City Council - Regular Meeting

I don't know. I don't know. Hi. Hi. I'll be staying there. I'll be reading that. Sometimes you have to be.

It is 6 o'clock and I call this regular city council meeting for August 18th to order. We do have a quorum present. And this evening we welcome Pastor David Ferguson from Commerce Community Church, also known as C3. Pastor Ferguson was born and raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida and Southwestern Seminary. As a pastor, he believes in loving and serving the families and students of C3 for the God's glory and joy. C3 holds their worship service every Sunday at 1045 at 905 College Street in Commerce. They also have community groups with sermons, which they host in Commerce, Campbell, and Greenville. Pastor Ferguson, please lead us in the prayer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ollard. Let me read Psalm 121. I'm very thankful that I get to be part of this meeting. City Manager Lisenby recently told me that I haven't fact-checked him on this, the longest tenured pastor in the city, which was surprising to me because when my wife and I moved here, we didn't imagine staying. And then about ten years in, we didn't imagine staying or leaving, and now we can't imagine leaving. So we love this community. Psalm 121. I thought it'd be an encouragement to you. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is the shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do look to you. You are where our help comes from. You are the maker of heaven and earth. We owe every breath to you. You're worthy of every cause we take up to do good for our city. You're worthy of every hour we spend to seek the welfare of this city and the citizens in it. We confess that without your help we can do nothing. Nothing that will make the impact you intend to make in the lives of the people in this city. And so we pray that you give wisdom to the council. Help them to do their best with your aid. Father, we pray for our city, that it would be healthy and strong. that you would help the lowly and lift them up that you would remind the strong to turn toward the weak among us and help them we pray father for your blessing on this city and on this meeting in jesus name amen thank you thank you very much joining us tonight for the pledge is our third and fourth grade cheerleaders from the commerce cheer association

and ladies if you'll stand please their coach jessica is going to introduce them to you we have tinsley bexley gracie lee mia candace gracie lillian ashlyn lilith skyler and kinley all right thank you very much y'all stand while they leave the pledge

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Honor the Texas flag.

I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible. Thank you very much. agenda item number four is the presentation to the city council for members of from members of the public this is to be conducted as close to 6 0 5 p.m as possible with a three minute limit per person public comments will cease at 6 20 p.m this period is reserved for assistance to discuss items not on the listed agenda The response to public comments will be limited to A, a statement of fact or policy, two, direction to take up the issue with a city staff member, or three, an offer to place the item on a future council agenda. I did not receive any cards. Is there anybody that wanted to speak at the public meeting that did not fill out a card?

Alrighty.

Now, item number five is for the council. Pursuant to Texas Local Government Code 551.0415B, the purpose of this section is to allow the mayor and any city council member the opportunity to announce city events, community interests, and requests that items be placed on future city council agendas. Mr. Henry. I haven't met and well, Jim's not there and I don't either. So we'll move right along. Okay. Number six is the consent agenda. We'll please take the time to look at that. And if you have any questions, council, if you will speak up. Okay. Anybody have any questions? I move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. I have a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Motion carries. All right. For purposes of the next agenda item would be the proposed budget. We're going to move the number 11 up. It is the Discussion and possible action on an ordinance authorizing a request for applicant James Mansfield for Commerce Life Ministries for a conditional use permit to allow for an eating place with drive-in or curb service used for the property located at 2810 FM 3218 Commerce, Texas 75428 Property ID 25000 Legal Description A0530 Garner D, track 18, acres 2.926, zone R10, single-family dwelling district. I need to have this removed from the table, please. Motion?

So moved.

Second. I have a motion and a second to remove from the table. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. All right. This is an issue that we have had go back and forth, and we've had a lot of attorneys involved to make sure that we have had this looked at properly. And I'm going to turn it over to the city attorney at this time. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. So, as you said at the last meeting, if y'all were here, we heard from both sides. We heard from some of the public. And we've done some research on all that and we've explored the different questions. We also had an end up meeting with Patricia Adams and the city manager and the pastor and his wife and their consultant. So we can get more answers from them. Of course, we can have that input regarding what the facts are. We always try to base our decisions on the facts. And based on that, we've come to two conclusions. The first one is that the coffee shop is to be established under Section 502 of the IRS code. So I think you heard something about it's going to be separate. So that's it. We need to talk about how that that's separate for tax purposes. So they have to do that. It is still an auxiliary ministry of the church. Um, but that subsidiary exists fully within the church and only under the church. It can't be separate from the church, if that makes sense. It's separate, but it can't exist independently. So the church has to be in existence in order for that separate coffee shop to be in existence. And if the church ever went away, then the coffee shop would have to go away because it's an ancillary ministry of the church. Okay. And then second of all, based on that and based on how the pastor and his wife talked about their plans and operations, we believe it's it's called a sincere ministry activity of the church and therefore it's still under operation of the church and it would not need a conditional use permit. So it's my understanding that we told them that and advise them of our opinion and that they've withdrawn their application. And I don't know if you all formally accept that withdrawal, that you don't have to, but they withdraw that application. And so there's nothing, basically the case is dropped. There's no action that you need to take to... to do anything, but it has to act once it's up and running as we discussed, as that auxiliary ministry of the church. It won't ever be its own separate entity without the church.

Does anybody on the council have any questions?

So for clarity's sake, we talked in the last meeting about if it is the church, the church is allowed by right within our land use codes. And if it's not the church and it's an external entity, then it's commercial and our land use codes do not allow commercial use. based on the investigation and the attorney it is not an external commercial use it is an auxiliary ministry of the church and therefore is allowed by right and so the church is allowed under our land use codes to operate as they're proposing without any permits or permissions from the city they did withdraw the application so there's technically nothing to take action on at this time for the record is the church operating right now they are yes in that in that building

they they operate sometimes on the property and sometimes at other locations but they are operating as church for legal purposes any other questions all right in that case there's no action that needs to be taken so that agenda item is now closed all right now we'll go back up to the public hearing for fy 20 2027 proposed budget. We're going to conduct a public hearing and presentation and discussion related to the FY 2027 proposed budget. The proposed budget FY 27 budget will raise less revenue from property taxes than last year's budget by an amount of $118,278, which is 2.2% decrease from last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from the new property added to the tax roll this year is $114,005. Before I open this up, I'm going to make a statement here. Tonight, we're going to be presenting a budget that reflects not only the financial strength of our city, but the collective vision of our community. Over the last six years, Commerce has undergone a remarkable transformation. We have moved from a B minus rating to a double A minus bond rating, a shift that speaks volumes about our fiscal responsibility, our stability, and the financial competence outside institutions now placed in our city. Just as importantly, we have gone from having no capital improvement projects to managing multiple major projects at the same time. That is not just progress. It is momentum. It is the result of discipline planning, smart investments and a shared commitment to building a stronger commerce for today and for decades ahead. This proposed budget is not simply a document shaped by city staff and city council. It is a budget shaped by you, the people of commerce. Over the last past six years, through workshops, town hall meetings, and community conversations, our residents have helped identify priorities that matter most. Those ideals, concerns, and aspirations have directly informed both our five-year strategic plan and our 20-year comprehensive plan, and they are reflected throughout this budget. What you will see in this budget is a roadmap built on collaboration. It balances the needs for growing city with the values of a close knit community. It invests in infrastructure, public safety, economic development and quality of life. Not because these are abstract goals, but because these are the priorities that you taught us matter. Commerce is moving forward with purpose, and tonight's budget presentation is another step in that journey, one guided by transparency, responsibility, and the voices of the people who call this town home. Talented city staff have the specific details of this budget, and they stand ready to provide further insight and answer any questions that you may have tonight. Before I open it for public comment, Howdy wants to go over some very detailed things for us to be able to deal with. And I apologize. It is hotter than heck in here. And I'm over here just sweating like a whatever. So if I'm over here having a problem, it's not because we're on a hot seat.

