City Council - Regular Meeting

Again, a regularly scheduled meeting of your Edinburgh city council. on the council. Mayor Omar Ooa, mayor prom Jason DeLeon, council member Dan [music] Diaz, Council Member David Salasar, [music] and Council Member Jerry Losano. sitting in his adviserss, city manager Myra Ayala [music] and city attorney Josie Ramirez Solis. [music] And now, live from the Edinburgh City Hall, the Edinburgh City Council. Time now is 6:01 and I call this special meeting of the city council to order. I can see and note for the record that all members of council are present. So, we do have quorum. We'll start with item A, which is the prayer. If uh council member Diaz can lead us in that.

Mayor, the pastor is here. Oh, I am so sorry. Pastor Joanna Walker from Abendent Grace Community Church. My apologies. Please.

Yes. Thank you. Okay. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity that we can come together with the city council. Lord, Father, I pray for wisdom for them and every decision that they would make. Father, I pray that they would not only hear with their ears and their mind, but they would hear with their heart what the people have to say. Lord, I pray um for guidance, Lord, for our mayor and for all the councilmen, Father God, and and women. Lord, I ask your blessings upon the city of Edinburgh, Lord, and make it a great city, Father, and a safe city. And we thank you, God, for it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Uh for Idaho B. Council member Diaz, can you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Yes, please. If I could have everybody remove all head gear, face the flag. Let's say it together. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh item two on the agenda, certification of public notice. Yes, sir. Mayor, the meeting was posted in accordance to the Texas Open Meetings Act on December 16, 2025 at 6 PM, sir. All right. Uh item three, disclosure of conflict of interest.

Yes, mayor. Under state law, local government officials required to disclose substantial interest for themselves or certain family members related to matters uh on today's agenda. Are there any conflicts to disclose? No. No, ma'am. Thanks. Uh next item number four on the mayor's report. Uh for tonight, I do not have a report. So, we'll move on uh to item uh five, which is public comments. Are there any public comments, Madam Secret? Yes.

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 interactive. The council may not respond to public comments. At this time in council, there are three public comments. The first public comment is Miss Clarity regarding taxpayers money. Good evening. I couldn't get in the room. It was too full. I would like to take this opportunity to express my congratulations to those who have been elected to lead this great community. To those who did not win, thank you for participating in the process of community involvement. Your participation was greatly appreciated. Also to mention that the 2026 marks the birthday of the US military that includes the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps. Military 250th anniversary is more than a tribute is a call to action. It is a reminder that patriotism isn't just waving a flag on the 4th of July. It's about embodying the ideal that having defined our country for 250 years. courage, service, and commitment to the greater good and the enduring project that the United States of America. It's about making sure those values live on in our community and our family and ourselves. With that being said, we can return to our perpetual war of words. What we want is for you to stop spending on projects we cannot afford or do not want. Your actions increase our property value such that the families are moving to other communities or multifamily housing. No

one wants to live in multif family housing. It is not the American dream. Edinburgh elected officials voted to increase water rates by 67% for the purpose of improving infrastructure. Infrastructure is not the problem. Water is the problem. Elected officials make comments in executive session that override the financial interest of the people. How is it better for a community of a 100,000 people to build a high-rise parking lot for a county of 1.2 million people? This project is based on commitment between elected officials and how their commitment to use public money wisely. The project would have a greater adverse impact on the people of Edinburgh. That is if it were built by the county. Shifting money from the solid waste department to golf course is not a good idea, especially if it leads to the need to sell bonds. It is still being done. The city debt is costing the public $8 million. The total tax rate for this those living in Edinburgh is $2.40 per $100 of value. This council voted unanimously for the members of the appraisal district board. So my last thing is merry Christmas, happy new year to all and to all a good night. And I'm also asking everyone to please pray for Israel and all the Jewish people around the world. Their lives are in danger right now. And I asked y'all to please pray for them. Thank you.

Miss McCertie also has questions on item 7 A and 7B. Do I do them now? Sure, please. I mean, you haven't given me the rules, correct? So, they are they are not for consideration because they've been withdrawn. If you'd like to make a comment, you are more than welcome to

make my little comment. So, you'll be ready if it comes back. Uh both of them are on the same thing is why do we have the why does the city have the city uni unified development code article 5 table 5.203-1 203-1 right ofway width. Please explain is what I was going to ask tonight. Uh why that we're why do you have the rules and then you change them? And my thing is I want y'all to remember when you do it for developers, you better do it for an individual family that's asking for something cuz a lot of time that doesn't happen. Y'all deny them. So that was my question tonight is why do we have rules if we don't follow them? Thank you.

