City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, is it done?

Well, I go ahead a lot of times. Good evening. It's time for our council meeting to now officially open. And I have an agenda somewhere. At this time, we have an invocation. Oh, that's right. We have an invocation.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this afternoon with thanksgiving in our hearts. Thank you for the opportunity to be here this afternoon concerning all the business of our city. We pray you'd give us wisdom beyond our knowledge or expertise. Lord, our practice that you would just help us to make the right decisions in all things and bring praise and glory and honor unto you. In Christ Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

individual with liberty and justice for all.

Good evening, everyone. So glad that all of you have chosen to join us. In case you haven't realized, we're at the city council meeting for the city of Crockett. I'll remove some of the things from in front of me.

Yeah, I had a lot of stuff like that.

OK. We've already opened, and it's time. We'd just like to thank all of your visitors for joining us. We know that if you saw the agenda, it might have scared you a little bit, because what's on it will probably take a little extra time tonight. And so with that, thank you so much for joining us. And that brings us now to public comments from the audience, and I'll read it just for clarity. okay no one signed up thank you if no one signed up that's moved us to the next item approval minutes council you have your minutes before you i make a motion we approve the minutes of august 24th 2026 session second it's been moved in second any questions all in favor Opposed? One.

Were you opposed to the minutes? No. You're for the minutes? Yes. Okay. So the record is for the minutes.

Okay. Reports at the time of the city administrator report.

Mayor and council.

I have a... But quick. I printed it out in front of you. I have my report, but I'll go through it really quickly. Our probably our most pressing project that we're working on finalizing is the drinking water state revolving fund water line project for East Houston and Goliad. From the square to the loop on both Houston and Goliad, the plans have been reviewed. And there's some minor comments from TxDOT and Texas Water Development Board, and those should be resolved by the end of this week. And then we will resubmit the plans, and we hope to go to bid by October for the water line project. That's going to kick off about 10 months is what's projected of construction for East Houston and East Goliad. significant detours, delays, temporary water lines above ground water lines that would be ran above ground to tie in meters as we work on that section of the road it's going to be a significant amount of construction that we're working on gearing up for once we select a contractor then we'll work on a a communications and an outreach plan for all the

all the customers along hudson and goliad and get the word out and it's going to be you know quite a bit of work block by block that is replacing an old four inch most of its four inch cast iron lines from the square all the way to the loo those are contributing to a lots of water discoloration and low pressures that will really improve our water system

The next two big projects are wastewater treatment plan improvements and our water well number three improvements. Right now we're going through the asset management plan for both our water and our wastewater system. Once we finish the asset management report, I will bring that to council and we hope that to trigger off some subsequent discussions and working committees to review those reports. We also are in the process of TDA is reviewing the grant application and funding agreement for our CDBG water line improvement for Durrett. That's replacing the water line from Houston down to Pease, which is a significant need. We have repairs out there, sometimes weekly, of a pretty big water line that's in the middle of the TxDOT road. The next project for a quick update on, we did apply for the water system improvement grant. That was the $1 billion in funding

allocated by the state through the last constitutional amendment that was done.

For the next 20 years, they're allocating $1 billion in water system improvements with no match. So we asked for the max of $10 million. There were, however, $6.9 billion in requests and applications. So there's $1 billion in funding. Against six point nine billion dollars in requests this first year As I mentioned during our budget workshop we're dealing with one of our wastewater treatment plant clarifiers at their South plant and It's been down for the last couple of months. We drained the clarifier, and we had our engineers inspect it. We're looking at declaring an emergency repair resolution so we can move forward and select. We don't have to get it engineered because it's already been repaired. engineered and designed we're just getting it repaired as designed already so that we did verify that that's going to be some significant savings but we do need to go out and put a bid spec together and find somebody to to come in and repair it because right now we're not meeting permit on the on the amount of water that we can uh treat and so especially coming up into the stormy water rainy season we really need to get that clarifier back online um We've been dealing with some councils where members of the public are aware we've been as reactive, proactive, and quickly reactive when people bring it to our attention of water discoloration.

I made a presentation to council about the process.

We've swapped chlorine. We did a chlorine conversion. We went back to our other chlorine. The heat is not helping us. Right now we're running at about an average of 98 degrees, our water is. So you can almost take a shower without turning your water heater on.

It's that warm.

And so the warmer the water is, you know, just the summer heat is really getting to us. The chlorine levels are harder to keep up.

That requires lots and lots of flushing.

So right now we're trying to balance keeping our towers full, keeping water coming into town, and flushing as much as possible. You'll notice that we have flush valves open and hydrants open all over town.

