City Commission - Regular Meeting

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Mayor, may we call the meeting to order? Yes, ma'am. Welcome to the city commission of the city of Brownsville pursuant to chapter 551 title 5 of the Texas government code of the Texas open meetings notice is hereby given that the city commission of the city of Brownsville in accordance with article 5 section 12 of the charter of said city will convene at a regular meeting on uh January 6, 2026 at 5:00 pm here in the commission chambers located on the second floor of the Brownsville city hall uh old federal building located at 10001 East Elizabeth Street, Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas 78520. We will proceed with the roll call starting with Mayor John Cowan. Present.

Commissioner Pedro Cardinas. Commissioner Gustavo DeLeon. Commissioner Ninth Galonski. Commissioner Theo Vieira present. Commissioner Linda Mas present. Commissioner Brian Martinez present.

We do have a quorum present to proceed. We will have the invocation that will be led by Pastor Carlos Navado. And following we will have the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the state of Texas. Please someone ask you to please stand up. Mayor, happy new year. Commissioners, happy new year. As we look back, I think uh Brown did great last year. It looks like a the best yet to come. Let's let's go to the Lord and pray. Father in heaven, we come to you today the first meeting of the year. As we look back and we see what uh so many good things happen in our city, it looks like this has been the foundation has been laid for. The good things are coming out for our beautiful city. What I hear good number of people want to come to Brownsville. What I hear good number of people want to come back to Brownsville. our residents that left some of the cities and this is so good. This is good to hear that. So I'm here to ask you for a blessing upon our mayor, our commissioners, our city officials elected and all and every single one here today for a blessing of whatever is going to come. And I believe with all my heart that the best years of our city of Brownville, they're just to come. So thank you for being our God and thank you for being with us and watching over us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

To the flag United States of America. testify.

Next, we have the proclamations. Item number one will be tabled to a future meeting or event. Moving on to item two is recognizing a total in um uh in restaurant in its 65 year anniversary. Congratulations. Recognizing Total Lin restaurant as its 65th year anniversary. Whereas for more than six decades, Tuttlean Totalin Restaurant has provided a welcoming environment for all residents and visitors alike. becoming a gathering place where generations of families and friends have shared meals, celebration and memories. Whereas the Tuttlein restaurant was established on November 21st, 1960 by Fanny Bates and later sold in 1972 to Alex and Edna Perez. At this time, the restaurant consisted of four tables. Wow. and 11 bar stools. Whereas third as for 32 years, Edna R. Perez managed the restaurant with dedication, commitment, and hard work seven days a week with Alex F. Pettis assisting with operations on weekends. Whereas Mark A. Pettis became the owner and took over operations on January the 1st, 2005. Committing to continuing the legacy, tradition, and hard work for serving the

citizens of our great community of Brownville, Texas. Over the years, Tarlo in restaurant has earned numerous local awards, including best breakfast restaurant, best flower taco, best home cooking, best Mexican restaurant, and best menudo in the real Grandandy Valley. Whereas the continued success and longevity of the Tuttlein restaurant are a testament to the dedication, hard work, and commitment of its owners, employees, and supporters whose service reflects the spirit of entrepreneurship and the community pride that strengthens the city of Brownsville. Totalin has supported local charities and nonprofit organizations, for example, youth sports leagues giving back to the community for the last 65 years. Whereas the 65th anniversary of the Tuttlein restaurant marks a significant milestone deserving of recognition celebrating its lasting contribution to the cultural, social, and e economic life of Brownsville and its enduring legacy as beloved community establishment. Now, therefore, we the members of the city commission of the city of Brownsville, Texas, by virtue of the authority vested by the charter of said city, do hereby recognize Tuttlein restaurant in the city of Bronzo and encourage all residents to celebrate its 65th anniversary and outstanding con contributions, achievements, and service to our community. done on this sixth day of January 2026. Thank you very much.

There. Yep. There you go. Can you see that? question

and Commissioner Gardinas is present.

Congratulations, Mark. Congratulations to you and your family. You can say some comments if you would like to. We would love to hear you speak. And just before you do so, I wanted to thank you, your family, your staff for the wonderful customer service that they provide at Tuttlein. I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old. And when we ask them where where do they want to go eat, out of all places, they say totalin. They can go to McDonald's. They can go to Burger King. And you know what? They say, "We're going to go to Tarolin. The restaurant's delicious." So, it's their favorite restaurant except that they call it the Little Cowboy because they have a kids menu and they have a little cowboy plate which comes with pancake, bacon, and scrambled eggs. So, congratulations to you and to cheers to the next 65 years.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh first of all, I'd like to thank the mayor and uh city commissioners uh uh for this proclamation, but on behalf of my parents, uh my dad's 89, my mom's 84, and uh there just weren't in the best uh uh uh uh condition to come today. But my dad would have loved if he could, he'd be here because you everybody knows my dad, he loves to shake hands and but thank you very much. And uh we've been very fortunate over the years uh thanks to a great staff and my mom did a great job and my dad helped out you know on the weekends like the proclamation says and uh but uh our community our community has been great has backed us up through thick and thin and believe me we've gone through thick and thin over the years. We've had uh two fires. We had uh two vehicles crash into our restaurant and uh then went through COVID and uh and we continue with staff shortages which I'm dealing with every day. Uh but uh from the bottom of our heart, from my family, my wife, my two daughters, uh uh want to thank you and thank the community and uh we'd like to be here for a long long time. I've already instructed my wife what to do if something happens to me one day. The title can never close. And my daughters are going to own the building and they can they have keep on running. Somebody's got to run it. I have great staff, but really I'd like to I'd like to uh uh also mention my my my my management my management uh Melly uh Molina has been with my restaurant for 20 years. uh and uh Mirna Vela, she's currently uh the the manager right now. And uh and Flor and and we've had uh cooks worked up to 32 years at our restaurant. We we we retired two cooks three years ago that worked for my

family for more than 30 years at the Title Restaurant. So, uh and we have employees today that have been there for 13, 15, 16. And I love my employees and I have everything. I give them I give thanks to them and uh to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And uh go Brownsville. I'm very proud of my community. Everywhere I go, I tell everybody Brownsville is a very nice city. I want it to be safer every day. I want we want a safe city. I think safe city attracts people, too. So, uh I'm very grateful to live in this community. Thank you very much. Next we have the public comment period under section 2-26 states that a uh that conversations um between or or amongst the audience members should be conducted outside the meeting room. Attendees should refrain from conversations while commission is in session. B cell phones uh that attendees must refrain from the operation and use of the cellar uh uh telephones, pagers, etc. or any of the mechanical devices that may disrupt uh the city commission's proceedings. C uh that placards, banners, or signs are not to be permitted in in in the commission chambers or any other room in which the city commission conducts a meeting. Included um in this prohibition are the various hats, caps, visors, and t-shirts which may represent the sentiments as alluded to regarding the placards, banners, andor signs. D that exhibits a displays of visual aids used in connection uh uh with the presentation to the city commission are permitted. E only the city commission members and city staff may approach the dis. If a report, letter, etc. is to be presented to the city commission. It should be given to the city secretary or staff who will make the distribution. It is preferable that the item to be distributed be given to the city secretary prior to the meeting time. A copy of the item should be made available for the city secretary's official record. F. All comments shall

be made to the mayor and the city commission as a whole and not to individual commission members. Um, at this time we did receive three that were pre-registered before the deadline in which one will be moved to the public hearing for item number five. So we will start with Yolanda Spie. I think you've been in office long enough for us to see what you are made of or not made of. You folded like a deck of cards by eliminating our LGBT task force. You were complicit in allowing a moment of silence for a racist, misogynist, anti-semitic bigot. You have taken forever to fix certain roads, even with having the means and a healthy revenue stream. Why not look into other options to keep our city afloat? Are you telling me that you don't or can't keep us afloat because you haven't saved any money and you are scared of the orange man with heart failure and dementia? If we're so desperate for money or just desperate period, why don't you show us how much you want to keep on serving us by refusing to take a salary? It isn't like you all don't have other revenue streams. Upon observation, you just showed us how spineless and worthless you really are. Thank you for giving us a reason not to reelect you or support your behavior. I hope other people can wake up and see you're spineless, worthless, and not fit for reelection. I don't care how popular you think you are. Even a blind person can see how worthless your public service has been.

Your time is running out and you still need to show us why we should vote for you. We haven't seen anything yet. You have a lot to prove and not very much time to prove it. You want our votes? Then you better go ahead and put your nose to the grindstone and give us a reason to reelect you. Do you want to get reelected? Show us why you have way too much to show us and too much to prove to fight for your position. What are you going to do for us and for our votes? Because you've had time to do quite a bit and not enough. Next we have Diablo. My name is Diablo. I'm going to repeat a comment.

A woman, an old woman come here and ask you commissioners and you mayor for help. Her complaint was about the city mandate to purchase a recycling bean that she says she does not want it because she doesn't need it. She also complained about the city lack of proper communication with the elderly people that live alone and they don't have access to computer or to cell phones. She also complained about the city going into an agreement with the recycling company without the input of the public. And she was right on time because on that same night night in the consent agenda, there was an item where the state was demanding that the city make some amendments on the city ordinance in relation to the open door meaning which make this agreement with the recycling company illegal, anti-constitutional because does not have the consent of the public. And then she make a remark. She did what Yolanda always do to you commissioners and to you mayor. She fingerpointing up you commissioners and to you mayor. And she says that when you mayor and you commissioners were on the campaign trail, you went to her home knocking at her door and asking her for her support and for her vote. However, she said that now that you are sitting in those chairs, you commissioners and you mayors are not doing anything to help the poor, to help the hungry, and to help the elderly people that live alone in their own homes. I ask you, what are you going to do now? What is your idea to help these people? My idea is this, to give these people, elderly people, equal protection to integrate

them. to give the same right to say the same benefit they given to the military which can include not paying property taxes, not throwing school taxes, tax credits, tax breaks, free this, free that. I ask you and I remind you commissioners and to you mayor about your obligation to protect and to help the poor, the hungry and the elderly people that live alone in their own homes. Don't allow that this goddamn recycling company become millionaire on the shoulders of the poor and in the hungry. Never. Thank you very much.

Next we have the city manager's update. Mayor and commission. We have uh three items. I I think there was somebody who had signed up uh Rick Muscle for public comment. I think he came in a little late. He did call me and ask maybe after the deadline. Did you sign up? He did not have his name on the list. Is the uh ordinance one a public hearing? Yes, he can speak at the same time. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and commission. Um we have three items I wanted to provide an update on. Uh the first one I'm going to let uh assistant city manager Saleda um lead this discussion with his team uh and it's regarding the response and update on the fire at the Palasio Rial Apartments. Good evening uh mayor and honorable uh commissioners. Happy new year. So, we've prepared an in-depth overview of the fire that took place at the Palasio real apartments on December 7th at about 11:08 in the morning. It was a Sunday morning. We will uh cover in that overview um you know the initial response uh the aftermath and the um we will highlight also the training the equipment that you all have supported and made available to our first responders to our fire department specifically our emergency personnel our ambulances everything that came together and we will also speak of the coordinated effort and how our community came together if you would right and what a great response that our community had as a whole, right? And being able to house and take care of all the individuals that had been affected by this fire, right? Which at one point were well over 50 individuals, right? So, as a community as a whole, we had an excellent response to that. And with that, we'd like to give you an in-depth overview into what actually took place that day. So, with that, uh, Chief Sheldon.

Good evening, Mayor Commission. test this year. So, tonight I want to walk you through the the city of Brownsville's coordinated efforts in response to the Palaso Rial apartment fire that occurred on December 7th, 2025. The briefing, it's not just about a fire. Like Chisa said, it's a story about the people, the preparedness, the partnerships, and the compassion that was showed. On the morning on the morning of December 7th, families woke up that Sunday morning expecting a normal Sunday. At 11:08 a.m., a 911 call was received by our dispatch center uh reporting a building fire at the Palasa Rail Apartments located 1165 East Wild Rose Lane. Um fire and police units were dispatched within seconds. The first police units arrived within two minutes and the first fire and EMS units arrived within four minutes. Upon arrival, crews encountered heavy flames and thick smoke uh venting from one of the apartment buildings. Fire involvement was already extended into the attic space and wind conditions were pushing fire towards adjacent occupied uh structures. Firefighters and Brownzo police officers immediately initiated evacuations and conducted searches of both of the first and the second floor of the departments. These actions were taken under extremely dangerous conditions. One resident sustained burn injuries and was transported for medical care. One firefighter was transported for evaluation and two police officers were evaluated on the scene. As conditions worsened, our incident command on scene made the necessary decision to transition to a defensive strategy uh which is protecting other structures uh from being consumed by fire. A second alarm which is more units were dispatched uh to ensure that we had firefighter safety and safety of the residents and everybody responding while

maintaining aggressive fire containment operations. This is where the city investment in modern fire apparatus made a critical difference. Both city ladder trucks were deployed using elevated master streams to attack the fire from above. The these operations cooled the roofs and attic spaces and protected common areas between the buildings. As a result, the fire was contained to a single structure and brought under control in approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes. The incident represented a true unified response. Fire units led suppression and rescue operations. Medic units evaluated and treated residents and our responders. Police officers secured the scene, assisted with evacuations, managed traffic, provided perimeter control, and in total response included 15 fire units, six EMS units, and 36 police units. Ultimately, 27 households with 64 residents were displaced, including families with children's and pet. Two temporary shelters were activated to provide immediate support. Some of our modern equipment, uh, like I said, both city ladder trucks were deployed. Um because within minutes dozens of firefighters lost their family. Why does this matter? From the very beginning, the city's response focused on the people first, protecting the life, preserving dignity, and stabilizing the families in crisis. Um those are current um photos of the fire being contained. We contained it to one building. Uh, like I said, it was controlled within 1 hour and 25 minutes on the fire investigation. Following the fire suppression, the fire the Brownsville Fire Department fire marshals office initiated the fire

investigation. Two fire investigators were initially assigned to the scene to conduct preliminary investigations during the active fire incident. Due to the size and the complexity uh of the incident and the investigation needed, regional investigative resources were um requested to assist. These partners included the state of Texas Fire Marshall's Office, Cameron County Fire Marshall's Office, Samito Fire Marshall's Office, who all work collaboratively through the South Texas Fire Arson Association. At this time, the preliminary findings and really what's been determined at this time, uh, the area of origin has been identified of as apartment 418 on the seaside wall, which is the re rear side of the wall of the apartment. And you can see the the damage there that made the investigation very challenging. Um the cause of the fire remains undetermined as there are several theories and statements were reviewed during the investigation and it but a definitive cause cannot be concluded to a specific ignition source. So right now I'm going to turn it over to kind of our shift from emergency response to how we went to recovery efforts. I'm going to pass it over to our emergency management Renees here. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Um, like chief stated, once we we were notified of the uh incident, the office of emergency management led on-site assessments for displacement and residents needs. We coordinated uh resources and served as a central partner contract uh for the incident. American Red Cross was communicated, was contacted, and they did help us on the initial for uh first responder support and also for resident assessment. The Ozonom Center was also contacting to

serve as temporary shelter for displaced residents. Bark also assisted us with two displaced pets uh from the incident. Uh this coordinated approach allowed us to stabilize the situation quickly and prioritize resident safety and basic needs. Um, as we transitioned from the immediate response to coordination, partner roles were clearly identified. United Way coordinated monetary donations and financial assistance. The Good Neighbor Settlement Host, uh, centralized donation management. The Ozanom Center remained available for our shelter needs. The American Red Cross was assisting with immediate medical needs and continued case management. Bark supported us as the two displaced pets still in their facility and Brownsville PUB restored electricity to the uh facility there on site. To ensure we were aligned with support, we held daily coordination meetings with all our partners. We also hosted two in-person resident meetings uh for information sharing and assessments. This ensured residents understood available assistance and how to access it. We prevented duplication of services and gaps in assistance. We kept residents informed throughout the process. This coordination response was key and helped achieve that every displaced residents was contacted and assessed. Immediate needs were addressed quickly. Strong coordination with trusted nonprofit partners and the smooth transition from the emergency response to long-term recovery. OEM completed direct case management on December 13 and uh transitioned over to our partners uh Good Neighbor uh and United Way. They are now overseeing the case management. As you can see, there is 27 households that were displaced, 64 residents, two families required

sheltering, and as of now, 68,885 have been in the funds that United Way has, which will be distributed to all the residents and connected for assistance. We will have continued oversight and coordination to ensure transparency, accountability, and we support residents through the recovery process. So ne next I think it's really important to discuss the prevention uh side of things. The Palasa Royale apartments were built before our modern modern fire and building codes. The apartments were built to the standards of the time. Uh many layers we expect today were not required then. So after the recent apartment firework, like we said, we're grateful that there were no lives lost and we're committed to reducing the chance of repeat back 50 to 60 years 50 to 60 years ago when these apartments were built. Um like I said, there were many layers that were not in place at the time in those codes. Often fewer standards against ignition at the time. Now there's aging wire, limited protections, and less consistent early detection and notifications such as fire alarm systems. Uh plus there were weaker fire smoke separation between the units and some of the concealed spaces. Our modern codes now designed to prevent tragedies by adding layers of protection. They those layers work together reduce ignition risks uh and detect earlier and control growth with sprinkler systems and so forth. Better protection to escape routes for the citizens and giving residents more time to exit safely. more structured pathways to improve safety during repairs and renovation. Uh our current codes are adopted are basically all 2018 additions uh which are several acronyms there and I won't read out every single one but has to do with building codes,

electrical codes, plumbing codes, fire codes and so forth and NFPA7D what modern codes add. So the it's important for the city of Brazil to retain and upgrade his codes at our rapid growth. um they don't the requirements don't assume that fire will never happen. They're built to help detect the early uh signs of ignition and allow residents to safely escape. They slow the spread and they protect exits and help support firefighter safety as well. So, some of the modern codes that we commonly hear is the automatic uh sprinkler systems which will help suppress the fire and control the growth. smoke alarms, fire alarm systems, what's good for early detection and then compartmentation between the units uh with fire resistant rated walls and then fire blocking and draft stopping which would help create some separation in that common attic space which commonly uh helps or assists in growing the fire faster. So with those separations it can slow uh fire spread and then ongoing safety for existing buildings. We want to make sure we keep the exits, doors, radio assemblies, uh, from degrading. Same thing with electrical. We want to reduce arcing, clear the pathways, and then the systems are only good if they're maintained. Um, so sprinkler alarms must stay operational. Some of the failures that we see is sometimes building owners over time will shut their systems off um, and those make those completely nonoperational. So we want to uh the real risk reduction for families and firefighters to these modern codes. So like I said, some of these uh older structures are built before the modern codes. They lack the fire resistance construction. They spread faster than in newer buildings and modern codes reduce the loss of displacement. Um the international fire code itself establishes minimum fire safety standards and these are from lessons

learned and past incidents that happened nationwide. uh and and that's why we try to adopt the most modern codes here. So why the IFC codes are important? Newer international fire codes editions strengthen life safety requirements, expans expand sprinkler provisions for multifamily occupancies such as this one. Uh improve fire alarm and detection system standards and enhance our firefighter safety access, water supply, and then our operational safety. So, the incident reinforced several key lessons. Uh, early coordination saves lives. Modern fire apparatus protects neighborhoods. Strong partnerships accelerate our recovery. And continued investment in fire protection. Updated building codes is critical for growing city like Brownsville. In closing, this incident tested both our systems and our values of our city. Uh the city of Brownsel responded with courage, coordination, and compassion. And what stood out the most uh was the response from our citizens uh here in Brownsville, our neighbors, our faith-based groups, our local businesses, volunteers, everybody came together immediately. Um meals were delivered, clothing and essential, you know, items were donated, and there were countless offers for assistance uh that just poured in. This compassion provided comfort, dignity, and reassurance during a time of loss and uncertainty. Uh, I think it's also important to stress how important our capital improvement projects are in supporting some of these equipment acquisitions for fire equipment and any other needs. They're they're not just one-offs. These are very strategic purchased equipments. Uh, and also our public private partnerships such as our engine 8 which was on scene that day that was donated by Next Decade Real Grand LG. Uh so all those investments that the city is making, the

decisions you all make to purchase these pieces of apparatus are crucial in in our ability to respond and keep our community safe. So like I said, we're continue to prepare for future incidents and we hope nothing happens, but our commitment remains clear. Uh it's to protect our residents, support those in need, and continue building a safer, more resilient Brownsville. Any questions? No questions. Just as always, thank you all for your excellent work in the community and for continuing to really demonstrate what this uh community is about and the resilience it has. Thank you all from from my office. Thank you.

Thank you so much to our fire chief police chief as well as our firefighters that were on standby there supervising. um to all our community members that joined in together and donated clothes to the Austin Center, the Good Neighbor settlement. Um at the apartment complex as well, uh we even had Mark Hodes donate a huge container for the Good Neighbor to ensure that we put all of the clothing there for the residents to OD and their her incredible team. Uh they did so much. I've saw firsthand the incredible work that they do and how quickly they turn around and have a great response team. And to all the restaurants that donated their food um throughout this time, you are greatly appreciated. I always tell when people ask me where I'm from and I say Bronzeville, I always love to showcase that we have an amazing community and that when something like this happens, we all bring in a brick to help us rebuild our home again. And so that's something that you can't have anywhere. It happens organically and it comes from the heart. So I can say that Bronzeville has a lot of heart and it and it comes by all of us showing up for one another. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone and may God continue to bless you on all the good that you do. May the good Lord multiply it by two. And

I want to thank mayor and commissioners. I know a lot of you called that evening or were on scene as well. So, thank you for being there and supporting the community and supporting our personnel. Thank you, chief. And thank you to all the first responders and our emergency management team and the community partners. I think it really it's emlat embleatic of of our one city philosophy and we all came together in time in a time of crisis, right? And it um very thankful to to everyone that that participated. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor and commission. Um, the reason why I wanted to show this, showcase this as part of a city manager update is a lot of times we're asked, you know, what do my taxes go for? This is exactly what your taxes go for. And so, we thank our taxpayers for funding our personnel, the training they had, the equipment. You know, having a second ladder truck made the difference between only one building being burned and maybe two or three or all four buildings going down. So, thank you for your leadership, for your policymaking, for thank you to the taxpayers for investing in this to make sure we have the safest community possible. You know, this is definitely a tragedy, but it could have been much worse. And as the chief said, we have lessons learned and we'll take those and and continue to make Brownsville safer and a better community to live in. So, thank you for uh your patience with this item. The next item we have is the 2025 community impact with United Way of Southern Cameron County uh the city of Brownsville partnership and we have Wendy Wendy Hansen to talk to about Heidi Kong so much.

