City Council - Regular Meeting

Test Test 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 Test Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Cecilia Orozco and I am the interim director of communication. This is our fifth budgetary consultation session on a series of seven. The format of this evening's session will begin with a few remarks from our municipal deputy director, Michael Rodriguez. Then, our budget manager, Amy Rodriguez, will say a few words, followed by a short video on the budget. Then we will give you the floor for any questions or feedback on the budget. We simply remind you to speak directly into the microphone when you approach, so that everyone on YouTube can hear your questions. Without further ado, I will introduce you to our municipal district councillor, Gayle Hernandez.

Well, thank you very much. Thank you for coming today. It is an important part of our work in the city, because it is about ensuring that we have enough funds to make things work. It is not only the general fund that you know for the streets, the firefighters, the police and everything that the city does, but also what we call business funds, managed as companies for our public services. There are also other elements, such as type B, the hotel fee, a whole bunch of things in which you probably don't want to go into too much detail, but that's why I'm here. But I thank you all for coming for this. It is extremely important and we have brought collaborators to answer your questions about specific departments and what can be done, but I really appreciate your presence tonight. Je sais que vous pourriez faire autre chose, mais j'apprécie grandement votre présence. Merci beaucoup. Oh, j'ai oublié de mentionner, je m'excuse. Nous avons l'une de nos juges du tribunal de comté, Lisa Gonzalez, là-bas. Dites. Et nous avons plusieurs candidats qui se présentent au conseil municipal. Si vous voulez bien vous lever pour faire un signe de la main. Voilà, voilà. Merci beaucoup. Je vais passer à la suite pour que nous puissions regarder la vidéo. Avant la vidéo, je vais présenter le directeur municipal adjoint, Michael Rodriguez, pour qu'il vienne dire quelques mots. Bonsoir à tous. Merci d'être parmi nous. Michael Rodriguez, directeur municipal adjoint. Je tiens à vous souhaiter la bienvenue au nom de tout le bureau du directeur municipal et de l'ensemble de notre organisation. Je crois que le conseiller Hernandez a fait tout mon discours. Alors, merci d'avoir fait cela. Nous voulions simplement vous informer que nous avons un budget équilibré. Nous en sommes donc très heureux. Il s'agit de notre huitième réunion communautaire. Nous vous remercions donc d'être ici. Nous attendons vos contributions avec impatience. When we started this budget process, we had a deficit of about $900,000, but we managed to balance it. Since the municipal director presented this budget project to the municipal council, we have collected the community's comments. We held a workshop with the municipal council and we will integrate these returns in our budget decisions as we move towards the presentation of the recommended final budget. Once again, thank you very much for being present. We appreciate and look forward to your suggestions. I pass the floor to Amy.

Good evening, I am Amy Rodriguez, Director of Management and Budget. Thank you very much for joining us. We will start by watching a short video prepared by our communication service on our budget. Each year, the city of Corpus Christi develops a budget that serves as a financial plan to provide services to our community. The budget determines how resources are invested to offer essential services to which residents depend daily, including public safety, street maintenance, parks, libraries, animal care, code application and many other programs. The budget project for exercise 2027 continues to give priority to water safety and long-term water management. The police, firefighters, streets and parks, according to the community's opinions and the priorities of the municipal council, while maintaining the city's commitment to responsible financial management. The city works according to a financial exercise, which is simply a 12-month period. The financial exercise of the city of Corpus Christi begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year. Throughout the year, the municipal staff monitors the revenues, assesses the needs in service and plans future investments to ensure responsible use of the money of the contributors while maintaining long-term financial stability. The budget elaboration process begins months before the start of the new financial exercise. Departments assess their operational needs, identify their priorities and submit funding requests. The staff then examines revenue forecasts, assesses existing services and develops recommendations that balance community priorities with available resources. Throughout the process, the City continuously assesses income and expenses to ensure that the proposed budget remains balanced while supporting essential services and long-term priorities. The feedback from the community gathered during meetings such as this one helps to guide its recommendations. The proposed budget is then presented to the municipal council, followed by public consultation sessions and council workshops before adopting the final budget in September. The budget of the city is composed of several different funds, each with a specific objective. Tonight's discussion focuses on the General Fund. The General Fund supports a good number of essential services used daily by residents and is mainly financed by land taxes, sales taxes, franchise revenues and other local revenues. These revenues support services such as the police, firefighters, parks and recreation, libraries, animal care services, code application, neighborhood services and many other daily operations that improve the quality of life in the entire Corpus Christi. Other funds include business funds, which support services such as water, sewage and gas. These services are mainly financed by the rates and fees paid by customers. The city also manages special income funds, compensation funds and debt service funds, each dedicated to specific programs, projects or financial obligations. A way to consider the general fund is to compare it to a family budget. Imagine that you have $ 100 every month. Some of this money is already affected by essential expenses such as housing, food, transport, public services and insurance. Now, imagine that you want to add a new expense, maybe a subscription to a gym, a streaming service or a new family activity. If your income remains at $ 100, the addition of a new expense may require reducing or carrying back another expense in order to respect your budget. Families make decisions every day by evaluating what is most important and balancing their needs with their available resources. The city budget works in the same way. Although revenues can vary from year to year, resources are not unlimited. New programs, services, installations or improvements often require finding a balance between existing priorities and available financing. This is why the city staff carefully assesses the needs, available revenues, operational costs and community priorities throughout the budget process. While the budget for exercise 2027 is in the process of elaboration, the proposal for 2027 continues to focus on long-term water safety, the management of used water, the police, firefighters, streets and parks, while maintaining the financial discipline necessary to continue providing essential services to which residents depend every day. This is why the contribution of the community is so important. Your feedback helps the City Directorate and the Municipal Council to understand which services and investments count the most when they examine the proposed budget and make decisions for the next financial exercise. Thank you for your participation and for contributing to shaping the future of Corpus Christi. Très bien. Eh bien, encore une fois, merci de vous être joint à nous. J'espère que vous avez apprécié cette courte vidéo. Je tiens à souligner que nos plus grands services municipaux sont représentés ici. Nous avons effectivement des responsables de ces services présents ici. Ils se trouvent au fond de la salle. Si vous avez des questions précises pour ces services, nous aurons un peu de temps vers la fin de cette réunion pour que vous puissiez leur parler directement. On this, please, we have a microphone here to start with your questions or comments. Donc, la réserve aux eaux, le grand parc national, beaucoup d'eux. Il y a eu une discussion sur l'app et apparemment ils avaient l'obligation de financer. 7. Argent Are you referring to the Oso Bay or Alaa Learning Center? OK, I don't have the answer. I'm not sure that our parking service is. In fact, Sergio, can you come up? Here is Sergio González, our Deputy Director of the Parking Service. He may be able to answer your question or provide a follow-up.