That's on purpose We're keeping that water flowing and we don't want water the dead water in the lines sitting there And so

Our booster pumps are running 20 to 22 hours a day. They're not shutting off. That's not good either because that's really a wear and tear on our booster pumps. So we're really trying to stay ahead of that and hope for some cooler weather and to be able to rebalance our – Our water pressures and keeping our tanks full and keep the chlorine levels up. Budget books, we're beginning to the budget book preparation, and we hope to have those bound and delivered to council next month. Just a quick reminder, the council workshops for our charter review, my first council workshop is September the 11th. We've spoken with our attorney. He's coming here in person That way we can hopefully communicate better and see each other and talk over these over the charter propositions and a lot of this is going to be up to council to lead and guide us in the and How long you want to take and what requires? More research and coming back those are things that count we're gonna have to go at councils pace and A couple good news, the Opportunity Zone, this came out in 2017. Texas was not declared an Opportunity Zone. The program did not activate until 2018. In 2018, Crockett did not apply for the Opportunity Zone designation. This is a really big economic development tool.

that does not tax our own citizens.

It's an IRS, basically, exemption for people that if they're making large investments in areas that are designated as an Opportunity Zone, they receive federal tax incentives through the IRS and do not pay capital gains tax on those investments.

So it really helps funnel outside dollars into areas with Opportunity Zones.

We did apply this year and we were one. There was 605 designations or nominations by Governor Abbott and we were one of them. One of the census tracts within Crockett was designated being the only one in Houston County.

So we're really excited about having a target of kind of a bull's eye on Crockett as a place for outside investment.

City projects our library parking lot if you've driven by we've demolished the old parking lot and hauled it all away It's been formed and prepared for concrete and they wish they are planning on pouring the concrete tomorrow The fire department Bay concrete project has been advertised for bid request With a bid opening and recommendations will bring those back to council September the 21st for that for our next council meeting Homewood is complete. We only have some backfilling behind the curbs. The Homewood Street project is done. Anson Jones and Sunset have received two coats of chip seal, and they will be overlaid with asphalt. The hot mix collet for Viewcrest has been purchased, and we will put the hot mix down after Viewcrest gets chip sealed. Darius has been under a delay due to us running into not hitting it, but finding it before we hit it, a gas line, a major gas line that went across Darius that was just a few inches underneath the pavement. So we would have hit it had it not been found. We did locate, but the gas line was too close to the surface. Centerpoints done quite a bit of work and they removed that gas line and dropped it down so now we can proceed with Darius And we'll be we'll be working on that starting on Monday will be the cement is already being delivered so we'll be mixing Darius and briar will be mixed with cement on Tuesday after the Darius project and contractors are going to begin replacing those curbs and gutters on the hackberry and uh... charles next two city events and i have the flowers in front of me we have a nine eleven coming up this saturday this uh... friday september the eleven starting at eight forty five we'll have guest speakers amongst city officials there we have a brunch a breakfast uh... being catered being brought in and so we're going to have a really nice Ceremony which will be the 25th anniversary of 9-11 And then we have the Provalis ribbon-cutting next Tuesday September the 15th at 1130 so we'll have the CEO and All the principals, really, of the provalists, a lot of them are planning on being in town. So if any of council can make that, please let us know and show up. There's going to be some food, some snacks, some city, county, state officials, state representatives, congressman's office, and there will be some representation there from many of those offices.

So that's next Tuesday, right? Next Tuesday at 1130, yes, sir.

So we'd really like all of council to be there to represent the city of Crockett.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

On the plans, you said the... On the what? On the waterline rehabilitation. Yes, ma'am. On East Houston. And you said something about plans, that you submitted plans to...

The engineering plans were submitted, yes, ma'am. Okay.

So does the council get to see those engineering plans?

They'll be delivered to us after they receive final approval. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. And you said something about the contractors. Who do you want to select? For which project? For the same project.

Yes, ma'am.

Who selects those contractors?

Council does. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Once the bids are set out, we'll do the advertising in October. And then once the bids are received, we'll bring those back to council. Okay.

Okay. So... okay and then one more thing um as far as like the uh pipes all over the city have we located uh the lead pipes all over the city that needs to be replaced yes ma'am okay yes ma'am um in 2025 we started our lead pipe inventory so we've we have a lead pipe inventory that was completed and submitted back to tcq okay so you have a list of those streets or locations where they

Yes, ma'am. And those have been submitted to TCQ, and there's another funding project that we're submitting to Texas Water Development Board for assistance in replacing those lead pipes. Whenever we run into them, whenever we... touch them or disturb them, we replace them ourselves. We don't leave any lead pipes in the ground. They don't really become a problem until they're disturbed. You're not supposed to cut lead or repair it. And so that's kind of the issue. So we're trying to get some funding on replacing them. We actually do not have a lot, comparatively speaking, to other cities. We're kind of in that area where a lot of our pipes that were put in with lead have already fell, so we've already been over many years replacing those. So we've already replaced a lot of them ourselves.

So would that not be the first thing that we would consider replacing? Sure. With grants and things like that that we receive in the city?

