City Council - Regular Meeting

picked up somebody or I got somebody else that that I I was just trying to see cuz there was some chocolate in there that Did it melt? No, no, no, no. It I mean it was good. It was like a cranberry. Oh, I know. He had a had a creamy. Yes, ma'am.

I ate all my candy. I was eating my candy. Oh, I'm sorry. It was It's at the Good evening, everyone. It's that time again. We're opening our meeting. here. In case you're not sure where you are, you're in the city council of Crockett, Texas. And at this time, we're opening our meeting. We will open it with invocation and a pledge. Will you do this? Okay.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this afternoon thanking you and praising you for this day. We thank you for all of your blessings, Lord. And we're asking you tonight, Lord, to just to be with us tonight as we gather here at city hall. We pray that you'd give us wisdom concerning all of the issues pertaining to our city and for our betterment and for welfare and for growth here in Crockett, Texas. We ask you for wisdom uh beyond uh our experience or our knowledge tonight in making decisions concerning these things. And we ask it all in the name of Jesus Christ. We give you praise. Amen.

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

Thank you so much for the prayer. I like the fact they give us wisdom beyond what we're capable of ourselves. Like that. Uh with that being said, at the time we're recognizing all our visitors. Thank you so much for taking out of your busy day to join us and your concern for the city to join us. And at this time we have comments and we have one comment one commenter. Uh Joe um Martin will be speaking and we just remind you how it works. You get to say your three minutes. We don't respond but we do appreciate that.

Okay. Uh I'm Joe Martin. And who is Joel Martin? I'm a recording artist, entertainer, singer, songwriter. Played in 48 states, Mexico, played in Tuli Greenland, played uh several years in Vegas. I lived in Vegas. I did recording at the Prominent Studio Sugar Hill in eastern Texas. I was affiliated with Cowboy Jack Clemens studio uh by way of the mayor Ken Ritter in Bulmont and also Northern Petty's Close New Mexico sought after. What does all this have in common? S O N Sound. I come here not to be seen. I've come here to hear what's going on because I'm interested in what each and every one of you guys have to say and the mics are not utilized in effect. Uh Mr. Mike Marsh, your sound man, Dennis Ivy, you're also an entertainer. You can take a nap and preaching to the choir. Uh the rest need to speak into a microphone two three inches. That's it. So, and when you turn your head, we lose you. So, you know, either move with the microphone, especially miss, I can't understand nothing. You talk a lot, but I don't know what you're saying. And I have been given a set of digital hearing aids from the VA, the best there is. And I speak. So, I'm asking you guys speak in the mic. So all of us and especially you come up to the podium speak into this because we don't want to hear you. You can't hear nothing moving back. These are directional microphones. Your sound spectrum. The graphs on PA. They should be in the mid-range. Voice drops

dead quick if the PA is not set. And it's in the administrative office up on the shelf behind Plexiglass. So, it's of no use to somebody adjusting in here. So, it should be out here. So, you guys can do a sound check before the meetings and make sure everybody's going to hear what you say cuz once again, I'm interested and I'm sure everybody else is. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mic check. Mic check. Oh, m Oh, to respond. At this time, um, it brings us to item number one, appro approval of the minutes for regular session, October the 6, 2025.

Um, mayor, mayor, I I I just I'm going to um approve those. Uh, okay. Pull just pull your mic down. Your mic is up high here. Pull it down a little. I mean, even kind of like just

Okay. Um, did she say she's going to approve it? I second it. That's over. I make a motion uh to accept uh the October the 6 minutes.

I second it. Okay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Motion carries. It brings us to item number two. Uh, it's been Yeah, but there's not another agenda item on that. That's all we can do with that. It's been approved and second. It's the agenda is covered.

Yes, ma'am. The item is covered. But I I can make a motion on on I can make a motion. Okay. No, it's I mean it's not another thing on the agenda. You we for that same for the minutes about four minutes. Yes. Oh, no. They It's already been approved in second. Well, I mean I need to There are some things on the minutes

but excuse me. We've heard the motion. The motion has passed and we're on to the next item. Okay. So, is there any corrections that need to be made? It has been approved and the motion is now addressed. We're on to the next item.