It was not planned. I made them come just because I wanted them to answer the question. González, Director-Adjoint of Parks and Recreation. So, it is the Cozabán de Bazin Estuaries that manages the reserve. They are looking for funding for the construction and everything else, I believe, through this organization. I suppose the question continues. So, the financing is still there, nothing changes this year. Everything will remain the same. The financing is assured. I know that last year, it was a question of removing the program, but we fixed it during the budgetary process. So, we are ready to move forward with the Osobay reserve. So, Mes attentes et mon évaluation de l'économie locale m'amènent à penser que nous devons surveiller de près les recettes fiscales, qu'il s'agisse de la taxe de vente, des impôts fonciers ou de toute autre source de revenus, car nous ne sommes plus en 2022. L'inflation a rattrapé les consommateurs. Le climat des affaires générales n'est pas aussi solide qu'en 2019. There are positive signs, my attention is focused on the construction materials sector and the local economy, but once again, we are no longer in 2018 or 2020. Things have stabilized and I am waiting for what the ceiling revenues, maybe even decrease. So this is something we should keep in mind. I could be wrong, but I'm probably right. Merci, merci pour cela. C'est un bon rappel que l'impôt foncier et la taxe de vente constituent la majorité des revenus du fonds général. D'accord. Juste pour répondre à quelques questions à ce sujet, nous avons constaté une baisse de la valeur des propriétés. E. Et E. Quel était le déficit? 3 millions.

Regarding our forecasts.

Okay. Regarding what we had planned with the evaluation service, you know, once all the people came to protest their ownership, it was a deficit of about $ 3 million that we were going to receive from our rate of 59.99 cents of sales tax. And so we had to adjust to understand that. But you're right. However, we have a little higher forecasts for the sales tax. I think we're doing it at 1%. We are therefore very careful about the way we project revenue. There is therefore a slight drop in the tax rate, a slight increase in the sales tax, but at the end of the day, we always have to pay everything. You know, we can't print money like the federal government. So we have to make sure it works. So you're right. We are careful about this and we are working on it. I just wanted to remind you of the Garcia Library and two years ago, when we went through all this, I am very grateful that the Garcia Library remained open. I remember that you, Gilles or Garcia, had explained how, in the loan, money was going to be put aside for the architect's fees, and you know how grateful I am. J'ai discuté avec Laura. Elle m'a tenu au courant à ce sujet. J'espérais qu'elle dirait. Oh oui, cette année nous allons... Nous avons le plan de l'architecte et nous allons avancer. Mais elle m'a donné plus de détails. Je veux juste... dire n'oubliez pas la bibliothèque Garcia.

