City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Coming up next on ECN, a regularly scheduled meeting of your Edinburgh City Council. On the Council, Mayor Omar Ochoa. Mayor Pro Tem David Salazar. Council Member Dan Diaz. Council Member Jason DeLeon. And Council Member Jerry Lozano. Sitting in as advisors, City Manager Myra Ayala and City Attorney Ben Alonso. And now live from the Edinburgh City Hall, the Edinburgh City Council.

Time is 6 p.m. on August 18th, 2026. I call this regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council to order. I do note that we've got all city council members present, so we've got a quorum. If we could, let's please start with a prayer. We've got Pastor Javier Garcia with us, I believe. Maybe, maybe. Please, if you can just come up here to the podium and lead us, we would appreciate that.

I think it's always a great thing when a meeting starts with prayer and and calling upon the Lord. I'm nervous up here. I've been preaching for 38 years and I'm still getting nervous when I pray. Lord, thank you so much for this council. Thank you for every man and woman, Lord, that is a part of this team. Lord, you appointed them. Though the people vote the men, but it is you who appoints leaders. And Lord, I thank you for them. I thank you for their lives. I thank you for their families, their marriages, their children, God. I pray that you would strengthen every home represented in the leadership of this great city of Edinburgh, God. And I pray, God, just the same way when you came to Jerusalem, you looked at the city and you saw the people with compassion. I pray that that same compassion would be on this leadership, God. It would be on this mayor, Mayor Cho, that you would give them, Lord, that compassion. Increase it, Lord, for the people And give them wisdom, Lord. Give them wisdom in how to guide, Lord, this city, Lord. How to make it grow, God. How to become a beacon, Lord, of a city that others can look at this city and say, what a great city in Texas. Lord, bless them and bless the people. Bless this meeting, God. Guide every man, every woman in this place. And I thank you. And we thank you in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Council Member Diaz, if you could lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Yes, and I want to echo the pastors. Thank you, Pastor. Always a beautiful thing when we start with a prayer and also remember our patriotism. So I ask everyone to please stand, remove headgear unless you're on duty. Let's place our right hand over our heart and let's say together, I 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. Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is the certification of public notice. Madam Secretary?

Yes, sir. Mayor, the meeting is posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act on August 12, 2026 at 7.20 p.m., sir.

Next item is the disclosure of competitive interest. Mr. City Attorney?

Mr. Mayor, under state law, a local government official is required to disclose a substantial interest for themselves or certain family members and abstain from voting on matters related to such conflict. Are there any conflicts to disclose related to the pending matters on today's agenda? No, sir. No, sir. No.

Next item, our city highlights. We've got a couple of events coming up this Saturday at the Parks and Recreation Center. We're having our community garage sale. Really great event, actually. We've got lots of local vendors who sign up months in advance to have the opportunity to be able to sell their products there at the community garage sale at Parks and Rec. It's just a really wonderful time. Lots of people come out for that. Would appreciate everybody to come out to support our local vendors in this effort. Next item we've got is the South Texas International Film Festival. That's coming up September 10th through 12th. We've got some really great guests of honor who will be there for that. Wonderful films. We had a really cool event over the weekend. Filmmakers had literally 48 hours to write, direct, and shoot a movie. and the winner of that will be featured in the film festival as well. So just really, really fun time. I hope everybody can make it out. At least one of those nights, if not all of them, September 10th through 12th coming up. Yes, our guest of honor is Mr. Edward James Olmos, renowned actor, director, producer, all around wonderful individual, great example for our community. So if nothing else, come out to come say hello to Mr. Edward James Olmos. We'll move on now to proclamations of recognition. If the city secretary could read the caption, this is to recognize National Aviation Day in the city of Edinburgh. And if the city secretary could also read the proclamation, city council will come down to take some pictures while you're doing that.

Yes, your mayor. Presentation of proclamation recognizing August 19, 2026 as National Aviation Day in the city of Edinburgh. National Aviation Day, August 19, 2026. Whereas aviation has transformed global transportation, commerce, national defense, and connectivity, aviation has also fostered cultural exchange, economic growth, and scientific collaboration while connecting communities across the United States and the world. And whereas the spirit of innovation and discovery has been integral to the advancement of our society, and aviation stands as a testament to human ingenuity, perseverance, and the pioneering spirit of American aviators, engineers, and aerospace workers who continue to push the boundaries of flight. And whereas August 19th marks the anniversary of the birth of Orville Wright, who, alongside his brother Wilbur, successfully designed, built, and flew the world's first successful motor-operated airplane. And whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt first established National Aviation Day by presidential proclamation in 1939 to honor Orville Wright's birthday and to inspire public interest in aviation worldwide. And whereas the enduring impact of aviation upon local communities alongside the profound economic and cultural contributions of aerospace professionals merits nationwide recognition, and whereas the City of Edinburgh commends the dedication, expertise, and professionalism of pilots, air traffic controllers, mechanics, aircraft manufacturers, airport operators, and all those who ensure the safety and efficiency of the skies, enabling millions to travel safely each day. Now, therefore, the Mayor and Council of the City of Edinburgh, Texas, by power vested in them by law, do hereby proclaim August 19, 2026, as National Aviation Day in the City of Edinburgh, and encourage all residents to join in honoring the legacy of flight and celebrating the The Boundless Possibilities of Aviation.

Thank you, ma'am. Your Honor, Counsel, good evening. Eddie Velarde, Director of Aviation for the City. My colleagues here are Rita Hernandez, Aviation Manager, Mr. Joe Vega, Line Service Tech, and Mrs. Vanessa Ramirez, Administrative Assistant. My colleagues at the airport, thank you very much for this opportunity for the proclamation. The thanks also go to not only to yourselves there, but also all 111,000 people who own the airport there. So we thank the citizens of Edinburgh. As well, we want to thank especially Edinburgh Economic Development Corporation because our growing airport is a recipient of their growing confidence in the airport. So major investment in the airport. Pretty soon we'll be embarking on some hangar development there, thanks to their seed money, their impetus. And besides that, there are airport projects that are ongoing, like the report, for instance. We just completed our fence installation, replaced all our airport fence. We also, four years ago, we finished a drainage study there, whereby we have the roadmap to keeping the airport from never flooding again. We are in the middle of, it's already at 100% design as far as the airport improvements project. That one's massive. In about a year and a half there, you're going to go from 5,000 foot runway to 6,000 feet. And that's substantial. More aircraft, bigger aircraft coming to Edinburgh. And I don't want to say the airport's best days are ahead. We've already started our best days. Our best days are here right now thanks to investment, to the belief, to great folks like this who work at the airport. So on their behalf, on behalf of the ladies and gentlemen of Edinburgh Airport, Thank you very much. And if I can be a spoiler of all these great people I talked to last week, Mrs. Ramirez, she was conveyed the Employee of the Month for the City of Edinburgh there. So thank you, Mrs. Arnn. Thank you all.

Thank you all so much for bringing this to our attention, allowing us to celebrate National Aviation Day here in the City of Edinburgh. And it is true, there's a lot of really exciting developments happening at our airport with a $20 million grant from the state of Texas. We're able to transform a lot of the infrastructure needs out there, including extending the runway. And when you look towards the future, the best days are happening right now, but even better stuff is coming down the road. We really have our vision to turn that into a true commercial trade center, and I think it's highly situated for that. with Highway 68 coming up from down the bridge, going to be looping around our airport. There's just massive potential for us to have a true cargo airport out of there, very akin to what you see in Laredo, doing a lot of international trading coming out of the airport. The Rio Grande Valley doesn't have anything like that. We don't have anything like a major cargo airport down here. It would truly be transformative, not just for the city, but for the Rio Grande Valley. And so we appreciate the staff leading the charge to get that big vision done. Thank you all.

Thank you all.

Next item on the agenda are, thank you. Next item on the agenda are public comments. Madam Secretary?

Yes, sir. Good evening, everyone. The Edinburgh City Council allows for a specific portion of the city council meeting to be dedicated to public comments. Public comments are limited to three minutes. I'll be taking time. Please note the public comment period is not attractive. The council may not respond to public comments. At this time, there are three public comments. The first public comment is Marlene Garza regarding item 12A.

Hold on. 12A?

Yes, 12A.

Okay. 12A is a variance. You may or may not be able to have a chance to speak on that. If you'd like to take it now, you're more than welcome to. If not, you can wait and see.

Good afternoon, Marlon Garza for the record, representing the applicant with Melvin and Hunt. The variance that we have presented for item 12A is for Jackson Estates Phase 2. It's a subdivision that we have submitted over to the City of Edinburgh for review. We've undergone the P&Z portion for this rezoning as well. Along with this variance, the rezoning will be coming to the next City Council meeting, if I'm not mistaken, just because of posting dates the way that it was submitted. The reason for this variance request just comes in just because of the nature of the lot, what we're proposing, what the owner's trying to build. He is the same developer from the apartments that are just south. What he is intending to build on this piece of property, he wants to propose a commercial plaza on the front portion of this property, and he wants to propose storage units behind it as a second commercial lot. Because of the width of the lot and because of the way that the UBC code is written, It specifies that all developed property has to front public right away. We've had this issue come up on other occasions. And so essentially what we take it as is really that you're trying to implement what the lot width should be for this property and that you're giving it proper access. We're still accomplishing that. We're proposing a 26 foot access easement instead of right away. The reason for that, there's an existing 15-foot irrigation district easement on the north side of the property. So it goes 15 feet on this property, 15 feet on the property to the north. The irrigation line itself runs on the 15 feet to the north, which is why we've gotten permission from the irrigation district to use those 15 feet on top of what the 26-foot access easement that we're proposing. So they'll be overlapping in order for us to gain entrance to that second lot in the back. That will be for the storage units that they're intending to propose. The property's already zoned general commercial for what it's intended. What we're rezoning for is the rear of the property for multifamily, which is a separate issue not to do with this variance, but just to give light of what the entirety of the property is. The property in and of itself is just short of 120 feet wide, but it's almost 1,500 feet deep. So that's really what we're looking at. There's already apartments to the north. Like I mentioned, there's apartments to the south. So that's really the caveat that we're facing with this variance that we're presenting. I was hoping to speak whenever the item was presented in case y'all had any questions. I know you can't really comment on the item right now. Thank you.

