City Council - Regular Meeting

the uh official agenda. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance to the US flag by Mayor Pro Tim John Holmes, followed by the Texas pledge led by library services director Amanda Haristen and then um I will lead the invocation. Please stand. Stand pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of the United States of America and to theublic for which it stands. One nation, one nation under God, indivisible, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and indivisible.

Please bow with me in prayer. Dear Lord, we just thank you for loving us. Thank you for walking with us through all the stages of life, through all the seasons. And we just pray for uh especially the school uh all the schools uh colleges that just had invocations for uh people that are going out to get new jobs for those seniors that are graduating and getting close to starting their next chapter. So as we start seeing the changes in the season um not only uh you know in the weather but also in people's lives just to continue to guide and direct our paths guide our deliberations this evening. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

All right. Um, so we'll call this meeting uh May 12th uh to order at 5:33 p.m. Uh, a couple of notes. One is um um Council Member Stephanie Oanion is not able to be here with us, but Council Member Craig Pearson is and he's participating by video conference from Panama City Beach, Florida. A couple of questions. One is I assume you can hear us, Craig. I can hear you loud and clear, David. All right. And your answer, we could hear that. So, everybody okay with that? All right. So, and um and just for your per uh asking for your permission, if you were to get cut off in the meeting, uh you you allow us to continue to proceed in your absence. Absolutely, Mayor.

Okay. Just uh checking all the boxes so we could do all this legally. So, again, now that we've got that out of the way, uh the first item on our agenda is public comments. Uh I have one uh that's signed up to speak on a non-aggenda item. I looked at the agenda to see if we had that and it doesn't look like we do. Uh so Chief Berg has signed up and if anyone else after Chief Berg comes and addresses if anyone else is wish to wishes to address the council on any item they may do so after Chief Berg.

Mayor Council I just want to take opportunity to remind you uh just to invite you to the the police appreciation week. Um this whole week we've been just seeing an outpouring of of uh partnership with the city uh different businesses and stuff. A lot of people bringing some good treats and stuff over. uh just really getting a large outpouring of support from schools, students, things like that. It's just really nice to live in a community that really supports their police department. And uh it's going to culminate from on Friday at 9:00 a.m. at the uh this criminal justice complex there on Huey 121 Huey at 9:00 a.m. Uh they're going to have a memorial service dedicating the memorial uh there at the sheriff's department. But the interesting thing about that was we were able to track down um relatives of Alberta's suite who was gunned down in 1881. It was a city marshal and they're going to come in for the ceremony. I talked to two of them uh two sisters that worked for the uh Colorado Bureau of Investigations through the state police and they're going to be in for the memorial. So it's going to give give them an opportunity to kind of give them a tour of the police department, let them see what Belton's all all about. And the other thing is a opportunity to come out and support the the uh police department. We're going to be doing Rucks on Maine on May 23rd. We got two teams, 14 people participating. It's where we carry uh 40 pounds of non-p perishable foods for about six miles and then we donated to charity at the end of it. So, u if you get a chance to come out and see that, that's going to be at uh 9:00 a.m. at Santa Fe and Temple. So, appreciate you.

Thank you, Chief. Right. Anyone else wish to address the council? Uh I will do a public comment. Um um we'll keep it short. Um gentleman to my left to your right lost his father um yesterday morning early. Um former mayor Bill Holmes um was a big personality. He's a he uh everybody uh that interacted with Bill probably never forgot Bill. And Bill did a lot of good things for this community, a lot of good things in this world and he served well. And so we mourn his loss. Um uh for those who don't know the the strategic planning that we're still doing today started with him. Uh the fact that Sitco is on Main Street is because of him. Uh there are a lot of things that he has done um in his life uh that will have a legacy beyond him and I think we all aspire to do and something similar in our lives. So again, sorry for your loss, John. I know that that's hard. Um and so we're praying for your family as you as you deal with that. So, uh, that that being that on public comments, we will move on to presentation of the council pay for May 2025 to May 2026.

Well, that floor is yours. Hello. I'm sorry.

Catch my breath. A little emotional. Okay. So, you know, each year the council works really hard and and we're very appreciative of it and so we love to give you your $1 that you get per year. So, You each get a dollar for all that you do. So, we folded that buck into something special for you. Not a yacht, not a raise, not a fancy limo, just an origami duck and a council memo. Because around this room, through thick and through thin, you help keep our ducks all lined up to win. Budgets and meetings and motions and votes, master plans, surveys, and endless quick notes. So, here's your duck made from your famous one buck. A symbol of teamwork, persistence, and luck. May your duck stay in a row, your meetings stay short, and may no one say table it as a favorite sport.

Thank you so much for what y'all do. You're very excited. Thank you very much, Amy. I um I think I before you I think we got a jar of one a jar of a hundred pennies I think was one and then but you started doing the origami and I've not spent any of those dollars. They're all in the same place. So we appreciate all the effort that you've done to put that effort into that. Craig, we use yours to buy a stamp and so you'll get the 23 cents in a minute. Thank you.

All right. Uh item four is administering the oath of office office to the newly elected council members. You may not realize but we did elect uh two council members. They were ran unopposed. So they stand elected and so I will let uh Mr. Mr. Messer. Okay. All right. So Amy, you all stand. Raise your right hand. Repeat after me. Where I say my name, you say you your name. I, Amy Casey, I do solemnly swear or affirm domly swear

that I will faithfully execute the duties that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of council member the office of council member of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend pres pro protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God.

Congratulations. Fun, fun, fun till the daddy takes the t-ird away. All right, item five is reorganizing of the city council. Again, for those that are present, um we uh select the mayor and the mayor prom as members of the council. We are not directly elected. Um um we did that for a season where we directly elected mayor and then the mayor proim was selected amongst sitting council members. Uh but we found that no one was running opposed. It seemed like somebody if somebody was going to sign up for to be mayor and nobody opposed them. So we now elect that. So while we may serve three-year terms, our service as mayor or mayor pro Tim is only each year. So when we get the little uh lucky ducky uh then uh we get to reorganize. Um and so what we'll do is I'll I'll solicit nominations for mayor. And since I'm sitting mayor, I'll solicit nominations for mayor and mayor prom. If for whatever reason I'm unseated as mayor, uh we'll wait and let that person uh continue on item six. So I'll just go just again just in case. Uh so also what we'll do is we'll if there's more than one nomination, we'll take all the nominations and then we'll vote on them individually. You cannot vote on more than one. So if you nominate two and you want to vote for both of them because you like them both, you can't do that. You can pick one or the other. All right. So, the first one is I will open the floor for nominations for mayor.

David, I have to say that uh make a motion to nominate David K. Lee as mayor for another year. You've led us through a lot this last year. Uh a lot of challenges that we're still currently facing and I don't think I'm ready to give that up yet. So, second. Thank you. We have a motion, a second to nominate myself. Any other nominations? All right. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. All right. Well, I get to do item B and six through the end. So, you

we all really do appreciate your service. Um I've always said that the uh mayor if you're sitting up here is the short straw or the black bean uh because the amount of time that you put into it and you have not shied away from that at all. uh especially with the I35 issues that we're dealing with and just uh you've done an amazing job and I'm I'm truly truly appreciate uh that you're willing to do it again. So, thank you for your service. Our community is in debt to you.

I I really appreciate that. We've had some uh some some some discussions about leadership and stuff and and I think it's important for and a good friend of mine Paul Sanderford served both on the school board and on the council and he said uh we don't really need term limits because anyone who's running can limit their term and so I will say I'm not going to be a perpetual mayor. Uh this may very last very well be my last term unless providentially influenced. So, um going to enjoy doing it uh at least one more year. And so, if it's influenced, well, then it is what it is. All right. Uh item B um is select Mayor Pro Tim for one-year term. Uh chair would entertain motion for the mayor pro Tim.

I would like to nominate John Holmes for Mayor Pro Tim. I'll second. We have a motion, a second for John Holmes. Any other nominations? All right. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate what you do, John. You're uh I think you've you've got a a unique way of of looking at budget stuff and EDC stuff specifically. I think those are maybe two areas where you uh shine above the rest. And so I think that your your service is uh very valuable. Appreciate you. Thank you very much.

I look forward to serving with all of you guys one more year. and uh as we take another trip around the sun, maybe we'll have somebody on the moon for next time. So, all right. Item six is a presentation from the Youth Advisory Commission. Uh the end ofear report. I have on my in my notes that Anahra Mahotra Anahita Mahotra and then Jasmine Vong uh will be presenting this item. And if you don't mind uh letting us know uh not only your name, what school affiliation, and if you plan on going to school next year, if you're leaving high school, going on to college, we'd love to know a little bit about you guys. So,

of course. So, good evening everyone. My name is Anah Mhotra. I'm the board chair. Um I'm graduating from Belton High School this year and I'm headed to UT Austin. Awesome. My name is Jasmine Vong. Uh good evening. I'm graduating from Lake Belton High School this year as class president and I'm headed to&m College Station. Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh, good evening. I'm Josh Hog. I'm a junior at Belton High School and I'm just a committee member of YC. So, I'm a little bit just here for moral support. We all need more. We all need all that.

All right. So this was our uh Yak board member swearing in. Both me and Anata are on there. It was the first thing we did this year. Then we had our basic leadership training to start off the um like semester basically just to learn more about what we're going to be doing in the fall and then also just define some goals. This was our visit to the Belton Police Department range. Um, we got to learn a lot about public safety and what our police officers do for us. We also got to play around with drunk driving goggles and learned to never do that, you know, and it was a lot of fun.

Then we had one of our other main events and it was the Christmas on the Chisum Trail where we um had a popcorn fundraiser. We raised around $200 from that. We were Santa's elves and it was a lot of fun just interacting with community members that way. This was our city of Belton uh workshop job workshop job night. We got to hear a lot from community members and people in different roles and then we also got to kind of try out and play around with what it would mean to be in those roles. There were some as like mayor and like firefighter. Fun.

