City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, we've got six o'clock. We'll call this regular city council meeting August 24th, 2026, six p.m. Harry, will you lead us in a prayer? Yeah, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your blessings. We thank you for the rain last week and ask you to send more and cool it off, please. We pray for the families that have lost loved ones and have sick and hurting ones right now. I ask you to bless them and heal them and bless Dalhart, Texas, in Jesus' name. On honor of the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the state of Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

We'll move on to the consent agenda, approval of the minutes from August 10th, 2076, regular council meeting, and approval of the judicial identifying tools and bills.

Make a motion we approve the consent agenda.

july payment financials and bills second or a motion in a second any further discussion all in favor all right any post all right move on to public comment i don't have any public comment we'll move on to item two public hearing the city council as a city of delhart building and standards commission will hold a public hearing regarding property located at 1002 east first street delhart texas substandard structure consider act an issue necessary order regarding the substandard structure located at 1002 east first street delhart texas make a motion that we open the

Public hearing regarding location 1002 East 1st Street. Second.

Motion second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any votes? There are none. The hearing is open.

Tonight is just the public hearing regarding this property. This property we've been working on for a while. We know it's just going to kind of walk you all through where we're at. and what our possible next steps were. And like I said, tonight's just the public hearing.

So I'm presenting this here to you guys for, like you mentioned, the public hearing. We've been in the process of this since June 7, 2024. This property has been an issue with a public nuisance when it comes to just the structure. It's unsafe, the fire hazard, the nuisance it's caused for the neighbors around. the property as well. We 1st, initially enter this property on June 6 of 2024, and it was because of the Dalhart police department is what got me in initially. They called me in for concerns of the safety of the property and living conditions. The inside of it at the time. These are updated. The most recent ones, the ones that were from the beginning were a little bit more. A lot more debris and trash from the inside. Electrical wire was exposed from the walls. Let's see the utilities for atmosphere for gas wasn't on. XL was discontinued that day due to the wires hanging out of the walls. So XL did come and pull meters that same day. Then to the water department here to see their active water back in April, there's people living inside this home, there still is, they're still active inside and out. When we first initially gave them the The information for them not to be able to be inside that same night. We think police department issues, 3 citations for 3 people found asleep and citations were issued. They had to go through miss more. Um. This was during our previous ordinance as well. We just did a new 1, which was approved recently and that's where we're doing the new notices. And this is where we bring it to you guys before it was through the district courts. Now, this new ordinance has allowed us to present it to you. And for you guys to look over and just kind of look over the information that we have received from any of the. The news is that we also, or that word calls with this. I know per our ordinance that we do currently have now, once we present to you guys, the next step would be we would have another, which we're going to issue for an act on for the next meeting that we have with you guys. And it's going to be an act, which would be if you guys would approve. And what we're looking at here is for the property to be demolished and removed depending on y'all's decisions on how we move forward with this. But I feel that since June 7th of 2024, we were pretty lenient. I was pretty lenient with notices, giving her time to get in.

And there was just nothing ever done.

As y'all see the top of the home, I'm not sure what they were doing from on top. I mean, when all this went through, they removed the roof. So I'm not sure. What their plans were, but they're still, it still looks the same. Nothing's been done and they haven't done any, there's no progress that's been done to it.

Yes, and they're not here tonight. Yeah, 3, right here.

I'll let them speak here in just a minute. I want to hear from him and then we'll ask any other. I'm not sure I don't know your name.

Come on up. Okay.

