City Council - Regular Meeting

Today's invocation will be given by Paul Adipe, I'm sure I messed that up, of St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church of Beaumont. If everyone would please silence your cell phone, and if you so choose, please stand and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the gift of this day and for the opportunity to gather as one people of Beaumont. You, O Lord, are the source of all wisdom, justice, and peace. We ask you, Lord, to pour out your Spirit upon the members of this council and upon all who serve our community. Grant them wisdom to discern what is right, courage to pursue the common good, and humility to listen with love and respect. Help them to seek solutions that will be for the good of every human person. Strengthen families and promote justice for all. Bless and protect our first responders, educators, healthcare workers, and all who work for the good of the people of this city. comfort those who are burdened with illness, poverty, loneliness, and inspire us to be instruments of your compassion and hope in our city. May all our deliberations and conversations be marked by honesty, civility, and a strong desire to serve rather than to be served. And may this city continue to grow in peace, prosperity, and unity to the great glory of your name. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

May I have roll call, please?

Mayor West.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Crenshaw.

Here.

Council Member Turner. Here. Council Member Durio. Here. Council Member Hilliard. Here. Council Member Williams. Here. And Council Member Sherwood. Here. Thank you.

And now we have a City of Beaumont communication update.

Good afternoon. Here are your announcements for this August 4th. How do you want Beaumont to look in 20 years? Now's your chance to help shape it. The city's comprehensive plan is our long-term vision for Beaumont's future. It helps to guide decisions about housing, parks, transportation, economic development, and how our community grows over the next two decades. The complete draft, including all nine chapters, is now available online, and we'd love your feedback on the final plan before it's presented to the Planning Commission and City Council. Visit PlanBeaumont.com to review the draft and share your thoughts. Want to stay up to date on what's happening around Beaumont? One of the easiest ways is by checking our city calendar at BeaumontTexas.gov. This month you'll find important meetings involving the Bond Facilitation Committee, Animal Care Advisory Committee, Mayor's Coalition Against Violence, Mayor's Veterans Coalition, and several neighborhood association meetings. Visit beaumonttexas.gov slash calendar to see what's coming up. With a new school year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to make sure your child's immunizations are up to date. Belmont Public Health will offer extended immunization clinic hours August 10th through the 13th from 730 a.m. until 6 p.m. No appointment is necessary, but to check for your eligibility, you can search clinic health services on the city's website or simply call 409-654-3681. And while we're talking about going back to school, BISD classes are about to begin August 12th, so it's time to slow down and watch for school buses, look out for those school zones, and of course for our children. We caught up with Officer Van Houten for a few important reminders every driver should know.

If you see the flashing lights on the school bus, you need to stop. We're looking for distracted drivers. We're looking for people that are on their cell phones in a school zone, not paying attention. Crossing guards do have legal authority by the Texas Transportation Code. You have to obey what they say. If they tell you to stop or yield for the students, you have to do so. pay attention to the speed limit signs for the school zones which are typically 15 or 25 miles an hour and if you see a vehicle stopped you probably should stop as well because there might be a child crossing if the school bus is stopped and the stopping arm is flashing you need to stop even if you're going the opposite direction the only time you're not going to stop is if you're going the opposite direction and you're separated by a physical median or a barrier The penalties for not stopping for a school bus when children are coming on or off the bus can range anywhere from $500 to $1,250 for a first offense. And we just, at the end of the day, want everyone to be safe.

And we also have two great ways for you to enjoy the last few days of summer with your families. Catch one final movie in the park this Friday, August 7th at dusk when Zootopia 2 comes to Central Park. Bring your blankets and lawn chairs and enjoy a movie under the stars. Then join us Saturday, August 8th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for Activate the Park at Charlton Pollard Park. This free Be Well Beaumont event features a giant water slide, rock wall, free snow cones while they last, community vendors, and fun activities focused on sun safety and staying active. We hope to see you there. And before we wrap up, we'd like to extend a huge welcome to Lara Clark back to the city of Beaumont. He is our new deputy city manager. Laura previously served the city for more than 11 years, including as chief financial officer, where she oversaw finance, budgeting, water customer service, employee benefits, municipal court, and fleet operations. She returns with more than 30 years of experience in public accounting, municipal government, and private sector leadership. The deputy city manager position we want to let you know is a reclassification of the assistant city manager position. which was previously held by our city manager, Chris Boone. As part of the city's efforts to streamline operations and reduce costs, the remaining assistant city manager position will not be filled. So please welcome us or help us welcome Laura Clark back to Beaumont. And that's all for this week's announcements. Have a great week.

Thank you. At the close of the meeting today, City Council will recess in the executive session for consider matters related to discuss or deliberate economic development negotiations in accordance with Section 551.087 of the government code to which specifically Project Oscar. Now we're going to move into public comments. Now's the time for any citizen who wishes to speak. You may make public comments on consent agenda and regular agenda items one through four or any other topic. However, items five through seven have already been heard in public hearing. Therefore, citizens cannot speak on these items. Citizens wishing to speak on items eight and nine will be given an opportunity to speak during the public hearing then. The city clerk will call your name when it's your time to speak. When you approach the podium, please say your address, city and state, if your address hasn't been said already. You will have three minutes for comment. The green light will come on when you approach the podium, and the red light will come on when your time is up. Please note that while you're at the podium, members of council will not be able to respond to your comments or questions regarding any posted agenda items. However, they may address questions your questions during the discussion of the item. And with that.

Rodney Cavanaugh, 7623 Washington, Beaumont, Texas.

Good afternoon, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Beaumont City Council, I'm Rodney Cavness. I'm Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Beaumont Independent School District. On behalf of Superintendent Massey and the Beaumont Independent School District, thank you for your continued commitment to students and families in Beaumont. The City of Beaumont and Beaumont ISD have a long history of working together, and we are especially grateful for the BISD and ZIPP partnership established in the summer of 2025. Last summer, these partnerships provided our students with reliable transportation to summer school, athletic training, extracurricular activities, and summer jobs. For some students, the ride was the difference between having access to an opportunity and having to miss it altogether. Extending this service throughout the school year gives us an opportunity to make an even greater impact. We also recognize that the needs of our students and families do not always fit within the traditional school transportation schedule. Some students have responsibilities before and or after school. Others may miss the regular bus, have a parent or guardian whose work schedule prevents them from providing transportation, or need a safe and reliable way to participate in activities outside of the regular school day. ZIPP gives those students another option, and that certainly matters. Our goal in BISD is to graduate students who are college, career, or military ready. Reaching that goal takes more than what happens inside the four walls of a classroom. It takes a community working together to remove barriers and create opportunities for young people. Transportation should never be the reason a student has to say, I can't get there. This is why this partnership matters. This is a win for our students, a win for our families, and a win for the city of Beaumont. When our young people have greater access to school and opportunities available throughout the community, we are helping them stay connected, engaged, and moving toward a successful future. On behalf of Superintendent Massey, our board of managers and staff, and especially our students and families, thank you to the mayor and city council for your leadership and support in this initiative. We value our partnership with the city of Beaumont and look forward to continuing to strengthen it as we work together for the young people that we all serve. Thank y'all for this. Thank you, sir. Sir.

Barbara Wilson, 2441 Liberty, Lamont, Texas.

afternoon um council mayor my name is barbara wilson i'm the owner of baw resale at 1096 calder avenue i'm a single mother i have been in the resale business for over 30 years for the past 13 years i've invested my time my money my heart into downtown beaumont because i believe in this city let me be clear i am not here because i have a homeless problem on my property I have worked tirelessly to keep my property safe, maintained, and I'm here because I care about my neighbors, my fellow business owners, and the future of downtown Beaumont. I'm concerned about Tyler Wharton's building being used as a public restroom. I'm concerned about Mr. Austin's building, which is trying to attract buyers while people are sleeping all around it. I'm concerned about the parks that we have downtown where children and families should feel safe, but instead are confronted with people sleeping on the sidewalks and doing drugs open in public in the trash. This is just not about appearance. It's about public health, public safety, public property, public rights. the right to and the future of the downtown Beaumont. Every night, most people go home believing someone else is taking care of these problems. We don't have that luxury. We come to work every day and have to clean up the trash, pick up the mess, greet our customers, and try to convince people that downtown Beaumont is worth visiting and investing in. The city already has ordinance. People are not allowed to block the sidewalks, obstruct the streets, create public nuisances, yet every day those laws are unenforced. A law that is not enforced sends a message that it doesn't matter. I also believe every property owner, every organization should be expected to maintain the area surrounding their property. The rest of us are held accountable for keeping our businesses clean, safe, and welcoming. This responsibility should apply equally to everyone around us. I'm asking you to Think about the message we are sending to the next business owner considering establishing something in downtown Beaumont. What do we see? Do we see opportunity? Do we see disorder? Do we see the city that protects these who invest here or ones that expect them to fight their own battles alone? I love downtown Beaumont, and that is why I'm standing here today. I'm asking that council consistently enforce the ordinance already on the books, hold everyone accountable, and stand with business owners who continue to invest in this community. We cannot build and try to do this by ourselves, and we are willing to prove that by working with you. Thank you. Thank you.

Albert Harrison, 1240 Ashley, Beaumont, Texas.

Mayor, City Council, other city staff, and other individuals that are present. I hate to be beating on the same drum all the time, but it seems as if I got to some kind of way to kick the door down and let y'all know. Because there are many other issues that I would love to speak on on today's agenda, but I can't because this still persists. After talking with employees, Centerfront Energy, I discovered that the engineer of the city of Beaumont was supposed to contact Centerfront Energy about the pipes to let them know that they're going to be digging the ditches and mopping the ditches deeper than the pipes exist. And by not doing that, now you have exposed the pipes in these ditches. Now why the engineer or why public health director or city manager did not contact Center for Energy and do that? It's not your fault, city council, because you didn't have all the information that you needed to make an informed decision. So with that being said, now I'm being told that the city is going to have to pay set-apart energy to bury those pipes deeper into the ground. You're already facing budget issues. Now you'll be faced with what y'all call Changer And you all complain about it so now I'm complaining about it now for you because that's what you're gonna be faced with because The engineer didn't do his job Thank you Thank you, sir Gee gee chin

Brazier, 3910 Treadway Road, Beaumont, Texas.

Good afternoon, Mel and everyone. My name is Etienne Brazier. I come from Katrina since 2005. I've been a volunteer at the school since 2010. I belong to foster grandparent program. It's for a hundred of us. We go to different school, from daycare and to middle school. And my biggest problem was trying to get a zip bus to take me because I cannot make a phone call till eight o'clock and tie it up sometime to up to 45 minutes. just about half of my class. And a lot of times, even after on hold, 45 minutes, they'll tell me there's no longer any space available. So then I talked to a lot of drivers over the years, and they told me the reason they don't stay because they had to be mandatory working 16-hour shift when the next share of people call in, they're not showing up to work. And I feel like this is silly because when they work overtime, you gotta pay them time and a half or twice or whatever. Why not we order, hire more people, and the ones that always making excuse not show up, they should be punished and they shouldn't have to make the others suffer. And again, I would love to be able to have a schedule set up every day since I go to school five days a week. Pick me up at the same time, pick me up after school. And I was told this morning that Beaumont Transit suspended all the scheduling, so I will have to call every day to get a ride. And I don't see that. What's the sense for me? Because I'm there volunteer, you know, and I've been there since 2010. I love my job because there's something wrong with my physicality. There's nothing wrong with me mentally. And I was able to work with students. So I hope something can be done about that. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Tristan Williams, 980 Broadway, Beaumont, Texas.

Good morning. Well, afternoon now. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and council members and city staff. I just want to introduce myself. I'm Tristan Williams. I am the developer that is bringing forth the 220 unit luxury apartment development that we're looking to put at the 980 Broadway location. And I just want to make myself available to the city and the staff and the community to know who I am, what we stand for, and what we're looking to do in the community. So I'll keep it really short. I'm pretty sure, you know, if you guys have any questions for me later, I'm available for that. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Shirley Payton, 3191 Hollywood Street, Beaumont, Texas.

Mayor, council, I'm up here and asking y'all, would y'all please do not stop these vans. I need this van to go to the doctor, to go to the store, to pay my bills. Every time something come up, y'all want to take the buses, y'all want to take the vans. Please stop hurting the people. We need this stuff. I need this stuff. And I'm just asking y'all, please have patience and continue helping the people because we need the help right now. So I just say thank you and please keep these vans and these buses on the road so the people can get where they need to go. Thank you.

Thank you.

Reginald Sanko, 2930 Avenue C, Beaumont, Texas.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, everybody on the agenda. My name is Reginald Sanko and I'm speaking on behalf of the whole neighborhood of 2930 Avenue C from Washington Boulevard to College. It has become an issue, it's considered a shortcut. Used to be Avenue A, now it is Avenue C. We have no signs available to tell people or show them better speed limits and such and such so it's a consideration for y'all or y'all want to come sit in my yard drink some tea and just see how they consider it as a uh or track me you know and it's really getting out of hand and it's starting to get hot and everybody's yancy in a hurry so y'all consider that for us please thank you sir

James Callis, 5375 Rosemary, Beaumont, Texas.

Greetings to all present. I'm James Callis, a lifelong resident of Beaumont. And I've been reading in the paper and paying attention to what the council is proposing. And I'm here to support Chris Boone in bringing our population to 120,000 or more. Like I said, I've been in Beaumont all my life, and I left teaching in 75, and I got to tell you, Beaumont was absolutely a beautiful business incubator for me. Nobody in my family had been in construction. They're all doctors and professional people, but I like construction, built a lot of things here. There is another problem, even though I do support Mr. Boone completely. We have a lot of red tag houses here. You know I've come and spoken on that, and I've had one of mine torn down. I have one 85% complete. The people coming in this 120,000 population increase goal has to have a place to live. I was looking at new houses recently. DRC has got a subdivision in the north end. They start a little over $200,000. That seems really... I am a licensed real estate broker, but I'm saying that still seems a little high and awkward for a lot of people moving to town. The red tag houses, when I was a young contractor in Beaumont, we rebuilt them, put people in them. I'm not sure when the mentality switched from rebuilding to demoing. I don't think that was a good idea. The... So I'm encouraging some sort of moratorium, some sort of study to look at the resources of the red tag houses. It is a lot easier to take and remodel a house than to come from the ground up. And back to these new houses, they're like $195 a square foot. That is just, it's expensive no matter how you figure it. So the last thing I'd like to say is I see where the city had called down Jefferson Jefferson House at Delaware and Lucas, and it only gave them like 10 days. And I think when something is intimate and somebody could be hurt, maybe it's okay, but these 10-day limits are not realistic. And to tear down a property that's $3.1 billion on the tax rolls does not make any sense. Lastly, our Hotel Beaumont does not need to be touched. It is a landmark that needs to be preserved. And I ask that y'all do that. Thank you.

Mayor, I have someone that just signed the Greenslip. Citizen of Beaumont, no name or address given.