How do we make the how do we make corrections to the minutes? Uh there are no correction being made. They should have been made in uh when we when it was over the motion before I made the motion. was it was a minute that you could have discussed it, but that was it. Okay. But you didn't ask for discussion.

You approve. You don't have you approve the minutes. Well, she's facilitator. So, we're through with that one. Okay. Item number two, reports update on special projects and business development. Mayor, council, I have a few updates for you. I'll touch on a few of them. The rest of them are written down. We can ask questions on those as we go down. Um the storm sirens um they delayed the delivery of them about

they they're projecting it to be mid November instead of mid October. They said they did receive a large influx of them and they're having problems getting all their deliveries out but they are finalizing that. Um we also received an opportunity to apply for a $50,000 grant which is what our match is for that project. Um it was a 10% a 10 90 split around $500,000 grant. So we were committing 50,000 of it. Uh we do have a grant opportunity that it looks like um we will receive we've been to verbally told that we received

good and so that'll also help us $50,000 cost share. Um the engineering has been completed uh the preliminary engineering design has been completed for East Golad in East Houston. We did some markups on it last week, sent those off and then after those are completed and Texas development board signs off on it, then we'll go to bid and that's going to be for the large construction project for water lines on Goliath and Houston. Um, I wanted to touch a little bit about this. There was some conversation about this at our last meeting and um without getting too deep in it, I want to u tell council of some of the opportunities that's been presented us and at least some of our uh options in the Texas Water Development Board program that we applied for uh we applied for a water well and we applied for wastewater treatment plant rebuild. In that we asked for an asset management plan both on sewer and water where engineers come in and assess everything that we own all the infrastructure, motors, pumps, wells, pipes, and then doing an assessment about how long they believe it'll last and how much it will cost when that time comes to replace it. an asset management plan and depreciation plan to where we can start um planning for the future, knowing the things that are coming up instead of acting uh retroactively saying, "Hey, this broke, we got to go find the money to fix it." That being said, we knew that it was pretty critical that the water district do the same thing. We rely on the water district for for providing us water. If for us to say how much it's going to cost us to deliver water to our citizens, we also know need to know the water district that's providing us that

water. Instead of them acting retroactively and as they if they go into a deficit one year, then they come and say, "Hey, we need to go up on prices." We need to know what that price outlay needs to look like for us as a city and for the district for them to be able to continue. There's been some talks um and I want to clarify this is not consolidated water. We're not discussing our our interactions with the district is the water control improvement district that owns that operates the lake that provides this water. There was some confusion saying talking about the consolidated water. Um we do have an interlocal agreement with them where we share water when they need it we can provide them and vice versa but it's the city of Crockett in the Houston County Water Control Improvement District number one. That being said, we spoke with them and they're they've told us that they would put it on their next agenda when the engineers are working on our project on our infrastructure. They're wanting our the engineers to also work on their infrastructure to give them an outlay of what they own, what shape it's in, and what it's going to cost to replace it, how much revenue they actually need where everything is based on facts and not um deficits or surpluses of a given year. Um, we want to we want council to commit to putting a steering committee together along with the water district, maybe a couple community members to look over these look over these findings from our engineers and based on facts us to make decisions moving forward as a city where we're going to get our water from. Are we going to drill more wells? Um, as as Councilman Marsh me mentioned last um meeting, maybe that $4 million, we had roughly $4 million that was um brought in for a well. Do we need that well?

Lots of arguments that we probably do. Or do we need to invest that money or a portion of that money in the water control improvement district to fix some of their issues as we move forward? We need to look at it as a as a partnership as an as a city when we are almost 100% of their customer serve base. We are their biggest customer. We use almost all their water. So they rely on us and we rely on them. Um a quick update a quick update on the water exportation. Um we have we've we've hired legal counsel for our water opposition. the Redtown branch drilling that has um that started this year. Um just a quick to touch on that. We have a law firm that represents us with 16 other members. There's 17 members total that they represent. Sanderson Farms also retained council and they went and filed a lawsuit against the groundwater conservation district. for having issued those applications in the first place and declared them as the applications as um administratively complete due to two of the board members that were on the board at that time. Their argument was that they were not properly seated and were not able to make those votes to accept those applications. As part of the agreement, the Groundwater Conservation District has agreed, as of Thursday, they had a meeting and agreed to um enter into an agreement with Sanderson Farm and um void their action due to the people that were on the board that were not allowed to vote. So they've agreed to void those applications and revisit them.

