City Council - Regular Meeting

for Terry. Would you please lead us in an invocation? Lord, we give thanks for all the blessings that you have provided us since our last meeting. We ask that you give this council clarity so that they can truly lead in the best interest of our residents. Lord, we ask that you look over the men and women of our military. We ask that you guide them, let them feel your presence, and we ask that you protect them, Lord. We also ask that same protection for our first responders. Provide them your light, your presence, and your protection in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Council member Stever, would you lead us in the pledge, please? Honor. Right hand over the heart. Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you both. All right, with that, let's go ahead and conduct the roll call. Call call, please. Madam clerk. Mayor Prompio here. Council member Ste here. Council member Terry here. Council member Welty here. Mayor Smith, I am here. Thank you so much. Madam clerk, do we have any public comments? We do. We have one comment commenter tonight. Darcy Burke.

Yay. Darcy, thank you for joining us this evening.

Thank you for having me. So, um, just a couple of things. One, I want to talk about chickens because I get tagged on social media about everybody that has the chickens, and we had a loose chicken off of Sloop and um, the Greenwald Girls rescued the chicken and took them to their facility, their coupe, which is outside of the lake. But we have chickens. Please, no chickens. I would love a form on your website that I could put that in and not have to bother you, city manager, so we could maybe track the chickens. That's that's number one. I'm done with the chickens. It's bad enough we have algae and other issues. That's Can we get rid of the chickens? Number two, can we talk about storm water? So, I got pictures of foam coming into the lake where the storm water is running into it. And people like, why are you have you have foam? Uh because people wash their cars and their boats and that runs down into the gutter into the storm water system into the lake. So where do you live? So then I could then trace it back and follow it. No, no, no. I I like my detailer.

Can't have one without the other. I'm sure your detailer has good intentions, but soap does not belong in the lake. So all these things are accumulative and it's just I'm happy to help but I can't help if you don't help yourselves. So um also wanted to mention that um we had a strategic planning session of our board the other day and I just wanted to let you all know that communications better communications better engagement is one of our top priorities moving forward. So, we will be crafting that in a a more formal way and and presenting that soon. And that um like everything else, our capital improvement projects are going full steam ahead. So, um I love chicken. I know how to prepare chicken and I know how to take care of business, but uh I don't think anybody would appreciate that, but I don't want to bother you. So, a form on the website would be great.

Touche. Thank you. Well said. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. No more public comments, madam clerk. No more additional comments. All right, council. Moving on to our consent calendar. Any items on the consent calendar that any of you would wish to pull? For the record, this is item 1 through eight. Hearing none. Do I have a motion and a second? Motion to approve. Council member Mark Terry is with the motion and second. Council member Walty with the second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? Mayor Potm Castillo. Hi. Council member Sieber. Hi. Council member Terry I. Council member Wely I may Smith I pass five zer.

Thank you everyone. Moving on to our public hearing item. This is item number number nine. Consideration of resolution adopting an advertising policy and fee schedule for the cityowned monument signed at 31790 Railroad Canyon Road. All right. The public hearing is now open. Official time is 504. City manager Brown, you're up.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Prom and City Council, I will be taking this item as uh Mattie Gonzalez is uh uh uh manning the fort in the room covering for uh somebody that wasn't able to make it. So, uh, as you're all aware, we acquired through a donation the sign that is, uh, on, uh, the I always forget this that that would be the west town center entrance and, uh, it basically had a a rate at which uh, the former owner charge, we're looking at adopting the rates that already existed. Uh we are also saying that in this fiscal year we would maintain the rates. The following fiscal year there would be a 10% increase and then we will do an analysis moving forward. Uh additionally we're asking that we um we have proposed for council to uh uh adopt a policy that we must have individuals that want to advertise on the sign adhere to. It's pretty simple as you'll see. It's it's basically don't be offensive. don't do something that would uh in any way harm somebody else from that. Uh without that policy, we have no way to uh keep individuals within the box of uh not uh harming other individuals through through their words or advertisements. Um a relatively uh simple item uh but uh very much needed to be able to have individuals adhere to that. And that is the end of the presentation. I could answer any questions the council may have.