Then we had our trivia night at the Belton Senior Activity Center. We just really got to interact with a lot of more community members. It was such a fun time to just play trivia with people and hear some really interesting stories. This was our Yak Summit at Cedar Hill, Texas. It's my the best like school or organization trip I've ever had. I think it was so much fun. We got to connect with youth advisor commissions from across the state. um meet a lot of other people interested in youth um advocacy and outreach like we are and just overall connect with more community members, go to meetings and learn about what it is to be a leader. Then we had our actual main event which is one community one day and we got to help um 13 houses, 13 families just clean up their houses. We had so many volunteers and it was a really fulfilling activity because we got to see the impact we were making directly

and oh okay I heard that was pretty good too. Shout out shout out to Mayor Approaching Homes for slinging hot dogs and hamburgers. iation cookout um was right after we had council members join us for that and we got to have some nice food with everyone that volunteered

and then we also have some impact overview for you. Um we had 780 hours volunteered this year with everyone. We had $200 raised from popcorn fundraiser. 13 houses served during one committee one day. 18 meetings and programs attended and eight of us went to the Yak summit and study.

Yes. Uh so we also want to take a moment to thank y'all for this opportunity because I know I will carry whatever I learned in my leadership role with me in college and just all of the things I learned including how to run a meeting. That was crazy. But just all of that knowledge I'll be taking that with me to college. I also want to thank y'all for the same thing. It has been such a blessing being a part of the youth advisor commission. I got to meet people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. It's brought me great friends and great people that I know will continue on as leaders in the future with myself. Sure. Thank you very much.

I'll say as a parks board to council, I'd like to say thank you to you guys. You guys are a um truly an inspiration. There's a, you know, which I've heard, weirdly today everybody all these legacy projects and um Mayor Holmes and Covington's Creek and uh all the things and this is Mary and Grayson's uh um pet project and so you guys have done a tremendous job and um you guys are building your legacy through this and so I want you guys to make sure you keep going. This is uh this is something something new and I I read a quote you know the self-governed is also the self-involved. So stay involved so we got be plugged in um and be a part of it. So thank you all.

Good luck in Agguil land and in Austin. Yeah. Thank you all. All right. There's that presentation. All right. Number seven is receive a presentation from the leadership Belton and consider authorizing a proposed mural at the Lena Armstrong Public Library. Miss Haristston. Yes. Thank you. That was a tough act to follow. I taught a couple of those students, so I can attest that the character is strong with them. So, that was great. Um, tonight with me, I have members of our leadership belt group. So, I would ask them to join at the podium um for questions after. We've got John and Bob and Yolanda and Danny and

and Adam. Sorry, late. Not late, but I wasn't in the he wasn't in the room when I was introducing everyone. All right. So, we have an exciting project to present tonight for a mural on the library. Um this is a leadership belt and community project. Um they have successfully met their fundraising goal for no cost to the city for this project. Um they have commissioned laced and found for the mural design and installation and they're also in the the midst of planning a community celebration um tenatively scheduled during the painting on May 28th. So that'll be a nice community day. School will be out um anticipating that will be a fun art experience for the families. Um, as you know, we have an existing library mural also installed by Laced and Found and designed by Laced and Found. So, that is on the wall of the library in the playground that faces Penelope. And then here is our proposed mural location. Um, this is a large wall, high volume parking lot, so a great opportunity for this project. And this faces Wall Street, kind of the east side. Um, so without further ado, here is our proposed mural art. And we'll go back to this slide in just a moment if we want to, you know, take a closer look. But my recommended action tonight, um, is the approval of the proposed art concept for the library mural project with any refinements to be coordinated by staff and leadership belt. And then I of course have them on hand for any detailed questions that I can't answer for you. Well, I guess we'll let you have the floor for a second to kind of just tell us about your team and and the process. And I I don't want to limit you to three minutes, but at 20 minutes, we might get irritated. So,

no pressure.

I think we can definitely facilitate that timeline. My name is Bob Massie. For those that I don't know on the uh on the panel up there, and then uh the rest of the team here, um we'll kind of do some quick introductions here as well, but I'll just kind of shape the idea and the theory behind what we have here. So obviously everybody's familiar with what the leadership belt program does through um through the chamber of commerce. And so when we kind of came together, we wanted to kind of get something that we felt represented the community appropriately. So we've got people who've been here their entire life to me where the military brought me here and this is now going to be our home because of the amazing community that we have found. So we wanted to be able to represent that accurately in the best way possible. And so this through our design and theory and working with the artists is is what we've come to. Um, but here's I think the big takeaway when you look at this. Each one of these things has a direct reflection of what we considered is vital to the community and what we we think is a great representation of what goes on to what's here. Um, each one of us, you know, kind of this is design after theory and refinement and things like that just like any other process that would be out there. But when we came here, um, we kept it quiet on purpose in the beginning just to make sure that we had an idea of where we wanted to go. And then as we started to socialize this with other members of the community and and Amanda and her team, um, we really started to kind of dial in what we had here. We wanted to make sure that we were offering the artist Jay enough, uh, creative rope to do what he wanted to go do. And obviously, he's done some amazing work in the town. Um, but one of the main reasons we chose him is because he's just got such a great representation and idea of what goes on here. Um, now each one of us kind of had a contribution of, you know, what we wanted to what we wanted to see in here. And I will use the students that were just up here. The way that we really kind of view this mural, um, one is that blank space on the eastern wall that's going to be great. It is a representation of those young leaders, whether it is them or the next generation that's coming up that kind of reflect on what makes this place so great. And you can see what's on there. I mean, there's some icons up there. And there are some things that I think that

really kind of tie this community together and make it special for us all. Um, that's the theory and the uh and the design process behind what we were doing. So, um, I'll pause. I mean, I'll turn to the team if there's anything else that you kind of want to hop on there. Okay. I think then we'll we'll pause and we'll be happy to answer any questions that uh that you have any questions. I think it looks great. The the blue and Belton just feels a bit off, but I I recognize it's Texas flag, so we'll roll with the Texas flag. So, I think y'all did an amazing job on it. Look really nice on the library. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much.

And just um some numbers on this whole thing. Over $26,000 is what we were able to raise. And I think that that's a direct reflection of the community. You know, when we kind of came out and went to go socialize, this kind of thing. Now, I don't want to quote numbers and statistics yet, but I think that that may be the highest fundraising event that any leadership team has done. um trying to trying to bury those numbers. Um

but we're really proud of this and I think it's a great reflection of what we're going on. So um I'll kind of conclude with this but um the support and patience and you know just working with Amanda has been fantastic when you look at these people that we are are working with because it can be hard and I know that all you know this you get too many chefs in the kitchen this is going to get to be kind of challenging but the um I think we have something that's really special here and represents the community the right way. So uh yeah I'm hopefully looking forward we get this up there and get us started pretty quick. Thanks all of you for for speed up. Thank you all so much. I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. We have a motion a second to um authorize the proposed mural on the Lena Armstrong Public Library. Any other comments before we move? I guess the other comment I would say is um you know that I don't know when the Coca-Cola mural was painted there on Main Street and was it Central? Main and Central. It's been there a long time and uh it's one of those that and same as the mural when I I remember as a child when they painted on the um on the on the spillway uh at the Bel Lake Belton and it's still there and so this is one of those it's also a lasting legacy. So once it's painted it's going to be there really long time. So it's great not only just fundraising but that you're making a long longer impact. Well one one quick comment on that too like once this is done luckily we have the top branded guy.

That's great. But this will evolve into, you know, a scavenger hunt that we'll be able to kind of go through there. So it'll be something through the website. So the Belton Mural website will now evolve into something else. So bring in community, bring in people coming up and down uh central Texas like now it's opportunity to go find the Coca-Cola mural or go look at auto and things like that. They're out there. So um yeah, we continue to make this lasting thing. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, we have a motion to second. Uh all in favor say I. I. I.

Those opposed. All right. It passes unanimously. All right. Next item on our agenda is our consent agenda, which is items 8 through 10. Uh I will read those and then we can enact those by a single motion. Um and uh I know I'm going to get one name wrong, so you'll have to correct me um here in just a little bit. So uh first item is approving the minutes of previous meetings for the April 20 April 28th council workshop and the April 28th council meeting. Item nine is uh um approving the appointments to the um to the ethics commission uh which is Amanda Johnson, Nicholas Ray Broker, Mike Ratliff, Brooke Marorrow, Kim Preston, Jude Austin, and Luke's

John Glansman. John Guns Glansman. Lansman. Yeah, that was uh not written correctly in my uh item B is um the planning and zoning commission members being Ty Tagert, Brandon Skaggs, Damon Gotshaw, Alton McCllum, and Lisa Camp. Uh item C is the public health district which uh board which is Denanishia Booker. Uh there is a connection with uh Mr. Daniel up here. Y and uh item D is TURS board. Dave Coington will be taking over for council member Stephanie Coington. Oban. Sorry, I'm sitting there looking at Cington and saying Stephanie.

So Dave Cington take over for Stephanie Oanion. And item E is the Hill Country Transit Board Daniel Booker uh taking o over for Stephanie O. Um so chair would enter pain. Oh no wait, sorry. I'm I'm now kamboozled. So item Can I make a comment real quick? The planning and zoning. Yep. Uh noting that those appointments are only through April 30th of 2027. Okay. Through April 30th, 2027. This on that cycle. Yes, sir. Oh, perfect.

And item 10, again, part of the consent agenda is amendment amending and adopting the following BEDC bylaws and policies. Item A is amendment of the BEEDC bylaws. Item B is amendment to the BEEDC travel policy and item C is adopting a BEDC fiscal operations policy. Anyone wish to remove one of these for separate consideration? I'd like to remove uh number 10 for separate. All right, we will remove item 10. I move we approve eight and nine as presented. Second. We have a motion, a second to approve eight and nine. All in favor say I. I. I.

All opposed. All right, item 10. Since I've already read it, um, Miss Cynthia, don't I don't know. I I don't think we'll read all of these. Do you have anything specific? I as far as

uh There were there were two that I was concerned about getting taken out. And um I did speak to Miss Oban about them. I mean, Mr. Obian uh Mr. Hernandez about them. Um, they were there was one that got taken out that said, "An attorney shall review any and all contracts of the board which exceed uh $2,500." Um I I thought that was kind of important to set some kind of number there as opposed to just removing the whole thing because um did you know it if it's $20 million of course you Yeah, there is a limit. Yeah.

Okay. Yes. Yeah.