The AC repair was scheduled, and they informed us this morning that the one part they needed, they didn't have. And so it's been ordered, and they promised it'll be here tomorrow. We told them it needed to be here today. mayor i want to take a few minutes and just give a high level kind of overview of the budget as we proposed it since we last talk staff never stops working on the budget this is a labor of love and so there are going to be a few things that have changed since the last time we talked Some of that's based on conversations with the council. Some of that's based on feedback from the community. And so I want to run through kind of a high level overview of what's included in this proposed budget. But we always start with our three guiding principles. Every year that we have worked together to build a budget, we pause and talk about these three things. I could get on a soapbox and I'll refrain. But the first point is that we are a service organization. We exist to serve the community in which we live, and so everything in this budget, every resource that's allocated is done in a manner that allows us to serve the community. The community doesn't serve us, we serve you, and so we allocate resources to the best possible way to provide those services to the citizens. Second, every dollar we spend is someone else's dollar. We don't have a money tree. We don't have an opportunity to create or generate money that is ours. Every dollar we have, the public has entrusted us with to use on their behalf. And so we take that as a solemn responsibility. And so as we build budgets and allocate resources, we recognize this is not ours. It is the public's. And we've been entrusted with those dollars. And finally, the most valuable thing we have is the trust. You will not find anything in this budget document more valuable than the trust that we attempt to earn from the public and from each other. And so everything we do is either building trust or eroding trust. And we work diligently to protect that trust. As we go through the process each year, generally in January, February, March timeframe, we start with a conversation with the city council. And we look at the strategic plan, we look at the comprehensive plan, and the council gives us their priorities. We call it the big rocks. I can tell you why later, but it's called the big rocks. What are the big priorities that the council wants us to build into this budget? and they hand us those priorities, and then the executive staff goes and begins to build a framework in which this budget is going to live. We then come back to the city council with that framework to make sure that we're heading in the direction that they want. After that, we then go to the departments, and each department is given an opportunity to look at what their jobs are, what their tasks are, what are the things they have to do to deliver on these objectives given by the council, and they put together what their resource requests are. we compile that and we go back to the city council and we have another conversation where we bring them the framework plus some of the detail that has been provided by the department staff again to kind of check the pulse and make sure they're headed in the right direction after that then the executive staff finalizes the proposed budget we put all the numbers together we compile it into that 300 plus page document that is available and then we deliver to the city council a balanced proposed budget Once the council's had some time to review it, we then hold another workshop. It's an all day workshop. You can find it on our YouTube channel where the council has an opportunity and we go through every budget. We look at every expense category and we answer questions that the council may have about the budget as it's proposed. And then we release it to the public. and the public has an opportunity to go through that document and see what questions concerns that they have and we hold a series of public hearings state law requires one public hearing in september we are doing two public hearings it always seems disingenuous to me that the state wants us to be transparent and they want us to to do all this stuff for the public and then if we follow state law we have one public hearing on the day we're adopting the budget That seems counterproductive for a public that actually wants to participate and ask questions. And so we've gone above and beyond state law. We had a public hearing tonight to receive questions and concerns about the budget between now and the end of September. We will land on what that final budget is and then it's adopted. And then we start the process of living in that budget, and then the cycle continues. It's the circle of life, and we love and love budgets. So I want to talk briefly, and I won't belabor this, but the council priorities and objectives, as the mayor suggested, came out of a process in which we had town halls, and we talked to citizens, we talked to the community, and found out what are those things the community wanted to see, and that turned into our strategic plan. There were four primary categories of goals. One was to develop new revenue streams, two was to develop sustainable infrastructure, three was to improve the appearance of the city, and four to improve the quality of life. This was adopted in 2024, and as of today, Here's where we stand on most of these. Develop meaningful festivals and events. We have already taken action to bring a consultant in. We've reviewed the Bodark Bash and worked with the Chamber to make some improvements to the security and the viability of that festival. We've had conversations with the University as they prepare to launch the Ted Lyons-Gangberg Research Center. Once that facility is up and operating, they plan to have some kind of research symposium where they bring in interested parties and hunters to talk about the research they're doing. And the community is going to partner with the university to have a festival around their research symposium. And then we've also talked with some key stakeholders here in other states about trying to start a songwriters festival. So we've got several new festivals that are in discussion and in development, and so we hope to see those continue to move forward. We are dependent on other entities, so it's not completely in our hands to complete. Research grant funding and opportunities to obtain at least two grants annually. We've submitted multiple grant applications every year. The past couple of years we've not been successful, but this year we've got five or six applications pending. One of them looks very promising. promote economic development through residential retail and industrial growth. We have a partnership with a consultant called the Retail Coach, and that partnership has resulted in the development of the Starbucks, the development of the Bells, the development of the Tractor Supply. We continue to see other companies that are interested in our community in association with the Bells. So we've seen retail growth from that. Industrial growth, we continue to work with Solar 76 as they expand their operations. Hydro Aluminum is considering expansion. We've got two other manufacturers that are actively looking at developing within our community right now. And then implement the downtown master plant. We are 65, 75% through design of a project that will move and replace every sidewalk in our downtown, consistent with the downtown master plan. We fully expect to be under construction for that next year. In addition to that, one of the grants that we've applied for is very promising. The state's committed a million dollars to us to be used to renovate the farmer's market area. And so all of that is consistent with implementing the downtown master plan. regarding sustainable infrastructure complete the water master plan it's completed it's currently sitting in draft form because we're waiting on the state specifically the TCEQ there's a question that we have with them about a requirement that they may or may not place in our community and it impacts the final recommendation of that master plan So we're working with the state to get some clarity. Once we've achieved that clarity, then we'll have the water master plan no longer. It's finished. It's just in limbo waiting on something from the state. Complete renovations of the water treatment plant necessary to restore production. That's done. Our water treatment plant is running better and more sustainably now than it has in decades. Complete renovations to the wastewater treatment plant. We're 90% through design. We will have a construction budget for the council to approve before the end of this calendar year. We expect to be under construction by the end of the calendar year, beginning of next calendar year on the wastewater treatment plant. continue to do street maintenance and street reconstruction. We're laying asphalt as we speak. And so we get, now that we've acquired the equipment necessary, we've begun training and we've done a couple of projects that have been requested by the public and we continue to work on that. Additionally, Sterling Heart Biocommerce Elementary School is nearing the phase where we can reach construction. We're still working on some right-of-way on Oak Lane, but that project is moving forward. Re-establish the recycle trash program. There's significant challenges to that because the recycle industry structurally has some problems. If you're interested, we can talk more about that, but recycle program and commerce from the city's point of view is on pause. Walmart has expressed interest in adding some recycled containers to their parking lot. Improve the appearance of the city, focus on code enforcement and building inspections. We continue to see progress and successful volunteer compliance and enforcement compliance. We passed the vacant building registration ordinance. Within this budget, there's funding for city gateway improvements, and we've talked about partnering with the EDC on some of those. Incentives for enforcement and improvements to the Live Oak apartments on Live Oak. We did start an enforcement. We did a tax foreclosure. We actually foreclosed on the property. It was given to the city in trust. And on the last day that the previous owner had to redeem it, he came in, wrote a check, and redeemed the property. So the owner is back in ownership of that apartment complex. And so we're working on with him to see his vision to renovate and reestablish that program again. And so we're working with the owner as best we can. If he doesn't meet certain milestones, then we'll put him back in enforcement. But he still owns the property. Research and consider locations for public art exhibits. We've met multiple times with the university. The classes start this week. And one of the art professors, one of the first things he's going to do is open a mural project with a couple of the faculty and staff and students to look at adding a couple of murals into our downtown through a partnership with the university. Improve quality of life. Complete a parks master plan. Done. Actively recruit for entertainment and related retail. Retail coach is doing that for us actively. Research and evaluate options for a community civic recreation center. We're in the process of buying the old middle school gym on Culver. That will be the rec center for our community. Additionally, we've acquired the old Inwood Bank. We meet this week with potential contractors. We're renovating it to turn it into a community center. So hopefully in the very near future, we will have a community center that's available to members of the community where you don't have to go on campus and rent their facilities. And we'll have a full rec center available to the community. Get back into the federal home grant, done. Applications have been received and are being considered to assist some people in renovating their homes. Evaluate the Commerce Police Department staffing and equipment. That's within this budget, as we'll see. Identify workforce development and job skills. Bonnie and our economic development corporation had conversations with Parris Junior College and East Texas A&M and are working on identifying specific workforce needs that our local industries need and work to that. Develop a fire apparatus and equipment. Done. Complete phase one of the fire training field expansion. That's in planning. But if you've ever built a fire training facility, those budgets are interesting. And so we're still designing phase one. We're not ready to deploy that yet. And then finally conduct a full interagency emergency management tabletop. That's done. So most of these items in the strategic plan have been completed. A handful of them are still being done. Out of that plus the comprehensive plan, the council gave us these priorities as we built the proposed budget in front of you. Continue street reconstruction and maintenance, develop a TERS or a tax increment refinance zone, improve staff compensation, research grant opportunities, and strengthen youth sports and recreation. And so each one of those priorities is built into this budget and has resources allocated to it. I want to keep moving quickly. This is a high-level overview of the budget as it's proposed. The city as an organization doesn't have one set of accounting books. We have multiple departments, and each department has its own unique set of accounting books, accounting rules, and those funds are separated and accounted for separately. And so within this budget, there's really not one overall budget for everything. There's multiple individual budgets that we then kind of pile together. And so for our internal purposes, we have what we call our primary budget, which is where most of the staff live, most of the daily work happens. That's the general fund, utility fund, and our street maintenance fund. And then there are other funds on the list, and those funds typically don't have staff or they don't have general routine operations. The exception would be Economic Development Airport. But generally, each fund, the general fund revenues as proposed, $9 million and change. Expenses, $8.9 million and change. The net fund balance is structurally balanced to the positive for $28,691. Going into this year, the general fund has a fund balance of $3.3 million, and we're looking to add to that fund balance through this proposed budget. The utility fund has revenues of $7.9 million, expenses of $7.9 million. It has a positive net fund balance of $18,000. The utility fund has a fund balance of $10.8 million. Before anyone gets excited, that is not all cash. A utility fund operates as an enterprise or a business, and so it has assets, and the majority of that $10.8 million is property, plant, and equipment, water plant, wastewater plant. And so within that $10.8 million is a healthy cash fund balance that meets our reserve requirements. But we don't have $10.8 million of cash laying around. Street maintenance fund was started a couple years ago looking at revenues of $250,000, expenses of $223,000. That fund will have a net positive of $26,000. Right now we're projecting to go into this fund year with a fund balance of $572,000. However, out of that 572, there's a couple pieces of equipment that are being purchased right now, so it'll draw that down