Yes, ma'am. That's why we're applying for the only really grant program for lead pipe replacement. None of our mains or water lines are lead pipe. Most of them are connections around service lines. So most of them are customer service lines or lines around the meter, from the tap to the meter, from the saddle to the customer's lines up into the house.

My main concern is that they're lead pipes. Sure.

We replace all of those when we run into them. we go back to city projects i don't see anything on here for second street second street is um wasn't in this year's but we're doing it um we spoke about it and you second street is a small street that we're going to do within our own maintenance and operations budget um but it was money allotted for it uh not yet it would be in october october's budget The listing that we had went over that was for effective October.

But it says $7,000 was a lot of the 2nd Street.

Yes, yes, that was my estimated budget for it. And like I said, that's a pretty small project so we'll we'll be doing that with within our city operations and maintenance because it's it's it's in that state. But it's not going to require The significant amount of funding funding that some of the other streets are going to require so we can do that. We went and clean the ditches and and try to get the water flowing better. But now it's just in between these projects will go over there mix it and stabilize it. Yes, we'll get it done.

Are there any other questions, concerns? Okay, if not, it brings us to item number three, business. Consider and approve an ordinance amending the codes of ordinance. City of Crockett, Texas, by the amendment of Chapter 5, Billing and Billing Regulation, Article 9, known as the City Spence Act, condenses the title of Article 9, amend section 5-526 applicable and purpose to make the article applicable to all residential properties including recently added rental zoning districts and detached residential properties that are part of a permitted mixed-use commercial and residential property. Amend section C-529 application for permit Section 5-531, survey stakes to no longer always require survey plaque when the placement of survey stakes along the property lines by by a licensed surveyor is sufficient to determine the property boundary lines. Amend section 5-532, height limitation in section 5-533, fence location to be less restricted for the proportion of a side corner yard fence that is parallel to the side of a residential structure, incorporating minor technical formatting and conforming changes in its Article 10 construction-related permits and fees to move existing Section 5-600 fees from Article 9 to the new Article 10, providing a servability clause and containing a repelling clause and providing an effective date.

Mayor and Council, I have this ordinance amendment in front of y'all. I submitted the red line versions as well as the new ordinance. The two main points that this has changed is to help free up some of the red tape or the process that slows down people from investing in repairing fences. One of the big ones is the cost for the survey plat or requiring a survey to be done on the property. A lot of times that's financially an obstacle to getting fence work done. And so we remove that. We do require at least staking. We need to know where those fence lines, to ensure that it's not being built in city public right away or on your neighbor's property. But we're not requiring the full surveying plat. The other one that we ran into several times, and we've worked with each one of these owners, to still get the job done, but we realized that our ordinance really doesn't properly address houses with corner lots, houses on properties with corner lots. If you see right here under our red line version, No fence which is adjacent to a public street located on a front yard or a side corner yard shall exceed a height of four feet. If you look, I just drove when I was driving down Goliad. Here's just a good example. This house here, are y'all able to... so in front of the house we do allow you have to have visibility of greater than 50 we don't want a compound looking front yard where we can't see your front door where it's just a fence you know we can't um inside the city limits we do allow with greater visibility like this one or like a four foot like a picket fence or something like that keep your dogs in and or keep another neighbor's dogs out or whatever And then, but it still allows a little bit of visibility. What we weren't allowing is side corner lots like this one here, they wanted to close in their backyard. They didn't want some people to be able to drive down this side yard and see the entire backyard. The way our ordinance was drafted and written, it's definition, by definition it said that you could not. and we realize that that's not the right thing to do. And most of these people, when they requested it, they went through the Board of Adjustments. We still presented it to our Board of Adjustments, and we provided them with a variance and allowed them to do it anyway because their need proved greater than what the letter of our ordinance required. If you... Let's see where, how do you go? Like this one here, this property owner came to us a couple weeks ago. She's on a corner lot there, still on Goliad and Lakeway. Well, she wanted her backyard to be closed in where our ordinance said you could not. And so we went through the Board of Adjustments process. And we provided her with the variance so she could do a clean, pretty privacy fence. But it's still going to block the intersection. You can still drive up, see up and down both sides of the road. If she later wanted to, she could put a little picket fence across the front and things of that nature. But this is really what our ordinance amendments allow now. In these situations, on a corner lot, you can bring, adjacent to a public street, a privacy fence. And it's not restricted to the four-foot rule or the picnic fence or something like that we showed on the other slide. Something like this fence here, that is allowed by our ordinance. They would not be able to come out to the street and come against that curb, but they can do that.

And what's the minimum height?

Behind the house, not in front of the house, but from the front corner, it's no higher than eight feet. Most of them are six feet. Most of your privacy fences are six feet, but there are some that are eight feet and those aren't allowed to.

And that's basically on the side and at the rear.

So that's what enlarged our ordinance amendments allows to help The process not be as cumbersome and be a little bit more affordable and then not have to go through a lot of bureaucratic steps to try to get them events set on the side of their house.

