City Council - Regular Meeting

a lickety split. So, no

no no stuff tonight. So, public comments can do that next week. No, not I'm kidding. All right. Uh to start off this evening, um I'm going to lead the pledge of allegiance to the US flag. Uh then Sam Listy will lead the te pledge to the Texas flag and then council member Luke Pototts will lead us in the invocation. If you will rise with me as we say the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Bow with me. Uh dear God, thank you for letting us be here today to talk about uh our community. Uh we're so blessed to have such a great community with people who who care so deeply about wellbeing of it and we just ask that you uh look after our conversations and please just bless us, guide us and direct us. So your your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

All right, we are officially called to order at 5:33. Um the first item after call to order is public comments. And we do have a public comment. Uh Jackie Wrong. Um yes. Come. Uh name and address for the record. You got three minutes. And if we round it down to two and a half, don't get up.

Uh good evening, mayor, council, and staff members. Jack will enroll and I live at 508 North in Belton. Tonight, I'm asking you to protect our beautiful city trees. Belton has a tree clearing policy and design standards that recognize protected trees and Belton heritage trees. Yet, despite those these a steady loss of mature trees in the last five years, especially in and around the uptown and downtown areas. This suggests that in practice, those protections may not be consistently used or enforced. The trees that are being cut down are the very trees that make Belton's historic streets walkable, charming, welcoming. Once a 75-year-old oak or pecan is cut down, it cannot be replaced in our lifetime. The current design standards we have in place are vague, ambiguous, and insufficient to protect these trees and are being bypassed in public projects. Case in point is a property at 503 North Wall Street owned by Heather Presley. She purchased four years ago. There were no less than three mature trees on her property in the last two years. She has cut them all down. No fine, no replacements planted. Not a single tree or shrub remains on her property. I have before and photo before and after photos if anyone's interested. A fully codified standalone heritage tree protection ordinance is needed to ensure against loss of these irreplaceable assets. My proposal makes those pro protections binding, consistent, and enforcable across all zones so we don't lose trees due to regulatory gaps or enforce enforcement lapses. Therefore, I present to you a tree preservation ordinance draft for your consideration. is designed to fit neatly into chapter 22 of the city code. This

amendment would define what counts as protected or heritage trees, require a simple permit before removal, allow flexible mitigation, and prioritize preservation of mature mature canopies in our uptown and downtown zones. It's modeled after successful ordinances in cities like Georgetown, Bastrop, and Wahhatchee. Places that found a balanced way to protect trees without hindering growth or investment. In closing, tree preservation isn't just about sentiment or smart planning. A healthy canopy reduces storm water runoff, lowers energy costs, and makes our streets safer and cooler in summer. Most importantly, it preserves a visual character that draws families, visitors, and new businesses into the heart of Belton. I'm asking the council to direct staff to review this proposed ordinance and schedule it for public discussion. Let's ensure that future development honors heritage and beauty that make Belton feel like home. Thank you for your time and your service. Um I also have the proposal printed.

Um and anyone can have it for handouts if you like.

Yeah, if you give them to Amy and we can pick them up from Amy. Um and also we'll uh have staff look at your proposal. We appreciate your comments. I think most of us concur even though I can't say that. Right. Any other uh comments? If anyone wishes to address the council for any matter that is not on the agenda, um they may do so at this time. If not, we will close the public comments and we will go to the proclamation. I will read the proclamation from here. It is a lot of big words for Belton Children's Book Week. I was hoping for a few pictures and fewer words, but here we go with the proclamation. Thank you guys for being here uh for this. Um here's the proclam office of the mayor proclamation. Whereas children book week is recognized as a national week-long event to celebrate books for young readers, promote literacy, foster connection, and support education. And whereas 2025 marks the 106th anniversary of children's book week. And this year's slogan is an ocean of stories celebrating the v collective ocean formed by the stories we read, share, and tell. And whereas the Lena Armstrong Public Library has partnered with Belton Independent School District and the Friends of the Library to celebrate and observe CH Belton Children's Book Week from November 3rd through November 9th 25. And whereas Belton's Children's Book Week aims to encourage literacy and cultivate a lifelong love of reading within our community by hosting a Big Red red d a d big red red uh event in which residents will read a common book together. Or is it supposed to be a big red read? Yes, big red read. Red read red or red or read. It's all spelled the same. I'm an engineer. You got to help me out here. And whereas this the week's celebration

will culminate with a community gathering featuring fun literacy activities and an outdoor movie in the park bringing together children, families, educators, and library supporters. Now therefore, I, David Lee, mayor of the city Belton, do hereby proclaim November 3rd through November 9th as Belton Children's Book Week. And I think we have some folks here to uh accept. you would like to say something, you may do so.