Their motion and and the the the direction was to revisit them after a groundwater study is complete and then they can reapply and go through the process. But they want a groundwater uh study of our aquifer system to know whether they can support those wells or not or some fashion from there. Um so at this time those water not proceeding forward with and just to clarify that's they're not proceeding forward on Anderson County side in Houston County they're not required to apply for permit they can drill anyway we hope that due to the volume of water that they're needing if they are going to fix the exporting water they're relying on a total project where it can proceed forward and that they won't proceed forward with the the 11 wells that they had planned for they were applying for 32 wells total.

Um so I have a question. So being clear so we're we're still with the law firm. Yes. Are we still okay engagement? Okay. They and they went um like I said they went and attended the meetings. They're representing us water supply suppliers at district meetings at any of the board meetings. They're also going through a GMA 11. going through a new uh desired future condition study and so guess what they're looking out on our behalf.

Okay. Um it's my understanding they've already drilled some wells is that to our understanding they've only drilled two test wells. Okay. But what are their means of transporting? You talking about transporting the water?

They haven't shown any of those yet. They said in their initial um in their initial uh presentation at the initial groundwater conservation district meeting they said they were going to do it in three phases. They were going to do drilling permits then they were going to address exportation permits or operate permit permits for pumping and then pump permits if the if the pumping was there was enough water.

Yeah. Yeah, which we feel like there would be. They're not invest ahead of time and they already have test well so they do know how much water there is and so then the third phase would be exportation and then that's when those plans would be revealed but after the first two phases are complete.

So it either have to be by truck or pipeline. Correct. Yeah. So they'd have to get easements all the way to their destination point. That will take some time. Our biggest concern um initially was there is no report or studies validating our fears or concerns or not.

So maybe the reports will come back and say that there's sufficient water for all of us for a hundred years. We know that that's not the case. But I'm just saying We've got to have data to show us one way or another to know whether we should support exportation projects out east.

Um, are there any other questions on the far side? We also completed our gateway signs. Good. We finished the landscaping, the lighting on those um a couple weeks ago. We also um two weeks ago finished the um the grounding of the stripes of the crosswalks on the square hired their contractor in to ground all those and repaint those. And if you notice every other crosswalk has been eliminated. They eliminated crosswalks from unmanaged stop signs um that were secondary to those stop signs and that's a big risk and concern that they that they were in agreement on. We also updated our internet um contract with a savings of a little over $12,000 this past year for over the course of a year. Um and increased our services at all of our sites from three 200 and 300 megabytes to 1 gigabyte.

So what was our cost, ma'am? What was our our internet cost? I don't have the total, but it was roughly 12. It's roughly $12,000 less than what we were paying. with our new I'd like to know what we were paying. I appreciate that. Um, we're paying $122 a month now for a lot of service per location. And we also have a large item drop off next on November the 8th. Our large drop off is scheduled for the 8th of November from 8 to noon. And then I also have some updates there on the business projects that are going on.

Um John, could you um kind of elaborate on uh some of the employment that's been seek for the city? I you know, I've shared that through social media and whatnot. Yes, sir. Um the city has the city. Yes. The city position. Yes, sir. We have two positions open. We have a part-time uh library staff member position that's open. Um the the The person that was in that position initially was doing our community outreach programs, social media, graphic design, put flyers together, and running our bookmobile program to the nursing home and the housing authority uh unit. And so we're trying to find some way that also can drive a bus, a small a large van, small bus and and also good graphic design or you know social media put the flyers together and then we also have a a

I don't know who would be able to answer this one but uh I've been inquiring also about uh street projects um in my precinct. So, when are we going to be able to get that item placed on the agenda? As of now, as kind of we discussed, uh that looks like that's going to be a December agenda item for the priorit prioritization of streets by council members. That is a December agenda item is where we are.

