City Council - Regular Meeting

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisy and justice for all. Texas. I pledge algiance to thee Texas. One state under God one and indivisible.

Come with me in prayer. Yeah. Well, we just uh pray this day for uh world events, uh local events, all the things where people interact with people. And we know in this uh day of extremism uh on one side or the other uh the wars and rumors of wars and the conflicts that we see across the border. We pray for those that are affected in Mexico right now. for those as in Middle East and also in Europe. Uh for our um military that's uh stepping up and stepping in. I just pray that you will give them all uh protection. We pray for wisdom and cool heads. Uh for those in leadership, we pray for reconciliation, not only globally uh but also locally. And I just thank you for such a community where we can see each other face to face and eye to eye and regardless of background have a level of respect for each other. And I just pray for that for our nation. Again, thank you for the blessings you've given us. Thank you for the spring. Uh and we thank you for the rain that that's coming. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. All right. Today's council meeting, February 24th, is called to order at 5:32 p.m. The first item is public comments. Uh citizens who wish to address the council may do so uh during this time. Uh for non-aggenda items, I do have two people that signed up. Uh but if anyone else wishes to do so uh we will entertain your comments. The first one I have on here is uh Mr. Jim Deacon. Name and address for the record and three minutes. Just had to warn

I got you have 40 minutes when I have a lesson. My name is Jim Deacon. I live at 617 East 27th Street in Belton, Texas. And looking at everybody somehow I've had a contact with y'all for the last 25 years. So it's kind of like I'm talking in my living room rather than talking to y'all. a member of the parks board and been doing that for a few years now and I'm really happy to do that. I want to spend a couple minutes telling you about the Heritage Park disc golf course and the crazy things and the incredible things that have been happening there. The course whether we know it or not has had explosive growth in the last couple of years and it's turned into one of the most popular course state the country and in the world. I'm going to give you some numbers in a minute. Uh like you said the Heritage Park course opened in 2019. It was renovated and closed a little bit during 2022 when the uh Heritage Park was renovated with the kayak dock, the soccer fields, and the parking lot there. So, we appreciate that. It since that time in 2023, 2024, the course has seen 127% increase, 50 over 50% year-over-year the last couple of years, it is now ranked in the top 60 of courses in Texas, which are their 800 discoff courses in Texas. Heritage Park is ranked 60th in the country. It is ranked 524th of a thousand different courses and in the c in the world there are about 16,000 disc golf courses and we're ranked 797th all of them in the top 10% of people playing our course and being able to do that. If you want to know about disc golf we're now rivaling the number of courses in the United States to Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's. So that's just telling you how popular a disc golf is becoming.

Little little more healthy than those two options.

I don't know but never mind. I only got three minutes. Uh the park is now home to three different course layouts which cater to families, local players, and regional professionals. With the help of James and Joe at the parks department, we have added new signage to the course, permanent teapads, and even added a little entrance sign off 24th Street if you ever get to drive down there to see it. In 2026, we want to continue that growth with the addition of two new holes up in the trees, completion of our teapad installation, and our core signages. All these improvements have increased exposure uh of the park and has been little or no expense to the city and also worked within the master plan of Heritage Park. So, we're not changing anything that we got to change in a couple of years to be able to do that. This is drawing players from not just from the area but in the entire uh state of Texas world. 15 players traveled more than 30 m 30 miles to play the course last year. 100 traveled more than 150 miles to play the course and 75 just under 100 traveled over 300 miles to play the course. Uh three different countries were representative of people walking on the course. We just had a a huge tournament there this past weekend with more than 90 players filling up the course. So the course is drawing people to Belton and they are spending their money and their time at local businesses which is one all of us including me who have to pay pay property taxes. I'm happy with that. The first two months of 2026 are also breaking our course records and it just continues to grow and grow and grow. I sent you a little flyer about disc golf in general. There are 33 holes at Heritage Park. An average person when they play the course, they walk about a mile and a half and a little over an hour in recreation time. They take about 3,000 steps and u uh uh be able to do that for free recreation to our city. Uh for the year we've had 5 thou 5 thou for 2025 we had 5,891 rounds played. If you think about walks it's about 10,000 miles that people have walked in that park. The recreational hours are just under 10,000

hours and they've taken about 23 million steps while they're there. So uh as you work on your budget process and everything, we just appreciate all support in the past and any continued support in the future. So how many times around the world is 23 million spent? More than I have done. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jim. Appreciate your passion and also all the people that have helped support that program. It's wonderful. Well, what a great update and what a neat item that we should probably present to the Texas Municipal League for one of their awards. Uh because what a hidden jewel and thanks for all your efforts. That's great.

I have a quick question. And um are some of these tournaments multiple days or are they kind of a one day and done like morning and then done in the afternoon or do do they go over a two or three day period? Most of them are one day. Some of them are one round one day. Some of them are two rounds in one day. There's a couple tournaments each year that are two or three days. So there'll be one that next multi tournament multi-day tournament is October. And I think since we're going to be a multi-day tournament, I think we can kind of work with the chamber a little bit and get some support for that. So sure can. Super. Any other questions? Thanks, Jim. Thank you. All right, next up is uh Alexander Robbins. Again, name and address for the record.