to about $400,000, which is still a healthy and respectable fund balance. Other funds, again, there's big numbers, but they're minor operations. Our capital projects fund, when we issue debt or we take on projects, those dollars live here. We are not taking on any new capital projects in fiscal 27, so that's why there are no revenues, because we're not starting any new projects. We do have some expenditures for one-time purchases, so that's a drawdown fund balance of $234,000. That fund has $8.3 million in cash right now because we've got multiple projects currently underway. Debt service fund is where all of the property tax supported debt lives. This one is interesting because we get the debt service schedule. We get our certified appraisal values. and the state and hunt county then tell us what our numbers are going to be and so according to the county we will have revenues of 1.35 million into the debt service fund we will have payments go out of 1.5 million so we're going to have more payments go out than what we have come in in this year and that's given to us by hunt county in the state So that's a negative net fund balance of $167,000. We begin this fund period with $139,000. So it appears that that fund is going to go into deficit status. But what the county tells us is we collect 103% of this property tax. And so they're telling us that we'll collect more than the 1.35, even though that's the number they gave us. And it will offset so that the fund is intended to be a wash each year. And so that's the numbers they gave us so that the fund doesn't make money, doesn't lose money. And those are the numbers we were given. Grant funds are a little bit challenging because we write grants hoping the money will get here So we have revenue going into the fund and then corresponding revenue to go out of the fund But if we don't get those grants those expenditures don't happen and so economic development they also have Bonnie, as staff, and they do fantastic work for our community. They're projecting a million dollars of revenue and they budget for potential economic incentive packages in case a client shows up during this year. So the budget of $1.2 million would only happen if they have a new client show up, but that loss would then be funded out of their cash reserves. They're sitting on $6.395 million in cash reserves for our economic activities. Equipment Service Fund is an internal fund in which we manage our fleet, It has a fund balance that we try to manage, so we're drawing that fund balance down. Airport fund is a negative fund balance because we're intentionally drawing down for some capital purchases. The recreation fund is not new. But it's new for us this year. For the past multiple years, we've partnered with the Boys and Girls Club to manage our youth sports. We are taking back over the role of leadership in our youth sports. And so based on the numbers the Boys and Girls Club gave us, we budgeted on what their experience numbers have been. So that would be a revenue of $160,000, an expenditure of $181,000. So that is a projected loss for that fund of $20,000. We believe and we've already begun to experience that we can host tournaments, there's fundraisers, there's things that we can do with the community that will close that gap. We could have budgeted a number that showed that it balanced. But until we have experience running the program without the Boys and Girls Club, we ran with the numbers they gave us, even though it shows a deficit. But we're confident that we will be able to operate that if we end the year in a negative balance there, then the general fund will prop those operations up. Commerce Water District is a pass through purchase water from Tawakoni and then write a check for that. Hotel tax fund, we have $50,000 coming in this year. The council is awarding all 50,000 to local nonprofits. And then additionally, y'all added $20,000 for us to look at gateway signage as we discussed. Court Security and Court Technology Fund is every ticket that's issued, there's a small fee that gets given to us. And those dollars can only be spent on state mandated areas. And so Court Security will take the $2,000 and put it in fund balance. They have a fund of $34,000. Court Technology Fund is going to spend some of their fund balance on software. So overall, total organization, we are positive in fund balance, individual funds, most of them will have some form of a drawdown that's intentional. Just looking at our primary budget, again, general fund, utility fund, and street maintenance fund, last year's primary budget was $16,135,000. We are proposing a primary budget of $17,142,000. That is a $1 million increase for those three funds or an increase of about 6%. We break our activities down into groups of public safety, public infrastructure, quality of life, and support services. Public safety appears to be dropping by $32,000, but that is not misleading, but it's unclear. The main reason it's dropping is in fiscal 26, the animal control operations lived within what we call public safety. We have moved animal shelter out of public safety and down into quality of life. So that $300,000 left the public safety group and migrated down. What's left is the remaining funds. And then as we redo compensation, we've made some major changes to how our police departments funded. And so without the animal control department, they're only dropping $32,000. We pull $300,000 out of that group, but we've added new dollars to them. And so public safety is better funded now than they were last year. but it appears as a loss because we've done a reorganization public infrastructure last year was 8.2 million this year is 8.8 million that's an increase of 600 000 majority of that is going to be staff compensation and the new debt for the wastewater treatment plant quality of life was 1.2 million last year it's 1.7 this year 500 000 increase most of that is staff compensation and moving animal control down into this spending category And then support services, or if you will, administrative overhead. Last year it was $1,886,000. This year it's $1,813,000. That's a $73,000 drop. Part of that is the reclassification of some employees, but it is working to manage our overhead. municipal industry average for administrative overhead is between 12 to 18 percent our administrative overhead is proposed to be 10.6 so we feel we're pretty competitive in that area another way to slice the pie last year salaries and benefits was 7.3 this year proposed salary and benefits is 7.9 That's an increase of $548,000. That's a result of the compensation study that we did, and it's a couple of positions. Other services is going up. Maintenance is going down. Capital outlay. there is no capital outlay in the general fund that's all utilities and that is all depreciation we put depreciation into the budget even though it's not a cash transaction and then the supplies budget is going down some so overall it's a different way to slice the same pie now having said that that's the budget that we proposed and drafted The two main ways we fund this is through property taxes and utility rates. So I want to take a few minutes and talk about the property tax as it is being proposed. The current tax rate for our community as it exists today is .830600. We are proposing to keep the tax rate the same at .830600, and that fully funds the budget as it's proposed. This screen can be a little confusing, so at the bottom in green is our current tax rate. Our tax rate is made of two components, maintenance and operation, and interest in sinking. The current M&O tax rate is 0.594501, and the current interest in sinking is 0.236099. for a total rate of 0.830600. Our proposed rate is the line immediately above that. And what we've been able to do through working with our finance department and our financial consultant, and you mentioned our bond rating has improved to a double A minus. A result of that is we're able to competitively go back to outstanding debt obligations, restructure and refinance them, and we've experienced significant savings, so much so that our interest in sinking tax rate is dropping from 0.236099 down to 0.188777. And so we just recently completed the sale of this restructure and our bonded debt is so desirable on the market that we had more buyers bidding for our debt than we had debt available to the public. which drove our interest rate down, which helped us save money. And so that kind of savings is because of the financial stability, the financial management, and the confidence that the markets have placed in our organization. So the savings that we're able to realize in the interest and sinking side, we were able to add to the maintenance and operation. So the maintenance operation is increasing from .594501 up to .641823 and keep the tax rate the same at .830600. Before we go further, it's... I've been doing this 26 years and it is still hard for me to comprehend and understand what the state of Texas does when it comes to calculating tax rates. In theory, What the state does is they take the income you got last year, hold that constant to this new proposed budget, keep that revenue the same, what are your new values, and then what is the tax rate that gives you that? Well, our total tax value as a community dropped. We lost value in our community this year, and so if the value goes down, the tax rate The state decided that our no new revenue rate is .852403. So we could have proposed a budget with a rate of .852403 and the state of Texas would have said, you did not raise taxes. everybody in the room knows that that is in fact the tax increase but the state gives you the language and tells you to use it we are proposing a rate lower than the no new revenue rate and that fully funds our budget they also give you what's called a voter approval rate in which you take your maintenance and operation you increase it by three and a half percent and so the city had the opportunity to adopt the rate of 0.871300 without having an election or going to the electorate again we are proposing to keep the rate same at 830600 which is less than the state's no new revenue rate and that's why we say according to state law we're proposing a tax cut Total tax revenue for maintenance and operations into the general fund is going to increase Because we found some savings in debt moved it over to operations and kept everything constant impact to residential taxpayers Last year in fiscal 26, we adopted a tax rate of 0.8 3 0 6 0 0. So if your house was valued at a hundred thousand dollars last year, your tax bill was $830 and 60 cents or $69 and 22 cents. And this new budget, we're keeping the tax rate the same. So a house at a hundred thousand dollars has. the same value as it did last year. The same is true for 200, 300, and 400. However, we did notice that the median homestead value increased. Last year, you see it in green, the median homestead value was 184,611. So that tax bill was $1,533.38 for the city portion, which is $127.78 a month. This year, once we got our certified values, even though the values of everything went down, including our residential class, the median household homestead went up to 187. So if you own that median homestead, your taxes will go up to $1,560.33. That is an increase of $26.95 for the year. And so by keeping the tax rate the same, someone in this proposed home would see their tax bill go up by approximately $30. A little bit more about how the state does this tax calculation. I said in theory they take what you got last year, compare it to the new values this year, and do some math. That's not what they do in practice. And so what you've got in the 2026 adjusted tax roll is the new certified value. The appraisal district gives us a document that says, here's your certified value. The state then takes it, massages it and says, this is what it should be. And they give you a number. And so our certified value is 643 million. The state says, well, it should be 657 million. Then they take last year's certified value, and they don't use the certified value from last year. They massage it and say, well, it should have been $667 million. And so according to the state, that is a drop in taxable value of $10 million in value. If you take what really was and what really is, it's still a drop, but it's not a $10 million drop because they have done some research State math to what it should have been to what it should have been and then there's your change. Then to make it even more fun, we take our proposed levy of .830600 and that should generate $5,487,301 if we use the value that should have been. not the value that really is what should have been and then they compare that to last year our rate was 0.830600 and they compare that to what the value should have been and so we should have got 5.6 million dollars we didn't but that's what should have happened and that's where you get the dollar figure that is found in our statement that we're cutting taxes by 118 000 because they take a number that should have been it's not real compare it to a number that should have been that's not real, then they do some math with other numbers that should have been and then spit out $118,000. And so the statement within our budget book that says we are bringing in less taxes than we did last year, that number is completely created by the state. It's mandated by the state using state math that I barely understand and doesn't reflect any of the reality numbers that we use in real life on a daily basis. But by God, we're in compliance with state law, and we're telling you exactly what the state tells us you're supposed to say. So with that reduction in revenue of $118,000, they do recognize that we had new construction, which is new value that wasn't on the books last year. So we've got $114,000 of revenue that's new revenue from new development. And so that nets out. And so our net tax decrease is $4,272. When we look at the total evaluations across the city, as an entire class, residential values went down. We have no way of knowing what individual properties have done. My home went down. Most of the people that I talked to, their appraised value went down. We have no way of knowing what an individual property is going to do. If you have that elusive median homestead value, you're going up by $30. And so we can't say what every individual taxpayer is going to do. However, Hunt County does have a Truth in Taxation website. uh once council takes some action on the tax rate today we will provide that to the county they'll update the website and then citizens can pull up their property and see exactly what is going to happen i promise i'm almost done uh new value our community was forty eight million seven hundred eighty two thousand nine hundred thirty four dollars of development 22 million of that was by the state of texas And so that slice of the pie in brown is new development attributed to the work that the university is doing. But we did have about $8 million in new residential construction, and we had about $16 million in new industrial development for our community. Total market value of our community is $1,654,656,614. but you'll see 55% of that is that brown slice of pie that's owned by the state. The good news is that used to be 75%. Then it became 65%, and now it's 55%. So their slice of the pie is still substantial,