Okay. I also uh was uh what we discussed as well about the um giving of funds for the precincts. Yes, ma'am. How that how and and like I explained, every precinct gets an equal share. And if you can get and I and I said, if you can get council to say that you get a bigger percentage than they get, then that that's council's choice. That's not my choice.

Well, before we go into details, we're here. The question was was it going to be an agenda and when it's agenda we will we will address it in detail and he said it'll be in but we but I I was want to make sure that it was placed on the agenda because here lately we're not able to place an I can I finish

no ma'am because what I mean I think you everybody has a right to speak of course they do okay but at this point I said it's not an agenda item this wasn't it wasn't this is not the place to ask for it to be here because We're talking about it's a place to ask for it to be play. It's a project. Not at this time.

But it's a project. Not at this time. It's my opportunity to have place on his mind. That's So put So how do we get an item on the agenda? No, ma'am. How do we get an item on the agenda? Ma'am, that is not what we're discussing. We're in the middle right.

You do not have a constitutional right as the chair of this. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. How can we get an item on the agenda? That is not where we are on this list. We're in the middle of a project and we're doing an agenda item and at this point that is not

on this agenda. On this agenda item, this is the item we're on. Okay. Well, we're not trying not to I'm not discussing it asking for it to be discussed. I'm asking for it to be placed on the agenda. It is not at this time. We're in the middle of an item. We need to move on back to

So, it would be on December agenda. Yes, ma'am. Okay, that's what I want to hear. Well, you heard that twice. I want to hear it's on the consumer's agenda. There we go. On with Were we through with that? Do you want me to read this, Mayor? Okay. at this time. Uh

that's kind of under projects and I wanted to make sure the public I sent this email out to council but it's a letter from our attorneys regarding the civil action 924 civil CV 141 James Gentry versus city of Crockett Texas in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Lufkin Division. It says enclosed, please find the order granting defendant city of Crockett, Anthiathia Fischer, Marquita Beasley, Jean Cwell, and Mike Marsh's motion for summary judgement. The order dismisses all plaintiffs claims against defendants, City of Crockett, Aanthia Fischer, Marquita Beasley, Jean Cwell, and Mike Marsh. The retaliation claim against the CIDC, which has not been served and has not made an appearance, was not dismissed. Accordingly, the court has ordered the clerk to remove defendants city of Crockett, Anthia Fischer, Marquita Beasley, Jean Cwell, and Mike Marsh from the case, and no additional pre-trial or trial activities are necessary. Please note that the plaintiff has the option to appeal this order to the fifth cir fifth circuit court of appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once the judgment becomes final, the judgment will not become final until the claims against the CIC are resolved. I in intend to call Mr. Robinson today to discuss remaining CIC claim.

Okay. Was that an item that was on the agenda? It was an update agenda. And he's he's allowed to do an update. Oh, he can. Yes, he is. As the city manager, he can item. Okay. Item number three, uh, police department manpower and criminal incident report for September 2025. Good evening, Mayor Council.

Good evening. Department of Criminal Activity Report for September of 2025. total of 16 employees, worked 2,46 hours, responded to 454 calls for service, investigated 16 traffic accidents, made 53 arrests, issued 405 traffic citations, completed 82 reports, and responded to 14 alarm calls. 11 of those were false alarms. Uh below, you'll see a breakdown, and I'll entertain any questions on our criminal incident report. Anyone have any questions?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to item number four, fire department monthly activity status report. Good evening, mayor, council members. For the month of September, we had a total call in 44. breaking that down. There was 35 calls within the city limits and there was nine calls in our county response area.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Item number five, consider and approve a contingency fee contract with Lionber Barger uh Gargan Blair and Samson LLP for the collection of the municipal courts debt and account receivables and no fee costs for delinquent city water utility collection.