Afternoon. I got a lot of things. Normally I come here and shake tails and this and that and try and get responses. I didn't say my name, so... Regardless, I'm a citizen of Beaumont. I'm speaking for many citizens. I don't just speak for myself whenever I come to this council. I don't come here to grieve just for myself. I like to grieve for the entire city that's not being represented. So if anybody wants to understand who I'm speaking for, I'm speaking for the entire city of Beaumont. Okay, get that out of the way. So we got a couple things. I wanted to come up here a little bit more pleasant than that, but I wasted 30 seconds to explain that. I didn't have to by law. I don't have to say my name. That's against the law. It's against my beyond that. Anyway, so Tom Flynn, again, has the building over here. I think it's 304 Pearl, 340 Pearl, something like that. Right now, it's tax rolls at $288,000. We understand that most likely Tom Flynn is not going to fix a lot of these buildings. However, we also have a pet population that's being slaughtered, basically, because we don't have housing for it. And that's a real simple fix. We looked at having an animal shelter for $4 million, something like that, when we did the bond, and we didn't get that passed because we had it grouped together, which was a problem. We also had the police station for $65, $68 million, something like that, that didn't fly because we had it grouped together as well. What we could do is buy that if anybody talked to Tom Flanagan, talked to getting it off the tax rolls, talked to getting the property redone because it's just going to sit there and deteriorate, right? $288,000 if somebody brought that to him and then talked to him for the city, then that's $288,000 if we invest in it, then we actually invest in a property that we would actually have better equity in the property, right? So then we could go ahead and do animal shelter out of that, which is a bigger building. You have more of the property, the parking lot, so you have expense of parking. You can also move BPD or a lot of their offices to that location as well and build on an annex with a catwalk. you know, catwalk, elevator system, something like that over to another area. So you'll have expansion room and you can probably do it for maybe 3 million, 4 or 5 million total in the pocket, right? So then you have two birds, one stone that's knocked out. Now we have a wreck. This is another thing. So we have a wreck over there that happens. I think I've noticed about five wrecks over there on the corner of East Lucas and Harding, right? So everybody's coming out around that curve and they're getting slapped sideways. If we could get a traffic light there, I would sure appreciate it for the safety of the citizens. We also have sidewalk that needs to go across that railroad. We've been talking, Ms. Molly, we've been in talks about that now for a while, and permits, as far as I understand, have not been pulled for it. I have the email from when we all talked. And it's been at least seven months since we've had that, and I don't know what the status is. We've been five to six years waiting on that sidewalk to come through, and now seven more months and a permit hasn't been pulled. I can draw a sidewalk up. If somebody wants me to design it, I can design a sidewalk. It's not that hard. Now, I know there's litigation as of to the water-sewerage issue being mixed. I work at the prison, right? I have inmates I care for. Thank you, Mr. Eller. There's about 10,000 inmates that have been infected with that sewage water.

Jason Whitney, 2290 Turn and Leaf Drive, Beaumont, Texas.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Managers, Manager Boone, Council. I'm going to be a little bit nervous. I've never done this, but I know I've only got three minutes, so I'll try to talk fast. Beaumont is my home. Born in Louisiana, raised here since pre-K and turning 55 this month. I love this community. Yet for a long time, I've stayed in my own lane. I was content growing my business and enjoying my family. When my biggest decision was worrying about what to wear to my daughter's six-year-old soccer game, which was going to be infested by mosquitoes. If anybody's ever done it out there, you know it. And then transitioned to our tumbling class afterwards. That was about the biggest thing I had to do on my mind that day. I never got involved with City Hall because I figured I know what I know and running a city is not my job. Stayed out of it because for a long time structural change seemed impossible. Personal decades of listening to people complain about downtown development, school systems, drainage issues, lagging revenues, and watching the bureaucracy do nothing but talk about issues, many times not even the real issues, for months and years before kicking the problem down the road for others to deal with later got me feeling down. I felt like the same families making the same decisions, keeping the same place stagnant. Then I had some friends start coming out, Roy West, Corey Crenshaw, Joey Hillier, people that I knew talking about change, talking about looking at it differently. And I realized that while I was staying out of the politics of it, God had a different plan because everything I had been building for the last 20 years of my life was dealing with exactly what y'all are dealing with right now. And I understand everybody's got their own ways of coming at it, but my perspective completely shifted when I realized that specifically I had been spending two decades going over the exact things y'all are dealing with now. I've negotiated billions of dollars and helped build a specialized technology infrastructure and cost containment framework and streamline numerous back office operations, protect workforce retention and recover leaked capital without touching frontline services for all over the nation for decades. In 2025, my firm negotiated $2.6 billion in Texas corporate volume in Southeast Texas alone, dealing specifically with the codes, regulations, laws associated with the exact obstacles Mr. Boone, Councilman Boone is dealing with with our budget. That being said, I've been trying for, since November of last year, but really for the last three months, just to get the information to give y'all. I'm not telling y'all to fire anybody. I'm not even telling y'all to use me. But I get paid tens of thousands of dollars by corporations, from businesses of four to five people to four to 5,000 people all over the nation to get this information for them. And I'm trying to do it for y'all for free. And if y'all don't like what I find out, then you can take it, shake my hand, thank me for trying to help Beaumont for the first time. But I'm telling y'all, I have the answers. I'm not saying fire people. What I'm saying is, I'm sorry. you. I left it here. Y'all can read it. Thank y'all very much.

Irma Lynn Thomas, 2235 Leland Street, Bama, Texas.

Greetings to all of our members on our council. Thank you for your service to this community. I am here because I was privy to a A MEETING LAST NIGHT, AND IT CONCERNED THE APARTMENTS, PROPOSED APARTMENTS THAT WILL BE BUILT ON BROADWAY. I UNDERSTAND THE NEED WE HAVE FOR ADDITIONAL HOUSING. I do not feel that this particular item will be beneficial to our city. First of all, it's always going to be adjacent to an area that we as a city need to clean up down by some other place. This will just add it to it. There's no definite concrete plans for that I could see. And please, Mr. Williams, I am not very knowledgeable, and I don't know much about this. All I know is about my city and what I love and what I can see 20 years from now that will happen. We build that there. It's just going to add to the blight of the city that we already have to deal with. I do want Beaumont to be built, the downtown area. I don't think that will help. There's no after a certain time, the bus service at another time. There's no, he talked about maybe getting some stores to come down. There's no eating place. I just think that we need, there's no park. The amenities there would not, in my opinion, help the people who are renting other than the owners would get their compensation without really looking at the whole thing. We have something similar right across from Terrell Library. There's no parking there. The kids have nowhere to walk. I think we need to look at it a little bit more. I respect and I thank he and his investors for looking here. I want others to come. At the same time, I want to understand how it's going to affect the quality of life of our citizens here. And I don't see at this point in time, and I am open, that that will enhance what we need to do in downtown. Thank you for listening to me. Appreciate you. Thank you.

I think it's maybe John Clark, 3065 Ogden Avenue, Beaumont, Texas. Did he leave? Thank you. Huh? Mr. Bates? I'm sorry, the two I had left, so that's all I have, Mayor.

Okay. No other public comments? All right. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second for approval of the consent agenda? That was Councilman Durio and then Councilwoman Sherwood seconded. Any discussion? Remove item D for discussion.

And I had a question about item F. Yeah, me too.

Okay.

We can remove... Can we move item F as well for discussion?

Yes. All right. Any other...

The motion will need to be restated to remove those items.

All right. Are you good with amending your motion?

Me?

Yeah.

I amend the motion to...

Amended to remove D and F. Move D and F. All right, so there is a motion for the consent agenda, removing items D and F. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. May we run into item D, please, that we have that reading.

Mayor and council, item D is to consider a resolution approving the purchase of a cement mixer. One context cement mixer will be purchased from Beaumont Freightliner of Beaumont, Texas in the amount of $220,050 for use by the streets and drainage department. The vehicle replaced unit 3359, which is a 2005 Mack granite mixer truck with 203,893 miles on it with 23,873 operating hours. The existing unit has exceeded its expected service life. Replacing the vehicle will help maintain the department's ability to support drainage repairs, drainage improvements, and other public infrastructure projects. The existing mixer truck will be disposed of in accordance with the city's surplus property policy. Total pricing in the amount of $220,050 was obtained from Beaumont Freightliner of Beaumont through the SourceWell contract. SourceWell is a cooperative purchasing association That complies with the state of Texas procurement statute. I will point out that this purchase is funded through general obligation bonds, Prop A, and the administration recommends approval of this item.

Is there a motion for item D?

What are we approving? I thought we had removed it.

For discussion to have this. Because it was asked to be removed. To be discussed. So we're going to get a motion and then have discussion on it.

I'll make a motion to deny the purchase of this vehicle and have staff look at purchasing a used cement mixer and the options for that.

Can...

SECOND.

ALL RIGHT. THERE IS A MOTION AND A SECOND TO DENY ITEM D. MAYOR? YES.

GO AHEAD. CAN I JUST GET A LITTLE CLARIFICATION? SURE. BECAUSE I KNOW WE HAD TALKED ABOUT THIS ITEM IS MENTIONED AS PART OF THE G.O. BOND TO PURCHASE A NEW ITEM. We can certainly do some research to see if we can find a used dump truck, but we would certainly want to, since this is basically money borrowed through a bond to pay for it, we would want to have the life of the truck less than the expenditure. So essentially, we don't want to be paying for it after the life of the truck. And the reason I bring that up is because if we want to look for a used, then my question would be, do you want other source of funding to fund this, or do you want this to be paid out of Prop A?

Can we add that during discussion?

Yeah. We have a motion to deny right now. Now we can have that discussion. Right. Okay.

Well, I'd like to go first then. Go ahead. Yes. So if we're going to buy a new cement mixer at $220,000 and borrow money for 25 or 30 years... To pay that, there ain't no way a cement mixer is going to last 25 to 30 years. So that to me is a problem right there. I would rather us go out and I looked online last night. There's a cement mixer here in town for sale, a 2018 model for $70,000. I would rather us use a tax note or some other means where we're only borrowing the money to purchase that $70,000 for maybe five years as opposed to paying interest for 30 years. on a brand new unit. And again, this is a time when we have budget difficulties. We're talking about tightening our belt. We're asking, you know, we're cutting things. I just think buying a brand new cement mixer sends the wrong message and is not great spending at this time. Also, I'm sure we have a need for it, but, you know, I drive around and see a lot of city trucks and vehicles. I haven't ever witnessed the cement mixer moving around, but I guess we use it quite a bit. But I just feel like we could do other things. We have a lot of local cement companies. We could maybe rent one from them, or there's got to be some other options out there other than spending $220,000 to buy a brand new unit. A quarter of a million dollars for something like that, to me, seems excessive at this time.

Councilman Durio, I'll get to you, Councilman.

What do we use that truck? Because I've seen local cement companies working on City of Beaumont projects. So what do we use the concrete mixer? I have to have our own concrete mixer. We're already using local cement trucks. What is it used for?

So, Mayor, let me ask Ms. Villareal to comment on the use of the equipment that we're proposing. I'd also invite Jeff Harville, our fleet manager, to give us some insight on the projected life of a cement mixer. And then the third point is, real quickly, we could certainly look at a tax note, and we'll certainly get that information. Obviously, with a more compressed financing schedule, that's going to be a higher rate that would go to the general fund. But having said that, Molly?

Certainly. So the proposal here is to replace a 2005. So we're looking at a 21-year-old concrete mixer truck that we're looking to replace. So the city crews use the concrete. We purchase it from the concrete yard, deliver it in our trucks, and that gives us the ability to replace make the concrete repairs, whether we're using it to restore curbs and gutters, pavement panel repairs, or rebuild junction boxes and curb inlets like what we're fixing to have to do at the intersection of East and Central Drive. And so being able to have that control over running that concrete has Much is a great part of our efficiency. When you are looking at purchasing through a mixing yard, you're on that trucker's schedule. You're having to collect enough work to make it worth your while, to make it economically make sense to bring that load of concrete out to the site. it may or may not arrive in the time that you need it to. Also too, there are other trucks such as volumetric trucks that there's another concrete supplier can provide, but that is for a very small, very limited quantity of concrete. So do we do them? Yes. We actually have two concrete trucks in our fleet. The thing about concrete mixer trucks is that they are bringing concrete in its liquid form. That's a very abrasive material. So we have done everything that we can through the help of our water utilities department and their welding shop to extend the life of these mixer drums as much as possible. But when you reach the point that you don't even have enough metal to weld your repairs to, it really does become an issue. We were fortunate to be able to purchase a drum for our better truck, and Council approved that purchase. I believe it was last year. Jeff can correct me if I'm wrong. But to be able to have a fully functioning concrete truck is what is important. I also would like to point out that items B and C were also purchases that are related to Proposition A.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Did I answer everything?

Yes, ma'am. You kind of answered it, but I just want to be clear. The current concrete truck is inoperable. It cannot be repaired.

Come on up, Jeff. But I think in a nutshell, you're going to spend more money than what it's worth.

That's what I'm just trying to verify.

Yes, ma'am.

We do have two trucks. We spent Last year, we spent six months trying to find a pump for one of our trucks. Because they're so old, you can't find parts for them anymore. We eventually found a company out of California that made pumps and was able to get a part for it. So that's what the problems you run into with a 22-year-old truck is you can't find parts for. We did buy a drum. It was about $15,000 for the drum, so it didn't have to go to council. They were used when the city bought them about 13 years ago before I ever come on board. We bought two used trucks. And at this time, it's 22 years old with the 204,000 miles on it, a lot of hours. And the risk you run with buying a used piece, and if that's what you want us to do is look at one, we'll do that. But you've got to look at the amount of hours. It's not always just the age of it. What's the mileage of it? What's the hours of it? What's the condition of it? And then to get that, I have to get three comparable quotes. As this is bought off of a purchasing contract, we can just get that price and then purchase it. If it's a used one, I've got to get three comparative quotes to it. And then I don't know the condition of the trucks. So there's a lot that goes into buying a used piece of equipment. You inherit their problems.

But you just stated the last time we purchased one, we purchased a used truck.

It was purchased used, yes.

And I think we're buying the new because we have the bond money and because we didn't have the bond money before, right?

No, I've been trying to buy one for three years, but due to budget constraints, I had not. So two years ago, we bought public safety items. Last year, we bought public safety items along with a slope mower for parks and a couple – items that was for the golf course and for traffic management. And I don't know where it's going to end up this year, but not buying equipment for all the other departments in the city will pay for it in the long run.

But you would agree with me you can purchase a used cement mixer and get a used cement mixer with a cost savings for the city that would work in this situation and get our needs done? Well, you can buy anything used. Anything out there can be used.

How much of someone's problems are you risking to inherit?

I get that. But you would agree with me, you can go out on the market and find a used cement mixer to achieve the needs that we need to get this done with the city and get something quality with a substantial cost savings to taxpayers.