But people should have a little privacy when you're on that corner like that. Yes, ma'am.

Are there any other questions on that ordinance?

So just, basically, it's just given them the opportunity to have a surveyor come out and just do a locate?

If they locate their corner stakes or locate their corner rods and drive a surveying stake in, then the inspector can verify and sign off on it that it's properly placed. And that costs a lot less than a full survey.

Are we ready for?

Any questions concern?

I make a motion that we. Approve an ordinance amending the code of ordinances. The city of Crockett, TX by the amendment of Chapter 5 with the stipulations of business item 3.

It's a motion on the floor a second. Second. Any questions? All in favor? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries.

It brings us to item number five.

Consider and approve a resolution confirming review, revision, and adoption of the city of Crockett.

Okay, I missed four. Oh, I covered it up. I'm sorry.

I wrote on top of it. Consider and approve standards operating procedures and policies for the Crockett Fire Marshal.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. I'm the reason why your package is so thick. So with the fire department, under the fire marshal, we are considered a law enforcement agency also. And this last couple of years, they have mandated some policies that we do have to have in place that we did not. So I sit here and wrote the policies. And I did forward them to the city attorney, and she reviewed them and sent them back. Made a correction on, I think, one thing was what I had to correct. But they were reviewed. So basically, in a nutshell, page two says table of contents. From 101 to 118, those items are the mandated items. policies we must have in place and part of that requirement is also to bring it to council to to approve it because if we don't have this in place we could lose our agency as a police department so and if y'all been watching the news they're looking for a reason to shut down small agencies If you've noticed on the news, there have been small agencies, and this is some of the mandates that they didn't get up to par, but we should be, if y'all approve this or not, we'll be in good standing on our next inspection from TECO. And the SOGs, that second part, that's pretty much, there's a lot of my guys, there's another guy that's a peace officer, but there's... Three of my other guys who also might have this their inspector or their investigators so that pretty much break it down If I'm not there, that's our standard operating procedures. They should follow if I'm not there to inspect or investigate So that's why I brought this to you all so we can be in compliance with Tico under police agency license And if there's any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them for you.

Just a review, and thank you for creating Manual, but I was just kind of looking over and I guess it's that first manual. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Normally the fire marshal got it authority under the city charter. It worked for years, but now since Tico there, there may not, not just us, the whole, you got to have this policy in place and we didn't have it in the past. So the current fire marshal, he left when all this kind of came out and I, Just now got around to actually sitting down and had the time to actually create it where it should be, and it should bring us up to par. Now, like I said, this is the fire marshal police side of things. The fire department, we've got our own policies that the paid guards follow and our SOGs on the fire side. This is just the fire marshal police side of things, and this is the mandates that we've got to have the policies in place.

Okay. Because I did. I went back and I looked at some other policies from other cities. I'm like, that really, you know, it's like kind of vague a little bit to me. And I'm like not being specific about what their job duties are. You know, and I wrote down some questions that I was going to ask you.

This is just for the power marshal police side of it. I kind of brought it up because our guys do more than one thing, so it kind of brings it up, if I'm not there, that's my policy, that's how we do stuff.

I'll touch base with you at a later date and kind of give you some things that I was looking at and see what you think about it.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Concerns?

Mayor and Council, I move that we approve the standard operating procedure and policies for the Crockett Fire Marshal.

Second. Okay, it's been moved in section. Second. Second. Any questions? Ready for? Okay, all in favor? Motion carries. Since I asked him, I can go to number five. Number five, consider and approve a resolution confirming, review, revision, and adoption of the City of Crockett investment policy, investment strategies, and collateral policy and designation of the City Administrator and Finance Director slash City Treasurer as investment officers. Council.

You have a copy of the and you also have a copy of the formal investment policy that was adopted in August 2000 and our proposed revisions to that policy. Basically, to put a little context into it, there are two state laws that set the bar grills for the city of Providence public funds. Because we're a municipality, we hold deposits in their public land, so the state requires that we apply these laws and requirements within these laws to the way we manage those funds. So the two statutes are Texas Government Code, Chapter 2256, which is called the Public Fund Investment Act. It requires the city council to adopt and manually review a written investment policy and strategies. It limits city investments to instruments authorized by state law in the adopted policy. And it sets officer training, ethics, quarterly reporting, and predictive investment standards. And hand-in-hand in the back is Texas Government Code Chapter 2257, which is the Public Plans Collateral Act. It requires that uninsured public deposits be secured by a legal collateral. And it sets standards for pledge securities, custodial arrangements, records, and monitoring. It applies to city demand and kind deposits held by legally authorized depository institutions. So basically it matters because we need to be compliant, our funds need to be safe, and we need to have accountability for those funds. And so to fill a little framework into why we're asking for an allegiance to the investment policy. As you can see, the policy that we have was adopted in 2000, so it's been 26 years since it's been modified or revised. And in that time, there's been some revisions to both laws, and also there's some recommendations from the government treasurer's officers of Texas. And the reason that this came up is because I was required to take a 10-hour public lands investment action when I was appointed as finance director for the city. And so when I went through this training, I saw that there was a lot that needed to be revised and added to the policy. So while I was revising it, I decided to make it more of a working document that John and I, as the investment officers, could refer to and use on a daily basis. So why are you needing to act now? so that we're compliant with the law, we're reflecting the Public Funds Investment Act amendments, the Texas Public Funds Collateral Act, and current reporting expectations. Controls and oversight. We're strengthening our collateralization through our collateral policy that's included in it, which sets guidelines for safekeeping, ethics, internal controls, training, monitoring, and audit readiness. Also, practical governance. Governance. It gives the council and investment officers a clear working document with statutory references and fund specific strategies. So it includes all the funds that the city has. The general fund, the water and sewer maintenance fund, debt service fund, all the funds that we manage that are in our annual comprehensive financial report are also included in this investment policy now. And so basically, we're proposing that you adopt a new policy that has basically guardrails, which