Me too. Okay. And so um that that is correct. Early on, you had expressed concern about that being removed from the bylaws. And so, one of the things as we evaluated the bylaws um to amend it and update it. Um really the goal was to keep it high level so that the bylaws wouldn't need to continually be um updated. But what we've done um to address your concern and to really provide some consistency uh within the city staff um as there's turnover over the years the board um we have created this BEDC fiscal operations policy and so in there we really get into the weeds about um what's the different threshold that staff can approve that an attorney has to review that the board has to approve and so we do have in our fiscal policy that um anything above $5,000 our attorney has to review that. So, um all three items are being recommended for approval today, but understanding that um the details of how the funds are um spent and and approved by all parties is also happening at the same time as the bylaws bylaw revisions. Uh the other one we spoke about was where it said that u council would receive updates for things over 55,000 on a regular basis.

Um so a couple of things. One, we did the council approval um consistent with the city's policies. So I think now the legisl legislature requires that expenditures over 100,000 have to go to council. And so the council approves the EDC budget um as part of the city process. So you'll have an idea of all of our expenditures, but anything above 100,000 um will have to come to city council as well as incentives and real estate transactions. However, the council has the ability to request update or presentation from the EDC at any time and the bylaws speak to that.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. And look, look, that's a good question. But what had happened was we were even on a bathroom or something and a can of paint had to come to the board. And I mean, we were approving little pitily stuff after stuff. So, I'm the one that made the motion. Can we amend this and let the executive director and uh the chairman uh be able to make some financial decisions under a certain dollar amount? Yeah. and it just made the BDC so much more efficient and board meetings much more efficient as well. So, good interest, but boy, we really did try to cover every base and be able to function uh without having to come to board every time.

Yeah, that's great. Appreciate you all doing it. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Chair would entertain a motion on item 10. Make a motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second to approve 10 with the two amendments and one uh policy. Uh any other comments or questions before we vote? All in favor say I. I. I.

Those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. Moving along. Item 11 is uh historic preservation. consider an appeal regarding certificate of approp of appropriateness to demolish a contributing building at 516 East 6th Avenue in the North Central Belt and Historic District located east of Beiel Street and west of Waco Road on the north side of 6th Avenue. Miss Tina Mayor, I'm recusing myself from this item. Okay, good.

Oh, good. Okay. Thank you. I apologize, Mr. Mayor. The applicant has requested that this item be postponed to a future meeting. This is currently under a real estate transaction. She has found a buyer for the property. The buyer wants to have time to evaluate the building to see if they can make the necessary repairs. If not, he'll come back to the comm um to the council and ask for the appeal. They close on June 23rd. Motion to postpone to a future meeting. Move we postpone. Second. Mo mot Motion a second to postpone item 11 to a future meeting. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. Still recused.

You're still with Okay. Yeah. With one. Do we I Yeah. Okay. We'll get the All right. We have to fill out forms when we do that. Um item 12 is consider an appeal regarding the a certificate of appropriateness application to remove one of four chimneys at 503 North Wall Street at the northeast corner of North Wall Street and East Fifth Street. Miss Tina

and thank you Mr. Mayor. This property is currently operated by the um Presley Design Studios. Um it was converted from residential to a a commercial property a couple of years ago. Um this is a national registered historic place. Um it was constructed in 1913 as the Tamp Birdwell House. Um it is described as one and a halfstory building framed with four square plan bungalow classic revival with um Perry school influence. Um the register notes that there are three stack chimney but this is a fourth chimney that is on there. So, I'm not sure if it just was not visible from the primary um um facade, the front, but it is visible from the secondary facade, which is East um I want to say Fifth Avenue, East Fifth Avenue. for the Secretary of Interior standards. Um they defined um chimneys as a feature that's on the roof as a character defining um decorative um part of an overall character historic character of the building. Um it recommends replacement or um of these type of structure. Um so looking at that the historic preservation um commission thought the chimney should be retained. Um the historic material that um also made up the chimney should be retained. and they were looking for a reconstruction based on the size, shape, color, pattern, and texture of the chimney that is currently there. Um the historic preservation commission heard this meeting at their March meeting and again recommended disapproval of the certificate of appropriateness. Um but um would like to see the chimney reconstructed to its current height um to a height that might be different from the historic height, but to also see that reconstruction of the chimney to occur. Um staff concurs with that um recommendation. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you guys have. The applicant is also here to express their

bill for this property. Right. Since you both uh signed up for this for public comments and we postponed that till later in the meeting. Um the c the challenge uh with public comments and also with um when we open the floor for comments is a lot of times it it becomes an exchange. And so I just want to let you know that it gets confusing. So, uh, you guys, uh, both have both Robert and Heather can go in whichever order. You have three minutes. Uh, state your name and address for the record and, uh, we can enter in. Yeah, you can go right here to the Yeah, for the Yeah, sorry. It's I wanted someone else to go in front of me. I didn't want it to postpone, so I knew what I was supposed to do.

Yeah. Um, so my my question is, um, it's not a functioning chimney. Um, and we I understand that it can be seen from an angle back behind in the corner, but you can't really see. I'm Heather Presley. Sorry, I missed that part.

Um, it's very difficult to see and we are getting rodents in there. Um, apparently it was brought up that there's birds that could be nesting in there that are protected. We don't have that in that particular chimney. We are we have rodents who can loose into the house. And so it's for us it's a safety issue as well. Um so we would like to be able to cap that one off just because it's unseen. We have a handicap ramp that's much more of an eyesore than taking a chimney away that people aren't really going to be able to see from that back corner. So um that's that's my request is that you guys reconsider that for us. And I brought my contractor too as well if you have any questions for him.

Right. Mr. Robert name and address for the record. Robert Brisbane, 5919 Cedar Creek Road, Temple, Texas 76504. Um, I get it that I do some of this in Temple and I get that like the recommendations, you know, you're setting precedent if you're starting to vote opposite of that. Um, I understand, you know, you're going to make your decision based on that. I think you are seeking if there are grants available for it. I've given an estimate for it and I think my estimate is based upon worst case scenario and possibly the in a previous meeting there were brought up that there were chimney swifts living in the chimney and that they were federally protected. I think we kind of hashed that out in the historic preservation board uh possibly that we would start October, November after some sort of nesting season. Mostly this was just in an effort.

Well, it was just in an effort to appease everybody, right? Uh build it back like it was. I understood that that was what they had voted for. And then mostly it would be just October, November timelines when that would occur to not disturb our birds. Yeah. But the estimate was a $10,000 estimate. So that's kind of hard when it's not functioning. I mean, we have it sealed off. It's not something that it it just feels like bad steward of e even if it is grant money, it's bad steward of tax money if we do it that way. So, but that's just a big haul for something that you won't be able to use or it's just a little stack in the back that you can't see. So, understood.

All right. Thank you. Thank you both. Um, do do you mind going back to the to what it says needs to be maintained for chimney definition? Got it. So, sorry.

Maybe it was another slide back where you where you were saying what it says needs to main be maintained based on historic character or something. Right. So, here it is. It says that identify a chimney as decorative character defining features that are important in defining the overall historic character of a building. Right? Historic the character defining features. I I'll be honest with you in my mind if if there's four chimneys and it goes down to three and and you can't really see it from the main view of it. I I don't really see that as character defining. And so I would I'd be just fine if you know they do what's best for the house with it.

I'd probably reiterate the same. Um I I I don't know that like a historic record would say there's four characteristic or def character defining chimneys. Um I did have a question to the recommendation. There was it said tear to remove or rebuild. Is there is there an option? I I wasn't sure if the applicant was willing to rebuild, I don't I don't know the ins and outs of that, but um I did also want to make a comment to um while the the appeal process and the process of HPC is, you know, sometimes a a bit there is the appeal process and I I we ask our committees to do the the black and white and I appreciate the work they do and um you know, no matter what happens at this level, but um that way the elected officials get to make final calls, but um appreciate you guys coming to um speak your piece and everything and so I just wanted to I wasn't sure.

Okay, so the commission have voted to um disapprove the removal of the chimney. They recommended that it be reconstructed um to a different height than what was historically there lower height but with the same material. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think I'm willing to offer a little more flexibility. And if that uh if they have four chimneys and the register states three, uh it looks uh a little weak up there on the roof. And if they would uh take down that fourth chimney um and clean that up or fix the roof to uh look like the rest, I I'm good with that. I think that's sensible, reasonable, and we haven't altered the historical record at all.

Still has the same character. The other chimneys look just like it. Yeah, I I would just add that historic preservation is tricky. Um there's a natural tension whenever we're in a uh a town that's approaching 200 years old. It's uh we're going to have some old buildings and it is important and we've we've we've made that important uh over the decades to to preserve the history and the character when we can. Um, and the Historic Preservation Commission's charge was is a pretty narrow focus um, as far as what they should be looking at. Um, from time to time there needs to kind of be some common sense that that we overlay onto that. And I don't I don't think that HPC has the um has the bandwidth to to to kind of make that decision. sometimes a lot of times uh but we do and I think that uh I think that there's been times where the uh the cost specifically the cost associated with uh maintaining the the strictest uh interpretation of historic preservation is just not reasonable and uh I think this is I think this is one of those situations. So with that I would move to grant the appeal regarding the COA to remove this chimney.

Second. We have a motion and a second to grant the appeal regarding this certificate of appropriateness. Any other comments before vote? I would echo that. I think um one of the reasons we have our boards and commissions is that they they can look at it strictly for their purview. And so from a historic perspective, if we did not have any enforcement of historic, then we would have no historic. We would just and but if we had strict enforcement of historic, then we would have no freedom. And there's somewhere in between having a historic district and yet having freedom. And the key is having good partners. Some of those good partners are the ones sitting on the board making tough decisions. Some of the good partners are I'll use univers since they're not in the room. Uh when they redid Curtis Mansion, they they spent significant amount of money uh to restore that home to good and we were all thankful for it, but none of us helped pay for it. Uh and so it's it's hard. It's a good it's a hard tension. It's a good tension. I'm glad we're having the debate. I'd also say, Robert, um, my home place is right diagonal from where you live in on Cedar Creek Road. So, I grew up on there's a Gamble house with a grain bin just northwest of where you live. That's that's my home place. So, yeah, just FYI, New Hampshire boy.