The next public comment is Ms. Fern McCurdy regarding taxpayers' money.

Okay, gentlemen, I am here to explain why I disagree with the actions of this council. It is because your spending exceeds the ability of the people to pay for the things you want. Every 12 months, the city and the other local governments approve budgets that exceed the ability of the people to pay. Even during COVID, the operational budgets all increased. Most council members are businessmen. Does your annual operating budget increase every year? No. You will find a way to reduce the cost. What do you think will happen to your business if your operating cost keeps increasing and increasing year after year? What do you think will happen to your business if you keep doing this, and what do you think the people don't want this? The answer to the question is simple. You will go out of business if you keep pushing golf. The primary function of this council is to provide municipal services at the lowest possible cost. This function becomes a limiting factor when the population contains a significant amount of poverty. Hidalgo County is one of the largest counties in Texas with a significant amount of poverty. The annual family income is $60,000. How many ways can we say the population is poor? The population cannot maintain a government that keeps taking more every 12 months. The city of Edinburgh pays $9 million a year on the debt while the county spends $37 million. That is $46 million a year on the debt. This is a wasting money because these local governments find easier to spend and pay for the next 30 years instead of saving and trying to help the taxpayer. The high-rise parking facility is a perfect example. The city sold bonds in 2021, and the construction has not been completed. But the city is still paying interest. We need better financial administrators, or we might lose our homes and our businesses. So I'm hoping tonight that you will think about the different things. I know that it's so wonderful to have different things, but we can only afford so much each time. All of this, we try to pay our principal off and try to save our homes so that we don't have big payments. And so do I go into the ones I signed up for? Yes. I still have a little bit of time. I'm watching. Please go ahead. Okay. I signed up on Agenda 9C, which is public, it's for the public to speak on a public hearing. So I'll do that in a little while, asking about that 17 and a half, property that's on McCall. What I need a question on tonight is 12A, and these are the variances that we're talking about. Again, they come, they want to always require the fundage along the right-of-way of the street, not to require that for them. They did not want you to do requiring the other variances that they have on both of these. And my thing is, why do we have What is it called? The unified development code. If you have the rules, why don't we go by them? I'm sorry. This is something that I look at in my own doing gun permits and stuff. You go by what the rules are. So if y'all want to change them and help all the developers, change it. But do it so that the public can see it because the public doesn't trust. I got calls on these yesterday and today. And the next one is 13D. I'd like you all to explain these as I'm going through. 13D, this is picking some of the architects and things for what's coming up. I did see that there are four with asterisks by them. And I read the back. And it says that they've already, the current rotation has four firms. And they have recently had one project each. So I'm hoping you'll look at the other. BUSINESSES THAT ARE HERE IN EDINBURG THAT WANT TO DO WORK. TODAY I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THE TAX RATE. I BELIEVE THAT THE BUSINESS DIRECTOR OF FINANCE IS GOING TO EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS BECAUSE EVEN I WAS A LITTLE BIT WRONG ON WHAT HAPPENED THERE. SO PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THAT IS IF YOU WILL. AND THEN 15A, AGAIN, I NEED THESE BOTH EXPLAINED BECAUSE I DIDN'T QUITE UNDERSTAND AND I COULDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION FOR THE PUBLIC. So if you'll just look those over and just give them a little. You don't have to go into big details, but we just couldn't understand. And some of these didn't really have a backup. So if you all do this, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

The next public comment is Ms. Diane Teeter regarding budget and taxes.

Good evening, Diane Teeter. The budget. I'd like to talk about taxes in Edinburgh's future using a simple analogy, a glass of water. If we look how empty the glass is, the American Community Survey tells us that approximately 20% of Edinburgh residents live below the federal poverty line. That's one in five of our neighbors facing real economic challenges. But if we look at how full the glass is, Edinburgh is doing better than the county around us. The small area income and poverty census estimates Hidalgo County's poverty rate at about 24%. That means Edinburgh is outperforming the county. Our glass is filling, not draining. We can see that progress downtown. The new parking garage rising. The arts and culture district expanding. and small businesses benefiting from increased foot traffic are investments that build long-term prosperity. And we've done this while reducing or holding steady the tax rate for multiple years. In 2023-24, the city lowered the rate, reaching the lowest rate since 1991. In 2025-26, the city again held the rate at 63 cents per 100 valuation maintaining that historic low. Edinburgh has shown that we can invest wisely, strengthen infrastructure, and still protect taxpayers. But none of this works without water. Water is the foundation of public health, economic development, and daily life. Rising treatment costs, regional drought pressures, and an endangered municipal water intake on the river by the federal government's buoys and bollards mean we must safeguard our system. Appropriate water rates phased in over time ensure that our residents have reliable, clean water today and tomorrow. A partially empty glass tells us where the challenges are. A partially full glass shows us the progress we've made. But Edinburgh must keep the glass filling through investment responsible rates and protecting the water that sustains our future and our lives. Thank you. And have another glass of water.

There are no further comments, Mayor.

All right, no further comments. We will move on to Item 8A, if Secretary can read the caption.

Yes, Your Mayor. Presentation of the MedCare EMS Semi-Annual Review.

Good afternoon, Marichoa City Council. Omar Garza, Edinburgh Fire Chief, for the record. This afternoon, we're going to do a Sebayano report with MedCare, which is our EMS provider for the city of Edinburgh. A strong partnership that we have with MedCare for the last several years. We continue to work on providing high-quality EMS service for the city of Edinburgh. This year alone, we went from three MIC units and two... A TOTAL OF FIVE MIC UNITS RESPONDING IN EDINBURG, WHICH WAS AN UPGRADE FROM THE THREE PREVIOUS MIC UNITS. SO WE CONTINUE TO WORK WITH MED CARE. THEY AVERAGE ANYWHERE FROM 600 TO 700 CALLS PER MONTH, AND WE AVERAGE ONLY, WHICH IS AMAZING, ABOUT ONE TO TWO COMPLAINTS PER YEAR ON THEM. SO IT'S A PRETTY GOOD TRACKWORK THAT THEY HAVE HERE IN THE CITY OF EDINBURG, AND WE'RE PROUD TO WORK WITH THEM. GREAT PARTNERSHIP. THEY'RE ALWAYS PROVIDING FREE TRAINING FOR OUR STAFF. They've also provided all the training for our teen academies. We've also done training for our general staff, for city public works department, the water department, for the employees to come and learn and become certified in CPR and first aid, so they offer those courses also. So I hand it over to Mr. Galvano. He's got a quick about six, seven slides to present to you guys, and if you have any questions, feel free. Thank you, Mayor.

Hi. Good evening, Council.

I'll just go through this very briefly, and if you have questions...

Okay, so our fleet operations, as he was saying, there's five dedicated MICU units in the city with one critical care paramedic first responder, and we also have one unit that carries whole blood at all times. Accompanying these is six of every new device we have, which is the Xenix monitors. We have six compression devices that are automatic, so you just place them over the patient and it begins compression at a steady pace. We also have six portable ventilators that are compact and very easily transferable to other units and other cases, and six video laryngoscopes. By priority, so these are from January to the end of June. Priority one calls, we've had 4,417. For priority two calls, we've had 1,259, with a grand total of 5,676 calls since January until now. This is a demand analysis. This will kind of show where on the 24-hour period most of the calls take place. As you can see, there is a trend. Most of the calls occur from the hours of 7 in the morning until about 7 p.m., and that's where you see kind of a decline towards the end of the day. So most of the calls come within usually the working hour. Our response times for Priority 1 have remained steady at 6 minutes and 35 seconds. for all the past months and priority twos at eight minutes and 18 with an average of six minutes and 58 seconds with a combined priority ones and twos. Now active calls is a little bit, I can explain what an active call is, but we primarily respond to second active calls in this city. So you'll see that 1758 calls are second active calls. What that means is that if there's already calls in place, when we get another call, that becomes an active call. So if you can see on here, we actually reached two 11th active calls, which means there were 11 ongoing calls when we received one call. So it's kind of a way you can see how many calls are going on in the city at a timeframe. Let me see. And lastly, these are some natures. So some very common natures you'll see in the city of Edinburgh. A sick person did have the most calls, so 1,176. Also, traffic collision is typically another very high one you'll see. This one was at 756 calls. It varies. It's not going to always stay the same kinds of calls. It just depends on the time frame. You can also see breathing problems. Falls is another big issue. A lot of times there's assaults too, but For the main parts, it's going to be sick people and traffic collisions are going to be the most majority calls. These are, I guess, patterns you can notice over the past years. So for us, the busiest days of the years are going to be in the winter months. I don't know exactly why that is. It's just how the calls kind of fall in that area. So on February 19th, we had 52 calls in the city. And then February 6, 50. So like I said, the winter months are going to be your more busier months. So we prepare for that typically. And that's all I have for you guys. If you have any questions, feel free to talk.

Questions from the council? No, I really appreciate you presenting this data. And the Medicare provides the 911 service for the city of Edinburgh. So when someone calls 911 and needs ambulance assistance, you all are dispatched. The data here is really great. I'm really glad that you collect this and can present it to us. Just a real quick general question. Has the data assisted you all in modifying services, adjusting services, being able to provide better service? I'm just curious.

Absolutely. And as a matter of fact, within the past few years, we moved over to this new system called TraumaSoft, and that's what we're gathering a lot of this data. It's a very good system for tracking data. We can see patterns. We can see hot spots anywhere in the city where we're visualizing occurrences, you know, very, very frequently. So, I mean, it definitely helps this data. Not everybody collects data like we do, but that's a lot of what I do at the company is I process the data and make sure we're on track. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

And just a general statement for everyone here. I want to thank MedCare for those great response times. and for providing MISU. It's a big deal when it's a paramedic that shows up. But just so people understand, four years ago when I came into office, EMS was getting paid $0 a year. So it's very hard to hold EMS to a certain standard because they weren't getting paid to be here. Luckily, during that time, there was some ARPA monies. There was COVID funding. We were able to pay EMS. And happily to say, every year EMS has been paid to make sure that the ambulances standing by waiting for your family member. We just went over budget session, something I mentioned earlier today at noon. We're now paying for EMS in our budget without any extra money. So another great thing where EMS will always be covered because it's one of those essential services we need here in the city. Thank you, MedCare, for the service you're providing.