Keep in mind the Public Funds Investment Act collateralized preferences.

It has collateral and safekeeping standards. It adopts the Privet Person Standard of Care. It has strategies like fund-tied, detailed, authorized investments. And for any investment transactions that we make, we just have to get three quotes. And also, it has oversight. We have to maintain and look over what the market value is of any investments that we make in credit monitoring, joint investment officer review, because within the policy, it designates John A. Gershon, city administrator, and I as the investment officers. It has internal controls against misuse. And also any significant modifications to the city's investment portfolio or investment providers would be brought back to the city council for approval. And in addition to that, we're also required to give you a quarterly investment report. So basically March June, September, December. After those quarters end, we'll give you a quarterly investment report that shows you all that information about the city's investment. And also, it sets guidelines for the required compliance orders and also the training, the ethics, and provider service and so on and so forth. So what we're asking you to do today is to adopt the revised investment policy and the company's resolution, and also to also be in that resolution, designate John Amerson to be the administrator and Morgan Bynum to be the investor also.

Does anybody have any questions?

I was asking if you are asking about additional oversight and the information as far as dealing with all of our finances. I saw that you said something about the internal control against misuse and things such as that. Well, if we don't know if you're misusing or we don't have any documents that you're providing us to see those particular accounts and the activity that's going on in those accounts, we can't account for misuse. And we're, as I said before, we're the fiduciary responsible for misuse of items, correct? Am I correct about it? Okay, but I know that we're, but we're, so what I'm fixing to say is that you are, if you're the investment officer and you're the investment officer, who's your oversight?

We're the fiduciaries for the oversight.

Okay, so that's what I'm saying. Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest with you being the city manager and being an investment officer as well? I mean, who oversees you? You oversee you? Well, but we don't have, but it's all for there.

The council quarterly reporting compliance audits.

That's what we're implementing as quarterly reporting to improve on that oversight.

Okay, I understand that. But that's what I'm saying. This is something that we should have been doing.

already correct okay it's required under the public funds investment act which is why we're updating the policy so that we're being compliant with that and we're going to be providing that quarterly it will be the investments so any investments that we have of funds um it won't necessarily be the operating funds because the operating funds are the things that we need to operate um but it will be anything any funds that are invested that are not operating funds?

So we won't have access to any of the other funds to know what we have, such as cash on hand, any of the portfolio. We don't have any type of information or activity.

Okay, so we don't have... As far as the operating funds, you get a report, I believe, of... of the expenditures monthly, but if you want us to include what the balance of those operating funds are at the end of each quarter, we can definitely include those if that's what y'all want.

Well, basically it's like, I see what you're saying, but we're not Those documents, I think that, because I think John was talking about before about creating, having to create some documents. So y'all having to create any documents to give us or we're not allowed to get the, or y'all not allowing us to get the statements?

Well, it's going to be a report that we create and it's outlined in the investment policy. what the report will entail. It'll show like the beginning value, the beginning market value at the beginning, basically how much interest it's earning, what percentage interest rate it's earning, and what the ending balance is. So you'll be getting that quarterly. And then also at the end of the year, when the external auditors come to do their audit, they're also required to do an audit to make sure that we're compliant not only with our America policy, but also with the collateral that's required for our investment.

So that happens annually.

Right? Since I've been on the council, it's annually.

We've done it annually. We've done it in our budget workshop and prior to March when our auditors come in and they provide their report on it.

So we get it to you a couple times a year.

What Ms. Lori's saying is that we'll be doing this on a quarterly basis now to improve on reporting.

So if a council member wants information on what's been going on prior to understand what's going on now, because this is what, it was 2000 when it was implemented. Yes, ma'am. So it's 26 years later. I have 26 years of audience.

And I can give you every one of them. Okay. It shows a snapshot of all of our investments.