Council, any questions for our city manager? Quick quick question. Do we have a review policy? In other words, staff looks at the the information being posted before it's posted. Uh, absolutely. It uh there's not a way for somebody to post it without it going through staff. So, something's offensive, the staff has the authority to

Correct. So, the way it would work, somebody they have no way to post it on the sign. They would have to submit it through the process. It would go to right now it is uh Mattie Gonzalez. Matty would look at it, make sure it aderes to the policy. If it aderes to the policy, we're good to go and moves forward. If it doesn't adhere to the policy, we would sit down and discuss it and then uh kind of formulate a a a help for the individual to be able to say, "Hey, it doesn't meet the policy. if you maybe change these things, we're not going to just deny it outright and say, "No, we're going to give them the the the leeway to say, hey, you did this and it's it's offensive or, you know, it it doesn't meet our policy. If you change it to this, we'd be happy to move it forward."

Sure. No com or no question, but I a couple comments. Uh it's good to hear that fees are staying the same. That was a concern uh that I heard and uh from some of our advertise advertises, but uh good to hear the same. But I think the the good news for everyone is we're going to be investing money into the technology to make that uh that sign more robust and and up to date with current technology. So that's great. Right. That's on a a later item. If council uh elects to move forward with that, then that would cover really updating the entire sign uh to modern times uh and a much higher clarity.

I I did have a question. Sorry. Just cuz we're streaming. Um there is some like permanent signage that's part of that sign. Yes. for the purposes of overhaul as well as the um fee structure are those permanent I don't know how to describe them permanent signs that are not part of the electronic non-digital yeah

yes that's part of the fee as well and so um you would have to pay there there's a large sign fee and then there's the smaller sign fees that are separate um one of the things we're doing with this uh and very important to note is we're requiring that to advertise on the permanence portion of the sign, you must be a member of the town center.

So, we have an organization right now that used to be a member of the town center that isn't anymore and has moved outside into another city. They still are maintaining that. We've got people in the town center that want to advertise on there. And um based on the direction I've got from council, that is our our focus is what we can do to benefit the individuals in the town center. So this would make it so that that specific business would no longer be able to advertise. The company that would come in and advertise in their place would be required to spend the money for the one-time uh creation of their their sign. Uh to which if in a year from now they decided they didn't want to do it anymore, they would get that sign. and we would have no reason to keep it because they're paying for what our cost would be plus the license fee.

Good question. Um, so right now the company that will remain nameless, they're not paying any fee, right? That's just up there. It's just uh they were paying an annual fee. Where was that going? Uh, it was going So remember we we got it uh just recently, right? So it was going to the prior business. Okay. Okay. That's what I thought. So there was and then we have that breakdown of what they were paying per correct. Okay, cool. And this pricing is exactly what everybody was paying. I thought Yeah.

Uh the only comment I want to make just because we're talking about the sign, I want to give a shout out to uh Council Member Mark Terry and Council Member Siver. I know that when we were going through the transfer of it, um it was quite the debacle and I just want to I appreciate both of you for and our city manager for sticking it out and letting our folks who are advertising now with the city seem to be very happy. So it's good stuff. Um, we don't have any public comments on this, mayor. We do not. All right. And there's no uh Well, since there's no rebuttals, um, I'm going to close the public hearing unless you have any objections, madam clerk. Is that okay? I do not.

All right. 511. The public hearing is officially closed. Um, last time up here to the uh, DIS. Council members, any final questions on this item before we uh, make a motion in a second? If I'm hearing none, I do need a motion in a second. And this is to adopt resolution number 2026-11. I'll make the motion. Second. Steverber with the motion and and Mr. Mark Terry with the second. Roll call vote, please. Mayor Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Steber. Yes. Council member Terry. I. Council member Welty. I. Mayor Smith. I. Motion passes.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Moving on to business items. We have two on the agenda tonight. This is item number 10. This is an adoption of an urgency or an urgency ordinance number uh 270. Let's see here. Oh, Mr. City Manager, this one's yours as well. You're busy guidance.