You can. And I could buy a used vehicle for myself at home, but I don't know if they drove it like they stole it. right type vehicle how they how they treated it how well the maintenance was done on it how well the gearboxes are in it the transmission the engine i don't know how good any of that stuff is so typically or for the most part we buy new equipment for the city so that we have the life of it the full life of it not how old was that truck you looked out 2018. So it's already nine years old, not nine years of life left, plus you don't know how it was treated and maintained during that time frame. That's probably why it's for sale. Okay.

And again, the last time you bought a cement mixer for the city, it was used?

That was before me, but yes, it was used, and we've done nothing but work on it since.

Thank you, sir. Any other questions? Yes, Councilman Williams.

About how many hours a year do we put on our truck, the cement mixer currently?

You know that, I don't know. I would have to go back and look what our annual usage is. But everything Molly said is exactly true. When you fill a truck with cement and you have a cut here, they're used to fill water cuts. So when water comes out and cuts across the street to fix whatever problem, That street has got that bump in it or whatever of the dugout spot in it. So the cement mixer will come and fill that. And they fill this one and they fill that one over there. But if you're waiting on a truck, that crew is stuck waiting until a cement truck can get out there at any given time. And they come with a full truck. There's a certain amount they have to put in it before they can ever use it so that it's worth its trip out there. We can get our own amounts and fill the cuts as we need them when our crews are ready and not have anybody to have to wait on it.

Do you have any idea on the type of warranty that comes with a new cement mixer?

Let me see if it's in the quote. I don't recall that off the top of my head. Everything typically comes with a year warranty on it for parts and service. Without spending a lot of your time to read through this quote, I'd have to go back and find out for sure, but I don't recall that off the top of my head. But usually all equipment comes with at least a year's worth of service to it. Heavy equipment is not like your car that you get three years, 36,000 miles. They're not quite like that. Okay.

May I remember?

Yes.

My question was if we bought it new versus purchasing the used one, the time frame on turnaround, right? Because if you need it now and it's going to take you three bids and so on and so forth, and I guess go and inspect the truck and make sure it's the time. Does the time frame going to be affected by you having to go and get a used truck?

Well, it would take longer to find a used one. Again, if we're going to spend that much money on a used piece, $70,000, I want to make sure it's going to work. So now I've got to take myself and probably my deputy fleet manager out and spend our time away from here going to look at a truck and seeing how good a condition the thing is in. How quick I could make all that happen, I don't know. I would think I could get a new one in probably quicker than I could go Get quotes for three comparable trucks that have to be the same to be comparable. It's got to be the same year, same maker model, close, same size because they make different size drums on them, hours, mileage. So it takes a little bit to get all that figured out and get quotes from people to do that. And then once that's done, then I got to get it back into council because it's over $50,000. So that may take another three plus weeks to get in here before it gets to you to see whatever issues may arise with that.

Thank you. Yes, Councilman Durio, then Councilman Turner.

Is this a cement mixer? Is that something that can be leased? And would that be more cost effective leasing it than buying it outright?

Well, it depends on the kind of lease that it is. Larger equipment leases, because I've looked into leasing dozers for the landfill. Of course, those are $600,000, but for this truck, I would imagine it would fall into the same kind of lease. You pay for, let's say, 48 months on this. When it's done, you have a couple options. You either turn it in and pay for all repairs and damages to the vehicle, which could be whatever's wrong with it at that point. If you have body damage, transmission slippage, drum torn up on it, whatever it is, you pay that company you leased it from X amount of money to get that vehicle back. Or you can lease it and at the end, the city ends up buying it for a reduced rate, but you're stuck with that piece for what it is because usually during the lease, the company you lease it from will maintain it. Not us as the city. If I rented one from I don't know who leases cement trucks, but let's say Freightliner, if they leased a cement truck, then they would be responsible for the maintenance and care of it until the lease is over.

Mayor, typically what I've seen is you can't finance them over time. I would just point out again, though, that the proceeds would need to come out of the general fund to do the debt service on that.

To Councilman Williams' question, we're averaging about anywhere from 9 to 10,000 hours per year on these trucks.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. So right now we have a motion to deny the purchase of the cement mixer. Is there any? Yes, Councilman Turner.

Councilman Hill, you shared the warranty. I know there's a question about the warranty. And it says, the only warranties on this vehicle sold hereby are made by those manufacturers. Seller expressly disclaims all warranties either express or implied, including implied warranty on mechanical or fitness for purpose. Seller neither assumes nor authorizes any other person to assume presently or exist that may occur in the vehicle unless they are specifically covered by a written manufacturer's warranty or by a service contract with the seller. the described vehicle or component parts which delivered to the buyer in conjunction with or within 90 days of the time of the sale. So it seems like there's roughly 90 days on the warranty on that truck, and that's something I struggle with when I purchase that high.

Well, that's on the seller's warranty, not the manufacturer's warranty. So we're going to verify the manufacturer's warranty. We'll get that information back to you.

Yes, ma'am. I feel better if I've seen that.

Yes, sir.

Well, we've got a motion right now to deny it. So it could always be brought back or whatever motion could be brought back. But right now, the motion would be to deny the purchase.

Okay.

If there's not any other discussion, I'm going to call the vote. Were you turning your mic on? Okay. All those in favor of...

So what do we want to do if we want to table this? Make a motion. Do we have to first change the motion that's already out there, or?

So there's a motion on the floor and a second.

Did someone second the denial?

I didn't hear anybody second. Yes, so Councilman Crenshaw made the motion. Councilman Daria seconded the motion. So per your council rules, there can be a motion to table made that does not require a second, and you would have to vote on that motion before going to the forementioned motion to deny.

I'm fine with tabling it. I would like for staff to research either a used or a lease or other options that would deliver some cost savings. That's all I'm asking. I think it could be achieved by either the vote to deny and they represent it, or we could table it. I'm happy with either one. I just don't want us going out tomorrow and spending a quarter of a million dollars on a cement mixer.

What kind of delay... With this cause, as far as actually being out there and pouring sidewalks and things that's part of the bond.

That's that that would keeps us trying to keep the trucks that we have in in service. You know, they can give up the ghost at any time. So it depends on when they repair. But I mean, you know, one of the. The projects that we're working on right now is replacing the junction box at the intersection of Center and East Drive, or Central Drive, anyway, the sinkhole. But there's always panel repairs, carbon gutter repairs, storm sewer box repairs, have that request that you sent to us recently on Tibbetts Lane. Those are the type of repairs that we would be making to our drainage system. with this work and so that was why the Concrete truck the street sweeper and the excavator were proposed as part of proposition a

And lastly, with the table, can we just know the total number of costs and repairs that's been on this particular vehicle? You don't have to tell us today, but since we're tabling, I think there'd be some good information to know when you bring it back. We got a table. We haven't done that.

There's not a motion to table it.

Okay. Well, I'm just assuming. You're making a motion. Well, I'm making a motion to table it then.

Second.

All right. So we didn't need a second on that. So now we're just going to vote to table the purchase of a cement mixer.

All those in favor of... Before you vote, your rules do require that you give a staff direction. So table to the next meeting, table to September, table to...

So I'm a fair person to staff to Mr. Manager. What's a considerable amount of time for you to bring us back accurate information?

I think we could bring some options back before the next meeting. Now, in terms of an action item, because I'm not sure if SourceWell, if their offer is going to expire or change in a week, I don't know. But I guess to answer your question. We could try to get it back on the 18th, and if not, we'll shoot for this first meeting in September.

Yeah, either the 18th or 1st.

Does that do?

It's your motion. I just want you to be clear.

Okay, I would like a motion to make a motion to table it into the next meeting with the understanding that if necessary, it'll go to the following.

Okay.

All right, with that, all those in favor of tabling the cement mixer, as Councilman Turner mentioned, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Mr. City Manager, Item F, please.

Mayor and Council, Item F is to consider resolution approving the purchase of a fire truck. A 2026 Pierce Custom Pumper Truck will be purchased from Siddons Martin Emergency Group of Denton, Texas in the amount of $1,174,992. The new truck will replace unit number 7055, which is a 2001 pumper truck with 166,200 miles and 18,257 operating hours. The new pumper truck will be designated as engine number 10 and would be housed at station 10, located at 3855 Washington Boulevard. The existing unit has exceeded its expected service life and will be disposed of according to city surplus property policy. Pricing was obtained through the Houston Galveston Area Council, a cooperative purchasing association providing cities with the means to purchase specialized equipment at volume pricing. The HGAC cooperative complies with the state of Texas procurement statute. The manufacturer's warranty is 12 months. Delivery is expected in 21 months. And the vendor quote is attached. Funding is available through the Capital Reserve Fund, fire operations. The administration recommends approval.

Do we need to make a motion? We need a motion. So moved to deny. Second.

Second.

There's been a motion and a second to deny. Is there any discussion?

I spoke to Chief some time ago, and since I've been on council in 2021, I know we're purchasing a new truck every year, and it takes at least two years to get the truck in service, correct? And I've been at three years. But I've been asking... At what point would it be that we wouldn't have to purchase a truck every year, especially with our budget being so tight this year?

Yes, afternoon, council. I understand budget being tight, but in the packet, the engine that is replacing is a reserve engine that has reached the end of life. The engine that is going to be replacing engine 10 will go into reserve, and it has been a mechanical nightmare. For the last since Harvey, it was flooded in Harvey. We put approximately ninety thousand dollars in it to rebuild the engine and everything. And it's been one thing after another. I will caution council that if you fall behind in your fleet purchases, that really puts a strain on. first responders as far as engines and everything. We get 20, approximately 20 years frontline on an engine and approximately three to five years in reserve status. So if you figure $1.1 million over a 20 year period, it's pretty good bang for your buck.

Do we have any other station, maybe a reserve that we can supplement one year? I know we have several stations throughout the city of Beaumont and we have some reserves, but we're not saying permanently. We're just looking at some ways we can make it more efficient for this year.

Our reserves that we have currently, we have three reserves in service for some frontline engines. Station 14's engine right now is down. It is in a reserve. Our reserve fleet is getting tired also, so we try to roll it out also. We create approximately seven to eight reserves. Those reserves aren't only for when our fleet goes down. Those reserves are when we face a disaster. We bring in personnel and man those units, or we have a second alarm fire like the Gilbert building or something like that. It really starts taxing our reserve equipment and personnel.

Yeah.

Well, Councilwoman Sherwood, then Councilman Hilliard.

Well, that was my question about the reserve units versus active units. So, The reserve units are only used in emergency situations. That's what I'm trying to verify.

We have to do PM maintenance on our frontline engines. If we don't, it's going to hurt. So the reserves take the place of the frontline when they're doing PM, or we have a breakdown in our frontline fleet also.

That's what I'm asking.

Thank you. If I might speak here for a minute, this fire truck was part of our FY26 approved budget to purchase. I had to wait until, typically this would have been done in October, and my assessment would be that it would have been approved at that point, because I had to wait until now so that when it gets delivered, it hits the FY29 budget. That's why it's being presented now, so that that 31 to 33-month lead time is presents itself at the right time when it's delivered so that we can pay for it in 29. So it's not like I'm going to buy it and we're paying for it today and I get it next week. We PO it now, get it 31 months from now, and pay for it in FY29, which is projected and budgeted for that time frame.

Okay.

So just a clarification, if this was to be denied, there's not a savings in our current budget overrun of $4.5 million that would now only be $3.5 million.

It won't impact this budget.

It won't impact this budget. And did we say earlier, even though I thought we had said this for 27, but in 29 we have some industrial abatement agreements coming offline that are going to

Provide some additional revenue should if we can renegotiate them accordingly.

Yes, sir Okay, and but this was coming out of I thought when you read the proposition It was coming out of the capital fund for the fire department for this year. Is that not accurate? Future it's coming out of the capital fund for the fire department in 2029 future I

So today this wouldn't impact the 2026 budget whatsoever or the 2027 budget. It wouldn't hit the books to 2029.

Not this truck, no.

Okay.

And we can't even pay for it until we accept delivery of it.

Mayor?

Yes.

Just a point. Chief, are there any implications for the number of units in your reserve for NFPA or ISO? Yes, sir. So in other words, NFPA, do they have a recommended life of an engine? And would having too few in reserve affect our ISO rating?

It could possibly, and we'll be coming up on a new ISO schedule.

And just for the benefit of the public, ISO is essentially an assessment, correct me if I'm wrong, Chief, an assessment, and that can affect our fire rate, insurance rates.

Okay.

Just one last point of question. At what point will you foresee versus every year? At what point will you foresee we will be at a place where our fleet would be more so functioning or maybe we can reduce it to every other year? Do you foresee it being every year from now to eternity?

No, we don't. We have some built-in spreadsheets that we share with Fleet Manager. And since, we've also made some cost savings on downsizing. We used to order a velocity cab, so we went with a smaller cab and smaller engine also, which resulted in different suspension, which resulted in significant amount of savings per unit.

Now, FY25, I know it's passed, but That was a year that we skipped paying for a fire truck.

Mayor, can I comment on Councilmember Turner's, because you asked about, you know, when would we be kind of fully stocked? The issue, of course, is, you know, vehicles age constantly. And I'll just draw a comparison to transit. One time we got a grant to buy a bunch of buses, which was great because we had new buses. They were efficient. But for many years, we didn't replace them. But guess what? When many of them came to the end of their life, we were faced with a lot of buses that we didn't have the same grant for that we had way back when. So the better policy, I know Jeff and Chief, they do a good, is to try to do a regular replacement cycle, to try to smooth it out so we don't. It's always great when you get grant money, but sometimes it can be a curse.

And I might add that the Engine 10 was purchased on a port grant. when it came in. It's our only engine in the last 10 years that had been purchased on a port grant.

Okay. All right. With that, with new information, our last motion was to deny this. Councilman Durio?

I just want to say that I used to ride Engine 10.

Most of my career. The one we're trying to get rid of. It's not as old as you, though, Chris. No, it's not. All right.

And if I could add before we vote, I just did want to also mention that we typically do a reimbursement resolution to finance the fire trucks afterwards. So it's from a cash flow perspective. Right now, they're financed over five years, so I would assume it would be similar to that in 2029 and then financed over five years.

Yeah, we usually have one dropping off and another one adding on during that five-year period.

Thank you, Chief. Does that change the motion with the new information? All right, would you go ahead and make that change? Here's your motion. Okay. What did you mean? You still want a motion to deny the purchase?

My vote won't change, but I don't mind changing the motion for council. It's up to you. I'll make a motion to approve it for the sake of the conversation.

All right. It's been moved and seconded for the sake of the conversation. Any other... I'm feeling what you're saying. All those in favor of approval of the new purchase of a fire truck that will be at the 29 budget, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Motion is carried. Thank you. All right. At this point, may we move into agenda item number one?