Good evening Mayor Cowen and city commissioners. Thank you so much for allowing me a moment on tonight's agenda. Um, I'm here to recognize the outstanding participation and generosity shown through our recent United Way campaign. For those of you who are not familiar with United Way, we are currently partnered with 14 other local organizations, local nonprofits in our area. So, just to give you a visual, here are the partner agencies. Um, and if you'd like to take a picture, you're welcome to at this time. I'm not going to spend too much time on this page and I'm going to go ahead and move forward. So, every year the city of Brownsville likes to participate and engage their employees in a different way. This year we went on something called the leadership impact tour and basically it was a guided experience for our community leaders and at on the very top row we first started at Good Neighbor Settlement House with the hands-on service project. So you see um our wonderful City of Brownsville employees getting together um packing tomatoes in bags to distribute to the community. And then um after we toured Good Neighbor Settlement House, we proceeded to visit Youthbuild. Um, we went on a tour to find out the work, the amazing work that they do there and in helping young individuals get um, certified through different courses and programs that they have to offer. Then we circled back at the United Way office and we had a g

guest representative from um Monica's and Maggie's house and um we concluded with a short presentation on United Way. Um, I want to thank everyone who participated in the agency tour and we went ahead and engaged this year through something called uh a snack pack decorating contest. So this year we went ahead and had 100 about 90 to 100 uh snack pack bags distributed to all the different departments within the city of Brownsville. Um, and overall you all put together nearly 90 snack packs for elementary students in need. Um, and we were able to distribute those to the BISD students, elementary students. So, if you're not too familiar with Snackpack, a lot of the time students should be very happy and excited to go home for the holidays. Unfortunately, we do have um a group of students who actually go home worried about where their next meal will be coming from. And so we partner with the school districts every year. We partner with community members and corporate partners to band together and build or assemble these snack packs to be distributed to our students. This year, our goal every year is to build at least 500 snack packs. This year we were able to exceed that amount and we were able to build 750 snack packs to distribute to elementary students right here in our own community. So, thank you so much for all your efforts and um aside from the snack pack decorating contest, we do have another contest that I do want to mention, but these were the six finalists of all the bags that were uh

turned into us. We did post them on our social media and the one that uh earned the most votes from the community was the turkey bag. This is uh the back the snack pack that was decorated and won the votes. Um and the winners were the municipal court department. Uh I will go ahead and have everybody stand up in a bit so they can receive their award at the end. And we had another internal competition where we um selected the top three winners for the per capita donation um within the departments. And for in third place, we did have a two-way tie between the procurement department and the city attorney department. In second place, we had the planning and redevelopment services department. And in first we had the city manager's office. So I would like to go ahead and thank everybody who uh contributed. We are going to continue scheduling United Way presentation. So if your department has not uh scheduled your United Way presentation, please use the QR code here shown on the screen or you can go ahead and visit our website. If you'd like assistance, feel free to give us a call or send me an email to fundraising@unitedwayrgv.org. Um, and I want you all if you could please, um, I would like to thank you all again for your time. Um, and if you can join me in congratulating and thanking the individuals, if we could have the representatives from the departments that were announced join us in the front, we would be happy to pass out plaques and a gift basket um for the competition winners.

Thank you. short and sweet.

I'm behind the scenes. Short and sweet. All right. Um, next thing I want to announce to the mayor and commission is our city secretary Myrao Myra Rios has been appointed as the president uh to the Texas Municipal Clerks Association lower Rio Grande Valley chapter. So congratulations Myra.

Thank you. Go ahead. You got three. One, two, three, four. Yes. Thank you so much. I'm very honored and and grateful to be able to serve this region and to represent the clerks. Uh, moving on to the consent agenda items.

Entertain a motion. Mayor, I'd like to pull item number two and item number seven. That said, I'll entertain a motion to approve the other items. Move to approve. Second. Motion second. All those in favor say I. I. All those oppose say nay. I have a motion carries. Item two.

Starting with item number two. Um it is a consideration and action to approve the first amendment to the marketing and advertising services agreement number 074-25- AIir with uh Dovetail Inc. and modifying the contract term.

Hello mayor and commissioners. Um I I have a brief summary um for this amendment. This is the first amendment for the marketing and advertising service agreement with Doveetail um that was approved last May 2025. There's no change on the contract amount, the scope, or the vendor. We're amending only the contract term structure. Um, when this agreement was originally brought forward, the intent was for the contract terms to align with the city's fiscal year uh budgeting and annual purchase order process, which is how marketing funds were appropriated and managed. And then as we began implementing the contract, um, it became clear that the primary term was structured that how we structured the primary term was not aligned with the city pine fiscal year budget. um for for so this amendment we will restructure the terms so the primary term and renewal periods clearly align with the fiscal year moving forward.

Thank you Lauren and that was along the lines that I had. I just wanted to clarif some clarification from that. Um my uh initial question was that and then when I wrote it down right now in my paper I said I think they're trying to align it maybe with the fiscal year which is exactly what you said. Um, so that so I know that the the new proposed amendment will end 12:31 and then it starts again on the first. So we're using a whole year of renewal to do this amendment. Correct. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Very good. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you so much.

I said I'll entertain a motion here. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion. Second to approve. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. The next item is item number seven, uh, which is to authorize a contract with overdrive in the amount of 235,000 for contract number 070-26-lib-s for a term of 10 months. Hello. Good evening, mayor and commissioner. I'm here to answer any questions you might have for me. Thank you. Again, it's up for clarification. This this is this was not a budgeted item, right? This is something that we're reacting to because they uh went out of business or something of that nature.

That is correct. They went out of business unexpectedly. So, we did have that amount in budgeted for that vendor, but since they closed, we went ahead and wanted to go with this vendor, the overdrive one. So, that was my second question. Is the old contract then we pivot the funds to this new contract? Right. For the electronic portion. Yes. Correct. And this is a uh one out of three renewals that we can do. I'm sorry. It's three renewals that we can do out of this. This one's only going to be for 10 months and then we will go out for an RFP at that point. Okay. So, that was my my my question. So, we're going to finish off for this fiscal year and then beginning the new one, we would go out for an RFP. Yes, that is correct.

I um wanted to ask I saw language on there at the very end that the renewal would come from the city manager's office. if we could just bring that back to the commission since this is the first time and it's almost uh it's 235,000 if we could bring it back to the commission instead. Is that Yes. That's all the questions I have. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Appreciate you. Thank you. I move to approve. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor please say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Have a motion.

We will enter it into the public hearing portion of the meeting. Item one is a public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number 2026-1792 to annex into the city of Brownsville boundary limits a property described as being 2.60 acres of land consisting of Va Gardens uh subdivision lot 34 block 16 7.1741 acres in Cameron County Texas located at FM 1421 Brownsville Texas 78520. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. Uh, this is a voluntary annexation petition for a property that is 2.6 acres uh in area. Uh, this will be used for a future single family residence. Uh, the property is fronting FM1421. Um, and again, it's a voluntary petition to annex into city limits. Um, this item was uh processed in accordance to Texas Local Government Code Chapter 43. Uh the voluntary petition to annex was submitted in service agreements public hearing a proper noticing of annexation and proper noticing of school districts and public entities was performed by the department. This is the area that uh is being annexed the two again 2.6 6 acres and uh the area is contiguous with current city limit lines. And again, this is just another depiction of those 2.6 acres. And so staff recommends the annexation of these 2.6 acres into city limits. Any

any questions or comments on this item from the commission? All right, this is a public hearing. If there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. Move to close. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. I have it. Motion carries. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All those post say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries.

Public hearing number two. It's a public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2025-026 to reszone from the residential single family to the residential transition to allow for a town home uh development for a 2.82 82 acre track of land more or less out of block 188. Elhardine resubdivision parts of shares 23 28 29 303 31 and 25 the the Espirito Santo Grant Cameron County, Texas located at 4935 Salida Deluna Brownsville, Texas 78526 as shown in exhibit A, District 2.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and city commissioners. My name is Sam Nunes, working out of uh the city's planning department. As mentioned, this is a reszone request uh that comes with a recommendation of approval from city staff and the planning and zoning commission. Uh this property is uh located at Salia de Launa Road, which is a collector street and the purposes of this resoning from a single family residential district to a residential transition is primarily for a townhouse development. Uh this is the notice of the public hearing that has been posted uh to the vicinity there making them uh known of both the planning and zoning commission meeting and this city commission meeting or this zoning request. This is the physical uh sign that has been posted at the property. This is an aerial map showing the boundary of those uh individuals that have received a uh legal notice of this public meeting. 18 mailouts in total uh were sent out to uh let them know of these public hearings for the zoning change. This is the zoning map clearly showing that there is R1 uh district to the east, west, and south. There is also an agricultural district to the east of this property and that property is a school campus. Uh most of the zoning or most of the existing uh uses in this vicinity are either vacant or consist of a single family residential home except for that uh school campus to the east. This is a broader map showing Ruben M Torres Boulevard being the most major street to the south of this property. This is a closer uh look at this property that is being uh zoned to R3.

At this time uh we find city staff found that this request is consistent with our comp current comprehensive plan and our future land use plan. staff did recommend approval or and is still recommending approval of this re uh reszone from residential single family to residential transition R3. Uh PNZ board also recommended approval at their meeting to reszone this property from R1 to R3. Questions or comments from the commission? All right, this is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. Move to close public hearing. Second.

We have a motion in a second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. Eyes have a motion carries. To approve. Second. We have a motion, a second to approve. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor, please say I. All those say nay. I just have it. Motion carries.

Public hearing number three. Mr. public hearing an action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2025-027 to reszone uh for the residential single family to to the regional central to allow for a commercial development for lot 1 block one rebel uh subdivision camera county Texas located at at Lowmax Roadsville Texas 78526 as shown in exhibit A district 3.

Thank you. This request is uh to reszone from regional center which is a type of commercial district uh uh and currently has a zoning district of residential single family. Uh the proposed use for this property uh if it were to obtain this regional center district is for a commercial development should be stated that we don't have any specifics or any kind of proposed site plan uh for that commercial development type at this time. The property is currently fronting or is fronting LowMax Road which is a local street at this uh location. At the planning and zoning commission meeting of December 4th, uh we did uh have some verbal opposition present uh for this resoning request and uh the concerns there were primarily over an increase in traffic that this commercial development could bring. Uh maintaining the residential character of the neighborhood was also another concern. Uh bringing commercial may encourage more commercial uh to come into the established residential uh location here and also uh the existing conditions of the road there were a concern to some of the residents that live in this area. This is the notice of the public hearing that was issued out. This is the physical uh sign that has put out at the property. This is a map showing the buffer of 200 feet. 14 mailouts have been sent uh to property owners in this vicinity and we have received no written opposition except that verbal opposition that was present at the planning and zoning commission meeting in December. This is a zoning map showing the existing zoning in this uh location with

R1 to the north and and east west and some RC regional center commercial district to the south of this property. This is a broader map showing the location. poster lookup showing Lowmax Road to the east of this property and Courtzville Road to the north. This time, city staff is request or is binding this request to be consistent with our comprehensive plan and our future land use plan. Staff recommends approval to reszone resident this property from residential single family to regional center. The PNZ also recommended approval to reszone this property from residential single family R1 to regional center RC.

Are there any questions or comments from the commission on this item? Can you go back to the map really quick? Which property uh sits behind this that's along the interstate? There's I guess my question is there's another property owner that's in the front. Yes, there is a property that border between the interstate and this proposed property. I think uh if I'm not mistaken, it is being uh used by state. What what kind of zoning is that? Uh

uh yes, commissioner, this uh property is owned by text. It's used as a lay down yard, okay, for their highway projects. It doesn't really have a zoning to it because it's stateowned. Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you. And so the only ingress and egress is through Lomax or can you also get to it through Cortezville?

The primary access would be through Lomax Road yet um John Commission. Uh I'm representing the seller and uh we have been in discussion with Tex and Tex said they would consider a driveway easement across or through their storage there somewhere in the center of the parcel to give us direct access to the service road if we went through a zoning change to something other than R1. So that's I'm hopeful that that will happen. uh hopeful that you guys will uh consider it strongly.

Oh, I'm sorry. Uh my name is Pat Swantner. Any other questions or comments from the commission? All right. This is this is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. Move to close public hearing. We have a motion and a second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. Eyes have a motion carries.

Take a vote on it. We have a vote. Yeah, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I.

All those oppos say nay. I have a motion carries. Uh public hearing number four is a public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2025-902 to reszone uh from the agricultural to the regional uh central to allow for a commercial development for a 13.142 acres more or less out of the southeast corner of block 218 Fresno's land and irrigation company subdivision Cameron County Texas located um at this line roadsville Texas 7856 as shown in exhibit 8 district Great.

Thank you. Uh good evening uh mayor and commissioners and happy new year. Um so this uh reszoning case is a request to reszone uh to regional center from agriculture. Um the proposed use is for a commercial development and the property is is fronting line road. A little background on the uh on the uh property. U back in uh February of 2009 the property was approved to be reszoned from dwelling to light industrial. Um however it remained undeveloped and vacant when the city adopted the new UDC in 2020. Because of that it was reverted to um back to a use or a use designation uh because it remained vacant. Um and one thing to keep in mind is the surrounding development trend. Um although the area is predominantly vacant right now. There have been a few um subdivisions that are in the process of of being developed. Um the Estrea master plan community it's about 1100 acres. Montage Estates which is almost 120 acres and Paredes Ranch subdivision which is 93 acres. So a lot of residential development coming to that area. Um as required by law we did uh send out a notice of public hearing. Uh we posted a physical sign on the property. We also sent mail out uh to four property owners within the uh within 200 ft. Uh received no opposition to the request. Um and again, you know, the surrounding area is zoned a in all directions. Um the area again predominantly uh vacant in all directions. Most notable thing across the street from it is the Palo Alto uh Battlefield National Historical Park. Um and it's located north of Interstate 69. Um the there is a railroad to the rear of it and Paredes Line Road, but other than that, the area is uh entirely vacant. So the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and future land use plan. Um however when we presented to the planning and zoning commission we recommended disapproval to reszone from

a to regional center but recommended approval as an alternate to corridor commercial. Um and the planning and zoning commission recommended approval to reszone from a to commercial corridor. The reason for that is because the regional center designation allows for more regional drawing uh commercial uses. So, um it would allow for things like um tractor rental or tractor sales, large equipment sales. Um auto body shops where you can u not auto body shops but auto repair shops where you can store vehicles outside. That would be the regional center designation. Community corridor or corridor commercial designation is more community serving. So, it's more appropriate for uh the future uh residential development and that's why we made that uh recommendation to reszone from a to commercial corridor. And so yes, we are recommending approval to reszone from a to commercial core.

Questions or comments from the commission item?

Sorry. Um the regional the the corridor commercial would allow for what kind of businesses there? U most businesses I think the only like real discretion is like I said the um the large um auto machinery Grinsville um would be allowed in regional center. Um there's a few other businesses um like for example for example regional center would allow for large vehicle sales and service like buses and RVs. Um it also allows for shooting clubs in a regional center designation. Um, pawn shops, for example, would be allowed in regional center with an SUP. Um, and self- storage by right is permitted in regional center and it's required in SUP in commun in corridor commercial. Um, so those are probably the biggest differences between the two, but the the corridor commercial would still allow for uh the development of a uh a commercial plaza. Uh so like your restaurants, your offices, your kind of community serving uses, institutional uses, uh medical offices would be allowed within the um commercial corridor designation.

So do you know the land owners intent like what kind of tenants they they're hoping to uh we don't know at this time. I I think originally when they did the resoning request, they were just trying to go for the biggest and and you know, most that they could use that land for. Um and so we felt it was more appropriate to designate that as commercial corridor. Isn't that land really low? So, so they'll have to um any development would have to comply with current building codes um including you know detention if if they needed it um depending on the scale and the intensity of the use. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Excuse me.

Excuse me. Through the measure just to clarify also regional commercial is also important how you access. So you typically have access from a highway like the San Rice Mall. So as opposed to Paredes line and also but it still allows for an HV a supermarket. So and we were in discussions with the owner and he's okay with corridor commercial. Just wanted to make clear that the the applicant has been informed of our change in recommendation. Any other questions or comments from the commission? All right, this is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward.

Move to close public hearing. Second. All right, we have a motion, a second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those post say nay. I have it. Motion carries. Item number to approve. Second. Well, wait. We have to we have to motion it because if to approve uh to the recommendation of commercial court. Okay. So, we have a motion second and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carried.

Sorry about that. Public hearing number five is a public hearing in action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2025-903. to reszone from uh from the agricultural to the commercial uh corridor to allow the commercial development for an approximately 43.72 acres comprised of approximately 38.31 acres out of out of the res um out of the residue of the reservoir B of the VIA deor a subdivision 1.53 acres out of lot one Oklahoma station subdivision number one and 3.88 88 acres out of the reserve A of the Oklahoma Station subdivision number one, Cameron County, Texas, uh located at Steelman Road, Brownsville, Texas 78526, as shown in exhibit A, District 3. Thank you. Um so yes, this request is to reszone two corridor commercial from a um currently the the property is vacant. Um and a commercial development is also being proposed here and the property is fronting Stolman Road. We did receive one letter uh prior to the planning and zoning commission uh meeting um in um against uh the Bzoning request. Uh the property owner to the east of the uh subject property uh let me show you an area a little bit easier. Uh to the east of the subject property where you can see is is vacant um is concerned that any type of development will affect their livestock um that they own on on that property. Um, and so they're concerned with the potential impacts that any type of development will have on their livestock. And I believe that that letter is included in your agenda packet. And as is required by state law, you know, we did post a a notice of public hearing. We posted it on the uh on the property itself. And then we also notified property owners within a 200 foot radius. Um besides that one letter

that we we received, we didn't receive any um opposition to the request. The uh surrounding area to the north is uh zoned uh residential single family with residential transition to the north west um directly west is regional center. To the south is residential estate and then to the southeast is the uh is another residential single family. Again, that area uh that's zone A, that's directly east. That's where the uh the property owner had some concerns about their livestock and what kind of development um how it would impact their livestock. Uh the property is is right across from the uh 77 flea market just south of the Brownsville Sports Park. And again, the area is predominantly either commercial or single family uses in in most directions with the exception of that property to the east. The future land use map designates the area as an emerging emerging city central district and a linkage corridor. So land uses within these districts should be a balanced mix of commercial community facility and institutional land uses. Um so it's staff's opinion that both these designations uh support commercial development and the uh desired uh corridor commercial designation. So staff did present this to the planning and zoning commission on December 4th and they recommended approval of the reszoning request from a to commercial corridor or to corridor commercial excuse me and the planning and zoning department is recommending that as well.

Any questions or comments from the commission? And it's just going to be like a plaza for restaurants or not that I'm aware of at this time. We haven't received any building plans for it.

Uh do you know what what's going to build being built on that property? Uh no sir, we have not received uh building plans for it. Um I'm I'm not aware of of any future development. And again, kind of going back to our our previous item, um you know, this is corridor commercial, so it's a kind of a less intense one. Uh like Mr. Lea explained, you know, traditionally along the expressways, that's where your regional center, your regional drawing uses are. U so this one's a little bit off the expressway. So, you know, I think, uh corridor commercial is appropriate for this area.

This is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward and state your name. record. And we did receive one that was pre-registered, so she is attending virtual. Yeah, that's what I was uh concerned about to see what was going to be built there. Sir, can you state your name for the record?

Oh, my name is Johnny Garcia. I was just uh concerned what was going to be built there because I noticed right across the uh the street from that lot, they build a uh Jeep dealership and from what I've noticed uh if one dealership builds, another dealership wants to build across from there. So, I was just concerned about that. Also leading into uh the neighborhood, there's all these uh trees and uh I was just concerned if there were those trees were going to be cut down. Uh you know uh exactly. I I was not sure exactly what's going to be built there. It is a pretty big lot and I do live in the area as well other family as well. But yet you have no idea, right?

That's correct. Yeah. Again, we haven't received any uh building plans for that location. Do you know if they're going to cut down all those trees leading into the neighborhood? I I would not be aware based on their site plan. There are parameters there are building permit requirements, site plan reviews. So there's layers of of review that go into that uh before they're issuing building. So I do notice uh sometimes in that neighborhood uh I know the trees do help with flooding uh preventing I know if even if they

Can you speak? I know that uh uh in the area there's a little bit of flooding and the trees do help with that. And that's just the my main main concern is that they're going to cut down those trees or what is it going to be built into? Is it going to be like a like a plaza? It's a very nice quiet neighborhood. So, if they're going to be building a uh a dealership or plaza, stuff like that, or bars, you know, that all that is a concern to me and I'm pretty sure to the people that live in the neighborhood. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners. My name is Doro Garcia. I'm one of the assistant city managers here. As far as the site development, at this time right now, they're asking for resoning. We do not know what will be developed on the property. At the time that they they do submit the development for the site plan, we will make sure that our forester reviews the plans and is in compliance with our city requirements to provide adequate landscaping. If any trees are removed that are within our ordinance requirements to be replaced, they will be replaced according to the plans. And as far as drainage and detention, the requirements that are set forth by the city for detention will be in compliance at the time of the submitt.

Just figured that I wasn't I wasn't too sure what was going to be built there. Uh like I said in the beginning, I noticed that Jeep dealership took over the the land took over the land and I'm just assuming that another dealership wants to build right across from that. Also with dealerships, they uh they tend to put up a lot of lights and the neighborhood is kind of uh very dim. So uh with all those lighting, if they do build a dealership there, like uh it's just going to maybe seem like it's going to be light light pollution or something. But as they said, they don't know what it's going to be built. But uh that is just my main concern with the uh the trees and the the area and what exactly it's going to be built there. And just to confirm, under the proposed zoning, would a dealership be allowed to be built?

Yes, a car dealership would be allowed in in corridor commercial. I thought the new ordinance only allowed it if it was on along the frontage road. And so this is a little bit offset from the frontage road. The the a new car uh dealership would be allowed in the uh corridor commercial, not a used not Oh. So, even though it's off of the the expressway, correct? So, a used car lot? No. Well, see, we we just Yeah, it would be we it would require a special use permit uh to operate.

Okay. And then they would have to go through the process of applying and then um you you get notified. So, if that ever does happen, just um you know, be on the alert um in case you want to rally up your neighbors. Thank you. Okay. So that that that special use permit and correct me if I'm wrong will come before the city commission for us to because

we had the same problem about two months ago that we denied uh the special use permit for a used car lot car lot on the side of the expressway. So, uh, with that being said, you know, uh, we got to be very, very careful on putting another used car lot even in the vicinity of our sports park and and and and keeping it. So, we got to be fair with everybody. That's all I'm saying.

Right. And, um, you know, again, to to this gentleman's point, um, you know, when the SUP does go before the commission, we do have to notify the property owners. So, there will be another set of notices that get sent out for that SCP request. Um, and that'll give the property owners an opportunity to uh speak in favor against the uh the request. Um, I I say we table this and and bring it back uh so we could get more information on this uh before we we go forward. Could I'm sorry. Could you clarify what more information I I think we should table it table it and then uh get more information uh because I guess there's two individuals already uh asking so uh

yeah and and by more information do you mean like a preliminary site plan or do you want to hear from the property owner? Uh just want to clarify. Correct. Okay. Yes sir. I'm just curious because there's um a neighborhood right north of it, right? Um, and so what kind of buffer would there be if there was retail um, right up up to the back part?