But it's getting smaller.

And what that means is that our community is growing on its own merit without the input and the influence of the university. And so that's important. But that leaves a taxable value of $646,673 million. That's the real number that real people do real math with, not the should have been number that the state does math with. But the majority of our community value is still found in residential with some commercial and some industrial. But those continue to grow year over year. Certified tax roll residential class went down 2.6%. Vacant properties went down 7.2%. Ag land went down 2.5%. Commercial went down 14%. And the reason for that is because of the last legislative session of all the talk that – and I try not to get on a soapbox. but there's a lot of talk by state legislators about changing and reforming property taxes and protecting residents. And then every meaningful law that they passed gave exemptions to commercial and industrial customers. And so the $17 million loss in value to our commercial is all new exemptions provided by the state legislature. And that is what pushed our total property values down the most. Industrial, we did see some positive investment. Utility systems are expanding. And other is more exemptions provided for real personal property. So all in all, our total system went down $17 million in net taxable value. So we are proposing the tax rate stays the same. Total revenue across interest in sinking and maintenance operation is about level, but we're seeing more revenue in the operating fund because we found savings by restructuring and refinancing on the debt. So it works out, but we're leaving the tax rate the same. And so if your individual home value goes down, you'll get a tax savings. If it stays the same, you'll pay the same. And if it goes up a little bit, you'll pay more. But we have no influence or say on what those appraisals are. The other way we fund this budget is through utility rates. And so this is where some things have changed since we last met. But the utility fund, this is just water and sewer. If you look at last year's budget, it was 7.3 million. We're proposing a budget of 7.9. That's an increase of $578,000 just in the utility budget. Majority of that is on salaries with changes to our compensation plan. And one of the things we did with the loss in value on the general fund side, we had to find expenses to cut resolve and remove and so there is some staff in the utility billing office that has always been employed is still employed they didn't lose their jobs but the general fund paid them even though they were working for the utility fund And so we've restructured so that their salaries coming from the utility fund, which is actually where they work. So we didn't hire two new people. We just reclassified those two people and shifted some of those salaries over. So that's the salary increase in the utility fund. And then down the miscellaneous line, you'll see an additional $278,000 The total wastewater debt is about $425,000 a year. Some of that is interest and some of that is principal. And because of the accounting rules for an enterprise fund that operates more like a business, the principal side of that debt doesn't show on the income statement. It's on the balance sheet. Reduce cash, pay off liability, and so part of that debt but we have to account for that cash. And so when we raise revenue, we didn't try to raise $278,000. We tried to raise the full 425 so that when that cash transfer happened, that it was properly covered. And then that capital increase, that's all depreciation, which is a non-cash transaction. So you'll see at the bottom, this new budget includes $425,000 of new debt service. 278 is showing up in the budget. The balance of that is principal payments. But then there's an additional $100,000 that we put into the revenue because during this next year, we will be renegotiating our contract for raw water. those costs are going to go up but it's only a portion of the year and until we renegotiate the contract we don't know exactly what that number is going to be so our expense budget right now doesn't include that increased cost for all water because we have a negotiated contract yet but we anticipate to be somewhere around $100,000 and so we've built that into our revenue model What has changed since we last talked? Again, we are constantly working and trying to develop this as much as we can. We have a rate model that we use to develop what our utility rates are going to be based on the number of customers, how they use water and sewer, and then we predict what revenue will be generated for rates that are considered for our cost allocations. and so last time we presented you with this budget that was balanced we had about a seven percent increase and every residential customer was going to see their bill go up about six dollars we have since calibrated that model for more current data and what we found is the number of accounts has increased because our community is growing and as a result the volume of water that we sell has increased so as we have more accounts more people we're selling more water and so those assumptions change what the rate impact is going to be so we've actually modified the rate proposal and what you'll see is 72 of our residential customers use 4 000 gallons a month or less those customers will see their bill go down by $2. 23% of our customers use 10,000 gallons or less. And so that's 95% of our residential customers never use more than 10,000 gallons. And so a customer using 6,000 gallons, their bill will go down $1.50. a customer using 10,000 gallons, their bill will go down by 50 cents. On the commercial side, 68% of our commercial accounts use 4,000 gallons or less. These are gonna be your small offices with a single bathroom. They will see their bill go down by about a dollar. Larger commercial customers that use 25,000 gallons, They'll see their bill go up by about $4.25. And then a large commercial customer using 125,000 gallons a month, their bill will go up $137. And then we've got industrial customers that use large volumes of water. This hypothetical customer uses 425,000 gallons a month. their bill will go up by about 236. So we always try to structure our rates in a way that protects the fixed income residents that we have in our community because they are a significant number of our households. And so this rate proposal restructures the rate and shifts some of the burden away from the fixed base cost that's the same every month no matter what you do. We've reduced that a little bit and shifted some of that revenue down to the volume charge so that the customer is more in control of what their bill is based on how much of the service they use. This still reaches the revenue necessary to produce the balanced budget that we've proposed to you, but it changes the impact primarily to our residential customers. Now out of that, our base charge for water current residents with a five, eight, three quarter inch meter pays $25 a month. That's going to go down to $24 a month. Then the one inch, one and a half, two inch, three, four and six inch. Those are all going up incrementally. I won't bore you with the engineering design, but larger meters require greater demand of the system. That's why their cost is higher. We're shifting completely how we do sewer base rates. The sewer base rates have always also been tied to your meter size. So a larger meter paid a larger base rate. And that's a practice of the industry. But I think it's hard to draw a correlation between the size of your water meter and the flow through your sewer line. And so we ran some data, and based on consumption and estimates of how much of that then ends up in the sewer line, all residential accounts will see a flat $24 a month. It was 25, so that's gonna go down by a dollar. Commercial and industrial accounts was based on their meter size, and that's going down significantly. And so we feel it's a more equitable way to relay those fixed costs to the customers without tying it to an arbitrary meter size. still generates the revenue necessary needed for this budget. And then for the consumption charges, residential customer rates for the first 4,000 gallons, that lifeline is not changing. It was $4, it's still $4. Every other consumption charge on the chart goes up by 25 cents, except for our wholesale raw water customers. That's going up to $2. Everything else is going up by 25 cents per 1,000 gallons. On the sewer consumption rate, those are staying the same. We're not making any changes to the consumption rates for sewer. So I believe that's everything. So bottom line, Mayor, is we're proposing a budget that's balanced, that accomplishes the objectives that you gave us, leaves the tax rate the same, which is lower than the no new revenue rate, and restructures utility rates so that most of our residents will see no change or maybe a slight decrease in their monthly utility bill. And so that concludes my presentation. That was a quick summary of 300 pages of budget document.