Sir Mayor and Council, item number one is a resolution supporting Lance Equity Partners LLC, a proposed housing tax credit project located at 980 Broadway, acknowledging that Beaumont has more than twice the state average of units per capita supported by tax credits and offering express support for the proposed project and a commitment of funding in the form of a fee waiver not to exceed $500.00. Lance Equity Partners of Houston is proposing to apply for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs 4% tax credit program to develop the Cathedral on Broadway. The proposed $60 million mixed-use development at 980 Broadway would feature 220 attainable workforce housing units, retail space to support local downtown businesses, and community amenities including a playground, courtyard, and swimming pool. Under the city's scoring criteria, the cathedral on Broadway received 24 points for proximity to amenities. As mentioned, currently Beaumont has more than twice the state average of housing units supported by tax credits or private activity bonds per capita. As such, additional subsidized units cannot be considered for this development by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs unless the city acknowledges that Beaumont has more than twice the state average of units. supported by tax credits. In addition, for the project to be considered, the city would also need to acknowledge that the project is in a census tract that has more than 20% housing tax credits per total household. In addition, applications that receive commitment of development funding in the amount of $500 in the form of a fee waiver would receive additional consideration by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. And with that, the administration is not providing a recommendation as is typical with housing tax credit projects. But that is what is being presented today.

Would anybody like to make a motion on item number one?

Make a motion so we can discuss it. I'll make a motion.

second there's been a motion and a second for i'm assuming that's approval of item number one uh and now we'll move into discussions and councilman williams um here on the sheet it calls it attainable workforce housing and earlier when the gentleman spoke he called it luxury apartments so which is it and and our our attainable workforce Housing units, typically luxury units, or can somebody?

So we'll invite the developer up to answer a question. I will say in your packet is an overview of the proposal. You'll see in the table that there's a mix of income at both the 50%, 60%, and 70% area median income, and that translates to a certain income level based on the number of folks in the household, but I will invite the applicant to add on to that. Sure.

So to answer your question, Councilman Williams, it is luxury. It's still in line with what we would normally build with market rate. Apartments, so when I say luxury, that's what I mean by the amenities that are provided and what we plan to bring there because there will also be a first floor mixed use for small businesses to lease out that space as well. So that's anywhere between 6,000 to 8,000 square feet of retail space that may be available. In our vision, we see a Smoothie King, an ice cream shop, a nail salon, maybe a burger restaurant or something along those lines.

Yes, Councilman Crenshaw. So are you competing with hotels? Are you competing with apartment complexes?

No, this is strictly apartment complexes. So if you look at the second slide that I provided you with, It shows you where the income limits, where when we apply for the 4% tax credit, what we are bound to. It also shows you the rent limits for individuals that will look to live in these units. And then the third graph, I kind of share the comparison between market rate and the rate that we're able to provide based off of that.

How do you reconcile Mr. Williams' question about luxury that you used the word earlier, and I don't see luxury in what's being proposed to us. What made you call it luxury earlier if your presentation to us doesn't use luxury?

Right. So when I say luxury, I'm speaking to the amenities that are inside your unit. And I'm not sure if I provided that on there. Is that the pool? not only the pool, the dog park, the community center, the business center within the units, within the complex, also the self-contained parking that's on site. Inside the units, you will have wash and dryers. You will have a luxury vinyl floor and no carpet. So it's more like an open space city living that you will see in most downtown communities across the country.

And your proposal is to tear down the First Baptist Church? Yes. This would replace that?

That's correct.

And Broadway around that area may be in one condition, but Broadway a little further down the road is a pretty rough road. Have you thought about and would you consider infrastructure improvements around the Broadway area in order to make this project work?

So with this particular project, I can only deal with the site in which we're dealing with, especially when we're speaking from the tax credit perspective. But if there's additional investment within the community that needs to be made, we're more than willing to look at what those potential investments could be.

What other cities have you done an actual project as you're proposing here?

So this will be the first city that we are proposing this with. However, our counterpart, most of my partners that I plan to hire for this project, they have over 30 years and 20 years of experience in bringing these developments forward.

What other developments have you done that maybe not be exactly like this, but are in any way similar?

So outside of my current experience as far as a residential home builder, I do have experience within consulting firms, which I've worked for in the private sector after graduating from business school and providing the consultant behind a lot of those bigger developments.

Would it be safe to say this is your first project of this type?

This would be my particular first project. However, everyone that I'll be putting in place that's a part of my team, they have the experience.

And have you pitched this to any other cities or where you're

So what brought me to Beaumont is I'm a graduate of Lamar University. So at my time here, I experienced a lot. I saw a lot. This is the place that gave me my first opportunity in life, right? And so for me to come back here and have an opportunity to meet the actual owner of the property, I was enabled by the opportunity to bring something that's great for the city. So there's a lot of people that I met along my journey through life. And for example, when I graduated college, there were people that stayed behind that were able to have employment here in the city. And they were actually able to stay at affordable housing or attainable housing communities like this. And this was something that they could afford that wasn't going to break their pocketbook, but it gave them a leg up in trying to move forward in their career.

Councilman Turner. Councilwoman Sherwood and Councilman Williams.

Go ahead. So, in this current phase, staff can jump in if maybe the question isn't attainable to him. In the current phase, if he doesn't move forward with the application process yeah we can probably approve it that doesn't mean the project would actually happen can someone explain how does work how does this work for people who are watching that maybe don't understand yes so i can let me just add that you know typically we look at housing tax credit projects in february of each year

And we usually might have multiple applicants. They come forward and council considers them and decides whether or not to support one, some, or none of them. Those are 9% credits. And so they're much more competitive. This is a 4% credit. This program is all managed by the state of Texas and the Texas Department of Housing Community Affairs. And so that's where the developers are going to get this funding. However, because Beaumont has more than twice the state average per capita of these units, there's a requirement that essentially the development gets a blessing and or a no objection from the city council in order to move forward and so this is not a city project it is simply required that the city allow the application to go forward to the state of texas for consideration

I want that point of clarification. Earlier, staff made a presentation at a budget workshop that our median employment income salary was $46,000. Can somebody correct me if I'm wrong? For city employees. The median city employee income, right? City employees, yes, sir. So I just want to be mindful how we make comments about certain income levels. because that's the median income of our city employees. And we talk about the finances and how much certain projects actually cost in low income, because that's our median pay that we actually approve as a council to pay our own employees. So I just want to make sure we're not out of touch when we're making decisions about what people choose to live and what people can afford to live. IT'S IMPORTANT WE AS A COUNCIL OR CONGRESSMAN OF WHEN WE SAY THESE TYPE OF THINGS WHEN THAT'S OUR MEDIUM EMPLOYEE INCOME.

ALL RIGHT. COUNCILWOMAN SHERWOOD AND COUNCILMAN WILLIAMS.

SO IF SOMEBODY COULD SPEAK TO THE FACT THAT WE HAVE MORE THAN TWICE THE STATE AVERAGE throughout our city currently, are they consolidated to certain areas of town or is this all over the city? What type of properties are we talking about? Can we give locations or places that we know of that fit into this category? I need a little more information.

Again, we consider these usually every February. That's the 9%. To answer your question, if you think about place of grace, abiding grace, And Jess Prince is our, she's got the whole list. But if you think about many, many of the apartment complexes that have been developed in the last 20 years in Beaumont, I would say the majority of them, of the new construction, are through this program. Some are through disaster funding, but majority are through this program.

Okay. And so that brings me to my next question and kind of talking to Councilman Turner's point. People are calling me concerned that these are going to be projects, okay? I don't know if I need to break that down or if everybody understand what projects mean, but this is not a place where, now that I'm hearing a place of grace or abiding grace, these are not projects. These are apartment homes for people with a median income, which is in line with what our average city income, not necessarily a place for low income unless you consider current wages for city employees low income. I mean, unless we gonna get all the way down to it. I'm concerned about the language that we use when we're conducting these conversations because we're speaking at and to and about people that are our community. They're our community. This is our people, right? So that worries me. And I want to say kudos to you because to come back and want to do something in a place, Lamar Graduate, I love that, L-U. but so my next question is um have have other locations been considered outside of downtown maybe um or was this was this just a location how did you come to this location i'm thinking more the more area or are things like that have other locations inside of boma been considered or is this your only

Well, this actual property was referred to me many years ago. I just now had the opportunity to work with the current owner of the land because I understand he had his own dealings as far as trying to keep the property safe. and keep vagrants from, from inside the property and, you know, to create more of a hazard for the police department. And so this was the first one that came to me in particular. Um, and it also worked that I'm familiar with the, with this side of town being the graduate.

And so my next question is, can anybody tell me how long this property has been vacant or, uh, you know, been doing nothing?

Close to 10 years at least.

Okay, so there's been no activity, no motion to buy, no motion to develop, nothing in the last 10 years at this location? Not to my knowledge. Okay, that brings me to my next question. Will the property builders be the property managers?

No, no. We will have a property management company come in. Now, with that property management company, It's professionally managed, and it will be one that's familiar with this style of property that understands the income limits and the requirements. So we will be overseers of that property management firm. However, we will leave the day-to-day responsibility to that firm. Okay. And which, you know, that's bringing anywhere between four to six jobs locally for that development.

Now, can you speak to you said something about dedicated parking? I don't really see that on this rendering. But is there dedicated parking for these two hundred and?

Right. So within the application packet, you'll see some of the site plan. And within that site plan, there are 369 parking spaces allocated as we speak just for that development. But then we also will control the parking lot across the street as well, which is an additional...

Okay. And so based off, so I know these are just potential renderings or whatever, but are we talking about a property that will potentially look close to these renderings? Because we get things and, you know, it's like we don't want apartment style homes or we want cottage style homes or we want townhouse style homes or whatever. I guess we're pretty early in the

Right. We're early in the rentals, but I can tell you that for me to stay within this property and the amount that has to be invested, we're looking to stay here long-term, 30 years plus. And so we want to ensure that our facade is brick-facing, high-end, so then that way we don't have to spend so much money on capital expenditures later.

Thank you. Councilman Williams, your turn.

Real quick, I did want to add to Councilman Sherwood's question regarding where certain apartments are located around town. Some of the recent ones, Abiding Grace, Azure Point, Cypress Place Apartments, Place of Grace, Providence on Major, Regent, Stonehurst Apartments. There's quite a few, and they're pretty spread out across town.

You have a proposed $60 million cost on the development for 220 units, and that's roughly... 270 grand per unit. That seems high. I mean, that seems very high.

So when you take the 4% tax credit, it's not like the 9%. The 9% covers majority of the expenses. However, with the 4% and when you have to sell the taxes and bonds, there's additional costs that's associated with that.

Yes, Councilman Crenshaw, then Councilwoman Maduria.

When you talk about parking, I know where the church is, and then across the street from the church is the federal courthouse. Behind the federal courthouse is a very large parking area, and then there's the building that used to house, that's owned by the Austin family, I believe, that used to house several federal agencies. Is your purchase of this property, if this was to be approved, include that parking area that I'm talking about that's between the federal courthouse and the building that's owned by the Austin family?

I don't believe, I'll need to lay out to see, but my purchase is for the 3.06 acres of the current site. And then there's the parking space that's across the backside of this building. So right in front of the visitor's bureau. that parking space there.

Okay.

And who owns that?

The same owner. The same owner. Yes. So was that previously the same parking for the First Baptist Church? I'm assuming so. Okay.

I'm assuming so because he owned...

the next building next door which once was a gym for the church if i'm not mistaken so that whole corner which was there okay and so your purchase of that three square miles is that what you said it was uh three yeah three acres yeah three acres three acres does not include the purchasing of the 300 uh unit uh car parking area that you're talking about Yes, it will. It will include that. Okay. So it's not just that three acres. Right. It's the parking area adjacent going towards the visitor's bureau. Correct. Okay. All right.

He did provide a site plan that's on page five of the packet, in the council packet.

Yeah. And then previously, when a developer came to us, they were going to put affordable housing at Phelan and Major. and in order to justify that location was the fact that it was near a grocery store and that was a big deal to them and it helped get approval for the project by the state the fact that it its proximity there was to a grocery store uh i ultimately voted against that because i thought that it would create an even more difficult traffic area there. I don't think we have a real problem with traffic downtown, but I'm curious why Why you didn't, and I'm also happy to have things brought to downtown, but is the fact that there's no grocery store anywhere near this a factor that's going to be a problem for you?

No, no. It definitely is in consideration, but most likely in that developer's case, he was bringing forth a 9% tax credit, which is the difference. This is a 4% tax credit.

Ah. Ah, good information. Right. So you get a lower percentage and it doesn't require the...

Right. It doesn't require the amount of proximity to the services as you will this.

And just as a point of information, Councilman Crenshaw, I don't believe that developer ended up making an application with the state for the property that you mentioned. So it gave them the opportunity to, but... Councilman, did you have... I'm going to get to you.

It was me. It was you. I can wait. I think y'all discussed it, but I was concerned. Did you have a price per door for these two? Because I'm concerned about it, but I'm concerned about these numbers.

Which numbers?

I mean, basically, like... per square foot. I guess maybe I'm not looking at it.

So per square foot, it may be around, well, per door, actually. Yeah, per door. About $275,000 per door.

Okay, yeah, that's what I'm trying to get to. Right.

And the reason they're doing this 4% is that they're able to sell those, which will be able to offset that cost.

Yes, Councilman Turner. So I got some questions, but even if it's uncomfortable, it's best to ask to put it all out there. Currently, for staff, is this building red tagged?

It's not red tagged. It's orange tagged right now.

So basically, what does orange tag mean? Explain to the public.

Property maintenance, when it's red tagged, it means that it's unsafe for, well, that it should be considered for demolition, and then that's when it comes before council is when it's red tagged. But orange tag, we're trying to work with the owner to restore the building to the minimum code standards of the IPMC.

So basically, we're saying it's not in the minimum code standards currently?

No.

Okay, my second question would be, if it got to a red tag standard, since it's currently not in code to standard, roughly how much would it cost the city to knock it down?

We received a quote for, back in the day, the only comparable that I have is the Gilbert, which was about $400,000. So that was about two years ago at this point. So maybe add some inflation to that. And also more building to knock down. Much bigger building.

much bigger building and just to put it out there because those are facts that needs to be discussed. My second thing is just to put it to bed because we're still dancing around this income thing. At this property, would you be setting housing vouchers?

No, no, this is not a voucher program. This is, and, you know, we can talk about the difference between the two. With the voucher program, individuals are given a certain allocation to what they can afford, and take that and rent out a place, an apartment, and let's just say, for example, if they received a voucher for $1,200 and they found an apartment that was $1,300, then their contribution to that unit would only be $100. Right in this situation these are individuals that have the average income of a city employee and they are You know bringing anywhere from nine hundred and fifty dollars per month for one bedroom all the way to You know, maybe about fourteen hundred dollars fourteen seventy or four bedroom and and first staff

Let me know if I'm going too far. Is that a stipulation you can put in if it is agreed upon to move forward with the application?

