City Council - workshop

Okay, good morning, everyone. We will call this meeting to order. City Secretary, Ms. Rebecca, would you call roll?

Mayor Pro Tem Kaylin Paxson?

Present.

Council Members Roland Barrera? Mr. Barrera? I understand he's online.

Yes, I am.

Oh, perfect. Okay. There he is. Okay. Sylvia Campos. Here. Eric Cantu will be here shortly. Gil Hernandez. Here. Everett Roy is absent right now. Hopefully he'll come a little bit later. Mark Scott.

Here.

Here. Thank you. Carolyn Vaughn is absent. Hopefully she'll show in a little bit. Deputy City Manager Michael Rodriguez. Here. Interim City Attorney Buck Bryce.

Here.

Okay. We do have a quorum present to conduct the meeting.

Thank you, Ms. Rebecca. We will move into our presentation this morning on the Public Works Streets and Stormwater Fiscal Year 27 proposed budget.

and city manager. With me this morning is Public Works Assistant Director Espanol Hernandez, Renee Couture, and Oscar Solis. Our Public Works Design Engineer, Connie Garcia, additionally. I also have my budget team, Bobby Ray and Mark Martinez. The Public Works Department is comprised of three funds, the Street Fund, the RSRP 1042 Fund, and then the Stormwater Fund, which we will talk about more later in this presentation. I will begin my presentation with the Streets Fund for fiscal year 2027. All right, so over the past several years, the City Council has consistently invested between $120 million and $140 million annually towards street maintenance and reconstruction, reflecting a longstanding commitment to restoring and maintaining our street network. In fiscal year 2027, our planned funding is $98.5 million, a meaningful level of continued investment, but also significant reduction from the previous year. This is our fiscal year 2027 proposed budget for maintenance and reconstruction, totaling $98.5 million. The graph breaks the budget into three major components, street maintenance, arterials and collectors reconstruction, and residential street reconstruction, and highlights the different funding sources supported by each. On the left, the street maintenance program is funded through a mix of general fund revenue, regional transportation authority contributions, industrial district funding, interdepartment reimbursements, and other revenue sources for a total of $28.3 million. In the center, the Arterials and Collectors Reconstruction Program totals 32.2 million, supported by general obligation bonds, new and old Type B funds. On the right is residential street reconstruction, totaling 27.5 million, which includes 8.65 million in in-house RPP work. This portion of the program is funded by a combination of incremental property tax, industrial district revenue, other revenues, and significant contribution from the fund balance. Below three programs, the slide also shows an additional street-related funding supported by water, wastewater, and other operating funds totaling $10.5 million. Overall, the slide demonstrates a proposed fiscal year 27 street program. It's supported by a diverse portfolio of funding sources and continues to provide a balanced investment across maintenance, residential streets, and arterial network. The program will be carried out by 159 authorized positions at an estimated 19% vacancy rate. Okay, so for 2027, this is the program that we're going to be delivering in 2027. You have a citywide street maintenance program for fiscal year 27, which is under CIP project 27011. This project, this program can major operating responsibilities into one coordinated effort, allowing us to deliver street maintenance more efficiently across the city. The composed component is the rapid payment program. In fiscal year 27, we plan to complete 18 central line miles carried over from previous years due to utility coordination. Of those miles, 10 will be completed through contractual work and eight miles will be completed in-house by the in-house team. The second component is water utility pavement repairs, commonly referred to as blacktop work orders. These repairs restore pavement due to water line repairs, replacements, and ensuring affected streets return to safe and drivable condition. Next, the program includes spot maintenance On the arterial network, particularly along RTA routes, these targeted pavement repairs are intended to slow deterioration on high traffic areas and help maintain mobility across corridors. And then finally, the program covers ADA required improvements on both contractual and in-house projects. This includes the design, construction, and inspection of ADA ramps. The sidewalk transitions ensuring that all street work meets accessibility standards. Together, these components represent the core functions of the fiscal year 27 citywide maintenance program and demonstrate our coordinated strategy to maintain and improve the city street network. Okay, so this timeline here, it shows how the street program has evolved over the past several years. and how each approval has shaped the structure of the rapid payment program as we know it today. We begin in 2023 of June when the infrastructure management plan covering 2024 to 2028 was approved. This is the point where the city formally transitioned from the transitional IMP model to the rapid payment program with a payment-only approach. In October of 23, the first year of the RPP officially began. Moving forward to October of 24, year two, of the RPP began, continuing the multi-year implementation from that framework. As we move forward to bond 2024 plays a significant role, which passed in November of 24 with bond funded RPP work beginning in June of 25, allowing us to start the 2026 plan streets early. Then in September of 25, council approved the RPP plan covering the 27 through 2031 establishing the long-term version of the program we were working on today. With that action, RPP 27 began in October of 2025, and the broader citywide maintenance project is scheduled to start in March 2027. That's the CIP project that I just discussed. These decisions provide reliable planning framework and solidified the city's multi-year strategy for street work. All right, so I'm going to go over some data here. And this is going to go back to 23 and then also 24 to what we're targeting for 2027. So this graph here is all the miles that we've completed since 2024. And they're all the programs on the left since we began the rapid payment program. And then we also supplemented with what we call the non-structural overlay program. And then also some mileage left over from the legacy program. And then the mileage left over from the arterial maintenance completed through the SPMP. So if you look at 2024, you had about 57, 58 miles. And then in 25, we hit about 70 miles. And then when we got into 2026, this year, we got down to about 45 miles. And then we have targeted 18 miles for fiscal year 2027. So overall, we're targeting at the end of fiscal year 2027 about 190 miles. with the current programs that we have. And then if you wanted to see what the equity is, because we do track the equity per district as well. At the bottom, you had those plan targets, what we establish in the plan. Every fiscal year, we had those targets of what we were going to try to achieve. And then because either contractual numbers came in lower, than anticipated, it allows us to do more miles. And so you saw that the totals were higher than the planned targets. But if you look at the equity from the time we started the pilot program in 23 to today per district, the equity is somewhat consistent across all district lines. And then the equity by district with proposed 27 contract, that's the CIP project that I just mentioned, where we're gonna hit 18 miles about on the proposal. Our equity from 20%, 19%, kind of averages from 18 to 25% average. And the reason that there's variability is that when we put together our clusters, you know, it's not exact numbers because all clusters are different. But that's what we're looking at for the total. And this is total program, which includes the RSRP or the residential RPP. And then in addition to maybe some arterial work that would be included in here from the previous slides. OK, so if you recall, when we presented the PCI data, we had targeted 373 miles that were in need of reconstruction. That was all the red that we showed. And then at the bottom, we showed that at six miles a year, the complete reconstruction, it was going to be 62 years to get all 373 miles done. And then once we did the five times faster, with the payment-only approach, we were looking at 12 years of getting everything done. and so since the beginning of the program to today of the 373 residential street miles and this is only the residential streets because that's what we had prioritized we had completed 122 miles of the 373 we still have about 250 miles left and so the new projection at nine miles a year starting in 2028 You're looking at another 28 years to complete what's the remaining. And so it's 28 years, but that doesn't take into consideration that degradation rate there at the right. And so the takeaway here is that if you have nine miles completed a year and you're degrading at 23 miles a year, it's very difficult to stay a positive, right? And so the path forward, we've had many community budget sessions. Some of the feedback that we have asked is how we're How is the future streets gonna get funded? Some ideas that we have discussed were the street user fee ranging from 12 million at the original rate or 16 with inflation or potential bond program in 2028 to renew that bond program again and then increase our potential reconstruction of the residential streets. But ultimately getting back to the high level, we need to increase our completion rate and restore the ability to outpace that degradation of the 23 miles that we were talking about. And then, of course, just part of our budget process, we're also discussing bringing back the traffic fees for oversized overload permits, and essentially what this is is getting our administrative costs recovered to us whenever they bring a a heavy load through the city, they usually coordinate with TxDOT first, and then if they go through our network, they have to get a permit. And so we would like to put a fee in place so that we can recover our administrative effort to coordinate that work. Okay, so that's the street program, and I can pause there for questions before we go into the sidewalk pilot program, and I stand by for any questions.