Okay.

Yes. Because the auditors are required at the end of the year not just to audit the city but also to make sure that we're compliant with what our investment policy says and also to make sure that we're compliant with the collateral requirements.

Well, Mayor and Council, I move that we approve a resolution confirming review, revision, and adoption of the City of Crockett investment policies, investment strategies, and collateral policy, and designation of the City Administrator and Finance Officer and City Treasurer as investment officers.

I second that.

Okay, so we just have to do any question. Yes, may I counsel? Pretty much. I'm just going to tell me that I've looked over this and I feel like that I've been because I actually request a lot of information to to. For myself so I can understand better how the city has been operating for its financially or any other any other avenue and so just reviewing this and looking over the memorandum and proposed Investment policy and just looking back over the city's history I kind of I'm gonna make my statement and We can go from there. But for the record, Mayor and fellow city council members and constituents, after examining the financial memorandum, I have come to the conclusion that I am of the opinion of that of the former city mayor, J.B. Silas. After reviewing an article dated February 20, 1964, in the Houston County Courier, I am in total agreement with his statement. City government will be a strong mayor-council type, exactly as we have now. Silas said he wanted to emphasize that point. since he felt that the charter proposed in 1959 was defeated because of the fears of citizens that the city manager it provided would be a dictator. Most of the writing in this memorandum language or wording is to have a city manager's dictatorship. I cannot go in good conscience go and vote for this with a sound mind and go along with anything other than the charter that was provided by a vote of 658 people to 438 voters in April of 1964. So my vote on this is a strong no because of the fact that it has, to me, it's a conflict of interest that he governs himself and a lot of the information that's coming to us has already been decided before it gets to council. That's in my opinion. At this point, does anyone have any comments?

Are we ready for the vote? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, that moves us. Thank you. We look forward to having the details. Okay. It brings us to item number five.

Six.

Six. I'm going to get these numbers straight today. Okay. Back at work learning new tricks. Okay. Item number six. Discuss potential options for installing turf on merchant league fields. Council. Council.

I wanted to bring this.

I wanted to bring this agenda item to attention just as a as sort of like a plan B or resource for what we have going on in our parks and recreations. If we can get more detailed information on costs and amenities for this and just have it as a basic discussion, you know, with more input from some of the Merchant League officials. and have more input from them to just have something in the regards of more options. And that's why I wanted to bring this up as an agenda item. What would be potential costs? What would the resources provide? What we could provide? what they could provide and what could be provided for us so I just look forward to gaining more information about this.

So can we discuss now? Of course, my idea about it is, of course, I've had grandchildren that's played, you know, the soccer, the baseball, softball. I know you have. What I'm saying is I think there's, in all the fields that I've gone to all over East Texas, I can't remember any field that had turf. But I do remember the ones who had poor seating, very poor restrooms, and concession stands. I think that those would be things, and I've never heard really anybody at any place talk about that. needing turf for those fields. I think the greater need would be, you know, seating, you know, nice bleachers, lighting, concession stands, restrooms. These other places that have these tournaments, they bring in a lot of revenue.

That is true.

A lot of revenue. And I think those would be things that, to me, just my personal opinion, that would come first before we turfed a field and left all of the other things undone.

My general consensus, too, is that it is in need of improvement, the field, the facilities, and all. I agree.

I'd like to make a statement on that. I'd like to add myself as well. Children play soccer. Grandchildren play baseball, things such as that. And I'm agreeing with there are other things that need to be attended to. But other than the fields and the restrooms at the softball fields and things such as that and bringing in revenue, my second option basically would have been the uh rodeo arena because of the fact that it does bring in um revenue to us we're talking we're so um but yeah i understand we're talking literally but yeah we have livestock um shows that are put on over there for the youth uh that we could uh look at doing some making some options but that's i mean that wasn't what the agenda item was yeah but anyway that just putting it out there so i mean since we're just

The agenda item was the turf for the merchant league fields. Any other comments?

I just feel like the fields would be safer without the turf. Okay.

Why?

Because grass, you know, you're not going to get your feet caught in the grass, but on the turf. We're talking about kids. The turf.

There's different types, different types, different grades. Other than natural grass and the maintenance required to keep that up, you have artificial, astral, different types of turf that would more or less give improvement to the athlete's abilities to perform their athleticism.

Any other comments? Okay, nothing else.

Well, Council, I guess if we were requested to put this on the agenda to discuss and kind of get Council's direction, if y'all wanted to go any further, if y'all wanted to provide more, Like the mayor said, we can't discuss a lot of other things, but if council's wanting us to review needs, come up with... uh a list of priorities of needs um funding opportunities um if if council wants me to go any further on this then this would be a good time to say i would like what direction that y'all would like us to go in and um they're not to cut you off anymore but um We also have a parks and recs advisory board that we can utilize a lot as well.