I will briefly uh thank Wanita Smith for her sponsor or for the friend sponsorship of this event. And this year's read is Stuart Little. So join us November 8th at 5:00 PM here at Harris Community Park for Steuart Little in the Park. All right, moving right along. We are now moving into the consent agenda. Items 4 through 12 on this agenda can be enacted by a single motion. Anyone on the council who wishes to remove an item may do so and we can discuss it separately. Uh, alternatively, if no, no one wishes to do so, we can uh make a motion at the end of this. I'll read them all into the record. Item four is adopting the minutes of the September 23rd city council workshop meeting and the September 23rd city council regular meeting. Item five is adopting a resolution cancelling the October 28th city council meeting and moving the November 11th uh council meeting to November 10th. Item six is appointing Kim Peterson as council member Stephanie O um Oan's representative on commission. Item seven is approving an ordinance on first reading and setting a public hearing. Second reading for November 10th granting a commercial solid waste collection franchise to Frontier Waste Solutions. Item eight is adopt um adop or

adopting a a Belton I'm sorry it says consider but I'm trying to change the words in my brain and I'm an engineer. Sorry. Um adopting a building safety grant application for trust repairs for the property located at 222 East Central Avenue in Belton uh commercial historic district. Item nine is approving a schedule establishing dates for the adoption and effective date for the 2024 international codes and the 2023 National Electric Code. Item 10 is authorizing the purchase of vehicles for the police department as budgeted for the capital replacement fund. Um item 11 has been um removed from this consent agenda and item 12 is awarding bids and authorizing the city manager to execute a mowing services contract with renewal options and any change orders associated with the contract not to exceed the amount authorized under state law. So again, items 4 through 12 um are in play. Item 11 has been removed from this consent agenda. Anyone wish to remove an item and discuss?

Make a motion to approve all as presented except item 11. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve all consent agenda items read with the exceptions of 11 which was not read. Uh any comments? All in favor say I.

I. Those opposed? Passes unanimously which is a simple majority which is required for every action item this evening since we only have four. Oh, we do. Okay. So, now the 11 that was not read, I will now read it into uh and um I would uh request that someone postpone this to a future meeting. So, item 11 is consider authorizing the purchase of server, switches, storage, and VMware software from Waypoint Solutions through Texas DIR contracts DI Dell EMC. In other words, to replace the city of Belton's aging data center. And a motion to postpone. Move to postpone to a future meeting. Second.

We have a motion to second to postpone to a future meeting. Uh any other comments? All in favor say I.

I. Also passes unanimously. All right. Item the next item is we will now recess. This is going to be a magic trip trick trip too. Uh city council will reset the regular city council meeting and convene a special meeting of the employee of his trust. And so we are now recessed. Now we are opening the and calling to order the Belton employee trust. Um as it would happen uh the four of us also serve as trustees. Uh so item two on this item is consider minutes of the city of Belton employee benefits trust meeting dated November 12th. That is in your packet. The chair would entertain a motion to approve those minutes.

So move them. Second. We have a motion, a second to approve the minutes. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Right. Passes unanimously. Item three is receive a presentation and consider awarding contracts for employee insurance products. Miss Megan. I will make this short and sweet. We have a very easy employee benefits trust year this year. Um thankfully because of our make sure it's on. The screen's dead.

Okay, first just change it for me. Okay, so Blue Cross Blue Shield. Last year we had a um a rate cap guarantee, 16% rate cap guarantee, but with the bundling discount, it gets reduced down to a 14.5 rate cap um for this year. You can see our historical premiums versus claims. This year we had some very high claimments. Um of those uh we have seven claimments that were over 50,000 um dollars in claims totaling 1.7 million making up 74% of our total claims. That percentage right now is high, but that's as of August of this year. We'll have more premiums that will help offset that and reduce it some, but just be aware for the future that this could really be um something that we need to be looking at um with those increases.

Next slide, please.