Councilwoman Combers. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Okay, so back, it doesn't have a page number, but the rapid pavement program projection. I ran on your program that you said, okay, instead of 68 years, we're going to go, we're going to be able to reduce it to 12 years and explain to me again. Why now the projection is 28 years? Yes, ma'am.

So right now, if you look at the total amount of network that is identified as 0 to 55 PCI index, that was, if you recall, when I presented the scores, I think it was in 22, I showed you a map that was all red. So of all that red, ideally you would like to only work on that, but it's kind of peppered across the whole city. So we pulled that number out and we said, if we wanted to get that number done, it's going to take, 62 miles if we were doing the old approach where you would completely rebuild the neighborhood street from the bottom up, and we were only doing about six miles a year of that production, and that's how we ended up with such a huge fund balance because we were pretty slow because we had to go through design, council, construction, and closeout. And so when council said that we could go and do the pavement-only approach, then that increased our productivity up to five times faster. So we were doing 30 miles a year planned, but if you saw the numbers, we were actually doing a lot more. And so that got us down to a projected 12 years to get the 373.

Okay, can I stop you there? Okay, on the scores, the 0 to 55, again, we are still not doing the worst streets.

No, ma'am.

Exactly.

Right.

And that's where people don't understand it, and I don't understand it. So how can we... fix that approach because I represent district two and I know some of the older neighborhoods are in district one, two and three. I'd like to see a more equitable approach because we really do need to get to the worst streets first. How can we fix that?

So the quick answer is to redo the plan.

That's the quick answer. But the issue with that is that when I first got to Public Works and we had the IMP in place, we had already made commitments to everybody that was on the plan. And so the goal was from council at that time is to fulfill the commitments. But that's over.

The IMP thing.

The IMP streets that were selected and then the RPP, you still kept the streets that were selected on the plan. But if you recall, we reprioritized. And so of the five-year plan, we moved all the worst streets on that plan up to the front. but you still kept everything else on the plan. And so that's why you started seeing at the very early part of the RPP, you started seeing the worst streets getting fixed real quick. Well, it's because we pulled everything that was bad to the front of the line and then we reprioritize. And so we didn't take anything off the plan because we were still fulfilling our commitments to whoever was on the plan. And then as we added years after that, plan then at that point you know we were adding some of the worst first and so that's the way the plan evolved but to answer your question the reason why you had some streets that were not as you know you can see some that were not bad compared to some others that weren't on the plan is because when the plan was first established, and this is what I did from research of the plan before I came to Public Works, is the first scoring data that we received for PCI score, it had about a 19% to 25% sample. So if you recall, we had that van that collects the data.

Okay.

And that van was only collecting a portion of a street from point A to point B, and it was a cost-saving measure, I believe. And so you only collected some data and then extrapolated a score based on the data you did have. And then when we came in 22, we did 100% sample of the whole network. So we had all the data of all the roads, and the scores represented exactly what the network was about. So there was a difference in data collection, and that's how you ended up with a perceived worse street, not on the plan in some instances.

I know. I mean, people don't get it. I mean, when they go from one side of the city to another, and they're seeing those streets that don't look like they need it as bad as the ones on this side, that's

Yeah, and to fix that, we were well on our way with these higher productivity rates. So once you get to the 50 miles a year productivity rate, we're able to solve that problem because we're working on next planned year's streets earlier, which allows us to backfill with the worst streets sooner than later.

Okay. And I do remember like a briefing, I guess last year when you had – had given us a list of of our streets for each district and i told you that i noticed that i said well how is that street because you know every district member knows their their area sure sure and um when i saw that you were fixing i forgot what street at what streets they were i was like oh my god no this this section over here is much worse so you were able to fix that but Is that where we can do it now?

Well, the reason I was able to fix that is because both those streets that you were talking to or referring to were on the plan.

So I was able to push the worst ones up to the front. And then that one still had to stay.

I couldn't take it off the plan.

Okay.

So, yeah, I understand.

Yeah, so for me, all that neighborhood, I mean, people are probably going to get upset because I'm singling out a certain neighborhood. But the neighborhood that is where the Walmart is, on Parkdale. Yes, ma'am. All those streets. I know you've got some, a couple of streets, but not all of them, and all of them are.

Correct, correct.

I don't know what grade they are, but they're pretty bad.

Yeah, and that's what was a challenge for us, the team, because we did go with the cluster approach. And in some instances, we had to get the cluster done. You had to bring unplanned streets that weren't on the plan along for the ride because logistically it was impossible to not do that work. So if you can imagine if you had a web of streets and you only go work on the inside one and not the ones peripherally, and then you come with your haul truck. It's going to damage everything. So one of the goals that we established was to never go in and cause more damage than what we had when we were going out. So we always left it better than we found it. But that required us amending the plan because it wasn't built that way. It was built for the six-mile-a-year projection. So now in 27, if you look at the timeline right here, On October of 25 – I'm sorry, September of 25, when the RPP 27 through 31 was approved, we fixed that problem. So we went and built logical termini clusters. Built it in. And so then it all made sense. And at that point, that's – moving forward, it all looks good. And then as we add more years, we can bring the war streets in.

Okay. And I've been a supporter of the street fee fund – reinstating the street fee uh user fee and um i don't know how my other council members feel but i know just talking to the people they're like i mean it was working i said i know but we ended up removing it but now we've got a chance hopefully uh not this council but hopefully the next council to uh reinstate that if not increase it a little bit more but at the same time I'm still advocating for sidewalks. We need to include that. And also, I'll throw my last one, since this is it for me, is trees. I know that the residential street program does not include any kind of, you know, planting trees or what have you. But I believe for the arterial streets, there's an opportunity to plant trees along those roads.

Right, and we'll discuss trees in the stormwater budget because there are some updates for that one. But just to be clear, because I hear it at the budget meetings, I've heard it multiple times from council members, And so we're all clear on the street fee and what we were using that for. We were using that for the arterial network. So if you look at this table here, in 24, the 11 miles, in 25, the 13 miles, and then in 26 is the remnants of that money. We were doing jobs like Cimarron, Everhart, where you have your high ADT-type traffic, That was the fee and the money that we were using to fix those streets. We were not using the street fee in residential streets.

Right, and that's what we were paying for. That's why it's disingenuous. We are owed as residents that money back so that we can... address residential streets?

Well, the residential was being covered in 1042 through the property tax and those other, if you look at the bubbles here, the 1% general fund, the industrial district, the 2 plus 2 cent incremental property tax, any remaining funding balance, that's what was paying for residential streets. And the takeaway I hope to give you all here is that we cannot neglect arterials. I know that you all set priority towards the residential streets, but once Baldwin goes in disrepair, it's actually a safety issue.

Well, and I would think that's where the bonds would come in.

Well, the bonds are complete reconstructs, but you still have to provide traversable roadways. So you should have a maintenance program for arterials in addition to a reconstruction program. So the bond handles reconstruction like what's going on on Yorktown. But if you drive Yorktown in front of the new police academy. in front of the Del Mar campus, headed in towards Cimarron. You'll notice on the right lane that you have structural cracking, so that tells me that that street is on its way to disrepair. If you don't maintain it at a maybe $4 million price tag, then you're gonna replace it at a $30 million, $12 million, depending on the limits.

Okay, just one more I think last question is, did you cover the percentages of dollars that we are allocating for overall street improvement, street from past years, like past five years?

Yeah, it's right here on the bar chart. This is all in. So this includes bond program, residential street reconstruction on the green. Where is that? It's on the screen.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I have it on the screen.

Okay.

Yeah, so it's the first slide.

Okay, so 98, we had 139, 26. Yeah, so see, we've gone down. Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

That's it for me. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Council Member Hernandez.