All right. Okay. We'll move on to the next item, public hearings 9A. Let's do this. Yeah, 9A, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Mayor. Whole public hearing consider the ordinances providing for the comprehensive plan amendment from auto-urban uses to multifamily residential uses and the rezoning request from residential primary district to residential multifamily district. As described, located at 3709 Douglas Street, as requested by Blanca Garcia and Roberto Garcia.

So the public hearing is open on this item. Anybody wishing to speak for or against can step up. If you could please just introduce yourself.

Yes, Blanca Garcia. Blanca Garcia and my husband Roberto Garcia. Good evening, Mayor and council members. I'm respectfully asking for support and rezoning my property on Tegel Street. Now, Edinburgh has experienced tremendous growth. The population has increased by more than 40% since 2010 from approximately 77,000 residents to over 110 today. With that growth comes a greater need for housing and more efficient use of existing properties within the city. This rezoning would allow this property to better respond to that growth while making productive use of that land that's already within an established area and existing city infrastructure. This is not about changing the character of this neighborhood. It's about allowing responsible development, creating additional housing opportunities, and adapting to the needs of growing Edinburgh. I respectfully ask the council to consider the long-term benefit to the community and approve the rezoning request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

How many multifamily are there around the area?

We are thinking in 10 units.

In the same neighborhood? Yeah.

No, I think. What he's asking is how many other multifamily. I know you're planning 10 on your lot, but are there other lots, other multifamily around you?

There are not any other.

You can. You can ask questions in a public hearing. It's fine. All right. Any other questions?

How many units are you going to be putting on there?

10?

On that lot, there's going to be 10?

The lot's big enough to hold the 10 units? 0.51, it's a half acre. It's big enough, and well, I'm just thinking, well, the city is growing a lot. Those kind of numbers, you already have it, but... We have more than 800,000 people in Edinburgh. So we want to provide units for living.

I have a question for staff.

Thank you all. You can have a seat.

Hi, Minister. Real quick, so 10 units, is it possible to put 10 units on that acre? Is that even feasible?

As far as the density, Jaime Savello, Planning and Zoning Director, for the record, as far as the density, you can fit 10 units and half an acre. Typically, it's about 28 units per acre, so about 14 and a half an acre.

Now, there's no multifamily in this area. Have you received any complaints on it?

Let me check on it. We did get two letters in opposition.

Yeah, I believe it was the neighbor in front was one of the opposition, and then somebody... There was two that were very close. There was two close by, correct.

So there's absolutely zero multifamily in that area?

That's correct. It's a low subdivision, as you all know, La Hielera. This would be the first apartment complex in that area.

Okay. All right. Public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item can come up to the front. All right, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion on this item?

I'll make a motion. We'll go with P&Z and staff's recommendation on this item, which is to deny the rezone. I'll second it.

Okay, there's a motion and a second to deny. Any discussion?

Yeah, I want to tell the investors that I think multifamily is needed. I just think it needs to be in an area that you don't have single family all around it. We tend to look at use. I think that's part of the reason P&Z went against it and staff's recommendation because there's nothing but single family homes around there. That's the reason for my motion.

Any other questions or discussion? Okay, all those in favor of the motion to deny, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item, B, if the Secretary can read the caption.

Yes, Your Mayor. Hold public hearing. Consider the ordinances provided for the comprehensive plan amendment from auto urban uses to general commercial uses and a resounding request from residential suburban district to commercial general CG district as described located at 725 West Rogers Road as requested by Quintanilla, Headlee, and Associates.

All right. Public hearing is now open on this item. Anybody wishing to speak for or against it can come up.

Couple items.

Go ahead. Mayor, Commissioners, I'm Lalo Aviles. I'm with Quinteria Head & Associates. We're the engineers for the developers. We're proposing on this rezoning to put in some storage units. We're also purchasing the property on the north side, which is currently already in existing storage units. And so we're going to develop the property that we're rezoning similar and probably better than the ones that are already existing. And we did not have any opposition to the request. And the owners are here if you want to ask them any questions for what they're proposing.

Good evening, Commissioners. How are you? More than anything, we're looking to invest in the city of Edinburgh. We're looking to acquire this facility that's already operating as self-storage in the front of the parcel. The rear parcel is zoned as residential, but it's currently operating as a RV and trailer parking at the moment. Our intent is to be able to rezone this to match that commercial use that already exists and be able to develop it into a climate-controlled facility that provides and serves the needs of the city of Edinburgh that's continuing to grow. There's a lot of new small businesses, lots of new families. We all know how hot it gets here in Edinburgh, so we're looking to serve that need with climate-controlled storage facilities. The site is also constrained in terms of its shape. It's only about 100 feet wide and 1,300 feet long, so there's not much that can be developed on that site. Self-storage is one of those few uses that would make sense in a site that size and shape. So that's kind of what we're proposing here. We want to invest in the city of Edinburgh. We have another project that we're working on at the moment, and this is just we're happy to be here, and hopefully we're able to continue to invest here in the city.

Thank you. Comments, questions?

Sorry, I had a question. I see here planning zoning approved. Staff is recommending Nile specifically because of the use, but also the only question and concern I had, it's right next to an elementary school. Did you guys reach out to the school district at all to get either their support or lack thereof?

Not the school district. We reached out to a couple of the neighbors on the west side. We have a couple of the signatures at the end of the packages that I gave you all, but not the school district. Our intent with the site plan as well is to accommodate for the neighbors, so by putting all the doors facing towards the inside and not the houses that currently exist, just to protect privacy and also act as a buffer between commercial and residential.

And your plans right now are just to have a regular fencing, no sort of true buffer between the school and your storage units? Just the fencing. Just regular fencing.

Because of the width of the side, we're planning on putting the self-storage facility towards the houses facing towards the school with the fencing. But we do add cameras. We have 24-7 cameras working, gate access control that shuts off after a certain time in the night to prevent activity in the night. So that's kind of what we're doing here. The facility is also enclosed with access control. So we try to include security as much as we can.

And right now it's a parking lot for a trailer park? Is that what you said?

Well, not trailer. There's RVs, boats, just RV and boat parking.

And you guys are allowing parking there? Is that what it's for at this time?

No, not right now.

So we're looking to buy this. Why is there RVs and why is there parking there now? The current owner is using it. Oh, current. It's a different owner. Yes. I see. Yes. Thank you. That's all I have.

Any other questions now?

QUESTION FOR STAFF.

THANK YOU, GENTLEMEN.

SO MY ONLY CONCERN IS THE SCHOOL NEXT DOOR. OPERATING BUSINESS, CAMERAS, 24-7 ACCESS, ANY CONCERN? I KNOW STAFF IS RECOMMENDING DENIAL, BUT I THINK I WOULD FEEL BETTER IF I HAD AN OPINION FROM THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. HAVE WE EVER THOUGHT OF THAT OR CONSIDERED?

WAS IT 24-7 ACCESS?

There's a time period where... No, it's going to cut off after a certain hour is what I understood. Oh, it does cut off? Yeah. Now, they will be required to do a solid buffer anytime you have commercial next to a school or a single family. Like a large wall? Yeah. Now, they required a masonry wall at the site on McCall. I think they got a variance with some of the support from the neighbors to do a cedar fence, but it's still a solid buffer.

That's the only question I had. And so can you discuss your reason for recommending to not?

The reason is because of the single-family homes that are in the area and the school. Because of the single-family.

And the discussion at P&Z, what was it? Could you tell us the gist of that?

Some of the discussions were that it's currently already being used for storage of the larger trailers and RVs and boats. The current Casitas storage units utilizes that that property currently for storage of the larger RVs and boats. If somebody has an RV or a boat that they want to take offsite from their home and park it there, they're currently doing that already. So it's currently already kind of in operation commercially. The applicant is trying to make things right and rezone it properly.

MR. Right. Okay. Yes, I see the layout right there. It's a residential primary immediately to the west of the property. It's a school.

immediately to the east of the property and on the north side those are that's commercial to the north side those are the storage units that are currently along that same hundred foot strip all the way to monte cristo right so the idea would be to just make it all one operation make it all just one operation correct okay i guess i got a question on this one too the size of the lot the width can this be possibly used for anything else i mean it's 100 feet i mean kind of It matches exactly the one in front, right?

It's kind of hard gray, yeah.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions, comments? No? All right. Thank you. Public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item can come up. All right. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion?

Motion approved. Second.

All right. There's a motion to approve and a second. Any discussion on this item?

Just... Just so you know, I'm going to vote against it. I wish I'd had the ECISD opinion on it. But, you know, the motion has been on the floor.

All right. Any other questions or discussion on this item? Okay. There's a motion to approve the item. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes. Next item is C. Secretary, can you read the caption?

Yes, sir, Mayor. Hold public hearing. Consider the ordinance providing further reason and request from residential suburban district to residential... PRIMARY DISTRICT, AS DESCRIBED, LOCATED AT 3002 WEST MILE 17 AND A HALF ROAD, AS REQUESTED BY SUPREME ENGINEERING.

NEW SPEAKER P. MOTION APPROVED. NEW SPEAKER P. OH, NOT YET. SORRY. PUBLIC HEARING IS NOW OPEN ON THIS ITEM. ANYBODY WISHING TO SPEAK FOR OR AGAINST CAN COME UP.

NEW SPEAKER P. THIS ONE IS THE ONE THAT I KNOW THAT THE PUBLIC, ALL THE HOMES AROUND THERE ARE SINGLE FAMILY. And I believe this is what they're saying that they're going to do now. I hope that he'll explain it because we do not want other things. We're all been living there for, since I've been there since 1980 and we're all homes and things. So I'm hoping that y'all abide by that. Thank you.

Mr. Acevedo, can you respond or shed some light on this?