Mayor and council, um Mr. James Guest is here on behalf of Limebar to discuss u the possibility of us joining their firm for collections and fees and he's going to make a presentation to you. Uh thank you Mr. Stanley. Mayor uh council members, thank you for having us tonight. Uh currently I am one of your attorneys. Our firm has represented the city of Crockett for over 30 years in your uh delinquent property tax collections. Um, with that being said, I want to first introduce uh, Miss Carrie Mentor, who you all know. She is um, chief appraiser and also the tax collector for the majority of the entities to include the city here. And we have a long history working with Miss Mentor's office and she's just been really great to work with. Uh, extremely knowledgeable and gives us a lot of great guidance. Uh, also have Miss Jantha Hurley here with me as well. She's one of our client liaison. Uh she worked for Navaro uh JP as a clerk for over 20 years and has been with our firm for a number of years. And so uh with that being said uh I've met with Judge Lawrence. Um I've also met with Miss Hart and we've gone through your files. Uh met with Mr. Angstein and also Mr. family several times and we are going to be a huge upgrade to your current collection process. Uh I gave you two handouts. One is a professional qualifications. That's a nice spiral. I'm not going to go through that, but that's just information about our law firm if you care to have more information. Uh I also handed out this with Lion Barter. It's a quick fourpage presentation that I will be going through. just has features and benefits. Uh, one of the first things I want to discuss is that our program cost the city nothing. You will never be out any money for this project. Uh, one of the processes that uh, the city currently

has is manually sending data to your current collector. you're using encode software, Tyler technology software, and our firm has a module that will automate that process and make it uh streamlined and more efficient, which means more collections. We're a very high techch law firm. Uh we are also one of our founding members. U Miss Samson was out of center, Texas. Uh we've risen to be the largest in in the United States for what we do. Um, we have a strong presence here. I live in the Lufkin area. I manage three offices here in Dece, Livingston, Jasper, and in Lufkin. And so, not only are we a a local regional law firm, but we're also again the largest in the nation. We represent uh almost every major city, um, Chicago, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, all of the big large cities here in this in the state of Texas, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio. Uh, I have some numbers on the very last page here just to show you kind of what our uh success stories are. But just to go over a few of these features. So um again over 30 years experience representing the city of Crockett. Um we've collected municipal fees and fines for over 25 years. Our law firm has copyright uh skip tracing technology and because of our size we buy volumes of data at a fraction of the price of what even our nearest competitor can. Uh skip tracing is searching for those defendants who owe the city money. And that's really at the end of the day that's our service. We are locating uh especially those who don't live here in the county who are out of the county out of you know throughout the United

States. Those large trucks who come through here 287 1972 21 uh they are not out of our reach. We have call centers throughout the United States uh that we manage. Um every phone call is recorded um and those are our employees. These are not farmed out positions. So we have a very very uh methodical and uh ironclad process that's going to maximize your collection. But the technology is always working in the background. It's what once we receive a data file, we will be searching for those defendants. We will be sending them letters uh and then they will be contacting us or the court to make payments. Uh we also have a a a statewide scoff law program. We're the only firm in the state of Texas and we will help the city establish a productive and successful softball program. So those uh out of town drivers who come through here, I think they're not going to have to pay. uh we will help the city set up an interlocal agreement and a resolution with the state of Texas uh in order for those accounts to be turned over to the state and those individuals will not be able to register their vehicles uh cars, boats, motorcycles uh anywhere in the state where they uh uh where they may have a vehicle register. So this should actively increase your collections as well. We also have a text messaging program um that We can send text messages directly to the defendants's phones, give them an easy way to pay. Uh we had also talked about reestablishing an online payment program. Uh traffic payments.com is one of the companies that we had discussed. Um and again, these our services will cost you no money. Uh so that's just some of our features. As my mom says, features tell