Yes, sir. Okay, so a lot to unbundle on what some of the things Councilman Campos had said. with the street user fee was instituted in 2015, I believe, that was the only source of funding that we had at the time. Since then, we've added the two plus two, never got the final two cents, I tried to do that here recently, didn't get through. And then we also added, we're trying to get Through the budget policy, we increased to 1% of the general fund. It started off at one-third percent and then two-thirds and then finally to 1%. We added the 5% of the industrial districts to... TO THE STREET FEE. WE'VE ADDED A NEW TYPE B FUNDING FOR STREETS, WHICH I THINK IS FOR, IS THAT RECONSTRUCTION OR CAN YOU USE IT?

CURRENTLY IT'S RECONSTRUCTION, YES, SIR.

OKAY. SO WE ADDED A LOT OF OTHER STUFF TO THE THINGS TO REPLACE THAT AND IT WAS SUNSETTED FOR TEN YEARS BECAUSE IT WAS KIND OF A STOPGAP MEASURE UNTIL WE COULD GET MORE FUNDING. IT WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE THE INCLUDED FULL TIME. The reason why it was important to remove it is because we have a lot of upward pressure. We moved stormwater into its own fund, and we've been increasing there. Then we also did the $0.18 sales tax for stormwater, right? So we are doing a lot to fund your operations at Public Works.

Yes, sir.

So I understand you're sure. And in the last couple of years, in 2024, we had a bond for for residential streets that we don't. I mean, I guess we do. We have any funding left from that from bond. Right. Yes, sir.

It's it's in this group, but it's you know, Jeff can speak to that. But we do have some design projects left that he's doing design only on.

So we have some funding left. No, no, no, not for bonds. I'm talking. We have a specific bond portion of it. That's for residential streets.

Oh, bond. Bond residential streets. We'll be done. We'll be finished with that funding at the end of this August.

Okay. So we don't have that fund. That was kind of a temporary one-time shot type thing. So, you know, it looks a little skewed for the last two years because we did have that bond funding. Yes, sir. Okay. So I want to make sure that we're funding at a level. We just don't have the extra money that we had in the previous couple of years because of, you know, we're not doing a bond package this year.

Yes, sir.

Okay. So I don't want to say, it's not that we're not funding streets, is that we had some things that we try to front load to get stuff done and move quickly, and we were able to do that.

Yes, sir. You're 100% correct, Councilman, and Michael and I had that discussion. The reason you've seen the surge is as per Councilman, he just mentioned, you had a surge in mileage because of the bond program that you added to the program funding. In addition to that, we've had a huge fund balance from 23 to today, but those monies weren't because of programs that council wasn't providing. They were monies because we were slow to spend. And so we increased our spending volume. And so now we gave the perception of a lot of output, which is good, but program levels were always funded. So he's correct in saying that, you know, your RSRP, you had a program funding that was established by council. Your 1041 was program funded, established by council. And then any... PUSHES TO THAT WERE THROUGH THE BOND, THROUGH TYPE B, SALES TAX MANEUVERING. SO THAT'S A TRUE STATEMENT, YES, SIR.

OKAY. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S NOT ASSUMED THAT WE'RE NOT FUNDING STREETS. ABSOLUTELY. WE HAVE ADDED SO MANY FUNDS TO STREETS THAT You know, I looked at all these bubbles. We didn't have all these bubbles when we first got here, right, of where the buckets of money come from.

Exactly, exactly. And that's to that point, you know, we just want to be clear that when you show you these mileages here, we're kind of getting you hooked on the dessert from the circumstances that we were in with additional fund balance and the bond. And so really it's just a question, do you want to stick to that status or do you want to go back to program funding? And so if that's the case, then we are funded through the program levels that council established, but it would be at the lower miles that were the program miles.

Right, so I mean, we had some surge funding. Yes, sir. Okay, so it looks skewed, especially where you had the, you even have it on the screen you have here, where you have the bond funding years of the 2024 bond that it was referring to. Correct, yes, sir. Okay, so I want to say that, you know, residents watching or anybody watching is that we've done a tremendous job of trying to fund streets and get things repaired quickly okay we just we don't have you know we don't have all the nitro to keep exactly that's what we call it too right yeah um okay and you know and i have to i have to remind councilman compost district two got them has the highest percentage of streets done right yeah

Of course. But they are the worst.

So if you can go to the slide, I agree, and that's why I'm not complaining about it. If you can go to that slide, number eight. Yes, sir. You can click it. I don't know.

Yeah, I'm trying to see which one it is.

Okay. Right, so District, so you see 23? Yes, sir. Right, okay. So I just kind of pointed that out. And I agree with it. District 2 and District 3 probably have some of the worst streets. And, you know, so I don't disagree with that. I mean, I think that's appropriate. Ultimately, I think we're doing the best we can with the funding we have. without raising taxes, without putting more fees on people through our budget policy. I know, because I spent a lot of time on the budget policy, you can ask our city manager that I beat him up about it. Okay, I guess in the future, And it won't be this council, but it probably, you know, future councils will need to be a little more creative on how we kind of see how we can add funds to it. I think we should put that two cents to the voters, you know, what we originally had for the six cents, which would be an additional $6 million for the two cents. But that's up to the voters, right? We've got to make sure that that gets in front of them and see if they want that. Other than that, that's all the questions I have. Thank you. Okay, yes, sir.

Councilwoman Campos.

Thank you. I heard what Councilman Hernandez was talking about, and I still want to say that the user fee does not have to be set up either for 10 years. It could actually be limited to five years to get us to where we should be. I mean, at least have something in the horizon that you can see that your street eventually will get done. At least we'll be able to get to the very worst streets in some of the older parts of the city. Again, I still advocate for that. Now, you know, the other option, again, like he said, could be the two plus two. Who knows? But if it's three plus two, OK. Anyway, I still believe that we're still far behind on our streets and we need to do everything that we can to improve it. So that's all I'm going to say.

Yes, ma'am.

And sidewalks and trees.

Thank you. I think that's all the questions, Ernie. Thank you.

Okay.

