.50? $1.50.

$1.50.

Yeah, I mean, you know. Okay. I don't think raising the rates is going to change the situation.

Right, unless we're going to do it to 20,000 persons anyway. That might help.

Councilwoman?

That wasn't my question. I had lost my train of thought. It was about the money. It was about the $3 million increase in expenses or whatever versus the revenue. But my question was, to Councilman Crenshaw's point, was, is that strictly in... Salary or is that just across the board expenses being more things being more expensive as far as gas or vehicle maintenance or things of that nature or is that strictly in wages alone?

Well, I think that's what we're talking about is maybe on August 4th is to kind of delve into why.

know if in other words if the expenses are going up pretty fixed I mean relatively fixed why was there a big increase this year so I think we'll provide you those are good questions it's not a part of this item number eight at this point all right there's no other discussion or questions all those in favor of approving item number eight please signify by saying aye any opposed motion is carried All right, Mr. City Manager, could you take us into the first work session?

Yes, sir. This work session is to review and discuss downtown proactive code enforcement updates. I believe we have... Ingman will present.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. As part of the City's strategic plan to prioritize downtown development and beautification of Beaumont, the Council authorized a more proactive approach to downtown code enforcement in March of 24. The last time my team presented on this was January of 26. This presentation will encompass changes since then. We also did enhance the slides to help clearly visualize the areas being discussed. Next slide, please. The area outlined by the solid black line represents the portion of the central business district where staff have concentrated their proactive enforcement efforts during phase one of the sweep. Staff continue to conduct regular inspections throughout this area and are trying to work collaboratively with property owners to achieve and maintain compliance. The area outlined in the dotted black line represents phase two, which has been incorporated into the city's proactive enforcement efforts since January of this year. That was the expansion that we talked about earlier. Next slide, please. This slide shows all of the properties that have been tagged by staff since the Downtown Proactive Code Sweep, which began again in March of 24. Next slide, please. The buildings highlighted in green have completed repairs and are considered code compliant. I sincerely appreciate the property owners for their cooperation and commitment to maintaining their properties to strengthen our downtown. Next slide, please. While some of the properties have made considerable progress and a few are anticipated to achieve compliance, many properties have remained stagnant or even regressed. Properties that are in red are considered unsafe for habitation, which are commonly referred to as red-tagged. Next slide, please. This map represents the properties with active charges filed in municipal court due to unresolved code violations. In September 2024, the city council adopted the vacant building registry ordinance to encourage the maintenance, rehabilitation, and productive reuse of vacant buildings. While some of the properties currently meet the ordinance's exemption criteria, such as actively being marketed for sale or for lease, undergoing permitted construction, or otherwise qualifying under the VBR, they do not have a certificate of occupancy on file with the city. Other properties remain out of compliance with the ordinance, and in many cases, enforcement actions have resulted in citations being filed in municipal court. Next slide, please. This slide presents recent developments. The dark blue areas on the map indicate properties that are currently publicly listed for sale, while the light blue green areas represent open permits with associated various renovation, repair, or maintenance projects. Next slide, please. This slide highlights the economic activity that has occurred within the Downtown Proactive Code Sweep area since July of 2025, about a year ago. Seven properties are currently listed for sale. The city hosted three pre-development meetings, two of which have occurred in the last six months. The city issued nine certificates of occupancy and three of which have been issued in the last six months. For citizens watching here today, a certificate of occupancy is required before a business may open to the public. Next slide. I wanna thank the council for your continued support of our staff and for the policies that have enabled this program to move forward. I also wanna recognize the property owners and the tenants who have invested in improving these historic buildings and in doing so are strengthening the safety and vitality in our downtown. Addressing civic appearance is the first step to building civic pride. And these enforcement efforts are helping set the foundation for a more active and resilient community. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide you this update. Any questions?

Thank you.