I inherited the place and had no idea. Honestly, I just moved in the second apartment because it's a duplex and my family had lived in that one, which has been well, three months after he moved me in the other apartment, he died and I got left the whole thing, which is sudden and. then due to a boy that my daughter was hanging out with is why the cops were there that time and they called her in okay they told me that it was a fire hazard and to fix everything or to that i had to fix the wiring right well i was dying i got diagnosed with cancer in november of 24 and went through chemo and radiation and all that and Right after in November of 24, she came to me with a guy from the water department and told me that they were going to take it off for demolition. OK, that's the only thing she has talked to me about since is demolition. And I was working on it. We actually intentionally like literally put everything we had into this last inspection. Right. And she she told me a week before inspection, she said, well, I don't know why it's sagging down right there in the middle, which is the garage throughout the house. and uh so what do we do we we try to fix that and that's where that came in okay and the hole in there the only reason why it's there is because she told us it was sagging down we had to fix it before the inspection well when she came the day of the inspection i just a friend of mine was he was a blessing bought me the plywood and everything because i knew i'm on i'm on security right now you know what i mean i don't have the money to fix it i didn't go purchase this home i just it's my my residence you know what i mean so i'd put in as much to it as i can as i go and before the cancer and then after, you know, I'm just still struggling, but I'm on social security, that's all I have now. But the day of the inspection, she refused to even go in and look at the house. And we had done everything but the roof, everything, all the little stuff that she told us to do. I didn't get the electrician and the plumber there, but everything else had been done. And she didn't refuse to go in and look at it because the roof wasn't done. He was up there working on it when she came. So she, I mean, the whole time we've been steady trying to do what I can. It's not like we've just been not doing anything. And we haven't done anything since that day because she told us I couldn't. She told me I could not work on it no more. That I'd be hearing from their lawyer. And I've been hearing that probably for about a year and a half from her. Okay. And I've reached out. I've asked her for a list of specific things that needed done before that inspection. She never would give them to me. She told me she works on pitchers. Okay, well, all the pictures that she gave me the first day are all of the other apartment. Okay, none of them were in the apartment I was fixing up except one. Okay, first of all. Second of all, it came a long ways. It really did. And the other one, I would like to ask you all, if there's any way possible, if we could inspect that one and maybe let me keep the other apartment and get it ready. Now, because the other one, I mean, I could still do that one too, I mean, but it's... It's a long road and it's been hard. It's been hard because I ain't got the money and I've been trying to do what I can. But demolition is basically the only thing she's been telling me. She told me $25,000 that I would be indebted to the city for the demolition and that I'd have to pay that back before I could do anything. I mean, it's just unbelievable. I don't know how y'all work or how it goes, but I know that that's definitely not, you know what I mean? I'm living in it, trying to fix it up. It's not like abandoned or nobody's doing anything. You know what I mean? I'm doing what I can. and it's not it may not be much but it's what i can right now all i ask is to please think about it and maybe let me fix the other one because if he's a list of what he's done or something for y'all or something the time and manner it needs i don't know i don't know what else to do it's my home

And it's just being by myself now. Hang on.

Do you all have any questions for her? So, Lacey, you're living in one side of it?

They told me I couldn't live in it. So I've been living in my car out front in front of this house for two years. Because I mean, that's my home. I don't have money to go put into something else if I'm still going to have this, you know what I mean? I don't want it to just the taxes and everything to add up and add up on it. And maybe somewhere else, you know what I mean? I didn't see the point in that. And I had dogs and I really couldn't, I didn't really didn't have anywhere to go. So I've been steady. I'm trying to go back to Hody's little by little, you know what I mean, to work, but I still have my social security. And I mean, it's, it's hard. I've been staying in my car though, trying to make things work.

This is my daughter, by the way.

Do you live in the residence as well?

Yeah.

Okay, so yes, the first time that they went and the citations got issued, after that, everybody moved out of it. After the citations and the day we got tickets, everybody moved out. Nobody lives in the house. Nobody stays in the house. Nobody sleeps in the house. There's no furniture to live in the house. There's nobody occupying that space at all. Now, there's constantly probably people outside. you know going in and out because my mom is trying to do whatever she can to keep it but it's not nobody else is staying there anymore we've done we've tried to follow what she said and every time i asked my mom you know what i mean well what exactly needs to be done she didn't have any she had no idea what to do and she's single like she she doesn't have anybody to help her it's just her if anything could y'all please just give her some more time i finally got a job now I mean, I am working and I will do what I can to make improvements or demolish it even, but she has nowhere else to go. And it was a blessing from God that she even got this place. And I just beg y'all please, please to give her another chance because she hasn't been specific and she has been no, she hasn't, she just hasn't been specific and she's said she's been lenient and whatnot, but she's, I really feel like she's just been, I don't know. I just, I just hope that y'all give my mom another chance because We didn't know what we were supposed to do, what we could do, what we couldn't do. It wasn't fair.