Typically, if if there's retail, there's enhanced setback. If it's adjacent to a residential neighborhood, there is enhanced setbacks and there are screening requirements. Um, so they would have to put a fence to separate themselves from the residential use to the north. Um, and then they have to pay attention to their lighting to make sure that the light doesn't uh, you know, encroach into the the residential property lines. Um, if they put any type of lighting How many acres did you say this was?

38.3 38.3 38 and the whole 38 will be going to this entity. That's correct because that's the way that the uh the lot boundaries are drawn and so when we do the resoning request is to the entire lot itself. Byra do we have another uh public comment? Sorry. No, it's for the next agenda item. She's attending virtual, but that's it. I was going to just uh recommend if you decide to table it, if you can table it to a date and time certain. So, if you mention the date in your motion and the time and the public hearing counselor, would that stay open? I would not close it. I would leave it open until that day.

Yes. I move I move to table it. Uh the next meeting or the February meeting is February 3rd. Will Will, don't we have February 17th? Will do we have to close public hearing? I'm sorry. No, I wouldn't close the public clearing. I would leave it open. But he can make the motion at table even though we're still in public hearing. Are you currently in the public hearing right now? Yes. Yeah. So I would I would leave it open and then just table it until February 3rd. Yeah. Yes. Yes. The first meeting in February is the 3d and then the second one is the 17th. Sorry, I I think February the 3rd would be

So there's a motion to table to February 3rd. I have a question, Commissioner. What is it that you want them to bring to us? Mhm. Uh if if you can get uh who wants what they want to do with a property uh maybe some site plans plans or or so we can at least look at what's going to be because potentially that that is our our our face of that expressway. Yes, sir. And I want to make sure if we're going to vote on something, we need to make sure it it we want to put something we want to see off the south off the side of the expressway.

Understood. Thank you. We do have a motion. So, just to clarify, the motion is to table to February 3rd, leaving the public hearing open. Correct. That's correct. At 5 p.m. And I agree with Commissioner Deleon. you know, he is a district 3 commissioner and he's just doing his due diligence to fully represent the area and being cautious. So, I think he's doing his fidiciary duty as a city commissioner. And so, for that reason, I second. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion on this item? I have a discussion.

I have this question for counselors. Do we um in any way affect this by um choosing what kind of scope of business is there? I thought we're just entertaining like the zoning aspect of it. just the zoning.

Yeah, I mean this currently is just um changing the zoning from agg to commercial and specifically it is commercial corridor. And so that just gives the property owner a list of businesses that could come in there. Um of course once it's zoned, depending on the business they decide to do, they would have to come back with a site plan. If it's a specific business like a used car lot or a new car lot, they might need a specific use permit that will come before planning and zoning and city commission. Um, I can't 100% um confirm this, but my understanding was this was a proposed site for a car dealership. Um, but I'm not 100%. I don't know if the sale is going to close or what or what other plans they might have, but that's that was my understanding. Is that your concern, Commissioner? If it's going to be a car lot, car dealership.

Uh, I I I I was under the impression that we weren't going to allow use car lots uh on the on the expressway. That's why we declined the last one. Uh, I mean, am I correct? You are correct. the the last one um had come in after the

UDC was amended to not allow used car dealerships in certain areas um with the exception of new car dealerships. the most recent amendment that you made uh to the UDC this um in the consent agenda does allow certain type of used cars that are franchise owned in um by granting a specific use permit. So, if this was one of those lots and they wanted to come in and put a used franchise type of business model, they would have to apply for a specific use permit and follow the various requirements that the planning and zoning and city commission places on the property owner.

Okay. I I agree with you, uh, counselor, but that wording that was put in that last one where we when we approved was kind of vague, uh, that franchise uh, news car lot or whatever, uh, if I would have known and and I I take blame to not reading it as I should have or or even looked into it. Uh, I can guarantee you I wouldn't have voted for it. Uh, luckily we I was able to catch it. Now, uh, it's concerning to me that wording is played to, and I got to be very careful with what I say, but the wording written was not very clear. and whether a franchise used cars is used cars. I I don't care. You could put a lipstick on a pig, it's a total pig. Uh but used cars is used cars. Uh and if we're not going to allow one, we shouldn't allow any. Uh but what concerns me is it's going to be on the expressway. I want I would like to see some type of plans to see whether it fits um our design of coming in and leaving the city of Brownsville because the last thing I want is an eyesore and I mean I don't know exactly who's coming in but I I I think that we all want a beautiful building on the side because

our expressway you could see our sports park from our expressway. Right. And it's not off the side of the expressway. So, we could see houses from the expressway. I just want to make sure that we see something nice 100 200 yards from our expressway. That's my concern. And of course, you know, the citizens that live around there, too. Lighting. I think lighting is great. It's going to help everybody. But let's just make sure that it's a nice building, something nice that Brownsville was going to be proud of.

Um, I do want to add, um, you know, I know that there's a request that we provide a site plan that, you know, uh, to kind of supplement this request, but keep in mind, we're only approving or voting on the zoning designation. So they could submit a site plan, but if it's zoned port or commercial and and they choose to sell it to somebody else or, you know, uh maybe not act in good faith, um then that's that could be done because then the zoning would be for Yeah. I think that the the discussion should be what do we want to see there? Yes, sir.

Right. Is it is do you want a a single family development there? Do you want town houses there? Do you want commercial development there? Right. That's really the discussion um because it is a big track and it's right next to a single family development. So, and and it's a part of that corridor to a lot of single family houses. So, it's like that that should be what we should be focused on in my opinion. Um, but you bring up a point important point about the used car franchise model and I think um whatever information you can bring back to the next meeting will be helpful in this in the discussion on on what we want to do here. Okay. Yes, sir. I'll reach out to the property owner.

So, in a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Those oppos say nay. Have a motion carries.

Public hearing number six. It's a public hearing in action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2025-025 to reszone from the residential uh suburban to the light industrial to allow an existing uh machine shop for 0.344 acres out of block 33 uh Hardin a subdivision of Brownell track share 28 of the pilito Santo grant Cameron County Texas located at 6628 Calvin Street Brownsville Texas 78521 as shown in exhibit A in district 2. Thank you. As mentioned, the request is to reszone the existing residential suburban district to a light industrial district for the purposes of continuing a machine shop at this property. This property is currently uh fronting Calvin Street, which is a local street within an established residential neighborhood. Uh we want to share some background uh of the existing uh machine shop and the single family residence that is there. Uh what we know is the predominant surrounding use as mentioned is a residential neighborhood. Uh in fact it is part of what is known as Portway Acres subdivision that was established back in 1954. This is the third phase out of that subdivision. When we did our research at city staff, we found that this particular parcel was originally exempted from that uh original plat, the subdivision. However, uh our records did find a determination certificate to resolve that. So, in effect, uh that property is treated as it were a full lot of record or a plat platted uh property. We know that there is an existing machine shop there that is currently operating or welding shop uh that works metal works. Uh it was established as per record back in 1988

uh based on some submitted tax business documents and this was prior to the annexation of that property back in 1991. Uh to date, however, there isn't a certificate of occupancy that would allow that machine shop to continue. Uh we did find on record that there was an attempt to gain an op uh certificate of occupancy. However, it was never uh completed officially. So, as it is now, that machine shop is operating as a uh nonconforming use within this residential type district. Uh there has been several city reports submitted uh to city staff that are found in your packet. Amongst them are multiple visits by our code enforcement department uh due to some neighborhood uh complaints there. There has been some inappropriate discharge or disposal of oils uh improper parking large vehicles such as semi-truckss or 18-wheelers. Uh there are general property maintenance uh that need work there. Uh they are currently operating as mentioned without a certificate of occupancy so illegally. Uh and there have been missed court dates uh for lack of compliance at this property. This is the notice of public hearing that was put out uh to let the vicinity know of this reszone uh request. The physical sign at the property as well. This is the buffer map. Uh total of 30 mailouts were sent. We did not receive any written opposition uh for this property except those uh city reports that have been submitted uh prior to this request. This is the zoning map showing the predominant R2 district uh that surrounds this property that is

requesting uh to be reszoned to a light industrial district. As you can see, the surrounding uses are completely or mostly residential single family homes. This is a broader map showing Sub Padra Alen Highway being the most major street north of this property. staff did find that this request is not consistent with their existing comprehensive plan and future land use plan at the meeting of uh planning and zoning of December. Uh we did recommend denial and are still recommending denial of this reszoning from residential suburban to light industrial uh district. Uh the reason behind that being that if or or if this property potentially receives approval to light industrial district, it would introduce some uses industrial commercial that would be at great odds against the residential uh uses that are established there. Uh planning and zoning also recommended denial of this reszoning from residential suburban to light industrial. So, may I ask though like with all these infractions because I drove by there this afternoon and it was operating. How do you even get them to stop?

Yes. So, uh this is their attempt to bring it into compliance. So, uh in theory, if they were to receive a light industrial district approval, they can then continue the process of gaining that certificate of occupancy. Uh either way, uh if they or if they were not to receive this approval today, then the certificate of occupancy would be denied due to that uh zoning non-compliance. So this is their attempt of making it right. And so if they don't get it, will they cease and desist?

If they don't get it, uh in uh we would essentially deny any permit that would want to continue that machine shop. So, so no. Yes sir.

To add. Yes. The the way I mean the non-conformities in zoning what they do is they put a a expiration date basically and the expiration date is when the land changes ownership which is about to happen. The applicant is actually a new business owner who wants to put a new uh business of the same type in the property. That would be the expiration date. So if this desk gets denied today and property changes uh they will be considered residential single family residential to all effects or R2 more specifically. Yes. Does that answer your question?

So if we deny the the request today will the original owners of the business continue operating in violation of of all these like complaints in in the city. They would uh is sorry um I guess my current question is are they legal non-conforming? No. No. Okay.

So no they they they should not be operating um the city could site them kind of like what we did with Milw White as an example. cite them every day, cite them every so often, or take them to court to sue for them to close down, right? If they're operating um outside of our UDC and code of ordinances, um if they're legal non-conforming, then that's different, but they're not. So, yeah, it's not the case. No, right. They're not legal and non-conforming, right? Correct.

That's what you're saying. It should also be mentioned that this comes as a form of appeal. Uh so it will require a supermajority vote if you were to want to turn it around. Yes.

And you said that some of the complaints did they call the 546 help? What were some of those complaints about? Was it the noise? Was it the I know you mentioned the improper disposition of oils um anything hazardous in the air environmental other than the discharge of the oil. We did not receive any other kind of report. The ones that are listed in the screen right now and included in your packet is what we're reading out and it's specific to exactly what they typed out to to submit as an official or formal complaint against the property.

To your knowledge, are there other residential homes there that are also operating as a business? Not to our knowledge, sir. Nothing across the street anywhere around there. Not in the immediate vicinity there. Uh, no. I had the same concern. When I put up the address on the map, I saw that there was Lupz Recker and Performance and Tuning just a street away from there as well on Fifth Avenue, sir. Or

Port Way Drive right next door. We we would have to confirm that uh with any kind of permits on record. However, when we did our preliminary check on the vicinity there, we didn't uh see any other kind of commercial permit uh being issued here. Uh if in theory there is another or similar use being uh uh in operation, it's doing so against the the zoning district.

And and I think that's that's the thing, right? We have probably a lot of businesses and residents that don't comply with the code. A lot of the reasons why we don't enforce the code is lack of staff. I think we only have like maybe two co- compliance officers and a handful of health and safety officers in the public health department. Um so it but that raises a good point. The point is if we decide to um enforce the code on this particular business, we don't grant this. we decide to enforce the code, we should do it to other businesses as well, right? And so that's that's my take away from that.

That would be that's my question because I I think just I agree with that. I just think uh it should be mentioned that what uh what initiated this request was that the current owner was looking into selling this property. It doesn't come as a as a result of a citation or anything like that. It's really that the current owner wants to sell the property uh to someone else and that other person wants to continue that machine shop that's currently operating there. The current owner also still is not complying with the city. Correct.

Yes, sir. That's correct. I should mention uh that there was a reasonzoning appeal letter that was submitted as part of the packet, but since the current owner couldn't be here, uh she did ask that that we submit this to the board, but it is part of your packet. Other comments or questions from the commission? Right. This is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward and state your name. Uh, hi. Good evening, mayor and commissioners.

My name is um, Marisol De Laente, and I am here on behalf of my mother, San Juan P Gonzalez, regarding the property at 6628 Calvin Street. Um my father actually is the one who operated his welding business on this property for more than 35 years. This was his life's work. It was a small but wellrespected operation that never caused issues and my that I can you know I wasn't aware of a lot of the things that were mentioned a little bit earlier. Um as you know um me being a a girl with a dad with a machine shop, I was not allowed there very much. Um, but as I got older, I I learned a little bit more about it. But, um, anyway, I digress. Um, he ne my point was that it never conflicted with the character of the of the area. In fact, my father was very well known in our community for always helping those in need. Um, in fact, there was flooding, just to give you an example of my history and memory. He was the first one to put on his boots and go and knock on, you know, neighbors doors to help them out if they were stranded. I mean, everybody knew Aruro. Um, unfortunately, my father is no longer with us and after his passing, he left this property for my mom so I could continue supporting her, especially now as she faces significant medical challenges. So, the purpose of this request is not to introduce a new business, expand operations, or change the n the nature of this neighborhood. It is simply to correct the zoning to reflect the long-standing commercial use that has existed on this property for decades. Um, this is a unique situation involving a single family property now that was, or I'm being told it is, but with a documented history of continued um, commercial use. In addition, my father's long-term standing business has thankfully attracted a prospective buyer who is committed to honoring the same

work my father performed for over 35 years. This buyer is not seeking to change the nature of the property or introduce a new type of business. It's simply what all the neighbors are used to and have been. They simply want to continue providing the same service in the same space exactly as my father did. So, the prospective buyer has also expressed full willingness to comply with all city requirements, inspections, and regulations to ensure the proper the property operates responsibly and is in accordance with Brownsville standards. So, if anything, this is a good thing. Um, as my dad in the old days, I mean, you know, things back then were done differently. I understand that and people know people, I suppose. I don't know the history. Um, like I said, I was a child, but it it it was allowed to operate that way. Now, I I I I'm telling you this will change. So, the reasoning connect correction is necessary to allow this transaction to occur though and to ensure that the property can continue supporting my mother uh just as my father intended. Um, I also want to address a certain race name. Um, I think there was concerns maybe that property taxes might increase. I believe I was told and this this is not correct cuz a nearby property being sown commercial does not increase anyone else's taxes. As we all know, property taxes are based solely on each property's individual value, not the zoning of adjacent parcels. So, denying this request would just create a significant hardship for my mother and my family while providing no benefit to the neighborhood or the city. Uh approving it though would simply allow the property to continue serving the purpose my father intended supporting my mother in her time of need who now depends on this property for her medical care and living expenses. Um so I understand that the planning zoning and zoning commission initially recommended denial but I respectfully ask you to consider this full in full context. So the property has been used commercially like this for 35 years. Um the use has never it's it's um does not

introduce anything new to the city. A buyer is ready to continue the same work honoring my father's legacy but it all compliancy like like we'd all prefer and denial would create hardship without providing any community benefit because it would just be emptied and abandoned because I cannot afford to go do anything past that. So for the re for these reasons, I respectfully request that the commission approve the resoning appeal and if additional information is needed, I am more than happy to provide that. So I ask that that item maybe be tabled if anything else rather than deny so that I may provide whatever documentation documentation you guys need from me to help my mother. And um I thank you for your time, consideration, and of course your service to our community. Thank you,

sir. And once this is approved as let's just say light industrial that means that it's going to be light industrial from here on out.

Yes, it runs it runs with the land ma'am. Uh what that means is that as the city attorney mentioned prior uh to another request here is that anything that the UDC would allow uh an owner to run under a light industrial district could be done there. So today they may say uh we want to continue a machine shop, but in theory anything that a light industrial district uh would allow for in terms of business or industry as per our UDC could be brought in there and we would not be able to to do anything against that or

No, I have a contract a contract is open right now for buying this property. I'm just waiting on this to move forward. So it would not be anybody else. No, but even then, I mean, once you're out of there and you sell your property and this new owner comes in, who knows what could happen 15 years from now, 20 years from now. They have the ability now to sell it to whoever they want. So, I think it's important for us and I completely hear you, Marisol. Thank you so much. I could not visually see who you are, but I sense a wonderful speaker, wonderful advocacy, wonderful story. I empathize with you and I hear you and I resonate and I understand that you're looking out for yourself, looking out for your mom and the desires of your father. However, I as a representative also have to think about everybody else in there because um like I said, we it could be right now a welding shop, but later on it could be a full-on body shop with paint and that exposes um the air quality within the neighborhood. I drove by their Kelvin Street and I'll tell you we have made significant um improvements especially with drainage. There used to be a huge open ditch. Thank you to the public works who went after this contract. We're improving the drainage there. We just completely covered it and then within this next year we we will be completing that road and having green space there. And so I invite um commissioners to come out and drive out there and just kind of see the conditions of it and how it's slowly improving. Um however, it is fully residential. I do see that it's houses all around and we do have this canopy with metal there metal sheets uh canopy with a tractor and you know junk vehicles around there. And we have a welding shop that's currently operating without occupancy. Um we have gone after companies in the past uh which we were actually highlighted through TML and

especially with environmental concerns. We are doing the planning and zoning. I want to congratulate you all for the incredible work that you continuously do to ensure that we are appropriately representing the areas and that we have corrected planning and zoning. And that's why we have a planning and zoning board that can help us also to filter out and kind of get another perspective from seven other individuals before it stems here. And so I hear your concerns, Marisol. Thank you so much for being here. And um I know that we didn't have any opposition, but we do have concerns that are vocalized through 546 help. And I also accept those concerns as well. and you know we we open it up to any further discussion from any other commissioners before making a decision.

I have a quick follow-up question. So if we do consider approving this tonight, is there certain conditions that must be met by the property owner to run a business like this? So that would be handled uh at the time of the permit for the continuation of that machine shop. whatever review requirements uh the different departments that are in charge of looking at that permit would have the health department planning building those would be applied at that time uh that they

my concern just like commissioner Masias it's in the middle of a of a residential neighborhood and um having a machine shop is it can be loud I know we require uh used car lots anything of that nature of businesses that uh have conduced lot sounds my my primary concern um and I just want to uh also speak to Miss Alfentuente that uh your your context really helps us you know um your your father's work is very respectable but we also need to think about what president we sent we set as a city and uh that's why we're asking a lot of these questions is because of the reasonzoning aspect of it we just need to be careful uh with that um in that being said I I just want to voice my concern with my colleagues that it's about the noise for me I just want to ensure that there's conditions that will be met and that the property owner un that the property owner understands that if we to move forward with this that they will be able to comply with that. Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, but in selling the business, they would have to apply for a certificate certificate of occupancy and abide by all of the rules and regulations.

Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. What would be some rules and regulations for a welding? Does it have to be enclosed? Cuz like I said, it's just metal sheets, you know, it's like a

in terms of the structure. And then also, there's no cement whatsoever there. It's just dirt flying around everywhere. And then right now with the construction of the of the street that's completely open and the ditch that they're covering up with dirt. I mean, it's nothing but dirt around there. Since I am coming from the planning department, I can't speak to any structural requirements or any requirements having to do foundation or anchoring. That would be more for our building division to answer. However, those requirements are pretty thorough uh to be able to bring anything that currently exists or is operating there that is not complying with our building code or even the fire code or any other kind of code that would apply to a welding shop. Uh so yes, that that could only be reviewed at the time of that submitt for that permit. Uh it should be mentioned that historically coming from the planning perspective uh zoning was created for such cases as this to make a clear separation between industrial districts and residential districts because we want to protect residents uh from hazard or any kind of uh uses that would put them at odds. U so yes,

I have a couple of questions and comments. Uh, first they mentioned on here somewhere that there was tickets and they didn't show up to court. How far back do those tickets go? Because this business seems to be around for 36 years now. Our record only found one citation that was uh it appeared to have been dismissed by municipal court because they were uh applying for an operation or a certificate of occupancy. However, the certificate of occupancy was never officially issued. Is that probably kind of new then? I'm sorry. Is that pretty new?

Yes, it is recent. Uh I don't have the exact date with me, however, but it's within the past year.

No, I I understand. No, it's not your You're not on trial. Uh and then the other question I do have is I mean 35 years council and building 35 years they've been working there. 35 years. Uh, I guess the neighbors either complain to somebody else, but this is the first I hear about it in 5 years. Uh, I I just think that we have to figure out a way where we can be fair to people who have been in business for this long. And I mean, I'm looking at the I don't know how many mailouts it was, but it says zero opposition. And I understand the 546 help, but we've in the past we've said if we don't have written opposition, there's technically no opposition because I haven't heard that opposition. And it's kind of I mean here when we're saying they didn't show up, it made it sound like there were several attempts for them to come to court, but apparently it's one and it was dismissed. So I mean, let's just try to be very transparent with the things. I understand it's got to be real hard for somebody who's been there for so long. I remember what happened with the other uh company that was out there in Padre Boulevard.

Um

Mr. We have to figure out what we can do to try to be fair. I mean, if we continue to grow further out, we're going to get these businesses caught inside of clutters and we have to be careful what we do. We don't want to be taking everybody's business because I mean, you're moving next to it. it's it's been there before you. So, let's just be careful how we do it. Uh I hope there's a way that we can figure out how they can enclose or or what the options are. It is scary to what will they do in the future? What happens if we give them something like this? Is there any way to just grandfather him for this and not look for the future? I have no idea. But that's something that I mean I would need a lot more information on. Thank you,

Mr. Cardinz. Just want to clarify that issue with the citation. So at the time it was 2019 uh when it was issued around 2019 the municipal court issued the citation for that infraction. It was dismissed because they were uh uh were attempting to apply for that certificate of occupancy in good faith. However, that certificate of occupancy was never continued. And that right there is the issue. Uh it's not that um the city staff targeted them or anything like that. Yeah. No, I understand. I'm I'm not I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it's it's Yes, sir. It was one, right? It was one citation which was dismissed at the end of the day.

Um there's there's to answer your question, Commissioner. Um, sorry. I'm thinking to answer your question, uh, I would say we want to get more information. I would request that we unorthodox, but if we can table it, I don't know when the property is supposed to close, but um, I have some questions of the legal nature that need to be answered. Um, we can go into executive session on it if y'all like. That way we can discuss it. Otherwise, my recommendation would be y'all table it or

are you suggesting that we discuss it or like that you tell us about the legal issues in executive session today or does it need to be postponed? No, I mean I I I don't know when um when the property is supposed to close, but we it's on the agenda, so we could discuss it in an executive session um with the planning department, but um if y'all prefer to, we could table it and then have that discussion amongst with the planning department and then come back, but I defer to you all. So, I'll move that we discuss it in executive session. We need to close public hearing. We close public hearing. Yeah. If you're if you're going to table it, if you're going to table it, you want to keep it open.