Not his not his current home place. He lives in the city limits. I'm in the city limits. I do not live on Cedar Creek Road, but uh I do operate a business. So, anyway, he was voted. Any any other comments uh before we vote? I hope the other three are in good shape.

Very important to maintain as best I can. But this was this is a tough pill to swallow. Greg, any any comments for you? We good? All right, we're good. Okay. All right. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. All right. That passes unanimously the appeal. So I guess we enforce the historic registry of three. Yes. Yes. All right. Um item lucky 13 um is to conduct a workshop um a work session on the fisc year budget. I'd make a motion to table this to later in the meeting.

We have a motion to table later in the meeting. What's later? Second. All right. All in favor tableing this to the end of the meeting say I. I. Okay. Sorry to receive. We just figured while we're on a couple small items. While we're in the flow, Dave. I seconded. All right. So, we Sorry, Mike. Just um

Yeah, that's right. It allows it to flow a little bit better. Well, yeah. So, all right. Item that that being tabled item 14 as we receive a presentation life safety grant application for fire safety improvements for the Beltonian located at 219 East Central Avenue in the downtown Belton commercial historic district and consider authorizing the Belton economic development corporation to enter into an economic development per performance agreement with Central Roots Group LLC series Beltonian. Right. Thank you again.

Um actually this is an exciting um news prospect for us. This is our first grant that we are doing with the BDC in partnership with um for funding. So um this all initiated with a certificate of occupancy permit that the applicant um tried to get the fire marshall and our building inspectors had a list of items that they thought needed to be brought up to code before they allow the occupancy of that building. One of those was a separation between where the current theater is and a back room area, a rear room area behind the theater. Um, there was some also some electrical upgrades. The paneling need to be upgraded. There were some wet areas that needed additional protection um that they requested for that to happen. They also requested for uh automatic um air conditioning in the um projector room which gets hot normally. So um those were items that were requested. the applicant has started work on one of the items of fire separation. She immediately went out and got a contractor to get that tackled. So up the business um but then was told about the grant and halted the project until we before um for before you to get approval for that. So the estimate for everything that needs to be done is over 14,000. The applicant is asking for a matching um grant for 7,147 and again this is being funded by BDC because it brings about a creation of job. The Beltonian was temporarily closed by the previous owner and it's been purchased by the new owner and applicant and um they plan on being part of the community for quite some time and they're going to create their being a little hesitant because there's a contract at least four jobs but she has on her application for eight job creation at this location. Um staff is recommending approval. The board, the BEDC board heard this at their um May 5th Cinco de Mayo meeting and they also recommended approval of this item as well. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

All right. Any questions? Chair would entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve. This is exciting for downtown Belton again to bring you back up. So appreciate second. We have a motion and a second to approve uh the life safety grant. Any other comments or questions? Uh Kofi, I would just like to call you out. I've heard that you've done some good work on this, so way to go. Appreciate your hard work for the city. All right. Um yeah, we all have experience with the Beltonian. Hopefully it's a good one for you guys. So, all right. All in favor say I. I. I.

Those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. Item 15 is receive a presentation on building life safety grant application for fire suppression and sprinkler system for the Hell yeah Belton Texas restaurant located at 206 East Central Avenue in the downtown Belton commercial historic district and consider authorizing the Belton Economic Development Corporation to enter into an economic development performance agreement with Hell yeah restaurant. Sorry that my my mom would be mortified that I at this uh at this meeting in public. All right, Miss Miss Tina.

Okay, thank you. Um yeah, interesting name for a restaurant. Oh, yeah.

Um the applicant is um providing a fire suppression and sprinkler system. Um there is an existing sprinkler system in the level three building that he owns next door. Um there's a riser room in there as well. So they're just expanding on to the current um system to this property to provide um fire suppression and sprinkler here. Um again, this project has been under construction for almost a year. They have started, but our building department has been working with them throughout this whole process. We reviewed the plans for this. Um everything's been approved and they're actually almost ready for a certificate of occupancy, which is scheduled for the 14th. Yeah, you're going to do the ribbon cutting

that

so she can see the name in person. Realize you're not just saying it because it's fun to say. Um the applicant estimate the project is going to be around 32,000 and the matching grant is $16,16. Um again, this is funded by BDC because there's a job creation. the applicant. Again, we put down a reserved number of 30 jobs, but the applicant estimate is going to be over 40 jobs that's graded at the site. That includes the management, the cooks, the bartenders, the weight staff, all of that is needed in this area. So, um the Belton BDC board met on this on the 5th of May and recommended approval of this item and staff concurs with that decision. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. These are I love these grants. Now these are this this is awesome parts of the meeting. Two of these backtoback um historic movie theater and then Hell yeah. So

I make a motion to uh approve the agenda item as presented. I think we all should say it once. So I'll give it a second. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve it. I will say while the picture is still up there, um there used to be an alley, right? No, no, the the three stories alley. So, this was actually they tore down the facade and they rebuilt it really close uh to look and feel of what it used to be. So, again, they did a good job of maintaining some of the the towing of that brick and the round and and anyway, you'll see it if you get this was an appeal. This is Yeah, this is a good partner. Yeah, this is a good one. All right. So,

I will say I like you said, I love these grants. It's, you know, when I was working on some buildings, we didn't didn't have these. And there was one historic building downtown that we were going to buy, but because of Esbestos, it was going to cost another $85,000. And uh so we didn't buy it. And uh you know, I really kind of lobbyed to to get help for the developers and builders and u I think this is a great program and so I'm glad we're able to do that to help you out. Well, it's echoing back to the previous conversation. This is a good public private um partnership to help renovate and maintain old buildings which are expensive and and um we have a public need to have I think it's it's it's a good thing. So, um I I will say one last parting shot to mom's opinion. All in favor of approving this say hell yeah.

Hell yeah. Say hell no. What's Craig? What's Craig got? I said hell yeah. He mouthd it. He's army couldn't hear. All right, we'll make sure the minutes reflect accurately for my pastor. Good job again. Oh my goodness.

I couldn't resist. All right. Uh yeah. And be careful what you name your restaurant. I might not be able to say all of them. All right. Item 16 is consider authorizing the Belton Economic Development Corporation to enter into an economic development agreement with BelTech Industries. Miss Cynthia, we see Mr. Beltechech out here. Nice of you to join us, too. No, she might call you up here in a minute. So, we'll start with Sophia.

Thank you. Um, all right. Well, another EDC contract. So, thank you. Um, let me just start. Let me see where I'm at. Okay, glasses. All right. Okay. I'm supposed to start with uh good evening, mayor and council members. Uh thank you for uh letting me speak on this item. And so uh we'll talk about Beltech Industries. First, I want to say before I launch into this that I love that you all love the previous two items. Um that keeps our downtown vibrant and that's important for our industry as we're looking at talent retention and attraction. And so we're excited to be a partner in that. And now I'm excited to talk about what BelTech is doing in our community. And so, um, as many of you know, Beltech was established in 1988. Um, they have been in our community for a long time. Um, I've been in our community for a long time. And I remember when I first started doing our, um, existing, uh, industry visits. Um, I would go visit with uh David and he David Jones and he would give us a tour and um his father Clyde would be there picking up the mail or finding things to to stay busy with at the plant. And today when I go visit Beltech and uh tour um with David Jones, his children are there running the operation as well. And so it's been fun working with the different generations. And Beltech has grown and expanded in Belton um several times. So, uh, it's a family-owned business. Uh, they manufacture, um, hydraulic augers and, um, and post hole diggers and drilling equipment, and they now, um, are in a position where they need to expand their facility and their operation. Currently, they're operating out of a 32,000 square foot facility, and they employ um, 34 people out of Belton. they have employees um across the US and outside but in Belton they have 34 employees. So today they are

looking at adding uh 34,000 plus square feet um to their existing facility. Um they are planning uh to do a $10 million investment. So about 4 million of that will be in real estate and in uh real property and the remaining 6 million is for equipment, machinery and um in their um additional items for the expansion of the facility. And so um let's see, they are going to in addition to adding the equipment, they're also expanding their operations. So they're going to add um a significant addition. And it's a paint line, a a paint um a paint a powder coating line. Thank you. I'm trying to say this without looking at my notes and I'm struggling. So, let me go back to my notes. Um they are also adding um office equipment, welding equipment, and so um and they're adding five new jobs. And like the other applicants, um it is likely that Beltech will add more than five jobs, but we always encourage our applicants to be um conservative in their estimates um because we tend to um become streamline our processes and we never know what's going to happen and we want our applicants to be successful um in receiving assistance from the EDC. So, this is the Beltech facility on um Commerce Street and um I've illustrated where the building expansion is going to occur. Please know that that is not um to scale. That was Cynthia just drawing on my computer screen. Um but it just gives you an idea of where the expansion is going to occur on their site. And so, a few renderings of what that expansion looks like. So, if you're in their driveway, um that's what you'll see. um going onto the Beltac property. Um this will be the front of their building and then we'll just zoom in and let you see

the entrance of their facility. So a greatl looking facility. Um and we're excited about uh their investment in Belton. Um so Tina talked about our May 5th board meeting. We were really busy and had a lot of items. And so at that meeting also the board considered a development agreement with BelTech Industries. And so, uh, the agreement outlines Belt Tech's commitment to complete, um, a 34,810 ft facility expansion, its minimum cost of $4 million, and then the installation of new equipment and machinery estimated at 6 million. Uh, they commit to creating five jobs and maintaining their existing 34 jobs. And then as part of this agreement, we've also negotiated with BelTech that they would not apply for the city and the county tax abatements. And um and I'll talk about our investment in BelTech um in lie of the city's tax abatement program. Um, it's a great program and we appreciate the partnership with the city, but in this situation, if EDC can help offset some of those costs, it's an immediate benefit to the taxing entities um once their facility um is completed. And so um upon um Beltec's um commitments, BEDC will um will invest in Beltech in two installments, I will say. So once they complete the shell of the building, um EDC will pay $150,000 and this is going to help offset the cost of site improvements and once they receive their certificate of occupancy, um BEEDC will pay out $500,000 for the remaining balance of the assistance that the EDC is going to grant. Um so let's talk about a little bit about the EDC's investment in our business retention and expansion um project. So, um, this facilitates a $10 million investment in

Belton. Uh, it's going to facilitate the creation and they will maintain 39 total full-time jobs. Also, um, instead of the tax abatements, uh, BEDC um is um is offsetting that with the incentive and um, this is an immediate benefit to the taxing entities. And so I've scribbled on there for you what that tax abatement would have looked like for the city of Belton over a 5-year period. And um for the city of Belton alone, that would have been $261,250 estimated. So for 100% tax abatement over 5 years. Um as you know, when the EDC offers incentives, we run it through a model. We try to determine what the economic impact is to our community. And we do this in in a form where uh we're measuring what's the economic impact. This is an investment and what's our rate of return, what's the payback period. And it helps us measure how we're assisting projects over time, but it ensures that um the city, the community is seeing a rate of return on the investment that we're making with the taxpayers dollars. And so this project yields 11.5% rate of return. Uh the payback period is a 8-year payback period. It's a little greater, a little longer than most of our projects, but again, this model is a little different because we're paying um a a little bit more um instead of them applying for the city's tax abatement program. And um I guess just to wrap it up, the EDC board of directors approved the agreement in May on May 5th and we're asking for the uh council's consideration in approving the agreement as well. Happy to answer any questions and David Jones is here also if you have any questions for him.