Well, it's not like we haven't heard it before. I mean, we we've gone over this several times other than the rates today. We knew that the rates we thought were going up now are going down. So that's even better. Before I open it up to public hearing, does the council have any questions or anything that we need to talk about? Okay. I'll open this up to public hearing. Each person will have five minutes. It's best if you will just state all your questions at the very beginning. We're going to take care of making note of all the questions. So if we can't answer it all within that five minutes, we will make sure that those are published through our Facebook and through, um, the website as well. All right. So at seven Oh two, I opened this public hearing on the budget. Um, I have one person that signed up Mr. Ford. You had, uh, your question was about the police department vehicles, uh, employees, hours and shifts.

thank you howdy first before i get into that i want to thank you for all you've done for the community getting grants things like that i think that's when you've talked about the last six years and how things have proved i think that you're responsible for a lot of that thank you All right. It's been a subject of mine for a few years last three years in particular, I think. So first question last time, was the police department fully staffed? Next question, number of offers planned for the 27 budget number of officers that are presently working number of vehicles including chief detectives and officers how many vehicles are we supposed to have according are we still on 12-hour shifts last i knew there was two or 12-hour shifts two officers per shift and with that uh schedule or they work in three days in 36 hours or they work in four days and then i think in our conversations you'd said that that was rotating so those are my questions how do y'all let you decide who's going to answer that