The next public comment is Maria Sosa regarding firecrackers within city limits. Support police department. First of all, blessings to you all. Oh, I'm sorry ma'am. If you can come up to the microphone. I don't I can't talk on the microphone. Oh, we need it for record purposes. If you could please. Okay. Thank you very much.

Um, I want to thank you all for all the support that you have given me during the times that I've been living, not only you, but the police department and all all the council members here uh with problems with firecrackers and other violations that people do. Uh, but I want to suggest that you, the city of Edinburg, if people have money to buy fire bio crackers and shoot them and guns, um, to please check up the up to $500 a fee, if you all agree, it was amaz. And I want to thank the police department from the bottom of my heart. Um the last council meeting that I came here, everybody was like complaining about them. I've had great support from the they even put a um I believe it was in 2018. They put a a camera in my on my premises. Now we are really close together in living. So these restrictions, the reason I'm we're only 14t apart. We use propane and I've lived there 20ome years. And this about the firecrackers has never stopped. Just last year I had one of those bombs going there where there is just the safety of the whole neighborhood. So I just thank you all and consider it.

Thank you ma'am. Thank you. The next public comment is Rosie Silva regarding process to build a fence around Fountain Park. I don't know if he's going to need the mic to be pulled down. So, this is Cash Sa. Sure. Go ahead, Cash. You can just state your name for the record there so we can all hear it loud and clear.

My name is Cash Sa. I'm in third grade. Uh Steven at Fost Elementary. I would like to close up fountain fence up fountain park. Uh so we could have more play area. One day we have to do a boy and the other day we have to do a girl that gets to play on the playground. But if we have more play area, it could be probably both. And uh there's people showing up. They're doing they're drinking beer, sleeping on the bench, coming shirtless or screaming out bad words. And I've been collecting signatures for three weeks. I have 160. I would have more if students could do it, but they couldn't. Thank you for listening.

So, we have the petition for you guys. We have a copy of the petition that we collected and Cash is going to pass around some reference pages and we just hope you guys can consider it. Um, some of the concerns I'll share really quickly. You got a 100-year-old campus and you can see by their shirts they just se celebrated their hundred year. Um, they've got about 300 students. It's an A-rated school located in a really low economic economic area. Um, some of the concerns are it's adjacent to a public park and we've had several police reports in that area. Um, the limited play equipment, you got 300 students and you've got a really small area where these kids are trying to play. He shared with me, "Hey, mom, we have to alternate our days." So, we're hoping that you guys will hear our concerns. Um, we did some research and we came across something called a safe routes to school. You guys have used them before. where the ECISD school district has used them before and they grant money to allow the schools to be able to fence up. The last time they were used, they were used with Truman and I believe um Zavala Elementary and Eisenhower. So, we have these to pass around. I hope you guys consider it. And thank you for your time. You worked really hard on this.

Yes. Thank you very much, Cash. Appreciate you presenting the information and giving us this Okay. Love to see the youth in action. So, thank you again, Cash, for coming up. very brave of you to go up here and read that statement. We really appreciate it. Okay. Thank you.

There are no further comments, mayor. All right. Uh no other public comments at this time. We'll move on to item six uh A. If the secretary can read the caption. Yes, sir. Mayor, presentation of delinquent tax collection and municipal court report for the period of October 1st, 2024 through September 30th, 2025.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilman. had a report to present. I do have one, but I think there were some um technical difficulties with it being presented, but I can verbalize those for you if you don't mind. It is a delinquent role analysis and municipal court report for the city of Edinburgh. What we value? Our values reflect who we are and the quality of service you can expect from us. Like the city, our team is experienced, innovative, resourceful, empathetic when it matters most to your constituents and the taxpayers. Our legal services presented by Lime Gogg and Blair and Samson include collecting delinquent property taxes like we do for the city of Edinburgh, collecting municipal court fees and fines, which we also do. We also update state litigation and appellet um nuances as well as leg legislative initiatives. We give advice and counsel on complex litigation issues affecting tax collection and we also represent the city of Edinburg in those matters involving delinquent taxpayers who are in the bankruptcy court. We also have provided a status of accounts for all property types. For your information, 55% of the delinquent accounts in the city of Edinburg are what we classify as clear or able to collect. That means about 45% um are not. 16% are insued and 27% of those are classified as hold or exempt. Regarding the dollars owed, 49% nearly half of your accounts in the city of Edinburg are coded with a hold code or exemption like over 65 or veterans or disabled. Um what we've done this past year for the city of Edinburg, we have filed 112 lawsuits. We've disposed of 69. We have 236 cases currently in litigation. We