Any comments or questions from council? If not, the chair would entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Just like the last two grants, it's not a grant, but I guess it's a grant of sorts, but investment in our company. Yes, exactly. Um, if anybody's doing the math, y'all been around as long as I've been alive, so for the young ones up here, we uh Cynthia, your drawing was also better than a dog park. So, I make a motion to approve. I second. I appreciate the Jones family and their longtime investment in the city of Elton, and glad y'all are sticking around for more. Absolutely.

I couldn't agree more. Um, you know, David, in your family, uh, back in the day when it was when what was it on on six, was it Continental Belton? What was the original Continental Belton? Moved down from Iowa.

That's right. My uh my aunt uh worked for them for a good while. So, it's it's it's great that you guys and this is another example. We've already said it tonight, but it's just another just in this meeting, public private partnership things that we're doing. And for those who who don't really understand how all these taxes work, um we get BEEDC funds we get from sales tax that we're able to use to invest back into our community primarily to to help generate jobs and to support jobs. And so they help do infrastructure and uh as well as directly to help support those jobs. So they they do pay back. What's great is sometimes we get people from outside our community. We use that to bring them in. uh we've found that we're much more successful working with our own homegrown businesses. We've always been good at homegrown and you're examples of that. The other thing is is not only uh so by bypassing the the um the the abatements the abatements by the county and the city would have gone into the TUR. 100% of those monies would have gone into the TUR by having an abatement. We would not have that money in the TUR. And so um if we were then to to abate that even though they improved in the TUR we wouldn't have that by BEDC stepping in it's allowing that additional money to go back into the TUR which helps invest in things like the Beltonian and the restaurant that I've already said too many times. Uh but also in a lot of the historic areas and some infrastructure. So it's it's a really good way of kind of comingling our revenue sources to do the best for the city. So again thanks for partnering with us on that. And any other comments before we vote? All in favor say I.

I. I. Those opposed. All right. Um, since this is the only item on the table, I'll just go ahead and just pull it off the table instead of asking you guys for a motion for that. So, we will pick up item 13 off the table and um conduct a workshop, a work session on fiscal year 2027 budget uh considerations, including but not limited to the following funds. the general fund and the debt service fund. Save the best for last. Mike, we had a table one and he said it in the presentation. So, yeah. Well, I hope you're having fun because I'm coming to take your t-ird away. Um, have my dollar. Yeah, you set me up for that one. You got an hour to think about that one.

Okay.

Okay. So, let's get started. So, here we are. This is the this is not the official beginning of the budget season for these guys, but it's the official kickoff for the budget season for you. Um department head of have submitted their um their budgets to the city manager. We've reviewed those things, kind of put them together and bringing to you tonight kind of the first discussion on the general fund and the debt service fund. I usually call this the proposed budget, but with what you're going to see, this is really more of a preliminary discussion. And I think this is the first of many discussions that we're going to have uh going forward. So before we start looking at FY27, I'd like to show you where I'm thinking we're going to end for FY26. We plan for FY26 to draw down reserves by $150,000 to just over $8.1 million. Where it looks like we're landing is instead of using $150,000 of reserves, we might use $450,000. The reason for that is property tax revenue of all things. Um I'm forecasting us to be like $550,000 short of property tax um current year property tax collections um for FY26. Of course, the way that works is people are probably paying a little later. um you'll eventually get it as delinquent taxes and interest and those kind of things, but if that happens, our reserves would end up at 7.8 million. And what I want to kind of point out there is that we're right at the top of our 30% reserve policy. Um we we our our uh reserve policy says that we'll maintain 30% of budgeted expenditures and we might be at 30.8 if all that just happens. Um, so moving on now, let's start looking at 2027. Let

I'm doing this a little bit backwards than than normal. Um, hardly for the convers on this number. Okay. I just wanted to make sure we're talking about not the budget next year. We're talking about real this is we're going to be drawing down an additional 300,000. That's my estimate. Yes. For the year that we're currently by September 30. No, that's I appreciate that clarification. Just want to make sure. ended policy. We're gonna end in our policy. Yeah. And and that policy is just that it's just a policy. It's not something mandated by the state. You have to keep we we are choosing that number. That's correct, sir. Absolutely.

There there are benefits to I will say there are benefits to having conservative policies like that and one of them is we get better bonding and then getting better bonding it cost us less to borrow money. Correct. And so policy we can make modify policies but there are usually costs to that. Correct. That's correct.

So I'm starting this year with u in this discussion um as opposed to starting with revenues like I usually do. I wanted to save that fund discussion for later. And so we'll start with expenditures. Um we have some significant cost drivers uh for fiscal 27 and some of which we really have no control over. Um, personnel costs are typical. You know, pay raises for employees, about 250,000 for civil service, 200,000 for non-Ivil service. A couple of big ones though are popping up. Um, the budget that I'm showing you tonight has a projected 15% increase to health insurance premiums, and that increases our expenditures by $150,000 almost. Oh, wait. I have an update for you. Um this morning we met with our health insurance consultant and his number he's projecting probably at least 25%. So that number would go up by 100,000 when I change it for the

as we go forward. 250,000 additional. Oh an additional 100,000. 100,000. So 50 over the current year. Yeah. Okay. So 600,000. That's why I'm saying yeah two Yeah. be 200 like a $250,000 increase over but 600,000 total in our basically ones that we absolutely have no control of personnel cost. Yeah, that's the primary drivers of personnel cost increase.

Um our we uh Bell County Communications does our dispatching and we got a a notice from them that those costs are going to go up by almost $100,000. um our share of those costs that's allocated among all the entities in Veil County. But again, that's not something that we can control. So, let's look at where we may be. So, this is the chart that you've seen several times. I likely this Yes, sir. publicly. I I will say this publicly. Um the cost is is prrated to the entities in the county uh for our local call volume because Belton is on Interstate 35 and Interstate 14. We have a significant number of our call volume that is regional in nature, not local in nature. And that that is a a federal, state, and county burden more than it is a local burden. So we may want to ask the county to re-evaluate that proration to make sure that it's that we segregate the regional call volume from the local call volume because just because they call you in the city doesn't mean they're city person. And and we understand like if they're going to a restaurant, they might have whatever, but we're just talking about like accidents on 35 or a pretty significant call line.

Very second, mayor. You say, but we just will not accept call volumes in the city and the in the deanex the interstates. Let the county respond to that. Then there's two things we could save money on. That's so I'm sorry. No,

please keep going. Um, so for fiscal 26, our total expenditure budget was $25.5 million. It looks like we're going to come in um kind of right on top of that number. Um, for 2027, our expenses increase of almost $1.2 million to 26.7 million. Uh, the big drivers there again, personnel cost is obviously the largest one you see there. this $38,000 that you see there for services, that's related to our trash collection. Um, again, these are expenses and that's a p you'll see a revenue that goes up as well with that because that's a pass through kind of cost. Um, so overall a 4.7% increase to expenditures in FY27.

There's no new employees in that, right? No, sir. None. And and help me. Insurance is in that. I'm sorry. insurance is in that the insurance at 15% is in here not at 25. So the percentage is the percentage change from the estimate from budget to budget from budget to budget. Yeah. This is a budget to budget comparison. Gotcha. Okay. Um I just wanted to Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. So, let me go through then um each of our divisions in the general fund so you can get a kind of a feel for the changes for each one of those. Um our our top division there is city council. Go team. Um your budget's going up about $9,600. Um the primary reason there are agency contributions. Those agency contributions are these. Essentially, we would um the budget calls for contributing um to the same agencies that we have in the past or in 26. The only difference there is this Karst Coalition, which you've heard before. That one's kind of going on pause or away or something. Um it's going down the wave of an ant hill. Um the the Hill Country Transit number, I think it that I'm showing you here, is about $5,000 too high. Um the Bell County Public Health is about $10,000 too low, but this is what we're showing right now. But overall, um about a $5,200 change or so.

Why? Why are we giving money to ISD? That is the crossing guard program. So, we're kind of calling it a cross a contribute. Well, it is an expense to us, but that money that's the money from the from the that we get from Shay Leaki. leading. Yeah. From and then they we just pass. It's registration. It just passed through. It comes to us as revenue. We pass it on to Yeah. Exactly.

So, while you're on that page, the Hill Country uh transit being the top one, they've gone to more of a say payer system or an individual system. Are we getting reports to know how many rides in our municipality compared to the overall so we can look and see is it costing us $1,000 per ride or 25 cents per ride? Good. Good question. We can get that. I I think it would be good, especially if we're starting to tighten our budget. I think we should at least know what the answer is. He goes on the board. Ask him, "Hey, Daniel, what are you doing?" We can work on some budget over there, though.

We've had recent meetings. They're actually talking about expanding the boundary. They have a little bit more capacity to serve more folks. Uh it doesn't cover the entire city limits right now, just high activity areas, but they're talking about expanding that. But we'll we'll certainly ask about the right capacity. Sounds like that's working very well.