Absolutely, Mayor Mayor Prom and Council. Uh I want to note that this is simply a housekeeping item. When the city did the specific plan, the zoning was changed from C1 or commercial to mixed use. Our cannabis ordinance requires that a cannabis dispensary go into a commercial or C1 uh zone. As we no longer have that, it's mixed use. We're just changing the wording from the uh ordinance from C1 or commercial to mixed use and that is the end of the presentation.

Um I just want to note for my colleagues and those of you who are on social media, when cannabis is talked about in Canyon Lake, Mr. city attorney, the number one comment is the fact that the ordinance number is 420. So, I just want to say kudos to you and and and the good nature of your humor uh bringing this to our community because it is talked about regularly in that site. I don't know if I should take credit for that. Um however, it does make it very easy to remember the municipal code sections that are in play. And if I could, mayor, I think it's very important to note that this is not an expansion of any uh permits or licensing. This is none of that. This is a simple housekeeping item changing really one word from C1 to mixeduse.

Yeah, really simple. I appreciate it. I think the staffing report clearly laid that out. Any public comments on this item, Madam Clerk? We have none. Council, any questions for our city manager? Seeing none, I do need a motion and a second. I'll make the motion. Just need a second. Second. Second from Council Member Mark Terry. Um, roll call vote, please. Mayor Poten Castillo, hi. Council member Sieber, hi. Council member Terry, I. Council member Wely, I. Mayor Smith, I. Motion passes.

Item 10 passes. Thank you. Moving on to our last business item of the night. This is business item number 11. This is the review of the fiscal year 202526 midyear budget and approval proposed budget adjustment. Mr. Terry Sheay, you are our presenter tonight. You're going to have to speak up because the audience is grand. city managers earlier stuff. So, um, hit the power. Your honor roll, mayor. Welcome back, Jeremy. Mayor and city council. And I was talking to some police officers the other day about coming here and they go, we already know. Yes, they should. One said Casey talked to me. I'm like, what? So, I'm soliciting.

Yes. I love it. Actively full-time job. Yeah. He's a a K9 officer with the city of Bowmont. So, okay. Yeah, he spoke very highly of you. So Oh, thank you. And he's also a lawyer, but he went to PD instead. So Oh, really? Yeah. I have to think of that. Probably safer being PD. So, yeah, that's a good point. All right. So, what we did was or what I did was I took the prior year. Um I think you got too far. You need to go back to page one. Oh, wow. That's not page one. You missed like eight pages. So, is that the only page? No, there's more.

Okay. Oh, you can go back there. But, all right. There we go.

Is that the right page? Okay. So, what I did was I took a look at the city's actual revenues and expenditures for the general fund through December, projected out what I thought the rest of you were going to be, and then came up with um budget to actual for the projections. So, we adopted our 2526 budget in May of 2025. We had general fund revenues of 8,674,000, general fund revenues of 8,624 for a revenues over expenditures of 50,101. Um, during the last 6 months, council has approved additional appropriations of 1,384, of which 1,200,000 was for the police department remodel and then the startup costs. And then there's some other items in there. And then when we purchased the property, council approved the financing which then comes in as a revenue and that's what we borrowed was a million 512. And in governmental accounting, it shows up as other financing source. So it adds to the fund balance. Next page. So actual revenues through December 25 with projections are higher than anticipated by just a little or about 175,000. The largest increases are in insurance reimbursements, miscellaneous income, and sponsorship fee. A big part of the miscellaneous income is the failed bid for the um HSIP project. And then so there's proposed revenue budget adjustments of 116,000 up and then actual expenditures through December with projections are estimated to be about 9.5 million. Um most departments with the exception of one I think have savings in each department. So, next slide. This looks like way better than what I gave you. So, good job. So,

perfect. We're winning.

So, we do have some items that are over and other items that were needed. Um, most departments based on the number of employees got $2,500 um for their tuition reimbursement, but somehow the city manager we shorted 500. So, that's the 500 there. um community development. Um we have a vacant position and that's the 100,000 negative and then the 30,000 for the benefits. Um we did have a new IT company come in and there was about $10,000 worth of one-time cost. So that's what that 10,000 is. Um city events. Um Maddie did such a good job of raising money and so the cost kind of went up to offset some of those costs. So then there's some items we wanted to add. Um so for the state of the city, we had added an additional 15,000. Um and then increase for community service cleanup day. That's a new item. And then um increase for the actual cost for the clear life grant program. It came in a little bit over the money we had budgeted. Next page.