D'accord. Alors, je veux vous donner un peu de contexte à ce sujet. Eux, vous savez tous que nous avons deux bibliothèques qui sont... reliées ou situées à côté d'une école. Eh, nous avons la bibliothèque Garcia qui est juste ici à côté du collège Cathy, et nous avons aussi celle de Flower Bluff. C'est devenu un problème, eh, je dirais il y a 4 ans, et nous avons regardé ça et nous nous sommes dit, d'accord, ce n'est pas le meilleur endroit pour ça. Le CCISD a cessé d'utiliser cette bibliothèque, donc ils l'ont en quelque sorte isolée parce qu'ils ne voulaient aucun accès à l'école depuis la bibliothèque. D'accord, voyons que cela allait être un problème. I put the money aside in a loan plan to design a complex combining library and leisure center. We have neither senior center nor leisure center in the southern part of the city. We have nothing in the south of SP. That's why I said, very well, let's take this opportunity to do both and have this equipment in the future. However, this money has been reserved for the design. They are currently designing it. It takes some time to realize. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to add more compulsory programs for this cycle without increasing taxes. There will therefore be no compulsory program for the streets or whatever this year. However, this design still exists. I also have designs for streets as well. 5 of them, to be precise, that we are waiting for. Thus, when we have the capacity in the future, we can bring them out and launch the process. The reason why we did this is that once designed, by the past, we made mandatory programs for the entire project, the design and construction. But it took 4 years after the obligation vote to be able to get to the construction. Well, during this time, there is inflation, and at the beginning, it was only an approximate estimate of the cost. So, what we have decided, and what I contributed to, is to separate the two, by making the conception on one side and the construction on the other. Thus, with a real conception, we can make a reasonable estimate of the final cost. In this way, when we obtain the obligation for the construction, we can start the work in six months with a precise cost estimate for this project. Unfortunately, when we had deficits, we issued obligation certificates to fill the gap. It is a debt that you were not aware of that we end up borrowing to fill the deficit and that adds to our real debt. We have therefore improved the process, but we do not have the funding or the capacity to build or include it in the obligation this year. What about the application of the Code of Urbanism? Because I am defending a resident who has been sending emails and calling for three years now, she says, and she is taking care of her elderly mother. I passed near the residence and the fire mouth literally came out of the ground. The answer I got after calling and sending emails is that we don't have a budget for it. So, what's the plan? I'm not sure about this specific case. Nous avons notre service de respect du code ici, ainsi que notre service des eaux et notre service d'incendie. Je ne sais donc pas quel serait le service compétent pour répondre à cette question. Aviez-vous quelque chose à ajouter?

Une bouche d'incendie relève probablement du service des eaux. Donc, l'eau provient évidemment de chez nous. Je ne sais pas, je ne sais pas. Camille, est-ce que cela relèverait des eaux? La bouche d'incendie. Je vois le chef qui fait signe que oui. Très bien. Selena, if this does not bother you, send me a photo of the address and I will transmit it to the service of the waters and to the service of respect of the code. We often think that the role of the service of respect of the code stops at the writing of the contravention, but this is not the case. Once the contravention is issued, it goes to the legal service where a prosecutor pursues the infraction in front of the municipal court, then the court makes its judgment, depending on whether they must pay or whether they can settle before the audience. There are several steps to follow. Our code service agents are on the ground, and I defend them a little because, you know, I criticized them a lot when I arrived. But there are still many other steps to be taken. Every time such a situation occurs, it is necessary to dig a little to see if the contraventions have been well written. If they were, what happened next? What was the resolution of these files? Sometimes it is necessary to follow up on these elements. If you are in a specific neighborhood, and in my case, I fortunately have fewer problems of this kind, apart from the Kings Crossing golf course that we were able to solve. It is very complex, you really have to ensure follow-up. I recommend, if you know that a contravention has been filed, to go through the system to try to understand the situation. Call your municipal advisor to follow the file and know what has happened to this specific contravention. I would like to make a new promotion for the Council of Libraries or for the libraries themselves, and I don't know if a field has already been designated for this. I know they were trying to make an exchange with the CCISD. If you could provide some details on this, we don't want this file to be abandoned and we plan to follow it. Secondly, I'm not sure how this format was established. I was waiting for a more detailed presentation on expenses, so that we can ask specific questions, defend certain points or even that you ask us your opinion on how money should be spent, which is I suppose what you are asking for. Thank you. Thank you for these questions. So, I will start with the acquisition of the land for the library. We have funds in the 2024 loan for the acquisition of land and design services. We work with the CCISD for an exchange of property or land. We are still working on it, but we are also studying other locations to see what would best suit this library because, as the Hernandez advisor said, it will be for a library, some recreational services and a senior center. We therefore want to make sure that the location is ideal, but the CCISD site remains an option. As for the budget and the presentation of our actions, it is still a basic budget. We had a deficit of about $ 900,000 at the time of starting this process. We have managed to balance this, but we have not really added too many budget initiatives or new projects for the city. Currently, what we are doing this year is identical to what we are proposing in the budget for next year, in 2027. It is important to note, according to what we have heard from the community, that the animal protection services are important. We have therefore not made any costs. We have a stable financing and we even have a little more funds for parks and leisure, also a stable financing for the Department of Health and Library Services. So again, it's a basic budget. We continue largely what we did last year, without much more. Je tiens à ajouter que nous avons une table, le département du budget a une table, où nous présentons le projet de budget. Nous avons également le graphique circulaire du fonds général pour l'exercice 2027, qui est je pense devenu bien connu dans la communauté et que vous pouvez consulter. Et jeudi dernier, nous avons tenu un atelier sur le budget du fonds général, dont nous pouvons accéder à la présentation sur notre site web, et cette présentation est également disponible sur YouTube. So, if there are specific questions or if you want more details, we can certainly provide them to you. We, we have just seen. Spends between housing, insurance and all that kind of thing. And if we have more, well, we have to change. Je viens d'entendre qu'il nous manque 900 000 $ et que tout est à financement constant. Qu'est-ce qui est supprimé ? Qu'est-ce qui est réduit ? Qu'est-ce qui est moins prioritaire ? Comment cela est-il traité ?