I can handle some of them, and then I'll punt to the chief for some of them. The last time, we were fully staffed. This November, I will have been here six years. And in the six years I've been here, our police department has been fully staffed for maybe two weeks. out of out of six years and based on the research that we've done the vast majority of that is compensation levels going in the current budget year we did an independent compensation analysis looking at every position in the city including our first responders and compared them to the communities that are immediately around us past studies we looked at other communities our size that may be in east texas but weren't necessarily our neighbors and that worked for most all of our positions except for first responders what we found time and time again is when we need to hire a police officer we're competing with greenville or paris or sulfur springs so we included them in our compensation study And we found across the board, every position in our law enforcement was underfunded by at least $12,000 a year. In many cases, significantly more than that. So how do we tackle that? Well, at the time we started tackling that, our patrol division, I think, was down four positions that were vacant. And so, Chief, I... I'll give you a chance to correct me if I mess it up, but the staffing model that we had, each patrol shift would have three patrol officers and a supervisor. But we never fully staffed, so our experience was only two patrol officers and a supervisor. So that's the way they were operating because we could never keep a patrol division fully staffed. because compensation was low. So we started looking at what are some things that we can do to raise compensation without blowing the entire budget. The industry nationwide for law enforcement, there are a number of best practices or standards, if you will. And one of the things they do is they look at recommended officers per thousand of population. And if you look at our city limits sign, it says 9,080. Current estimates are we're above 10,000, 10,200, 10,300. But if you look at a 9,000 population town and you take those industry standards and you do the math, then our patrol needed three patrol and one supervisor for every shift to adequately cover a community of our size. Okay. 12 arches? They're 12 arches. They're 12 arches. If you look at and you dig into what our population numbers are, the sign says 9,080, but the state demographer and our regional council of governments, they consider that we have 7,000 resident population and 3,000 itinerant population, which is students and workers that are cycling through our community on a regular basis. So if we consider a 7,000 resident population, and if you look at what our water demands are, that tracks out. If you look at what our water... the nine or ten thousand population town that if we look at staffing our police department to cover the seven thousand permanent residents and let the university police department help us patrol the three thousand that are tied to the university then we remain more than adequately staffed from law enforcement by national standards and that allowed us to trim three patrol positions that were vacant already that saved us about $200,000. We took that $200,000, gave compensation raises to the entire police department, and now they're competitively waged. And so we restructured the police department by eliminating three patrol positions that were never filled anyway, recognizing that the officers were two on a shift working 12 hours. That's been their experience for years. We're just going to compensate them for that because that's what we've been asking them to do. Since we've made that move, we've had a big increase in interest for our applications. We've just hired two phenomenal investigators that we never would have been able to attain before. And so we did change the staffing structure by reducing three patrol, and that's going to impact how the shifts work. Current staff, we are still down 10%. one patrol, and then we've just filled both of the spots in.

Well, we've got one vacancy in CID. So we have another investigator starting this coming Monday. We will still have one opening in CID and one on patrol.

So we'll have two positions that we're currently recruiting and trying to fill. I don't know the number of vehicles. So between 16 vehicles is our fleet for police department, uh, including chief investigators and patrol patrol share vehicles. Is that correct? So whoever's on shift, when they go off shift, they hand the vehicle off to the incoming shift. Uh, so 16 vehicles and we are on 12 hour shifts. Is that correct? That's correct. Did I miss any of that chief?

No, sir.

Okay. Thank you, Rob. Good questions.

Anybody else have any questions for the budget?

Okay. They don't want to get howdy going again.

Amen. So on that, I'm closing the public hearing at 7-10. And no further action is needs to be taken on this item so we move on to number eight which is the proposed maximum tax rate for fy 2027 discussion and possible action on a resolution by the commerce city council approving the maximum property tax rate which is utilized in the creation of fiscal year 2027 budget I'm afraid to give it to you again.

I will be extremely brief. Each year at this stage of the process, the council notifies the public what is the ceiling or the maximum tax rate that they will consider for the budget that's been proposed. This is not adopting the tax rate. It is simply notifying the public, this is the highest number we will consider. Next month when you adopt the tax rate, it can be this number or lower. It cannot be higher than the number you established today. Staff recommends keeping the rate the same at .830600. We'll be happy to answer your questions.

Does anybody have any questions? No. May I have a motion?

Do we need a roll call vote on this?

Yes. Do I have a motion?

I have a motion that we set a tax rate ceiling at 830600. Second.

I have a motion and a second to keep the tax rate as stated. Roll call. Howdy. Howdy. Tony. Wrong way.

Tony. Aye.

Dale. Aye. Stephanie. Aye. Aye. all right and that passes then okay item numbers eight uh nine resolution reappointing the municipal court judge lana adams this is a resolution uh reappointing uh the presiding municipal court judge lana adams approving a service agreement with her and authorizing the city manager for his designee to execute any necessary documentations. Ms. Jamie.

Thank you, Marion council. So, um, our current municipal judge is Lana Adams. Um, I believe she has been with us for at least four years. Um, her contract is a two year term. Um, and so. She's on a contract basis. Uh, we have a set payment of $300 a month for her services. Um, and she can only be appointed or unappointed, uh, by the city council.

Does anybody have any questions or statements or comments? She's been doing a fantastic job. Not had any issues with her for $300. That's great. Do I have a motion, please?

I move to reappoint. Second.

I have a motion and a second to reappoint Judge Lynn Adams for the next year. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Motion carries. Item number 10, I think the staff asked to have that removed.

I'm going to ask you to table it. This is the dump truck for our street program. We found a dump truck that will work with our asphalt layout machine. and we talked to three vendors one vendor had a truck available on the ground we could pick it up tomorrow the other two didn't have any but could build one and we would like a little bit more time we think there's a couple other vendors that we can talk to to try to get some other pricing and so we want to see if there's other trucks on the ground in our region and so we would like a little bit more time so we're asking the table all right well let me read it i actually didn't read it and when i should have

Discussion of possible action on resolution for the City Council of the City of Commerce, Texas, approving the purchase of a 2027 Kenworth T480 with 15-foot dump truck from this company in an amount not to exceed $168,000 and authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute any necessary documentation. Do I have a motion to table? I move.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second to table. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Motion carries. Number 11, we have already discussed. Moved number 12. Aye. Number 12. which is a second reading, conducting a public hearing and discussion and possible action on an ordinance authorizing request by applicant Edwin Hernandez for a conditional use permit to allow for duplex use for the property located at 2305 Monroe Street, Commerce, Texas, 75428, property ID 41531, legal description S2515, college edition, Commerce,

lot four lot three acres point one nine zero seven zone r7 single family dwelling district mr john hucker good evening council 2305 monroe is in r7 single family dwelling district the use is permitted conditionally in the district and has been from what i can tell for at least 25 to 30 years um pnz met on this after the appropriate notifications went out in the newspaper on the website and property owners within 200 feet back on july 1st staff does not see any issues with it they do exceed the off-street parking requirement which is some of our commission planning zoning commissions pet peeves Staff recommends approval, and it is in accordance with our 2025 comprehensive plan. All right.

Before we open it to public hearing, any questions for the council? All right. Open to public hearing for 7-17. Does anybody have any questions about the 2305 Monroe Street? All right. Hearing none, I close it at 7.17. Do I have other questions or anything come up? All right. Do I have a motion?

I move that we approve the conditional use permit to allow for duplexes. Approve of Edwin Hernandez of 2305 Monroe. On the second reading? On the second reading. Second.

Okay. I have a motion and a second to pass the conditional use permit for 2503 Monroe on second reading. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Motion carries. Moving to number 13 is the water conservation plan. This is the second reading. We're going to be conducting a public hearing, discussion and possible action on an ordinance amending section 94-151 and repealing sections not a 94 dash one by two to 94 dash one by five of the code of ordinances chapter 94 utilities, article two water and sewer division seven water conservation plan. to adopt the city's 2026 water conservation plan. How do you listen to me?