Which stipulation?

The stipulation he just stated.

About the rent? No.

Yeah. And there's some misinformation in general. The city does not ever approve vouchers. That is done. The city has no say in whether people can use Section 8 vouchers.

The reason I asked, I just got a message about it and I did it.

There's a lot of misinformation because we've got to understand this is private property and this isn't city funds being spent on this property. So, you know, I know people have said to me, you know, we need to restore it. It's a historic building. The current owner, that would be for them to decide. The city has no intentions of purchasing that property. So what we're dealing with here is somebody that is looking to bring downtown living, which would be a number of people, which would also be on the tax rolls. I mean, it could be a Nez property, neighborhood empowerment zone, which could allow for seven years of abatements. That would be decided by the council itself. some later time but otherwise it's on the property tax rolls and say it's at 40 million y'all can do the math real quick there that's paying employees it's real money to the city and it does do something far downtown so sometimes i get confused when we're saying no to to expansion. And I realize when we look historically, Beaumont's got some problems. And Beaumont can continue to have huge problems. But it's definitely going to have huge problems if we don't grow. And, you know, this does allow for that possibility. But there's not going to be any guarantees. But, you know, in terms of it looks like an awful attractive property at this point. And, you know, when you have restaurants that would have employees, you have city employees, I think it would bring down some, you know, some interest. hopefully CVS or other type of retail downtown to be able to service this. But, you know, this doesn't cost the city money. This would actually generate revenue for the city. And if we decide not to move forward, we might be dealing with, I would bet, a million dollars or more in cost of tearing down a building. So that's all just for thought. Yes, Councilman Crenshaw.

And on that, Mr. Mayor, and it was also this point was brought up with Councilman Turner. And this is mainly maybe more of a question for staff. What is the economic impact? I could see where this could be great for downtown. So that makes me tend to want to support it. I also think about all the complaints that we get about downtown not having a police presence. and that it's not, you know, all the problems we have with all the buildings around here is because those building owners say that, you know, Beaumont police isn't actively patrolling downtown. And I'm not in any way saying that we're not patrolling downtown, but that is a very, very, very common complaint. And we heard it from in the comments earlier. But if we did this, oh, If we do this, are we going to have to add a new patrol division for downtown? And so has staff looked into pros and cons of the economics of this project?

So we haven't done a full economic impact. We have done some preliminary look at some other multifamily downtown and their calls for service. I don't think it's, it would not result in additional requirements in terms of additional staffing for police department. The flip side is the revenue, economic impact. If it is a $60 million project, we can do the math on property taxes. There's water sales. There is the potential for if the city were to have to demolish this property, whenever that, we basically would not have to be expending that amount. So, you know, in terms of full economic impact, that hasn't been done. And they're not typically done for these types of consideration. But just off the, at a high level, you know, those would be the potential pros and cons.

And I understand that, and I'm not asking for a complete in-depth economic study. I'm just kind of hoping for maybe some ballpark figures here with, like you said, y'all had looked at similar projects in other downtowns. I mean, what are we talking about here just in tax revenue a year, 60 million times the 65 cents or 71? 414,000.

$414,000 at 69 cents. A year? Yeah.

Plus water revenue.

Yeah. That's just on property tax.

Right. And then have we looked at whether our infrastructure downtown could immediately handle this? Are we going to have to, like the project we just approved, over off of Northwest Parkway where it needs $12 million in infrastructure improvements that we're allowing the developer to get reimbursed after he spends the money. Are we going to have to do anything?

Yeah, all of this would be subject to permitting. So even if we, council blesses it today, even if he gets granted the approval at the state level, it's still going to have to go through the permitting process. And so Molly and her folks, Demi and her folks are going to have to look at all of this, working with their architects, engineers, to make sure there is capacity, water, sewer, you name it.

We haven't done any of that?

Well, again, this is... Go ahead.

I'm sorry. I can say in the pre-development meeting, we did have with most of everyone within the city, we did speak about what's available and what's there, where it sits right now. And as it sits, it's fine where everything is located. So as far as sewer and water, it's there and it's readily available.

And there's currently a group of condominiums or townhomes right by the church, and it seems like it always has power. issues. They've had several power outages that have lasted several days and I can recall discussing that with energy. Have you looked at power problems in the downtown area and

So we haven't gotten that far within it. You know, for today, it was about receiving, you know, the council's blessing to move forward to flesh out the full project. Okay.

Okay, Councilman Hilliard. Councilman Hilliard. Yeah, I...

So you have to keep these for 10 or 15 years based on the tax. Is it 10 or 15?

So the tax is for 10, but there's a management period of 15 years. However, usually within your contract agreement with our investors, usually if the investor is a private financial corporation, then usually they require a 30-year contract. stay. So it'll be another renewal for another 15 years. So that's what will keep us inside the property for 30 years.

Okay. Thank you. Councilman Williams and Councilman Durio.

I just want to circle back to the per door cost. Are you saying that the 4% tax credit is what allows this to be a project that cash flows? It's hard for me to... Excuse me. To look at the rents and the amount of units and what you're claiming you're going to spend and see where this math – it doesn't math for me. Right, right. So that's – okay.

Okay.

So it's 40. It's the value of the tax credit.

Right. It's certainly more than 40%. Right, right. The 4% is just the name, is the name that the federal government provides to us to call that. It represents almost 40% of the total value, which will offset the total construction costs.

Okay, that makes more sense. And these funds were increased through the Big Beautiful Act last year and through the recent... passing of the Affordable Housing Act. That's where these monies come from.

So I guess to you as a developer, whenever you are doing a project like this, and then I read, you know, Beaumont has more than twice the state average of housing units supported by tax credits. What makes Beaumont attractive to someone like you whenever we already have twice the amount of similar properties? And then also to us as a city, I mean, I'm not against growth, but what is the impact of continuing to add kind of these properties? Developments that are supported by tax credits.

So again, we normally go through this exercise in February and we typically will ask for a market analysis. And the number we really try to get to is what's the what's the. vacancy rate or the occupancy rate for these types of developments. And I know the developer may be able to chime in here in terms of more recent. I know the last time we looked at it, it was in the 90s. And anytime it's over 90% occupancy, that shows there's a demand. We also will reach out to the Beaumont Housing Authority. And again, I know these are not apples and oranges, but just trying to get a sense of what is their demand list. And so usually that conversation is had in February, and usually the information we get back is there is a demand for these units.

And we just had a meeting where there is a housing demand. I can't remember the numbers, but we did have a meeting where there was.

I'm going to give Councilman Durio his chance now. You always got to go last.

This process here, If for some reason we was to vote against it, you would still be able to proceed. You wouldn't at all without that tax credit. Well, without your support.

OK. Right. I need your support then to go to the state of Texas to say the city of Beaumont needs 220 units of tax. these so would you be I think we've done it before and you competition not just Beaumont but it's a certain area so so that's the difference so for in particular this is the four percent tax and that's the nine percent tax so the nine percent is when the reason why you usually have these meetings in February are because there's a certain time period that all those applications need to be in right with the four percent tax is not um competitive per se uh but by being not non-competitive you actually end up only doing able to do a certain amount of units um with the four percent we have to marry the 4%. So we have to marry the 40% credits that we will receive with other financial obligations to make sure that we cash flow. So there's a lot of hoops and gap funding that we have to go through to bring this forward and bring it into a full project.

Okay, well, every... I've heard it more than one time. If you bring people to downtown, then the businesses will follow. And it seems like this might be a help do that.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Crenshaw.

Back to that parking lot that you said with the 300... Well, you mentioned the gym. Does your purchase of this also include the building that's at gym?

No, no, not at all, not at all. That owner still has his parking lot and the gym, and we don't cross at all in between that parking lot. So those 369 units are all encompassed on just this three acres. The lot across the street is something totally separate that our additional parking

parking lot parking spaces that can be provided as well okay but you're not going to own that parking lot you would just make an agreement to use it i'll own it we'll the project will own it okay and we'll own the parking lot across across the street right okay but is that in that's not in this right and that's where i'm confused because i'm trying to say well there's a street there and it's not on

Right, so the 369 parking spaces you see there are enough, or if I'm not mistaken, it's 15% over the minimum requirement.

There aren't 300 spaces on this, are there?

Mm-hmm.

And so in addition to 300 spaces here, you're going to have an additional parking lot across the street that you're not going to actually own, you're just going to have access to. We will own it. You're going to own that as well? Yes. And how many additional spaces is that other than the 369?

I did not do the math on that just yet.

Required is 330 spaces for apartments. However, it's within the central business district, so technically parking is not required, but they are planning to provide 369 parking spaces. It looks like on that site plan on the left side, more so the top. SAYS THAT PARKING SPACES FOR A GARAGE ARE 315 SPACES AND THEN PARKING SPACES ON THE GROUND ARE 54 SPACES. SO YOU PLAN TO DO A PARKING GARAGE?

Lastly, I was originally probably going to be against this, but you're an impressive gentleman. I really do like the fact that you went to Lamar and you want to come back to do this. I'm a little uneasy about the fact that it's your first project, but hey, we all have to start somewhere. But anyway, you're an impressive guy. I appreciate you putting this and trying to make our downtown area better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Any other comments? call for the vote all right thank you sir did a good job and appreciate it go Cardinals I love to see our alumni do well okay so we're now taking a vote on regular agenda item number one we're setting a record here at 325 all those in favor of approval of item number one please signify by saying aye any opposed Motion passes. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number two?

Yes, sir. Item number two is to consider a resolution approving the repair of a pump for the Royal Street Underpass Pump Station. The Royal Street Underpass Pump Station pumps stormwater from MLK Parkway in the sections between Franklin Street and College Street. The station operates four submersible pumps. Due to the age of the pumps and the abrasive nature of the stormwater, the pumps began to fail and need significant repairs to continue to function until new pumps can be acquired. The total cost for the fabrication of the three spare impellers as well as the refurbishment of pump number four is $119,119.94. Pricing was obtained from Triangle Rotating Equipment Specialists, Inc. of Orange, Texas. Due to the age of the equipment, several components require custom machining and fabrication because original manufactured parts are no longer available. Funds are available in... from certificates of obligation, and the administration recommends approval of this resolution.

Is there a motion for item number two? So moved. There is a motion and a second for approval of item number two. Is there any discussion?

Councilman Turner. So under the underpass, is this going to alleviate the water with the heavy flooding and the rain, or cars get stuck sometimes?

I will defer to our public works director.

It will help maintain the reliability of that pump station. We have three pumps in service at this moment. So this will put the fourth pump back in service. And then if we have future issues with these pump stations, with the empowers, we have spares now that we can put in and we don't have to wait many, many months and rent bypass pumps while we wait for new parts to be made for these pumps.

All right, if there's no other discussion, all in favor of approving item number two, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number three?

Yes. Item number three is a resolution authorizing the purchase of three intelligent flushing stations for use in the water distribution system. Water Utilities is responsible for maintaining water quality throughout the city's water distribution system. Areas with dead-end water lines or low water demand can experience reduced circulation, which may result in diminished disinfectant residuals and increased potential for water quality concerns. Currently, these conditions are addressed through routine manual flushing of fire hydrants. The proposed monitoring and flushing stations would automate this process by remotely monitoring water quality conditions and initiating flushing based on pre-established parameters. This approach supports water quality management while reducing water loss compared to manual flushing operations. The flushing stations will be purchased through the HGAC purchasing cooperative that complies with the state of Texas procurement requirements. The cost, including an expediting fee to reduce the estimated delivery time from more than 10 weeks to approximately six weeks, is $75,207.48. Pricing was obtained from Core and Main of Beaumont, Texas. The vendor quote and expediting letter are attached for review. Funds are available for this project from water revenue bonds, and the administration recommends approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion for item number three? Move to approve. There's a motion and a second for approval of item number three. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of approving item number three, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number four?

Yes. Item number four is consideration of a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute change order number three, accept maintenance and authorize final payment to CTEX Construction Corp. of Beaumont for the 23rd Street Sanitary Sewer Trunk Line Rehabilitation Phase 1 Project. On April 15, 2025, City Council awarded contract to CTEX Construction for the 23rd Street Sanitary Sewer Trunk Line Rehab Phase 1 project in the amount of $215,908.46. Previous change orders 1 through 2 in the amount of $91,044.06 are attached for your reference. Proposed change order number three would decrease the contract amount by $37,086.28 and is required to adjust the estimated quantities in the contract to reflect the actual quantities used to complete phase one of the project, as well as add calendar days to reflect the actual days used. If approved, the final contract amount would be $269,866.24. The project has been inspected by water utility staff and found to be complete. accordance with the provisions and terms set forth in the contract acceptance of change order number three maintenance and final payment in the amount of forty seven thousand three hundred fifty four dollars and thirty six cents is recommended funds are available in the water revenue bonds and administration recommends approval of the resolution is there a motion for item number four approval second

There is a motion and a second for approval of item number four. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of approving item number four, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

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

Yes. Item number five is to consider a request for a specific use permit to allow a food truck park within a GCND 2 General Commercial Multifamily Dwelling 2 zoning district for property located at 5980 Concord Road. At a joint public hearing held July 20, 2026, the Planning Commission recommended 8-0 to approve the request for the specific use permit to allow the food truck park within this zone with the subject of the following conditions. Number one, construction plans must meet all requirements by water utilities for any water and sanitary sewer improvements, including any requirements of the city's backflow pretreatment and or fog program. Number two, construction shall comply with the drainage district number six drainage criteria. Number three, all lighting installed shall be directionally shielded away from the residential properties to the east and south. And number four, the business premises, operations, and any construction or alterations shall comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations, state laws, and applicable codes and ordinances of the city of Beaumont. The administration recommends approval of the ordinance with the same conditions.

second there is a motion in a second for approval of item number five is there any discussion all those in favor of approving item number five please signify by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries for passes item number six

Item number six is a request for a specific use permit to allow a water treatment product manufacturing facility within an LI light industrial zoning district for property located at 4775 South Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. At a joint public hearing held July 20th, 2026, the Planning Commission recommended eight to zero to approve the request for the specific use permit to allow the water treatment product manufacturing facility at this location Subject to the following conditions. Number one, construction plans must meet all requirements by water utilities for any water and sanitary sewer improvements, including any requirements of the city's backflow pretreatment and or fog program. Number two, water and sewer capacity assessments through the water utilities shall be completed and approved prior to approval of permits. Number three, the business premises operations and any construction or alterations shall comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations, state laws and applicable codes and ordinances of the City of Beaumont. And number four, any proposed modification or addition of driveways will require approval of TxDOT and an approved TxDOT permit shall be required with submittal for city permits. Administration recommends approval of the ordinance with the same conditions.

Second.

All right, that is for item number Six. Six. And there is a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of approval of item number six, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. City Manager, may we have the reading of item number seven?