Merci. Le déficit de 900 000 $ est celui que nous avions prévu lors de la présentation initiale, mais le budget proposé est équilibré, ce qui signifie que nous ne prévoyons aucun déficit pour l'exercice 2027. We do not propose any reduction in this budget, but we maintain the current levels of service. And this is, I believe, what Mr. Rodriguez meant by constant financing, namely that we do not make cuts in these departments.

Very well, I, I misunderstood for the 900, of course, thank you. Yes, sir. As I said earlier, we cannot print money, so we must balance the budget. Je veux mettre deux. L'une des projections avec l'IA à venir et nous en avons déjà vu ici, des personnes dont le travail est déplacé par l'IA. Donc, l'inquiétude concernant. 60% environ des fonds fédéraux et étatiques sont basés sur les salaires et ainsi de suite. Donc je pense que nous devons rester dans une situation. De faible endettement. Je veux donc prendre cela et me pencher sur l'eau, car c'est mon sujet favori. Tout comme les ouïes. Les chiffres comptent, vous savez, souvent le public pense que ceci est mieux que cela et que c'est vraiment important. C'est là que les chiffres comptent quand nous examinons le budget. Pour être précis, quelle est l'obligation sur la dette, eux, les prêts que nous avons obtenus auprès du... PDWB, SWIFT loans, the internal port, how much does it cost? What is our payment on this subject at the moment? I think it was a little over 200 million for the first unblocked funds, then there are 525 million more in a second phase. Can you tell us what is our annual obligation for the year to come on these two elements?

Camille Terrasse, he is our Director-Adjoint for the CCW. I think he can give you some of his precise information. So, uh, for the moment, uh, you're right. The total allocation of the Texas Water Development Board was 757 million, of which the city borrowed about 250 million dollars. Of these 250 million, about 46 have been spent. The annual repayment of the debt for the 256 is like when you buy a house, no? You have borrowed the totality, it does not matter to know if you have spent the 256 or the 46, it is about 13 million dollars per year. If the project is canceled, we would repay the loan in advance, roughly by repaying the unpaid part, by obtaining a new loan for the remaining amount of the debt, either the 46 plus the possible penalties, and we would only lose that. It's interesting. So, it generates interest. It is invested in short-term obligations and things authorized by the state. So, it pays. So it's not just immobilized, which has not been withdrawn. So we have no obligation of reimbursement or anything like that. It is simply an allocation. Yes, sir.

Very quickly, for the budget table, can you raise your hand for a moment? Okay, over there on their table, they should have the book of the real budget. If you go to the operating budget and you look at the global debt, there is an tab that indicates the debt fund. This shows you by department, such as the water fund, the used water fund, the rainwater funds, the general fund, and indicates how much we pay annually for each of these areas. So I asked for a summary page for all these elements at the beginning. Thus, with the real budget, you will see our total amount, including what we owe in full, not only the capital, but the capital, interest and total payment. So you can see it. I want to make sure that it is clearly available so that you know what debt we have.

And just to add quickly, for the budget adopted for exercise 2026, it is the year in progress. We have this global debt calendar. It would obviously not be updated with the changes in exercise 2027, but in the book of the adopted budget, we have this global summary showing the complete calendar of the debt service, capital and interest payments up to its reimbursement. Essentially.