Mayor, our next work session is to review and discuss the 312 tax abatement policy. And presenting will be Jess Prince.

good afternoon so we're here today to review our 312 policy the city of beaumont will be considering revisions to this policy in september of 2026 we review our policy every two years per state law sometimes we do a revision and sometimes it's simply a re-adoption but we're looking today at ways that we can possibly increase opportunities for beaumont's workforce and strengthen oversight. Tax abatement, for those watching at home or in the audience today, is an economic development strategy to mitigate substantial costs that are usually associated with construction or expansion of a facility that's enhancing the tax base of our community. So to recap, our city manager, Mr. Boone, gave you guys a work session on HE DID A WORK SESSION IN MAY, AND JUST TO RECAP THAT FOR ANYONE THAT WASN'T PRESENT FOR THAT, OUR INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT AGREEMENTS, YOU GOOD? OUR INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT AGREEMENTS ACCOUNT FOR APPROXIMATELY 12% OF OUR GENERAL FUND REVENUES. abatement periods are typically an initial 10% or less I'm sorry 10 years or less we are typically renegotiating these agreements every seven years and so the years one through three are taxed at 80% while years four through seven are taxed at 75 a minimum investment for us to even consider this sort of abatement is $500,000 with a 20-person commitment for full-time equivalent employees. And currently, these bullets at the bottom were requiring reporting on their local bidding opportunities that they're providing. We're requiring them to speak to us quarterly about their local preference that they're showing for spend and for hire. And we're also asking them for justification on any purchases they're making for these projects THAT ARE NOT LOCAL. THEY'RE DOING QUARTERLY REPORTS AND THEN THEY DO AN ANNUAL REPORT AS WELL. SO TODAY WHAT WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT BASED ON COUNCIL'S COMMENTS IN MAY AND WHAT YOU EXPRESSED AS THINGS THAT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE OR EXPLORE, WE'RE GOING TO LOOK AT WHAT SOME OTHER COMMUNITIES ARE DOING WITH THEIR ABATEMENT AGREEMENTS. We're going to discuss policy revisions that we could potentially implement in September. We're going to talk about how we can increase accountability within the reporting and within the oversight that's happening between these companies, what they're reporting, how often they're reporting, who they're involving, and whether or not they are actually delivering what their agreements are asking or saying that they will do. And lastly, we're going to look at our application. Because what's important to note is that when a company comes to us with an abatement request, what they are proposing to do is captured in their application initially, if there is one. And then when we're getting these reports, it's important that they're giving us everything that we're wanting to know. And so revisions to our application is a big piece of this, and that'll be the last thing that we discuss.

Councilman Turner. I'm sorry, Ms. Jess, for interrupting, but if I understand you correctly, are you saying we're currently getting quarterly reports and annual reports directly from the industry, or are we getting it from a third party?

Typically, many of our existing agreements also have abatement agreements with the county, and so many of them are giving us those reports jointly. And yes, quarterly, the annual has different data, and I'll talk about that a little bit in a future slide.

Okay, I'm just asking because I've requested to see quarterly and annually in the past, and I was instructed to get with the county in order to do so. So I want to make sure the information we're saying today is accurate because I have asked multiple times, and I had to go through the county to get it.

We can provide you the reports that we have. Yes, sir.

And I think his question was, is that information being provided through a third party or is that coming from industry or whom is it coming from?

It depends on their agreement and who was facilitating that initially. So it could be any of those. Did you have one, too?

Oh, can you clarify on your previous slide, you said 12% of general fund revenues comes from tax abatement agreements? Yes. And what exactly does that mean? Does that mean that all industrial taxes that have a tax abatement agreement in place, we get 12% of our general fund revenues from that?

So, yeah. If they're in the city and we have an abatement agreement with them, they're typically 312s. If they're outside of the city limits in our ETJ or in industrial districts, we have about 20 plus of those. Those have industrial development agreements. So yes, if you look at our general fund budget, one of the pretty sizable chunks of revenue after property tax and sales tax are industrial taxes in lieu of annexation.

Okay, but the 12% is not total industrial taxes. It's just 12% of our general fund revenues are simply industrial taxes that are part of 312 agreements.

For industrial, IDAs specifically. IDAs and 312s? And 312s. Yeah. Okay. But we have more IDAs than we do 312s because the IDAs are in our ETJ.

And can I just get a dollar amount on what that 12% is?

It was roughly $20 million.

$20,114,000.

Okay, so of the $20 million annually, that is just revenue that we're getting from IDA and 312 agreements. IDAs, actually.

It's specific to IDAs.

It's specific to IDAs? Yes, it is.

We have roughly 35 of those agreements.

So the 312 agreements, what revenue are we getting from those?

Those would just go into property taxes because those are within the city, so those are property taxes. And that would be a reduced amount. So, for example, we just, it's not, obviously it's not open yet and operating and producing revenue, but the city just approved the project at the port with an abatement. So that would be in a reduced amount, but it would go into the regular revenue.

Okay. And where... Can I see, where can the public see those, that 12%, those agreements that are part of our...