All right, so right now I'm going to give you the sidewalk pilot program results from that analysis and that work that we had done so that we can talk about that program. Okay, so this slide here. It outlines the goals that we have for this program. The pilot was initiated following a council briefing of intent championed by Councilwoman Campos, and it represents the city's first effort to collect detailed real-world data on what it truly takes to repair sidewalks using in-house crews. At the center of the challenge is the sheer size of our network. Across the city, we have approximately 8.6 million linear feet of sidewalks. This skill makes it essential for us to fully understand the costs, the capacity, and the production rate before we commit to any long-term program. This pilot had four key goals. First, we were developing a comprehensive cost estimate by tracking labor, equipment, and material expenses directly from work performed from our in-house crews. Second, we were establishing realistic production rates. how long it actually takes to assess, remove, and reconstruct sidewalk segments under varying site conditions. Third, the pilot helps us identify the benefits of performing sidewalk reconstruction in-house, including flexibility, responsiveness, and potential cost savings. And finally, it allows us to understand operational logistical challenges that will need to be addressed if the city chooses to expand the program. Overall, this slide sets the foundation for the pilot's purpose to ensure that any future sidewalk program is grounded in real defensible data and clear understanding of what it will take to have a citywide program. All right, so here, if you look at these pictures, these were two projects that we got done. And I'll show you the metrics here in a little bit. But to date, we've finished two of the pilot program projects. District one was Merrill Drive from South Saksit to North Saksit. And if you look on the left, that was what it was. And then on the right is what the in-house teams accomplished. And then on district two, it was Cottage Street from Horn Road to Gullahar. Again, on the left, that's what the sidewalk looked before and then that's what it looked like after in-house was done. And so right now, Manuel has taken the lead in leading the teams and then looking at the constructability of that effort. So we set out to do five projects. Right now, we've completed two. And then Concord, which is currently in construction, that one will be done in about two weeks. So we would have added that data to this analysis. But ultimately, if you look under there where it says price per square foot, That's the average price so far. So we're tracking about $66 a square foot, and we're covering about 25 linear feet a day. And so if you were to extrapolate that production rate, we had there a length of 86.52. So in a year's time, we can probably do about a mile. of what we can do in-house. That's about what we can accomplish with our current capabilities. And I'll show you that in a table here in a little bit. The potential issues that we ran into, so these are completed projects. And I believe it was Councilwoman Vaughn had asked, what complicates this effort? And so if you can imagine a developer building a brand new subdivision, They can go from point A to point B pretty easily. They give a standard sheet to a contractor with some simple design, and they're going to get that done fast at a cheap cost. But when we go to a 40-year-old neighborhood where it's established with trees, landscape, and sprinkler systems and everything else that comes along, our teams have to navigate property per property, like all the changes in each property. And so, for example, that curve right there was already there when we went into there. So any damages that we do to that, we have to replace in kind. That little fence there with the landscape, we have to work around that. If we damage it, we have to replace it in kind. And then as you see fully grown trees, which are good for the environment, but at the same time, the trunk system does have a tendency to shove the concrete up and cause vaulting of that system. And then in some instances, when you go and you look at this tight sidewalk, if we were to work on the sidewalk on the left, then we'd have to go replace all the curb. You replace the curb, then you got to work on the street. And then it's kind of a domino effect of cost. On the right, of course, you have all those beautiful trees, but we have to work around those and the trunk systems. At the same time, we don't want to kill trees with our equipment. And so, of course, you know, the benefits of the program, we do have proof of concept, which means that we can accomplish the work in-house. which eliminates delays for procurement and any council action. But we still have to meet ADA compliance. And so that was a bit of a puzzle for us because usually when you do registration of a project, it comes from a design signed and sealed set of plans that you send to get registered so that you can have your RAS inspection and get the compliant inspection done. But in this case, it was just in-house resources. So we were trying to figure out who do we even ask? to get that question answered. How do we handle that so that we're compliant? We talked to the RAS inspector that was consulted to the city, and they were thinking, well, maybe because it's maintenance, you don't have to get it inspected. It didn't really sound right, so then we kept on digging, and then At the end, we found out that we have to register our work regardless of it's in the set of plans or not and then get it inspected. So we have to add that cost of inspection to this work because if you're spending more than $50,000 on a pedestrian element, it does have to go and get inspected for compliance. So that was one of the challenges. Another challenge, as I mentioned to you all, I believe Campos, I talked to you about it, Councilwoman Campos, was that to make the pilot happen, I didn't have any resources in 1041 or my street fund. All the concrete know-how is in stormwater, but the stormwater fee does not, the law does not allow me to use that funding on sidewalks if it's not tied to curb. Uh, so, uh, working with legal to make this pilot happen, we had to, we had to fund the pilot through 1041 so that the funding was used appropriately. Uh, so they, they, the in-house crews out of stormwater, they did the work and then we, we, uh, uh, charged 1041 and then we replenished the funding so that, It did pass the state law check. And so that was one of the challenges. But if you look at the takeaway here, is that obviously we can do it in-house. But again, we have to go through that 1041 hurdle so that we can fund it if that's how we want to go. Manuel did a calculation or projection that for one mile in one year, you're looking at about 1.7 million of his productivity rate. And so if this is the path moving forward, we do have to dedicate that funding to 1041 or even go as extreme as moving those resources to the street side, which would be costly. But again... The pilot conclusion is, yes, we have the capabilities. Yes, we can be efficient. Yes, it's cost-effective. But we just have to make sure that we're using the funds as per the state law. In addition to that, making sure that we have a true understanding of the... One thing that I haven't covered here is, hypothetically, we said, let's do this, let's move forward. Two years from now, we're going to start this program, or a year from now, we're going to start this program. You're going to have to really look to us to prioritize. What gets done because we don't have an assessment assessment of 8 million linear fee would be too much money. And so quite the same way we pick these projects, you know, we would we would go manual would walk each project that he would consider as an option or as an alternative for the program. And then we would prioritize as best we can with the data we have. and say, OK, this is the one that's going to get worked on. And so when you have a whole district with thousands of linear feet of bad sidewalk, you're essentially leaving it up to us to pick which ones are going to go first, second, third. So we don't really have a tool in the toolbox to do that other than boots on the ground, visual assessments. All right, so that's the end of the pilot update. And I stand by for any questions.

Councilwoman Comber.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

It's like just seeing the pictures of some of those, you know, sidewalks being done and replaced was just a breath of fresh air. Like, oh my God. So, but looking at the funding, I mean, 1.7 million per year needed based on pilot productivity is pretty good. I mean, really good, I think, in comparison to some of the projects that we fund here, 10 million, five, I mean, you know, 20 millions. I mean, it's just astronomical. So I feel like, oh, is there somebody talking?

No, no, I'm in a...

Okay. I'm hoping that we're going to be able to take off and do something with this pilot program that you started. And, and like you said, you know, there are so many sidewalks that need to be addressed. You know, we really don't, we don't have time and we don't, I don't think need like that whole assessment. But I am curious because, um, I remember when we were first talking about it, you had mentioned the street Indiana was going to get done first, but all of a sudden it got changed to cottage. And how did you decide? Cause

Again, they're both bad, but... Yeah, so to answer that question, I guess to my original point about assessing, you know, Manuel walked it one time. He looked at it, and he's like, okay, I think this could get done. And then he brought his superintendent and some other folks, and then they put their eyes on it. They're like, oh, you're going to have to deal with this. You're going to have to deal with that. And he's like, oh, that's too much. Let's go find another one. And so that was, you know... It's not anecdotal, but at the same time, that's what it took to pick the projects because we could anticipate issues before, and they were seeing it as a huge challenge in some instances, whether it was a tree or a landscape.

That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking because I know, of course, you know your area, and I'm thinking, I bet they didn't do Indiana because they had more trees.

Right, right.

Yeah, and so, yes, there is challenges, but I think you all are figuring out how to, go around it. I've also seen like in, I don't know, trying to think of the neighborhood, but I saw where the owner ended up putting like some kind of ramps or something in between where it gave air in between the sidewalks or the trees so the roots could have room. I mean, I should probably take a picture to show you, but there are ways to be able to have trees and have sidewalks.

Yes, ma'am.

And that owner paid, you know, I don't know what she paid to do it, but I'll find out and take a picture.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. Thank you.

Real quick, Ernie, I noticed that on slide 17, I guess kind of that summation category, for the $1.7 million, that's about 5,200, 5,300 linear feet completed. Oh, it's not 17. I'm so sorry.

This one right here. I'm so sorry.

This slide shows you... at one project per district, that's about 8,600 square linear feet, and you did the two in district one and district two. So then if we go down to slide 20, where it's summarizing.

Okay, yes.

Sorry about that. It says that 1.7 million would get around 52, 5300 linear feet completed per year.

Right.

What does that look like in number of projects? Is that two, maybe three?

Yeah, so you would get the 5,280 and divide it by 1,400. So a block is about 1,400 linear feet, and that's how many blocks you could do. About four blocks.

Four blocks, okay. And your method for selection is, I know with the rapid pavement we have a scoring system. What did you guys do? determine or make best recommendations on street selection for choosing potentially four projects citywide in one year.

Yeah, so the first step is we do have all the sidewalks mapped with, if you recall, when we got our PCI scores, we had a part of that contract, the consultant did inventory all the sidewalks. And they even gave it a general score, but that score was too high level. And so I think it was like fair, it was good, poor, bad, something like that. But nothing that you can really use to prioritize. But we do have it all inventoried. So that inventory is the first step. to see what the volume or the linear feat of each district has. Secondly, it's really just a matter of Emmanuel and his teams driving the projects and visually assessing them. So it's nothing that's technical, nothing that's AI-driven or anything like that. They go, they assess, and then after they visually inspected a number of neighborhood streets, they will... segment what they considered to be the worst and then after they do that they'll go and walk the project to see what it would take to get it done and then based on that you know they do some pluses and minuses and then the one that with the least minuses goes first because those are the ones that you can finish faster if you you might very well have a block that's extremely bad sidewalk, but because there are so many challenges from point A to point B, they may say, well, if I do this, I'll be here for six months, and then it'll take away from our ability to do work at another neighborhood. So those are the challenges. We have had instances where You know, you really got to think twice about cutting into a tree bark because you kill a beautiful tree that's fully grown. We will hear about it. So we're kind of cautious about stuff like that.