The questions about debt and the funding of the ESO fund lead to my concerns about the fact that residents have not voted or asked for some of these projects for which we are indebted. and we have tens, hundreds, many millions blocked in debt for these projects. And when we have subjects like the library, I know there are nuances about the different funds and how to raise them, but when we ask for more funding for the library, if you look at the budget for homeless services, for example, it's only a few hundred thousand, and people also wonder why we haven't seen a lot of figures. And I know that these budget consultations come just before the budget vote and that we have seen a low participation for years. And I think that residents should simply make sure that future budgets integrate solutions to get out of this quasi-annual deficit. What is the long-term plan so that we can finance people's needs without having to continue to increase taxes? And as the city mentioned, there are hundreds of millions in loans and financing opportunities for some hydraulic projects, But is this type of funding available to residents, those who pay all the taxes? And I think we could have a better democracy by allowing residents to express themselves and by multiplying the opportunities to inform people. And I would simply like the city to do more to attract ordinary citizens to these events and to look towards the future, because we cannot continue to push the problem indefinitely. But yes, I know it wasn't really a question. Listen, Marc, I appreciate your comment. Je veux être clair sur le fait que nous avons des enveloppes budgétaires distinctes, n'est-ce pas ? Le fonds général qui est de quoi ? 360. 3. J'allais, j'allais arrondir, donc 355 millions de dollars. Cela provient de diverses sources. Impôts, eux, taxes sur les ventes, taxes foncières, redevances de franchise mentionnées ici. Et c'est là, c'est la majorité de ce que fait la ville, ce que vous voyez de l'action municipale. Et ensuite, nous avons d'autres enveloppes, eux, le fonds de l'eau, qui est de quoi, 190 quoi, 200. Non, l'an dernier c'était 189. Cette année, c'est quoi ? 212. 212. There are therefore envelopes that we cannot mix, right? Because one is collected specifically for this use, the water, and the general fund is specifically intended for this other use. A bit like when you receive an amendment from a police officer, this money does not return to the police service, this amendment goes elsewhere. It goes to the general fund, because it would be a conflict of interest if the policemen benefited from having given you an amendment, right? So, I want to make sure that we have separate funding for the different things. This is probably not the best example, but it's a good example, isn't it? It's the same thing for the application of regulations. They give you a fine for infringing on the Code. They don't get that money back, they go to the General Fund to cover everything. So, they don't benefit directly from what they do, okay? At the end of the day, we haven't increased taxes. Finally, the tax rate, let me rephrase. We have not increased the tax rate in the last four years. Okay, but the value of the property has increased and decreased. This year, it has decreased a little, but all the new properties increase the receipts. So it's not quite, you know, what the state calls the constant income tax rate. This was once called the effective tax rate, where you have the value of the property plus the rate. The value of the property increases and the rate remains the same. Your taxes still increase, don't they? It's the same thing, your rate remains the same and the value of the properties decreases. Your taxes, in fact, are reduced. We have to manage this on an annual basis. Since we don't know what will come in as long as we don't have this information from the evaluation service, which usually comes in August, right?

July. I'm getting close. It's this kind of information. Il est donc difficile de prévoir combien d'argent vous allez avoir, simplement parce que vous ne le savez pas avant que l'argent n'arrive. Ce que je trouve encore plus difficile, c'est ce CCISD, ils font leur budget en juillet. Je veux dire, ils fonctionnent du 1er juillet au 30 juin. Je ne sais pas comment ils font ça. Ils n'ont aucune idée de l'argent qu'ils vont recevoir car ils ne reçoivent même pas le rapport avant la fin juillet. Je ne me plains pas d'eux.

Je souligne simplement que nous. These are key elements that we are trying to manage to make sure we have enough money to work. And I know it's hard, and I'm probably going into too much detail, but it's important for us, for me, to understand how we finance things, how we spend the money, where we spend it, what is our debt and what are our debt obligations. It's important to have that. I want you to understand that they do their best, they, to try to make sure that everything works in order to finance everything we have. e e amanda breland e district 1 e i think you know my speech now e i want to see more funding for trees e more funding for libraries e more funding for homeless services e i think you have already heard a lot of reasons why these services need more money and funds e J'aimerais aussi voir une sorte de solution concernant les transports publics dans la ville. J'ai la chance d'avoir mon propre véhicule, ou peut-être pas vu les mensualités de crédit. Mais beaucoup de gens n'en ont pas, donc pour les autres résidents qui utilisent les services de bus, les plaintes sont les mêmes. C'est beaucoup. Il faut beaucoup de temps pour arriver quelque part, ce qui prendrait 15 minutes en voiture en prend une heure. E. So I think a solution must be found or imagined on this subject. E. I would also like to talk about the format of these meetings. E. It is probably the largest number of people I have seen in one of them. E. I think you could do. I think, I do not know, I do not know, I do not know if you can attribute the merit. Great. E. But I would like to see. E. Much more effort provided to succeed in attracting more residents here. e peut-être proposer des services de bus pour ses réunions e peut-être proposer une garde d'enfants e j'aimerais aussi e aussi génial que soit cette vidéo je pense que ce serait du temps mieux employé je veux dire les gens posent des questions sur à quoi ressemble le budget je pense qu'une comparaison comme je l'ai dit avant serait excellente e et voilà c'est tout merci

We have, very quickly in the presentation of the workshop, which you can find online if you wish, we have the comparison with the previous year in this presentation.