You can leave it open and then when we come back from executive, if you want to take it into executive, I think we leave it open. Well, then I'm I'm I'm going to make my comments then before I was waiting for the close of public hearing to make my comments. Just a couple of things uh out there um in my brain and uh I'm more than fine discussing it with with the commission and the mayor um and executive if that's what you all choose to do. um for me uh Marisol if she's still on or listening um my heart

thank you and I I apologize that my comments will not be favorable for you and and I and I'm don't mean that in a very in any disrespectful way but when you change from um what your family has been doing and u was able to do and you're going to transfer that to someone new um I don't I don't believe that it should be grandfathered That's just my belief. Uh I also believe as city commissioner at large that whatever we do uh for this household and change residential to light industrial then we'd have to do that uh for the entire city and any residential that wants to change to light industrial. Um, so it's opposite of what Commissioner Cardinas. Um, and those people might lose businesses um, if they do decide to sell their property because if they've been operating for 35 years without a certificate, um, there's a lot of people probably operating that way, but it's not like there's someone going doortodoor trying to enforce that right now. Um, they are technically grandfathered in unless they change ownership. Um so for me I think that um also going against uh our planning and zoning commission and staff is also very difficult for me to to do. We put these people on the boards and we hired them to do a job that uh that needs to be consistent with our comprehensive plan. So I I do apologize Marisol for that. Um, but the fact that this going to transfer ownership uh for me is is um is something that we have to take very serious because what like Commissioner Deleon said, right? What we do for one, as long as we're sitting in this chair, we'd have to do for everyone in the city. Um and and for me, I'm very cautious of that.

May I may I say something? Yes. Yes.

Um I understand exactly what you said. Um however I do believe that there is going to be everybody has a story and every specific case has their reasons. Um and not all of them have operated for this long. Um and are known well to the community and established like that's as like my father's business was. Um, the reason I'm here today is because I found someone who is willing to not destroy it, um, abuse it, and simply honor it by continuing, but with the condition that she will be compliant with everything that the city needs for her to do cuz she really wants to operate the right way. And um, that is the difference, I believe, between doing it for one and doing it for everybody, like I said, because there's different stories. And in this particular case, um, like I said, I'm very blessed to have found this person who who is going to, you know, do this and legacy live on in the right in the right way though. Um, and and certainly will benefit the city with more um um would benefit from from having this open than having it abandoned like I mentioned earlier. So, I just wanted to clear that up. Thank you for your thoughts.

Thank you. And I I'll just add my comments. Um, you know, I I am very sympathetic to the story. I think it's um, you know, small business in our community are they're the drivers of what, you know, of of of Brownsville, right? And but I think, you know, setting precedence of of of putting a light industrial uh, reszone or zoning in the middle of a single family neighborhood is also a very dangerous thing to explore. And it's it um you know we need to think about ourselves our city or this neighborhood after we're gone and the consequences that are uh will be uh inherited down the road. So I think we need to really think long and hard about this. But um those are my comments.

Well and and if if it's the desire of the commission to have a motion to deny it, I don't need to take it into executive session.

No, I'll I'll I'll entertain going into executive session to discuss I would have to agree with you, Mayor and and Tino. Uh I've been talking to to Commissioner Golansky right now. Uh I just think a light industrial uh business in a residential uh could cause problems for the in the future for the residents near uh that business. God forbid something happened with a gas tank or whatever. We just don't know. Uh I would rather, you know, talk about it, figure it out, and not say we should have something, we should have done something different or what could have happened happened. Now, how do we deal with it? Uh but you know whatever the district uh commissioner uh advises us and what what to how to go forward uh I I'll support anything they want to do.

I'm I'm not sure. We still public comment. I think you should entertain a motion. Mayor I don't think we need to take it to executive. I'll move to discuss it in executive session and then bring it back um either to to a vote or to further discussion. Okay, I second it. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. All those oppos say nay. I just have a motion carries.

Perfect. We'll move on to public hearing number seven. This public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number 2026-1797. Um um I'm amending chapter 2 uh the administration article two uh under under the city commission section 2-26 meetings and agendas to adopt the regulations that ensure that the meetings of the city commission are conducted in a way that allows business for the city to be effectively conducted.

Good evening mayor and city commissioners. Uh next slide. We bring before you an ordinance that would serve to make our city commission meetings more efficient and uh provide more to quorum during the meeting. Uh currently right now we do have a um rules of engagement under chapter 2 subsection 2-26 I believe. And in reviewing it we did make some minor minor clerical corrections. Now, state law also allows the city commissioner certain abilities during the public comment section and that is of course you can you can't have dialogue with public speakers but you can do three things. You can make a statement of fact. Um you can make a statement concerning policy. Um and my favorite one is you can propose that the item be placed on a future agenda item or direct staff to speak to that u constituent. Right. And so we clarify that. Um we also, not that this city commission has any issues, um but for future city commission, uh we did add um some disciplinary procedures. Um we have them within the ethics code. Um in this instance, we added it for the the quorum of the meetings, right? Um, again, I don't perceive this to be an issue with this particular city commission, but in the future, you just you never know. And this gives the um the ability of the city commission with a two-thirds vote to either sanction or um adopt some kind of disciplinary action against the fellow commissioner if they um don't adhere to the quorum rules that you have for citizens, right? Um so this makes it fair. If citizens

have to follow certain guidelines, city commission should as well should set the example. Again, not that this commission or the prior commission has has done that. Um, but it's best practice and it's and done in other cities. Uh, we also because we've had issues with exhibits, displays, and visual aids have added um the requirement that citizens we know who's going to be speaking. they can give it to the city secretary prior to the commencement of the meeting, right? The passing out of the documents adds time to how long the meeting runs. Um the the city already already has the ability to enforce disruption of the meeting. What we are letting the public know is that it is actually a penal offense under the penal code. not necessarily a a violation of our code per se, but we did add language in there just copying what state law already says. The biggest change is clarifying what the public comments are for. Now, I I I obviously work with you all and I know you all very well. I don't think you all have turned away a constituent who wanted to meet with you one-on-one. And so I have no concerns with clarifying that in the rules for public comments um speakers when they come to the meeting should be speaking on agenda items only. State law only requires that you allow individuals to speak before an item is acted on and that's either during like we'd have earlier public hearings or prior to the action being taken. And we do have public comments at the beginning. And so the this amendment

would would um require that any individual that wants to provide public comments would do so on the items that are posted on the agenda. We also we haven't had this issue because a lot of us speak Spanish here. Um and so this might not be an issue but in the instance in the future we do have a translator if we need to provide uh and we have a you know possibly a new city manager. They might not know Spanish. Um this would grant them additional time right because we'll have that back and forth between the person speaking Spanish and the person translating for them. Um, of course, if we uh have a city manager that doesn't understand Spanish, we also have headphones we can give them. We can alternate that interpreter can interpret the Spanish to English for them. Um, we also have we currently already prohibit filibustering and that is in our level that is when an individual uses their time to just talk. um to make the meeting go longer. And so we have rules already uh for that. But what we don't have is moments of silence. Um and really when the moments of silence are done during public comments, it doesn't serve any purpose of speaking on the agenda. Um and that impairs the ability of others to speak before the commission. Right? So it takes away another person's ability to speak before you all. We are uh providing procedures for removal of disruptive attendees. Um again that's something that we can already do but this now um codifies it. The other change that I think is necessary or I recommend is when groups of speakers come um we currently allow individuals to

come. Let's say it's the same item and they come they speak for three minutes each. What a lot of cities do is they have if you're going to speak on a as a on a topic and it's a group um in this instance for us given the number of speakers we have five individuals who come to present on the same item. They're a group they all communicate with each other to come together. they would be required to select one of them amongst themselves to be your representative and speak for the group and instead of three minutes they would have five minutes to speak before you all. Of course these are uh this is the first reading so this can be modified as you all choose. um we didn't have any uh guidance for public hearings and so we added those and it just reiterates what is required by the speakers during public comments and we also provided rules for conducting the public hearings and rules for use of audio and video equipment. And so this this amendment is um designed to make the meetings more effective and provide the ability for those that want to speak before commission on agenda items to have that ability. those that want to speak to you all on items that are not on the agenda can still do so. And as I said earlier, I don't know any of you all that have turned away a constituent. Um they can still provide comments by email, calling you. All those avenues are still open. Because um this meeting is a posted meeting, uh it is recommended that you adopt these amendments so that it's clear that we're here to do business of the city. that business is what's on the agenda and um there's there's time for constituents to reach out to you all if you all decide to have that discussion with them. Um the next slide and I believe that concludes the

presentation. If y'all have any questions, concerns, anything you'd like to see different I have a question. Everything on there was about basically public comment, correct? Public hearing. So, what was that audio and video recording? What is what are you limiting them or what is what's going on? So, we we're not eliminating anything. We're actually um we we we're adding that you can record. Okay. That you can record.

You can we're going to obviously practice has been that you can't pass the the banister. Um so, it has to be in an area. So there's designated areas already where they can put their cameras up where it's not blocking other participants. And so we're not prohibiting it. We're just making it clear it is allowed, but there's a a place for it. Perfect. Thank you. So you know how we've had students from the university come and and kind of like exercise their right? Um would that still be allowed or no? Because it doesn't really speak to a specific thing item on the agenda.

Right. So, they wouldn't be able to come and present, let's say, during public comments, but they could reach out to the city secretary's office or the city manager's office, and it can become part of the city manager's update or a presentation on the agenda like other organizations do before like I I like we've done with uh the youth advisory board. Right. Right. Like they don't come do public comment. They're part of they come and they present before the commission. And usually it's a group that has already reached out to the city secretary's office or city manager's office and has, you know, for lack of a better word, booked it, booked a time on the agenda.

So on the one hand, we're we're um curbing freedom of speech to maybe our meetings and and make them more like quicker because sometimes we're here many hours. Correct. Um it is a limited forum and uh if there's concern about people's first amendment rights, I mean I think these are reasonable um and narrowly tailored to allow the individuals to speak but at the same time um engage the engage the business appropriately and effectively. Um you mentioned rules of conduct for public hearings. What uh can you provide more detail on that?

Right. So currently for um speakers in the public comment section, you know, we we do give them three minutes. Um essentially all the rules that you have, you can't address one individual. Um you have to address the body as a full. Those were just reiterated for the public hearings. Not that that has occurred, but we want to prevent that from occurring. And the reason I can I can see someone wanting to if we leave the loophole I can see someone wanting to come under the opice of speaking on the agenda during a public hearing and start using that moment to start violating what would have been the rules for public comments.

Thank you so much for this. Well, I feel just in the last we do a lot of public engagements, a lot of um town halls. We have our boots on the ground and we try to be as accessible and we want to hear concerns from individuals. I know sometimes individuals can't make it to city hall because it's sometimes um the first and the third, it's always on the first and the third Tuesday, but they have the accessibility to be live. And so when we have our town halls, we talk about one item and then we take in comments and we have this dialogue that makes us more accessible but at the same time it's being able to hear out from others and their perspective and we take that into account when making decisions. However, what I have noticed that due to some of these and the topic of conversations and due to political tensions whether on social media or just around um I have noticed that it does get heated. Um there there could be reasons to believe that safety could be a concern. And so I do like to have this expectation and a structure. Um and I've seen some of these. I could see how you guys came about it based off of experience and just to ensure that we have the integrity and we ensure that we have that focus of the meeting and that redirection of the meeting. A lot of people sometimes like to go here and there and because we have that accessibility, they want to be talking about so many things. Well, on the contrary, when it's just about one topic. So, this I think is a good thing. I thank you for your time to be able to look at this because I see that you also adopted from what other cities have done. So, it's based off of experience and research. And uh I think this will be a good thing and I think this is just something that we can post at the beginning of either our city commission meetings and the town halls to set that expectation just like a classroom, right? Just ensuring that we maintain the integrity and the time of the constituents as well. So thank you so

much and I look forward to seeing how this will be implemented. Right. And to piggy back off of what you said too, I believe the city manager's office along with um it and I think it was that a couple of y'all's ideas was to have websites, right? And so these websites would allow um constituents to go on find out information about the district or at large. They'd also have the ability to submit comments depending on how the website's designed. They would have the opportunity to submit comments or request meetings with you all through that avenue too. So there are other avenues of communicating with their elected officials.

Add one last quick clarification. Um when a public uh citizen wants to make a public comment now that they have to regard an item is that going to be part of the application or when they come up do they have to specify what item they're speaking to? Right. So when they submit if this is adopted or depending on how it's adopted and what version um we will have to update the public speaker um form application form. Yes. And so that is something that the city secretary's office will have to do. Thank you.

And currently it is an option on the form that they submit. It's um gives them the ability to of course well you know we're removed you know like what they want to speak and only allow the item to select consent agenda public hearing or you know board and commission. So that's already an option on there like for the you know for the item itself. Thank you.

Yeah I I um you know I'll be honest I am torn on that item about the agenda items only. Um, you know, as obviously being in this seat, um, you know, it it is, um, hard sometimes to hear people that are just, you know, they are grandstanding and that's what they use it for constantly, right? And that's but this is it's always really been their right here that this is a public this is the public's city hall, right? that they they should have the right to come in and talk to us and by by remove by by limiting their ability to do that. And I know we all are responsive, right? It it it is a um you know, again, we're setting policy for potential future city commissions, right? So, I I'm I'd like to talk about this a little bit more in my opinion. I just think it's I I really don't want to do a disservice to the community

because uh I do think people feel that they can come talk to us in any form including this this this type of type of uh uh you know situation. So I I you know I am torn on this. Right. Right. And so I mean if if it's the commission's desire of course you can table that we can have further discussions. Um if if you're also want to consider you can instead of having agenda items only you can say agenda items or as related to city business and I think that to me that's more appropriate because that that opens it up to any issues that they have that we could potentially address. Right.

And it's not I think we want to reduce the amount of ability you know just kind of wasting our time as a city commissioner right that and that that does happen from time to time. Um but I I am wary of reducing the amount of uh ability to to address us as a as a body, right? There is value to that. You know, if I were in as a private citizen, I would want the ability to do that. Okay. So, I think there's some refinement we can probably do there.

I I agree with you, mayor. I I I do think uh you know the public has a right to come and and and talk uh to us. Uh the only thing that I I do ask is that them be respectful. Uh because I in the short time that I've been here uh I knew I know people sometimes get excited and uh you know we're not here to be uh run over. We're here to listen. Uh, but I'm the type of person if you're going to come and yell at me, well then I'll just turn off the the little button and just like think about something else. But all I ask is for them to be uh respectful and uh you know call the mayor by mayor, not by first name because I really that really bothers me. Uh and and as far as the commissioners too, um we have to we all have to be held at a higher standard. Uh and I believe, you know, us as city commissioners, we cannot yell at the public, but then again, you know, have some type of respect towards us uh as we do to them. But I agree with you, mayor. Yeah, I I think I'm okay with entertaining the motion um for agenda items that and and city business language

and andor Yeah. and or city business. Okay. Because the rest of it is fine. I mean the disruption I mean there's rules and regulations in a classroom in a court hearing but so moved mayor. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So this is a public hearing. So if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. Move to close. Second. Have a motion, second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppose, say nay. Eyes have a motion carries. Move to approve with the language added for city business to regarding public comments.

Second. We have a motion. Second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. Although supposed to say Nate, I'll be Nate. Um, only because I really do believe in the freedom of speech. I learned this um the first time that I was running. For as um difficult as it might be to hear things that um are offensive or do not align with the way I think, um I think everyone has a right to express. Um I voted yay. I mean, yes, but I don't see where we're limiting anybody's freedom of speech. You're saying that um you can only speak to um things that are on the agenda and related to city business. I I believe it already says that.

Yeah. So I'm saying that you can speak if like um No, I mean it already says it like it's already in our chart. What how does it read right now? Right now? Let me because every time we read it right before it, they say exactly everything that's on here. I don't I don't even know why this is in front of us. Right. So it it it says no speaker may use public comment to address issues which are unrelated to city business. There you go. Back slashjurisdiction. So we narrowed it down to commission agenda but

but we reopened it to city business. I think the only change is that minute of silence, moments of silence, the representative speakers uh which at the end of the day they don't know each other. They're not going to get everybody's going to speak about. We always suspend the rules anyways, so I don't. But thank you. I just would like to say I enjoy Mr. Bles's comment and I would like for them to continue.

But again, that is city business. He's he's talking about like an ordinance we have. So So yeah, you you would still listen to him. You're going to All right. So one against carries. Perfect. Moving on to the public hearing number eight. It's a public hearing in action on the first reading on ordinance number 2026-1796 to amend the chapter 46 environment article 3 noise to uh to clarify the regulations related to the unreasonable noise.

Yes. Um next slide. So, mayor and city commission, this is just cleaning up our noise ordinance. Currently, it prohibits silent waste collection before 7 a.m. in all zoned areas. Um, we have agreed with um the city's franchisee republic to commence um collection earlier and this would just clean up this particular ordinance. And the reason for this is safety issues. They cited safety issues with um if they picked up at 7, they would not only just push back their their ability to p pick up um all the solid waste that they need to for that day and drop it off at um the landfill, but they also have been experiencing um rush hour traffic um backing out of blind alleyway, school zones, especially school zones. Um and really they're competing with everybody else that's rushing to work or school. And so they've asked to start at 6 am in the areas that are zone commercial and industrial only. Um residential will remain at 7 a.m. Um I will say the prior franchisee for commercial solid waste um allegedly was collecting um the the trash before 6 a.m. um and it was in contrary to the noise ordinance, but they were allowed by their contract, right? um which if y'all remember was monthtomonth because we were pending a new contractor. And so so this is still a little um later than what was previously done, but this will allow them to be able to collect on time and also not um have to deal with all the other safety issues that they have in the commercial areas.

Any questions or comments commission? All right, this is a public hearing. If there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. Move to close. Second. All right, we have a motion second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those oppos say nay. Eyes have a motion carries. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. Eyes have that motion carried.

Uh public hearing number nine. is a public hearing and the action uh I'm on the first reading on ordinance number two uh 2026-1795 to amend chapter 6 of the amusements and uh I mean entertainment uh of the city of Brownsville's code of ordinances to add article 4 establishing the Midtown entertainment district along Highway 69 from uh uh uh from Ma Luna Road to Morrison Road to to uh and along Highway 77 to Central Boulevard between Morrison Road uh and Ma Luna Road along the public sale boulevard and Ruben M. Thorres and his point of intersection uh with uh with Seville uh Boulevard uh to regulate the bars and restaurants adding uh the civil and the criminal penalties.

Mayor and city commission. Hello again. Um this is being proposed as you all know because we've had quite a bit of issue with the um the crime in the area. More more recently we had a individual that got um stabbed um and so we have attempted to work with a lot of the businesses. If you'all recall at Y's direction, we sent letters to the operators on public asel and the surrounding area um asking them to comply or we would engage the attorney general's office to do their enforcement. Um and the police department also they submitted a letter to the operators with best practices, what the attorney general recommends. Um, fast forward six, seven months, we now have a situation where we've had some stabbings. And so we, um, are proposing the creation of this, uh, what we're calling the Midtown Entertainment District. What this would do is would um serve to eliminate a current loophole that allows what we call wet restaurants to be able to continue operating into late hours. Right? They'll stop serving food at a little bit before midnight 11 and they continue selling alcohol um past uh midnight um without any additional security measures. And this includes bars as well. This would regulate bars as well. Uh, next slide. And so we are proposing a two-step solution to the current issue. The first one is the establishing the Midtown Entertainment District. Um, it is immediate. As soon as adopted and

published in the newspaper, then it would be um our local law. Uh, it is limited. uh state law allows us to uh designate a central business area as an entertainment district and adopt regulations for it. Um it would eliminate this wet restaurant loophole and regulate other bars and would require enhanced security and age verification measures. Now, the reason why the two-step the city is using the zoning powers as well to make amendments to the UDC um via requiring bars or restaurants, what have you to use the specific use permit. So, we'll be coming back with an amendment for the UDC that planning will explain. Um the reason why we're not doing that right now is it's not immediate. Um, it does require publication. It requires public hearings. It would have to go before the PNZ. They would have to make a recommendation and then go before you all. Very similar to what happened earlier with the zoning items that you all heard earlier. Um, under this under this second step, we can include public boulevard. And so it could it might be redundant for that area, but I I prefer redundancy. Um, but you can include the downtown area and you can include other areas of the city. It could even be citywide. Um, the reason why we're not doing this alone is because the established bars that are already in operation would be grandfathered in. So, they would be legal non-conforming. So even if we were to adopt regulations in the UDC, we wouldn't be able to enforce them on these businesses until they either shut down for a period of time or um they um they close down or something happens to business is destroyed for a period of time. Um the UDC amendments would

eliminate the loophole as well um and would require enhanced security and age verification measures. So two-step solution. One, adopt the Midtown Entertainment District and the next one is adopt the UDC with amendments that require a specific use permit, but it would be applicable for all new bars. Next slide. So, this ordinance would establish the Midtown Entertainment District. Um, in consultation with PD and planning, we have looked at areas um, along Highway 69, 77, public roommates. Um, and we'll show you a map uh, shortly. It's to regulate entertainment oriented businesses like bars, nightclubs, down halls, the the rent restaurants that um, serve alcohol and operate late at night. Um, and the goal is really to reduce conflicts with surrounding properties. There are some residential neighborhoods that have come and complained uh at some of our zoning hearings about the situation with the nightclubs or bars or restaurants um and maintain public welfare with security lighting and crowd management standards. Next slide. So this is the proposed overlay for the midtown entertainment district. As you can see, it runs along Highway 69 from Media Luna Road to Morrison Road and along Highway 77 to Central Boulevard between Morrison Road and Media Luna Road and along Publicel to the point of its intersection with just south of Es Grande Avenue and then along Ribbonto to its point of intersection was Sevilla Boulevard. This is the area where we've had quite a bit of the activity um not just with BYOB uh establishments along Rubin and Torres but also with public asel. Next slide. So the the key provisions is we would be

defining what bar and drinking establishments. It's um those licensed venues that are earning more than 51% revenue from onremise alcohol sales after midnight. and we would restrict the hours between 12 a.m. and 2 am. Um, under the alcohol alcoholic beverage code, we are uh able to regulate open containers. A lot of cities use this to create an entertainment district where they allow drinking out in the public. Um, and some cities use it to prohibit it. that we would be prohibiting it because obviously we want them to be able to enjoy um the business to function but with people inside and then leaving in a safe way. And so um the requirements for these establishments um I'm just going to use bars as a general catchall but it would be it would prohibit Bob um they would have to comply with the article. If they don't comply, then we would revoke their certificate of occupancy. Um, staff cannot drink while on duty. Uh, they have to have at least one security officer per 75 occupants during these restricted hours. They have to provide adequate lighting and surveillance cameras and keep the recordings for 14 days. Next slide. they would be required to have aid restrictions and post signage about that and verify with um electronic ID verification um during those hours. Um there is an exception if under Texas law if they're married or they're with a parent or guardian. And then open container what we are allowed to prohibit or allow. We are prohibiting it on public streets, siteways, and alleys within the district except for authorized special events with permits inside private buildings or the residents themselves or licensed establishments. Uh, next slide.