There was a slide in City Manager Boone's presentation that did, it was a pie chart specifically. I don't know if you sent that presentation out, but there was a slide that had a breakdown of all of those percentages.

But are you looking for the exact companies?

Yeah, I'm looking for who that 12% is and what the dollar amounts are.

Right, we can get that. Yeah, we have that internally. We can get that to you and we can certainly post it.

But it's not part of this presentation?

No.

Okay.

And the total dollar amounts are broken out specifically on the act for every year, but it's going to be- On the what every year? Sorry, annual comprehensive financial report.

Audit.

Yeah.

Okay.

Ready? Yes. All right. So these were, again, the topics we're going to talk about today based on council comments from the May meeting. What we, well, what I found most prevalent in the other cities that I looked at was revisions where they're putting a larger emphasis on strengthening local hiring. They're having a much more interactive partnership in the way of quarterly roundtables, which I'll go into more detail about. Apprenticeships were a big piece of that. and then annual wraparound support. So for example, Councilman Turner had made some comments about City of Waco, and he was interested in learning more about what they are doing. I'll start out with telling you what we have in common with Waco. We're both college towns, neither of us have an EDC, and we both have a poverty rate of greater than 20%. In every other way, the way that they are doing this type of abatement is different than ours. They have a partnership between the city and the county where they formed a foundation that jointly owns land. And the sites that come to them or the companies that come to them to do developments are doing that in this industrial park. Each of those entities, the city and county invested roughly $4 million apiece to get this off the ground. and they budget to support it annually. The third-party oversight that was alluded to is done by the Chamber of Commerce. They have a much larger Chamber of Commerce in Waco, and that chamber serves the county, essentially, but they are doing all of the negotiating, they're reviewing the terms based on what the city policies are to make sure that they are in compliance with what the city policies are, and they are doing monthly to the city in terms of their efforts and their outreach to attract this sort of development. They're also involved in the site selection in as much as they can given that it's specific to an industrial park. They do not create reinvestment zones. They use TIFs in their industrial park and they are getting away from abatements actually. They've transitioned predominantly to something called business grants and Those companies that are receiving business grants with the city are essentially paying all of these tax payments and permitting upfront, and then the city is reimbursing them after those payments are made. And so the way that they're ensuring compliance and the way that they're making sure that those performance-based metrics are met is that these reimbursements are not happening until the data is shown in terms of their productivity. So they have the businesses with these grants or that are receiving these incentives have contract languages requiring them to host training programs with their local workforce. They are doing local job fairs in conjunction with their chambers of commerce. But they have very specific language that says if they are not meeting the local jobs and the deliverables of their business grants then the incentives are not reimbursed so that's Waco Harris County Harris County has recently adopted actually just in February and so they don't have any agreements to date that they can provide me some information on but they they included all of these very strong workforce requirements so they have a minimum job requirement They have a lot of language in their agreements about competitive market wages and the benefits that these employees will receive. They must, regardless of project size, regardless of capital investment, they must hire at least 50% of their workforce from county residents. They've got to live in the county. Fifteen percent construction labor hours for their total project performed. has to be performed by workers enrolled in a Department of Labor apprenticeship program. And so their policy is requiring that any company coming to them for these abatements provide them a sustainable workforce development policy. They're not telling them what that looks like, but they are requiring them to provide it. And so that's outlining all of the ways that they're going to work with local partners to make sure that these requirements are being met. THEY ALSO HAVE A COMPONENT IN THEIR AGREEMENT FOR SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINING OR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS THAT AREN'T IN THE WORKFORCE BUT WOULD LIKE TO BE. THEY ALSO HAVE AN APPRENTICESHIP OR EDUCATION PROGRAM PARTNERSHIPS THAT'S ALSO INCORPORATED. AND AGAIN IT'S VERY NEWLY ADOPTED. I ACTUALLY HAVE A CALL WITH HARRIS COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON MONDAY TO TALK ABOUT OBVIOUSLY NOT HOW THEY'RE ENFORCING IT BECAUSE IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET, BUT ALL THE BACKGROUND WORK THAT WENT INTO IT TO GET TO THAT POINT. HARRIS COUNTY OR WACO? NEW SPEAKER I CAN SEND YOU GUYS THIS WHOLE PRESENTATION. So City of Dallas, also strong workforce language in their agreements. Again, with the minimum local jobs requirement. Their competitive market wages and benefits is actually using a living wage calculator that is not specific to Dallas, but I found that interesting because they're requiring them to pay them at least what this calculator is saying for their zip code is the living market wage. So I hadn't seen that in any other municipality.