I want to talk specifically about the RTA, which is the regional transport management. It is independent of the city and has been during the last 36 years. It works with a sales tax of half a cent. Eux, c'était sous l'égide de la ville, mais ils sont passés à une approche régionale qui inclut plus que la seule ville de Corpus Christi. Eux. Nos services de transport sont un service social. Ce n'est pas, ce n'est pas comme dans certaines des plus grandes villes où vous avez, eux, des transports en commun de masse. C'est, c'est les transports en commun. It is incredibly inefficient in terms of costs. The rate of recovery of tariffs is lower than 5%. That's how much? 3% in terms of the relationship between operating costs and real tariff receipts. So, it works with a huge loss, and it's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing in the sense that it's a social service to help people move, especially those who do not have the means or the capacity, as with adapted transport vehicles. For example, it cost, and I take an example of it several years ago. It cost the ART about $ 25 per person and per trip for an adapted transport vehicle or a line on demand, and they recovered about $ 2 on it. The rest, or about $ 20, was at our expense as a contributor. And it's acceptable. We are held by federal requirements to have this service. Mais si vous avez une ligne à la demande, je veux dire une ligne de bus régulière qui coûte plus de 20 dollars par personne et par trajet, alors vous devez la modifier pour qu'elle soit plus efficace. Nous avons un membre du conseil d'administration de la RTA, enfin deux en fait. Où est David ? David, en voilà un. Oh, trois. Nous en avons trois maintenant. Elle vient juste d'arriver. Voulez-vous que je... Voulez-vous mentionner quelque chose à ce sujet ?

Patience.

Yes, I suppose it has to do with the budget deficit and the expenses devoted to other projects. I just think it is important for the community to know why we are not doing it.

Yes, that's a very good question. Thank you. I think that Councilor Hernandez mentioned it earlier, but it comes back to a capacity problem. The amount of our income does not meet the requirements to borrow money, and it depends on the real estate assessments in the community. They are growing at a slower pace than in the past and the amount we have borrowed is higher than the income we generate. We could issue an obligation, but if we do, we should increase the tax rate. According to our internal discussions, we thought this was probably not the best time to make this recommendation. We understand that the community is facing increases in water prices. Understanding that the community must pay for these increases, we judged that this was not the ideal time. But we will re-examine the issue in 2028 for an obligatory program in order to meet the needs, as you said, for the streets, public safety, libraries, etc. So, we have a certain amount on these 59.999. 100 per tranche de 100 dollars d'évaluation. Une partie est destinée au service de la dette et nous sommes à la capacité maximale, qu'est-ce que c'est ? 20. 2200, 2200 de ces 59,9900 sont destinés au service de la dette. Nous utilisons la totalité de ces 2200 pour rembourser la dette. D'accord. So we can't, unless we add revenues, we have this ceiling because we have to use the rest for operational expenses. We have no more margin, we have somehow reached the ceiling of our credit card. You have already heard me say that we have reached the ceiling of the credit card. So we have no capacity on our credit card to carry out other mandatory projects, at least for this cycle. We have to repay this debt over the next year in order to be able to cover certain costs for future mandatory packages. Pouvez-vous clarifier le plafond de la dette pour les obligations générales par rapport à ce que nous avons dans les fonds d'entreprise? Je vais le faire. Je vais le faire. D'accord. Nous avons un plafond de dette concernant le fonds général car c'est ce que nous avons prévu pour nos taxes foncières ou taxes ad valorem. Le montant total pour les 22 cents. E. The last time I checked, it was 700, almost $ 800 million in general debt. If you want to know the exact figure, it is in the document proposed for the general fund. I think last year it was 700, a little over 700 million. We went up a little to 800 million. The On the side of companies, on the side of water and public services, there is no ceiling. It depends on the revenue generated by the rates or the new customers. Water represents a certain challenge, doesn't it? We don't have water yet for the new customers, we're getting there but it's not available yet. So, what we have to do is that all the additional costs must be compensated by the existing contributors. But there is no ceiling like in your general fund. E. The last time I checked, it was 2.4 million. Is it 2? Sorry, billion. 2.4 billion. E. The majority concerns water. In fact, I think it's closer to 3 billion now. I think it's 2.4 for water and 600 for used waters, 6 or 700 for used waters. E. There is. I should know them by heart, but they have changed recently. If you want to see the exact number, it is in the operating budget under the debt fund tab. And we can examine it. I'll go there when we're done here and we'll be able to look at it if anyone wants to see it. We have time for one last question before moving on to the open doors part. Je voulais dire ça parce que je regarde constamment la dette, surtout dans nos factures de service public, car l'argent vient de nous, donc c'est à nous de payer.