All right. And this just shows um our premium changes with that 14.5%. Essentially, they bump it up to 16% and then reduce it by 98.5. Um, and so those between 2025 and 2026, um, the city does pay 100% for our employeeonly coverage and then we pay a portion of all the other coverages for each plan. We left those, um, percentage rates the same from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 or premium year 26. All right. Dental and vision both have rate guarantees for this year. So, it's fairly simple process to stick with them. Um, dental will be good for this next year and then we'll have to go back for quotes. Vision is good for their two years. So, we've got um a simple process for that. Um, and it just shows our premium rates for 2026. They're the same as last year. Um, with no changes to either one of those plans for the city contribution, employee contributions. All right. So, other lines of coverage. Um, we did go out for um these different lines of coverage for um our quotes that we had. We didn't have to go through the same extensive process that we typically to do because of the uh the increase to the $100,000 cap. Um but we do have um group life disability. We actually had a reduction from last year um by five $5,000. So, that was huge. Our employee amount is now $3 per employee per month. Um, last year it's 575. It had a reduction of coverage once employees got over age 65. Now we don't have that any longer. It's the same for employees regardless. We've got that $50,000 worth of coverage. HSA and COPRA administration, we have a rate guarantee

um are doing away with the FSA side of things. We only had 15 employees sign up for that and it was a test last year. It was not a test that went well and um by recommendation of our finance director he wants us to do away with the FSA. So we are um employee assistance program we have rate guaranteed till 2029. Now these are all employee paid premiums. So they don't have any effect on the employee benefits trust but it is something that we do go out for um for quotes. Um we did have some service uh delivery issu and some billing issues with AFLAC and so I spoke with Julian at hub and and him and his team were great about getting um quotes for us for those supplemental plans and all of the plans came in either at or below what our current coverage is. So that'll be beneficial to employees. So, our recommendation for all of these coverages, long-term, short-term, critical, uh, hospital accident, whole life, and identity theft is going with, um, these companies. And we actually have some increased coverages and that stuff as well. Do you have any questions for me about our employee benefits trust side? Pretty straightforward.

Yeah. What What is that percentage of spouse, family, child W2 cover? So it's it's different per plan. So we've got two plans. We've got our PO hydro. So uh spouse 60% the safe city covers 60 and 70 on the two plans. Child is% and 85%. And then family is 60% the city covers on one plan and 70% on the other. So basically like if it was employee spouse we we pay 60% of that premium. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. So, basically 50% of it employee will cover all that 10% of the spouse roughly. Okay. I mean employees are always 100%. So,

Right. Yeah. Well, that that's the way I was breaking it down. Yeah. Just to do it apples to apples. Yeah. Absolutely. And we just kept those same um treatments between 25 and 26 the same. And when we do compensation studies, does that include benefits? Like it does typically cover

every six years we'll do benefit side. So, but our benefits consultants at Hub International, they do internal um whenever we go out for quotes, they do those analysis to make sure that we're in line with the market. And they do um private sector, public sector, all of that every time that we do the the quotes. um for those spouses or family members that have um access to health care through their employer if they choose to go to the city where we cover the load and their employer does not. Is there any do we have any data on that? like I'm I'm just saying are we unfairly carrying a health care cost and not sharing with a spouse's

so typically the spouse coverage is still quite expensive because spouses have babies and so that ends up costing a lot more money. Um so we don't have very many spouses on our plan. If we're going to have a spouse, it's going to be a family because the other spouse doesn't have coverage. We do offer an incentive for our employees to be spouse's plan. Okay. So, we'll pay $2,400 a year to that employee for not having our health insurance but taking a different. Okay. That that's good. I'm glad you're you're looking at that. Um

All right. So, for the council to take action and award the contracts, if you don't mind showing that on at least on my piece of paper, it doesn't have the details. Um if we could have that on there for our council member to u make a motion. the the one that shows who we're award contracts to. Oh, it stays the same, right? Oh, that's not there. There's a

So, we have two different p Yeah, we don't have a specific slide. We've got a slide. So, Blue Cross Blue Shield is who? It's these two slides between those two. Um, in the packet itself, it's got a list. Um, as long as the a council member can see the list and make the appropriate, there's a recommendation list that has it all. If you need to see that, there can say. Okay, that's fine. Move to award the contracts as presented. There you go. Second. We have a motion, a second to award the contracts as presented. Uh any other comments or questions before we vote? All in favor say I.

I. I. Those opposed. Passes unanimously. We will now adjourn this special meeting of the Belton employee benefits trust and we will now convene the Belton council meeting to discuss what we just discussed. Uh I think yes. Item 13 is uh consider approval of funding for employee insurance contracts awarded by the board of the employee benefits trust and authorize the transfer of funds from the city's operating funds to employee benefits trust account. Miss Megan.