Hello, y'all. My name's Alexander Robbins. I'm at 1501 North Wall Street in I probably emailed some of y'all uh at some point in my life. Um this is very impromptu. I literally decided about 30 minutes ago that I'm the one to create this document, present it to y'all, and talk to y'all. So, very impromptu. The document that y'all see is about the road that leads up to Leon Heights, the East 15th Avenue. Um, by the way, wonderful out there. It looks great. Really updated. Um, but the issues that we're having is um we have people that are going high rate of speed on that and there is no safety measures in place on that road to prevent uh kids from getting hit and they cross a lot of the times at the north uh between the East 15th Avenue intersection and North Main or not North Main, North Wall. Um, and they cross right there. And normally there's cars lined up there and if there is no like safety measures or crosswalks or speed bumps, a child will get hit. I'm looking to see if we could implement something on that street, whether it be like temporary speed bumps that can just be bolted into the road. It doesn't even have to be permanent, but something to calm the natural flow of traffic there. Uh also a four four-way cross crosswalk would be nice as well at that north wall area. So that's much it.

All right. Thank you. What we'll do is um thanks for pro providing this. We'll uh redirect this to staff and let them address that. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. Yep. There's more than one person up here that uh walked to Lance, me being one of them. And uh is the ghost still living next door? I was wondering. Anyways, there was always room about what live next door. So, uh it's it's a great community school and appreciate your passion for that. Yeah.

All right. Anyone else wish to address the council before we move on our agenda? All right, there being none, we'll uh go to item three, proclamation. My favorite part of the uh of the meeting is to read this and so Okay. Well, if we don't have anybody from the theater, I will read an abbreviated version into the record. in the full version they're welcome to read. All right. Office of the mayor proclamation where theater education plays a vital role in the intellectual, social and emotional developments of students by fostering creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication skills. Therefore, I David Kay Lee by virtue of the power invested in me as the mayor of the Belton by do hereby declare the month of March 2026 as theater in our schools month. How'd you like that proclamation?

Pretty big. that long. So, all right. I'm sad that they're not here. All right, moving on. On item four, recognition of assistant city clerk Sarah Clark for receiving her Texas registered municipal clerk's certification. Mr. Listy, Miss Sarah, congratulations.

Really exciting. Mayor and council gives me great pleasure to uh my announcement. Um Sarah Clark uh has received her Texas Municipal Clerk certification. She's completed that process. Very intensive program and process and certainly happy to announce that Sarah was awarded the certificate of graduation by University of North Texas on January 22nd. Uh this is the only university level professional edge program for city clerks and city secretaries in Texas and it's the third oldest in the country. Successful completion of the program requires approximately 200 hours of individual home study on a fourcourse curriculum with completion of exams on each element and eight two-day seminars. So really intensive training. It's it's not something you just get overnight or or wish and hope you get. It's uh really uh something you have to put your mind to and commitment to. So I just want to congratulate Sarah, recognize Amy who's encouraged her through the process to get this certification to give her a little backup uh in program since she's been here. Thank you for coming over from Harker Heights. I think they helped in getting getting you started on some of this. Uh so we appreciate that. Uh please join me in congratulating Sarah Clark for this prestigious professional achievement becoming a Texas registered municipal clerk. What?

These are mine. I'm not I keep looking at them. Um, well, it was hard work, but it was definitely worth it. And I'm glad Miss Amy was very supportive of me and came to my graduation. Really happy to work for the city of Belton.

Hey, item five is Youth Advisory Commission fundraising update and proposal for community teen event. All right, I'm going to get your name probably wrong. Is it Anahita? Anita. So, I'm sorry. I'm Texan. I can't pronounce anything that's not, you know, on a chicken fried steak menu. So, thank you, Council. You've already introduced us, so I'm just let her go ahead and talk.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Anahita Mohotra, and I serve as the president of the Youth Advisory Commission. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you tonight. I'm here to provide an update regarding our recent fundraising efforts and to request approval to a lot these funds towards a community teen night event. Over the holiday season, the youth advisory commission organized and supported a popcorn fundraiser during Christmas on Chism Trail. Our members worked together to plan, promote, and operate the fundraiser with the goal of reinvesting the proceeds directly back into programs that benefit in our community. I'm pleased to report that we raised a total of $189.90. The commission would like to use these funds to host a community teen night event. This event is designed to provide a safe, welcoming, and engaging recreational opportunity for local teens. Our goal is to create a positive environment where teens can connect, build friendships, and participate in activities that strengthen their engagement within the community. Such events help encourage positive social interactions, give safe alternatives for evening recreation, strengthen relationships between youth and community, and also support the city's commitment to youth involvement and leadership. Regarding fiscal impact, the event will primarily be funing the money we raised through our fundraiser. If additional minor expenses arise, they would be covered through the parks and recreation budget. We do not request any additional general fund or city resources. On behalf of the youth advisory commission, I respectfully request approval to use the fundraiser proceeds for the community night event. Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be happy to answer any questions.