Yes, Mayor and Council. PARTICULAR PROPERTY HAD COME IN PREVIOUSLY TO PNZ WITH A DIFFERENT TYPE OF ZONING. THEY HAD WANTED THE RESIDENTIAL TOWNHOME AND OUTER URBAN REZONING, WHICH IS FOR THE SMALLER 4,000 SQUARE FOOT LOTS. AND SINCE THE FIRST PNZ MEETING, THERE WAS SOME OPPOSITION. FERN AND HER FAMILY SHOWED UP IN OPPOSITION. AND I BELIEVE SOME OTHER RESIDENTS SHOWED UP IN OPPOSITION. SO THE APPLICANT WITHDREW HIS REQUEST, RESUMMITTED TO for residential primary. So they're proposing 82 lots. The lots range between 6,500 square feet all the way up to 7,800 square feet. So it's a little bit larger than your typical single-family home lot, which is about 5,000 or 6,000.

So, Fern, to answer your question, not only is it single-family, it's large single-family. It's a little bit larger than normal, yes.

So it maintains the character of the surrounding area.

It's actually a little bit bigger than some of the homes in that area. Right.

Okay. Thank you for the explanation. Other questions, comments? OK, public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item can come forward. All right, seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion on this item? So move.

Move to?

Approve.

Motion to approve? Second. Motion to approve in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the item, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item is D. Secretary, you can read the caption.

Yes, sir, Mayor. Hold public hearing. Consider the sign variance request to the City of Edinburgh Unified Development Code, Article 4, Section 4.303-3, permanent freestanding sign to allow maximum permitted sign height. As described, located at 8300 North I-69C, as requested by Mike and Hoover Engineering and Surveying.

All right. The public hearing is open on this item. Anybody wishing to speak for or against can come forward.

Hi, my name is Jamie Biersbach, real estate manager for Quick Trip Corporation. Thanks for your time tonight. We're just simply asking for a sign that meets the other signs for the competitors in the area. We are putting it on the south end of the property to not be face-to-face with the existing sign. Similar size, similar height as the sign that already exists across the street. It's a typical sign we do all over Texas and all over the country, so our customers are very familiar with it, very recognizable, nothing out of the ordinary that we typically do. So I'm just here to answer any questions you guys might have.

Well, I want to say thank you for choosing Edinburgh. Thank you. So is it QT or QT? QT, quick trip. Just making sure.

And we have more coming, too. Awesome. Thank you, sir.

What are the plans on that for the development of the site?

So we are putting a travel center on the hard corner. So it's a 8 MPD canopy out front, 6,500 square foot building-ish, and truck diesel bays on the back. And then we should have at least two or three additional lots once it's plotted out, and then another lot being dedicated to the city water, the storm district for detention and draining.

Could you give us some facts on QT, you know, How big, how many, and what would you compare yourself to?

So I would say we're the Chick-fil-A gas stations.

And it's just to educate the public.

So if you compared us to retail, we'd be like Chick-fil-A as far as gas stations go, like a tiny Buc-ee's. Been around for almost 70 years. Privately held company based out of Tulsa. We have around 1,100, 1,200 stores now across the country. Operate in about 20 states now. When I started 23 years ago, we had... A couple hundred stores in about six cities. So a lot of growth. Never laid off a single employee in the history of the company. And just really excited to be coming to the Valley overall.

Is this going to be first in market?

The first store in the Valley is going to be Raymondville. That one's already in construction and it's getting close to being done. This will be the second one. First one on this side. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Timeline on that?

We just started construction.

Excellent.

Travel centers take a while to build, not quite a year, but as fast as we can.

Understood.

The brick's already sitting in Raymondville ready to ship over here as soon as they're ready for it.

Excellent.

We're trying.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. Excellent. Other questions on this item? Mr. Acevedo, just kind of put a little bit of meat on this bone, right? So my understanding is the size height requirement or limit is 60 feet. This is a request for a 90-foot sign. The gentleman mentioned that there's another location in this area that has a 90-foot sign. They're just trying to match that. Can you just kind of flush that out a little bit?

Yes, Mayor and Council. We went back and did a little bit of research late this afternoon and found that the Loves truck stop that's just on the other side of the street was built in 2003. It was already part of the city of Edinburgh in 2003. However, they didn't have the Unified Development Code until 2007. So they built a 90-foot high sign. And what QT is trying to do is they just want to duplicate, get the same level as what's out there currently.

And the Unified Development Code currently only restricts it up to 60 feet high.

That's the need for the variance.

Okay.

Other questions, discussion?

No?

Okay. Thank you. Public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item can come up. Okay, seeing none, public hearing is closed. Is there a motion on this item?

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of the item, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you for choosing Edinburgh. Next item E, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Hold public hearing and consider the sign variance request to the City of Edinburgh Unified Development Code, Article 4, Section 4.303-1, Allowed sign type by zoning district to allow permanent freestanding sign within a prohibited zoning district. As described, located at 320 North Gossner Boulevard as requested by Jorge Gonzalez. All right.

Public hearing on this item is open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against can come forward.

How are we doing today, guys?

So before there used to be a sign there, the owner's right here with me. She used to have a sign back in the day. And I think in 2012 it blew off, so she wanted us to go ahead and help her put it back up for her. Hi. Hello.

A.K.A. Willie Bees.

Yes, correct. So we're here to help her get that achieved through economic development. They're helping her with a grant to help her get that set up for her.

Yeah, my understanding is you're a recipient of the FLIP grant from EDC looking to beautify our downtown area, and so we appreciate you taking advantage of that.

Thank you for having it.

Beautiful program. If you don't know about it, business is the flip program. Won a national award. Thank you for applying. A lot of people think it's hard to apply. If you don't have anyone to help you, the EDC will go to your business, help you fill it out. You don't have to have, there's some requirements, but they can work with insurance, they can work with anything. So please get involved. I was lucky to be in the EDC when we instituted that, so it's been in effect almost three years now. We're helping 40 businesses a year, so this year will be 120 businesses that we've helped with that grant. So look out for it, and thank you for applying.

Yeah, it's really great, especially for an institution like Willie B's. We love what you all do, and we want you to keep doing it.

I'm grateful and thankful.

Yes, ma'am. Other questions, comments?

No?

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against can come forward. All right, seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes.

Congratulations.

Okay, next item is our routine public hearing items 10A through D. As a reminder, these fall under routine items because the staff recommendation and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation are aligned. Either to approve or deny, there's agreement amongst those two. And we have not received written comments against the recommendation. So everything's aligned for these to be adopted per the recommendation provided to the city council. So public hearing is now open on items A through D. If you are for the recommendation, I don't think you necessarily need to come up, but you're welcome to. If you are against the recommendation, then do please feel free to come up and share that. So public hearing is now open on items A through D. Okay, seeing none, we will close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve items A, B, C, and D? So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes. Next item is under Ordinance 11A. The Secretary, can you read the caption?

Yes, Your Mayor. Consider ordinance amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Edinburgh, Texas at Title IX, General Regulations, Chapter 93, Fire Protection and Prevention, adopting the International Fire Code 2024 edition, including Appendices B, C, and D, and amending Title XV, Land Usage, Chapter 151, Building Regulations, by adopting the following 2024 codes. International Building Code, including Appendices A, C, D, F, G, H, and J. There are International Existing Building Code, International Fuel Gas Code, International Residential Code, adding Appendices BB and BC. Thereof, the 2023 National Electrical Code, International Mechanical Code, International Plumbing Code, International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, International Property Maintenance Code, International Private Sewage Disposal Code, and the International Energy Code as promulgated by the International Code Council, ICC.

Good job, Madam Secretary. Someone get her a drink of water. All right. Item 11A, is there a motion on this?

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion to approve and a second. Are there any questions or discussions on this? No. Just real quick, I know you had some public sessions inviting the community to come out and comment on the switch to update our international codes that we're adopting. Anything to report?

Natalia Velasquez, Building Official. No, sir. We did two town hall workshop meetings and we went over all those codes that she mentioned. And no negative comments.

Okay. Excellent. All right. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. There is a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed, same sign. Okay. Motion passes. Next item on the agenda is variances 12A. The secretary can read the caption.

Yes, your mayor. Consider variance request to the city's unified development code, article 5, section 5.206, lots of section 5.206-B. Required lot frontage for the proposed Jackson Estates Phase 2 subdivision, as described, located at 5302 South Jackson Road, as requested by Mildon and Hunt.

Okay, is there a motion on this item?

Motion to approve.

Second. Motion to approve and a second. Is there any discussion? Okay, I do have some questions. On this particular item, what is it that's being developed? I know there was some comments on this, but from the city's understanding, what's being developed here?

Yes, Mayor. So you have a subdivision. It's a four-lot subdivision. And you have three lots fronting Jackson. And then you have another street that's further east that goes north and south. So they're dividing the last two lots, and those are the ones that they're proposing for multifamily. That's going to be a rezoning that's going to be coming here in the next couple of weeks. But the front two lots, there's going to be one stuck in the middle without frontage. That's the one that needs the variance because it doesn't have frontage. So what they're proposing is to do like a 26-foot driveway along the north side of that lot that would go from the first commercial lot where they're doing a commercial plaza as per Marlin and then to the second one that they're proposing some storage units.

Okay. So my understanding, just to kind of orient me on this, it seems like it's a – so it abuts – or it's off of Jackson, correct?

Jackson, correct.

And it's a long lot?

It's a long, not-so-wide lot, kind of like the one we saw earlier on the storage units. Not quite as thin.

Not quite as thin. It's not storage unit thin, right? But it is long. It is long. And so what they're proposing is to cut up this long lot into three sections. Into three sections, yeah. The lot that's abutting Jackson, obviously, that has frontage because it's touching Jackson. That's correct. The one in the back, that also has access? Because there's a little street that goes north and south. Okay. So those two meet our requirements. Those two in the back. Because they abut roads. Right. The problem is that because they're creating three lots on this little skinny lot, the one in the middle has no road access. Correct. Okay. And what's their proposed solution to that?

An access easement.

What does that mean exactly?

It's just like a right-of-way. It's just a right-of-passage to get from one lodge to the other. No development, just access.

How does that? Is it like a gutter to dirt road to get back there? Explain it to me. How is this going to work?