Les routes artérielles principales sont financées par des obligations, c'est bien ça ? D'où vient le financement pour les routes résidentielles ? We have 4 cents on the tax rate dedicated to the reconstruction of residential streets and an additional 1% of the other revenues of the general fund goes to this reconstruction. So we have a plan to repair residential streets. In how many years will everything be repaired? Well, that's an excellent question, Daniel. You know, one of the challenges is that as we repair the streets, others deteriorate, don't they? It will therefore be a permanent maintenance cycle. But public works may be better to answer this question. Approach Okay. While he arrives, I want to make a correction. It's 1 billion for water, 600 million for used water. I'm sorry.

Yes. 600 million for used water, 1 billion for water.

Here is Manuel Hernandez, Deputy Director of Public Works, Voirie Service. It's like we said, a degradation. We started with this plan and, during the first evaluation at the last arrival, he examined our delay and, at the rate we were at the start, we treated about 10 km of road per year. If we look at how many streets had a ground index, PCI, lower than 50, it would have taken about 60 years. We have therefore implemented the rapid road program, a plan aimed at dealing with about 50 km of road per year. We have gone from 60 to 12 years old, which, in our opinion, is five times faster. This is what we have been doing since. But as we have said, there is degradation. The streets are therefore integrated and we carry out a PCI evaluation. We assign a grade to all the streets and, based on these grades, we establish a quarterly plan. We have just finished it. We have a map displayed there until 2031. Nous pouvons aller voir et discuter pour savoir si votre rue y figure. J'ai un QR code. Vous pouvez consulter le site web pour obtenir toutes les informations nécessaires. Mais, la question est que nous devrons toujours réparer les rues ici à Corpus car... En tant que ville, on ajoute toujours de nouvelles rues.

Les rues vieillissent. C'est donc un processus cyclique.

Mais nous progressons bien.

Nous sommes donc passés de 60 à quoi ?

Nous traitions 30, et je crois même qu'une année nous avons presque atteint 80 km de rues résidentielles. Donc, nous sommes en bonne voie pour respecter cette première. Liste quinquennale est ramené ce délai à 12 ans, n'est-ce pas ? Mais c'est un travail continu. C'est un effort constant. Nous devons le faire et, heureusement, la direction s'est engagée à poursuivre ces efforts. Nous progressons donc chaque année, année après année. Comme je l'ai dit, nous avons une carte de ce qui a été fait ces dernières années et de ce que nous prévoyons pour les cinq prochaines. Nous pouvons regarder cela au fond de la salle. J'ai remarqué que certaines de nos routes principales passaient au béton. Est-ce le plan pour l'avenir ? Allons-nous maintenir ce choix ? Eh bien, il existe des critères pour décider quand une route doit être en béton et quand elle doit être en asphalte. C'est bien d'avoir des routes en béton, mais parfois cela n'est pas judicieux. Il y a des avantages et des inconvénients pour ces deux types de revêtements. We will therefore have to examine this and see what criteria apply at the time of the design.

Okay, you are doing a very good job.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Very quickly, I would like to say a few words about them on the cost structure. She briefly addressed it. There are 4 cents from the tax funds that are dedicated to it. 1% of the general fund is also dedicated to it. And then 5% of the financing of the industrial district that we draw from these pilots, and I say pilots, the acronym for payment in place and tax place. 5% of this also goes to the streets. We also have, during the last mandatory cycle, we have renovated the residential streets within this cycle, but it is not only the streets, it is what is underneath. We have also included, if you remember, we had an election on a 8 cent sales tax that came from the TIPA, intended for the congress center. Half of this also goes to the streets. E donc E, un 16ème E, je suppose de la taxe de vente va aux rues et nous avons aussi 8 centimes de taxes qui vont aux eaux pluviales. Je veux juste dire qu'il existe beaucoup de mécanismes de financement pour les rues afin de garantir qu'elles aient les fonds nécessaires pour être réparées. C'était la raison pour laquelle je me suis lancée dans ce métier au départ. C'est ça. Chuck, tu as une question ?

La dernière question. Oui. Je suis désolé de E si je fais durer. Je suis désolé Gilles, mais E. Pour les rues, nous semblons suivre un E. Juste un raccommodage des rues et une réparation de surface. Asphalte de mauvaise qualité et pas de pas de béton. I hear his answer. And I think it's good, but I think we need a much more rigorous quality control than what we have. Just as in my neighborhood, these guys come, throw some asphalt pellets in a hole, everyone rolls in and everyone complains. And at night, it's night for the elected officials. And they say, my old man, you have to do something for these streets and get rid of the asphalt. Go to the concrete. You go to Dallas, you know, and I don't travel anymore like before, but concrete is the solution. It's maybe a little more expensive, or go see the refineries so they can add something to the asphalt. Il faut que vous fassiez des recherches là-dessus. Oui, monsieur. Donc, je je suis désolé, mais je je déteste vraiment ça. Vous savez, il tombe trois gouttes et vous avez un trou.