That's great. I I remember seeing you guys there that evening selling popcorn. I wasn't sure what was going on, but now I know. It just took a little while. So, any comments or questions from the kids? Great. Great job. I'll just I'll give a shout out because I was at I was at a a Yak meeting a couple of weeks ago. I don't remember when it was. My son is in the in on the Yak committee and they did a uh a scenario a couple of scenarios where there's some problem in the city whether I think the the group that you were with was a fire in a dorm at UMH and so one student was assigned to be the mayor and one was assigned to be the fire chief and one was assigned to be the police chief and public work partner. They had all these different roles and you did a fantastic job as mayor, right? Yes.

Mayor of the city of Belton and your whole team did and it was just it was really challenging. It was it was fun to watch them uh be so engaged in the process and to think deeply about a complex situation and so it's exciting to see that y'all are y'all are coming up and and taking ownership of the city and and being an engaging part of that. So well done. Thank you so much. Yeah, it was a very educational opportunity actually to hear from like actual officials and see what they do in their jobs basically. Yeah, wonderful. That's awesome. Love that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, since this is a proposal, I'll entertain a motion to uh second.

We have a motion, a second to allow you guys to use the funds for the community team. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. All right. There you go. Thank you. If I may, if I may have, mayor, I've been doing this 48 years, and I believe that is the best presentation of someone at that microphone I have ever seen. Amen.

Uh, I think you have to be at least 18 to run for mayor. And and there are there are occasions where teenagers do run and do win. That's exactly. You just got to get all your friends. I think it usually takes about eight people to elect somebody on council. So, not not really. It's like parks and wreck. So, yeah.

All right. Uh the next is uh items uh 6 through 11 is our consent agenda. Uh these items uh can be enacted by a single motion um and can be pulled off for consideration and deliberation separately if the council so chooses. I'll read 6 through 11 into the record and then uh the chair would then entertain a motion or a request for changes. Um item six is adopting the minutes of the February 10th council meeting. Item seven is adopting an ordinance declaring unopposed candidates elected to office and cancelling the May 2nd general city election. And that is Dave and John Holmes. That's right. Saved a few dollars and a few hours of our time. Item eight is uh a report annual report of the city's ethics ordinance uh by the ethics commission. Item nine is receiving the tax increment reinvestment zone annual report for fiscal year 2025. Item 10 is authorizing the purchase of mobile data terminals from GTS technology solutions through Texas DIR contracts and DIIRCPO4751. Let me read the other one. DR DIIR CPO 5225 and DIRCO 4751. And item 11 is adopting an ordinance annexing the rights of way of the following two sections of roadway. Uh section one is the wheat road from Sparta Road south to the city limits in the vicinity of Diggby Rick Drive surveyed at 25.02 acres. And uh section two is Sparta Road from Wheat Road east to the city limits at Dun Canyon surveyed at 4.92 acres. Uh, wait. We got several more. More than 11. So, we're going through

Oh, yours is old. Mine's old. Okay. Six through. Okay. All right. Six through 11. Right. Let me I usually have like a stop sign right there. We need to add that along with what we're doing over there next to uh Leon Heights. Yeah. For safety, he'll blow right through that stop sign. So, all right. I move we approve item 6 through 11 as presented. Second. Any other comment? All right. Motion to adopt items 6 through 11. All say all in favor say I.

I. All those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. Before we jump into the rest of the agenda, I just wanted to take a moment. I should have done this at public comments. Uh thoughts and prayers with uh city manor Sam Listy. Uh he lost his mother of a young 97 years. And so a wonderful life legacy, lots of family. Um I know it's sad to see her go, but it's wonderful to see a life well-lived. And so we're we're our thoughts and prayers. Everybody's thoughts and prayers are with you.

All right. Item 12, hold a public hearing and consider a zone from single family 3 to plan development single family 3 on approximately 34.7 acres located on East Avenue R of Miller and known as the hidden trails subdivision phase 2. This team is going to be presenting this one. I'm going to request that this item be postponed to the future meeting. Right. So, we are going to be postponed. So, chair would entertain a motion to postpone this item. Second. We have a motion, a second to postpone item 12. All say I

I passes unanimously. Item 13 is bold red letters. This item has been withdrawn, but I will read it anyway. uh hold a public hearing and consider zoning change from neighborhood to plan development neighborhood on approximately half an acre located at 702 702 North Pel as I've said this item has been withdrawn so lucky 13 went away however we do need a motion to postpone indefinitely ah we do do we move second we have a motion and a second to postpone this item indefinitely all in favor say I

those opposed That's what I get for not showing up for the pre-consil brief. We do. All right. Item 14, hold a hearing and consider an ordinance amending and adopt city's tax abatement guidelines and criteria. Thank you, mayor and council. Um, I'd like to talk about tonight our tax abatement guidelines and criteria. Um, we've had this for quite a number of years. um goes back to 1984 or 1993 depending upon what you look at it goes along anyway.