Well, they're proposing a 26-foot pavement section, which is what the fire department requires. It's going to look like a road, but it's just going to be...

It's going to look like a road? It's going to look like a road, but it's... On the north side of whatever they developed? right but it's not going to be a public right away okay how what's the width of the lot that i don't know off the top of my head mirror um do you know marlin okay we'll ask you in a second give us a second give us a second all right so it's got no more than 200 feet whatever the width of the lot is the developer is proposing that on the north side of this they're going to leave a portion of it to create a road is this what i'm hearing it's a private driveway so but what's the difference

It's not dedicated to the city. It's still on their lot.

Fair enough. And is the idea that this, if they do this, so they're going to create a road for all intents and purposes. It's private, right? A private road. And the road is going to connect from Jackson to the road in the back?

To the lot in the back. I don't know if it's going to go all the way through to the other little road that goes north and south, but it is going to go, it's going to provide access to the lot in the middle.

I see. Okay. Okay. But typically our rules don't allow this.

Correct. Why is that? It's not common to say this. We prefer lots to have access to a public road.

To a public road. Because what's the danger of a lot only having access to a private road? Or what's the planning logic behind preventing that?

I mean, we just want them accessible for public services, for fire, police. And to have water access readily available. It's always easier to come off of a public road.

Okay. If they were to dedicate this to the city, does that make a difference?

They would need to dedicate more than 26 feet. They would need to dedicate 50 feet. Okay. And I think that kind of is what they don't want to do.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Understood. I think then it would be helpful for you to come on up and answer some questions. All right, so can you help us understand what's being built out here?

Yes, so thank you again. Marlon Garza with Melton and Hunt. So the existing lot, it's 119.48 feet wide. If we were to, as Ms. Josuevedo was stating earlier and as you were asking, of course, if we were to try to dedicate this as public right-of-way and try to accommodate what the requirement is of a standard 50-foot right-of-way, it leaves the buildable area very narrow for them to build on, of course. After setbacks, after utility easements that need to be dedicated for every lot after the right-of-way, there wouldn't be much buildable area left for any sort of plaza or parking area or anything of the sort. That's really the reason why the developer has asked us to go ahead and try to implement the use of just the access easement. He is going to remain the owner of both lots, so the front commercial plaza that they're anticipating building and then the rear storage units that they're building as well are to be maintained by the same ownership. So then his proposal of course is to do a 26 foot driveway from Jackson as you were stating and we are proposing for it to go all the way far to the east to connect with the actual 50 foot right away that connects the subdivision on the south to the subdivision to the north. That's in order to give emergency services access to go through and through on the property without having to do any sort of turnarounds or anything within the property itself. So they're able to go from the front all the way to the rear and have access to the whole land all the way to the rear. That's really the nature for that request. We tried playing with the architect's side plan multiple times to try to fit mainly the plaza. I mean, the storage units you can try to reduce to whatever it is that fits right at the end of the day. But the key thing that we were trying to fit that made sense for them was the plaza and the orientation for it. And the only way that we could really do it was with the 26-foot drive, which at the end of the day still accommodates the access for emergency services, right? The minimum of their access being 26-foot whenever there is any fire hydrants that are proposed or anything for their access. So that's what we went ahead and proposed. Like I mentioned earlier, the rear two lots will just be multifamily. We have that rezoning that's already been proposed. It'll be the same developer builder from the Multifamily, it's just south of it as well.

Okay. So the idea is it's going to be a plaza on Jackson?

Right off of Jackson, yes. They're going to do a small plaza there. I believe it's supposed to be like four or five units, what they're trying to do. And then everything behind the plaza will just be the storage units behind it.

Okay. So the lot in the middle is going to be storage units? How many units?

Not quite certain as to the amount. the owner, they still hadn't ordered the building envelope or any of that. We're still going through the site plan process with the city so that they can get their final buildable area and go ahead and order the building. So a final count on the units, I wouldn't be able to tell you at this moment.

Okay. And then behind that is going to be multifamily?

Right. Further to the east would be multifamily. So both multifamily lots would be facing the North and South roadway, which is the full 50 foot right away. So it just, it'll essentially be connecting the subdivision on the South looping around with the subdivision to the North.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I get, so this whole thing is, is commercial right now, right? The whole thing is zone commercial.

The whole thing is currently zone commercial.

So you're going to have to get a rezoning on the, on the back one, on the, on the third one.

Correct. Which we went to the latest PNZ meeting and we got recommended approval at that meeting. which was, I believe, just last week, if I'm not mistaken. Last Thursday.

That's the, is there a plat?

I believe it's on the, attached on the packet, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay, got it, got it, got it. Just trying to, because procedurally it's a little off, right? But I guess it's just a timing issue.

Yeah, we submitted at the same time. It's just a variance and you're rezoning, I guess you're posting and however your mailing dates ended up being. Or red tape, or red tape throughout a lot. Yes. Yes.

Okay, I mean, I get what you're trying to do. It doesn't have to be this though, right? I mean, you could make the whole thing a storage unit, for example, which we've seen done, and then you wouldn't have this issue of needing to make this access easement, right? So it's just, I know you're asking for it, but it's specific to the use that you're proposing, right? If you propose a different use, then you don't need this.

Not necessarily. I mean, if you were trying to propose residential like just one roadway and trying to do the same thing, you kind of have the same issue.

And you have multifamily on both sides, right, of this. So, I mean, you can even turn that into multifamily.

We tried looking at it that way because, of course, he developed the property to the south, right? And the comment that I made to the developer immediately was if he would have owned this piece of property from the very beginning, his phase one and phase two would have gone well. But at the time, this piece of property wasn't for sale. He wasn't able to purchase it until just recently. And so whenever we look at that, trying to fit a multifamily lot with still public right-of-way facing along, having like a full roadway the way that it would require, doesn't fit either. You would end up with about 70 feet more or less left for lot depth. Makes it very difficult to be able to build on as far as typical lots. So that's why we're requesting that essentially instead of asking for a reduction in right-of-way going from 50 to 26. We're just asking for it to be a private drive to be maintained privately by the developer.

Okay. And we do have private drives in other private subdivisions. The only difference here, there would not be a gate.

Correct. Right.

And P&Z approved this, so can you tell me what their discussion was?

P&Z approved it. Four to zero, actually, they approved it unanimously, and I guess because of the constraints of the lot. Correct. So.

Okay. Does this arrangement, are there other places like this? There's a private drive connected to a landlocked lot, commercial.

There is, but it's not very common, Mayor. Typically, we try to acquire the right of way to do a public road. Yeah. Even if it requires a variance to go from 50 to 40. And that's what we were asking, but they opted to go this route.

Yeah. Carrie. Okay. You know, in general, this is not a secret, I'm not in favor of variances, right, unless there's some real reason for it. And to me, this just, you know, aligns with the intended use, but there's other uses that you don't have to do this. And honestly, I just don't know how I feel about an end run around, you know, creating a public road. I get the desire for creativity on this, but... Like I said, I'm not sure if it's this area.

Yeah, the main issue, of course, was going back to what I stated earlier. There's that existing 15-foot irrigation easement that's on that north side. The only way that the irrigation district allowed for us to pave over this was for it to be just an access easement, not public right-of-way. That's really where this request started from as well. We were able to verify that the irrigation line was not on our side of the property. It's on the other side where there's an existing alley, but they have 15 feet of green space, and that's where that irrigation line runs. That's the only way that we were able to get our access easement on this area. We talked with their manager to see if they would allow for us to just abandon it and dedicate it as right away, and they said no. They still wanted their 30 feet so that they can maintain it if they ever had to, and so that was really the reasoning for this as well. Thank you.

Thank you. From a safety standpoint, 26 feet, is that enough for If this ends up passing, is that enough?

That's the minimum that the fire department requires.

All right. Other questions, comments? All right. Hearing none, we've got a motion to approve the variance. It's a single variance request, right?

Yes. Okay.

There's a motion to approve and a second. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed?

All right.

Motion passes. Next item, 12B. If the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Your Mayor. Consider variance request to the City's Unified Development Code, Article 3, Table 3.102-3, Townhouse and Weakling Townhouse Lot and Building Standards, Townhouse Lot Area, and Article 3, Table 3.202-1, Non-Residential and Mixed-Use Lot Standards, Commercial Neighborhood Lot Area for the proposed Townhomes at Ebony Subdivision, as described, located at 188 West Southland Avenue, as requested by Eliseo Garza.

I will note that there are two variance requests on this. So I'll ask counsel for a motion. Obviously, counsel has the ability to motion to approve both variances in one motion or to take them one by one. But is there a motion at this time?

Move to approve both variances.

Motion to approve both variances. Is there a second? All right. There's a motion and a second to approve both variances. Discussion? Discussion? Mr. Acevedo, on this one, you know, staff recommends denial of the variance request. Can you just orient us, explain what this is?

So what they're asking for, there's two variances. One of them has to do with the 10 townhome lots that are being proposed by their subdivision. Your typical townhome lot should have 2,500 square feet, and they have 10 townhome lots, and they're averaging about 2,158, so they're about 350 feet shy of what's required by the Unified Development Code. And then the other variance is on the neighborhood commercial lot. We require 10,000 square feet for a neighborhood commercial lot, and they're proposing 7,289. So it's about 2,700 feet shy of what's required by code. So he could have made it work, maybe reduced two lots. It would have increased the neighborhood commercial side. Um, but he did, uh, submit a rendering with his proposal and he's asking for 10 lots and not eight. And, um, I believe I gave a handout showing what he's proposing.

Yes, I think we did. We did receive that.

That neighborhood commercial is going to be a triangular lot. It's going to be very, very odd looking, but, uh, that he's proposing a construction office for his business there.

Okay. Um, so there's a, it's 11 townhome lots, right?

The 11th one is the commercial one on the, on the, on the corner.

Oh, right, right, right. Okay. You're right. You're right. And it looks like of the, of the 10, eight of them have a 26 foot width and two of them have 3175. Right. Um, are, are all of them needing variances or just the 26 foot width?

Just the, Eight that have the.

Just those eight. Yeah, the two on the meet code. The two lots on the westmost side.

Correct.