Yes. All right. Um I forgot to introduce Julian Fontana is our um our consultant for Hub International. So, I just wanted you all to see Julian if you want to thank

hello or wave to the our council. All right. So, this uh we're getting close. Um so, this just shows the funding allocation. So, we do this funding per month based on actuals. These are estimates based on what um employees elections are as of October 1. So when you're looking at the two, the main difference you'll see if you question the 25 to 26, it's not just a 14.5% increase because our estimates for 2026 also include the um HSA payments that we make to employees who elect for HSA coverage. So that has $37,000 added to it for the HSA coverage. 2025 are estimates from Blue Cross Blue Shield for all of those things. Anyone have any questions about these estimates and how our funding works for next year?

Question is those new envision because it's a multi-year contract that they stay the same. They're rate guarantees for this year. Um, envision is actually a rate guarantee for two more years. Yeah. Based on that blue bar, yellow line chart, next year might get pretty hairy. Next year might be hairy, but we'll see how it goes. We'll work with hub and uh work on plan design and some different options and things that we can do to make that affordable as best we can. Good. Well, if you have no questions, chair would entertain a motion. I move to improve approve the funding for the insurance contracts.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the funding for these in the amount as presented uh around 1.8 8 to 1.9 million. Um I will make a comment here. You can see the is almost $200,000 or maybe a little bit north. That's almost two cents on our tax roll. Is that right? Um around 133,000 or something. Is that what that's about 1.5 cents?

1.5 cents. And so if you and I think Luke actually brought this up when we were looking at our tax rate and trying to no new revenue rate. If it weren't weren't for this, we likely could have stayed at no new revenue rate. And so anyway, just want for for for taxpayers that pay attention. Um this is what we're doing is we're just taking care of our responsibilities as an employer and the cost of employment has gone up. So it's um anyway, just wanted to make that point before we voted. Any other comments before we vote? All in favor say I.

I. Those opposed? I think I heard four eyes. Maybe some silent eyes, but we got there. Um, so the motion passes uh to fund the uh benefits trust account. Item 14 is hold a public hearing and consider an ordinance amending I'm going to read two sections. Section A 11-6 of the Belton code of ordinances to replace the wording central business district with central downtown zone and including the uptown town zone from the exemption of the 300 ft separation to sell alcoholic beverages. And item B, uh, section 22-3 of the Belton code of ordinances to replace the wording central business district with central downtown zone relating to the prohibition to ride or propel any bicycle on any sidewalk or propel a skateboard or coaster along any sidewalk in any parking lot or in any street or roadway. Mr. V.

Mayor, thank you very much. that takes care of the vast majority of my presentation. That's awesome. But I appreciate that. As you mentioned, we're uh looking at replacing the words from the central downtown business, which exists in the ordinance today with central downtown. And we're also proposing to add the uptown to 116. Uh 223 is also just a change of words. Uh essentially uh when we're looking at section 116 uh that relates to the 300 foot separation between churches, schools, and uh uh hospitals, public hospitals, public schools. Uh but uh in the central downtown area, the central business district, or as we hope to call it, the central zone, that doesn't exist. So what we're doing is we're basically taking the existing ordinance. We're not doing any policy changes in terms of the separation or what have you. And we're just changing the word central business district to the uh central downtown. And if you all agree, we'll also do it with the um with the uptown zone. Uh uh the same for section 223, which basically talks about uh where people can uh ride their bicycles, coasters, and skatesboards, etc., etc.

Okay?

Please don't ask me what a coaster is. I haven't figured that out yet. So, thank you for for not asking. Um the uh the geography for the uh the central business district and downtown is the same. The uh anyway, so let's move on to the next one. Um we're also suggesting that we include the uptown with the um the exemption. Uh when I'm talking about the uptown zone, I'm not talking about the 1120, excuse me, 22 uh with the skateboards, things like that. I'm just talking about the separation here. Uh we think it's appropriate because of the variety. Uh well, it's kind of like the next extension of the downtown areas, very very similar, supports very similar um types of uses, etc. Um and uh so it has a mixture of residential and non-residential uses, that kind of thing that you may remember from uh the adoption back in March of of this year. Now, uh we've also included the possibility that you may want to exclude the area that it says possibly exclude that uh area west of Main Street, kind of south of 8th, east of Shine, that kind of thing. That area is primarily residential, primarily residential and it also has I think First Baptist Church and I believe is uh has Providence uh school in there. So that is the outline of the case. Um our recommendation at this point in time uh mayor is that you conduct the public hearing and uh approve the proposed um code amendments as as presented. Thank you.

So before we with our question let the public make the comment. So, we will um reset or not. We'll pause our our deliberations and open the floor for any public comments. If anyone wishes to speak in favor or against these ordinances uh being amended, now is the time to do so. If you're in favor or against these items, there being no one speaking in favor or against, we will the floor and reconvene uh to deliberate on item 14. Any comments or questions from councel? thought about this a lot today. Once we get our packet, it's already public. Like I don't how do we legally exclude an area today without it having a separate name or zoning?