Um we have to uh bring this back to council every two years at a minimum for you to review the policy that we have. Um that's why tax abatement guidelines establish the terms for awarding tax abatements. Um it's our formal program if you will that you have to have in place and those abatements vary from 70 to 100% depending upon the location of the facility the facility that's seeking the abatement um as well as the investment threshold. So we have our standard investment criteria. It's all based upon the tier of investment. Um and this is primarily larger businesses manufacturing distribution etc. And so the lowest tier there um it's based upon real property improvements um business personal property um and then job creation are the kind of the three big things there and that lowest tier there is 250 to2.5 million in real property investments um business personal property additions of 1 to10 million or you could create 25 to 75 jobs to hit that lowest tier and if you do so it's the abatement is either a 70% flat rate for five years or it's a declining from 100% abatement one to 40% abatement in year five. And you can see kind of what that looks like in those various tier levels. We also have for our smaller businesses depending upon the location of the facility um and and in this case it's in our current what we call the downtown development district um you can see a lower investment um criterion there. So it's $25,000 of new improvements to the property um $100,000 or more of business personal property and job creation from five to 25 jobs. If you're in the

downtown development district, um you can get up to 100% abatement for five years, which is a really good economic development tool for us. Um this is for smaller business businesses like even you know flower shops, uh antique shops, um those type of retail smaller retail establishments and things um they can apply for abatements there because of this lower threshold. So again, this policy has been around for a long time. Uh last time we were here was 2024. What we're recommending for 2026 is essentially the same policy um most of it. But what we would like to do is is expand that lower investment criteria to a larger um populace, if you will, a larger area. What we've done is we've created something called a select abatement district. That select abatement district consists of the central downtown zone, uptown zone, and main street zone in our imagined Belton plan. So currently, as it sits today, um this is our our current map for the downtown development district. And as you can see, it generally goes through uh goes from Second Street um down to Nolan Creek, kind of our traditional downtown area. Um and that's the area now that has uh the lower investment criterion would do is expand that to like I said what we named the select abatement district those additional zones and then it expands that boundary up to you know basically six all the way down to Nolan Creek and also in Main Street. And so, um, what you have basically is this is this that is the central. Don't don't even try to read that. Um, and

then you have the uptown district just north of that and then Main Street. So, we're we're allowing um more businesses to um be eligible for that lower that lower investment threshold. That's what we're recommending for changes in 2026. Um, public hearing tonight um when we recommend approval. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mike. Uh before we start diving into it, we'll um close our deliberations and open the floor for anyone who wishes to speak in favor or against this proposal. Is Cynthia assuming you're not opposing it and I'll be brief. Uh Cynthia Hernandez, Belton Economic Development Corporation 42 Central Belton, and just want to speak in support of this. This is a great tool um for the EDC and the city in economic development recruitment and and we certainly appreciate the city's partnership in this and um just yeah wanted to offer our support.

Thank you. Right. Anyone else? All right. There being no other public comments, we'll close the floor and reopen the council deliberations. Any comments or questions for Mr. Rogers? Our ship with EDC, we've really expanded our grant program. How would a a grant impact uh this and what dollars those dollars that they're using for a grant would they also be applicable towards the investment in the property?

We have several economic to development tools kind of in our toolbox. one of which is a facade grant which could apply to an area. We have then this tax abatement um grant that also could go and we also have a life safety grant for certain improvements that are made um to for those um high dollar items um for essentially our downtown area. Um and there's no restriction on you can have one but not the other. It's essentially all available uh for any a facade grant that also be applicable. Absolutely. Deal.

You said we've had this since 80 whatever. When was the last time we updated any dollar amounts in the like the lower in the in the table? Yeah. Um the last 10 years. It's been a long time. I mean I' I've done this now four time three times and we didn't change it then. So, it's been at at least we talked about expanding the facade grant, I think, to the same area, but I don't think we pushed it through because of getting outside and other non-b businessiness entities or nonprofits. And so, my when I look at the dollar amounts, it's it's very similar to I mean, you could just improve your facade,

it potentially qualify for abatement. Is this is I I don't I I'm not well versed in abatement, but is it the just the amount over what their current property value is? This is new value. Just abatement on the new value, not the whole value. So,

okay. So, let's walk through an example. Um so, if we we give $100,000 to a company who wants to re renovate a building downtown, we're using that for safety grant. They get $100,000 from the city. They put $100,000 in. They bought the building for 100,000. I'm just using 100,000. So, we got 100 100. 100 was a grant. 100's their money. 100 was purchased. So, now they've got something. Well, it could be on the tax roles for 78,000. Right. So, this money that they spent doesn't necessarily change the value unless the tax appraisal district changes the value. Yeah.

And so, the baitment does not go on the amount that's spent. It goes on what the value change is. Thanks for that. And if there change in value, help us what happens then. And if there is a big change in value, what is the limitation? So again, let's say it's $78,000 appraised value and it were to go up something. What what tell us at least walk us through what that does.