Finance, which is still the best department in city hall.

Of course. Yes. And so he had additional bank fees and and additional um payroll fees and that's what that covers. Um when we spent money for the road and the construction of this building for the police and that we kind of lowered our fee or lowered our balance which then you know caused the fees but we shouldn't have any fees for this month because we got our property taxes in. So that'll help quite a bit. Um and then increase for additional support and training and professional and specialized services. The city's been using another employee from our firm quite extensively. Um she lives over in Manip and so she's here one day a week I think and and really helps with the payroll and then helps Elizabeth. So included in the planning department is um well we contract planner I think retired right Jim.

Yeah. So that's the savings there and then without the planner we're probably not going to get to the general plan update this year started on it. So that's the 90,000 but we'll bring that back when we have a plan to do it. Next page. and then salaries PD. When we initially adopted uh increase for the startup costs, they were all just in one category. And now that we know some of what those costs are, we're breaking those out of that. And so that's and then the additional cost for hiring the police chief and then the some benefits and then health insurance for the police chief. um additional um PARs payments which is the police department retirement and then starting an explorer program that's a new item and then the startup costs um lowered that to cover the change order for the building improvements and that's why we just kind of swap between the two accounts there. Next slide. Fire department. So when I initially budgeted, the chief had the overtime, not the overtime, but the part-time people separated, but I budgeted it in two different accounts with the normal salaries. So as part of the major, we broke out um the part-time out of the management and then the firefighters and that's what those entries are for there. So we took 10,350 out of finance, fire department management, and then 14,000 out of the fire firefighters. And that's the new line item is the 32,000. And we added what four? 4,500 chief. Is that what we added? Yeah, we added additional 4,500 to get us through the end of the year. And then we have the AED and CPR training and that's got added. Animal control. Those were lowered to match the actual cost and that's what those are for.

One more slide. Is that it? I'm sorry. I think the AED and CPR training went to um emergency preparedness account. There's two parts. Um I can move it if you want the other. Okay.

Um there's part got charged to a different department too because that's just part of the cost. So um and then building facilities maintenance. Our insurance was 5,000 less. Yay. Um, and then we have transfers to the rental fund for digital sign improvements, which you just adopted the new fee schedule. And then there's some money that wasn't in the original budget for some capital projects for the engineering plan. And so we transferring money out of the general fund into the project fund to to cover those costs for the engineering for the two capital projects. And then these are just the um the journal entries. If you just go to the next one. Oh, go back one. As part of this, we had the other funds. And so, um first one is the rental fund. And so, we're we're going to show that rental sign in our rental fund so we can track the revenues and expenditures to make sure we're covering costs. That's

is that going to go under revenues? The transfer in is a revenue. Yeah. Okay. It was a transfer out of the general fund and transfer in to the rental fund. And then estimated rental income 44,000. And then electrical costs for the sign about 4,800 for the rest of the year. It runs about 400 a month. Um and then repairs and equipment for the digital sign. That's the 80,000. If I could, mayor, that also that revenue will be in our enterprise account, not in the general fund. The enterprise fund, not the general fund. Correct. So it is separate. Where are we grouping our our rental buildings? That's all in enterprise fund as well. It's enterprise, right? Correct. So, you're going to put it all under enterprise including the sign. Uh, it'll be in the enterprise fund, but under separate accounts.

Okay, that's what I thought. That's that's okay. Thank you. Yeah. Each each building and the sign have their own department accounts where we can track the revenues expenditures to make sure that we're breaking even.