Um our thinking is well you do have an ordinance that articulates the exemption or that includes the exemp or excludes the exemption. We could just say, can we say uptown zone east? East of Yeah, east east of Main Street. I think that's what your Okay. Your revised ordinance is Yeah, I saw it in there. I just wasn't sure if that was actually like We revised ordinance um that says central downtown zone in its entirety and the uptown zone properties east of Main Street if you choose to exclude that area. Those kind of both options are on the table at this point. Yes, but the ordinance is the tool that gets us to be able to do that.

And just to be clear, this is not a new ordinance. It's only renaming central business district in the ordinance and then adding an additional area. Correct. It's an ordinance that's been on the books for Yes. policy statements in terms of the separation between the uses. We're not talking about because the district that it was currently denoted that district basically because these news have had new ones have it ceased to ceases to exist other than ordinance. Exactly. Yeah. If somebody were look in the code book and see a central business district and they see the central downtown zone, they can't really kind of put the two together and so we don't it's really just cleaning it up. Yes, sir.

Yeah. And I I'll I'll echo the exclusion. I think the majority, we could probably count the properties, but there's a significant number of those properties that are owned by UMHB. Um and so I think it's kind of more in the university district than it is the uptown zone. And so I think the exclusion makes sense um to be east of Main Street. The chair would entertain motion. I'll move to let's see we're going to do two two separate action items here 1116 and then 223. Yeah.

Okay. I'll I'll move to amend section 1116 um of the belt and code code of ordinances to replace central business district with central downtown zone and to include the uptown zone east of 317 from the exemption of the 300T separation to sell alcoholic beverages. Second. We have a motion and a second uh to amend the ordinance as stated. Any other comments or questions? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Right. And the chair would entertain a motion on item B. I'll move to amend section 223 as presented. Second. Second.

We have a motion, a second to um approve the motion as presented. Um any other questions? All in favor say I. I I those opposed. All right. Passes unanimously. Thank you. The semi last item is uh consider resolutionizing the city manager to execute agreements and all documentation necessary to finalize the purchase of rideway for the south canal street improvements project including the use of imminent domain if necessary. Straddy

good evening mayor council. uh excited to share with you the acquisition process and the what the plan is here. As y'all know aware, the street is a uh county road at this particular moment and planning to be a major collector, four lanes, gutter sidewalks with some storm sewer and a big part of it is going to be utility re relocations throughout. Um it has a federal requirement being that it is federally funded that uh revolved around a second review process which kind of vetted the process. Um it uh ensures uh the professional legal standards, the appropriate market data and the supported stated valuation. Um the acquisition is everything above one partial moment and it is uh turf funded and it it has an amount not to exceed $1,87,000. With that, I believe there's a vote that'll take place at this moment. local.

Yeah. All right. So, any before we go forward with that, any comments or questions about this item? Um I I will make a comment for those that are in attendance. Um as part of any major project like that where we're having to do um appraisals and um and purchase property, part of the state law requires a lot of things on a um how do we appraise it? um how do we catalog all the changes? So everything is being done by the book and so this motion is also by the book and one of those that that really probably uh creates some angst at some time is during right of way is um imminent domain and that's part of what is needed to be able to um to go all the way through this process. And so we as a council and staff have decided to go ahead and approve the whole process so that way we're not having to look at each individual property. So again, that's why we're doing this as a process to to go forward with this. So anyway, just wanted to let you guys know and because of that process, it does require us to do a roll call vote. Uh so I I think the chair would entertain a motion um to uh adopt this resolution. I make a motion to approve authorizing the city manager to execute agreements and all documentation necessary to finalize the purchase of rightaway for the South Connell Street improvements project including the use of imminent domain if necessary.

Second. We have a motion to second. Any other comments or questions before we vote? All right, Miss Amy, if you do the roll call. Council member Ber I. Council member Cington I. Council member Pototts. I. Mayor Lee I. Right. passes unanimously. Item 16. Uh staff has requested that we postpone this item to a future meeting. So the chair would um and I'll go ahead and read it. Um consider awarding a bid and authorizing manager to execution contract for the South Penelopey North and North Main Street and Industrial Park sidewalk improvements and any change orders associated with the contract not to exceed the amount authorized under state law. Move to postpone this to a future meeting.

Second. We have a motion, a second to postpone this to a future meeting. Any other comments or questions? All in favor say I. I. I. All right. Passes unanimously. Uh we stand adjourned in 607.