The key with the Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Code is we are preemptive quite a bit. And I know that um I've heard comments that we are reiterating and some redundancy with TABC, right? Um I've heard, you know, well TABC already doesn't allow this or they require this. And that might be true. The problem is TABC is not an enforcement arm. Um very similar to what we heard with Milw White where Milwaukee the TCEQ themselves and the attorney general's office told us they're not they're not all about enforcement. They're more about getting people into compliance. Uh with TABC, they just don't have the staff to go out there and conduct um the type of surveillance or inspections that we can. Um and so it doesn't override state alcohol laws. It complements it and it gives us the ability to enforce what TABC requires, but we're going to enforce it locally, right? Because we do have the staff. we do have the officers out there on the field. And then as far as violations for the the operators or businesses, it would be if it's a health and safety violation, it could be up to 2,000 per violation per day. Uh for all others, $500. And then um if the criminal aspect of it is not working, we would go and do civil enforcement and sue the establishment and of course uh revoke their CEO. Uh, next slide. And so this is an attempt to address the current issue that we have in this area. Um, it it in my opinion, as much as it's not a legal perspective, it's not heavy-handed on businesses because it's a lot of what they have to comply with already. Um, and this uh the city has attempted to

work with a lot of the property owners um and give them notice as well. And so we still have issues. Some of them are not compliant. Not saying all of them are um the problem, but for those few that have been an issue, we this is an attempt to address it and um enforce have some enforcement for the for the police department to be able to go in there and require the lighting, the security, and all the other things. Do you have any questions?

Yes. I've got a lot of them. Right. So, please bear with me. Um, I met with several bar owners in this area uh to try and understand uh their problems. Um, and I do understand them and I was fortunate to write with the police department to to see with my own eyes the problems that are occurring. Um, so these bars do not have the sufficient parking and then we'll start there for that shopping center. 13 bars and only 86 parking spaces is not good. Um, I I I just don't understand how these bars were even able to open up with so little parking because now it's become a parking uh uh issue because other they're parking across the street, other locations, and their cars are getting towed. Um, next I have very little patience for people fighting in the streets, uh, not being able to control their alcohol. Um, so during my time, we spoke with Brown PD because obviously the security that they had before was not working. Uh, I went as far as trying to get talk to the union with the police department to try and come to an agreement to get Brownzo PD to do the security because what was work what what was in

place was not working and uh I know I reached out to you um Mr. uh Dvinho probably what was it right before Christmas beginning of the month of uh December and you and I had a long conversation and I told you something has to be done. I'm I'm getting too many phone calls on these issues that are occurring at these bars. Uh, I think I have other things that I need to do within the city than attending to these fights that are occurring every week. I don't know if they're getting any better, any worse, but um, something needs to be done. Uh, as a city commissioner, I do take responsibility for letting all these bars open up in that one small area. But I'm tired of seeing the individuals behave the way they are. We need to put a stop to it and we need to put a stop to it now. I am very, very upset. I do not want a citizen injured, killed because we didn't do our job. And it makes me very upset. I I I'm all about small businesses 100%. But I'm not going to take responsible for a citizen being hurt, killed, as we already have one in the hospital right now because of someone's bad intentions and someone cannot behave. So, um, one officer per 75 people is not enough. You we're asking the for the officer to get injured or killed if something may

arise. I think we need to get Brownzo PD in there. If we're going to have an entertainment district, we need Browzel PD to do the security because if anything happens inside that off that uh that establishment or outside in the parking lot, they're going to have to call Brown PD anyway. So, why not have them there already? They'll take care of it. I know they will. If we have to go take out the patty wagon, I'm all for that, too. But these these kids are going to learn that they need to behave. We cannot get anybody hurt. Thank you.

And so I just wanted to make a comment. So some of the some of these um seem like common sense. However, they have to go through certain procedures because it's a state that requires this. Is it federal law or state law? For some of the requirements like um filing and

not drinking while you're on duty, you know, selling alcohol, that is, you know, that's what TABC requires. You get supposed to be receive training. That's an example of where it's a little redundant, but a lot of the times TABC is not present to enforce it. And so this would give the department the opportunity and the ability to enforce it. And for clarification, when we're talking about restaurant establishments that are extending alcohol sales after 12:00 a.m., correct? And so they would have to limit themselves 12 till 2. Correct.

And that includes bar and grill or just it sounds like a gray area. Can you clarify a little bit more on that? Right. So we estab we the we define the establishments to be you know bar or drinking establishment right as a catchall. And so it would include um your restaurants that stay open after hours but they may no longer serve food anymore because the kitchen's closed. Um of course bars, nightclubs, um we're going to add a few more um premises onto this. Um but that would be the intent and they have to derive their sales from more than 51% of the the grill's revenue has to be from the sale of on premise consumption.

So like um sports bar grill they sell food and then they would have to stop selling food at a certain time in order to qualify. Explain. Yeah, explain.

Right. Right. So a lot of your restaurants they're called wet restaurants. um they they their kitchen might close at 11:00 or midnight, but they will continue um selling alcohol past the time that the kitchen's closed, right? So, the bar will remain open, but then the kitchen will close, right? And so those are like those are an example of ones that are going through the loophole of staying past midnight open, selling the alcohol, but not providing the food. And therefore their proceeds between that time between 12 midnight and 2 am is well over the 51%.

And what if they profit more over the alcohol and want to continue till 2 a.m. will they have to can they change their name and no it would or the the license? Right. Right. So, they'll have to go through the proper and change their license.

If they're going to change if if they're going to change their ability to sell different types of alcohols past certain times, then um they would have to go through TABC to get that um to get that approved, right? Because TABC is a license licensing agency. But if they are like a restaurant and they decide that they're going to turn into a nightclub at 11:00, right? The kitchen closes at 11:00. They're going to turn into a nightclub and then they just sell alcohol, right? They don't really have any appetizers or anything like that. Um, that's what we're trying to capture. We're trying to capture those because they're technically a loophole

to where they don't have a lot of these requirements. And also um to add on the application from the state when they submit it there's a section where they can check off they need late hours uh a certificate for us to approve it and there's the fee

and and that's actually a good point too. One thing, I don't know if we do this um here, but in um other cities where I've been, when we get an application from the state, TABC, we then would share it with the district council member and then that district council member could then check with their neighborhood to see if they were okay with it. And if they weren't, then we would participate in the process of appealing that with TABC and fighting it, right? And so we do receive these applications and if that's something that the commission wants us to do, then that's something that we can add. Um, and

are you just capturing 51% and over? So you're capturing a bar? I I believe they have to submit applications for all. Yes, everybody has to. But my question is you're talking about like u Oh, in this ordinance.

Yeah. So, so L Roto, uh, Tosskafino, they're all restaurants. Do they stay open past 12? I guess in certain occasions they may. I know one of them probably does a lot more than the others, but those are restaurants, right? They're restaurants. They have under 51% alcohol sale. And the state, that's the way the state defines it. Are you capturing everybody? if they're open from 12 to 12:45 and they have over 75 people at a certain time or all day or how does it work like or is it the occupancy or or what are you all doing?

Right. Yeah. So, this would be applicable if it's a restaurant and their kitchen closes at before midnight or or 11 o'clock. 11:30. Let's say 11:30. Um but they continue staying open because the bar is open till 2:00. Then we would have them, you know, we would require them because the cells are after the restricted hours, we would require them to have the lighting, the security guard and the camera. Okay. Then another question is um are you are you going off of occupancy or what are you going off of? for the I mean 75 occupants during restricted hours is

yeah I I believe we would if of course now to Commissioner Delejon's comment if we need to increase the number of licensed security officers or occupants we can um but yes we are going off of COS

cos do most of those bars I think our big issue is one plaza and I think we're we're trying to overextend personally but what I'm looking at is do they even have over 75 I think most of those bars Cars are 2500 square f feet. I I don't know what the size is. Do we have planning here? Are How big are those? 2500 2,000. I So it's What is the occupancy? The legal occupancy? What is it, Martin? Do you know off the top of your head what it would be? Give or take? I I don't think it's going to be 75. Well, you you Are are we already open?

And the reason I'm asking this is I mean, if we're going to if we're going to do something, well, you got to make sure that it's because I don't know what the occupancy is. I guess you can answer this first.

It's going to vary. Commissioner, we don't have the data right now. If if we have a specific building, you want us to uh bring you that data, we can bring it for you. Uh the occupant load is calculated based on the assembly use and it can vary based on the on the area of the um uh consumption either drinks or or or meals. Okay. Um the the dive or and now it's called the 80s bar. How big is that? And what is your occupancy there on paper? 168. And that's 3500. Okay. And and you all are from uh 78 people and it's how many square feet? About 2,000 or what?

I can't. 1500. 1500. Okay. Thank you. So you probably capture everybody. I think that's the smaller ones. I'm just wondering. Right. Right. Right. And and this is something that we we and I were in my office measuring it. My office is about what was it? 250 square feet. 250. We're that that was what we're measuring in your office, right? Yeah. 250 square feet. And we were trying to determine, you know, that's because we're looking at the parking ratios. Well, there is a parking ratio. What is it? Uh 75 square feet per or what's the number for per for per for commercial.

So, it would be similar to a restaurant. There would be one vehicle parking space for every 300 ft. So one for every 300. So So for a bar it would be about five for 1500 ft. Well, if it's 1500. Yeah. Yeah. For the one that's 1500 and they have an occupancy of 78. I think we got to fix that somehow. I know it's tough because then we get the other side, right? And and just to clarify, um I mean it does create um when the UDC was adopted, uh parking calculations or the parking ratios were adjusted to be more flexible. Yeah.

Because we before the UDC, we had the issue where uh you couldn't fit anybody in a plaza anymore. Well, the developer of a plaza would say, "Well, all it all the suites are going to be office space." And the office space is the use that requires the least amount of parking. And they would do that so that they could yield more suites and less parking. Okay? And then they flip it after.

Then a year later, they say, "Well, we want to put in a restaurant. We want to put in a bar or one of those uses that requires a high uh amount of parking." then they would be caught in the situation or the department also would be caught in the situation where we couldn't we wouldn't let them proceed with their certificate of occupancy because the parking regulations were too strict with the adoption of the UDC they were relaxed to basically put the burden on the tenant well on the landlord and the tenant they're renting um the space uh knowing that perhaps you're not there might not be enough parking. Also,

it's a fine line. I I I understand where you're going. And we also provided ways out like um parking agreements or hours of operation uh agreements so that uh parking could be used uh by certain businesses that require a high amount of parking. uh and use you know maybe adjacent businesses the parking that's vacant from adjacent businesses that are not operating let's say into late hours of of the night

which now get towed uh chief I have a question for you chief um what do you believe our biggest issue is I mean I think we we all know right now correct me if I'm wrong that our biggest issue is on that public said that one plaza that is where most of our incidents are happening I think we had one downtown this weekend but before that it could have been months or years since we've heard something as public as that one. Uh why do you think it's happening there? I think I know an answer but I want to hear it from from you.

So that is correct. So our area of concern is the public sale area. Unfortunately there's saturation right of uh bargoers if you would you know from Thursday Friday and Saturday what we experienced during the holidays was that they were actually going throughout the week if you would. Um so we changed our method of operation as well so we could be able to accommodate uh what it is that we need. What we know that now works from an operation perspective is presence. Um so there's underage individuals that are attending these bars. Uh there's uh a lot of that that we see that we come in contact with. Um, and of course we have individuals that are coming out of these establishments that have consumed a lot more than what they should have consumed. I'm not saying that the bar did do their due diligence. The fact is that some of these individuals may walk in there already, you know, um, in that state. So, we have seen a significant difference, but it's costing the the department, the city, and the rest of the community a lot. It's costing us approximately uh give or take about $2,800 a night per se to run an operation. At the end of the day, if we stay consistent with what it is that we're doing, which is Friday and Saturday, every Friday and Saturday throughout the year, it's about a quarter million dollars, you know, over a year's time. The end of the day, we're not anti- business. We're here for everyone. We're here to make sure that uh we provide the safety necessary for the entire community. Uh the fact remains that we're willing to work with them. This is just another working tool. Uh we're willing to listen to them. We we've tried since June of this year. Uh so we do know for a fact that presence works and uh if we can get any assistance in that in that matter by way of regulation, by way of policy or by way of working together, I think that we will succeed in making all these

establishments a lot safer.

Um yeah. So so I I definitely agree with you. think underage drinking is a huge issue we have going on there. Uh I that there's I mean the young man who was stabbed was 19 years old. So nobody can tell us that there's no underage drinking there. He came out of one of those bars. Uh he was buying shots is what I heard from his parents and he was stabbed in the neck. So you're 100% right. We have to fix it. Now I I just don't want to overcompensate or over adjust. Uh I I I want to make sure that we fix the issues that we have, but I really don't think it's fair for uh I mean, you're going down to Central Boulevard. I don't know where. I I haven't seen those issues there. So, how can we make it like a pilot program? Hey guys, you either fix it. This is what's going on. Here you go. Here's your first six months. Take care of it. Stop the underage drinking or shut them down. I do not understand why TABC is not there. I have a restaurant. They go go do stings at my restaurant, but they're not doing bars. Is it the time? Is it the hours? I don't know what it is. But we need to stop the underage drinking. Not just for the bars, not just for the fights. They're not supposed to drink, guys. I mean, they're not supposed to drink. And and and I look at you all because you all have bars, right? I'm not saying that they're drinking at your bars, but kids are drinking. My son is 22 years old. I will not let him go near any one of those bars down there. And it's not because I don't trust you all. I don't trust people who are there. And and that is just the way it is, right? I'm sure you all wouldn't want to have your kids out there getting stabbed either. U so I think we have to figure really have to figure out what we're doing. I think this is a great step. Is it tough? Yeah, it definitely is. We have to figure out what's the cost for for one for one security. I don't think I agree with Commissioner Deleon. one security is not going to be able to take

care of it and nobody's going to work for two hours. I don't even think PD works for two hours. I think it's four hour shifts. That's correct.

So So we I mean we're putting two hours. The truth is it's four. What's the cost? What's the issue? Can Can I I think we spoke about it at one point, Chief, and we were not allowed to do it for them to have to hire PD. And if our cost is $2,800, hey, man, you guys, are you willing to do it? we want to follow the rules, right? It's just how can we get it done? And I think that that's also a legal question obviously for the commission to try to figure out. Uh I I agree with what Commissioner Deleon said. I think the mayor said it on on the other agenda item that we had as well. We're all pro business. We all want you all to succeed, but we can't have one life lost because of it, right? And we have to put we have to put a stop to it now. We don't want to become a cow, right? We don't want those issues that they have over there every single weekend. And now the truth is we have them every single weekend. All we're missing is stabbings and shots now, but we have fights every weekend. I mean, we just got to go off Facebook. Everybody has Facebook. So, so let's figure it out and let's really try to get it done and we have to stop it now. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

So, I like to see things like from a different perspective. Um, and so I I want to share this with our bar owners that we have here for whatever it's worth because ultimately I'm pretty sure you're sitting here because and we keep saying we're pro business because it's going to affect your pocketbook. Period. Right. And that's that's not ultimately the goal. I think the goal is uh trying to figure out like Commissioner Carden said um how how can we help each other because I also think of it in a different light. I think of it that you feel that with your current revenues, this is going to burden your bar and you might have to close. I think that adding protection in that whole district will increase the amount of people that go to your bars and you'll actually get adults with with paying jobs, not mommy and daddy's credit cards that are going to maybe even frequent your bar more. and uh and and your revenue might might be able to handle peace officers. Uh me personally, I see here security officer in my line of work, it's not night life. It's my line of work. A security officer is $17 an hour. A peace officer is $45 an hour. Um you need someone that has arrestability, right? That's the difference between a security guard and a peace officer. Is it a peace officer? whether they're police, constable, uh sheriff, or whatever you may have out there, right? They have the ability to uh arrest and detain, a security officer is going to go hide in the back and wait for someone to call PD. Uh and that's kind of what's been going on down there, right? Um but I see it as a as an investment and I do agree that maybe it's a pilot. Like I just see

it as something that I know it it seems like harsh, but I do see it as I'm going to just give you one last thing. Like we used to take I work at at I'm an athletic director, head football coach and the most painful thing of my job after coaching a football game was having the ticket sellers and the and the concession stand people bring all the money bags to my office and then I'd have to count the money and I'd have three three additional witnesses there that would have to double count and we'd all have to sign that we all got the same amount and then we'd have to put it in cash deposit boxes and we'd have to go to the main office with security and then leave them in the cash deposit box. Thank you to CO, we decided to go cashless and they decided to put cameras everywhere. I didn't see that as a as as as a hurtful thing. I saw it as protection for me. I said, "Thank God I don't have to do this anymore." Uh it doesn't it puts me in a protective area. I think that as bar owners, uh, you might want to see this ordinance as a pro something that protects you because I I I do believe that if you have a peace officer and every bar because of an ordinance is forced to have, it's not like you're paying and your neighbors not paying. Now, you have a plaza like Commissioner Deleon said, there's 13 bars around there. Well, at least some are 3,500 square feet, some are 1500 square feet. At least minimum you have 13 police officers or peace officers on duty that night. You might have 20, depending on the square footage that are already off duty, but hired by you that have arrestability. And guess what that peace officer is going to do? They're not going to go hide because they know that

there's 20 of them around there. they have immediate backup. Not just by the time RPD gets there, which they'll get there in a hurry, but if you know you have backup, you're more likely to be able to communicate and and and put a stop to this and change the clientele. Change the clientele. So, for me, uh, in agreement with what everybody else said up here, I mean, it just we have to be socially responsible. I I I I really do believe that um you know just we're we're at a point where if we don't react and with you if we can't get all on board and react together um we're going to start having the weekly fights that will be weekly stabbings and we've had a couple of of of guns out there and we'll start having a little bit more of that. Um, I do believe that this could be a pilot, but I do believe that this for now it's targeted there, but eventually if this is a safe zone eventually, right, these are going to be problems that are going to happen everywhere else in the city. It'll start happening downtown, it'll start happening everywhere else. So, I know that part of the part of the maybe the reason you're here is to say, "Hey, man, do it citywide. Don't just create uh don't just isolate us." Um, so I do I do value that too because I also see here and not to not to point them out, but uh I did see that the Rio Grand Valley uh this in 2025 sold 193 million of alcohol. Um, and I do know that on on one of the top list and there was a bar that's not in this uh zone right here. Um, so eventually that that that parking lot may become the new the new Tik Tok uh parking lot, right? And I think that those are things that when we want to look at them, it's it's taking a very

serious look at this uh because it is we know where the problem is now. We want to work together to to create safe uh social areas for the citizens of Brownsville. But uh like anything else, you know, you know that where now now you know where the peace officers are. So guess what? You'll go somewhere else and the problem will start in someone else's parking lot. Um so I do agree that it needs to be piloted uh looked at uh tried and I do think that we need to work together to to protect this and I do believe that the clientele will change. Brownzo's changing, guys. The old days, they're they're our demographics are changing. There's a lot more business uh business uh people moving here, young people, right? And young people that make a decent living and they're looking for safe places to go out. Okay? And if we can't provide that for them, they'll do it at their homes. I know that that that I go prefer to go homes than to go out. Um, but if there were if there if there was a safety, I would love to go and contribute to your establishment because I do the same way I try to go to we just had uh toddle in. I try to frequent local businesses because that's how we keep each other alive, right? And so I wanted you to kind of maybe see it from from that perspective and and give us feedback on the microphone um on how we uh we can help you. And honestly, I thank you all because I know you guys have been here waiting here since 5:00 p.m. and you know, we're already at 8 and you guys have always attended all the town halls in regards to that area. And I want to thank you for your input for continuing to show up because there's power and presence. Chief, the only thing that I wanted to comment to is lighting out there. I'm not sure we can co coordinate with parks

and recck department. we can coordinate and also rent out a bunch of those huge LED lightings that we can purposely put on the parking lots. Uh, one of the things that, you know, we need to strive for is uncomfortability and that comes with excessive lighting. When you have those bright LED lights that we can probably rent out at Coaster Rental, work out with the parks department. Let's just try it out in one parking lot to put, you know, 10 LED of those strict lighting because I, you know, in my younger days, way long long long time ago when those lights went on at the bar or the club, I mean, it was very uncomfortable. I knew I wanted to go home already. So, if we can look into that, I would really appreciate that.

Absolutely. And we have made it part of the requirement for proper lighting. Yes, they have to provide more lighting. Yes. Maybe we're now like 10, 15, 20. Boom. Let's do it. a helicopter, too. You can. I'm just joking. But yes, please. That would that would I want to try it out. See what we can do. A little pilot. Yes, ma'am.

Uh Commissioner, uh the last time uh I spoke to the bar owners. Uh we had agreed on I believe four officers out there on working and we even tried to get each bar owner to go in and and pay their share so it wouldn't be so expensive for one bar owner to fit the whole bill. I mean because it is it is it hurts from the pocketbook. Uh, but as your District 3 commissioner, uh, call me. Let's see what we can do. I want to help you. U, but you got to see where we're coming from. And I I I will extend the olive branch and and we'll get Bronzo PD together. Uh, I know Galan, Mr. M Mrs. Golansky and Pedro Cares had met with some of the bar owners. I even visited some of the bar bars. Uh, but we're here to help you. We're not here to shut you down or anything like that. But, uh, you know, you give me a call, we'll have lunch. You tell me what you want. You tell me what what will work because obviously we got to do something. What's working is what what's in place right now is not working. But if you all have a comment or whatever, please let us know. There's the mic. I want to hear from you. If not, you can call me and let me know what you want. and I'll help you.