Of this development. Those are code. Those don't need any variances. He's building those in compliance with our requirements. It's those eight in the middle and then the commercial right on the edge. That's correct, ma'am. Okay.

Do you want to come up, Mr. Garza?

Thank you, ma'am. Eliseo Garza, Jr., for the record. So I designed this project. It's 10 townhomes. I even provided a video. I don't know if we have it. We presented it to the plan and zoning of how it's going to look. It's an old motel, I think, right across El Patio Cafe. I'm naming it townhomes at Ebony Hills just because I want to bring up that area. I created some designs there that really sit well with that area. It's brick facades, mid-century feel. That little corner triangle, I want to do my architecture firm there and our real estate broker firm there. And it's something real small. I'm talking about a 600 plus, a 650 first floor, second floor, the same thing with an overlooking balcony and to tourist drive. And I met with Mr. Jaime back and forth. I've been after this for a while and that's pretty much right. I was able to meet the width on my lots. I did two car garage as a restriction just to make sure that, of course, we have vehicles in there. and they're three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom townhomes. And I am on the commercial. I went neighborhood commercial, and I'm doing a lot more green space. I also even have – I already did the survey for it, and I already did the layout with all the trees, the parking spaces. So I didn't want to do any residential leading into tourist just because there's more traffic there, and I wanted to sit the townhomes more into the street, or I did do that. Yes, sir.

These are connected townhomes?

Yes, yes, ma'am. And I will be separating them, all of them, with CMU stone walls. Same thing with my office or future office, if I can.

I think the design is great. I really like the use of space.

I'm sorry?

I just wanted to compliment you on the design. It looks really good.

Oh, thank you.

I like how you put your office there in the corner because that's an awkward little triangle, right?

I did a second floor overlooking balcony into tourist because I get that southern breeze and I'll get the shade. I just feel it needs it. Not because I'm, you know, I'm the developer and the owner, but I feel that area really would really benefit from this because everything else around there, that neighborhood that we all know, Ebony Hills neighborhood that's right there has been there forever. So, Beautiful homes, and I think it's just my property, the one that needs that adjusting right in front of El Patio Cafe, especially now that we have all that great stuff happening there in that area. And that was where I was able to meet. I'm just off by a couple of feet in the sense of my length to meet, but all my townhomes, if you see the plats, they do have a good-sized backyard, so we'll be able to provide some housing for anybody. It's a real true three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home. through car garage, so we'll be able to do something nice for that part of town, in my opinion.

One thing that Mr. Acevedo was discussing was that if you removed two of the townhome lots, or you had eight townhome lots instead of 10, that might give you more space to be able to widen the remaining eight and the neighborhood commercial. so that everything fit within the square footage requirements. Was that something that you considered? Is that something that you are able or not able to do?

I wouldn't be able to do it, Mayor, just because of the cost. So for us to be in a cost that I want to be in the 250s, 269 price range, I know is where we, the city of Edinburgh, I know we discussed it, that we're looking more for housing, affordable housing or attainable housing. And I feel that's the only way I could really go into that price range. If I were to do less lots, I'm going to have to go up on the price And it's just going to not work out for us in the development because as it is, I'm building them out. And that's really the only way the numbers are making sense in our end that I'm the builder plus the developer for it because the piece of land wasn't that cheap either. And I'm still having to demolish all those old apartments. They're on pier and beam. It's like some broken down apartments. So, yeah, we pretty much got everybody out of there. So that's really the only way we were able to put them together at one point. I wanted to do 12, and then it's like, no, it's not going to happen. And then I was like, you know what, let's do 26 because I know the restriction was 25 width. And I did, like I said, I am doing two car garages also to meet, you know, to get enough driveway and all that good stuff, just implementing what I've been implementing other developments here in the city. Yes, ma'am.

I think you can advertise it as a car and a golf cart garage.

well actually i do have some layouts with the golf cart but it's going to be like your two-car garage and then it has a little strip where you could fit in the the golf cart i'm really trying uh just to give you guys an idea or just where my mind is at with the project just when we go to houston and we go to like the memorial park area and all that stuff and you know it as that area pretty much that's what i'm going with this now that the city is also doing the new uh uh building for the golf course and then we got zoho and then now i want to introduce townhomes at ebony hills so people and then we have the nice townhomes are right next to south middle school so i feel we're really we're pretty much revamping the area kind of that's what i wanted to do piggyback so when people talk about the city i feel it's the heart of the city they want to know that hey you know what that area right there is really you could see the positive i could already see walk walking people My main goal, of course, would be to make it walkable to the library and barrel house. You know, when we get people from out of town for the football games or what have you and they want to stay here, they'll be right by the Whataburger, by the patio cafe. So they get to experience Edinburgh and the way Edinburgh has been since a long time ago from that neighborhood. And I did go around all the neighbors there, around there. I met them. Talk to him about the project, because some of them had some questions on the commercial, and I talked to him. It's a neighborhood commercial. There's never going to be bars or anything like that. I talked to him about the townhomes. Some people even told me whenever it passes to give them a call because their daughter or son might be interested because they love the area. So I feel the price range is going to be right. I wanted to cater to your everyday young family, you know, not $300,000-some townhomes. We have to be in the 250s, 260s to make sense for people to, you know, buy these properties.

And not just that, but the house still needs to appraise in the area. You don't want to go past a certain price range because the area might not appraise to the $300,000 mark area, so it would be harder to sell if it doesn't appraise. So I understand what you're doing, and it makes sense.

Thank you for talking to the neighbors. I always tell developers with their ideas, be a good neighbor. Talk to them. Let them know what you can do. That way you won't get the opposition, and you can a lot of times also get their support. So thank you for doing that.

And it's a beautiful design. Thank you. Appreciate you, Councilman.

Mr. Acevedo, any safety concerns? I know this is not in conformance with our square footage requirements. On the townhomes, it's slightly less. On the neighborhood commercial, it's more than slightly. Safety concerns, anything like that?

Not really, Mayor. We kind of looked at all angles. We even talked to the solid waste director to see if maybe because of the limited use of the commercial activity, if we can use one of those larger residential bins. for their pickups of their trash can, and I believe they were okay with that.

Another plus for me, I always talk about instead of our trash cans having to stop at 10 different residences, they can stop at one and knock it all out.

Okay. Any other questions or discussion on this?

No? Okay. Thank you.

All right. No further questions or discussion. There is a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand.

All opposed? Same sign. Motion passes.

Next item is 13 on awarding of bids. So before we get into this, we can't speak to the merits because we don't have a motion yet, but just a quick explanation as to what we're doing. Items A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. These are all to award contracts for professional services related to engineering activities and the engineering department. We currently have a number of these firms providing these services on a rotation basis. They've been on a two-year contract. That window is closing, so we're looking to... to either renew or revise or whatever the will of the council is, but the idea is to have professional services on call on a rotation basis, right, literally one, two, three, four, on certain projects, not all projects. Am I on the right track so far?

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Maradona City Engineer. You're kind of on the right track. So this is a two-year rotation. We come where we advertise every two years in June so that we have all these rotations begin at the beginning of the fiscal year. And this is for seven different rotations from engineering, surveying, architectural, appraisals, project management, acquisition. So this is regular. This is to get into a contractor. This doesn't guarantee a project either. This is just to have a contract that if projects arise, then we would set up job task orders. The way we do it typically is for projects that range under 1.25 in construction. That's been what we do. If we go something higher or it's a grant, then we go after RFQs individually for projects.

Okay, great. Thank you for the explanation. So with that in mind, The idea now is to go service by service with the city council providing a motion to award contracts to create these rotation lists for each service. Yes.

That is correct. And on top of that, the way that you select them, that's the order that we put them on. So as projects arise, they'll be in that particular order, how you name them.

Right. Okay. So let's begin. Item 13A, if the secretary could read the caption.

Yes, your mayor. Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-2, right-of-way acquisition services to qualified firms and authorized city manager or designated appointee to enter into professional services contract with such firms as projects arise.

I'm going to go ahead and just call out the number and then just circle them. I'm not going to call out the names. I'm just going to call out the number. For this one, I'm going to 734.

Second. All right. There's a motion and a second to award to numbers seven, three, and four on the right-of-way acquisition services rotation list. Is that correct? Correct. All right. Motion and a second. Discussion on this? All right. Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right. Motion passes. Item B, the secretary can read the caption.

Yes, your mayor. Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-3, real estate appraisal services to qualified firms and authorize the city manager or designated appointee to enter a professional services contract with such firms as projects arise.

Move to approve one and three. Second.

All right. There's a motion and a second to approve firms one and three for the real estate appraisal services. Any discussion on this? Okay. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right. Motion passes. Next item is C. Secretary, can you read the caption?

Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-4, Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Materials Testing Services to qualified firms and authorize the city manager or designated appointee to enter into professional services contract with such firms as projects arise.

Move to approve 1, 4, 6, and 8. Second.

All right. There's a motion and a second to appoint firms 1, 4, 6, and 8 for the land surveying services. Just as a matter of question for the director, you know, so what we've done so far, right, is basically reappoint the same firms that have been on our rotation list up to this point. My understanding is that all of these firms are in good standing with the City of Edinburgh. We haven't had any issues with their services to date?

Correct. They are all qualified. They're in good standing. We haven't had any issues with the ones getting named. A, we did have a new one that was selected. And C, the one we're actually in, this is actually Geotech and CMT.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you for correcting me.

But in this case, they're the exact same ones.

Okay. But saying they're all in good standing, there's no issues that the city has had with them?

Correct. Like in this case, we do more of the construction material testing and the way we kind of evaluate the fact that we don't need to call somebody else because they don't have any availability.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. All right. So there's a motion to appoint 1, 4, 6, and 8. to the geotech engineering construction materials testing rotation list. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item, D, if the secretary could read the caption.

Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-5, architectural services to qualified firms and authorize the city manager or designated appointee to enter to professional services contract with such firms as projects arise.

Make a motion to approve 11-1-2. 12 and 8.

11, 1, 12, and 8. OK, there's a motion.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. 11, 1, 12, and 8. So this is a little bit different. You took this one out of order. Just for clarity purposes, are you wanting the numerical order that you read out to be the list? Because the engineering department is asking that we provide, not just the firms, but the order on the rotation.