So to correct her on that, I have notices that I've provided to Lacey. She had notices sent to her every single time from the first of the ordinance that we first had. Then we had this new one that came in and I also sent notices then too. So it's not that they never received. They received notices on the structure of the building of the home and the correction. I even went and did my own little inspections on there and then would give them a paper, which I do have here, anything and everything. I'm a very documentative person, so I make sure the documents that I have are provided to them as well. And then I would send notice. So if they have their notices on them, that is on them. But I do have copies. So I've done my part from the city of Dallas for us to make sure that we're following our proper procedures.

Notice you would have to.

Yes, I have the original. The first day. Violation then she wouldn't give it to me. She operates on her pictures. Mind you, when you look at these pictures, they raided me before they called her. So they destroyed my house on top of what wasn't there.

That's a PD matter. Well, it's not a code. I was going to say.

Those pictures are out there.

I will say we've been working on this for two years. This has been a sticking point of mine. I asked for updates quite regularly on this, where we're at.

Police reports as well, again.

Are we moving forward? Is there progress being made on there?

She told me not to do anything after the last inspection.

There is still progress. There is a lot of progress being made.

Since day one, yeah, it has been. I had a camper out in my driveway, and I got a violation, and they put on it as if it was a semi and a residential. Like, what is that? You can't be in O'Hallie or a public street, but it was in my driveway.

She was asleep in this RV, and when we went in there, we had to remove her from the RV, where the police department again found paraphernalia inside.

Had to remove me from the...

Yes, we asked her to come out.

Amy Dabbs, To be very different, this is coming for her, and then I mean all kinds of stuff she wouldn't call the cops to come. Amy Dabbs, Take her through there and make sure it was safe safe structure, well, it was always a safe structure before, so I don't know why it wouldn't have been it. Amy Dabbs, You know I mean it's been a constant battle with her and she is not not nothing but demolition to get her solutions if they want that's awesome and do not want to be and that's awesome here. And I just don't think that's fair. I mean, I don't know any people out here who are working on their house that y'all are out there doing that. You know what I mean? There's a semi that parks a block away from me every night, every night. Full semi parked right there. And they don't tell me nothing. I feel like it's been a straight harassment since day one. And I'm sorry, but that's my thoughts on it. The day after I freaking found out I had cancer, I talked to her. That's when they were taping it off for demolition. And that was in 24. In November 24.

And I want to correct that we have not. We have not scheduled demolition date one time.

We haven't scheduled demolition for anything.

That's all she threatened me with it. That's what she told me. Then. All she told me since then, I've been dealing with it for awhile y'all. Tell me my cancer didn't lay well with her schedule. I mean, to me and her have had words and she's been in my face yelling at me. And it's been, it's been bad.

Okay. We're here to discuss this matter. Not personal agenda here for this council. We just need to know the facts as far as the property is concerned.

As a property is concerned, I went the legal process. We made sure we issued the warrant. Properly through the judge, it was signed for us to enter and that's where we got these pictures for the 2nd part. So. The first part was the initial, what Ty has in his hand right now. That was the first initial entry is whenever the warrant was issued with PD, what got me in to begin with. This is the second search warrant that was for code that got me in for the second one.

Yeah, a lot too.

Is there another little apartment that you're talking about or is it? The duplex. It's all the same. Yeah. But they have the same, they use the same water meter.

They have two separate water meters in the same building.

They only had one water meter. That's what we checked for and it hasn't been active since 2023.

i got it so we didn't have water we had water we really did and we just turned it off at the meter because the pipe busted i mean where if there was water on there from the time i got i used to be a water supervisor for the city at dalhart for 20 years and i know there's only one water meter there so is that is it habitable i mean is it

the left side it's not not the right side looking at right now okay the left side is where all the debris and trash is in right now the right side is what we're looking at correct me if i'm wrong is but you cannot reside in what about plumbing with anything without water for our ordinance if you do not have running water any electrical any utilities placed into the pro into the per our ordinance, it's what it states, is that they have to have active utilities to live inside city limits.

This is the apartment?

This is the one on the duplex, yeah. This is the right. This is the right side or the left side? This is the, this was on the right.

Say that again?

What's all the trash here? Is that the left or the left side?

Yes. If you're looking at the home to the left, that would be what all that is right there. And then to the right. So that's all pictures of the whole thing when we entered, starting from the right to left. These pictures here that are presented to you on the screen, those are from the right side now. The last entry that we made in.

What part does she want to live in?

The right side. Just this side right here.