Yes, sir. Item number seven is to consider a request for a rezoning from RS residential single-family dwelling to NC neighborhood commercial district for property located at 1800 Tulane Street and 1800 and 1900 Pope Street. This request was tabled for three months at the April 2026 Planning Commission meeting to allow the applicant time to provide additional details regarding the request. No additional information was provided to planning staff and the request remains as originally submitted. Casa Alvarez Realty LLC is requesting approval to rezone the properties to NC neighborhood commercial district from RS, residential single family, or a more restrictive district. The purpose of the rezoning is to allow for future occupancy such as churches, faith-based community centers, women and children support facilities, as well as daycares and early learning centers. At a joint public hearing held July 20, 2026, the Planning Commission recommended six to two to deny the request for the rezoning at this location. The administration is recommending denial as well.

Is there a motion and a second for item number seven for denial? Is there any discussion? Yes, Councilman Duryea.

Just for the information for the public at that meeting, he really didn't have a clear plan as to what he wanted to do with that property, and it's right in the middle of a neighborhood.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Crenshaw?

I would also add that He wants to basically do the same thing with the property that was previously being done when I was operated as a school by making it into a daycare whatever but the school previously was grandfathered in and not subject to the zoning laws of or the zoning requirements if I'm correct but then he waited. too long to lose that grandfather protection uh and uh it's unfortunate uh because he made quite an investment he spent a lot of money on that property uh but you know i i hate to say it but after listening to some of the issues that he's had with it uh he He really probably should have spent some money with a lawyer and getting some clarifications on all of that because it's not going to work the way that he's trying to do it right now. So I agree that this should be denied. But it is unfortunate because he did buy that as an investment property with intentions of doing positive things with it. But unfortunately, he just was bad with the paperwork.

I do want to add real quick that if he did want to move forward with like an elementary school, secondary school, something of that nature, he could apply for a specific use permit. It just has to go through the process. But a daycare would not be allowed there. Depends on when that daycare closed. But a daycare is not permitted by right in that zoning district.

So could he sell it to like a Harmony type entity that could get a specific use permit and restart the school?

yes sir so there are options thank you yes sir with that are we all those in favor of denying item number seven signify by saying aye aye any opposed the motion is denied would you please take us into the public hearing yes sir mayor and council the public hearing is to conduct

Rather, the public hearing is to find and ratify the determination of the public health director that public health nuisances exist on the property owned by Chester Mercer at 3495 Quinn with a legal description of Drake Block 1, Block 2, 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 we do have our public health director, Mr. Kenneth Coleman, to present.

All right. The public hearing is now open. Mr. Coleman.

Good evening, council and mayor. City Manager Red, just going to show you, you can go to the next slide, Tina, please. Just to give you a little history on this property, code enforcement has been dealing with this property since 2023. Going to court, the property is currently orange tag at the moment. The next slide, please. And so we got called in because of the rodent harboring conditions and failure to retrieve the litter. And those are the two applicable codes that's been currently violated. Next slide. Just give you some pictures of what we're dealing with here. You can go to the next slide. That's it. Questions?

All right. Public hearing is now closed. Mr. City Manager, may we have reading of item number eight?

Yes, sir. Item number eight 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 Chester Mercer at 3495 Quinn with legal description of Drake lot one block two 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 of the property owner of City Council Action, the administration recommends approval of the ordinance.

Is there a motion for item number eight?

Second.

There is a motion and a second for approval of item number eight. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of approving item number eight, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is carried. Would you take us into the next public hearing, Mr. City Manager?

Yes, sir. The next public hearing is to consider a public hearing to discuss and receive comments regarding potential implementation of the ZIP Youth Mobility Program. And presenting is Demi Engman, our Director of Planning and Community Development.

Our public hearing is open.

GOOD AFTERNOON. THIS WAS BROUGHT UP WHEN WE WERE DISCUSSING THE SUMMER ZIP YOUTH MOBILITY PROGRAM. THERE WAS EXPRESSED INTEREST IN WANTING TO EXPAND THIS YEAR ROUND VERSUS JUST OVER THE SUMMER. LOOKING INTO FORECASTING ON REVENUES AND WHATNOT. CURRENTLY WITH YOUTH PASSES IN 2025, WE BROUGHT IN APPROXIMATELY 11,000. SO YOU CAN ANTICIPATE IF APPROVED THAT WE WOULD NOT REALIZE THOSE REVENUES IN THE COMING FISCAL YEAR. BUT DID WANT TO PUT THAT OUT THERE. THIS IS A REALLY EXCITING INITIATIVE, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO BE ABLE TO CONNECT OUR YOUTH TO EDUCATION, JOB OPPORTUNITIES, EVEN JUST OPPORTUNITIES AT CHURCHES AND THINGS LIKE THAT OUTSIDE OF JUST THE SCHOOL YEAR. FRESH FOOD ACCESS, ALL KINDS OF THINGS. SO EXCITED THAT YOU ALL WERE ON BOARD TO CONSIDER IT AND HEAR IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. ANY QUESTIONS? Did we have anybody sign up to speak in the public hearing? No. Okay. The public hearing is now closed. Would you please read item number nine?

I think you had a hand in the audience. I don't know that she knew to sign up.

Oh. Is that the same thing about the books that I asked you about? No, ma'am. This is for students. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. I missed the hand. All right. Take us into the reading of number nine, please.

Yes, sir, Mayor. Item number nine is to consider an ordinance supporting the ZIP Youth Mobility Program to provide cost-free rides on ZIP's bus system to kindergarten through 12th grade students. And as presented by Ms. Engman, this is to advance ZIP's mission of increasing ridership, strengthening long-term transit participation, and promoting equity across Beaumont. and the administration recommends approval of the ordinance.

Second.

There's been a motion and a second for approval of item number nine. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of approving item number nine, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? The motion is carried. Mr. Boone, would you take us into the work session, the first work session?

Yes, sir. This work session is to review and discuss proposed water and sewer rates. And presenting will be Mr. Grady-Reed of HDR. And this is a continuation of our recent discussion on proposed water rates.

Just curious, did the 11th Street Cruise thing on the agenda get pulled?

Yes. The applicant requested removal.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, and thank you for having me back. We're just going to go through and present three additional rate scenarios. At the last meeting that we presented that, there was WE RECEIVED YOUR FEEDBACK AND ON STAFF DIRECTION HAVE DEVELOPED THREE ALTERNATIVE RATE SCENARIOS. MOST OF THE DIRECTION THAT WE RECEIVED FROM COUNCIL WAS TO TRY TO LOWER THE RATE INCREASES FOR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL. AND SO EACH ONE OF THESE THREE SCENARIOS DOES THAT. to to varying degrees I will point out that there's still no water rate increases were not recommending increases the water rates just we're just talking about wastewater and there are no recommended increases to the senior citizen wastewater rates so when we're talking about these increases they do not apply to the senior citizen rates it's just single-family residential and on single-family residential was just commercial and industrial. When I was last here, the original recommendation was a 10% across the board wastewater WASTEWATER RATE INCREASE, SO JUST EVERYONE'S BILLS WOULD GO UP 10%. SO FOR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS USING 5,000 GALLONS, THEIR WASTEWATER BILL WOULD GO UP ABOUT $3.72 PER MONTH. WE'RE GOING TO PRESENT THREE DIFFERENT SCENARIOS, SCENARIO A, B, AND C. SCENARIO A HAS LIMITED RESIDENTIAL INCREASES, AND I WILL POINT OUT AND WE WILL SEE THIS, IT'S NOT NO RESIDENTIAL INCREASES, BUT VERY LIMITED RESIDENTIAL INCREASES. AND A 10% INCREASE ON THE VOLUME RATE FOR ALL NON-SINGLE FAMILY. SCENARIO B HAS THE SAME LIMITED RESIDENTIAL INCREASE BUT A 17% INCREASE ON THE VOLUME RATE FOR ALL NON-SINGLE FAMILY CUSTOMERS AND THEN SCENARIO C IS BASICALLY A 5% RESIDENTIAL RATE INCREASE AND A 14% INCREASE FOR ALL NON-SINGLE FAMILY CUSTOMERS. If we look at your total projected wastewater sales, just kind of revenue coming in, the original option, we would have projected about $28.2 million. With scenario A, it's a little bit less just because we're not really increasing anyone's rates more than what we had on the original option and reducing people's rates. So the revenue goes down to $27.5 million. That doesn't seem like a LIKE A VERY BIG CHANGE, BUT THAT DOES COMPOUND A LITTLE BIT OVER TIME AS WE MOVE FORWARD. IF WE LOOK AT SCENARIO B AND SCENARIO C, SCENARIO B IS ACTUALLY A LITTLE BIT ABOVE THE ORIGINAL PROJECTION, AND THEN SCENARIO C IS PRETTY MUCH ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME. AGAIN, WE'RE JUST KIND OF REALLOCATING WHO WE WOULD BE COLLECTING THAT REVENUE FROM. AGAIN, UNDER EACH ONE OF THESE SCENARIOS, WE'RE BRINGING IN LESS REVENUE FROM SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL AND MORE REVENUE FROM FROM OTHER CUSTOMER TYPES. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL, YES. PRIMARILY COMMERCIAL. THERE'S NOT A LOT OF INDUSTRIAL CUSTOMERS ON THE WASTEWATER SYSTEM. So for scenario A, there's a 5% increase in the demand charge for all customers. Again, the bill is made up of two parts. There's a demand charge that everyone pays, and then there's a volume rate. So the demand charge would go up 5% for all customers, including single family. But there is no increase to the volume rate for those single family customers and a 10% increase to the volume rate for all other customers, which is what we had originally recommended. So under this scenario, the single-family wastewater bill would increase 64 cents a month, which is much lower than the $3.27 that we had originally started out with, which equates to a 1.7% increase. Other customers, their wastewater bill would increase $15.29 a month, or 9.7%. So again, you can just see kind of the revenue split, the increase in revenue there. how we're splitting that now between the different customer types instead of just everyone increasing by 10%. I showed this chart last time I was here. This does not include just wastewater. This includes water and wastewater. But I just wanted to point out again, there is no water rate increases. And so the only change to the single family residential bill would be the 64 cents per month. The percentage increase is going to vary Based on the usage, but if they use 5,000 gallons of water and wastewater Unless less than a 1% increase on the on the residential bill and again, I do understand that that's not that's not zero But we were trying to at least work within the spirit of the comments that received back from counseling and certainly limit that Are these numbers based on 100% collection?

So what if we threw another 10 million in collection in there with these numbers change I?

Certainly, yes, if the city brought in more revenue. In our rate model, we are not assuming a 100% collection rate because the city is not... What are we figuring then? We're using about a 95% collection rate, but we do try to go back and verify our revenue numbers with... Because you know we're not right now. That's why we do not assume 100% collection rate in our model. We do go back and verify our model projected revenues with what the city has historically collected. Scenario B is that same 5% increase in the demand charge for all customers. Again, no increase to the volume rate for single-family residential customers instead of a 10% increase in the volume rate for all other customer types. It's now a 17% increase. So the single-family residential bill is the same under scenario A and B. It's still the 64 cents per month increase. Under this scenario, the other customers, their wastewater bill would increase About $25 per month for 25,000 gallons of use which is an increase of 16% Same table again, just kind of showing combined water and wastewater Again, you can see the commercial bill down there for 25,000 gallons. Their their wastewater bill would go up 16% but since there is no change to the water rates The actual overall bill would go up 8% THE LAST SCENARIO DOES HAVE A LITTLE BIT HIGHER INCREASE FOR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL HERE. WE'RE BASICALLY DOING A 5% INCREASE FOR THEM IN BOTH THE DEMAND CHARGE AND THE VOLUME RATE. AND THEN THAT ALLOWS US TO BRING DOWN THE 17% INCREASE TO THE OTHER CUSTOMERS, BRING THAT DOWN TO ABOUT 14%. SO UNDER THIS SCENARIO, THE SINGLE FAMILY BILL WOULD INCREASE $1.84 PER MONTH, HALF OF THE ORIGINAL PROPOSAL. for 5,000 gallons of use, and all the other customers would see a wastewater bill increase of about $21 a month or 13.3% for 25,000 gallons of use. Again, here you can see, I'll just point out that just because we talk about a 5% increase in wastewater rates doesn't mean that the total water and wastewater bill would go up 5% for single-family customers. Their bill's about half water and half wastewater, so the total bill increase would be about 2.4%. I just threw these in here just so you can kind of see a little bit about we always present like what we think is going to happen over the next five years and I will say that there's an infinite number of solutions to this problem so we could change these percentages and end up at the same place. But our original projections just looking at wastewater again recommending about a 10% increase in 2027 and then we're going to have basically a nine 9% INCREASE IN 2028, 2029, AND THEN SOME LOWER INCREASES IN THE OUTER YEARS. I DID TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SCENARIO A AND HOW IT WOULD BRING IN A LITTLE BIT LESS REVENUE THAN THE ORIGINAL PROJECTION, AND THAT'S KIND OF REFLECTED IN THAT 2028 COLUMN WHERE WE WOULD SAY THAT IF YOU GO WITH SCENARIO A, KIND OF ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL INSTEAD OF POTENTIALLY A 9% INCREASE LAST YEAR OR NEXT YOU'RE POTENTIALLY LOOKING AT A 12% INCREASE AND THEN A 10-10. SO LIKE I SAID, THAT REVENUE DIFFERENCE DOESN'T SEEM LIKE A LOT, BUT IT DOES HAVE COMPOUNDING EFFECTS AS WE GO THROUGH. SINCE THESE RATES KIND OF BUILD ON EACH OTHER, THESE RATE INCREASES BUILD ON EACH OTHER. THE LAST TWO SCENARIOS, SCENARIO B AND C, THEY'RE RELATIVELY DIFFERENT. Comparable again, there's there's kind of different ways that we could look at that and put in different percentages there but just I really just kind of wanted to make the point about scenario a How that could potentially put increased rate pressure in these in these upcoming years? I will note that for these other years for fiscal year 28 29 30 and 31 those are we're going back to just assuming across-the-board rate increases and OBVIOUSLY, THE CITY GOES THROUGH THIS PROCESS EVERY YEAR, WHICH IS GREAT, AND IT'S THE BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE THAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING. I DIDN'T WANT TO TRY TO MAKE ANY ASSUMPTIONS THAT BY THE TIME WE GET TO 2028, WE'RE GOING TO TRY TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT BETWEEN SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL, SO WE'RE JUST ASSUMING THAT YOUR REVENUE REQUIREMENTS ARE GOING TO NEED TO GO UP BY THOSE PERCENTAGES, AND THEN WHEN WE GET TO THAT POINT NEXT YEAR, WE CAN FIGURE OUT HOW WE'RE GOING TO DIVVY UP THAT REVENUE. THIS IS JUST THE SAME SUMMARY FOR THE COMMERCIAL BILLS. AGAIN, THIS IS JUST WASTEWATER. SO YOU CAN SEE THE CURRENT BILL IS $158.40 AND YOU CAN SEE UNDER THE DIFFERENT SCENARIOS KIND OF WHAT THAT RATE INCREASE WOULD DO TO THEIR BILL WITH THE SAME POTENTIAL FUTURE RATE INCREASES IN THE OTHER YEARS.