Okay. So hopefully I can get this right. Um so we would tell after this is signed, again, it's like a five-year agreement. Um and then we would inform the appraisal district um about the abatement um for the next five years and the percentages there. We give them the documents. And so we would they would take then the kind of like the way the tax increment reinvestment zone works. The if the value increases there would be some um based upon I mean they have to put in this much stuff. So, you could reasonably assume that if they add um $10 million worth of business personal property, which is taxable, um that the value then would increase that they would then save or we would abate um whatever percentage in those tiers for um and again whether it's a flat rate or a declining rate um based upon our agreement with that entity. And so, they would have some tax savings annually and until that fifth year. Um but it's only you know it's based upon our tax rate and and the value um going forward.

Yeah. So the majority of abatements are going to be applied to basically green field is going to be dirt that's doesn't have any improvements. So that way it's really easy to calculate. It had no improvements. Now it does have an improvements and a certain percentage of that or a certain amount of that abated for a season. And it's it since you were using facades and stuff, it's really not that common to do that because honestly, if somebody gets a facade easement grant, they're going to get a 1099 G.

Yeah, they'll get a 1099 G to say, hey, you got income as a grant. Well, it's up to the accountant. Are you capitalizing that or are you expensing that? Right. And so that anyway, so it it we get into accounting mess when we get into these abatements, but for the most part, I think it's safe to say that most of these will be on new things coming in taking a to a building. Now, there's multiple taxing entities. Could you help us with which taxing entities will participate in the abatement?

That's good. Um, typically, well, Bell County is the other taxing entity that participates in a tax abatement or in the tax abatement program. What will happen is if if it's located in our city, they will apply with us. Then we would go talk to the county as well. Um, each we each have our own abatement uh decision, right? Each each governing body would approve a tax abatement uh their own tax abatement for that particular pro. Um, we work we partner with the county on that. um was tracked pretty closely. The percentages, the numbers are about the same. Uh but it's a coordination effort with the county. They have make an independent decision about whether to grant the abatement. Uh but usually if we recommend it, they they typically do, but certainly it's not required. They can they can decide to make a different decision. They have a few different parameters. They require uh health insurance for the employees and some other things that just address some of their particular interests. But it's a uh certainly a partnership arrangement with the county.

And to your example, mayor, I the the only abatement agreement that we have outstanding is USA Capital currently. And that was a great example of they they built an entire building. So we had an abatement on building one already. They built a second building and then we had a we added a second abatement uh for the second building. Um and so that's it went from dirt to something something good. Yeah. How how does this impact turds within uh buildings and Wow, you're going down a trail there that's complicated. Um I think I don't know the answer to your question directly. Um, but because

the the I think the way from what I've read is the the value would go away from the TUR wouldn't be captured. Correct. Until that fifth year ends and then it comes on to the to the TUR. Yeah. Whatever that lower value is. Yeah. Yeah. Last one. Not to muddy the waters, but I I I've been in these muddy waters for a while. Um, can a council member qualify for a tax abatement? Um, I don't know the answer to that.

I I'll help you. So, a council member um it where sever several of us have business entities and work in in the community. Council members uh cannot be have taxes abated. While council members can qualify for special grant programs like facade easements uh and some other development funds, but when it comes to the taxing entity, uh we as council members cannot benefit directly from those abatements. So just FYI. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And so makes that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. Anyway, yeah. So I will say there is a cost of doing business in your own backyard. Um, is that mind? Do you mind pulling up the the map again of where all this will the one that I drew all over this one? Yeah, this one. Let me let me get rid of all that. Oh, it's okay. Um, I'm just curious what why you decided on this area and you know there a lot of areas considered downtown or have a lot of businesses on it like along I35 and I14. Like why do you see it as just being here? This is this is just that lower threshold uh area. Okay.

Um we have several tax abatement reinvestment zones up the freeway. Business park I believe was one. That sort of stuff. You can put those um anywhere. We can approve a tax abatement reinvestment zone anywhere. Not just in this map. So we already have I mean they're already covered by other abatement. Exactly. This is just the lower this is just the lower threshold. We're expanding the the map or the boundaries for that lower threshold. Great. Yeah. Really geared towards the small businesses versus the USA capital that's going to come in get a 30,000 square foot. So, all right. Any other comments or questions? Thanks, Mike, for doing that. I know this is uh it's it's

Yeah. Yeah. I I was going to make my last comments before we Anyway, uh appreciate that again. Um it's it's continue to work on our toolbox to be friendly to businesses. uh and to still be good stewards to to our citizens who taxes. So, we appreciate that. So, the chair would uh entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve to uh approve the ordinance amending and adopting the city's tax abatement guidelines uh and criteria. Any other comments before we vote? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Thank you, Mayor. Passes unanimous.