Well, and we This is a public office. Yeah. So, this is a public uh hearing. So, if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission, please step forward, state your name for the record. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and commissioners. My name is Rick Mosel. Uh I own the dive bar in Brownsville and a couple of other bars in Brownsville. Uh I did meet with the commissioners. We did make a big change. We went from the dive bar to an 80s and 90s bar like Mr. Variel recommended. We saw a huge decrease in revenue. Uh we're trying to survive. We're trying to pay the rent. We're trying to make the bills. It's hard. People our age don't go out seven days a week. People our age probably don't go out once a week. So, we have our challenges. We went from selling $1.6 million a year to selling $450,000 last year by changing, you know, uh our age group. Not going after the young customers, but going after the older customers. So, we paid the bill. You know, we we we we're trying to get through. Uh I'm here to speak about the proposed Midtown Entertainment District, right? Everyone here wants safer knife. I mean, so do we as owners of businesses. We don't like to see the fights. We don't like the stabbings. We don't like the violence. It doesn't bring more business. You are correct. You know, it's it's hard for us to be able to do it, though. Most of the problems are outside of the business. After 2 am, after we we have no control, our security goes outside and stops a fight and gets stabbed or hits somebody, they get sued. So, the liability turns to us. Now, so now we're liable not only for the drinks we serve and everything else, but what happens after 2 a.m. All of the commissioners, I think, here that spoke tonight all said the same thing. There's one issue, one plaza. That's where all the issues are coming from. Yet, this ordinance talks about going all the way to Central Boulevard, going all the way down to I mean, not downtown, of course, but all the way around the city with the exception of downtown. If this is going to be done, it has to be done within the city. I think I don't think that there should be restrictions. I don't think that that's fair. I think for those of us that met with the chief, that met with the commissioners and made the changes, you

know, like we made, we haven't had any fights. We haven't because we have a different age group. And it does make a huge difference because, well, people our age aren't looking to fight. We're looking to go home and get to bed and put our pajamas on. But the liability shifts, okay? And when I say liability is when something happens outside of our property, outside of our bar, we're no longer responsible, right? DABC tells us not to get involved. If there is a fight outside, our security is not supposed to go outside because then they become liable, you know, and it's like Brownsville PD, you know, we've seen videos of Brownsville PD at the location trying to stop the fight. These young kids are still not stopping. So, if Brownsville PD can't stop them, it's even harder for us to stop them. And and it's a challenge and it's something that we want to work together on. But I do feel that if it's going to be something that you guys are going to lock in, it should be for the entire city, not for not for sections of the city. I think that, you know, I'd like to ask the commissioners to take a little bit of time to discuss this. We can meet again. You know, we can look at the numbers. We can look at where the problems are and we can work together to try to fix the problems. But I don't think the solution is taking an isolated area in Brownsville and making all the bars, restaurants pay for it. It's $65,000 a year. That's what it would cost each business to have one security guard per bar. So I own three bars. That would cost me $185,000 to have one security at each bar. I can't afford that. Especially not complying with what you guys asked us to comply with. You guys asked us to make sure we put more lighting outside. We did that. You know, make sure we put the cameras up. We did that. You know, make sure we have security guards. We have them. We don't have enough business now to stay open during the week because we've changed our demographic. So, we're here asking you as a small business owner, don't put us out of business. It

It's hard It's hard for us to pay the price for other people's mistakes. Thank you. Hello mayor and commissioners. Uh going back to what uh Commissioner Deon said, you say your name, please.

Junior, uh I had attended uh Miss Commissioner Deon's uh meeting and I voiced my concerns and I voiced my frustration uh that day and uh it all goes back to uh um you guys are sick. You guys don't want to pinpoint Pablo Cassell Plaza as the main culprit or the main situation, but me and my partner, we we do we do everything that that uh the ordinance says to do. We've done it even way before the ordinance was put. We had constiples on. Uh we don't serve no minors. Um we do everything in our power to make sure that our employees and our customers are safe. Now, since Shots on Palo has opened, there's been six, seven new bars that have opened. And that's not our fault. I don't know whose fault that is. The city's allowing the the the plaza manager allowing all these new bars to open. And just because uh now we having these situations where people are getting hurt and stuff like that. And like uh the other commissioner said, Mr. the that man was a minor. Um I have some points right here. So what I already said, we hire licensed constipals. We check IDs at the door. We enforce occupancy limits. The the the fire marshals go by and they do their checks and they have shut down other bars before because they are over capacity. Um, underage drinking and overcrowding come from a lack of enforcement, not a lack of rules. The laws already exist. The problem is that some new bars ignore them. Enforcing existing laws again uh laws against bad actors will solve more than adding new restrictions that

responsible businesses already follow. Me and my partner also own uh Brushki's up in eery. I'm all for this ordinance that you're saying, but like uh going off what Rick Monzo said, it is going to cost us a lot of money. And we haven't had no problem at Bruce because it's a older clientele. Uh we do have a few kids that go in, but we kind of like during the hours of operations from 11 to around 9:00, we're a familyfriendly establishment. So you could bring your kids and you could watch a game, have a drink, eat some food. Uh, and then after that, our kitchen closes at 12 and now we have like a little party scene, but it's never hectic. Maybe the bar top fills up, maybe a couple tables open up, but that helps us generate a little bit of revenue. Um, my thing is like, um, this gentleman over here said, TBC, uh, I don't know what's going on with them. the lack of employees or the lack of funding. But the main issue that's going on are these minors and all these other bars allowing these minors to go in and drinking. Another issue is you brought in the police. They're doing they're doing their best to do their job, but these kids are drinking in their car drinking uh full beverages on or throwing out all their trash in the parking lot. showing up to the drunk showing up to the bar already drunk. And we turn we turn a lot of people down. Hey man, you've had a little bit too much. You you can't consume anything in here. And just because we we do that, the other other the other bars don't do that. They're allowing these minors to come in. They're allowing these people drunk to keep consuming. Uh they're allowing all these things to happen. and

because of all these situations now it's falling against us and um you know we're just asking for a little help if TABC can't come in who who can we ask to enforce these laws about these minors uh drinking at these establishments. Thank you very much. When did you open just Yeah. Yeah. 2024 20 February 2024. So about a year and a half. Yes, sir. Two years. So in the last two years, we've had about five or six new bars. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Anybody else? So, um, I've met with these gentlemen before, um, and I remember one of the points that y'all said, and I think I'm hearing it again, is that everyone seems to know where the problem is. Um, and so, why can't we just come up with a solution that really targets those problem bars or the the problem areas instead of um, and I know they can change, they can move. Um maybe right now X is is the popular place and then where they like to break out in fights and then two months from now it's it's Y place. But um I mean I understand their point. Fuddy duddies like me are not going to go like sorry to to the heck I'm not even at bars. Let's be real. But um but um so then why why p punish them or make them spend more money than they have to? like so and sorry. I mean I'm I'm I'm so not your demographic. I'm 51 so like it's it's okay. Um and and so for that you know um like you we know where the problems are.

Let's let's try to do a more focused um uh solution. Another thing I'm sorry. One more thing real quick then. If we were to open this to the whole city, we wouldn't have enough police officers to cover every single restaurant and bar. I mean, the state law allows us to use PB grounds with police officers. They they can use them. They can rent them. Off duty, maybe.

Yeah, off duty. We still don't have enough. We have 240. Um, I think we have more restaurants than 240. So, so yeah, we probably not have enough. So, it's just I mean, food for thought. So, I I have a question on on the map and how it was created and and the logic on how you how this was proposed. So, I don't know if Chief or or Will, I'm not sure. Yeah, I I don't I know that the police department was consulted, but I will defer to planning so that they can explain how they mapped it out.

Um with the uh the planning department um so we we be began to identify, you know, the area to the north is the public Morrison area and that's kind of where we started like a smaller geography. Um then we started identifying some of those vacant lots that are directly to the north that are going to support entertainment uses in the future. Um you know the Embassy Suites is going up there uh in the future. They're going to have a bar. Um there's more vacant suites uh kind of on the uh I guess the norththeast boundary of of the um the overlay. Um and so we're considering those vacant lots like what's that going to support, right? Um and then there's also uh vacant properties. there's large suites that are, you know, completely vacant that we think would support entertainment options in the future, you know. So, not just bars, but venues, entertainment venues, maybe comedy clubs, you know, things like that that we know are going to serve alcohol. So, we want to be proactive on um on how we address those. Um and so it kind of started from a small geography and then just through conversations with PD um you just started to expand further south um along the expressway um and then further to the uh east um well I think all of us up here and probably in the the audience uh know where this problem's coming from. What's causing it? Uh I I do not understand how 13 uh bars could even operate in that one little plaza. I think Stevie Wonder would have been able to say, "Hey, you know what? It's pretty much impossible." Uh but uh I don't think we should punish this big of an area or even all of

Brownsville for this small area that we all know is the problem. Um, with that being said is I think that's where we should start first because once we address that problem, everybody's going to everybody else will know, hey, you know what? Uh, we mean business. I think that's probably be the is that we're not going to put up with it. So, I think if we just attack that problem first, uh I I think that will, you know, work better than uh doing all Brownsville. Uh but what do you tell me what you think? And I I want to before I just one second, thank you guys for showing up. I know it's late and I I didn't want to put you on the spot, but I wanted everybody to listen to what you had to say because it's important that you guys and we give you the time to come up here and speak and talk to us and tell us what exactly you need, but we'll c we'll check catch up later. Okay, I do have some questions for our bar owners. Uh can we go back to the slide um where it talks about the Midtown Entertainment District where it has key provisions, please? Thank you. If you all can follow that with me. I just want to get a handle on what you all already do, right? Because we don't I don't want to put an extra burden. But if you're saying you're complying with a lot of things and then these new bars are not, it helps me make a decision then what should they have to comply with? Okay. So, if you sorry for doing this, but you're here for three and a half hours. I think we can do another five minutes. Uh do key provision number one. Um are you okay with that? Would that affect you that you are a licensed venue um after midnight from the restricted hours of 12 to 2?

So you you have that. So you would

you have it?

Okay. So I'm saying so you have it. So right now for a bar like this you guys would be in definition number number one definitions you would be in compliance. Okay. Number two, um if you have um you know operational bar uh requirements for bars, BYOB prohibited uh compliance, you can just read it right right there, right? Compliance with article required, whatever. Uh staff cannot drink while on duty besides the security part, right? Because I think that's where the real big cost comes in, right? Okay, this omit for now. For now, um adequate lighting and surveillance cameras. Do you guys have all of that? Okay. Can you go to the next slide, please? Um, number two, age restrictions. No one under 21. Okay. Electronic ID verification.

ID identification comes with a challenge. Sir, can you come to the mic? It's because there's people watching. There's a lot of people watching. So, it's good. So, whatever you as well.

The idea is a challenge. The electronic ID, they've used them in Macallen. They've used them in Dallas, bigger clubs, nightclubs. The problem is not that they don't come in with IDs. Even the fake IDs that we've caught, and we've caught some fake IDs, they'll still pass the electronic test, you know. Uh, number two is most of them use an older brother's ID or somebody else's ID. So, the the talking between the security guard and the customer works better than the electronic ID because our security officers are trained to ask, "What's your address? What's your eye color? What's your height?" You know, look at the look at the height. Some people come in with a 5'4 ID and they're almost 6' tall. Well, you know, that's a fake ID and and that's worked better for us than the electronic one has. The electronic one is just not trusted by us. Uh there's there's a lot of fake IDs out there. Uh you know, we've had our share of IDs that we've taken away for being fake IDs. So, I think that's the only real challenge for us on the electronic.

Perfect. Um your open container rule, I mean, obviously prohibited on public streets. You're fine with number three, right? Can we go to the next slide? Um, four is no-brainer. Five is is the penalty scary? Is that an issue? Sorry. Can you all change slide? The number five. Yeah. So, penalties. Sorry to bring you back up, Rick, but it's cuz for the microphone. Um, penalties are fine. I think that the penalties will fix a lot of the things. I think that, you know, having a penalty and having somebody pay a fine is holding them accountable. You know, right now there's no accountability and I think that's why there's no control.

So, so then, sorry, you can stay up here and if and if any of you guys want to get up here too, that's fine to answer this. So, then the only two things in these provisions that are part of the ordinance that that I jotted down right now is what would you recommend? What do you do that you're doing that you would recommend to the new bars for security? For security, our our security has of course gone down a lot. We used to have three security guards because we had more customers. Now that we have less customers and the customers are older, they're a lot more responsible. Our bar kind of dies down at 1:00 in the morning because our demographic, our age demographic is probably, you know, 35 to 50 versus what we used to have 21 to 23, 24 year olds, you So, we've seen a big difference. So, controlling, like you guys said, the age group, controlling the minors, making sure the minors are not going into the bars. I think the minors is the biggest problem we all have. I think that's our biggest worry for all of us because they can't handle their liquor and they make bad decisions. You know, we've seen it, you know, and we've tried to stop it. You know, I think security guards at a certain point, you know, checking the IDs and making sure the customers are okay and all that is okay, but even the security guard inside the bar puts himself at risk. You know, somebody does something dumb, somebody does something stupid, and it's the customer. And, you know, we kind of pay the price for it.

So, I think that's the only thing that really would hurt us right now financially as bars is the licensed security guard, especially if we haven't had issues. If we had issues, I would completely understand. But we did everything that the commissioners recommended us to do. You know, we added the lighting, we added the older crowd. We've seen the difference. Less money, but less problems. Okay. How about you, sir?

Also, the same as what Rick Maso said, the plaza manager, the plaza owner increased the lighting, added cameras. Uh I believe they even made it he even made it mandatory for us to have a peace offering and constable on duty. But the thing is is that if if the owner or the manager or one of the employees tells the conible, hey, let him in, he's going to let him in. And and you know that that's where the problem and and just like you said, the the fake IDs, uh that's a problem as well. So every everything else we're abiding by uh even the getting the constiples I at Pablo we get them and we got them way before anybody else.

So you already have a constable there? Yes sir. We've had them even before uh we had the meeting. So what is it that you don't like on here? There's nothing we agree on it. We agreed on this. I'm just I'm advocating for, hey, there's a minor problem and and you're pin this would help you. You're pinpointing the plaza. Well, it something has to be done about it. Yeah. Something needs to be done about it because just like Rick Barelo said, six, seven new bars have opened up and our revenue's gone down.

And uh I believe we checked the numbers uh what did you say, George? I mean, buddy, that we still made even though uh it's all gone down, we still uh uh generated more revenue than all the other bars while they're packed up. And they're packed what? Full of miners. Thank you. So, so this is what I'm hearing. Sorry. Are you your demographic? This younger crowd. Yeah. Uh I mean, Shasan Pablo, I mean, uh Buddy's been in the in he's he's been in the industry for years. me as well.

Um, my friends range from 25 to to 40. I know a lot of people. I've served a lot of people. Uh, we rarely get new people into our doors. So, it's kind of like the new spots that are opening up are the spots that all these miners are going into. But my concern, chief, is that we still need to provide a safe drinking area or drinking establishments for these 21 to say 29 year olds. And and if they're the ones that um

if if that's the age range that that creates more problems then then how do we provide them an option so that they can drink responsibly or or safely you know without hey I'm I have if I could just finish my because I was going with questions to at least give the commission something to think about because we're going to I I'm I'm against tableabling anything tonight. That's me. Like this needs to be resolved now. That's my opinion. Okay. So, it's my opinion. I'm against tableabling anything tonight. So, I'm trying to get somewhere and propose something whether it gets shut down or not. I I I just don't think that we need

uh to continue passing this down since June, and this just continues to happen every weekend. So, what I'm hearing from you guys is the all the provisions on here. What I what I'm hearing and what I would propose. It's not a motion yet. Will. Okay. What I would propose is uh Carlos, can we go back? Oh, he's not here. Can we the clicker? Okay, there we there we go. To the that one, operational requirements for bars. So I I would venture to say that because they're in compliance with all of this, I would I would say that the only part that we eliminate the electronic ID because I do believe that if we make that a requirement, I believe them. I I do think that anybody can pass an ID and then hey, mine passed. No, but it doesn't look like you. Hey, mine mine passed. You have to let me in. I think that that may be so uh

but but I think there was a reason this was in there. So I want to hear electronic ID from chief or for will on that on the electronic ID part.

So the the intent with the with the electronic ID was a two-prong approach, right? You do the verification with your typical, you know, historical, you know, uh security guard or whoever's at the door greeting the individuals and you also pass them to the digital, you know. So, it's a two-prong approach. You have to pass both. If not, you don't press go, you know. So, once again, we're just trying to establish tools that, you know, will give us best results. Uh, you know, we we're, like I said, it at this point, right, they're proposals that we've come up with to come up with practices that'll work at the end of the day. So, it was a two-prong approach that we intended for when it came to the digital um entry verification. Do you know how much they are, Chief?

I don't, sir. Do you all know how much they are? The electronic. $500. Okay. Okay. All right. Does add an extra layer. It's not foolproof, but it adds an extra layer of protection for the establishment.

Okay. Let me Okay, fine. So, let's let's pretend that we say you have to have an electronic ID with your bouncer, whoever you have in there, right? Um, I think that the issue, the biggest issue is going to be the security. If I'm hearing you guys, the biggest issue is going to be the security. And the biggest issue is that we're isolating a specific area and it's not citywide. Uh, I do think that um, again, not a motion yet, but if we have the call log, right? like if a bar if a certain plaza is called and PD is deployed. Yes, sir. Absolutely.

Okay. And and and again, I think that there needs to be in the commission to think and help me on this, right? Is that that plazas that are the ones that are called like like you're called, but it's not a three strike thing. Like, hey man, your plaza's called. Guess what? Now you're going to have to have a licensed security officer for every 75 people. That plaza Maybe we can have a zone requirement within the district. That's a that's a problem or a area of concern where this additional requirement is and and and but but a a a thing in there to say but when your plaza gets called you can

then you fall into into that. U again I'm trying to figure out how to stop this. Right. going going back just I think somebody one of the commissioners asked a question how did you guys come up with a map gentleman from planning and zoning came up and said you know this is more we're more or less where the bars are and then he said this is more or less where other bars can open up and we want to put that area because other bars may open up there but we have many bars and restaurants open downtown until 2 a.m. and we're not doing anything about that. I think that that's something against us. It's going to hurt us. It's going to send more business downtown. we're already hurting. So that's given downtown, hey, we don't have to pay, you know, they've already gotten grants. They've gotten

Oh, boy. I mean, downtown has really gotten everything. Three lower rents, help from the city, they get First Friday, you know what? I mean, should we supply them with beer and liquor and help them out a little bit more or, you know, are we going to make this fair and make it citywide? Because I don't think that somebody from planning coming up saying maybe they're going to open up a bar there. So, we put that in the map and maybe they might open up a bar here, but we're looking at how many how many bars and restaurants they open downtown past 2 a.m. and there's more than 20, but we're not restricting them or giving them any restrictions. I I don't think that that's fair at all.

I I I tend to agree, Rick. My my thing was I my final thought because I'm I'm done like just my final thought was that this beyond the Midtown entertainment district that just in Brownsville that all of our all of our bars and nightife that are open till 2 a.m. abide by this. But that that security part right here on two it should be 2 A B C D 2D right that that 2D is enforced the moment that PD has been deployed because there is an outbreak and a disturbance that at that point that plaza is now and and because it's in that in that in that zone your plaza is now tagged you now 2D applies to you And and again, food for thought because maybe at the ' 90s bar that's not going to happen. And the way you have your constable, maybe that's not going to happen. And guess what, guys? It might happen. And guess what? You're going to might have to go and now we're going to have to supervise your plaza. But but we're going to you're going to have to have your your enforced security now because you've become an area of interest now, right? But if you're not an area of interest, then you abide by all these provisions with the exception of the the mandated security. But you do have your the current bouncer, whoever you have. And I do think that a two-prong approach if it's $500. I mean, it provides that additional just in case because I do I do know this for a fact also because I work with youth and and and and I work with kids and and I even freak out like and these guys I don't know where they're buying their IDs, but their IDs will scan. I know that for a fact, right? And and uh and and that's that's that's disturbing, right? But

yes, you do need, but there still are some that if they know that you have a reader, uh they'll do their best to grab their older brothers or older sisters or somebody's ID so that it does scan, but if you still have your bouncer who's asking questions, they're going to say, uh, you know, you're not you're not 5'11, you know, whatever. And so, I don't know, that's just my food for thought. It's not.

I think the biggest one of the biggest issues is it it's happening after 2 a.m. So, it's out of our control. You know, it's it's it's become a real liability just the way it has for the city or Brownsville PD, right? It's become a liability for us. I mean, we'd like to do anything to try to help correct it and stop it. You know, I agree with you, Mr. Viel. If it's a safer environment, more people are go out there. Mr. Gardina said I wouldn't have my kids go out there, and I wouldn't have my kids go out there. You know, I I I agree 100% with them. And I do think that it does happen after 2 am, but it happens under 2 am like Commissioner Cardana says, by a lot of young kids and their minors, not the 21 to 28 demographic. I'm talking the minors, but if if PD's dispatched over there and it's most likely a minor and we know the plaza who's there, guess what? All the people serving till two there must have a uh and I would I would because it's not a mandatory for all. If it's one, it's a one strike you're now in to 2D security. I would say that it needs to be not one licensed security officer. It needs to be one peace officer that now needs to be part of your establish.

Is that legal? Yeah. Peace officer. Yes. To have a security officer um would be legal for us to say you have to only hire offduty police officers.

Off duty police, a peace officer. No, but I think the plaza manager said that it has to be constipable Thursday, Friday, Saturday and we have the peace officers and then you have the police officers on duty and these things are still happening. So I don't know if you want to implement maybe you know it's cuz it's 2 a.m. it's everybody's on the street at the same time. someone looks at somebody the wrong way and all hell broke all hell breaks loose and we we'll follow all these ordinances and we'll do everything that you ask us to now because Facebook glorifies these fights is they're going to be posted online every single time.

At some level does the owner of the plaza have any liability in in in this ordinance? Yes. I mean it it it would be applicable as far as the violations because it's at it's it's the parking lot's owner's property. It's private property. They can regulate it. Right. Right. Right. And then you know liability. they might have liability too like with the stabbing because this but I think that's a good question uh mayor because a lot of this is for the bar owner and I do think that uh the the plaza owner needs to also if your plaza's been called right then the plaza owner should have a a peace officer until the parking lot is cleared

right we and that's something that we can add we can add requirements for the um owners as well not just the operators Uh, one thing on the security the what we could do is clarify because we can't say you have to hire offduty police officers from Brownsville only. No, but what we could say is I've been saying ace officer. Well, well, yes. So, we we could identify officer doesn't have to be a Brownsville police officer. What we could say is a commissioned officer. A commission. So, you could be security officer that's commissioned that's allowed to carry a gun.