Is there any questions for those? Anybody have any questions or preferences for scenarios? All right, y'all want some direction on what scenario y'all would like to see?

Yeah, Councilman Crenshaw. Yes, sir.

consultant it varies it's typically less than we've been doing it for less than $25,000 yes sir For water wastewater. We we we we could go back and look at that so we were not recommending any increases to the to the water rates in general. So quite honestly under under that scenario if you want to increase water rates to industrial. I personally I wouldn't recommend any changes to the wastewater rates that are proposed I would just consider that to be additional water revenue. and use that to potentially offset other water rate increases in the future.

the situation out in the south end near the jail and the prisons. And that caused significant issues for us. And, you know, I just feel like we should not raise rates at all on residential and small business. And I'm even fine with not raising it. On commercial, but I do believe that our rates are low on the industrial side, and those are the customers that can most afford it, especially with oil prices the way that they are and how a lot of these companies are making significant revenue right now. SO ANYWAY, I JUST THOUGHT THAT OUT THERE THAT I THINK OUR INDUSTRIAL RATES ARE LOW AND I WOULD LIKE TO, I'M IN FAVOR OF AN INCREASE THERE. WHAT WOULD THE NUMBERS LOOK LIKE ON THE WASTE WATER SIDE IF WE DO ABSOLUTELY, I'M NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT ONE CENT INCREASE FOR RESIDENTIAL or small business and we just increase commercial by 10% and industrial by 15%.

So to answer that question, we would have to do a little bit more modeling because currently the way that we receive your billing data, there is no rate class for small commercial. We received billing data for this is residential. This is multifamily. This is commercial and industrial so we would need to identify which businesses the city would would classify as small last meeting you said it was if the pipe was less than five inches or something of eight or larger than five eight of eight.

Yeah, that you classified water bills that are residential and small business because the access that they have is a pipe less than five-eighths.

So I don't remember saying that we would consider them small commercial businesses if they have a five-eighths or less meter, but certainly a commercial business that does have a five-eighths meter, they're going to be a small business just because they have a small meter size.

Yeah. So what's the next meter size that would, in my opinion, classify more as commercial?

Commercial customers, a lot of them typically would run with at least a one inch.

Okay, so I am proposing and what I would be in favor of would be an increase in wastewater rates only for the one inch customers and larger up to industrial.

Water, not wastewater.

No, I'm talking about wastewater and classifying those accounts. Because he said he couldn't classify small business earlier because they're not divided between commercial and small business.

Yeah, but the problem that you're going to have is with the current data that we have, so we know meter sizes and we know that distribution, and we know that distribution, say, within the commercial accounts. So we could say we're not going to do any rate increase to five-eighths or potentially three-quarter inch meter sizes.

Okay.

The problem is, again, there's two parts to that bill. There's also the volume rate. And so what we receive is all commercial customers, this is the total volume billed. So out of that total volume billed, we don't know how much that volume is received. uh those commercial customers that have a five-eighths or three-quarter-inch peter or whatever um that is i'm sure that data is available out of your billing system um we would just have to work to to identify that and then we would basically essentially we would be setting up a new rate class um for the city uh you would then have res single-family residential small commercial other commercial industrial

We don't currently have our billing set up based upon the size of the meter or the 5-8s as differentiated between one inch?

We know the meter sizes for those customers, but we don't know the data that we receive. We can't say that your commercial customers that have a 5-8 inch meter, this is how many millions of gallons of water or wastewater they're using a year. WE WOULD HAVE TO GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE INDIVIDUAL BILLING RECORDS FOR ALL OF THOSE COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS, PICK OUT THE ONES THAT HAVE THE METER SIZES THAT YOU WANT TO LOOK AT AND THEN SEE WHAT THE GALLONAGE ASSOCIATED. NEW SPEAKER All right.

WELL, I MEAN, IT SEEMS LIKE LAST YEAR WE ONLY INCREASED ON THE WATER SIDE. commercial and industrial. And it seems like we were told that that did not include residential and small businesses that had the 5-8 inch pipe.

We did not increase the demand charge on the 5-8 inch meters. We did increase the volume rate for all commercial establishments. Okay.

All right. Well, I guess where I'm going with this, I... AM IN ZERO FAVOR OF INCREASING RATES ON THE WATER SIDE FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN INDUSTRIAL. ON THE WASTE WATER SIDE, WHETHER YOU HAVE TO GO BACK AND RESEARCH IT AND BRING THOSE NUMBERS BACK TO US AT A LATER DATE, I WOULD BE IN FAVOR OF AN INCREASE FOR THE ONE INCH ACCOUNTS ENLARGER ALL THE WAY UP TO INDUSTRIAL. I can't say that increasing wastewater rates on residential or small business are a good idea at this time. That's all I have.

So we can look at those. Again, I just will say that as far as the industrial water rates go, typically what you would actually see is your industrial customers, they have the lowest water rates out of all of your customers because they are not peaking on your system during the summer. They take the same water month in, month out. You're not building any extra infrastructure. When you actually do a cost of service study, and this is borne out by the city's rates or by the cities that typically water rates are highest for residential, somewhere in the middle for commercial, and somewhere above. lower for industrial so I'm not saying that you have to follow the cost of service study results but typically if you actually look at which customer groups are placing cost on your system typically the industrial customers are your lowest cost customers and that one surprised that's that's still where I'm at understand how much does industrial represent in sparse sales yes let me let me look I can tell you You want to know water and wastewater or just one or the other? On the water side, industrial sales, we have coming in about $1.3 million. They're actually your lowest, your customer class that brings in the lowest amount of revenue. Again, there's limited industrial customers. On the wastewater side, it's next to nothing. It's less than $1,000 a year. on the industrial side. Thank you. Councilman Hilliard.

And that's if the meters are being read right. I mean, I hate to keep harping on this, but if we come back to you and we're like, oh, we're sorry, we missed bill, we didn't bill over $10 million, all this is going to change. Everything that you brought before us is going to change. And so we have one person billing. We're not reading meters. We had two customers that were basically half a million dollars in unread meters. It's been going on for five or six years. So it's just like giving your accountant wrong information. I mean, you don't have good numbers to be able to come to us and say this is what we need because we don't know. We're guessing. We don't have good numbers.

Certainly, if your collection rate were to go up, then that would be reflected in your rates. And obviously, I guess that would be the hope that over the course of this upcoming year, the city can take some actions to rectify some of that and help to not have rate increases or lower those rate increases. But right now, we've got to go with the data that we do have, which is obviously that the city perhaps is not collecting AS MUCH REVENUE AS THEY COULD.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? ANY OTHER DISCUSSION? ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, SIR. THANK YOU. YOU'RE GOING TO BRING US BACK SOME additional numbers, is that correct?

We will work with staff. From what I understand, you basically just, we would run a wastewater rate scenario with no increase to the five-eighths. And if we wanted to do what we did with water last year, we would just do no rate increase to the five-eighths inch meter, have rate increases on everyone else, including the commercial volume rate. So we would, basically what that would mean is, and no increase to the wastewater rate volume rates for residential so that would mean no, no bill increases for wastewater for single-family residential. It would mean a limited amount of increase to small commercial customers. But again, we don't have a way to separate out their volume use versus other volumes. But what we can do is not increase the 5-H inch demand charge and try to help them out there.

Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Well, now we're going to move to council comments, and I'm going to allow Councilman Durio to go first.

Thank you, Mayor. The young lady sitting right here on the front row, we're not eliminating any of the van rights, are we?

STS.

No, we could not. By law, we have to provide STS services with fixed routes.

Okay.

I just wanted to let her know that to put her mind at ease about it. Thank you, staff, for your presentations today. It wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be, and I think Council might disagree, but we are able to work together, believe it or not, and get stuff done for the citizens of Beaumont. And, oh, happy birthday to myself on Thursday. I'll be 64 years old on Thursday.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

I think that's all. I know that's hard to believe, but yeah, I'll be 64. Three of our concrete mixers.

Thank you, Councilman Durio, soon to be older Councilman Durio. You look good. Councilman Hilliard.

I would like to say, again, welcome, Laura. I'm excited to have you. We've worked together in the past, and I think you're a great addition. I think we've got a great team. Molly, I've got to ask. Train horns.

I knew you would. So the construction activities are substantially complete, as we mentioned. There's still a number of the punch list items that we still have to finish. These involve work inside the railroad right of way. A contractor is ready to go to work. We're struggling to schedule the railroad flaggers. The railroad flaggers are an independent third party They did reach out. We were forwarded a message from the flagging company. They are trying to find a window of opportunity within the next few weeks where they can make themselves available for this work. The railroad themselves, the railroads consultant has also reached out and is trying to push this forward. So as soon as that work is complete, then everything can be submitted to the FRA to reestablish the quiet zone. The contractor is fully committed to completing the work. And so right now, we're applying pressure from every direction that we can to get this resolved. But right now, we're at the mercy of the scheduling. Thank you, Molly. Thank you.

And I just want to give a big shout out to Mike. I had a chance to take my nephews from out of town to see the Cactail Marshes. And that's quite an engineering feat. So I appreciate you allowing us to look at that. And if you haven't gone out there, I highly recommend you do and see the good things that we are doing and the eco life that is all out there. And happy birthday to you, Early. And I would like to wish my wife a happy anniversary. She's put up with me for 28 years. And so I'd like to say happy anniversary to my wife. Thank you, sir.

Councilman Turner. Happy anniversary, Ms. Hilliard. And happy birthday to my brother, my father-in-crime, Chris Durio, my boy turning 50. I appreciate everything you do, man. But one thing I kind of want to speak about is controlling what we can control. And I think maybe we need to have a workshop on the water meters because I kind of find it hard to complain about the county's collection rate if we as a city aren't collecting at the rate we need to. And if I can get a second on a workshop with the water meters, I appreciate it. There you go. And another thing I wanted to see is can we visit the amount of trash cans per commercial building? You know, when you have buildings that have five or six suites and you're saying one trash can per, you know, five trash cans max per building, that's pretty tough. And maybe there's some revenue that we either are missing out on or maybe the city having larger dumpsters. I don't know, but just something to kind of be more aware business friendly to small businesses because to be able to have the capacity to deal with trash with that limited amount is tough. Even me, my family, we got about two trash cans and my daughters fill that up every week. So we can kind of look at that and see if it's something we can amend or something that can be more feasible to the city. It'd be appreciated. Ms. Barbara, And the downtown people, I know the emails can get overwhelming. I know we all in those email threads, but if we can do something to address or maybe have another meeting to kind of give them an update of where we are with the homelessness and the issues downtown. I know it's not unique just to the city of Beaumont, but the last thing I want them to do is feel like, you know, their voices aren't heard or we're not addressing their issues. And also, I know we can't control the railroad, but can we just check and get a follow-up on Lucas and I think Hilbert? I think they've been working on that for quite some time. I know we have no jurisdiction over them, but just kind of see where we're at on those sidewalks there.

So the Lucas sidewalk project is currently, we are working on the permitting. We've submitted documentation. We've not received the permit yet. But also, we don't have full access to reestablish the sidewalk all the way from the railroad tracks to that first street, which I think is Harding Street. And so we are having to acquire easement in order to be able to navigate the new sidewalk at the proper slopes, meeting any ramp requirements. There's also a storm inlet in that corner as well. So we're having to acquire easement from that private property owner in order to make all of that work. And so that is where we're hung up right now is with the engineering firm to get that surveying completed. And then once that is, we'll have the complete package and we could get from point A to point B. So once that is complete, then we can finish this project and put it out to bid. But that is where it stands.

Do we have a contact on a property owner? Is it something maybe one of the council members can help with?

Well, it's a process. I don't know exactly where we are in that process, but I believe we've gotten the right of entry. We've got all the documentation we need. So at some point soon, I hope to bring to the council approval acceptance of that easement.

All right. And lastly, to our city manager, I just want to... encourage you. You have my support. Just be honest and let us know what we really need as a city. The last thing I want to do as a council member is handicap you guys to be efficient and effective to give the best service to our citizens. But if we don't know what's needed and what's requested, we can't help that much. So I don't want you to feel like I'm just against certain things. I just need it to be effectively communicated. And if it makes sense and I can see it and it's something I can live with explaining to constituents I just prefer that, but just be honest with us, even if it hurt. Appreciate you. Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Williams? First, happy birthday, Councilman Durio, and happy anniversary, Joey and Shanoa. That was a long day. I know. I just want to circle back to this morning and the budget talks and taxes. I just think it's really important that we look inward first before we place that burden elsewhere. I'm not saying we haven't looked inward. I know that everybody in this building is working hard to do that. And, you know, city manager, I did mention the idea of a efficiency study before. I'd like you to look harder at that again. I just think this is a very serious deal for, you know, for our finances as a city, but also to residents. And I think we have to give it our best effort before we jump that rate.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Councilwoman Sherwood.

Most of my council members have addressed a lot of my concerns because I was concerned that we were cutting rides, but I'm glad that we're not. I want to know if there's a homelessness enforcement that we can do to maybe help Ms. Barbara or partner with them. I don't know what we can do or why they feel like law enforcement isn't policing downtown or I don't know what's going on there. Some type of help would be good. If we could look into the speeding on Avenue C and our inmates being affected by the issue that we had, is that something that we're not aware of? And I was going to bring up the sidewalks at Lucas, but Councilman Turner did. And I guess we are hung up on that a little bit. And yes, happy birthday to Durio and happy anniversary and happy birthday to me too. So then there's that.

Birthday week. Councilman Crenshaw.