Item 14. Item 15 now, consider award of a bid and authorizing the city manager to execute the construction contract for the West Avenue drainage project and any change orders associated with the contract not to exceed the amount authorized under state law. Mr. Scotty. Yes, sir.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Excited about this project. This is a project. Yeah, that's a road. this project. We are we to have it at the con uh award point right now. I want to come in here and play a video just to kind of give you a little more reality of the impact. Just kind of let you see and this is kind of during a lower storm event. The uh as you see the sand see there were stacked up nicely along the curb line and the water flow was such that it knocked them out and threw them into the roadway. and just wanted to provide this as a little context into what we're dealing with in that area. Um, excuse me. Uh, the the overview of this project is obviously we have the excess storm water that's coming from the southern area of like I14 and such and making its way through the West Avenue and Mitchell area. Uh, it's kind of encompassing the housing authority of properties. And the whole purpose for this is trying to detain it and divert it. This kind of gives you a little showing where the proposed detention pond is to go. Uh the little blue area which is just on the back side of the J Park ball field that you can see there. Um the red line is detailing the RCP pipe that will be underground and it'll be taking it to the natural drainage area that's by the Mitchell Street and Mitchell Circle there. uh notated to 7:15 where the uh red ends. Um the scope of work is obviously it's going to act as a regional detention pond. Uh it'll have RCP pipe involved. Uh some channel grading that'll be incorporated. Uh concrete boxes and head walls along with some retaining wall. And I wanted to kind of give a shout out to the housing authority. Uh the previous director uh Barbara Bzone along with the new current director Melanie uh

Corey has assisted us and worked with us given us the yellow areas that you see there which are easements for the drainage so that we can continue you know the project. So a big thank you to to the housing authority. Uh the construction ward we had the uh bid opening on February the 3rd. Uh we had some differing costs here. You can see 710,000 low bid up to the 1.6 million. Uh obviously the average was around 960,000. The um OPC for this project was a little over 1 million and Mills Construction out of Bassro, Texas was the low bidder at the 710,000. Uh we've uh ran through on there. We have not worked with Mills, but we looked at references and such and had nothing but rave reviews on on their work and the willingness for them to come back and work with the other entities. So, it's positive. Uh the construction schedule that we see is 240 calendar day and um with that, we're recommending that the city authorize the city manager to award this contract. Be happy to answer any questions. We also have uh Mills Construction. We have Zach and Ty back over here along with the engineer Monty Clark here with Clark Associates.

All right. Thanks, Scott. Any comments or questions? I is uh it seems like text construction has contributed to this problem. Is that a reasonable assumption? Can you prove it? It's it's I don't want to step out here. It's reasonable. It's reasonable, but there's no context to technically prove that. But so there's there's if a developer came into the development and caused a bunch of drainage problems for the neighbor, we would go to the developer and say, "Hey, you've caused drainage problems. You need to fix it." Yes.

It doesn't feel like that's in play in this scenario for FEX to reimburse us for this expense that we're about to eat on this deal. Yeah. It's a that's a difficult situation. It's like kind of telling your brother, little brother what to do versus telling your mom what to do. They were both wrong. Yeah. We have developer. We look at it. We have our consulting engineers look at it to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen. We don't have that opportunity with state. Good for them. Yeah. All right. All right. I make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion to second to approve. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed.

Passes unanimously. Thanks. Right. Last item before for the future executive uh session is receive a presentation on the Belton Police Department 2025 annual report and racial profiling report. Chief Bird, you have one. Thank you. Thanks, Chad.

Mayor, council, I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity to present this. Uh, as you know, uh, annually we're required to present the racial profiling by statute, but we also would like to incorporate just a little bit of the annual review, some of the good things that have been done. Um, I'd also like to Captain Spurgeon, Captain Aberis who are here um, and are valuable part of the team. Uh and then deputy chief Daniel Gary who can't be here because he will be the second person to graduate from the National FBI Academy in three and a half weeks. So he'll be the second per second person from Belton and kind of got started with that and he was a graduate but he was down in Pasadena when he went. So very prestigious school. Uh he's had a great time. We learned some learned some interesting things and uh just waiting to get back and apply some of that stuff. So I provided a lot of information in the packet itself. Uh then I also gave you a hard copy of the report. Um you you can see both details of the racial profiling in there but we'll hit some of the highlights and that's just you know I just want to kind of show you some of the highlights. uh same same five guiding principles as usual uh membership safety team and quality of life. But I do want to draw your attention to the strategic plan because along with the city strate command staff actually gets together and then we go to the rank and file and we talk to them about some things that you would like to see instituted as far as strategic plans. So just the last couple years we've been working on the niche transition which was a consortium with the the entire county. There's an exchange of information there. Ko card programming on that right now getting those computers and uh printer set up. Uh we were able to with the fire department do a citywide disaster drill. We we covered some flooding and talked about what we would do in the case of another, you know, 2010 flood. Uh alert training. We got all of our staff members alert training which is reacting to active shooter in schools and other locations. We've started the process to have a task force officer which will give us greater capabilities with the FBI. uh and they'll have basically a