and benefit sell. So let's look at the benefits. Number one is increase collections of your out of county drivers. So, we will be able to uh I believe the city is already using a uh that just puts a hold on driver's license. That's a very passive way of of collecting, but it is it is a it's a good way, but you're waiting for driver's license to be renewed. Again, there is no cost ever. Uh the firm uh we what we had discussed with Mr. Stanley uh about water delinquent utility water collections. Uh this is not one of the services that we're allowed to add. Uh we're allowed to add a fee to the to the defendants's bill. Uh that's why it cost you no money for the fees and fines collections because the the uh Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allows us to add 30% directly to their bill. So it's a contingency fee u contract and so we are adding it to their fee uh and then the defendants pay that. But when it comes to utility collections, there is no such statute. Our fees are typically 30%, but the firm um decided to wave our fee and we will send out those annual uh collection letters on your utility water accounts at no cost. So that's just another added benefit that we would like to offer to the city today. Uh we also have monthly personalized reports that will determine or it'll it will show you uh the activity, how many letters have been turned over, how many accounts have been submitted to us. Um it will also uh show you um uh how many phone calls have been made and your dollar resolutions and also dollars received. Uh our firm has also gone an extra step. So in cases of indigency, we have given the judge the

full right to wave our fee um if there is a case of indigence. So and also there's if there's time served for community service, then our fee does not apply. It only applies when money has been received from the defendant. And again, the judge has that discretion to wave. Uh you're also getting five uh uh staff members assigned to your account. So I'm the partner. Uh Miss Hurley is a client liaison. Barbara Taylor is another client liaison and a settlement borrow. Uh we also have an account hander who's not been identified yet. If we are hired tonight, we will have one assigned uh within the next couple of days. Uh we expect that the uh project will take 30 to 90 days at the most. Probably more around 30 45 days I would I would expect to get this off to the ground. Uh but the efficiency part of this process is going to be very seamless for both the community and the court. Um the technology that the city is using at Tyler Technology product code is one of the largest software providers in the states is a uh it's not a cheap software either. Um but we have so many clients that use it. Again, they have what's called the minder module. Uh that fee costs usually 1,500. can go up to $3,000 for that module, which our firm will uh will pay for that module. Um if the city will give us an invoice, we will cover those costs. So again, this is a true um zero cost for the for the city. Um and again, the accounts that are submitted to us, they can be taken back or really just a tool for the city to use. and we will be working at the discretion of of course Lawrence the city um and Miss Hart as well. Um if you turn the page this is just a few of the

cities that I represent on the left here at you know city of center huntington um most of these are all your deep east Texas I represent many more cities than just this but I just wanted to show you in the last seven years what our collection percentages are and just look at the staggering number of um collected annol. So your your resolution rate is all those accounts that have been submitted that have been adjudicated on some either dismissed time served. Uh your collection those are dollars in hand. That's actual money that our clients received. Um the city of Lin over a 7-year period almost $3 million. You have very small cities like the city of Zabala uh Texas which has a 33% collection rate and we've collected um just over $428,000 for them in just a uh short amount of time. We've represented them in the last seven years. So, I can only I'm looking forward to uh the opportunity to collect big dollars on your behalf. Um and then again, the regional cities, usually some in our souththeast Texas. I I did include Dallas in there. Um but as you can see, there's some large cities and I mainly represent smaller deep east Texas cities. Uh, you know, one thing our competitors like to say is we're so big that we don't focus on our smaller clients. Well, that's all I have. Our rural cities here in East Texas. I live here. Um, and um, as Miss Spencer, she sees me and my staff on a weekly basis throughout the week. Um, and we just have a really good relationship with our clients. So, uh, with that, uh, are there any questions regarding kind of how the process works or

No, maybe my questions are for our uh, city manager. Sure. Um, just basically I was asking um, how much is the debt for the municipal court? Well, that that number varies of course, but uh and how far back we go is the problem. And so that's um I can tell you that what we do is I pulled files from since September of 24 for collections. And I guess I looked at it from a different standpoint. and I looked to see what we had collected since September of 24 with our current um delinquency attorneys and that total was only $10,000 since September of 24.

And so we've only collected $10,000, right? We can you give me the So we don't have the that amount? I do not have that amount with me right now. No, ma'am. But I can get it to Yes, you can get that amount. Okay.

But it will be a staggering number. I can tell you. What about the utility, water utility? What about the um there that number has decreased significantly since the ordinance changed to where you have to own the property to get your own meter, but we're still in the 70 80 $90,000 range.