Okay, very good. Um, city administration uh increases $41,500 uh from FY26. Personnel costs again are are the main contributor there. On the finance side, um my group increases 7.3% or $62,000. it's um audit and tax appraisal costs um that are making that services right there increase that much. Um HR is increasing as well almost 11%. Um personnel is certainly a part of that but also we're we're increasing our our cost for legal services by about $25,000 in FY27. Moving on to municipal court. U municipal court is killing it. Um in decreasing their budget by $4,800. Um good news to see there. And then we turn around and see police going up by $294,000.

Right. More tickets. That's Yeah, there you go.

Um the big drivers here again um personnel cost that you're seeing in that comparison there, 6.2 versus uh 6 million. Those again are just the annual step S step increases every year um for the civil service folks plus um pay increases for non-Ivil service. Bel County Communications falls into that services category and uh that's what's driving that up by almost 100,000. The only thing that I want to show you here, not that it really matters, um is this capital outlay that you see this decreases. Um all that's in that 150 um in 2026 is kind of a number that we had for if we needed to do some kind of major maintenance work at um the Miller Heights uh public safety center. And what we've done is that's really not capital where I have it there. So what we've done is we've we've decreased that in 27 to 100,000 from 150 and now you're seeing it up here in that 126. So that's why maintenance cost went up by $100,000. I just moved it into a different category. Um, moving on to fire. Fire costs um increased by $144,000. Again, mostly personnel that you see in that group. Um, on the streets side, um, streets is increasing $320,000, 13%. And the biggest driver there, the biggest portion of that cost is our contracted street maintenance. You'll recall that we set aside a million dollars um few years now, a couple of three years now. We went increased to a million dollars and then we told council that we would increase that by 5% every single year. Um that increase alone in FY27 is $55,000. Um that brings our total street maintenance contracted street maintenance budget up to like 1.1 million$1.2 million in FY27.

So that's some of that increase you see there. The other larger increase is here in transfers. Um that well we have to u that transfer increase is due to the $175,000 grant match for the Sparter Sparta shared use path. Um we're transferring money from the general fund into the grant fund to that one. Bless you. Moving on then to parks and recreation. Um parks goes down by $85,000. Great job. Great job, James. Um but some of this is also great job me. Um and that's because I'm doing something here that we'll talk about in a little bit. Um we you may recall a couple of years ago um that we started charging the general fund for water that it consumes um for irrigation mostly at Heritage which is why it's here in parks. Um that number for 2027 was going to be about $220,000. Um, looking at where we are, um, I am pulling that out of the FY27 budget for now. Again, this is preliminary discussion. Um, that's this decrease that you see of 541 compared to 728 in 2026. We, you may remember the straw in the Leon project that we talked about. We're going to kind of look at that a little closer. Um, but for the sake of what we're where we're where we're headed, um, I've taken it out of the general fund as as it sits now. Okay. Development services, Bob's group goes up slightly, 1.2%. Um, again, mostly mostly personnel, some demo and cleanup. Um, I reduced that a tad um as well about 20,000. I reduced that. Uh,

library. So, Amanda, Miss Amanda is going up 9.3%. Health insurance is hitting her just like everything else. Um, books and building maintenance costs are hitting here. Um, but still good work there at the library. Solid waste is the one I mentioned before. Um, solid waste is this whole budget is essentially other than that personnel is essentially our contract with waste management. Um that's going up about $310,000 is my estimate. Uh what happens is you can see in in the current year it looks like we're going to exceed budget. Um and so I'm increasing that over the FY26 estimate. Fleet maintenance is our last uh general fund division. Those costs go down 11,000 real

quick. So our current collection revenue is not in there that offsets that because that's a separate bill. That's not ad balorum tax. Correct. This this you're just looking at expenses here. We're just looking Yeah. So So just while it may be going up, is revenue going up or we operating in deficit? I just I just want trying to keep my apples and apples in my So okay, the the idea is that we have a revenue number that directly matches that 2,ion416 in 2027. Gotcha. Because essentially we we do we do keep 12% of that revenue as our fee.

Yeah. But the but what you're seeing here is tr the truly the cost of collection. Um we pay that bill to waste management and then we and then that's collected through the rate fleet maintenance. Um pretty flat there going down slightly um $11,000. So that's our expenditure budget preliminary expenditure budget for FY27. So now let's have some fun and look at revenues. How are we going to pay for all of that? Okay, here's where we are. Um, so what we are not doing tonight is proposing a tax rate. Um, I don't have certified values yet. Those will get in July. What we did receive at the end of April from the appraisal district is what they call this their certified estimate. You don't know why they use certified, but that's the state law. Um, but it's a their estimate of where that certified value might be. So then for the 2026 tax year, which is our FY27, our preliminary values have actually gone down by 2.58%. That equates to $67 million. Um, from their documentation, it looks like we might have about $50 million in new value. So if we had 50 million in new and we went down by 67 million, that means the existing values would have had to have fallen by over $und00 million for tax year 26. So here's the way it works now. Um I can take some of that information. um I'm still missing some key components. And so these numbers are not the numbers, but I can play with them and kind of give you a feel for the tax rates um based upon the information that I have now. And but this is all preliminary.

Again, we're not proposing anything. I'm just this is what my spreadsheet does. And it shows the no new revenue tax rate is 5632. Our dimminimus, which is that $500,000 increase thing, is is 5871. And our voter approval tax rate, and and this is the one that's adjusted for our unused increment, you'll remember those term, is 59.89. So, our current tax rate is 5225 and no new revenue is 5632. Voter approval 59.89. So, so

these are just preliminary. Yeah. So, I'll just for illustrate because this is this is complicated. Yes. Concept. So, if I had a home that went up in value in prior years because appraise went up and we went down to the no new revenue rate, generally speaking,

I would still be get paying the same tax bill, but it would be at a higher value at a lower rate rate. I'm still paying the $8,000 in tax bill. Now, if my value in my house goes down, like what's saying, and we go up on our rate, I'd still be paying the $8,000, but my rate's higher, but my value is lower. That's correct. So, no new revenue. I'm just trying to make sure I understand it and so we can all understand that that what we're doing is no new revenue is we will still be getting the same tax bill, but depending on what your appraisal did, you may see a decrease or an increase based on appraisal and we're just peanut buttering because we can't go and cherry pick, right? We can't say, "Oh, we're going to tax you more, tax you less because they played with your appraisers, right?" And that's generally right. So, okay, 100% correct. $8,000 bill last year would would still be an $8,000 bill this year at the no new revenue rate assuming everybody was the 2.58%.

Yes, it has to work out just perfectly to make it to be exactly I mean this is looking at the entire role. We're just one line, you know, we're just like, you know, $1,000 of the $7,000 bill. So, we're just Okay,

you are 100% correct on the concept. Um, that's why the old term used to be the effective tax rate because mathematically that's exactly what that means, the effective I mean even it's the it's the rate the effective rate that brings that existing taxpayers pay the same dollar. Um, they went to no new revenue several sessions ago, which does not mean there's no new no new revenue coming into the city. It but that's what they called it. It's essentially that effective rate just as you explained. Okay,

good job. So we talked about so what do revenues look like? We talked about expenses already. So here we have a budget in 26 of 25.4 million. I told you it looks like we're coming in a little lower than that and that's the reason for that. The budget as it sits today in a preliminary level has increases 6.7% in revenues to 27.1 million an increase of $1.7 million over FY26. Again, this is a budgettobudget comparison. And so, just to show

budget to actual would be more than that.

Correct. Correct. And again, because it's I'm looking at that. Yeah. Um sales tax we're we're going to talk about in a little bit. Um service charges, mayor, that's your revenue from the solid waste that we were talking about. Um this decline of 297 that you see just below that is just because it's a change in the way we're accounting for some grant stuff. So don't worry about that one. Um but obviously the gorilla in the room is this one right here. Um a 13% increase to the to the tax levy of 1.3 million. So what does that look like? So first let me give you some history. Um so what you see going what you see on the bars going up is our is our tax levy. That's that's the amount of taxes all that we collect. And we started back here in 2020 at 6598 in 2020. And in fact you could take that all the way back to 2013 or some number like that. We held it flat at 6598 for a very long time. Then in 2021, we reduced the tax rate to 63 and kept it there for a few a couple of years. And then as values came in very strong, we've lowered our tax rate now to this 5225 as it sits now for the last couple of years. The tax rate that recovers that number that I'm showing you right there, the 11.2, two. It's just over 11 million actually in current property tax revenue. The the tax rate that gets me there is 59.46 and that's so you know we'd be going up you'd be going up to something like that or a little whatever. Um still lower than we were back here not that long ago in 2022 but a significant jump from 2026. Hey Mike, for purposes of people in the

room, can you can you draw an illustration line of what most other cities did during this stretch? Um, I can't draw it specifically, but I can tell you that um our neighbors to the north did increase by I think it was seven cents or some number last last year. Um, I think they'll be a pretty flat line generally. Yeah, I I and I think their rates are kind of doing that, but that's Don't take that to the bank. Um, the next time I showed you this, I'll I'll have that comparison. 6 now or something. I'm sorry. So, aren't they at like 76, I believe. So, something like that. 70 or 7. 70 something.

70 something. It starts with a seven. Um, so that's property tax. Let me

Well, I I will say that back on this. And so one of the things there's always again there's a tension from staff to council on these is staff is going to be much more conservative and really try to hold the line as much as we can on tax rates because it's really hard to go back up as you go down. And council has always been super conservative for the taxpayer to say well let's collect as the the lowest amount of taxes we can do. And so we've always kind of said we're if we can go down we're going down. And the tension is, but staff is like, "Yeah, but then you're not going to want to have to go back up." And we've always said, "Well, if we have to go down, we'll go down. If we have to go up, we'll consider that." So, I'm guessing this is a we'll have to consider that moment.

Yes, sir. Okay. Um, let's look at sales tax a little bit. Some charts that you haven't seen probably before.