lelayison on uh through that. The good thing about that is you can actually uh take some of those crimes that you know you may not really fit into that category of state charge but you're able to sit there and run it with the federal. So uh it will we'll see some uh people when it comes to guns, violent crimes, things like that. It it's just a more streamlined process. Uh we've increased and improved our uh SWAT team capability. Um we assisted HR with the civilian pay study. Uh we've revamped the explorer program, converted them over to a scouting program. Uh we're still waiting to try to get some competitions going and stuff, but they've really been active as far as like the pet extravaganza. They were over there. They went in and volunteered walking dogs for some of the shelters and stuff. Uh really got a good showing there. Uh we switched over the red dot pistol platform and uh that that's going well. And then focus on finding some high crime areas. And I just another shout out to Josh and Talia. Um you'll see the numbers here shortly, but two people they work very very hard to get compliance with code code issues around the city. So like draw your attention to that uh call volume has gone up um quite a bit about 7,000 calls and when I started digging into the numbers why is that? I think retention is a big part of that because we haven't had as many people in training. When I the first year we had about 11 people go through training got onboarded. when you don't have two people in the car, it gives them a a greater to get out there, be more proactive. And I think we're seeing some more officer initiated stuff. And then also also an increase slight increase in in uh some of the the rooftops and uh traffic stops and stuff. But uh calls the call response times are looking really good. You can see they're down 20 seconds for priority one, which are your emergency calls. Um and uh slightly two two seconds up on priority two calls. Top five calls are traffic stops, 911 calls, citizen contacts, reckless drivers, and suspicious persons. So,

you're you're not seeing a lot of violence uh there. Other common calls, major major calls are major call volume would be trafficable vehicles. We see a lot of disabled vehicles with the amount of traffic that we all deal with. Part one index crimes, that is huge. Uh we've seen a national trend downward. I think some of the stats were between 16 and 18% decrease in homicides nationally. Uh we've actually seen a 23% part one index crimes. So those are your all all of your major part one crimes. Aggravated assault, burglary buildings, burglary habitation, things like that. Um that's pretty pretty normal. I thought that was like an anomaly, but I looked into that and 23% reduction in crime. Uh vehicle burglars are down 56%. And we're not seeing as many of the KIAS and the uh you know the the challenges and the stuff that we were seeing uh in the past. And then traffic stops. I think because of that retention, getting more officers out there, we're seeing an increase of 17%. Um, also you're as you're aware, new traffic stop, educated people. So, it's still about that 75% of warnings versus citations. So, we've stayed consistent there. And we've also seen a lot of customer service awards come from traffic traffic stops. And it's pretty interesting to see somebody get get pulled over. Having experience with a police officer and the encounter is basically they take the time out of their day to actually write five or 10 15 you know 15 minute little thank you for for for stopping me and let me know my rake lights out. So um traffic accidents we still are responding to a lot of interstate uh traffic accidents about 55% of those 17 responses we had four fatalities last year and our guys are staying proactive making those stops. We also we take traffic complaints like we had earlier and uh we can run the speed study trailer out there and we'll see what the volume the time of day um and uh you know see if we can get some data and and really be

effective in policing that um arrest by charges uh slightly down, criminal charges slightly down, felony charges slightly down, misdemeanor slightly down. So you can kind of see that trend right there. Uh and then those are the part one crimes on the major crimes. Um murders unfortun the theft lararseny you see right there from 390 to 274. A lot of that I think is officers in the neighborhood. Uh take-home car program getting the officers where the visibility and actually getting them out and uh you know being proactive in their racial profiling. the part that we're required to cover. It really goes in depth and is extensive in your packet, but we didn't see any anomalies right there. The uh basic traffic stops match the de demographics. Um everything consistent. We were able to sign off get that to TCL. Uh we actually had a TLE audit today. uh zero deficiencies was because uh one Debbie does a great job of keeping those files straight as far as keeping them consistent with TCO standards, but we also had an in-house internal audit uh where the captains, myself and Debbie all got together, we went reviewed the files and so TCOL actually uh gave us a a perfect score on audit. So, uh we budget information. So, total budget for last year was $7,770,000. Uh personnel is a big chunk of that but it takes you know it takes money to go ahead and and pay people. So it's really important that we stay competitive there. Grants uh total of 961,000. Uh a big chunk of that is going to be our SO program getting reimbursement from the schools. We had u officer of the year was Dalton Minik. Civilian of the year was Tracy Achoa. Tracy came to us from Washington. She actually said she came for the interview. She said she really felt like she this was this was like her calling. She has integrated really well. We've

had some good people do victim's assistance, but Tracy has just really hit the hit the ground with her feet and uh she's just running with it. Really positive personality. Um Rexan Curry, our civilian of the year, actually she had a lot of hours uh working on the parade float. If you've seen the if you saw the Christmas on the chism trail and the fourth July float they spent a lot of time on that and our volunteer program is just something that's really special because uh they really between themation they put a lot of time effort and energy just trying to be you know support the police department best they can and some midyear midyear recognition uh officer Kerry Bailey and then officer Chris Kano he has had a remarkable year he stepped up to be an interim sergeant for a while he has done some amazing things as far as uh just midyear recognition. At one point he actually stopped at a car that was going the wrong way on the interstate using his car, his own life in danger. Um just a spectacular guy. We have a really good team and I mean as you know you see the kudos, you hear you hear the around town stuff, but I couldn't be more proud of the people that we're serving with. Um new employees, Tama Watford, Chris to Torres, and Cory Sorbal. We pretty much had one person in the academy all year. uh Sorbles of a fix and graduate next month. Uh so we're looking forward to being full staffed and and having them all out there. And then also new employees, Tracy Cho, like I said, she Harper came to us from Waco's Communication and Christina Weights, uh works with Paul, but we consider her part of the family over there because she does a lot of good stuff with the branding of the police department. Some of the programs, are you okay? Law Enforcement Explorers Academy, Take Me Home, Victim Services, uh, Phone Bank, which is where we actually we get a a bank of cell phones, and then if we have people that either are in domestics and stuff, we're able to loan out prepaid calls or or calls that we'll just call 911. Foundation is still active, and they