Yes, ma'am. I'd like to get a Sure. No problem. Number on tomorrow. Um um so that'll kind of pretty much tell us because they'll take there that will be um 30% of what the delinquent fees are. Is that what they will be recovering?

Well, we will get our fees. They will add the 30% to those fees. So we will get our total amount of fees back. What they do cost us nothing. Right. But they're paid out of the the amount that you recover from.

Yes, we recover including their 30% then we would pay them the 30%. Yes. Yes, that is correct. And this was the legislature enacted these laws in order to uh not put the burden on those defendants who pay timely. This the burden is put on those who try to evade, you know, or not pay. And so this has really been a great uh a source of I guess benefit to society in general that um that you know those who don't pay are the ones who actually are paying that bill. So

y'all got in a system in place where people that might can't afford to pay and the judge can uh can can wave our fee 100%. If you cannot afford to pay your ticket, you know, there are there are several options. And I don't want to speak for judge warrants, but uh I, you know, time served a lot of times, you know, we're not putting people in jail for citations these days, but community service is another option. But if you just aren't going to pay your fee and you don't have the money to pay our fee, then the judge can wave our fee 100%. because we still in a small town and it ain't a lot of jobs and a lot of still people out here still struggling.

Sure. And this will get a lot of those out of town travelers too that that we haven't been getting. We don't want to just just just look at one side of people and just try to get the money off of them, you know. Sure. Because I think what he's also saying because judge has talked to us about it and I don't know if you've had any you know observe

the judge making money so he they they don't have to worry about I'm talking about people really out here struggling that can't pay that you know. No, I said my statement. It wasn't the judge was making money. What he does is he asks them what they're capable of, how they would if they said, "I don't have enough money." He can talk and negotiate with them and and we have had some that said, "I would like to make a payment. I would like to do this. I would like to do that." But it is the bottom line is if they're stopped, it is a violation. And and so legally, if it's a violation, it's a penalty that goes with it. But they do try to wake work it out, you know, and so I think I think it's been a real fair way in doing it. And what I like about what's being uh proposed the city the way that has been set up has been a full-time person that has been collecting and doing the paperwork and then that she actually has to make a form and then send it in and they collect I mean do another step in there. But what this a what they're proposing is that their software you just put the information in and it actually runs and they don't have to have it because we were trying to cut back on having a full-time person do it to a part-time and that would save the city money in that gr in that sense and also because it's similar to what the county is doing and we can see the results of what they've had doing this proc process by using that software. I think in the long run that it's a win situation for the city that they'll be able to uh more or less get more than they were getting anyway and like it's I think a significant number I don't have the number are from outside people that are coming through the city and once they're

out of the city they said well they see you when I see you but they they did do a violation in the city so it would it would be appropriate for them to make a range ment rather than just ignore them. But there are, like I said, I've been comfortable with how when people have said, I need to do something differently. Can you give me a an alternative to cash or can you work it out so that I can do it that fits my budget? And they've been really complying with doing that. We have several state guards also mayor. Um we there are some federal and state agencies that are here at the bureau is another one that I think in the last 12 years I've received maybe there's been six complaints. Uh the law firm has me reply to those within 48 hours. We take every every complaint that comes in very seriously. I'm proud to announce that we've only had six and most of those have been people who have jumped around the country moving from place to place and I received the file and I and I pinpoint where this person has been. We're not, you know, we are not trying to uh be ugly to people, but we say this, you've been here, you've been here, you this driver's license, this utility account um and so please contact the court. It's only been one time where the person had like a Mike Smith name and we, you know, apologize for, you know, him receiving the letter. Again, we're just we're we're we're notifying people. We're not taking it to court. Um, and they can come in and speak with Judge Lawrence and uh and make their arrangements. Okay. And then I know we I travel through Crockett quite a bit. that travel, you know, to other parts of the state coming from the Luck area and I just see how many trucks are

are here and and I know they just feel like they can get a pass by leaving, you know, our jurisdiction and going elsewhere thinking that we won't find them. And um we just have such a great record of locating and bringing these people and then let the judge make the determination of what is fair and right in each of those cases. So that's what Judge will be us.