Yes, sir. No, thank you. I appreciate it. And you know, when we talk about maintenance, we would say that you are talking about maintenance. And when we talk about asphalt roads, there are a lot of nids, aren't there? We all know that the nids are there. It's an important problem. It's a major thing. And we are in the process of sorting it out. This is the quick thinking program of the roads. How to cover a lot of kilometers quickly? Because we have to bring relief, that's the goal of the program. It was neglected for I don't know how long. We intervened with a plan to bring relief. You know, it's a limited approach to the ground floor. It's fast, but when we do maintenance like the nests of hens, we know they can last 3 months, 6 months. During older episodes, you know, it can be a few days because the materials available are all we have to relieve the situation at that time. Par exemple, quand il pleut et qu'un nid de poules apparaît, nous utilisons peut-être un mélange tout temps qui durera quelques semaines ou quelques mois. Mais le temps que les résidents passent sur cette section, cela leur apporte un soulagement. Car si nous ne faisions rien en attendant la situation idéale, nous attendrions toujours le progrès pour la perfection, n'est-ce pas ? We are therefore trying to bring a lot of relief because it makes a difference for those who borrow these roads at this time. We now have two suppliers of enrobés here in Chaux. We use the TEXTDOT standards. We are currently evaluating these standards to create a better-adapted municipal standard for the city. We have a third construction partner who builds an asphalt plant and there are maintenance considerations with asphalt and others with concrete. To public works, we provide them with maintenance activities for these streets. So, when you talk about adding a whole network in concrete, we have to prepare ourselves to ensure this type of maintenance on these roads. There are joints, dilatation joints, and other elements. And if there is any defect of sawing, it is not like asphalt where we can take known materials and simply plaster. It's a little different. This therefore presents challenges in terms of maintenance. EEE, but once again, we examine our specifications. We examine the IDM, what the promoters build, and we evaluate it to improve it. So we appreciate these comments. So, just for information, a large part of what we do in concrete concerns the arterial roads, that's how we proceed with concrete. C'est un peu plus compliqué lorsqu'il s'agit de rues résidentielles déjà construites, n'est-ce pas ? Parce que vous allez avoir du béton frais devant la maison de quelqu'un, l'empêchant de se garer chez lui pendant un moment, vous voyez ? Cela présente donc certains défis, comme pour certaines de nos voies collectrices. Nous avons récemment refait Timbergate, qui en avait vraiment besoin. Mais il y a des maisons sur Timbergate même si c'est une voie collectrice. C'est la même chose avec les puces. So, there are challenges for each of them, but as far as concrete is concerned, we focus on the arteries where there is a heavy traffic. So you will see a lot more arteries going to concrete. Hum, another thing I wanted to mention, it's not just the streets that worry us. We have streets that belong to the city where we have drainage problems. We manage all kinds of things within public works. En fait, j'avais préparé une carte interactive que vous pourriez consulter. Je ne sais pas si vous le savez, mais je suppose qu'ils ont une version là-bas où vous pouvez vous rendre sur le site web et cliquer sur la carte. Oh, regardez ça. Regardez ça. D'accord. Et zoomez dessus pour voir où se trouvent les rues. Zoomez sur le district 5. Exact. Donc, ceci est sur notre site web. If you go to the public works department or if you type simply RPP in the search bar, you can access this interactive map, and each color indicates a different year for the streets planned. Now, what I asked them to do is also show which streets have already been completed, like Chuck, I think, which was done, isn't it, in front of you, so...

I want to say that a lot of work has been done. Marseille was finished at King's Crossing. Strobé was, was, was. I did things. You are quite right. My brother lives in McKinney and everything is in concrete. But hey, to get back to this, if you go there, you can see where your streets are, or if you don't live in District 5, it doesn't matter. But you can really see what is planned for the next five years. And we do it, we add a year every time we review it. But I'm glad RT was able to put that in place. Because I just wanted to show you that it's something you can consult directly. You don't need to wait. You don't need to call your municipal advisor to see it. Very well, thank you. And that was our last question. Do you want to conclude here? Ceci clôt donc la partie questions. Nous allons ouvrir la session portes ouvertes, mais si vous n'avez pas pu poser une question que vous souhaiteriez toujours poser, il y a des fiches de commentaires sur chacune des tables et vous pouvez aussi en trouver à notre table à l'extérieur. Je précise que mercredi aura lieu notre prochaine session de consultation sur le budget. Donc, si vous voulez venir et faire entendre votre commentaire en personne, nous serons au Northwest Senior Center ce mercredi de 18h à 19h. Merci encore de vous être joints à nous ce soir.