Absolutely. One of the things I think may be, to me, it's a huge consideration is where, and I'm hoping that you've already accounted this and you may have. Mm-hmm. there are some areas in our city where you have a sidewalk that you would think, you know, this is a low density area. This may not need to be a priority, even though it definitely needs repaired. But that specific neighborhood or that specific area is actually a lot higher in overall walking. You know, like there are certain areas in the city where people are not out walking as much, you know. And then there's some that walking is a major method of transportation. And so even if it's a lower density, the walkability... is a higher impact. Was that considered perhaps in those metrics?

No, we were looking at constructability. But to your point, whenever we have had, so we potentially, we're working right now with the MPO on bringing some potential projects for grants for sidewalks. And so we're looking at an STBG, ST, Surface Transportation Block Grant for the MPO where, We've identified a project in the London area, a project to support the bond project that was already on the books in District 5 for that trail to Caffey. And then I believe the third one was the North Beach that we've heard over and over again from the lighthouse. How do we get foot traffic into the tourist area? So those are the projects that, based on those kind of metrics, we said, okay, let's see if we can get a grant for these projects. And so we're in the process of that, and then as well as the community block grant. Also, we're looking at providing that equity across the five districts. Say, okay, for this grant, we'll try to get projects in this district, and this grant we'll take care of the other district. Of course, that's based on if we get the grant, but right now we're kind of going through those discussions with the MPO, with TxDOT to have those projects. So to answer your question, those kind of high volume sidewalks like you're talking about, we would probably try to cover on that system with grants and then the residential program more so with something like this pilot program.

Excellent. I would think that for some of those projects, Those were great considerations. Our high tourism districts, that walkability is very important. I think there may be potential to look at some of our tourism type funding for some of those projects And then you add this other layer, which I'm glad you thought of that, but this other layer, if you look around senior centers, you look around, you know, there's clusters in town where senior centers, churches, those types of things are fairly close together because those neighborhoods rely on that pedestrian walkways heavily. And what I've seen is a lot of those sidewalks are one industry pair, but then also are the roads, the curbs, those types of things. And the reason I think those have to kind of rise on those lists, so we have to have some kind of consideration for that, is because of the safety element. You know, if you've got the demographic that's going to senior centers and also their places of worship, it's very important that there's not obstructions to a clear, smooth path in those areas.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you for that, Ernie. Council Member Hernandez?

Okay, I was thinking when we started instituting this, I guess, project that was initiated by Councilman Campos, and I started thinking the city owns a lot of property that has sidewalks, Do we have a maintenance plan or a tracking of those sidewalks?

We do not.

We don't. And this was kind of brought to my attention, and it was one of the questions I want to ask here. Somebody sent me some pictures of the sidewalk that goes along Falcone Park over off of Oso Parkway. And you see the sidewalk all cracked and stuff like that. So we don't even have a plan for maintenance of our own sidewalks at parks in front of our buildings, Shoreline Boulevard, the waterfront. We have no plan for any of the sidewalks we own ourselves.

Correct. We don't have funding. We can make a plan.

I mean, we're not even tracking how many sidewalks we have.

Once it's built, we just mow around it, edge around it, and hope for the best. Yes, sir.

Okay. I think we need to take care of our own sidewalks, too. I mean, if we're asking people to follow the UDC and take care of their sidewalks in front of their property, I think that also applies to us. We can't be hypocritical. say you know somebody needs to repair their own sidewalk if we're not willing to repair our our own sidewalks correct i think that's probably something we'll need to kind of have an inventory of and see you know do an assessment as adam that well because i mean it's public when people are walking to through parks uh whatever park it is throughout town There are sidewalks on there, right? Yes, sir. And some of the places in District 2 are just as bad as the streets in front of people's houses. I don't think it needs to be done like this year or anything like that, but I think we need to at least have an assessment of our own responsibilities for sidewalks.

We can get for sure the mapping of all our property and then set it off to the side and then we can tell you.

Also, would that, I mean, now where would that responsibility lie? Like, for example, if you have a sidewalk at a park, is that Fulham Park's responsibility to pay for it? Does, you know, if we have, you know, the front of the city hall, does that come out of assets? Management, I mean, you've got to have also the aspect of who owns it. How does it get paid for? I don't think it needs to all come out of public works, but you've got to make that determination. Also, you have instances where you have curves and sidewalks that are damaged by CCW. Do you work with CCW on those when that happens? Do they inform you?

Yes, CCW does make a work order, but our ability to get to it, to stop the rapid payment program or get off. So long story short, they'll make a work order, but we won't be able to get to it as fast as we would like to. And then we do have the ability to bill CCW for that work because they will pay for the damage that they create. In some instances, if it's a manhole or a valve and then you see it sinking, I think one time a gentleman came to council and said he left a note and it says veteran fixes sidewalk. Well, we fixed that and that was a utility charge. So we did bill it to the utility, but we're not as productive as we would like to be for all those instances in the city.

How is that tracked?

Right now it's 3-1-1. So it's just 3-1-1?

There's no work orders aren't thrown through Maximo?

We do have work orders. And like I said, exactly like you had mentioned, CCW does their responsible due diligence to put a work order in. We have the backlog. It's on Public Works to keep up with the backlog. We cannot keep up.

Okay, so the reason I bring that up is because I also had a complaint from a resident that lives in Kings Crossing that they came out and did some work on there, and there was a piece of the curb that was between the two driveways that was removed and never placed back, and it's been like two years. Okay. It's at 8028 Barley Dock.

Okay, we can look at it.

I mean, it's a small thing. It hasn't affected the drainage or anything like that, but I just didn't know how we track those.

Yeah, usually, I mean, the easy part is a resident would just make a call. If it comes from a resident side, we'll get to it faster, but our CCW side of business, I mean, there's a huge, and that's why we have this capital project to catch up on the blacktop work orders. So a lot of that backlog is gonna get handled in 27. But as far as sidewalk repairs, curb repairs, we're slower. So if you saw on these metrics, in one year, we're gonna do a mile of concrete work. So flat work is a lot slower. So that's the honest truth is that we're not fast enough to get to the backlog of concrete repairs.

Okay, so this is kind of a bigger issue than just replacing sidewalks, right? There's more to it, right? There's a lot more that we have, that we own, how we track these things, how do we repair stuff. So I don't know, that might be something we need to take a look at a little closer. Also, there's... You know, we had stopped approving PUDs that had sidewalks on one side of the street, you know, because we adopted the Vision Zero portion of safety, get people off the street and on sidewalks, that kind of stuff. So even this sidewalk stuff also applies with Vision Zero. Are there any grants associated with Vision Zero?

Yes, we do have the Safe Routes to School grant.

that we do track.

And so we're constantly adding research to that effort. But like I've mentioned, I forgot who I told, but you do have to have, in some instances, you have to have plans on the shelf, construction ready, shovel ready. And so when you go and you do your research on which grants you're going to go for, you have to make sure that you have that upfront logistics done.

Okay, so to that point, I put in a portion, I think it was $1.5 million for that trail that goes by Caffey and Fay Webb.

be eligible for something like that who applies for that grant that's actually one that we applied for for that project so talking to Jeff they had a portion of that one phase of it funded through the bond and then the part that was kind of carry over from that get to get it all the way to the endpoint right we put that portion in the in the future STBG grant for MPO okay so

Ultimately, we want to get to is a very holistic view of how we need to do this and have a more... I guess process oriented aspect to this, right? Right. You know, I don't want to be a one-off kind of thing. If we're going to do this, we need to do it the right way and understood and have a good process and understanding, you know, what, and I know CCW has her things. I don't know. Do they have a concrete crew?