So what kind of turnaround do you uh have on once you send out letters and uh to recover these fees? What kind of because there is such a backlog to counts. I' I've made the recommendation that we not mail out on all of them at once because it would just inundate the court. I've experienced this before. So my recommendation is to mail out on say A through G or you know maybe a c time period. You want to do the the newer ones first. And so, and we can, you know, again, that's going to be at uh the court's uh discretion on how they want to proceed, but of course, we can bail them all out at the same time. Um I would just caution against doing that because it can be a little overwhelming. But I believe uh the turnaround time if the hurricane works smoothly should be I'm going to say an average of 45 days to get this off the ground. So it could be less, maybe a little bit more just depending on Tyler Technologies installing the module and we have to have some information back to start our program but it should be a very quick turnar around especially given the software that you're using and how many clients of ours utilize that same software.

We're ready for a motion and and council there's four action items that will need to take place. Um the first one you'll see is for the contingency fee contract. The second is for the resolution authorizing their 30% and the third one will be executing the contract. And then the fourth would be terminating the contract with Purdue. So we'll need to make motions on all four of those to to solidify this all at one minute. Make a motion on all of them.

I think you probably need to do one at a time. Okay. So, we'll start with number six. Is it the res number? Number five. Number five. Okay. I'm sorry. Well, I I'll make a motion concerning item five that we approve a contingency fee contract with Lindbar. Is that Goen?

Yeah. Lime Law Firm works sir. Larger law firm works fine. Okay. Okay. Linebar law firm for the collection of municipal court debts and account receivables and no fee cost for delinquent city water utility collection.

I second a motion. Okay, it's been moved and second ready. All in favor? Opposed? None opposed. Okay. Item number six, consider and approve a res Oh, I forgot. That's the one that you need to make a motion on. Number six.

You can go ahead and read that. Consider and approve a resolution authorizing the collection fee of 30% of debts and account receivable for the city of Crockett Municipal Court. Well, I'll make a motion that we cons concerning item six that we approve a resolution authorizing the collection fee of 30% of debts and account receivables for the city of Crockett Municipal Port Court.

I second the motion. Okay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Motion carries. Number seven, consider and approve authorizing the execution of the city contract with the Lineberger Law Firm for the collection of city practice municipal court account receivables. Motion. Well, I make a motion concerning item seven that we approve authorizing the execution of the city contract with Linebar Law Firm for the collection of City of Crockett's municipal court account receivables.

Second the motion. Okay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Uh item number eight, consider and approve terminating a contract with Perurdue Brandon uh Fightfielder uh Collins and Malt LLP for the collection of the municipal courts debts and account receivables.

I'll make guess I'll make a motion concerning item eight. We approve terminating the contract with the Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott LLP for the collection of the municipal court debts and account receivables.

I can second the motion. Been moved and second. All in favor? Motion carried. I'm through. You got it going on, bro. You got it going on. Okay, that brings us to item number nine. Consider and approve a resolution by the city of Crockett City denying Encore Electric Delivery Company LLC application to increase rates related to Encore statement of intent to increase rates filed on or about June 26, 20, 2025 requiring the reimbursement of municipal rates case uh expenses finding that the meeting complies with the open D act making other findings and provision related to the subject and declaring an effective date.

Mayor and council on June 26, 2025, Encore basically released an increase in its revenues of about 13% and we're a member of the Alliance of Encore Cities. and they're requesting that city council join in in opposing Encourse rate increases and the resolution's in your packet.

Who made that request? Ma'am, who made the request again? The Alliance of Encore Cities, which we're a member of. I'll make a motion. We oppose the rate increase. I second. Okay. Is that

it's moved to second? Okay. It's been moved and second. All in favor? Okay. We don't want to raise it pretty soon. We don't have to. Okay. Um that brings us to item number 10, the executive session. I think we're having it in here.

Yes, ma'am. We'll be having it here. And thank you so much. You may wait us out, but we'll be in here and y'all will be out there. Thank you so much. You're welcome, buddy.

Good to see you, sir. Arisy.