Whatever that is, I'm saying someone who has a badge. And the other thing I wanted to also clarify not just for commission but also for the attendees, thank you for coming and giving your comments. It provides a perspective that we don't have from this side. Um but but as a reminder, we started off the presentation with saying is a two-step approach. So this immediate ordinance is to address those in current current operation. Um, the planning is coming forward in the next month or so with a UDC amendment that will require new bars, this includes downtown to um comply with similar regulations, right? So, it would be enforced through zoning for those that are considered legal non-conforming. Let's say, oh no, Joe's downtown bar um is currently established and they're not compliant with this. There are remedies that we can use to get them into compliance that we can talk offline. Um but there is a two-step approach. So the first step is this because this is the more immediate issue. Um and it won't grandfather anybody. It's applicable now. And then citywide we are gonna uh implement. What I'm saying is what I'm proposing is that this that you're seeing here is citywide. And I am proposing that it's all of it, you know, citywide

and that you backtrack it. It's not grandfathered. So, if downtown's been called for fights and whatever and and you can come up with whatever the commission can say that, hey, if your plaza's been called more than three times, then you already have to have a peace officer, a commissioned officer. You have to. Why? Because your plaza is a hot zone. Whether that be downtown, whether that be Pablo Kel, whether that be anywhere in Brownsville city limits, you're a hot zone. And any other plaza that gets to that level is now going to be forced to have that. And we have a a ordinance in place that the chief can say this plaza now you have to have commissioned officers here and the owner you have to have commissioned officers here until whatever until the place is cleared which would be up to 3 3:30 in the morning sometimes in these parking lots. Some of these videos are taken at 3:00 in the morning and they stop serving. But again, but I think having all of Brownsville make sure that you're 21, that you have uh uh uh the the reader, that that you're people shouldn't be drinking while serving, that you have everything here. I don't think I don't think it's common sense that every bar should be doing. I don't think why we should restrict it to a certain area.

I have a I have a question if you're done, sir. Yeah, I'm done

real quick. It's so I agree with Commissioner Riad 100%. I do think it should be maybe a two strike and it should be renewed every year uh so you can have a clean slate at the beginning of the year, blah blah blah. But um my issue is let's say downtown or any other restaurant that is not in a plaza. So if somebody's fighting on the street, how do we figure it out? Like where do where does their responsibility start? Right? What I mean by that is uh I know we have a smoking ordinance that says 20 ft from the door. First of all, it's not even nobody gives you a ticket for it. But but how far out do the people go fight till it's the next person's responsibility on the street? Not not necessarily in a plaza, but on a street. If you're fighting outside of Washington, whose fault is it from the three bars or four bars? I

I would say that it's all those bars. So everything because it's downtown. That that's what I would say. They hop around all of them in downtown. People don't just go downtown to sit at one bar. So I I think that's everywhere. I think that that's Commissioner Golonsky a lot downtown. And I can tell you that you walk into one and then you walk into another and you see the same people. Hey, what's up? Yeah. I I agree with you. But we just have to figure out how to put it on paper, right? Just figure out how to put it on paper. So it is, but I I think it's I think downtown Market Square is its plaza. That that would be my opinion.

That makes sense. Now, I do think that it should be a two strike. I think it's it's fair. Uh if you have a real issue, it happens a lot. It's not going to be a one and I mean, it would terrible for January the 7th to happen. You stay forever. I'm with you. I'm saying I'm throwing this out there to say what I'm hearing them is that that security one is going to put them out of business and and especially when they're going we're complying and we're not having any issues. It's all these other bars that are allowing these things to happen that don't have all these things we've already invested in. Yeah, I agree. So I think that's the reason I say one all of them adapt this now and enforce.

But what if we what if we call the police before a situation happens? Would would that be considered a strike to prevent the issue from happening? See, I I think that's the kind of things we have to figure out. But I think that's what we want, right? What we want is to stop the fights. It's not, hey, call PD and you're in trouble.

Multiple times I'm at Sha Pablo and I call the police way before something happens. Like I I need somebody here now before before they start swinging or something starts happening or one the these two big groups start going at each other. I've done it multiple times now. I think the plaza manager has it mandatory to Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We go. We used to do it all week, but sales are down, so we couldn't do it no more. So, we do it Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And then the other days we have somebody at the door checking and doing his due diligence to not let any minors in. Now, I don't know about all the other bars doing that or just laying anybody else anybody in. So, so the the constable that you have isn't intervening in those fights that are that are about to happen.

It goes back to like what Rick Monzo says if he's out the door. Oh, you're talking about outdoor parking lot. In the parking lot. Okay. Bar rarely very rarely does something happen inside or not or not at all. It's literally outside. Nine times out of 10 or or really 10 times out of 10, all the fights are in the parking lot. Correct. Well, 99 nine out of 10. Yes.

Parking lot. Yes. And that's called you know try to come and help us out sometimes most part when there's a lot of police presence there. A lot better. We're glad to see the cops out there. When we see the cops out there, the drone out there, we're like, "Oh, great. Okay, we can start picking up. We can start mopping. We can start, you know, everybody's out of the park.

We we've even gone as far as to if we see you on video fighting, you're you're banned from the bar. You're you can't come in here no more because we already know how you are and how you're going to act. We've banned multiple people from entering the establishment again. And that goes for both places. You mess up at Pablo, you can't go into Bruskis. you mess up at Bruskies, you can't go into Pablo. And it's it goes hand in hand. But if you're out fighting and we know you, hey man, we just can't have you there. We don't we don't want that problem here. Would you gentlemen be opposed to what I'm proposing? Would you be opposed to what I'm proposing?

Well, that's what I'm proposing. I don't know what anybody else here is thinking. I'm asking if if if would you be opposed for the like Commissioner Carden says like you get a two two strike every year and when you're in that for the rest of the year chief has the ordinance to come shut you down if you don't have a commissioned officer you would be okay with that But but commissioner, I I think the of course the what we're really talking about is this one plaza. I think the plaza owner needs to hold hold some accountability to this too. How do we do that? Uh, Mayor Cowan said that part of what I'm proposing would be to hold the add the plaza owner to this. And the same thing, his plaza or her plaza has two strikes, that third one. Now, it's the bars and the plaza owner that are on the hook for having those constables because they're going to have them until 2 a.m. and then once they're out their door. But the plaza owner, if you if you if you violated, you better have someone there to your parking lot clears or the chief can show up and say, "Hey, you have three bars that equal this amount of square footage in your plaza. That equals four commissioned officers that should be in this parking lot clearing it."

So why? because you're plaza. So, I think what the plaza manager is doing is he's hiring uh one offduty or conible to patrol on the days that we don't have constipals, which is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and that one officer is patrolling the area, going around the going around the parking lot a couple times or and you know, doing his job to try to try to stop these situations from happening. But the plaza manager is putting it on us to rotate and pay that officer. Hey, this bar pays it Monday, this bar pays it Tuesday, this bar pays it uh Wednesday and you know so on and keep it in rotation.

Look, we we all know where it's coming from. You're you're you're singling out One Plaza. We get it. Facebook does it. Bronzeville Hood News is posting every single every single fight. I get it. My thing is is okay, if TABC is not going to come and enforce this minor drinking situation, how are you going to help us with that problem? My thing is if we don't have an ordinance, we the chief has very little to go off of, so that's the reason that an ordinance needs to be in place. And I think that that if the chief this this becomes well this is what it is.

Chief if TABC doesn't want to get involved. Can you do or does it have to be the state? No sir we can. You can. We were we were there this weekend doing board checks. Okay. Aside from the operation that we run for the fights. Okay. This now just provides fines that are hefty. and consequences that are costly. I think a $500 fine is not hefty enough. What would you recommend? Go big. 2,002,500. Hit them. Hit them where it hurts if they're because they're going to keep doing it.

Now, the issue on on the fines, um, council is $2,000. Who's the fine for? Is it all 13 bars? So, it's we just got to figure out, right,

where you're going to hit it, how it's going to happen. So, uh, several things. The fir the first is to address the comment about who would be liable at the three bars, right? Because they're hopping from bar to bar as an example. We the the individual who would be um getting cited would be the individual that is causing the issue in that instance, right? Because they're outside of the facility. In this particular ordinance, we are just ensuring that the operator in the next rendition, the property owner provides the security if y'all adopt the one, two strikes, provides the um the other adequate lighting and the cameras, right? So, that's that's what we would be looking at to enforce, not necessarily, okay, these guys are fighting now. We need to figure out where they came from so we can sight the owner, too. That that's really not intended. It's intended to prevent the fighting. Not sometimes it might might still occur, but um in the instance of of course through the process of investigation, we find out they're minors and they were drinking at some other bar and they have their receipts, etc., then we can go after the operator at that point, right? Um or a TABC should. The other thing I was going to say is there's a a lot of amendments being made and and amendments in the first region is okay, but if we expand it citywide, when you do a business district, the central business district, you can only do it in an area where 90% of it is commercial, right? So only 10% can be residential. So what whatever y'all decide this evening, what I would propose is you either table it so we can come back with some modifications or approve this as modified. If you reduce the area, that's fine. You can reduce it. Maybe you remove Ruben M to um Sunra Boulevard. If you reduce it, that's fine. But expanding it, I think you would have an issue by having that

adopted this evening and then go back the second reading because those property owners haven't had um advanced notice of the public hearing, right? So, what I would recommend a city can have more than one central business district. It doesn't have to have just one. We could have still do the two-step approach to have it in the zoning ordinance. So have a UDC amendments, but we can have a midtown business district and then we can have a downtown business district. And we can include the residential homes, but the areas that we know where their businesses are, we can have a smaller downtown business district that has these same requirements with the one two strikes and bring that at the next commission meeting. So if you approve this with amendments, this would be second reading. first reading would be for downtown at the January 20th meeting. So I I like that what he said if you didn't is we we did have conversations with you guys. We haven't had the conversations with the downtown bar owners. Not that it would be different. It's give us a chance to this is Midtown entertainment district. we would create the exact same ordinance to copy it with a downtown entertainment district with us having just the ability to sit down and give them a forum to say, "Hey, that's not fair. How am I going to pay for this and what am I going to do?" But at the end of the day, my my hope is that this commission um by going out and discussing it with them and just hearing them out, but letting them know this is to me no-brainer stuff what you guys are doing. No, it's it's simple stuff. Simple stuff that every bar that serves should already be doing.

It's every bar that ser serves alcohol should be doing responsibly. Period. It would be trailing It would be trailing you by two weeks. Sure.

There's after hour beer being sold. I mean, these are easy things that we can deal with. I mean, as a city, as you know, PD, you go on Facebook, there's 20 different pages. You can buy afterhour liquor, beer, get it delivered to your house, get it delivered to anywhere you want to get it delivered to. Those are, I mean, those are other problems that we're dealing with, right? But those are loopholes that we're leaving open. And people take advantage of them. And us business owners that are trying to survive, trying to pay sales tax, trying to pay, you know, inventory tax, trying to pay, you know, all our taxes. I mean, it's hard at the end of the day when somebody else is doing the same thing you were doing. They're just doing it in a loophole with where they're out of the little zoning area.

So, so yeah. So, will how does anyway, I I just don't know, but I'm not an attorney. how this just can't be to any bar citywide meaning just any establishment. I think it would be a certificate of occupancy with the UDC. Wouldn't you be able to do it with Yeah, it would be it would be through the UDC. How long does that take? I'm sorry. How long would that take? That would I mean I think we already published notice for UDC. No, we haven't. But we would probably be February, March. Okay. So, could we start with the plaza, which right now is the issue, and leave everything else under the UDC? As a pilot. As a pilot. Under the UDC. And then when the UDC comes in,

this one goes away and everything is blanketed under the same one. Yeah, we could do that. We could either keep this.

Well, here's the thing. Under the UDC, because there are zoning issues, they would be legal non-conforming, right? So they would not have to comply under the UDC. There's an option for us to um buy them out of that legal non-conforming status to make them conforming. Like if we're going to require them that they conform to the UDC at that time, then it's kind of like a takings. We could give them money and then they would have to comply and shut down. But like current bars in the UDC, they would be um legal non-conforming under those rules. It would only apply to new bars, new establishments that come in, which is the reason why we're doing the Midtown Entertainment District because it's immediate under um a different set of uh policing powers that the city has. I mean, we can also do V just various districts around town, not just downtown, right? There's on Central Boulevard, there's different strips that are commercial areas,

right? I mean, but but keep in mind, too, and this is not to offend anybody, but the you're not hearing about I mean, I haven't heard about downtown crimes like I'm hearing about Well, they just came out this weekend. Sorry. It just happened this weekend. This weekend downtown. Yeah. Yeah. So, it could happen anywhere, any moment. For me, this is not a punishment and and I think it's being seen that way. Like, this should be something that our city has across the board. Like, we should be proud of that as commissioners. We just want to work with you guys, work with the police. We want to work with you guys, but like we need something done now. No, I I get that. I'm saying But I'm with it. Like, I I want

You want to put the pilot on us now? The same way you want us to do this now, we want something done now as well. Yeah, I'm with it. I'm saying my my thing is I want to I want to know that in Brownsville, every bar owner has to abide by this, not just certain bar owners. I have a quick question just for clarification, Commissioner. Yeah. Um, this ordinance we're entertaining is just for the entertainment district or is it an ordinance? Well, I I was trying to do the whole city, but citywide and I only asked because well, saying we can't do citywide.

I've seen I mean, if we're holding the bar establishments to that, I've seen um events happen as well where there's fights or there they have alcohol, but they don't hold them to the same degree as one security officer for so many occupants. Do you follow what I'm saying? Like it's not just bars, it's also a venue, right? Yeah. And and again, if it's citywide, there should be four venues. It should be for bars. It should be for anybody who's allowing alcohol to be in their establishment. You know what, Commissioner? I I think it should be citywide because if we're going to treat one one way, correct,

everybody else to be needs to be treated the same way. I mean, that's just I guess the nature of the game or but yeah, one needs to be treated like everybody else. Okay. And now, let's say you get the two strikes. have to get to two strikes. You have to have a constable every night or you can't open.

I that's something again I want to do something now, but I I would the way commissioner Cardana said and I would need the help of everybody here. I would say that uh that that you have to do that on Thursday through Sunday. I mean that but that's just me. I again I go I do go out I don't think I don't go out on Monday Tuesday which is something we another way it's something we already do. No I I and that's what I'm saying like so like how is how is the ordinance helping us if it's something we already do? Well do your neighbors do it? Yeah. No. Well there you go. That's how it's going to help. That's how this is helping you. That's how it's going to help.

Your neighbors would have to do it. Now they will have to do it. And now the chief has something to go find them for not doing it. Okay. All right with that.

Like what I'm trying to say is I'm not trying to put extra things on you guys. You guys are coming in here telling us we need help. The help is arming our our our our chief and the police to have an ordinance and a fine to be able to go in there and have a leg to stand on to say this is something that you have to do. And and I would go as far as as to to say like, you know, beyond you pay the fine, Commissioner Cardonas. It's February. I'm already too strikeed in. I've got a commit I've got a commissioned officer here. At what point do the fines shut you down? That's a real good question because if if it's ah, you know, fine, but I'm selling a ton of music. the the fine the fine for a minor.

Yeah, absolutely. 500 is that going to be just one time? Like if there's 15 minors in there, are then they going to be fined 500 or they going to be fined 500 for each head? Yeah. No, I think that 500 should be more. No, but I mean I think it should be per person and that's what they're saying. Again, these fines need to be serious, but these fines also need to be where at at what point does the chief have and the city of Brownsville have the right to say, "We're shutting you down for 90 days." I mean

are even though they're not parking lot makes a huge difference with the lights on. It makes a huge difference. It makes us feel safer as bar owners. It makes our c our our customers feel safer that are leaving the establishment and the employees feel safer. But I think if the fines are heftier, I think they're more serious. I think bars will stop and eliminate the minors. Bars will stop and eliminate if you think twice about serving or over sererving somebody because there's somebody now watching. You know, I agree with you. Well, how can we make this a citywide thing?

Well, under the under the current the statutory scheme of the state, we can only do it in the in the central business district. So, we couldn't we couldn't regulate um citywide under this one. What we were going to do citywide was to do the UDC amendments that would require But the UDC would be new businesses.

Yeah. for new businesses. If we wanted to make it apply to um current businesses, there is a process for that. Might have to pay a little bit bit of money, but we could um go through that process for those that are currently in place. And we don't have to do it for all businesses. We could do it for those that are actually like, you know, one or two strikes, hey, you're going to have to start complying. And then we end up paying for them to comply. Um that's how we would do it citywide. the the other when we say we're going to pay for that. Who who are we paying that to? The property owner.

I I don't think that's an option. I don't think we want to go and pay all these property owners to comply.

Right. But if if if you if if you want to make it citywide to where it applies to those that are already grandfathered in, then you couldn't do it through the central business district scheme that TABC allows, you would have to do it through the zoning policing powers. And under the zoning policing powers, when you change a land use, that property owner has grandfathering. So they're called legal non-conforming. And so in 2023, the state legislature changed the process to where if you're going to make a business conform with your current zoning at the time, you can do that, but you're going to have to pay them. And so if we want to make it citywide and have it apply to everybody at the same time, including those businesses that are already opened, then we would have to go that route, right? um to make it citywide, you could do the UC. Um but that would be again that would only be for businesses that have not become vested, that have not submitted an application or a permit request to open up. Now, the Midtown entertainment district, as I said earlier, if there's a central business district, we can we can either include the downtown along the highway to include to make it a bigger district or um make a couple smaller ones. Um, state law doesn't define how many you can have. They do speak in the singular, but you know, we

Does state law have large district needs to be? It only says that you can only have 80% um 90% has to be commercial. So only 10%. So if you're going to do it, if you're going to make a large entertainment district, right, which is pretty much everywhere in the city, downtown public, uh maybe pareas, but it has to exclude or maybe only contain 10% residential. No, I'm thinking when I say citywide, I'm thinking commercial corridor where you can have a bar. What if you just make the ordinance right now for the plaza and then you go back and you do another ordinance another day?

Yeah, I I agree with him cuz we're going to be here all night. Yeah. And then we work on all the rest of the districts. So, we would approve this but only require the plaza for the security guard part or only approve this for the plaza.

Well, I guess we can do it peacemail with when it comes to the map. Can we bring up the map, Carlos? Are you keeping it in this boundary or are you shrinking it? I would prefer to keep it and but only require this plaza to have the security guard the additional requirement that they they have security guards because they are a problem that that works for me. Now the thing is when does it start and how fast is the first check on the minor situation?

So it would start um in two weeks. We'd have to go through a second reading of this and then it would be effective immediately. That would be for everybody in this zone.

And then we're working on other zones. Will just finished telling us we'd have to open different zones and the state does not limit how many zones we have, but we can't do it citywide or we would have to. If I'm a smart businessman and I have a bar downtown, I want to try to get these bars shut down. Okay, I'm just giving you an example. Somebody goes in and starts calling from downtown or somebody from downtown send somebody to go get strikes on us while they're not under any other ordinance. I don't think it's fair. That's that's my problem. I know his problem is the minor because there's a lot of minor in that plaza. My problem is just keeping it fair with all the bars and ground all the I don't think I I I don't think that it's right that we're being excluded from something. I know you guys say you're going to work on the downtown. What happens if the downtown doesn't happen? We're stripped out, we go out of business because we can't afford it or something happens, somebody fights outside, then downtown gets more business, you know, because downtown is not included. I think it should be a whole wrap around.

I mean, that's my Well, we just we're legally can't.

So, so I think that the the districts are fine and we do all that. Uh we have somebody who's in the plaza who's asking for it to be started at his plaza. Why do we not start at his plaza where is all the issues are at? I mean that's where we had a fight one fight on the weekend here downtown I think. But most fights are in that area. He wants it there. Why don't we start with that? Work on all the details for every other district. We expand it when it's time. You're happy with it because you don't feel you're singled out. you're happy with it because we start with your with your plaza where we have the root of the issues right now and I think it gives the opportunity for us to work out the kinks and have our chief be able to start acting at that plaza. I don't think we should hold it up but I also I understand where Mr. Muscle's coming from because this does look kind of kind of

I don't know. That's my thought. Okay. I mean, Rick, I know I know what you're trying to accomplish, but if you're if you're in compliance, you're gonna be fine. No, we got no help on the north side. We didn't get grants. We called EDC. There was no money. I'm with it. And if I could draw and if we could draw if we could draw a line here all the way to downtown and keep it 90% commercial, we would do it. But we'd have to we need I just think that all the bars should be held liable on the same level. Okay. But you just finished hearing that we can't do it like that legally, right? We'd have to pay every property owner out.

Like to see that. Well, I'm pretty sure all the taxpayers of the city of Brownsville would not. Taxpayers of Brown wouldn't like to see a lot of things that go, but it's still happening. Well, then we pay you guys out and and tell me what part of the budget we cut. Why don't you go down Elizabeth? There's a lot of commercial down Elizabeth. Well, and again, we're going to address that through the UDC and this additional The UDC is a new business. The UDC I'm not worried about. I'm worried about current businesses that are operating in Brown. Uh,

I mean, I think Mayor Conan already said it. Leave it how it is. do the downtown district, put the the constables at the plaza, uh, and minor checkups. That's that's what that's what I want and that's what I need. There is more work to be done in the downtown because it they're not in plazas, right? So, there's more there are distinct that it's going to be different, right? Right. More work we have to do there,

but we are going to do it. I can tell you that it it'll be soon. It won't it won't be very long. We have the framework. We just need to modify it. We're committed to to to being fair here. We I I understand. And if we could do it, Rick, we're doing you. You've seen me ask questions for 45 minutes. I'm trying to do that. But I think right now it's

fine because they said that they were going to force it. They were going to do this. They were going to do that. that we see. No, I lost a million dollars in sales. I can show you my my and we did it because we wanted No, we wanted we wanted to make sure that we didn't. So, this this owner is asking for something tonight, the one right next to you. And if we don't do what what we can do tonight, then we're going to wait until March to create as many districts as it takes to then apply it in March or April. It's just going to get worse. We got uh I I try to get Rick to understand if you sat in this seat, what would you do? I

Mr. Yeah, he just do his his plaza and then we and what we do. I I I agree with that. If they want to do the plaza, do the plaza just like you said and work and work on the districts in March.

I think right now it's priority first. I also want to point out um Rick, I think you're incredible. You've always been such a leader. Really appreciate everything that you're doing. Uh but I also want to comment, I know earlier today we mentioned that there was about six to seven bars that open within that area alone. So I think it's just highly competitive as well. And then number two is just about priorit prioritizing the the stopping the pulling out the guns, the aggressiveness in these videos. It's just very scary. We definitely do need to prioritize that area. I'm sorry if it may seem that we're just targeting one area. Um I do see some of the valid points that you guys bring and I also agree that we need to start off with the plaza. Um start off there and then we go on to the rest of of the city. But prioritizing the prioritization right now is that Plaza and you know earlier today I I lament Commissioner um DeLeon who spoke very passionately with much frustration and that's what I hear within these bar owners. You know they're doing all that you can. I mean I haven't heard anything bad coming in from your bars. I know earlier in the years on there was things that were happening across from your bar in the parking lot and things have settled in and I don't know if that crowd ended up going to this other area. The six bars that are opening are attracting more people and it just seems like the party place to be but right now safety is a concern. We do need to prioritize it. Let's start out with the plaza and then we move on to the rest. I would like to see the plaza prioritized as well. And I just personally speaking, I don't feel comfortable going with a half idea forward. I would like for us to really think it out citywide, district by districts, or whatever it may be. But not a half idea. I I can't get behind that.