Since June 24th. it's just that it's sort of but i'm going to clear it out if i could have a chance to fix it what do electric meters do yes two different ones yes there was two electric meters in the back and one water meter i think for sure for sure

You're living in the car on the property, correct?

The middle part where there's no, that's the garage anyway, so it's not even right in the house. It's the actual garage. It's a double garage in between.

The picture that's in the screen right now showing, that was the living room. That shows the exposure of where the garage is right into her living room.

the back side of the way from the street. Under our new process in doing this, what's the timeline? So there's public hearing, I don't want me to know the scenario to make a decision.

And that's just the public hearing. And then on the 14th, we were going to put on the agenda for action yay or nay this house then after the after outside which way everyone if you say yes then she goes and post it they have a 30 days vacate vacate after that

After it gets demolished? We would tear it down, haul it off. The property wouldn't be demolished?

The property would still be hers, but there would be a lien against it. Yes.

We don't know what the price is.

I don't.

25 grand came from a male individual she tried to sell the property to 425 grand and he came and asked yes i clearly remember that that's our office because we have not we have not processed it or anything we haven't done anything for demo process on this no pricing that they have to go for bids anyway yeah yeah and i mean where feet is it um for that property it's 5 600 square feet

The whole piece of property or just the whole?

The whole property.

That'll be between $8,000 and $12,000 to demo.

Pretty close.

When there's a lien, she still can't live on?

mean there will be there's not a proper there's no structure there for you to live in if there's nothing there an rv won't be allowed there to live on either okay this is just the public hearing so yeah anybody have any more questions we'll you don't want to still review these they've got more questions i see correspondence all the way from june

All the way through.

25. 24.

We need a motion to close.

Are you ready to close? I have a motion and a second. Close public hearing. Any further questions? All in favor? Okay. Well, the hearing is closed. Thank you all. Move on to item 3, Discusser and Act Fond of Resolution 2621, Resolution of the City Council, City of New York, Texas approving a project of the Economic Development Corporation, 4B, to purchase and install wayfinder signage in conjunction with the proposed phases of Tick Tock Right-of-Way Petrification Project, providing a severability clause, providing a savings clause, and providing an effective date.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This is an amendment to the first resolution that included just the beautification. We're adding wayfinder signs. The reason that we're doing this in chunks this way is to keep from overwhelming and Because, you know, naturally we think about the latter. We remember the last thing that we heard, but we're far down the road from the last thing. We're still in step one. So this is the next phase that's going to run in line with the beautification to add Wayfinder signs. That way we can go to TxDOT for one ask that encompasses everything that we're trying to do within the city for the beautification and the Wayfinder system.

And when I first moved here, that's the first thing I said was there's no sign that tells you get off the highway. Yeah. So I think this is a good step forward.

And what we're doing with the Wayfinder signs, of course, is creating route behavior. So we want people to get off. We've got to give them a reason to get off the highway.

We had a study done, a Zygote study. I don't want to even remember that. But even back then, they said if you even get 1% off the highway, it would be more than a million dollars in sales tax.

We've got a lot of great assets. I mean, prospects that I brought to town, they see the lake and they see the Coliseum, the rodeo arena, even the hospital district. They didn't even know we had that great of assets in the, in the community. Cause there's no signage pointing it, you know, pointing to them.

Your sales tax is bringing in what now about 700, 800,000.

My budgets, my budgets gone down about 90,000 this year, last year.

I'll make a motion that we adopt Resolution 2026-21. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? There are none. We're on to item 4, City of Delaware 2026-2027. That's workshop number 2.

We haven't changed anything from the last meeting. I'll be happy to answer any questions that y'all have over it. I mean, like I said, it's a pretty tight budget, but I think we're gonna get everything done that we need to get done. If you had a chance to look over, I'd be happy to answer any questions that y'all have over it.

Very tight budget.

And it is. But I think it's a, it's a good budget. It's conservative budget. It is a budget that sets us up nicely for the future. So, which is a good thing, because, I mean, we have a lot of big ticket items that have to be addressed in the next 5 to 10 years. That we need to figure out starting now how we are going to pay for in the future. So, is there any questions?

Well, I think there are some of them weren't here. I think this is going to be a cent and a half reduction.

Yeah, we'll talk about that. It's a little over a penny.

Just so that they understand that this budget incorporates a cent and a half reduction in property tax.