What's the calculator say about Beaumont?

Well, I can get back to you on that. I'd like to know. Yeah, I can send you the link. But again, regardless of project size, they're requiring a minimum of 50% county residents for employees and 15% construction labor hours with apprenticeship program. They're also requiring the sustainable workforce development policy. But what's interesting about their agreement is that they have very specific verbiage, which is in this bottom right corner in green, about the company engaging with the college to serve as an employment partner for workforce program, adult apprenticeship, and to engage students in work-based activities. So above and beyond what the city is doing with the colleges, They're requiring the company to work directly with the college and to show that. Lastly, City of San Antonio. They have what is called wraparound support written into their agreements. And so they have a large piece on training to develop the local workforce. And they have what's called a dedication section. So each calendar year that they are receiving an abatement, they're having to dedicate the equivalent of 10% of their yearly abated value to a dedicated spending account that will be going straight to training, transit, childcare, supportive services for the workers. And they have a specific verbiage, which I've put here at the bottom, at least 60 days prior to receiving incentives Recipients must submit a plan to use the Economic Development Division of Use, sorry, to confirm and approve use in the programs set forth and deemed acceptable by the city. So they are showing how all of this is already incorporated into their workforce plan prior to even requesting abatement. So another piece that we heard you talk a lot about in response to City Manager Boone's presentation was workforce accountability. And what can we do to increase that and what does that look like? And so strengthening our local partnerships, including language in our agreements that are on wages specifically, the job fairs and training, and the local construction opportunities for a lot of our subcontractors. But at the end of the day, what we want to do is establish additional oversight. And you mentioned, I believe, Councilman Crenshaw potentially using our audit committee to have some increased oversight going forward. But all of the cities that I've talked with and looked at, are doing compliance in-house. Their economic development division is handling that. And so I think just creating additional parameters and other deliverables on a more frequent basis would help a lot and go a long way toward that. Because as I mentioned, we're only getting an annual report that includes any sort of employment data. The quarterly reports are more specific to the dollars they're spending in our local economy with local business for their supplies, but they're not speaking on a regular basis to the number of people that are employed, how many of them are local, any sort of apprenticeship programs. That's an annual report that comes after the fact. And so looking at that doesn't really help us because it was a year ago. So it's hard to say that it's current data. And so partnerships, what can this look like? Utilizing local partnerships is obviously going to enhance and raise awareness of these job opportunities, but it's also going to increase the accountability on hiring and identifying areas where we can strengthen our workforce readiness. So we have all of these partners in place like Lamar Institute of Technology. They have a really cool apprenticeship program that they're working on. But right now, what they can do is customize training for a customer's need. So if they have a business coming that says, we need 15 employees that are skilled in this particular set of skills, they can customize training to that end. BISD CTE program, they have a lot of programs that are earning dual credit and certifications so that when they graduate high school, they're already ready partially to go into the workforce in this way. But Workforce Solutions, Chamber of Commerce, both of them do a lot of education components, and they have the capacity, and they did in the past, to create specific education for an employer or for a company presenting to the community or to the subcontractors. For example, here's what this ENTITY IS GOING TO NEED AND FOR HOW MANY YEARS AND THIS IS HOW YOU CAN PREPARE YOURSELF TO WIN CONTRACTS IN THIS ARENA. AND THEN OF COURSE OUR LABOR COUNCIL AND OUR ASSOCIATION OF GENERAL CONTRACTORS, JUST THE AGC ALONE HAS OVER 200 MEMBERS THAT ARE ALL SPECIFIC TO INDUSTRY. AND SO LOOKING AT WHAT WE COULD DO IN TERMS OF A READY TO WORK COLLABORATION AND INCORPORATING THAT IN AGREEMENTS SO THAT THESE COMPANIES CAN SHOW US THAT THEY'RE ACTIVELY DOING OUTREACH AND PARTICIPATION WITH ALL OF OUR EXISTING PARTNERS. I THINK WOULD ALSO INCREASE OVERSIGHT GOING FORWARD. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE I MENTIONED SPECIFIC LANGUAGE. SO THIS IS AN EXAMPLE FROM SAN ANTONIO OF THEIR WAGE REQUIREMENTS AND YOU CAN SEE THAT THEY ARE TIERED. SO IF YOU'RE PAYING AN EMPLOYEE 80% OF THE MEDIAN WAGE AND YOUR minimum capital investment is $10 million and you're creating at least 50 jobs, then you're getting 20% abatement. And those percentages increase, obviously, the better your situation is. And so you're not saying, hey, you're getting 80% years one through three and you're getting 75% years four through seven. It's maybe contingent on what it is that you're doing for the local workforce and the local economy. That's just an example of what that could look like. So the ready-to-work collaboration, that could be, and we have a lot of the cities that I discussed this with do quarterly roundtables so that there's someone very internal to the companies receiving abatement that actually works with the hiring process for their companies, that is coming to speak with the council, the AGC, the labor union, the apprenticeship programs at LIT, the workforce, so that they're all on the same page about what's needed and then again what's happening. They can co-host these job fairs if we were to require them in agreement in tandem with either Chamber of Commerce or LIT or any other entity. I think BISD also does job fairs, but Having those education pieces and then a way for our local construction opportunities to really be brought to light for all of those local contractors are just things that we could implement. Now, I spoke earlier about the importance of our application. Right now, our application is a PDF file. It's online. But if we were to make it actually hosted on the website and fillable online, it would email staff an Excel with all of the fields from their application filled out. And it would make it much easier for compliance and for reporting for us to have that all in a database that says, OK, here's year one of your abatement. Here's your quarterly report. Here's how many employees you said you were going to have by this time. And here's what your application said. Here's what you actually have. And so, of course, that would make it a lot easier for us to incorporate more compliance. The employment impact pay range is something that I'd like to see included in our application. We have some vague language now that says, you know, you can apply or supply that information to us, but I think it would be helpful to see that on every single case. Competitive citing narrative, which I have a site on here in a minute, is the but for piece that talks about YOU KNOW, IF THEY WEREN'T TO RECEIVE AN ABATEMENT, THEN THEY COULDN'T DO THE PROJECT HERE OR THE REASON THEY'RE DOING THE PROJECT HERE IS BECAUSE THEY'RE GETTING THE ABATEMENT. AND THEN COMMUNITY IMPACT. WE HAD A DISCUSSION BACK IN MAY DURING MR. BOONE'S PRESENTATION ABOUT AN ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY THAT THEY A THIRD PARTY IS TYPICALLY, YOU KNOW, COMPLETING. but if it were to be a community impact study instead it would consider a lot of other factors in addition to the the basic economic data and i think it would give us a better picture of how our community will benefit from these projects we'd also like to implement the fact that the application be completed for all of our ida agreements those are these industrial district agreements that are making up 12 percent of our general fund and And so requiring them to do this application as well I think would be very significant in monitoring any sort of compliance. So what is the community impact piece? That would include asking questions like how much do you estimate sales tax to be generated from this project? What is the estimated impact on any nearby businesses or existing office facilities? What is the estimated impact on our housing market? and our local school districts? Is there an environmental impact? And how will local business competition that's already here be impacted by the granting of this abatement? Will this project attract any new business to Beaumont? And the but for. But for tax abatement, the project would not be constructed here. So this is what an example of a competitive siting narrative requirement looks like. This is an example from Harris County, again, But it's asking them to provide reasons for seeking abatement, including any special considerations. Additionally, provide detailed information on alternative site considerations and incentives being offered. So we would like to know who else they're considering and what they're offering and They do have a section in there for a draft.

They will actually go out there and sit with some council members, and they let me visit with staff. Of the competitiveness, when we know as a city what we're actually competing with, when we know as a city what we're actually competing with, we're actually physically seeing it. Certain realms to serve on it, similar to how we do with certain... to serve on it, similar to how we do with CVB. You have to have certain people.

Yeah, I had so many conversations with all of those partners that were listed over the last, you know, two, three weeks with LIT, with BIS agreement. And I think, you know, they are a different situation because they own industries that they're dealing with versus what we're dealing with. There are and we're in a unique geographic location, obviously, because of our port and being think that industry can handle everything that industry is getting by with so much and getting so much and giving so little.

when we can go i'm excited that uh we're gonna start with council member comments and that's the uh node and this is they're right there next to it when director had 30 days based on cost thank you councilman hilliard councilman turner yeah man i just want to shout out to everybody doing back this compliance uh and not everybody who called me i just called corey he gotcha to tally uh on his refrigerator i think i probably sent over 30 emails he's out in the water