Or even a one-year pilot program. I I totally agree. I I think I hate to use CTV Wonderman, but I'm going to throw him out there again. We already know where the problem's at. Uh let's take care of that problem now. Let will uh can you work on a whole city deal after that? Because what we what I don't what what I don't want happen and I think the restaurant commissioner is we we take care of that problem and then they're just going to jump to another they're going to probably jump to another plaza. Then by the time we know it, they're going to end up jumping downtown, right?

So once we we take care of that one plaza, I think we could do it tonight and and get it going and then uh you can come back to us will with doing the whole city like Mr. uh Commissioner Val uh because I think the whole city is going to need need to be done.

Right. So um sorry I was responding to a text. um to management. So, so we could do we can adopt this to address that initial issue. And the reason why this was drafted the way it was, you heard earlier planning was looking to see because that's going to happen. They're going to oh, this is applicable here. I'm going to end up relocating. So, our attempt was to prevent them from relocating anywhere near this because that's kind of where all the bars are congregating. So what we can do, we can look at this in a year, right? If you pass this or for first reading, we can look at it as amended, we can look at it in a year and see what needs to be done in in the interim. We can come back and do something for downtown and the other areas and then of course the the UDC amendments. Um, does that answer your question? So what's the plaza? What's the plaza? Where? Which one? I don't know. Where are the 13 bars at? Which one?

No. What? Put it on the map. Which one is it? Sunshine Plaza. Put it Put it on the Put on the map. All right. Sunshine Plaza. We do 21 and over. What's Sunshine Plaza? It's cuz I I'm I'm not trying to be I'm trying to be serious. I don't know what plaza we're talking right next to the bowling alley. It's the one where What bars are in there? Uh, what bars are in there? Huh? What bars are in the plaza? Yes.

Uh, you have Bar Rio, Va Loca, uh, Hong Kong. I I think it's changing names. Shots on Pablo, Peacocks, the Jungle on Pablo, Caprico, Antrito, Glassico, Balver, and I think there's another bar opening called O2 oxygen. Is that is is that the same is all of are all of those in just that one? That's Juan Plaza like in that there there was only four bars. There was only four bars when shots on Pablo opened up and only two bars only two bars in the plaza. Three actually. Three bars in the plaza.

We're not counting Shot Republic. No sir. No, that's a different plaza. So you don't think that those kids are going to just go fight over here? No. Shot Republic is 25 and over. No, I get it. Just after hours at 2, three. The the fights that we've seen are in the fights we've seen. I'm asking if that's the only targeted area. You don't think they're just going to go drink in the same bars and then just go fight at the Meoto parking lot?

I mean, they could, but I don't see that. I mean they do they do fight at they do out fight uh change the name quervo quvo they they have fought there also at both plazas I'm just saying I don't see like how we're going from small to next week we're going to find a fight somewhere else and then we're going to let's increase it. So, so I believe that the fights are there because there's 13 bars with 60 people each. Uh, that's a thousand people drunk in one parking lot coming out at the same time. Yes. And if we just isolate that one parking lot, I'm asking, they're not going to go to the next parking lot. No, cuz they're fighting right there. I really believe that they're fighting there.

I know. But when they find out that this little map just targets that one parking lot, but but the the people who are going to be targeted are the bar owners. It's the bar owners are the ones who are going to have to comply. If you fight anywhere in browser, you're held accountable. It can be in one plaza. It can be outside city hall. It can be outside your parking lot, at your house, in your driveway. You can't fight there. So, you're not stopping the kids from fighting. You're stopping the bars from not taking responsibility is what we're trying to do. What we're trying to make sure is those other 12 bars that are there besides his, if they get two strikes, you will have 13 police officers or peace officers as we named them outside. Will they move in the future? Yeah, probably some will. Maybe some will even close. Uh now I I do believe that there's the leases are coming up for a lot of these bars and there's going to be an entrance to main event I mean to embassy suites. I've heard that those are going to skyrocket the the the rent. So, I mean, we don't even know how long it's going to be. Um,

we don't know how long, but it's it's hurting us right now. So, I mean, if you think that it has to be the whole area, well, that that's that's fine with me. But I understand that Mr. Maso says, "Hey, make it fair." I get it. And he's trying to say, "Hey, put it today." So, start with this plaza. I mean, it it's 13 bars or the ordinance there. You can amend the ordinance. Have this. Hey, we're this plaza, Sunrise Plaza has to follow the security guidelines.

Legal. Would we be in any way, shape, or form liable if we were in a way to t it? It sounds bad, right? But target this plaza to just implement something onto one area. Are we could we be liable for something? I wouldn't say liable but potentially we can get challenged because you have to consider what is it a challenge you have all the evidence

lost suit so ex postf facto loss you can't punish like the way you can't punish someone for for for a past crime right you can't same thing with businesses if it was in the past if we didn't have anything in place you can't punish that business for past actions only when it's adopted moving forward And so we could attempt to go after and enforce it on Sunshine Plaza. Um but I think they would have a good defense against us on that. Uh and I wouldn't stand the other concern that I have is eco protection. Um if we are targeting one or two businesses but not the rest, then they can come after the city or even higher damages. Right. Okay, we can't get this done today, but when can we start getting checks on the minors?

Can we do Can we all agree on that? The 21 and over. I'm I'm trying to get that done tonight in the entire city. Okay, but I went from I went from the entire city shrunk down to one parking lot. So, I get my my opinions here don't work. You want to go to the whole city, we go but we can't get it done tonight. When can we start getting people or a unit there checking for minors?

Can we just pass that tonight? This will deal this map tonight and will in front of Mr. Maso and the other gentlemen, can you please find a way to do the rest of the city? I don't care how we do it or what we need to do or whatever, but right so everybody and he knows that hey, you know what? We're asking you to figure out how we can do it. So the whole Brownsville so we can make make everybody happy and everybody's going to be treated the same. That's

right. Right. So what we recommend um or what I recommend is you adopt this including the map as amended. Um my understanding from the comments is you want to remove the electronic ID verification. No, we want to keep it. You want to keep it. Yeah. Yes. No. No. It said $500. Keep it. It's a two-factor system. You want to get it with a two factor system. You keep But what you do want to enforce is the commission security officer. You only want that if there's two strikes. Yes.

Yes. Because the plaza manager is already mandatory for the other bars to have it. Doesn't matter if you have an ordinance. The plaza manager has it in place for us as bar owners to have constables on on on site. So wait, and that's my question is if it's already applicable to you to have them on site because of your property owner, your landlord, what I need help with the minors. That's what my That's what my situation is, right? So for the property owner that's not requiring it anywhere else, what would be the issue if we just start requiring it now rather than a two- strike system,

right? Right. I mean, because it sounds like the these property owners are already doing or um business operators are already doing the issue for me is listening to Mr. Maso saying it's going to cost him $65,000 for a business and he has three.

It's probably more Mr. Muscle because one of them is over 70. Oh, you're at 168. I'm just saying. So, so, so what we're doing is because because we know that they're already doing it. They they already doing it. He has a minor problem issue. Yeah, I get it. We're going to solve this with that ordinance because of the difference, but we're not going to affect Mr. Muscle with this ordinance unless we put a two strike policy there. All right. So, so security officer is required if two strike situation and then um the property owners need to also be not security commissioned officer. Yeah, security. Well, well, they they they're not they're they're security officers, but they're commissioned security officer. So, there's a difference. They're not peace officers, if you will, that are

require commission. We can't require that. But we can require a commissioned security officer, but they have the same type of training as a police officer in Brownsville, but they don't have the right to arrest. Sorry. But they don't have the right They don't have the the legal right to arrest. No, they're they're commission I know I know I know what they won't do. They're able to carry a weapon. Yeah, but can arrest? Yeah, but they can't arrest. They can enforce a law.

Yes, they can still come. That's I get it. So you're telling me, will that we can't legally ask them to have a peace officer, which means a peace officer is like a constable the way that his that his landlord makes him have one. We as a city can't do that. So So how does this help any of this? Yeah. I mean, how does any of this help then if they can't go out there and stop the landlord the landlord needs to put one out, right? Yeah, you're absolutely right, John. Uh, mayor, we'll go back and forth all day,

but at the end of the day, the fights are not inside. The fights are outside in the street. You get any police officer, commission, uh, Pinocchio, whatever, as long as it's outside, no one's going to do anything. No security guard or commission officer, peace officer that's already inside is going to go outside and and and arrest someone. It's only going to be Bronzo PD that they're going to be called to come and do this. Correct, Chief? So the occupancy code, Texas occupy code 1702 prohibits us from mandating. Nothing says that we can't advise or we can't suggest like they do in in their plaza, right, where they have the owner of the plaza require them or mandate them to get a licensed peace officer.

Can we mandate the property owner? No. No. Mr. Mel suggest question only if it's in a city facility. So like the owner I'm sorry did the owner of the plaza ever tell the tenants that they had to hire a un a uniform police officer for outside? Mr. Muscle, can you speak into the mic whenever you respond? No, sir. Thank you. Sorry. Well, if we were to approve some of these things, just for clarification, we have to approve it first and recognize it as the entertainment district. uh the Midtown Entertainment District. The Midtown Entertainment District.

So, if you are ready to move forward with this, it would be a motion to approve as amended. And of course, you were finishing the amendments, right? Yeah, we were finishing the amendments. I I understand the the uh commission security officer, uh if the two strikes, um property owners need to um share in the responsibility too if they're not compliant. And well, sharing the responsibility, but up until their parking lot is cleared, right? And I I was going to require that the property owners, if they're going to um have these type of establishments, they need to provide security as well outside the facility till it's cleared. Yeah. Not until they close.

And so those are the amendments I have. As far as the boundary, my understanding is the boundary is not changing. And did y'all want to make this a pilot to where we come back and revisit? I would do it a pilot. And I would tell you, Rick, that we're going to fulfill this citywide. I mean, we have to, but we can't just do it tonight and and not even know what we're paying for every bar owner. We have no idea how many bars are and how we're paying everybody out. And we're

That's why that's why I think that a little bit more work has to be put into this. I think that we're up here and we're we're guessing and we're talking and having a conversation, but I think there's still a lot to talk about. I think there's, you know, like Mr. Martina said, you know, we need to go back. We need to look at the fines. We need to, you know, we want the fines. We want to stop the fights. We're not against it at all. I just think that it has to be organized and it has to be done right. You know, we have four commissioners up here already that have already said, let's start with one plaza. Let's start where the problems at. I mean, we're still here discussing the the the whole zone here. So, Mr. Russell, we have two weeks between now and the second reading to work on this, right? So we we

you can approve this whole district tonight and you can come back for the second reading and we can amend it however we'd like. Right. But at the end of the day for if the goal is to have the whole city, we can't go shrinking to one parking lot. We just can't. I can't do that. We can't go shrinking to one area either. I mean I I just don't see it as fair. I I I and I think four of the commissioners on the board have said that tonight. Well, then they'll outvote me. Can we do 21 and over and then $2,000 fine if they're caught with a minor? And that's 2,000 per minor. Well, TAB I mean, well, I I'll let you answer if you want, but TABC has their own fines for that. State law has their own fines that we can TC is not around,

right? But the police officers can enforce some of that. When it comes to fines under this one, we are limited to what we're able to find. And so it would be 2,500. Um, but my understanding is of course we can arrest those that are serving minors and minors that are drinking and then we can take them to the DA's office and have the DA prosecute them under those. So we would arrest minors and then arrest No, we wouldn't arrest minors. Minors would um MIP I guess you would 17 and older. Yeah, you probably could, but it's against the law for the bartender to serve a minor, right? So those are the ones that would receive the higher charge,

right? Okay. So can we So what fine can we implement? I just we let's get something done today. I know we we talked 2,000 is the highest fine that the city can charge. We have to allege a mental state. That's good. That takes away what they made the whole night. That that is what we are already establishing in the ordinance.

So we do the ID verification 21 and over and then the $2,000 fine. Yes, for health to that that could be that could be reported to TABC and with so many infractions with TABC, they'll yank your license. So if you're letting minors drink in your establishment and you get caught three times with a minor drinking in your establishment, you're not only going to pay the fines, you're going to lose your license. So that has to be reported. So if you know Brownsville PD does it or we do it or Brownzo PD forces us to do it we're legally bound to report any minors that come in drink if there's a fight if there's anything we're mandated to to report that to TABC in writing. So once you've had three infractions in one year with TABC they can yank your license and that's our goal. I mean our goal is to make sure that minors are not drinking. No, I think

but you guys suggesting the fine be $2,000 for a minor drinking, not 500 because here in the ordinance will it says 500 for all others, 2,000 only for health and safety. Is minor drinking considered safety violation?

And and as a gentleman stated, you know, hit them where it hurts. So it's so they can really understand the severity of this because we're tired. You know, we're seeing it on social media. It looks bad on us. We genuinely care. We're active. Some of us take phone calls at 12:00 a.m. 2 in the morning. I know Commissioner Dejon has been out there in the bars at 2 a.m. with, you know, the fire department. And so we let's get something done. So 21 and over, $2,000 fine, ID verification implemented here for now. I do think we need to wait on the security officers. Um I know as Mr. Mas, I really value your input because like you said, you have three and um what that cost would look like for you and you see other people getting certain helps and it just seems unfair and unjust and I don't want to be implementing more onto you that you already have. So, you know, your business has already declined double over this last year. I don't want to be implementing any more additional cost on you because at that point it's like why even be in business?

So, I'm sorry. I was going to say because to answer Commissioner Vya's question, I think the fines right now, the the the the fine scheme is is is within the legal limits already.

Um through the investigation of the police department, if they find that someone in the particular establishment has been selling to a minor, it's actually a class A misdemeanor. So, they can be uh receive a punishment of up to 4,000 per minor per violation uh up to a year in jail or both. And they also could get um a six-month driver license suspension. So then the the the fines is at the which the I know it's TABC but the police department is also in char uh empowered to enforce this as well. If they find that then they can then Yes. So it overlaps. Right. Right. It's overlapping. And so but I I guess to answer the question I think the fines are are they're already maxed out. Okay, Will, one last one. I if a bar if one of those 13 bars closes,

can we make sure that one doesn't open up? Can we place it that one? You want to have a maximum number? No, no, no. Just so that another if one closes down, they're going to one a person's going to go in there and open up another bar, right? So, if they So, let's say just as an example, Mr. Mr. Masel Masel.

Yeah. Let's say Mr. Masel decides to close one of his bars down. Um I guess you're leasing your own property. So he decides to sell his property and his business and somebody else comes in. They would have to comply under this entertainment district. I guess to answer your question, my question would be, are you saying put a restriction of reopening? No. What he's saying is the Plaza, Sunshine Plaza, has 13 bars, why do we have so many bars if we don't have enough parking, right? Kind of deal. And if one for for whatever reason, one shut down, they could not open up another one.

Yeah. On that one, I would defer to planning because I don't know how they calculate the parking ratio to the bars that are currently there. Um, it's possible, right, that they're not eligible for a CEO. I just don't, again, I don't know what the parking ratio is and and the um,

yeah, he already repl at this time, I'll entertain a motion to close public comment. Move second motion and second. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor, please say I. I. Those oppos say nay. I just have a motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Public hearing. We're going to vote. We're going to vote right now. Get a motion on this item. I move to approved as amended. We have a motion. We have a second. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? I have discussion really quick. Can I ask that when we bring it back that it be a public hearing again?

It will be okay. Well, it should be we'll put it. Correct. Yeah. I think it shouldn't be consent. It should be a public Right. Right. Because so many changes. I think that would be Yeah, I think that's I have a discussion on it as well. Sure. Uh if you're doing 12 to 2, it makes no sense. The fights are after 2:00, so push it to three. All the fights are at 215, 220, 225. If you stop with the security guard at 2, you're not solving the issue. I see what you're saying. And part number two is if the security guard can't arrest anybody, we're not going to solve the issue. I just want to leave that on there. Okay. Yeah, we can modify the time.

I accept that as as amended. As amended. Okay. The other comments. All right. Was that with the three or no with the three? Not with the three. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say Nate. I just have a motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have the board appointments item number one. And it's the consideration and action on resolution number 2026-003 to appoint or reappoint members to the park and and the recreation advisory committee. I'm going to push this one. This is the mayor's appointment for the parks recreation advisory board. I'm going to push this one to the next meeting. Thank you.

And then for mine, if you can go back, I would like to um take out my appointment at Patricia Bara and appoint Julio Martinez. Julio Martinez. Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Second and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. I have a motion carries. Next uh item is a consideration and action on resolution number 2026-004 to reactivate and appoint members to the charter review committee.

Yes. So we'll make this really brief. Um next slide. We'll we'll skip this. Um the reason why we're doing this now, not earlier. I know there was a request um last year to review the charter, um we couldn't do it because the earliest that we could have done it was November 2025, if y'all recall. And for those newly elected, um just as a as a heads up, um May of 2025 fell outside of the two years that we're allowed to amend it. So we had to wait. Um, we've kept a list, a really good list of uh requests from commissioners and staff on amendments to the charter. Next slide. And so now we're coming before you all to reactivate the charter review committee. There are two different timelines that we can follow with the committee. Uh I understand this is just to appoint members, but I think the appointment also needs to clarify um what exactly we're asking the committee to do. And so if we have a November 2026 election uh for the charter, this is a synopsis or summary of what it would look like. Um, please also keep in consideration that if we have it with November 2026, um, it is outside of our our normal election period. Um, but we would be sharing it with the state and county and federal. So, the cost of having the election may go down a little bit. Um, and of course we would canvas by November 10th. The next slide. The other option is to have it May 2027. That actually aligns with our election for regular offices, mayor at large A and

district 1 and two. Um this would also the only benefit really from um having the this timeline is um we don't have the influence of the midterms and the state elections. Um but we would have more time to present the amendments to um the elect um the citizens, right? It gives us more time to educate them. November having the election in November and the commission meeting, you would be approving the the charter amendments that will be going before the voters in August. Um that leaves us with the remainder of August, September, October and then you would have your election. And so um the the plus side is um the the it would allow you for those elected to um depending on what is presented before the voters, the timeline of when that would be implemented is contingent on um when the next election will occur, right? So you wouldn't have to wait until the following election. And that will make sense in just a little bit. Uh, next slide. So, the resolution that we be appointing members to um to the the charter review committee would be asking them to um study and present recommendations on compensation for mayor and city commission under section 13. Um it would also be to make um amendments to the audit audit and oversight committee. Um bless you. Uh campaign finance. I know that was a request um when the campaign finance was adopted as an ordinance to codify it as as part of the charter.

And um another another request was um disciplinary provisions uh for city commission members if there's any required and then of course removing the archaic technical and other amendments that are required to bring the charter into compliance. Um we would be asking the committee to have four public hearings. At least two of those locations would need to be throughout the city to solicit feedback. Um, if you have the election in November, they would have to make the final recommendation to you all before Monday, August 17th. So, we're looking at early August, maybe late July, because you would have to call the election by August 17th. So, it'll probably be the meeting before that. Um, if you have it May 20 27th, you would um be receiving the report and final recommendation um probably January, early February because you would have to um uh call the election for that special election for the charter amendments. Um as all committees, they serve at the pleasure of the commission. Each one of you all would have an appointment and they would be subject to all the applicable ethics rules of the chapter 38 as well. And once like the prior committee once the election is complete their um their business is done and we wouldn't have to reactivate them until the next time that y'all decide to amend the charter. Next slide. As a as a reminder, these are the individuals that served on um the LA the 2023 charter amendment uh review committee and I believe a few of them were also on the 2021 charter review committee. Um so we just put this here as a refresher of who was appointed to um each position. Next slide.

And these are the current applicants we have um for for the application. Um of course you can appoint individuals that are outside of these applicants if you you know have spoken to them. Any questions? At what point do we need to decide that the time the time frames

that could be something that's recommended by the charter review committee or decided by the commission? But if we're going to have it um if we could know by February when we start meeting that way we can start the process and having them it goes from a situation of where we like last time we had a few months we met every week until they made the recommendation. It would it wouldn't we won't meet that much but um instead of one monthly if it's 2027 we probably would meet maybe twice a twice a month. So, it would be good to know by February so that we can um plan logistically also with the city secretary's office because we have to work with the county and getting the application the contract for services.

Thank you. I'll have to postpone my appointment until next session. I am as well. Yeah, that's fine. We we wanted to bring this forward to you all so that you can start considering it. Um we didn't anticipate the charter review committee meeting until February anyways. Okay. Can I appoint somebody if I'm ready? Yeah. Okay. I'll go ahead and appoint Daniel Salenas. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carry. I'll postpone mine to the 20th. Anyone else? I'll postpone mine as well. Thank you. Commissioners, are you going to point

Commissioner? I'm gonna I'm gonna hold mine. Okay. So, we're good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next uh item is is item number three. It is a consideration in action on resolution number 2026- 005 to appoint or reappoint members to the Brownsville for the Brownsville Beautifification Committee. Good evening, mayor and city commissioners. So, I'm here to present on behalf of the Browns of Beautifification Committee an assignment for a vacant position um designated by Commissioner Galanski. And I um will appoint Susan Gutierrez. Thank you so much.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Say n. Thank you. Uh next item is item number four. It is the consideration and action of a resolution number 2026-006 uh and also the resolution number 2026-007 to appoint uh or or reappoint members uh to the building and standards commission in the board of adjustment.

Good evening mayor, city commissioners. Uh we have one vacancy for another member. Uh Mr. Melendez resigned almost automatically when he was appointed. Can I So we can appoint one as a as a whole. Can I appoint Gilbert Rodriguez? Second. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Uh if not, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. I have it. Motion carries. Thank you. May we enter into executive session? Mayor. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Eyes have it. Motion carries.

Thank you. The city commission will enter into executive session at 9:55 p.m. for the following items. The uh item number seven is one item under 551.071. Um then the first item under the executive session is pursuant to section 551.071 related to the fiber uh enterprise fund and project. Item two is the code session pursuant to the Texas government code 551.071 071 and 072 in uh in related to project quantum. Item three is close session pursuant to 551.071 and 072 related to project safeguard. We are close session at this time.

Heat. Heat.

Mayor, may we uh reconvene from executive session. Yes, ma'am. The time is 10:48 p.m. The city commissioners are reconvened back into open session. Are there any possible action from executive session? Yes. Perfect. You want to start with the public hearing item number six. I believe the public comments still open on this one, right? Correct. Correct. We would need to open leave them open or close. So, anyone here? Yeah, move to close. Second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. Those say nay. Eyes car. Eyes. Eyes have it.

Move to deny. Second. I have a motion in second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. All those say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Uh the next possible uh action is in uh in to regards to the fiber enterprise fund and project. I'll move to proceed as discussed. Second. All right, we have a motion and second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. All those post say nay. I just have it. Motion carries. Adjournment. So motion. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Everyone. We are journ at 10:49 p.m. Good night.