Yeah, so. But for anybody that missed last, when I did the first workshop, I'll be happy to meet with you and go over and walk you through kind of what I'm thinking and where we're at as a whole. And that goes for the public too. Anybody back there that wants to listen to a budget presentation, I'll be happy to give it to you.

I'll entertain a motion. One of the next pretty few are number 5 discuss interact upon proving proposed tax rate for 202627 for the publication.

Yes, we are going to if. Y'all approve the tax rate that I proposed tonight. We will send it off. For publishing tomorrow, and what that will entail is. We're going to run it in the paper not once, but we're required by law, but we're going to run it twice. The public hearing will be set. We set that last meeting. for the 14th of uh september uh with everything ran and put up on the website and out front that gives us ample time and the public ample time to come ask their questions and go over it but uh for the 2026 27 fiscal year uh property tax that i'm proposing this year is 0.420284 that is a decrease of roughly one and a half cents and it will be for the M&O side which is the maintenance and operation side will be 0.394298 that's 39 cents basically 39 and a half cents and on the interest and sinking side for the bonds that we do have out that that property tax services will be 0.025986 so two and a half cents uh will of property tax rate will make up the debt payment for a total of 42 cents Total just 4.420284 and before you make a motion and vote, this does have to be a roll call vote and city secretary has to record each vote individually.

And the 2nd, 1 was for the debt service.

Yes.

The interest is sinking bonds that we have on. Yes. We don't have a choice.

I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. or walk you through the calculation worksheet. Anybody have any questions?

Make a motion that we approve the proposed tax rate for 2627.

Second.

Is there a motion? Second. I want to start with you, Dennis. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

you need Wendy yes sir okay okay move on to item six discuss our act upon renewal of the municipal judge contract as y'all know Beth Moore is our municipal judge her contract comes up at a yearly basis I think she does a great job she still wants to continue why I'm not sure, but she does. And, and, uh, I would recommend that we, uh, renew her contract for another year, uh, basically the same terms, but she does want to change her dates a couple of times. Do you want to elaborate a little bit on that?

Can you hear me from back there? After January one, I would like to change my days from I'm working now, Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the afternoons from one to four. I would like to go to more hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because I will no longer be in the JP office.

And I think it would work better because we do have a lot of people that come in here in the mornings. And if she's here two full days, that would be wonderful.

As long as we publicize that, I don't have an issue with that at all.

That is the hours that Roy Gergen and Judge Raina vote.

had those hours so we would be going back to what we were doing before make the motion that we renew the municipal kids project second uh motion a second any further discussion all in favor all right any folks there or not Item seven, discuss and act upon lease agreement with Vibe Broadband.

Yeah, Vibe offers internet service throughout the city. This is... basically a yearly renewal but they had been how many years have been since we actually worked a brand new lease it had been several years we worked with the city attorney and in vive and we came up with the brand new lease we really didn't change any terms of the lease but it is a brand new lease and it's just a lease to that they can continue to operate and offer services for customers within the city limits i had one question i forgot about so if we didn't change any terms i think they provide a cable to the jail for free under that contract i believe you're correct but i'll double check on that we really didn't change anything right we didn't change any of the terms we just worked on the lease so we didn't renew it it obviously it was it's just good practice for every few years to have a brand new league they have that tower up there on all of the curve

Make a motion that we approve WC Dreamland with a viable broadband. Second.

A motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? There are none.

Is this, I know we've done this before. I think I don't remember numbers, et cetera, but we can call it executive session for staff issue.

It needs to be publicized. I mean, it's got to be on the agenda. It has to.

Okay. I thought there was, I thought we did this before we could talk about something. The school board does. It's on there. Yeah. Every month. Attorney's on. Brian? Yeah. Brian, are you there? Yes, good evening. How are you? This is Terry Stegall. I feel like in the past I was able to call an executive session for a staff issue that occurred during a meeting. Am I wrong about that?

Yeah, it would need to be on the agenda to be able to go into an executive session. So since it's not, we can add it to an upcoming meeting agenda. And yeah, the personnel exception It relates to a certain employee. Then that employee, when we announce going into executive session on personnel matter, they can request that it be done in open. But yeah, it would need to be at a separate meeting. Good question.

Thank you.

I'll do that. Make a motion that we adjourn. Second. Motion to second. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Bye, y'all. Thank you. Hey, do you need anybody else's information for good airline?