Um, capital project fund, that's the 20,000 that was coming from the general fund for the two engineering and then the cost of those are down below. So, we have for the fire police gym at the fire station and then for fuel tanks and a generator at the fire station, that's the 12,000. And then the miscellaneous grants, um, they're going for a cow recycle grant and that's the revenue and the expense for the cow recycle grant. So, so proposed general fund revenue budget adjustments, we're going to up revenues 116,300. uh the additions and deletions to the general fund expenditures net to about 86,171. Our original budget surplus was 50,101 and then with the previous approved um budget adjustments and revenues uh the projected surplus then jumps to about just under 190,000 for the year. So and then the next one is questions. So I hope

if I could jump in one more time, mayor, if you could go back to that slide. Uh I I just I really want to give a shout out to the department heads. Uh we we take great pride in running as tight of a ship as possible around here. And when we come to council and ask for budgeted money, uh we don't look at it as if you give us 50 bucks, we're going to spend every bit of that 50 bucks. It is looked at uh as we're going to spend as little as we can to provide the value to the residents that they're entitled to. So to to be able to add all of these things, make the different changes we need, and come to you and say, "Our our surplus is growing uh by $139,000." Uh that's because they're not spending money like uh the the metaphorical drunken sailors. It's because they do everything they can to save money wherever they can.

Any questions? I I I do and thank you Mr. Sheay for the presentation. I appreciate it. And uh maybe this more directed to city manager. Uh the $7,000 for uh sponsorships for events. What events were those for? Uh I I don't know which one that one was. The $7,000 would my assumption would be would be for the uh state of the city. Um unfortunately uh I'd have to ask Maddie. She's in that room. Um

well, we we had budgeted some sponsorships originally um for the golf and the state of the city and so it's kind of both. So we went over when we had the state of the city plus the the golf tournament, they went over the amount we budgeted. So it's hard to say which one it is, but both of them were up higher than we expected. We we did do project codes for each one, so we'd be able to figure out exactly which one it is, but my assumption is absolutely that it's for the state of the city. Okay. Hopefully we can uh grow those sponsorships in the coming year. Absolutely. Great. That's a great goal. Um are there any public comments?

Okay. Are there any other questions for my colleagues? Going once, going twice. I have I have a question. Last year, Mr. City Manager, our projected surplus or revenues over expenditures was what amount? About 50 50,000 it prior year or the current year we're in last year. So fiscal year 2425 it was 47 grand. I think it was like 130 or 140,000 for the budget. And so we're looking at 189. Is that correct?

Right. So our our the 2425 I believe was about 130 somewhere in there. When we did the 2526 budget we anticipated about 50,000 and now we're Yeah. Now we're changing it saying we're at about well I forget that 189 189 189. So that's good news. Absolutely very good news. Congratulations city manager. Congratulations Terry. That's great news for our residents and we truly appreciate that. Just a comment. It seems like at least half microphone Mr. Council member Wely, there's people that want to hear you. It seems like at least half of it is kind of one time uh uh funding we've received. Uh it's not like ongoing.

Uh no, no, you've you've got a lot of changes there. Um we've got a lot coming up in this budget with uh how things are balanced through um gives you an example is the police department. the police department will be taking on all of the code enforcement roles. The code enforcement roles will move to CSOS and so that part of the budget will move into the police department and then a part of that we moved over to the city. We had a director position uh that we're no longer going to fill. We have a manager position that is uh to the total compensation is under what that director position is. So that goes away. Um the uh paying for the uh police chief and paying for the sheriff uh department will go away. So uh there's a lot that are going on that aren't one time. They're they're just general operational fees.

Good questions with that. Do you need a motion and a second on this one? We need to approve the budget adjustments. To approve the budget adjustment. Thank you for the midyear 2025 2026 midyear budget adjustment. Can I get a motion, please? I'll make the motion. Can I get a second, please? I'll second. Council member Wely, thank you for saving the day once again. Can I get a roll call? Mayor Pim Castillo, I. Council member Steber, I. Council member Terry, I. Council member Wely, hi. Mayor Smith, I passes 5.

Energy drinks for everyone that is up here on this DAS. Please, Madam Clerk. With that, the next announcement I have is is we have our upcoming city council meeting in the month of March on March 11th. I believe that's a Tuesday. Is that correct, Madam Clerk? As opposed to the regular Wednesday or not? That's in April. So, regular second Wednesday, March 11th. Um, close session will probably begin at 5:00 and open session at 6:30. With that, we're going to go into uh close session. Cool. Thank you, everyone.