Yeah, when I call out the number, it's going in with the order.

And that's exactly how I'm writing them down for the record.

It said it in the beginning.

The way they're currently listed, it's by alphabetical order, so I'm following the order that you guys name them.

Okay, so there's a motion and a second. Discussion? Let me ask, what's the significance of the order?

Just whoever is the first firm, whenever the project comes up, we'll offer it to that first firm. Okay. And we'll keep that order.

Okay. So does it make a difference whether it's alphabetical or if someone's first or fourth?

Sometimes it does. I mean, if we only have one project for the given two years, for argument's sake, then only firm one gets the project.

Okay.

I understand. All right. And of the firms that were listed here, Are all of them in good standing? Are there any issues that the city has experienced with them? Please, be honest. We need to know.

From number one, we haven't worked on them with the last rotation. They've been on previous ones. They did good work, too.

So they didn't get any projects last rotation?

They weren't part of the last rotation.

All right. Are we on D?

We're on D. This is for architects.

Architectural services. One has an asterisk.

They're in the current rotation, so they've done a couple of projects, yes.

Okay, just making sure. I know sometimes, depending on the list and the rank there, if there isn't enough projects, they don't get... I'll just make sure that they did work. Yes.

Okay. All right, other questions or discussions on this item? One last thing. I don't know if you said this already, I believe there's, so just because someone's on the rotation doesn't mean that we actually use the rotation. There's a set of rules. There's a value of the project.

So again, our internal rule has been, I guess for quite some years now, where projects that exceed the 1.25 million in construction will go out for RFQs for project specific.

We consider those to be larger projects.

Correct. So smaller projects, that's what we use the rotation for.

Okay. So for larger projects, we don't leave that to luck of the rotation draw, right? We actually go out for a bidding process to evaluate qualifications and make a selection based on that.

Yes. And the other exception is if we're getting grants where the grant requires for us to hire an architect or an engineer.

Okay. So when we're using grant money and the grant requires an RFP, Even if it is something that's under 1.25, we will still do the RFP process and not use the rotation.

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, there's a motion and a second on item D. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand.

All those opposed?

All right, motion passes. Item E, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-6, Land serving services to qualified firms and authorize the city manager or designated appointee to enter into a professional service contract with such firms as projects arise.

Move to approve 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, and 11. 7, 6, 5, 3, and 11.

It was 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, and 11.

8, 7, 6, 5, 3, and 11. There's a motion. Second.

All right, motion and a second. Any discussion? All right, hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes. Item F, if the secretary could read the caption.

Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-7, professional engineering services to qualified firms and authorized city manager or designated appointee to enter into professional services contract with such firms as Projects Arise.

All right, is there a motion on F?

Move to approve 30, 25, 22, 2, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 28, and 35.

Did you catch that list? 30, 25, 22, 2, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 28, and 35. Did I have 25 in there? Yes, it was the second one. Okay, can you repeat them one more time? So you have 30, 25, 22, 2, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 28, and 35.

I had 22 in there, right? Yes, the third one.

After the next one, it's bingo.

And how many was that total?

13. 13, right?

13, yes. Okay, I just want to make sure.

That's a total of 13 on the list? 13. Okay, so there's a motion. Is there a second on the motion? Second. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Help me understand on the staff recommendation here, right, the recommendation was to select between five and ten for civil engineers and one and three on MEP?

Correct. That's just to make sure that all the disciplines that we typically deal with that we can use the rotation for.

Does the motion satisfy the recommendation? Does it go outside the bounds of the recommendation?

We might be missing one MEP.

We have one MEP so far where I'm at. And we only have one MEP.

We're missing one MEP.

We only have one on the list that was selected.

37 is on there? 37 was not part of the list.

No? 37 was not on the list?

Correct? No, it was not on the list. How many civil engineers do we have?

The remaining, so 12 were selected.

Twelve civil engineers and one MEP. So we're short one, is what you're saying? Two MEPs. We're short two MEPs. We're short two MEPs, and we are over three on civil engineers.

Are we okay with this? Last year we had 16.

Wow. All right. Okay, so this is the time for discussion. Does anybody want to discuss adding an MEP, taking away civil engineers? Would the council prefer to just act on the motion?

We can add 37.

Just want to make sure we get this right as much as possible. Council?

Well, he added 37. That was one MEP we had from last year.

Yes.

So you're going to amend your motion to add?

Yeah, I'll amend my motion, and we're going to add 37 in there.

Okay.

I might not have had it.

Having understood for clarity of the record, right, what the full motion on the floor is.

There should be a total of 14. Correct. With 37 added.

Okay, so 12 civil engineer and 2 MEP now. Is that right?

Correct.

So there's a motion to amend, motion for the amended motion. Is there a second on this? Second. All right. So I will now consider this to be the full motion needed on the floor to approve the entire list that's been stated. I'll ask one more time. Are we okay with having 12 civil engineers outside of the recommendation of the five to 10?

Yes. It doesn't matter. It's a matter of how many projects come in again.

Okay. All right. So it doesn't make a material difference to the engineering department. It's just a matter of whether there's enough projects for everybody.

Correct. So my guess would be they'll probably at least get one in the two years.

Okay. Okay. So there is a motion and a second. Any further questions or discussion? Okay. No? All right. Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All is opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item, G, if the secretary could read the caption.

Consider awarding RFQ number 2026-8, project management services to qualified firms, and authorize the city manager or designated appointee to enter into professional services contract with such firms as projects arise.

Is there a motion on this item?

I'll make a motion to approve 8, 1, 3, 11. Okay, 8, 1, 3, and 11.

um is the motion for project management services is there a second second okay motion in a second any discussion on this same question is everybody in good standing with the city any issues that we've had with any of these in the past and this particular rotation we've only had one project that was assigned and that was a parking garage it's working out pretty well okay and like on this rotation this one is actually

A different type is not exactly the same, the 1.25. This one we only use it for larger projects. So we don't use project management services for smaller projects because that project management we do in-house.

Right, that makes sense. So then what's the rule on this, just for clarity purposes?

Is that 2 million? Any project over 2 million will look for a project manager unless we get told otherwise.

Is that a hard and fast rule, or is that still a decision that's deliberated and made?

We still deliberate in case you decide that we run the show.

Right. I like the way city staff runs projects. I think you all actually do a really good job.

On that, not everybody can do every project, right? Like the parking garage, for example. Not every project manager could handle that. So you'd have to go on to the next one?

Correct. I mean, we would have to discuss it with the firm to see if it's a project that they have the ability. And if not, we move on to the next one.

So you're okay with that number of project managers?

Again, on the current one, which it's been a little bit past two years, we've only assigned one project. Only assigned one project, right.

Yeah, that was the parking garage. That is correct. The project manager on the parking garage has done a really good job, actually.

They've been very helpful. That was a $6 million project, so we had to go out for RFQ on that one.

No, we used the rotation for that.

Oh, we used the rotation? Yes.

so again that was a different uh rule as the other ones this one it has to be projects above two million it has to be above right the percentage is lower okay okay great other questions discussion on this item okay all those in favor of the motion raise your right hand all is opposed motion passes uh next item is h if the secretary can read the caption consider rejecting rfp number 2026-018

Group Employee Medical Insurance, fiscal year 2026-2027, and authorize the city manager to negotiate renewal with Blue Cross Blue Shield and enter into an agreement related thereto.

Is there a motion on this item?

Motion to approve. Second.

All right. Motion to approve rejecting the RFP and is second. Questions, discussion?

Just going with staff recommendation. I'm sure they're going to explain a little bit.

Yeah, could you just give us a brief overview of what it is we're doing?

Good evening, Mayor and Councilor Erika Baye, Director of Human Resources. So if you want a little bit more details regarding the RFP and the recommendation, we do have our consultants, value risk consultants. We have Jonathan Sakulinski and Javier Leal. They can give you a brief overview. We do have a presentation for you. It's only three or four slides.

Okay. Well, just to understand, right, my overview of this is the city has – we are in the process of completing our first year of being self-insured on medical coverage for city employees. That is correct. And so in deciding whether to continue or not, the city went out also for bids to be fully insured, to go back to being fully insured, so that the city could compare the costs of being fully insured to continuing on as self-insured.

That is correct. The RIP went out for both, for fully insured quotes and self-insured quotes.

Okay. And so the item here, right, after an evaluation by staff and by our insurance consultants, is that it is actually more cost-effective to continue on as self-insured as opposed to going back and being fully insured.

That is correct.

And so the formal action that council is being asked to do is to reject the bids to be fully insured. and to authorize the city manager now to negotiate a renewal rate to continue being self-insured?

That is correct, Mayor.

Okay, great. Now, I know you talked about the insurance consultants having reviewed this. They're recommending this action?

Yes.

Okay. What about city staff? How do you feel about it?

We recommend the same, just looking at our budget and the amount of increase that it would take to... it's going to cost a lot more if we go back to fully insured. And then some of the RFPs that came back under the self-insured were still at a significant cost and also to avoid disruptions to our employees and all of it.

Okay, great. So it's both a cost issue and it's also an employee service issue.

Correct.

Okay. The presentation that you have, does it flush out some of these details or does it basically just rehash what we talked about?

It just rehashes what we just talked about.

Okay. And any details in there in terms of the comparison of the cost between fully insured and self-insured? Do you have that slide in here? I haven't seen it, so I don't know.

So we do have not the comparison of the self-insured to the fully insured, because we're making the recommendation to stay self-insured, but we do have what some of those information call.

Okay.

All right. But ultimately at the end of the day, I just want to be sure staff is recommending continuing on being self-insured. It's in the best interest of the city, both financially and it's in the best interest of service, the quality of service to our employees.

Yes, that is correct. Based on information that was provided to us from, again, our consultants. So as I've mentioned before, normally city staff, we don't evaluate, we don't look at any of this other than this is what they presented and we look at the numbers talk to our finance department, city management, and this is what we all feel that the city should move forward with.

Okay. Thank you.

Other questions? Ma'am, you said that you don't evaluate the information?

No, we can't because we are not a licensed agent.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

All right. Other questions? Okay. Seeing none, there is a motion and a second. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item is I, if the secretary could read the caption. 13I.