Uh, CCW, they, they have their own version of a concrete crew, but they usually curb, uh, they usually put a black top or a concrete work order, uh, for us to go and do. But again, Our only concrete resources are in stormwater, which were carryover from CCW. So essentially we took CCW's resources when- Oh, when they had stormwater? Yes, sir. So maybe, and I'll get into that when I start talking about the stormwater budget, but there are some legacy structural and organizational facets that we're going to have to adjust because it doesn't quite align with what we're doing today. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Councilman Hernandez, you bring up a good point on sidewalk management of city-owned facilities. And Public Works is not the coordinated department that does that. I think right now each department does some of that. But to your point, we'll put together a report so we can get back to you. I know Asset Management manages the sidewalks around City Hall. economic development department they do the c district facilities and we'll work with the departments and get you a report but yes sir there'll be parks we'll look at that and get back to you that's a good point councilwoman compers okay i did a quick google search and i know exactly what they're called they're called tree grates yes so i don't see y'all you know including the

those kinds of things and the residential street. So I think that would be a good way to maybe, you know, work around the trees is, is installing those tree grades. Yes. I've seen them downtown. I, you know, just anyway, I just wanted to make sure that I like, what is it called? All right. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Ernie.

Okay. Okay. All right, so if there are no other questions, I'm going to roll into this stormwater update. All right, so this slide shows our productivity across our lines of business at stormwater. And so the column to look at here is the column on the far right, which is our current total per year. But inlet and cleaning maintenance, this is a team. It's comprised of five vacuum trucks that regularly perform inland inspections throughout the city. Pre-major rain events, these trucks are utilized to clear debris from known flood-prone areas. During rain events, these trucks focus on localizing flood caused by floatable debris. Post-rain events, these trucks focus on dewatering standing water in neighborhoods. So that $5,500 of the total $21,000 inventory, that's what we set out to do every year. In addition to that, if there's a storm coming in, we also have a concrete team in stormwater that since they can't do construction when it's raining, they'll also go and help unclog inlets during a storm event. Our major channel grading, our inventory is 235 miles of, I'm sorry, minor channel. So those are like the bar ditches. And so we're looking at about 39 miles every year there. are our major channel mowing. Here, if you think about the tops of those major channels, we're mowing those six times a year. And then the bottom of those channels are eight times a year with the long reach operation. And then those are about 20,000 acres a year. Our right-of-way mowing, our inventory is 1,400 acres, and then we have 20 times a year for arterials, 12 times a year for collectors, and then some specialty mowing at specific areas. And so you're looking at about 10,000 acres per arterial and collector. And then on our street cleaning, that's our street sweeping team. On the street sweeping, we have, since council approved the purchase of the street sweepers, that we are now all in-house work without contractual help. So that's good. So now we're doing it with all in-house resources. And with that team, we also have shift. So some of them are working at night to work downtown area, other areas that are highly trafficked, and they're handling that in-house. So that was a savings to public works. And then our flood control management, that's our pump station. So we have two pump stations downtown and we track our man hours and the amount of tons that we produce. have from our trash collector systems. We have some big culverts going through those pump stations and then they're collecting the trash that comes out of those. So keeping about two tons out of the bay from those trash collectors. And then we also have our environmental inspectors and they're doing close to 7,000 inspections per year, working with Oscar and his team to get that done. Our budget for stormwater So for fiscal year 2027, we're proposing 36.4 million budget from stormwater fund. The majority of the budget is used towards operating costs at 10.4 million or 28.5% of the overall budget with personnel costs coming at a close second at about 27, close to 28%. So if you look at this, you'll see from 2026 on expenditures, we're at 32, and then we're going up to the, to the 36. And we'll, we'll talk about what that's about here in a minute. And so if, if you recall, we had, uh, uh, we, when, when Jason Alvarez was here, it was the AD, uh, he's since retired. I had tasked Jason to convert the whole stormwater system to cartograph, which is, a platform for monitoring labor, equipment, man hours, also keeping everything GIS-based. In addition to that, we organized all of the units or all the lines of business in Storm Monitor to make them more cost-effective and efficient. And in doing so... we did some research on the properties that we were mowing. And I'll go to this slide here. And so if you look at this example, the medians here are what we were mowing, but the red part, according to city code, was the responsibility of the abutting landowner. And so we had an inventory of mowing that we were doing in Public Works that was essentially properties in the red zone. And so I got with Jason and I said, hey, you know, do an assessment and identify all of that and let us take it off the system. And so we went and sent letters, you know, to the public. But in some instances, you know, some of these ditches were hard for them to get to, but they were in the red area. And so working with the city manager, we looked and did an assessment of all the areas. They said, yes, they're in the red, but are they abutting a highly trafficked area, a high-speed area? So an example could be a property that's off of Staples that you're going 40 miles an hour, and then the resident would have to walk around the neighborhood, get to the back, and mow that portion right next to a 40-mile-per-hour traffic along the edge of the pavement. And so in other instances, you know, you have a steep ditch on a bar ditch for a property, say, in Flower Bluff or in Anneville, and the ditch is too steep, you know, somebody just can't get to there with their lawnmower. And so we did that assessment, and we looked at about 800 acres that kind of fit that and it's to the cost of $2 million. So the proposal here was to pull that from fund balance so that we can accomplish that. But in addition to that, as part of that assessment, new to us, this information, we also did an assessment of not only of where we were mowing, but the what type of mowing were we doing. And we never thought to ask that question. All of the inventory of acres that we were mowing, you know, it was legacy mowing, you know, since the beginning of stormwater. And so from research, that really never changed. But then as we were doing our self-audit, you know, we got with the legal department and asked, We found that some of this mowing that we do cannot be funded out of stormwater. So, for example, that median mowing there, they call it esplanade mowing. That actually has to be funded out of the general fund because it's not considered stormwater mowing as per the state law. And so Oscar currently is compartmentalizing that part of the inventory, pulling it off to the side, and then we're going to have to make that part of the street budget in 28 because the stormwater fee cannot go towards that kind of mowing. So right now, we're pulling that inventory out. so that we can assess it for fiscal year 28, but we're going to make those immediate adjustments as soon as we find them. So I just wanted to give that update to council because that wasn't something that anybody was tracking since day one of stormwater. We all considered mowing of any type to be considered stormwater fee mowing. In addition to that, we also do tree maintenance in some areas of the city, and that also will have to go to the street fund because that is also not considered stormwater fee maintenance as well. And so we're going to compartmentalize that part of the inventory for sure. Next budget season, we're going to have that segmented in 1041 and then revisit our budgets for what that means and what that cost is going to be. But we do have some strategies in place to make those effective immediately. And I stand by for any questions.

Councilwoman Campos. Thank you, Mayor Pro Temp. I sent you and Jeff a video about harvesting stormwater. Is there any possibility that we can hopefully invest or look into, I know you said that you had some issues with it, but I think this would be a way, because we do get water every now and then, and thank goodness. And so I'm trying to see if we can harvest some of that stormwater. Did you have a chance to? Yes. Yeah.

So I looked at that video that you had sent. Um, it's pretty innovative. So long story short on that story is a councilman compost in a video. I think it was in Arizona, uh, where, uh, an individual, um, found abilities to take the conveyance of water and have open cuts into the curb, into like median areas. And then use that whenever it rains, that water would, you know, essentially water any vegetation that you had in the median. And then the city bought into that. And then you ended up with the whole city doing that. And so it was pretty arid. Then after it was all said and done, you had a nice, you know, vegetative filled urban area with trees and vegetation and all that. So the, the, the, When I did that research and looked at it, yes, very possible it would be a huge design effort up front. And then we would have to assess the difference in soil condition. So when you're, not to get too technical, but when you're in an arid region, it's more you know, sandy type material, which does not have an affinity for water. In our area, it's all clay-like material. So you would have, you know, shrink swell to deal with. But, you know, I haven't really put the full analysis into it. I would say that, you know, anything's possible, you know, if you put your mind to it.

Well, just like we were discussing about the pilot program for the sidewalks.

Yes, ma'am.