Um, so I get our confidential sales tax report from the comprollers's office. Um, I follow about 200 220 um, businesses um, in our town. Well, businesses that that remit taxes to us and that gets me about 75 78% of our total sales tax revenue from those 220 or so businesses. I then take those businesses businesses and I kind of classify them. This is not official, but it's just kind of where I put them. But I have Whoops. I have Touch the wrong button. So, I have a construction category. I have a construction category that you see there in red. This is kind of construction related, not just construction itself. I've got lawn care and building supplies and those kind of things. In this c in this category, we have retail, which is retail. And then I have um a few others. I have utilities, I've got restaurants, I've got things like that. And and I kind of lump all that in this chart as an all other. Well, what makes that nice is each of those three categories makes up about a third of our of our property tax. I mean, our sales tax base. So, um and so what you can see this is what I'm showing you here is is 12 months a fiscal year worth of actually it's 12 months because 26 is not complete. a rolling 12 months of of revenue collected from each of these segments. And you can see that since 2025, we've had kind of a downward this downward push on our construction category. Um, not just horrible, but I'll show you something a little bit giving me some little hope. But it it peaked up in here. Construction really started in 2022 to to almost pass retail and has since trailed after that. uh since then.

Um these others are kind of starting to flatten a bit the the the other two categories. So that kind of gives you just a feel for what our sales tax base looks like. What I want to take you to this one is this um this chart is I'm looking still for each of these at on a rolling 12-month basis and still by those same categories, but I'm looking at individual months here. And so this is April of last year and March is the last time I got a a report, but March of the current year. And look at how so this is zero. That line right there is zero. So anything that's this way is is a falling 12 month number month over month. And then anything over here. So what I kind of just jumps out at you is how much that re that construction category was falling out here and you know not grossly it's only three and a half% is the max. Um but what I like to see is this here all of those categories kind of have has in March kind of jumped back into the positive. Um I have again I don't have the next the last two months worth of data but it's nice to see that and I think that's kind of more maybe where we're picking back up. We've kind of hit some of the bottom hopefully and kind of moved along. So when I take all of that and put it together and then look at percentage changes again I'm showing you real numbers and things on a percentage change. this line is zero. So, anything above that was positive um growth. Anything down here below zero was was negative growth. But you can see then that kind of hopefully maybe bottom you're seeing there. My current

projection that you see on this slide is 5.3 where with the latest number that we received last week, my current projection is is more like 4.5. So, but we'll probably land in the end somewhere around in there. Um, and that's that's okay. That that's okay. Um, we budgeted a 4% increase. So, you know, we're going to be going to be pretty close there. I just want to say the construction wise looking at the 20 and 25 you know that's not because of construction stopped that's because the cost of construction went up significantly

uh where you see that peak in 2022 I was doing a construction project it took less than a year when we started the project one sheet of plywood was $40 when we ended it one sheet was $88 and so that's where you see a lot of the construction that's correct we had a huge hailtorm. That's Yeah, that is correct. Um, so pray for a hailtorm. No, shop local.

So, your sales tax budget that I have for um for FY27, I'm going to budget a 5% increase over my estimate for 2026. um and keep my fingers crossed. Um other significant revenues that we have, again, trash collection, we talked about interest income, who knows where that's going to go. I'm kind of leaving it flat over the current year estimate. Might be a little high if I do that, but that's probably all right. Um that transfer we talked about, etc. So, what does this mean? So, when I'm looking at 2027 now, this is the we might end again. This is my estimate. We might end 2026 with um fund balance in the general fund of 7,875,000. If revenues are 274 I mean 27114 and expenses are that we would increase reserves to 8,232. And if we did that we would stay at the 30.8. 8 that I'm showing there. So, so even though so we have to have some net income if you will because our expenditure levels are increasing our reserve balance the actual number has to increase to stay along with that. Um and so if we do that if it all just worked out miraculously um we would be able to stay at 30.8 eight

and and reiterate the preliminary revenue numbers are based on which sales tax and which adorum tax. Uh that's I can certainly do that. So well here I don't need to go backwards for that. So the sales tax estimate I mean the sales tax budget I'm increased five is a 5% increase from is where you link not budget to budget but

from where correct from where I think we're going to land at the end of this year. the the the property tax number that brings us that revenue is that increase that you see here is the is the 11,262 in in total property tax revenue and what is the rate to get that and that rate is the 5946 that you see there again these are just and back to the dimminimous rate voter approval rate those are so no new revenue is 5632 and then 59 so we'd be slightly under that vot

above the dimminimus but below the voter correct for this discussion tonight and and kind of really what I what I would like you to do is don't get too wrapped up on specific rates only because I it's not going to be that

but put your heads more around the terms there of your comfort level of a voter approval rate, whether it's 59, 89 or 59 or 57 versus a no new revenue of 56, 58, 50, whatever the numbers are going to be. Um because no new revenue is going to um the amount of revenue that those bring in will be the same amount just a different rate based upon exactly what you're saying.

Yeah. Um, so here's another thing I want to show you. Um, I've showed you what's in our budget currently. Okay. What's important for you to also know though is what is not in our budget currently. So, we've had uh some discussions with staff. There's a there's some positions in here. A human resources generalist position. Um police had talked about a records clerk. Um there's some event staffing, a mechanic. All of these things we believe are things we need. Um I talked about that 236. I literally pulled that out of expenses. So that's no longer in there. And then and then um we are short of funding or underfunded is probably a better way to say it by a bit in some of our equipment replacement funds. Um again that that fund we transfer from the general fund into an equipment replacement fund to for future vehicle replacements. Um it was my initial plan when we had budget disc meetings. Um I had planned on um starting to catch us up a bit. That catchup for this 27 period was 175,380. That's not the total amount that we transfer. We transfer over a million dollars, but that would have been the increase to that. But for the sake of where we were looking at that higher uh increase potential increase in a property tax number, um I'm not doing that either. So, so this $743,000 if you wanted to do all of those things listed,

um, the tax rate equivalent of that is about three and a half cents. So, you would, if I'm already showing you the 59 is voter approval. Then to do these things, we'd have to go three and a half cents or so over voter approval, which would require an election of citizens to go to to capture that. Um, not what we're proposing here right now. I'm just saying um I'm just saying wanted to show you that that's that number. So from a legal slash whatever process, if we were to say, "Oh, Caffra, uncle, like let's just go to the voter approval rate." If they, let's say, we were to do this and it's over the voter approval rate. If they vote for it, then they go with that tax rate. If the voters vote against it, then it goes to the voter approval rate. So it just automatically goes to the voter approval rate if the voters voted down. If they voted down

the the new rate 60 some over voter approval. It would go down to voter approval. Okay. That's what Yeah. It doesn't go down. It doesn't go back to this last year's number. It would just go to the voter. Correct. Okay. Correct. Thank you. Um so not that I would ever want to do that. I'm just trying to understand.

No, that's great. That's a great question. Um, so here's this this is kind of some feedback that we're looking for is is the voter approval type rate if it were to come in at such a level that I'm showing you tonight. Um, if that if that's too much to consider, there are some ways that we could reduce that increase. now not decreasing the rate from today but we could reduce the expenditures so that the increase might not be as high does that make sense am I saying that correctly so instead of being a 59 could be something less than that each one penny um based upon what I'm seeing now again don't get too wrapped up in the number but you're talking say $210,000 so so with each one reduction in the rate one cent reduction is not a good word there with each one penny on the tax ro we would it would be a $27,000 difference. So there here are some things that we just kind of have thrown out there. Um we we do I mentioned before we have our largest discretionary expenditure is street maintenance. Um and this is our contract is street maintenance. This is you know we're not talking about not filling potholes. We're talking about doing the major overlay program that we've been talking about. Um, and that number is for the total number for FY27 is 1,158,000 or some number like that. Um, so you could reduce that by $200,000 and then you'd have um and then you could you could make up that. Um, that's just one example. We have we I think pay something like $200,000 in contract mowing. Um $80,000 of that is mowing along I35. Um we could consider taking that out completely. That's 80,000.

Um we talked about agency contributions. Who wants that road? I'm sorry. Do we could we dismant that too? Yes, that's it. Do the rightway too. Just do the whole careful. Careful. Who owns 121? State. But I owe my portion.

We talked about those agency contributions. Um, I mean that's discretionary. Um, some community impact there. And then our current home grant budget is $92,000. Um, you know, we don't have to do that any longer. We built a lot of homes and made some differences to a lot of people's lives with that program over the years, but that's certainly a discretionary um expense item. Um so the other thing that's one way to do it if you wanted to what this is trying to depict is we can depending upon your feedback we can reduce some expenses to some comfort level that you might have um towards a tax rate type of thing. alternatively is if you're okay um with us looking at street maintenance again we've just the increase alone in FY27 is 55 grand and we have 1 point whatever number if you're willing to entertain changing street maintenance what we might recommend might might not um is is doing an expense offset so you're lowering street maintenance by say whatever the numbers were. So, let's let's talk those top three. 180,000. So, lower street maintenance by $200,000 could get you these things here if you're willing to even entertain street maintenance.

So, I I would say this um your capital asset replacement is street maintenance. It's the same. and and saying that street maintenance is discretionary is saying that my my uh credit card bill is $3,000, but my minimum payment is 35. So instead of paying $3,000, I'm just going to pay 35. That $2,900 is discretionary. That's right. It's really not discretionary.

That's correct. So, I just say that the challenge and the thing and I say this because when we started without any street maintenance, everything we had to borrow for street maintenance, the roads in Belton were horrible and we had to go into debt to fix them and we finally worked to the point where we're paying our credit card bill every month and I would hate for us to start going back to minimum payments or towards that. And I know and and so I think I'll just say that I think all of those funds that we're saving for tomorrow, we can look at all of those holistically. I would warn against just pulling out one of them

because there's a lot of other ones. There's there's electronics, there's software, there's equipment upgrades, there's, you know, facilities. Like there's all of that anyway. So I just

and say I I agree. I think street maintenance is a huge one and it's made a huge difference and um you know there we have two ways of funding and it's property tax and sales tax as we've just gone over and I would almost want to consider a a sales tax allocation for street maintenance. Um, you can do them in 1/8. And, um, you know, I think an option would be to do, you know, reallocation, have 1/8 of the sales tax go to street maintenance into a street maintenance fund because you're allowed to do that. Um, cuz currently we're cities can't do more than 2% and we're 1.5 and then 5% goes to uh to BDC. But we just took an eighth of that. We could fund for all the street maintenance

and then it' be locked in guaranteed that. Yeah, but it would just be now we're going to not and this is just continuing to the personal budget analogy. It would be not putting money in 401k so we can pay off the credit card bills because the thing that we do with uh economic development is long-term investment. It's for our future selves. And so we've spent 100% of the money that we've collected minus what we have in the bank. And so BEDC um has done some good investments and continue investments. Anyway, so I think I think all of these I think

no matter which way we want to shade where we want to it really boils down to costs more than revenues. Um to I mean to save money. It's like my doctor said is um if you want to lose weight, stop eating. You can exercise all you want. It's you exercise isn't going to gain or lose weight. Eating is gonna lose weight. So anyway, so I think we have to but anyway, but it's a it'll be a tough budget year. It's going to be a tough budget year. I just would say we need to keep that in mind because that is an option.