That's where I was going. Yes. I would like to advise you to maybe have a meeting as parks and recs board with the administration or the heads of the merchant league fields to assess needs.

Yes. Implication of the jury. So, and so the one, the board that we created, is that the board you're talking, speaking of? Okay, okay.

Okay, so I get, so as a recommendation, even though it's still in the discussion phase, is that for the discussion to continue based on a recommendation being received from them?

I could bring back some reporting from... after meeting with our different league boards. Okay.

So would you bring that directly back to council or would you talk to the board that we've already created?

That's who I'll be talking to.

They would be warm. I just want to make sure that they're in the mood. Okay.

So... I guess that we'll proceed with, I don't think you can take a vote for it or anything. It's part of discussion to continue discussion by centering around the board.

And looking at the boards with their advisory committee.

With the advisory.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, so that brings us to item number one

Discuss data data center our regulations within the city of Crockett Mayor council, I'll give a quick update of where basically if a data center

If a group came knocking on our door today or tomorrow, what would the steps and processes be to give you all the framework and let me know where to go from there and if there's any other discussions that are being requested? I have a printout in front of me. It's a double-sided printout where it says, Discussion on Current Situations and Zoning Processes in Data Centers. This is a rapidly moving target. And if I became extremely informed on data centers and that technology, in a week I would be obsolete. The information would be obsolete because it's rapidly moving and progressing. Currently, our biggest safeguard is the state has ordered PUC, Public Utilities Commission, and ERCOT to review the demand on the electrical grid and on water supply and are loading the requirements for any of their demand on them and not on the community that they move into. As well as he has prioritized and requested that this legislative session make that a priority for developing legislation regarding data centers. Our current zoning ordinance does not define or provide for data centers as a land use. So section 103 recognizes that new types of land use will develop that our ordinances do not anticipate and provides for zoning amendments to be used to add a new use. And that process is established in section 605. It specifically says if there's a blank, if it does not specify data centers, that blank box says land use is not permitted.

Currently, data centers are not permitted in the city of Crockett.

And if there was to be a data center, we would have to go through a zoning amendment. So that's our current status. So a data center couldn't purchase land or owners of a data center cannot purchase up land and then surprise us tomorrow with the processes behind that because our current zoning expressly denies it.

Oh, okay.

So if you want to get ahead of it, if you want to let me know, hey, we're not against data centers or, hey, we're for data centers or we're expressly against it, there's work that we can do ahead of time to expressly define it as best as allowable currently and to say, just like Athens recently did, no, this is the definition of data centers and we do not allow them. Currently, they're not allowed until council addresses it and council can currently address it through specific use Permits you can require them to show What is what you know the water demand the noise? You know the lighting the any of the traffic you can require them to present all that before anything is permitted currently well, then couldn't we just look at

Each one specifically.

That's what you would do if you had an audience that you could do it under.

So if council wanted to be proactive and say, we're not 100% against them, but they need to be good stewards. They need to bring in their own infrastructure. They need to pay for this, this, and this. We could get ahead of the game by going to our, if council's going to, of their own motion, if tonight you wanted to say, let's put this on the agenda for a motion, for action to be taken, I could bring that back to council. What we would do is, on the back page of that bill, it says where we take it to PNZ, Planning and Zoning, they develop a recommendation. Let them do some research into data centers, what other cities currently allow, do not allow, definitions, requirements. Let them put together, we will have a public hearing, we're required to through our PNZ process, we'll have public hearings, We'll present some proposed zoning amendments into a report, have the hearings, and then bring the report to council for council to also have public hearings and further define that. We would highly recommend that SUPs, I think if we did say, if we did not expressly deny them, we can say that it's by a specific use permit, data centers, this definition, things of that nature. What is your electricity demand? What is your water demand? and let them do it through a specific use permit process where council has to review each one separately. You don't just say no for all times data centers. You can say yes to this and no to this based on the specific use permit. Currently, I do not feel like the city of Crockett is a target for data centers. Data centers are high consumers of electricity. Our latest development with Genix in our industrial park required a two-year build-out for Encore just to provide three megawatts of electricity. Data centers, the small data centers that I've, just looking up, the smallest of the ones that I've found are 10 megawatts and greater. So they're much, much more consumers of electricity than even our biggest consumer in town. So we currently do not have the capacity. Most of the time they find available land that's close to a big transformer substation that has a lot of readily available electricity right there within close proximity to a piece of land out in the county because they're not looking for big wastewater plants and treatment processes and a lot of those things. They're looking for lots of electricity. And so I don't feel like we're a big target, but if council wants to get ahead of the game and maybe even potentially attract a small operation that we could suffice that would bring in lots of revenue to our city, y'all let me know. I did provide what type of an action, and we could put this on our next agenda if council wishes me to. If not, know that our current zoning ordinances does not allow for data centers. And if one comes, it would trigger a zoning amendment process.