I I'd like to see or maybe let the community know about this harvesting of stormwater and that maybe if we could do it on a pilot,

program to see hey maybe y'all could try it in my neighborhood or right right yeah yeah we you know it's it like i said i did look at the engineering component of it um it is it is something that you can capture that conveyance maybe there's an avenue working with a developer you know where they they get credits you know do this and then you don't have to detain because you captured it you know we haven't gone that far uh but yes well you know as you know we have um

one constituent that calls me every single time that it rains, that she wants that water soaked up, picked up, whatever. And I'm just trying to see if, since we're not doing any curbs or anything like that, if it would apply, if she would be an example. That you could do that, she could have vegetation, and the water would be draining into that. So anyway, I'm just saying there is a way that we can capture stormwater, and it's already been proven in Arizona. And just the name is Brad Lancaster, if anybody wants to look at that video and check into it, but they have started that. So thank you for checking into it, and I will continue to at least let my council members know and hopefully continue the dialogue.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Council Member Hernandez. Yes.

All right. Um, I didn't see any programming for the one eighth cent sales tax yet. Is that going to be through engineering or is that, uh, yeah.

So we, the, if you're talking about the street side, no, no, the one eighth cents.

Oh, for stormwater or stormwater.

Yeah. Yeah.

Do you want to get the update?

Oh, that's correct. Yeah. So we're, we're doing, um, so the story goes back. We originally, uh, we did have projects in that, uh, fund, but, um, we didn't have, I guess, uh, a tool to prioritize, right? So for example, um, you know, Jeff was working on seawall projects. Uh, you know, he would get a consultant, but yet if, if you were looking for an asset manager, uh, you know, Jeff would tell you, well, I'm engineering, right? So we, we first needed to identify an asset manager. So I'm the asset manager now for, uh,

that budget and then also that infrastructure.

But with that said, we had some legacy projects already in the works. So the port project, that's one project that was already, you know, on the original funding. And then also we had some routine maintenance. I think it was $2 million per year that Jonathan had on the program as well. And then moving forward, and right now we have it, I guess, shown as $5 million. We don't think it's going to cost that much, but we do need to put together a master plan. And so when I was talking to Mr. Zanoni, I explained that if we're going to go and move forward with projects, we really need to have them thought out because the last thing we would want to do is – put a $14 million maintenance project on the seawall and then find out that ultimately the seawall needs bigger improvements. So we just wanted to make sure that when the marina was picking projects or we're working with the engineer to pick projects that they had some kind of engineer-based selection criteria and then they did have a true need based on what we were gonna say to spend on that. I didn't feel comfortable as the asset manager to just kind of say, well, let's go do a project for maintenance and let's go do a project for replacement if I don't know what the system initially consists of. And when Jason was here, he mapped out the whole system. So it actually works as a system. So you have the levee system, you have the pump stations, you have the seawall. They all work in unison along with the drainage system. And so you have to understand that before you go and prioritize projects to defend, you know, the Bayfront. Another thing that, that, uh, Mr. Zanoni did is added to that, uh, the whole area, even going to the island. And so we're looking at that infrastructure as well to look at including in our master plan. So I don't know if that answers your question as far as.

Well, I guess we need to see what programming you have. I mean, we had some projects tied to it associated when it was voted on. Right. You know, the project over there off of Rodfield Road, Williams Ditch, right? Okay, so those. We have the stuff with Oso Creek. I want to see what the, you know, where the programming is because we just started collecting it this year, right?

Right, right, right. Yeah, so to answer your question to those projects, that's the, I guess, the other 1.8 cents. If you look in the catalog when it went to voters, we had those projects listed, the Williams, Salt Flats, or not Salt Flats, Turkey Creek, and some of the other ones. And so those projects are on the CIP long range. And we were working with engineering for the Williams project. We were doing that, if you recall, in phase one, phase two. And then we had the development coming. And so we were working with development services and engineering services to at least get them that one phase done so that they can have access to that future development. So that was the first step, and Friesen Nichols was doing that first design. So for sure, that project was in motion for design. But as far as the other ones, like Turkey Creek, for example, there's no development out there. I believe Councilman Scott had asked, if these projects don't get done, what happens? they need to get done when we do develop out there. And so if, if we're in, in line with that future development, we would try to plan that project for that timeframe. Um, but that's based off of the master plan, right. That we had established. So, uh, you know, I can speak to that. It is on the master plan. It is on the long range CIP. Uh, and that's what that funding was for. But right now we're only looking at Williams ditch.

Okay. So I think we, At some point we'll need to see, you know, bring to council what the plan is, where things are going to go, timelines associated with it. Okay. So, I mean, I just don't want that funding to sit there.

Absolutely, yes.

Also, I mean, a lot of this was done in conjunction with the project the county funded a few years back, I want to say four or five years ago, that kind of did an assessment for the entire county along with how it interacts with the city.

Right, right.

Do we have any interaction with the county for drainage?

Yeah, so Jason was on that board. Our floodplain manager, Melanie Barrera, she attends the meetings with that board. I think it's what, Region 13 is what you're talking about, right?

Right, Region 13. Now that's separate from what the county did. We paid for a plan that we kind of contributed to for a countywide drainage plan. Right. Okay, so that also included the Oso Creek project, which we were interested in in some other aspects.

the outliers of the city correct correct yes I I have been giving so to the also project the rectification project that one the design is going well I do get those updates from the consultant and we have scrutinized their schedules and and given them feedback on how to you know Keep that on schedule and then give us something that we can really say. This is a good project for the Oso Creek At some point here pretty soon. We're gonna give a briefing on their findings because the ultimate goal from that project was to do Planning environmental clearance and design and so they're working on all that But I asked them for biggest bang for the buck in their design. So I want to know if Give me a design that shows the biggest benefit for any money that we put into the Oso so that we can lower that water surface elevation. They're working on that. I have been to their updates, and since then, OSCAR has taken over that program. But here, pretty soon, we should have an update and a briefing once I get with the city manager on their findings. And then from that point, if we feel that the project is a good project, then we will go for the grant for the second part, which is the construction part.

Okay, so you had mentioned Region 13. Okay, that's very much like Region N for water. Region 13 is the same kind of aspect. Right. In order to have any state funding associated with any of our projects, it has to be in the Region 13 plan. Right. Now, I know we had gotten a little, you know, because North Beach wasn't on the Region 13 plan. Right. Probably one of our biggest drainage issues we have and wasn't even on the plan. Right. They're actually having a meeting on Monday.

Correct.

in McMullen County, but you have an option to do it remotely as well via Teams. We need to make sure that we're part of that planning group in order to make sure we're on the next five-year plan.

Yeah, I want to say that we're a subcommittee member on that group. So not necessarily a voting member, but we're on the subcommittee. Our floodplain manager is on that subcommittee. And I had Jason, tasked Jason at the time, he he confirmed that what was on the master plan was on their plan so that it could qualify for that funding. Right. So I can verify that, but we did have that exercise.

Well, at some point we need to be on that board, somebody representing from us.

Yeah, and maybe we'll get with Ryan to try to make that happen. You know, I think it's a political event that we would have to get involved, but you know.

Look, it's important to make sure we get state funding for these projects. Absolutely, yes sir. Especially with some of the larger projects that don't just involve us as a city, but I mean, it's important that whatever plans we have associated with drainage, the Williams Ditch, the Oso project, any kind of drainage stormwater that we have, it's also included in the regional plan. Yes sir. Okay. Also, I know we had talked about this, The policy on detention ponds.

Yes, sir.

I mean, we're adding a bunch of them here out in the south side of town in the London area. Okay. I understand that we kind of tell them that they need to do it, and then we say that they own it, but it's part of our drainage system. So I want to make sure that we have some policy associated with it so that they're maintained, because I don't see any of them being maintained, even the ones we own.

Sure.

Like the one over at that park, Lakeview Park on Holly, which is essentially a retention pond. There's no maintenance on it.

Yes, sir.

Okay, so we need to have some sort of policy on that.

Okay.

Also, coordination with, I know a couple of times I had some HOAs approach me about wanting to take care of the medians, but allowing them to plant trees on it, but nobody ever called them back from stormwater.