Yes. Thank you. Let me start by saying thank you to our water department employees. They had a really tough weekend. I was told that the water main that busted near the county courthouse, water was not available to the inmates at the downtown jail that housed federal inmates. And I think there was about 300 of them. And they were within hours of being required to move the inmates out because of the lack of access of water. And that could have been a real problem. So thank you to our water crews that got out there and got water restored. And then a few hours later, we had the incident over at East and Central. I was so impressed not only to see the crews respond out there, but to see our city manager OUT THERE TAKING CHARGE OF THE SITUATION AND GETTING THAT ADDRESSED. SO THANK YOU FOR THAT. AND FOR THAT HARD WORK. I KNOW WORKING OUT IN THE HEAT IS MISERABLE. AND THOSE CONDITIONS WERE NOT GREAT. AND SO THANK YOU FOR THAT EFFORT. AND TINA, DID YOU GET MY MESSAGE ABOUT THE PHOTO I WANTED TO SHOW? NO. OKAY. NO PROBLEM. I'LL JUST SKIP IT. Molly, I received a photo from a business owner off of Odom Road. Y'all have just laid a brand new blacktop on that road over there, and it looks great. And so thank you for that. That was a positive thing I wanted to share. Seeing new roads are a great thing. And then I want to address Barbara Wilson. That was the nice lady that spoke about her business and her resale shop. And we do, you're right, Councilman Turner, we get a lot of emails from that group and rightfully so. The solution and the situation with the homeless is a very difficult situation. There are no easy solutions and it is not unique to Beaumont. This is something that we struggle with nationwide and particularly here in Texas. One of the unintended consequences of all of the service providers and these wonderful organizations that do provide services for the homeless, they all decided, and I'm not sure it was intentional, but they all are in that same little geographical area. And it's right in the middle of residents and businesses. And it has greatly impacted that area. And in the ride-alongs that I've done with the Beaumont Police Department, it's almost like something out of a movie when you ride through there at night, around midnight, one o'clock in the morning. You don't even think you're even in Beaumont, Texas. It's shocking. People on drugs or whatever it is laying in the middle of the sidewalks, dozens of them. Uh, you know, it's like something you'd see on Skid Row or something and, um, you know, LA, but, uh, it's very unfortunate. Uh, what I struggle with, uh, This past week were emails from Barbara Wilson where she was complaining about a certain individual that she has criminally trespassed from her business that is not always wearing pants. who sits out in front of her business and makes her customers not want to come inside because they're scared of him because a lot of times he approaches them. Again, he's not always wearing pants. And she pleaded for help with that individual. I then sent an email to the police chief and to you, Chris. I did not get a response in over a week and still have not gotten a response that I can recall. from our police department leadership, which is concerning. You then emailed Ms. Wilson and asked if she had relayed these concerns that she had in the email to the police department. She then sent an email saying the police department came out and said that there was nothing that they could do about that individual. I can just imagine... If outside of a police officer's home on the street, you had an individual with no pants harassing their guests coming over to their home, how quickly it would take that individual to get arrested. But we couldn't offer any help to her. And I know that that's not, you know, these situations don't necessarily happen in a vacuum. But I do believe we owe Ms. Wilson more aggressive enforcement around her business, in particular with that individual. That is not legal. There's harassment laws, there's trespass laws, and they say, well, he's sitting on the sidewalk and that's street property, but he's still criminally trespassed from her business, and that should include the cartilage. And so I would ask that we please do a better job there of enforcing it. I know our police officers have a very difficult job to do. I'm one of their biggest supporters. But in this particular situation, I do feel like the city has failed, Ms. Wilson, and we need to step that up. Last thing on the buses, it is concerning. concerning that the first lady that spoke about the buses said that I couldn't exactly understand exactly what she said, but it sounded like she calls at eight in the morning and has a hard time getting anyone on the phone to set up a ride to come and pick her up. I've been looking a lot at our transit budget lately. We pay third party over $100,000 a year in management fees for our transit system. We also pay the director of our transit system $200,000 a year. That is in That individual makes more than the district attorney of Jefferson County. That individual makes more than all of our judges in Jefferson County. So the idea that we're not answering the phones for a disabled individual trying to get a ride to go volunteer at a school is very, very concerning. I am not proposing cutting the vans or anything like that. What I do wanna know is, where the 1.3 million in transfer that's now we're talking is 550,000. I just want to know where that money is going and what it was for. I'm also concerned that whatever we're doing with the accounting with our bus system is violating our own finance policy for the city. It seems to me very odd that we're taking things that haven't been paid or accounted for from years ago and and suddenly adding them to this year and we can't really explain what they covered so that that that is that is concerning for me so i would like to see uh the city's 1.9 million that we contribute to the transit budget every year not go any higher than that and if we do go higher than that i want to see what that money is for and i would like to see us try to figure out ways to be more efficient i appreciate demi identifying some ways that transit can be more efficient, so that's going in the right direction. And again, I'm not proposing cutting the buses, but I do believe we should look at the least traveled routes and look at reducing the frequency so that we can get the cost of the transit system down. And maybe it's just something that we do temporary, but anyway, we definitely need to continue to get rides, especially to the to the disabled and be able to do that. I would also like for the city staff or city manager, whoever, to please sit down with Mr. Whitney about this free information he is offering, free service he is offering to the city on ways to be more efficient and cut costs or whether it's employee benefits or whatever service it is that he provides that he sells to businesses around the country for lots of money he's offering it to us for free and so I'd like And I'm happy to be a part of that meeting. Maybe it's something that we could do with the audit committee or something, but I would like to hear from him about what he would like to propose. And maybe it's something that's great for us, or maybe it doesn't work for us, but I think that I appreciate him coming down here and letting us know that and being willing to provide that free service to the city. That said, happy birthday to everybody with their birthday, happy anniversary to the Hilliards. And thank you all so much.

I have your picture. Oh, yes.

Can we look at that beautiful new road? And the road previous to this was rough. I don't know if anyone's... I'll take that shortcut to get to the freeway leaving Rayos by the mall. And you go right there behind Best Buy. You were teasing us, Tina. No, I'm not going to get it.

Well, we'll get it up when we can get it up. We'll continue on with the attorney.

So I want to echo some comments from earlier from the budget meeting, just for clarification. Councilman Turner mentioned gaming ordinance revenues and why we weren't regulating skill gaming. The authority, there it goes.

Go ahead, go ahead.

No, no, no. Show the photo. Yes, of course, show the photo. Molly needs that.

Oh, there it is. Oh, yeah. Isn't that nice? So thank you, Molly and the contractor. Yeah. Smooth as can be. Not a pothole in sight.

Beautiful road. Now back to the boring stuff. The authority to regulate any of those things come from the comptroller and they have not given authority to cities to regulate skilled games. So the council, we only have authority on the comptroller to do eight liners and that's something that the council repealed. So that's kind of the disconnect now. A lot of the things that you see now are classified as skilled gamings, but again, without the authority from the comptroller to inspect or do that and without the authority under the ordinance for inspection of eight lines, our officers or our code enforcement don't have the ability to do that anymore. So that's kind of where the disconnect comes up. So even if there were eight liners, there's nothing in the budget or ordinance that allows for enforcement for that.

I need you to get the comptroller down here to come see us so we can talk. No, I'm just playing. No, I'm serious, though.

I understand. But that is something I think that as cities meet together to discuss their legislative priorities, I do think that that's going to be a thing, especially the cities who are leading in trying to eradicate illegal gaming from their cities. They did see an uptick, the same thing that we're experiencing they did experience. So that is something that cities are discussing as part of their legislative priorities. So the problem with regulation of skilled gaming is that they my opinion, is that they really haven't figured out a good definition. If you think about Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Buster's or even Main Event, those are essentially amusement games, guild games, stuff like that. So separating them might be harder for the Comptroller, which is probably why they haven't chosen to address it yet. You know, things happen. Also, I made a comment earlier, but I didn't really get to complete the comment as it relates to the enterprise fund. And it kind of freaked out our new deputy city manager. So I want to like correct it on the record so she can breathe. We do make transfers to our enterprise funds, but they're for very specific issues, especially reimbursement for several other reasons. But when you were asking about can we pull from the enterprise fund to buy a fire truck, the answer is no. But can the enterprise fund be used to reimburse a general fund for future purchases? In lieu of taxes, the answer is yes. So there are transfers, but we can't pull the money for specific purposes, right? We can't pull the money to cover our fire contract. We can't pull it to cover our expenses to those. So in terms of that, that's what you look like. But council has approved transfers from the Enterprise Fund, but again, for very specific limited purposes under the law and not for essentially a balancing of our budget. And I hope that I'm addressing that properly. But okay, she's breathing, so everything's good. OK. Again, I want to echo happy birthday to everybody and then happy anniversary to the Hilliards. And then, of course, welcome back, Laura. Excited to have her back. Laura was the CFO when I first started with the city. And I always remember when Laura brung baked goods that was good for some people and bad for others.

Thank you. Public Works.

Thank you. First of all, happy birthdays and happy anniversary. Thank you, Councilman Crenshaw, for that Odom Street shout out. So I'll be sure to share that with the contractor. On East Lucas, there's a pedestrian crossing in front of at Pine Bar, which is on the other side of the railroad tracks from Harding. And We ordered the special equipment to replace to restore the pedestrian crossing activated signal and found out that the damage to that cabinet was worse than our troubleshooting first revealed to us. So we are having to do a full replacement of this cabinet. It is a priority project. We do anticipate having it completed later this week. I just do not have a defined timeline, but we do have... The signal heads are covered and we do have signage out there notifying pedestrians that those pedestrian signals are currently out of service. But it is a work in progress and it is a high priority issue for us to restore. Then on the repair on East Central Drive, we expect it's going to take at least another week to finish. So the water line was repaired. I think sanitary sewer line was repaired. But there was a junction box. There were three different storm sewer lines in the middle of all that that had to be removed in order to make the necessary repairs. And that is a cast-in-place concrete junction box that our crews are rebuilding. So we have got to get that going. So it's going to be at least another week. Do ask for our traveling public to please be patient and observe all detour signage while this work is in place. We do not want a repeat of what just happened out there. I'm going to reach back out to the gas company regarding the relocation of those gas services because none of our communication with the gas company mentioned charges, so we're going to confirm that. Then we'll look at With PD as well the speeding on Avenue C and we will also look at the crash history of East Lucas at Harding to see that when we do our sidewalk project if there are improvements we can do to the traffic signals definitely take a look at that and That's it. Thank you.

Thank you It's welcome

Yes, thank you so much. That's what I wanted to say, was thank you to y'all and to the city staff and those in the community that have reached out. And I just really appreciate the warm welcome and the kind words that have been shared with me. And I'm very happy to be here and to join Mr. Boone and all the city staff in serving our citizens. I did want to mention, Mr. Hilliard mentioned the meters. reading, collections, and that sort of thing. I did meet with staff just last week as one of my first things, and so I am working with them to try to identify the different issues and what we can do to solve those, and so we can work toward that in a work session in the future to inform you all. I think that is the path that we're on right now. Thank you all.

Thank you.

First, I just wanted to say thank you to staff for all of the work that we have put or they have put into preparing and putting together this budget. Given our budgetary constraints, they have looked line by line and cut where everything is in these decisions in these areas that we're looking at are just getting harder and harder and it's going to be harder and harder decisions kind of like what was presented earlier. So, you know, asking departments to go back and look at each individual line item and cut where, you know, we've already looked at things to make sure it's very, very lean. I just want to say thank you for departments that are going back and looking at every line item, every single individual expense and taking such a hard look and just all the work that they put into it. And I just wanted to say thank you because it's a lot of work that they put in. You wouldn't You wouldn't believe it. But also, I did just want to reiterate and remind council that all of these fund balance concerns and everything that we're talking about, those do directly impact our bond rating, which directly impacts the interest rate on any future borrowing. But thank you for your time. Happy birthday and anniversary. And that is it.

Thank you. Yes. Do you know of any impact that moving the bond, I'm sorry, moving the reserve balance from 20% to 19% would have any real impact? I mean, is 20% some bright rule with these lending?

No, but they did want to see the gap closed. And They want to see it closed sooner rather than later.

The gap you're talking about, the deficit spending that we've been doing for five years? Yeah, okay. Seeing none.

Wanted to say quickly, happy birthday, happy anniversary, and also welcome back, Laura. Very excited to work with you. As far as paratransit scheduling, the line limits currently hold 23 concurrent callers. That is something, though, that we're trying to address with maybe possibly new software in the future, of course, if a grant becomes available. 5339 grants could qualify for that, so we are looking at that. But that is something that's on our mind, is our parent transit scheduling system, because it is pretty antiquated.

Thank you.

I just want to say welcome back, Laura. We used to be table buddies back in the day, so now she's on that side of the room, so... I'll have to get used to that. I can't have her? Oh, wow. Okay. Well, I love you, Demi.

Yeah, what'd you do there?

Not at all, Demi.

I just wanted to say happy birthday to Councilmember Sherwood, happy anniversary to Councilmember Hilliard and his wife, and happy, did you say 67th birthday?

If I am the same age.

Same age. Now I think you're what, 64? 63 and he's 64. So you're older. Happy older birthday to me. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

City Manager.

I know it's been a long day for everyone. So I'll try to be brief. Happy birthday. Happy anniversary. Laura, welcome back. budget staff, department heads, but especially the budget staff. I know they've been working really long hours to try to get us moving forward on this FY27 budget, so I really appreciate the work that we put in, and Laura has now joined the fray, so I really appreciate that. We've had a couple things brought up. I think Councilman Turner, you mentioned the garbage can question. Five, I think, is the limit. I think what we'll probably set up is a work session to talk about. We have different ordinances that cover basically the program that we have, and so we'll set that up in the coming weeks. Similarly, I think homeless is a hot topic ongoing, and we haven't had a work session on that, so we'll probably set that up soon as well. I do get confirmation that Chief Oknacek has spoken with Barbara Wilson on that particular issue, so hopefully we can get some attention there. The water meter issue, Ms. Clark mentioned, it is a complicated issue, but it is being attacked, and we feel pretty confident that we will get help. We'll be making progress on that issue soon. STS, I'll just really touch on very quickly. The call center, one of the things about STS, you may recall at the prior meeting, is that it is a heavily subsidized program per ride, and it's generally at capacity. So if you talk about expanding it, just keep in mind the operational expenses, not just vehicles. But we certainly want to provide the best service we can. And then finally, I know it was mentioned by some, I guess it was, I don't know, the fourth or fifth inning of Saturday night's Astros game. And I got a call from Commissioner Willis and we had a waterline break at downtown at the courthouse. And as mentioned by Council Member Crenshaw, the implications were pretty, could potentially be kind of significant. And so that went on for quite a while. Just, you know, we know that, Running a city is a 24-7 operation. We know we sleep better at night because of PD, police department, fire, EMS, and all these folks out there working. But let's also keep in mind that we have on-call groups, water, and they work. all night, only to go, you know, to East and Central with that deal. And so just, you know, really want to shout out to, you know, Mike and his crew, you know, Lewis Edwards, Donald Randall. I mean, these guys, and excuse me, many more that, you know, I'm not mentioning, but just it takes a lot to run a city 24-7. So I just really want to extend my appreciation to all those that do that. So, but that's all I've got.

Thank you. And I want to thank the city staff and I think from a council standpoint, and I want to thank everybody on council, you know, whenever your finances are difficult, it can be difficult with a husband and wife. And then when you, you know, those are just hard conversations. So we appreciate the fact that y'all are working hard and making the city as efficient as possible and keeping taxes down. And I certainly appreciate what each council person brings to the table because we're talking to a lot of constituents and we're here to, to meet the needs of the city there. And I want to know that if because of the current budget crisis we're in problems with nameplates, I'll be happy to buy Laura Clark's so that she can have one in the future. And certainly happy birthday to our two council people that are celebrating birthdays this week. And happy anniversary as well. And With that, we are adjourned into executive session. Recessed into executive session.