Mayor and council, thank you. We have had a water conservation plan in place for a number of years. This update does not change any of the policies or the practices of our community in terms of water conservation. However, we are submitting a grant to the state of Texas for a little over $8 million for water infrastructure improvements that move our community into the future. One of the requirements of this grant application is an updated conservation plan that includes some new sections and some new information. that our existing plan didn't contain. So this is simply adding those features to our water conservation plan that's in place to support our grant application. This is a second reading. Staff recommends the rule.

Council, any questions? All right. We're going to open it for a public hearing at 719. Anybody like to comment on the water conservation plan? Hearing none, I close the public hearing at 7-19. I have a motion. Second.

Motion to be passed on second reading.

Second. I have a motion and a second to pass on the second reading, the water conservation plan. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. And motion carries. All right, item number 14, city manager's report.

Mayor, Council, I think you've heard enough from me for the evening. And so I am beginning a process of allowing some of our department directors to come each month and provide an update. And so you'll have some numbers that have been given to you. And so I'm going to start with Chief Corley. I'm going to look at some of the operational things they've had over the last three months.

and then as we move forward into the future we'll add to this so we can start developing some trend lines and information that we make available to you into the public so chief weatherford mayor council thank you so today i wanted to talk about the last three months and kind of some of the things that have been going on at the police department and what we've been doing as far as statistics over may june and july And so I broke that down into a few ways. First, traffic stops. The officers are averaging 330 traffic stops per month right now, with the peak being in June at 372. Of those 70, the average of 75 citations per month, which will be the peak in May for 93 citations. Arrests are averaging about 30 per month, with the peak being May at 36. After that, when people are arrested, it's not always just one charge. So I'm also tracking charges at the time of arrest. So this is the total volume of charges that are charged at that time, and that's averaging 38 a month, with the peak being 41 in July. Total cases, so the average on that is 74, with a significant peak last two months in this period. The last metric here that I wanna talk about is, it's not really calls for service, it's the amount of responses that the officers are going on. So what I mean for that is if there's a call for service that comes in and one officer responds, you're gonna see that one time in this category. However, if two respond, you would see that counted twice in this category. And I track that by officer per month to see what they're actually responding to. However, with our current record management system, past two is not really counted. You would have to go through each one manually to count past two. So if there was three or some major incident that was more, that would not be reflected in this number. So this is just the first one or two officers that respond to something. So the average responses of officers actually going out and responding to something is 975%. at 1,010 responses from the officers during that month. That's a few of the metrics that we can track there and then Secondly, I wanted to bring some metrics as far as flock, because I know that's a program that we are using, um, and it's been successful so far. So for the, for May, June and July, that three, same three month period, Congress police officers use that system 447 times. The, those searches ranged across 19 different crime categories and the top five being narcotics theft, motor vehicle theft, vandalism and damage, and robbery. Those are the top five categories that were searched by Commerce Police Department officers over that three month period. Additionally, I would like to talk a little bit more about flock. So far, Commerce officers have used data from that LPR system in 35 separate incidents. Of those incidents, the most serious crimes that were involved in those that that data directly supported the investigations on were rape, aggravated assault, and violation of protective orders where victims were in danger. Although other crimes that we have used the system for include motor vehicle thefts, thefts, hit and run crashes, vandalism, and narcotics cases. Additionally, the system has been instrumental in locating and apprehending wanted persons within our community. Just a few of those types of crimes, parole warrants, federal narcotics warrants, theft warrants, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon warrants are some of those cases. In total, out of those 35 incidents where this data was used, so far today, there were 16 arrests made in those particular situations. In addition, during that time frame, there was $42,000 of recovered property stolen where flock was instrumental in those cases. One particular case of interest that I wanted to mention was a regional theft ring that came to the City of Commerce during the night one night and attempted to steal a motor vehicle from a residential property here within the city. luckily and aware resident was able to call law enforcement holler at them and it was a foiled attempt so it was simply an attempt in our community however data from our lpr system and others was instrumental in that case which was that particular ring over a short period of time was successfully able to steal four vehicles in our neighboring communities those in that case vehicles recovered and the seizure of illegal drugs during the apprehension of those individuals additionally I know there's a lot of talk about flock and so I want to talk about this as well of those 35 three of those are logged within our system as false positive or no action taken In each one of these three, these were stolen license plates. And so what happened in each of these actually is that they weren't truly false positives. A license plate was stolen from a vehicle, either in our community or another, and that crime was reported to law enforcement. However, the owner of the vehicle continued to operate the vehicle with their one remaining license plate. And so when they came into our community, we had contact with them because they were displaying a stolen license plate. Upon contact, they were the rightful owner of that license plate, but they simply had not replaced it as law enforcement advises them to do before they report it. Um, so I guess that covers the things that I wanted to speak about. I do have one more thing, if I may, but I may want to ask questions or take any questions from y'all first. Yeah. Okay. I would also like to take the opportunity. Detective Williams is here in the crowd today. If you can come up with me, I would like to introduce him to y'all. Detective Williams joins our team from the state of Colorado. He comes with 26 years of law enforcement experience. Quite a few of those years spent in investigations. He comes from Colorado with extensive experience in computer and digital forensics. He was a TFO with Secret Service and operated in their lab there in Colorado to do digital forensics there. He conducted high level and high priority investigations throughout his region. And from what we could find was well respected by his colleagues, his peers, and the prosecutors in that region. He also has extensive experience in child crimes, internet crimes against children, which he will bring that skill to our community. I'm confident in our region. Um, in addition to that, He was part of, here, when we have officer-involved shootings, we have the rangers that come in and do that work for us. He was, I guess, selected and asked to do that in his area of responsibility and surrounding jurisdictions by the prosecutors and his peers because of the trust that they put in his work, and he had worked on and led officer-involved shooting investigations throughout that region. So I'm excited to welcome Detective Williams to our team and introduce him to y'all tonight.

Thank you very much. Welcome to the community and thank you very much, Chief. Thank you. Okay. How many? Okay, PJ.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So I just want to quickly do an overview of what the Public Works has been doing the past three months. We'll start out at the water treatment plant. So from the lake, we have brought in 31.73 million gallons. We have treated and sent to the community 28.04 million gallons. And from our wells, we have pumped 10.40 million gallons. For the month of June from the lake we brought in thirty two point seven three million gallons treated thirty point seven six million gallons and from Ross we pumped seven point six two million gallons. For the month of July from the lake we brought in forty four point for six million gallons, treated 35.49 million gallons, and from Ross, 16.78 million gallons. The numbers in July are a lot higher due to we had some leaks on the lake line and on the well line that we've had to get fixed, so it's taking a little bit more water to work with. On the wastewater treatment plant side, if you see the influent numbers, they are not exactly accurate due to the fact that right now the water that comes into the wastewater plant, some of it moves down the line and gets treated. The rest of it gets dumped into the EQ and then sent back to that same meter so it's being read two or three times as it's going around. We won't really talk much about those numbers because we're not treating 76 million gallons. On the effluent sending out to the creek, the south sulfur, we treated 31.682 million gallons. For the month of June, 33.56 million gallons. For the month of July, we treated 30.45 million gallons. And then our collection and distribution teams, since the month of May, they have fixed 17 leaks and repaired 12 sewers. Our street department has filled 1,023 potholes, have patched eight streets with the zipper and the new paper. They have patched eight sections. On the code enforcement side, we picked up trash six loads, whether it be people dumping illegal furniture or whatnot, or just brush that they had to have cleaned up. And we've done zero demolitions the last three months.