But they would have to apply for a special use permit, right? After the zoning amendment is done.

Yes, sir. So it would be a two-step process.

For which Council would have to prove both sides.

Yes, but I think just like an absolute no to everything we could. We could limit. Some resources that we can get. We could get our hands on it. And if we if we just said an absolute no to everything, I think we need to look at him.

some of the business centers that are going into communities they're bringing in they're investing in the water systems and the street systems into the into the infrastructure some are some are not those are for council to make you know determination well during my just just doing my research today uh yes they are investing but it's also causing havoc on the uh

environment for the citizens taxpayers i mean it just it's up in the water um electricity things such as that so i i'm i know with um if we could if we could put it on the agenda in place uh No, as currently no data centers come forward.

That's what we're currently already on. We are a current no.

But I don't think we should. I think we should look at them.

Yeah, like you said. Oh, you think we should look at them?

Just look at them individually. Yeah. Because there could be some that's, you know.

Oh, no. So under no circumstances, whatever that would be, you would say no to a data center. Is that right, Ms. Hicks? That's correct.

That's correct. I mean, from my research, what I've looked at and saw the havoc that they've caused on certain cities. Yeah. Dealing with the water.

Well, we'll probably get to see before one tries to come here.

Yeah. This is a no for me because most of the cities that have these data centers, they don't want them. Yeah. So why even start? Yeah.

I've heard different. As a matter of fact, I was speaking to one that works with a data center, and she was saying it's not what you think it is in some parts. She said a lot of it had to do with the size of what they were doing, even more so than just the data. I've heard also that some of the— She's actively working in one.

They have a closed system on the water that just recirculated.

And it's not interfering with the flow of the...

I think just understanding the definition of data center one would be important for council. I think so. I think a lot of things that you might even look at are hyperscale data centers that you, you know, the big scary things that you see that you can't imagine being in our community. Data centers, there are some data centers that are bringing in data modules that are this big. They're smaller than a generator, and they're mounting them to houses. So any excess electricity that comes off your house, you have a 200-amp meter. Most houses probably use 40 to 50 amps on average. They literally – so there's small – So those are all considered under the data center. So it's a wide scale thing. We shouldn't just take what we read online and things like that. So if council wants me to get ahead of it, we can do this. Currently, we're not at risk to waking up to a data center in our backyard.

Well, if you adjust your mental capacities to social media, you're in trouble anyway.

Well, I think we just ought to get ahead and at least when we write it out, when we say no, we know fully what it entails. Because it's changing. I mean, technology is changing. Everything is changing rapidly. And if it's a smaller one, and we're going to grow. We're growing now, even in our community. But this would give us an idea of what we need to protect and where our protection needs to lie.

Madam Mayor, the lady that you talked to, how much money did that data center bring her into the community?

Okay, I didn't go into detail. I was talking about it. The conversation came up. I said, oh, everybody's scared of that. She said, I work with one. And I said, oh, okay, I didn't know you. She said, oh, no, it's not what you think it is. She said, I'm with a small company, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I could ask for the information, but at the time I wasn't that interested in it.

Well, did they have an increase in their property taxes in situations like that? What about... It wouldn't be an increase.

You would have a significant decrease in property taxes.

They'd have to pay.

Well, hospitals, they get money. Schools get money.

I think the one in Kauffman County, I heard that it brought in like $6 billion into the community. They do. I mean, she was, like I said, it's not here.

It's in another, I mean, not in this region.

Everything would just basically literally just increase, I mean, like hotel costs and things such as that. So I'm just, I'm still researching, but as of right now, I'm hard enough. But also with water as well, they were saying those closed-loop systems, you have to add chemicals in those closed-loop systems and add some of those chemicals.

Well, the hospital has had one for years.

And then it goes to the wastewater plant.

That's heavily regulated. Yeah.

But the hospital's had a closed loop system for years out here.

Our hospital.

I mean, just as a recommendation, I think we should pursue what it looks like and just bring us some to make a more informed decision. At least we could hear more. And at least we have a policy that we can say no. and still be comfortable with it, but we have a leeway if something else dysfunctional.

And I'll make the motion. The motion to request that the Planning and Zoning Commission review the land use data, appropriate definitions, zoning classifications, permit requirements, and development and operational standards for considerations as a zoning text amendment pursuant to Section 605 of the city of crockett zoning ordinance and i'll i'll make the motion and i'll say my piece real quick it's not that i'm for or against them but i want some more information right uh you know information is key and so i'd like to at least make the motion so we can get more information so we can make an informed opinion and you know like you know like just like the rest of y'all i get some of my information from social media and i'd rather hear it from somebody that's absolutely put some time into it so i'll make it so we can be at least make a good informed decision

I second his motion all in favor opposed motion carries I think I got all the numbers A new business. We have any new business consideration for future. If not, moves us to the next item. Adjournment. Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

I'm sure it's still warm with the sun shining on.