Yeah. I I want to make clear I'm not saying BDC does anything bad. they've done great work. Um, but there has been um, you over the past five years a pretty good uh, amount of leftover money there. And as well as we're, you know, if you compare what we're doing to BDC to other cities our size, they're they're being funded a good amount above what what you would consider that to be. and um which I want them to have the money to operate whatever that is but you know with sales tax continually going up I think it's a good question of you know what what would a budget actually be what would the number need to be in there versus just whatever sales tax dictates I have personnel questions

yes sir what and these may be I'm gonna ask it but it's probably going to a report or some at some point. But um I guess what I'm getting at is like we cover how much we cover for employee only, how much we cover for spouse. Um how many do we have kind of on each plan? Those are numbers that when I look at personal just personally I want to yeah we can provide a good amount take a peek at and I'm um right now employee only coverage in both plan our PO and our high deductible plan is zero I premium that they pay because city covers 100%.

Gotcha. But Megan can get you everything you want to know there.

Individual kind of individual. Oh, you learn something new every day. Send it. We can send it to him.

Perfect. Well, I think and he's bringing up uh there's a couple of things we can do on health insurance to save money. I think one is the level of coverage for the employee, which ultimately just shifts the cost to someone else. It doesn't really save any money. Uh but I do think and we were talking about this, but I'll say it publicly. I think we we're getting to the size and we've had some pretty significant events in the in the recent history that is driving our rate up that we may want to consider an actuarial look at. Can we self-insure? Can we use a different type of policy than we currently are to potentially save some money or at least not go up as much?

We have asked our our consultant to bring back something what that might look like just for some data comparison because when does that happen? We'll get something I mean we this is a the RFP goes out in like July. July July. Yeah. So, it's okay. We won't get it back until we're already adopted. But in July, we'll need to actually talk about design what we want to send out for RFP. We won't get our RFP numbers till the first part of September. They get sent out in August and they have a month to get us back.

We'll have to adopt a We'll have to adopt a budget, but the health insurance is a January effective date. So, partial year. Anything else you want to add before we move on? Okay, that's the general fund. We'll go through these quickly. Um, now looking at the debt service fund, um, the debt service fund is moving right along. Um, kind of where we where we expect there. Again, that it's the same thing in the as the general fund. Revenues are a little bit low. Um, whoops. In 26. Um so we may end up at that 173 and $50,000 increase to 231 um at the end of 27. The reason these balances are a little bit high is because remember the general fund is transferring is the general fund operations is covering um is making the debt payment if you will on the fire engine debt that we issued a couple of years ago. Um, and so we have to build up some cushion because that first payment hits in February and I would not have had enough money just um if I kept this at zero, I would not have transferred enough at the end. But anyway, so um this is general fund revenues. I mean sorry the debt service fund revenues, you know, they they stay pretty flat. um 1,566 in 2027

and that there's a there's a rate for debt service correct as well. Yes. And this includes the decrease in does that rate that's correct. Okay,

that's correct. Yeah, this rate would also go up some um expenses at 1,ion508 same number because it's all based upon our debt service schedules. Our debt looks like this. This is what we have will um have outstanding at September 30 of 2026 s,822,000 worth of outstanding principal. We do have some things that are maturing fairly soon. In 2027, those 2017 geos will roll off. In 2028, the 2008 cos will roll off. And so your payments look like this for the next several years. You see they're flat here with a slight decline here in 2029 when those two things roll. And then we'll drop then pretty significantly in 2031 and then again in 2034. That's if we don't issue any new debt. So what's on our calendar going forward? So, we're doing this meeting tonight actually um a little one week early or two weeks early. Um it's was originally sc scheduled for the next meeting, but I kind of wanted to get this in your hands as soon as I could for you to see why. Um but the next time we'll probably talk about budget is June 9th, water and sewer and drainage and then our CIP. The 23rd we'll talk hotel tours, IT, etc. And then on July 14 is our big date there is when I bring back the official proposed budget for FY27 to council. We won't get our tax roll until July 25. That's when we can we'll know what our real number is to get us to whatever revenue we're showing in our in our budget. And then we have public hearings and you'll propose a rate August the 11th

maybe. um and then we'll adopt this. The reason there's two dates that you see there, August 17 or September 8th, is based upon the tax code. And if you So if council desires to go over voter approval and actually have an election to go over voter approval, I need to know that fairly soon. I don't mean tomorrow. I mean sometime after that, July 14 or July 25. That's really the day because we're going to have to get on a rapid pace because we'll have to actually adopt that tax rate, have all these public hearings, um, and adopt the tax rate and the budget by August the 17th. Okay. The reason you do that is because once you adopt that tax rate, then you call for an election on that tax rate to that'll be in November. But we only have to have that accelerated schedule if that's the plan, if that's something that you want to consider. If you're still on the fence, I'm still going to race you and go for I will say based on conversations I've had with citizens as well as council members, I I think the the way to ensure people show up at your public hearing is to go above the voter approval rate. So, I don't think there will be appetite to go above the voter approval rate. Now, how close are we to the the voter approval rate and the last year's rate where that that's where I think we're going to land in that window and we'll probably argue and lose some friends over it, but I think we're going to be in that window.

I I don't unless you tell me otherwise or you really get to proposing. No, I don't think I don't think we we're going to be shooting for that September 8th. That takes me to that slide. I think we've discussed this in um good job. Appreciate the info. Lots of good work there. Uh there's lots of staff in the room. If anybody uh has the appetite to take a $ 1.7 million pay cut, that would solve a lot of problems for us. So, you could just if you don't want to raise your hand, you can talk to Sam after. Yeah. Only one person in this room makes more than that.

Yeah. It's going to be a tough budget year, but I will say I'm I'm not for raising you know, property taxes. At the same time, if you were to come in and say if the consensus among the seven were that we should do 59 whatever you said, I I would just say I would I don't really want to see if the voter approval rate is 59.89, I don't want to see us take 59.88. I would almost rather send it to the voters if that's what it's going to be as opposed to being like a used car salesman and say it's $9.99 instead of 10.

No, I I think that's I think that's authentic. I think I think at least I I agree with you. I mean, we we need to come up with the number, not try to gain the system. Yeah. And I think that's that's the goal. I I think one thing that you didn't add here that you you know, we we've kind of been just kind of brainstorming what are ways there's different ways we could we can go up on the rate which raises revenue. We can go on down on our expenses which decreases our expenses, right? You could do that. Uh we could dip into our fund balance, right? We could do that. The other one is not very far

listed CIP. There may be some things in our current budget that we pay for that might could be because if you look at it, we're we're going to to debt equals zero, which is a great place to be, but you don't want to have to not go not go to Disney World with the family because you you want to make that one last car payment this month. I mean, sometimes it's like, well, let's just keep making car payments and let's go to Disney. So, we may want to look see what we could do on the debt that waterfall to where we won't change our debt, but we could fund a few initiatives and shift it out of the general fund as I'm not suggesting that that's what we should do, but it should be a lever that we should be able to look at. Um cuz I know that there's legality of what you can do and what goes to voters and how much you can borrow and all that. So I think it would be good to have that as an option even though it's a maybe a really bad option.

Did you go to the parks meeting earlier today? Yes, I did. Well, sometimes I've some of that going to fill this up when we talk about our CIP. Yeah. Yeah. But some years it's better to talk about going to Disney World and some years it's good to say, "Hey, we're going to eat Chef Boyardd and watch some Mr. Rogers on TV." Amen to that, brother. Thank you, Mayor. Do I do think just kind question feel like that uh your

projections take into consideration what as much as we can what we know about I35 I14 and the impact thereof on the on the particularly on the sales tax but also on the property tax. We're still working on that. Um based upon um the whatever proposed alignment we might end up with will affect some business and some not. Um I think we're getting close to having some new projection there and then we can kind of start playing that forward and see what that might look like.

We have received the new maps finally. Matt has received those and we're adjusting based on the property impacts the reduction in impact based on the reduced um express lanes and so we're calculating property value sales tax hotel motel impacts as a component of our correspondence back with textile. So we're working that is there's not any direct relationship to the budget budget in terms of sales tax estimate 5% uh going forward. So there's no reduction in that just on on the face of it at this point in time.

So for clarification um so Craig's asking I think broadly but specifically for next year. So when if we start seeing some impact from the I35 change what budget year fiscal year would that impact? So we're we're budgeting right now. We're in 26. We're going to be fiscal year 27 which is 26 27 right half. So which year would is text dot looking at? Text a tech 20 2030 29 FY29 for maybe acquiring properties, you know, so that you would see maybe some places close up and because they they've been bought out. Sure. FY31 probably for construction.

So we're three to three to five. Three three to five years.

Yeah, say it. We have had some preliminary discussion with BEDC with the board about uh a set aside for anticipating I35 I14 acquisitions, but also to allow for relocation and also utility infrastructure type u uh contributions as as businesses move and relocate. Uh again, very general discussion. Uh no commitment just yet, but we have suggested that that might be a set aside in their budget going forward. And that could begin as early as 27, perhaps 28 to have some money to work with as property owners get the final word about they're going to be acquired or not, and then what it's going to take to retain them in in place. So that is a vehicle for for considering that and the board seemed to be receptive to that when we spoke last time.

Thank you, Sam. Any other questions or comments? All right. Yeah. Well, that's my that's not a uh quote the name of the thing, so we won't say that. So, all right. Uh that's the last item on our agenda. Lucky 13 for last, which came after a number higher than 13. All right. Uh we stand adjourned. 7:34