Any questions? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay, Mayor and Council, we're gonna start with our property tax. As of July, we have actually met our property tax revenue budget of $5.4 million. The budget is 98% collection of our overall tax levy. I don't know that anybody caught it or not, but Howdy did make a mention about how they are now telling us what our, levy should have been right during this year. So our levy that we budgeted off of was $5.5 million. They're now saying, you know, your levy should have been 5.6. I don't know who else caught that, but I caught it. So this is just every thing that we get from now on, all the revenue that we get from now on will just push us closer and closer to the tax levy. But it is always nice to know that we've hit budget. Moving into sales tax, as of July, we have received $1.47 million. Once again, we surpassed our monthly budget with $142,000 received in July. So if we look at our top 10 categories, you'll see that almost every category here actually had a really positive month in July. And once again, we see that waste management line kind of shooting out towards the bottom. Once again, this is one vendor in waste management that has had an unexpected sales tax payout for us for the sixth month in a row. I have already begun doing my research into this company. because I really want to find out is this something that we should be depending on every month, or is this something that's related to a large project? What is it? What's this anomaly? So I've already reached out to the comptroller to get a little bit more information on this company. I would love it if it would continue. So when we look at our retail trade, there were no real anomalies in retail trade, just a really healthy month overall for most of our vendors. When we look at food and accommodation, really the only shift that was worth note was that the limited service restaurants moved from 40% this time last year up to 44% this time this year. This time this year. At this time during this year. Does anybody have any questions? That's all I have for you today. Thank you.

Paulie.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'll get through just one quick. So this weekend we have several events and happenings going on in Commerce. We're hosting, I believe it's our second annual Touch a Truck event. This is an event hosted by Commerce Fire Department. And they have, and Commerce Police Department, they have collaboration with multiple departments within the city. So Public Works comes out and brings their heavy machinery. The Texas Forestry Service, local ambulances are there. It's a great opportunity. to bring the kiddos and it lets them see various traits that they might be interested in pursuing one day. They get to physically touch and climb on our fire trucks, which isn't something you get to do every day. You can come out and see our new fire trucks and the kids get to interact with all of this equipment. And it's pretty neat. So that will be at Centennial Park this coming Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

There will be a helicopter flying it.

That's awesome. So in addition to that, they have the Aerovac that comes out there, and that's really neat.

This is an addition to Aerovac. There will be another helicopter.

You can't miss that. Tacos. And tacos. Tacos. Tacos. Tacos. Tacos stay for the trucks. In addition, our Commerce Police and Fire Department have been so busy hosting these fun events. This is something new that Commerce Police and Fire are doing. Corley would probably be a better one to present this one. But they're doing a hunter education course. This is for kiddos age 9 to 17. It's $15, and your kiddo gets registered for hunter education through Texas Parks and Wildlife. So I signed my 11-year-old up. I'm really excited. that the police department has started doing this so this is also on saturday from eight to five and it is at our police department a couple reminders our clean commerce campaign is coming for section a on august 26 which is next wednesday you can put if you if you live in section a you can put your bulk trash curbside by the weekend Mosquito spraying will pick up again next week. So far we haven't had any West Nile positive mosquitoes this season. I think historically we tend to see those around this time of year. But so far we haven't had any. They'll be spraying next week beginning in Section A on Monday. So remember to bring any of your pet bowls inside. And as they go through the area, just be aware that they're coming through your areas next week. We have the schedule posted on our website and also available up here at City Hall. And we post it to social media as well. Our Commerce Municipal Court is hosting with Judge Lena Adams and our Associate Clerk Tequila are hosting a Commerce Court Q&A. That will be here at City Hall on Thursday, August 27th from 6 to 8 p.m. They'll be asking lots of questions that help you avoid encountering our municipal court. But should you, they'll be offering kind of some tips and some helpful advice. So that's a free event that's open to the public on the evening of Thursday, August 27th. As a reminder, our Farmer's Market is still going on. If you haven't had the opportunity, Nicole's been doing some wonderful features of our Farmer's Market vendors on our Parks and Recreation page. It features a various vendor, and it's really neat to see the stories behind a lot of our vendors. So they're participating all the way through the third weekend in September. So that's coming up, and that'll be the last weekend of Farmer's Market here in Commerce. Youth basketball league registration is open. Currently, we just closed soccer registration, so basketball registration is open. The season starts in December, it goes through February. So you can either come to City Hall or visit commercerecreation.com, register kiddos from pre-K all the way up to sixth grade. So it gives kiddos and grandkids an opportunity to do youth sports outside of the school district. Bodark Bash is coming up. It's a busy time of year in the city. September is Bodark Bash month. So that is the fourth weekend in September, which is the 25th and 26th. There's lots of events going on. This is an event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. So if you need more information, you can visit the Chamber of Commerce. But that is coming up. Associated with the Bodark Bash is the Commerce Leadership Institute Duck Pluck. And yes, Howdy will be present in the duck costume to pluck the winning duck. So if you have not gotten tickets, be sure and find somebody in the CLI class. There's three of us right here. Yeah, me too. Just walk into our office and somebody will offer you a ticket. And so you do not have to be present to win, but the drawing for that winner will be done by Howdy in the duck uniform on Saturday, September 26th during the bash at noon. And then another thing that I think this is the second year that this run is coming back. Stephanie, would you like to talk about the 5K?

We brought this back last year. This is called the Bash Dash. It's a 5K. It's a fun run, but it is timed so that those people that want to do the running and have started out their season of running, timed runs to get ready for half marathons and marathons i know there's somebody back there that runs marathons all the time um this was brought back last year we'll start in this this year again it is we're expecting over 150 people signed up so um they will start out at farmer's market and running through and there'll be people that'll walk or whatever, so we'll have a group of people that will be telling everybody to watch out for runners, but this is real exciting. You can go ahead and sign up just using the QR code.

We have those flyers all around City Hall, and then it starts at 8 a.m., so it should be nice and cool.

And Molly also, which it hasn't come out yet, it'll be out in the next day or two, but the fashion is approaching us. There will be the Kidpreneur again for the third year, and that is when children make goods anywhere from It's all over the place. Crouse and cookies. We're going to be doing it in conjunction with the Children's Museum, so we think this event is going to grow. It is a real big attendance for that, so look for that information coming out.

And if you ever need any information on any of these, feel free to contact City Hall. That's all I have for you.

Here are two personnel updates. We already saw one with Detective Williams. With us restructuring the compensation plan, we've had actually three vacancies in our investigation division for an extended period of time. And we're excited to have two very qualified investigators joining our team. Detective Neal has been holding down the fort and doing an admirable job. uh but one detective for all the work that we do can get overwhelming so he's also very very thankful for the support staff but i also want to give some kudos to our water treatment plant and operators out there we have about 75 to 80 percent of our water typically comes from lake tuacane which you saw in the report and the balance comes from groundwater wells in delta county Well, we've had a series of leaks over the past couple of weeks on that main line that brings the groundwater into our community. So those wells have not been available. Historically in our community, our wastewater, our water treatment plant could not meet summertime demands alone. It had to have groundwater and support. This is the first summer that we can find records of that the water treatment plant handled our summertime demands with room to spare and continue to deliver quality drinking water to our community and didn't have to sweat it when they lost the groundwater. And so that's just a great commendation to the work they've done at the plant and the dedicated staff that we have. That's a milestone for our community and for those guys that most people will never see or hear. And so we're very thankful for them and the work that they do. I have nothing else, and there is no need for executive session.

TJ, please express our sincere thank you for all the things that they do. I know that they will not come out from behind the curtain to even let us talk to them and stuff so thank you very much um we have nothing else to uh to hold on to tonight uh can i have an adjournment motion second so we will close at 7 40