Okay. Can you repeat that? They want, okay.

So there's, you know, on Yorktown between Everhart and, oh yes, there's, there's some old, the older HOAs have trees along the median and they, they do the irrigation well and they did, uh, up until, you know, we went into drought conditions. And they have trees on there that they maintain, that they take care of. They do the mowing and stuff like that. As you go further down Yorktown, there's no trees and there's different HOAs. They tried to communicate with us to do the same kind of agreement with us for them to take care of the medians, do irrigation and trees, but no one ever contacted them back. Who's the best person to reach out for that?

Yeah, that'd be Oscar.

Okay.

Yeah, and they may have called the wrong department, maybe the right-of-way office, because I think I recall a conversation. The customers come in the lobby, and I remember them asking, having a conversation about the median and why they can't access the median, and I kind of just go into a meeting. but it kind of stuck to me. So now that you're mentioning it, it's like maybe that's what it was about. But Oscar would be the person to talk to, and it's not a right-of-way permit. A right-of-way permit's involved, but coordination would happen through stormwater.

Okay, and there's also probably an agreement with CCW because if they're going to maintain it, they get like a special deal on the irrigation meter associated with that. So I think that you'll need to coordinate that as well.

Yes, sir. And then... If you recall, we took over the inventory of Leopard Street, and so those trees also have become our inventory. They're not on anybody's to-do list for watering and all that.

Okay, well, this is to take stuff off your plate.

Right, right, right. That one was added to my plate.

Right, so I'm looking to take stuff off your plate. I appreciate that. Okay, so Oscar's the guy to talk to. All right.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you very much. Yes, sir.

Ernie, on page 26, you mentioned the funding needing to be sourced through the general fund. Has this been identified? Is this just a notification that it needs identified? What's the status of that?

Yes, ma'am. So if you recall, and Flower Bluff was one of the areas, We did have inventory that was legacy inventory for some minor bar ditches that Public Works was mowing. When I had Jason do the audit and he said, okay, this is all the mowing that's the responsibility of the abutting landowner. At that time, we identified that acreage and then we sent notification to the landowner saying we're going to stop maintaining acres. this area and then we presented it to the citizens council in flower bluff we had some pushback from those individuals because they were used to that area being mowed and then after we received that feedback you know some of the feedback feedback was we cannot access some of those ditches because they're too steep and so identifying that as a challenge for the resident mr zanoni tasked me to go across the whole city for equity reasons to see where does this situation repeat itself And so that 800 acres is that for the whole city. And so when we go and identify that to the best of our abilities, kind of driving the projects, looking at the maps, we've identified this as adding back to the network. And that's the cost to handle that in that maintenance of mowing. But this is mainly in those scenarios that include hard to mow. hard to reach areas, hard to access, and then also probably maybe even unsafe areas too, Mo, for a resident.

And Ernie, you have been a wealth of knowledge, resources, and I've seen firsthand the effort that you've put into this project. So I'm very grateful for the attention you've given to it. To me, it's about safety. It's about... neighborhood safety, neighborhood cleanliness, and of course continuity of service. And so is this, slide 26, is this just declaratory? Like this is what it's costing, this is where we're taking it?

Right, so right now in the budget book, this cost is what we will pull from the fund balance.

It's just a description. It's already planned for.

Yes, ma'am.

So based on those studies that you've done, some of those services, if this is adopted, would resume.

Right.

Okay, perfect. I really commend you, and I appreciate your attention to this matter. Thank you very much, Ernie. I don't have any further questions from the council. I spoke too soon.

This came up. In one of your videos, you had the traffic control center where you had videos or cameras at major intersections. Now, I've gotten the question, like, are we big brother on, are we recording people and that kind of stuff? And I told them it's not done by law enforcement.

No. No.

It's done to manage the traffic in those areas, right? Correct. I want you to say it publicly that we're not spying on people.

Our consultant, we have a contract with a consultant, and I'll bring Renee up here in a minute, but long story short is we don't collect video recording in a hard drive at Public Works. It's not like that. There is a recording, and then it's kept for how many days? Three days. So three days, it stays in our consultant server, and then it gets deleted.

So I know if there's an accident at a particular intersection, if a police officer shows up, they can download that information for when the accident happened. Within that period. In that period of time. Yes, sir. Right? But it's not kept indefinitely.

No, we don't keep that data, right? It's in their servers?

Yes. Who's the consultant?

I'll let Renee kind of give an update.

Sorry, a lot of the stuff I'm asking are questions that I receive, and I want to make sure that we publicly discuss.

Renee Couture, Assistant Director. So to answer your question, we have two different systems. So at our TMC, we have access cameras, right? And so those are on our city servers. We also have our detection equipment. It's a hybrid system, so they not only detect vehicles, but they have cameras on there, and those cameras record. That's a third-party service from No Traffic. That's the vendor we get it from.

What's the name of it again?

No traffic.

No traffic?

No traffic, yes, sir.

Like N-O traffic?

N-O, yeah, N-O and then traffic right after. So those are detection systems you'll see under it. They look like white systems with the blue trim sitting on top of the poles. So they're really detection equipment, but they're hybrid in the sense that they have the ability to record. So any cameras that we use at the intersections, they're all used for live surveillance of vehicles. They detect motion. Can you see people on there? Yes. But they don't do any type of license plate reading or facial detection. That's not the purpose. So the vendors that we purchase from, that's one of the things that they tell us, right, and impart to us that we're not tracking people or license plates. But as far as the two systems are concerned on our city servers, we only maintain the video for 72 hours. So after the 72 hours, it's gone. There's no more access to that. If we do see a video where an accident has occurred, we pass that information on to PD or risk management if there's a city asset involved. For the no traffic, it's a third-party service. We don't maintain that information. So if there's an accident or incident, we get notification of basically motion stopped within an intersection. So that's an alert. If we see there's an accident involved, same thing, we'll request the footage from them. We don't maintain it.

Is this the same camera for both these systems?

No, it's two different camera systems. So like I said, we have an actual, it's a PTZ, it's called PTZ because we can move the camera around. So it's fixed at the intersection. But we also have, like I said, the detection equipment, which the original intent or purpose is to detect vehicles. You know, it does live traffic counts for us on whether pedestrians, you know, your different vehicles that enter the intersections. And then it picks up the vehicles to help with mobility through the intersection. But they have the ability to record because there's a camera on it. But we don't maintain any of that data. It's all the third party service.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Oh, sorry. One more question. Ernie, there are Drainage channels that we do not own, right? Like the one that was at Kings Crossing Golf Course that is a privately maintained drainage channel, but it is a major part of our drainage system.

How are we addressing those? So if it does impact drainage during a storm event, then we would probably have to work with the HOA to take over that maintenance. But I haven't received calls of any issues. So this one is not owned by the HOA?

It's owned by a private entity. In this case, it's Kingsley Properties. It owns that golf course. I think we're all familiar with those guys. But it is owned by them, and honestly, that entire golf course, the back half of it, was designed to be part of the drainage system. Right.

Yeah, it wouldn't be a problem that I can... Because it's not that long of a run to add it to network. We would just have to get with legal... Well, you just have...

We want to make sure we understand that because it's not the same situation everywhere. Right. And so we just need to have an understanding of how that works. Right.

And we have to have access, you know, because there are some major channels in the city for whatever reason on how it was developed. You know, we see it in King Estates.

There are some channels that don't belong to us.

Right.

But somehow they still need to be maintained as part of our drainage system.

Absolutely. And if you had enough, you had an enough volume or rain event, it would impact private property. And that's really what we're for. Right. Yes, sir. Okay.

So if you can get kind of an assessment of, you know, the stuff that's not ours but has major impacts to our drainage system.

Yeah, Oscar would do that work.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Ernie, thank you. It looks like in some areas it may be a lean year, but it's not a stopped year. And we have a couple of new, very important initiatives that are rolling out in this budget. Sidewalks, return of some of these drainage maintenance systems that I think are going to be really high impact for our community. So thank you to your team and all the teams that are here today for this meeting. With that, having no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.