assist with a lot of great things. Uh, they assisted with the red dot uh program. um anytime anytime you know we ask them uh if there's a project they want to work on and stuff and they just they love getting out in the community and supporting the police department. So uh just had a meeting long ago with the clergy partnership. Uh we usually have about you know 10 15 pastors come in there. We kind of give them updates on what's going on in the community, things that we need to pray about, prayer needs for for the community. And uh it's like I was talking to our chaplain Alton McCullum, most of you know him. uh when you see when you see patterns come into a into a community, best thing to do is stand in prayer against it and and that's what you know what we do. So the clergy partnership is a valuable valuable asset and tool and then citizens police academy uh Captain Spurgeon is fixing tomorrow night. Um so we're going to start class 17 I think it is and uh it's just it's great to see him come back and volunteer and stuff. So looking forward to that. Just some pictures of community engagement. Several things we do. National Night Out. Uh I don't know if you all saw the picture. It's not on here, but uh when uh Officer Cal Mateo actually sat there and shovelled some snow, it went to we put on Facebook and it was interesting because the lady that was in dialysis with the woman whose house it was uh actually made a comment about, hey, I I met that woman, you know, great job bel we do. got officers that will go out there and and tend to people's needs, replace windshields, shovel snow, uh things that you don't expect your law enforcement agency to do, but they do do it. Um, Silver Santa goes really well first day of school. And another thing that we do pretty regularly is we always do the uh Rucks on Maine, usually put a group together about 10 people. Uh we have some individual competers and and they'll put 40 pounds of food, non-p perishables on their back and then and go out and walk it. Uh they inspired me enough to do it. I've done it a few times and it only takes me about three or four days to recover. So,

so 34 days to recover. Three or four could be 34. Uh, but overall, I just I mean, I just wanted to tell you all thank you for the opportunity to to step up and be the chief for the last last couple years. Uh, good group of people. They're great to work with. I couldn't be more proud of them. So, um, I'm open to any questions. All right. Thanks for the report,

Chief. Chief, I'm so proud of our police department community of 26,000 from the are you okay to explore academy chips clergy to hear you say hey we listen to each other and hear what the issues are and pray about it. My goodness, what a neat neat organization. U and also appreciate um your visibility in the community. Really really do. The dogs make me a little nervous still but got to pet them. love seeing you out and about downtown and and participating. Uh what a great great and my favorite thing to share is uh the percentage of traffic stops uh that folks receive a warning.

Uh is just incredible that that number 70 plus uh really uh makes people think about oh wait you know they really are big guys. Yeah most of those stops are council members. I wasn't going to say that.

You have any comments? So, is is vehicle burgly considered a major crime or no? No. Oh, okay. Okay. I was going to commend you and your department on especially vehicle burglaries. I know it's been a and the only way to really solve those is public uh teaching on public uh perception and getting actually catching some a few of them. So, um, that that stat really jumped out at me. So, props to you and your guys for cutting those way back. Thank you. Great job. Thank you. What about porch pirates? Is that is that a category? No, but we catch you when we can. Okay.

Matter of fact, we just had three runaways that did some stuff down. I think in Gerald, they actually got caught up for that. So, oh, did you say 55% of traffic accidents that we have are on 35? Is that We still about 55 about 50 50 to 55% of them. We go out there and assist. Either we take the we take the accident or uh we assist with DPS as you know the the bumper truck fire. We all help out DPS because they took over the the first six months they took over. I think they wrecked a couple cars and they're like how have you guys done this all this time? So we just got really good at riding him over the shoulder and stuff. So, the other one I was amazed about was the guy stopping the wrongway driver on 35. That was incredible.

Yeah, it's a heck of a video. It is. Thanks. Thank you. Like John recommended earlier about an item that we should probably uh take to TML. This is this package from chips to are you okay to national night out just the community engagement of our police is a really good story uh amidst is um on north I35 uh when you get close to the Canada border I think Minnesota is the one on I35 north don't always have the best uh stories so anyway but I think I think uh our police uh it's good story I think it it would go well

do amazing Uh no action is required for this report. So this concludes this evening's uh council meeting as far as participation. Uh we will uh convene into executive session. I will read those into the record but we will be taking no action afterwards. So everyone else can go home and I will read this if anybody needs to take a pause for the cause. All right. Item 17, executive session pursuant to the provision of the open meetings laws chapters 551 government code Vernon's Texas codes annotated in accordance with the authority contained in section 551.071 consultation with an attorney and 18 is like it. It is out of section 551.072 deliberations regarding real property. Again, we will be taking no action after these two items. The regular council meeting concludes at 6:28 p.m.

And Mr. Mr. Mayor, may I be the first to con to congratulate Councilman Holmes and Council