Consider awarding RFP number 2026-013, Prescription Personal Importation Program, and authorize the city manager to negotiate and enter into an agreement related thereto.

Okay, is there a motion on this item? So moved. Motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

All right, motion and a second discussion. If you could just explain this for us, please.

Yes, so the prescription personal importation program is going to be a program that's going to be presented to employees. And so basically we went out for RFPs to, it's basically taking out the middlemen and the prescription in our PBM. So our consultants, when we went out for RFPs, they looked at the top, let's say, 20 drugs that are being utilized right now in our program, and they identified those drugs and what they would cost if, The employee doesn't necessarily go to your local CVS or your Walmart. And we're getting this from another company that more likely I believe it's Canada. And they're getting the prescription basically from the manufacturer. So they're not going to have to pay a copay. It is right now being offered to the employee as a voluntary benefit. And so basically it's a mail order prescription drug program. And at the same time, since we are self-insured, we are going to be able to see those cost savings on our side.

So the idea behind this is to cut costs since the city is self-insured, having to pay, right, having this personal importation program. reducing the cost that the city has to pay for employees who get prescription medications.

That is correct.

But this is voluntary, correct?

This is voluntary.

So employees are not going to be required to use this service. They can continue the same service they're using now if they want.

That is correct. But there is a benefit. We're going to educate the employee that if they do do this, they're going to be saving money because they're not going to have to pay that copay that they would have to pay filling it at your local drugstore. But it is voluntary. We know we have some employees that say, no, I've always gone to CVS. I want to continue. They can still continue to use CVS.

Okay. Questions, discussions on this item? All right. Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes. Next item is 14A. The Secretary can read the captions.

Discuss and consider proposed tax rate for the City of Edinburgh for fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027, and setting public hearings.

Is there a... So we technically need a motion on this item, but let's have a motion to suspend the rules so we can get a fulsome discussion on this, because there's parts to this motion. So move. Move, move, move, second. All right, any objection? Hearing none, motion passes. The rules are suspended, so let's talk. What you got?

Okay. Mayor of City Council, Alcindor-Rolton, Director of Finance... Today we're presenting an agenda item to discuss and consider the proposed tax rate for the City of Edinburgh for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027 and setting a public hearing. We do have some information that was provided that is required and provided by our tax assessor. Our tax assessor is Hidalgo County Tax Office. So we have three benchmark rates that are that I'll discuss and then mayor and council must vote on a proposed tax rate and set a hearing to adopt the tax rate. So the first tax rate that I'll discuss is the city manager's proposed tax rate, which is 0.6300. That would be at the same level that we had for the last three years. We have the next tax rate, which is the no new revenue tax rate, That is a tax rate that is required to bring in the same revenue as we did last year. That rate is .6303. And the last rate is the Edinburgh voter approval tax rate. That is the highest rate that the Mayor and Council can adopt without triggering a vote or an election. That rate is .6735. The proposed rate is 0.6300. The highest we can go as a city without a vote is 0.6735. And the voter this year, the no new revenue tax rate is higher. Our proposed tax rate is lower than the no new revenue tax rate, which is something that... Has this ever happened before? I'm not aware of it ever happening since I've been here.

Did you hear that, Fern? We're lower than the... No new tax rate.

Yeah, it's a very interesting thing, and I know it can get kind of convoluted, but the easy way to describe this right is that state taxation laws, they require disclosures of the two numbers that you talked about. There's a no new tax revenue, which is if we set it at this rate, we would collect the same amount of property tax revenue that we did the prior year. That is correct. And what we're proposing is literally under that. That is correct.

Slightly under that.

Yes. We have the ability to go all the way up, right, to 67 cents.

That is correct.

Without having to ask for permission to do it. Yes. The city council can do that. We wouldn't have to go out to get a vote. If we wanted to do 68 cents, we'd have to get a vote. But we could go all the way up to 67, right? We have that authority.

Yes, that is correct.

Okay. But we're not exercising that. The proposal here from the city management and the city council has been on board with this the entire time, is that we are not changing our tax rate. We've committed to that. We're very lucky that our city management, our finance director, Mr. Alonso, along with our city staff, has worked really hard this budget cycle to be fiscally responsible and account for every dollar spent in ensuring that we can maintain the tax rate. I know there are lots of other cities, actually, that are talking about them having to increase their property tax rate. They have to do it. There was a lot of exemptions that was passed by state legislature, approved constitutionally by the voters. That has caused property tax revenue pinch in a lot of government entities. They're not able to collect the same amount because there's more exemptions available for people to have on their homes, which is a good thing. So if we were to now turn around and increase our tax rate, that would basically wipe out exemption relief that was provided by the state and we don't want to do that but we are blessed we are lucky that we are in a growing city basically all the revenue that we are losing as a result of these increase in exemptions has been for the most part offset by increased construction in our city new homes new businesses have widened the tax base so that homeowners can enjoy the exemptions that they voted for. And as council members here, we take that very seriously. And that's why, you know, we're all very proud and very thankful to city management for making this tax rate work.

Yes, sir. Right. And so just some comments. We had actually entire council, the mayor and council were here at noon. We had a budget work session. Another very important number, the taxes on homes, We always talk about it goes up as it goes up, and we always get all this money from land evaluation. We only got $259,000 added to our budget from last year's taxes. So not a lot of money was added to the budget yet. With the inflation, we know everything's more expensive from last year. The loss of all COVID monies, ARPA monies, we're talking millions that we got. That is not part of this budget. We're able to fund everything with the budget, with the existing numbers that we have. like the mayor said, partly because of the growth. But we want to make sure that we maintain the tax rate that goes all the way back to 1991. I think today the number that every penny that we raise or lower, it's about $850,000. So if we wanted to, we could get $3.7 million now added to our budget. Nobody's on board for that. But Every penny counts, right? And so it just credits the staff. I want to credit the staff for maintaining the budget with all the loss of ARPA and COVID, with the inflation, with the loss of further monies because of taxes, land and home taxes. We're still able to have a great budget, pay all our bills, pay some things we didn't pay before. I mentioned it today. Our road improvement programs that's happening in the neighborhoods, that was a $3 million budget, and that was paid by ARPA year after year, we're doing almost the same amount, and it's part of our budget. We're not getting free money from anywhere. So very, very great job that the staff and John and his finance team has done the past few years. I also said, you know, this is my fourth year in office. A few of these budgets, when we first came into office, they were very scary. You walk away just dumbfounded by the numbers, and today it's a different story. Big smiles, everybody's happy. Just great job to everyone. Great job. Absolutely.

Any other comments or questions? Okay. Now we need a motion. Mr. City Attorney, is there a specific motion that we are required to make?

Mr. Mayor, I believe for notice requirements, there is a specific motion. I'm not sure if the finance director does have that in front of him. If not, I can help city staff with coming up with that motion.

Yes, our staff recommendation is to authorize a proposed tax rate, and my understanding is 0.6300 for the city for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027, and to set a public hearing to be held on September 15th 2026 at 6 p.m.

So moved.

Second.

Motion and a second. Does this satisfy our legal requirement? There's magic words that we have to use. I have to admit, I don't remember if it's now or if it's when we actually adopt the tax rate. But there are magic words that are legally required for us to do. Do we have to do that now?

When we set the tax rate there is a specific language for that. That's right. Yes. Today we just need to record the vote. I mean take a vote and record it and we need to publish it. Okay. But there is specific language when we set the rate. When we adopt it. For adoption. Okay.

All right. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next is the consent agenda 15, items A through E. Can I get a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

All right, there's a motion and a second. On item A, Mr. Alonso, sorry, don't go too far. If you could help us understand this, this is the... Consider and accept the statutory certification of the 2026 anticipated collection rate and the 2025 excess debt collections.

Yes. This is required for truth in taxation. This is part of the computation for the no new revenue. So every year our tax assessor collector must certify a collection rate for the upcoming year. And this is the item that we do have attached here that our tax assessor collector has certified a collection rate of 100%. And that includes a 97% collection rate for the current levy, plus rollbacks and refunds and also any delinquent taxes, we are at 100% of our total levy. So they have certified, our tax assessor collector has certified, and it's attached here, and this is

percentage rate that is used for no new revenue tax rate yes okay thank you and then on item B sorry mr. Alonso you're doing triple duty tonight okay item B is the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget transfers you just explain these please yes every year we do budget

There are some needs in certain line items that are required. So our departments submit transfers to cover the budget, especially towards the latter part of the year. They are submitted. They are vetted. They go to, first of all, department directors submit it to our assistant city managers. They're sent to me. We look at the whole budget and where they're at. We leave enough money there, too. be able to cover the year. And then lastly, they're approved by our city manager. So we do it through due diligence and approval of any transfers to finish out the year. And it's only available funds. It's not an appropriation. It's a transfer of funds within the funds, and the bottom line does not change. That's right.

Yeah, so just to amplify that, these are transfers of money between line items within a department, right? Correct. For example, they need to buy office furniture, and they had some savings in office supplies. So they're moving money on their budget line items, right, from supplies to furniture. It is not changing the bottom line. The department's not spending more money. They have the same amount allocated to them. The city's not spending more money than what we budgeted for. Right. We're just moving numbers within line items.

That is correct.

Okay. Great.

Thank you. Okay. There's a motion and a second to approve items A through E. Is there any objection to the motion? Hearing none, motion passes. Next item is 16A, other business. Are there any future requirements requested by the council? No. Okay. We'll move on. Executive session. Can I get a motion to enter executive session?

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Any objection? Hearing none, motion passes. Time is 7.59. We are entering executive session.

Item A, consultation with city attorney. Item B, consultation with city attorney regarding personal matters. Item C, discussion and possible action regarding the conveyance exchange or lease of real property. Item D, discussion and possible action regarding economic development matters.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

Time now is 9.33. We are coming out of executive session. Can I get a motion to go back in the open? Motion and a second. Any objection? Hearing none, we're back in the open. Is there any required action at this time?

Mr. Mayor, there are no items needing action at this time.

Okay. All items on the agenda being discussed, no further action required. This meeting is now adjourned.