have knocked on 191s within the city of Edinburg, educating and informing taxpayers of their delinquency and doing our best to get them into a payment agreement. We have found that that one-on-one contact with someone is uh more impactful. It's less intimidating than a letter or sometimes a scary phone call that someone might think that they're receiving. and we've conducted six sheriff's um placed six properties up for sale to sheriff's tax sale and we've mailed over 7,413 letters. So that has resulted in u an increase in collections this year compared to the prior year. We've collected over $683,000 in base. There's been $64,000 over $64,000 also collected that were issued in refunds to taxpayers that qualified for like a homestead exemption that were entitled to a refund due to the appraisal district um adjustment. And over $235,000 were collected in base penalty and interest for total collections of over $984,000 in delinquent base penalty and interest for the city of Adenburg. As I mentioned before, we also collect municipal court fees and fines. We're very happy to provide this service to the city of Edinburg. For this process, we have we have made over 13,000 outbound calls to delinquent ticket holders. Those are folks that maybe aren't residents of Edinburg that have passed through Edinburg speeding. They got a ticket and they owe the city of Edinburg funding for that um or payment for that. and we have received 849 calls to our office trying to resolve that. That's not counting the phone calls made to the court itself in order to seek resolution. We have updated over 2900 addresses for the city of Edenberg and we have mailed over 10,000 letters to folks that are delinquent in their tickets. What has that resulted in? Over

$251,000 to the city of Edinburg that we have collected um for those delinquent tickets. That's up compared to the prior year which was a little over $172,000. Since the inception of our contract with the city of Edenburgg, we have um had collections of over $3.62 million. So, we're very happy to assist the city of Edinburg in raising additional funds for necessary city services. We're also very proud to be city partners with you. Uh we are invested in the community, Boys and Girls Club, Fiesta Edinburg, Texas Cookham, all the great things going on in Edinburgh. We're happy to be a part of it. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Uh I know you didn't have the presentation, technical difficulties, whatever. Right. Could you provide that to city management, please? Absolutely. Yes. I Yes. Great. Absolutely. All right. No other questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. All right. Next item. Uh item 6B. Secretary, could you read the caption? Yes, your mayor. Presentation of the Magic Valley Electric Coop capital credit check for 2025 from Magic Valley Electric Cooperative to the city of Edinburgh.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Tom Reena, assistant city manager. Uh I would like to uh introduce one of our great partners here within the city. Uh one of our energy providers, Magic Valley Electric Co-op. Like to present Miss Elizabeth Boyd, our city representative. She's the one that I call if I have if we have any issues with Magic Valley or a repair or ticket. She's always be the first one to respond. Uh so Elizabeth is here to present us a little check uh to give you some information on the program they have. Thank you. Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here. Hello everyone. Um just a little bit about the program for the capital credit checks. I know mayor you and I had emailed about that. Um it's something we've been doing at Magic Valley Electric since 1947. So essentially we are a not for-p profofit. We are memberowned. So unlike the investorowned utilities, if you are a member of Magic Valley, as you know, you're a member of our cooperative. So uh every year we um reallocate profit margins back to our members. So, as the city of Edinburgh being a a very valued uh partner and member, you do receive your checks this year. Uh if you're a resident, um just you might get a check as well, about $6, sometimes $10. You can go get a Starbucks, right? Um so, it it works for everybody. Um you all will see a significantly larger amount. I think this year it's somewhere around $10,000 in total. Um, and we do have a very long antiquated formula that I will not try to explain because I don't understand what it is. But I do know that um, the goal is always to give um, back to our members as much as they're giving to us. Um, and then just a few other things about Magic Valley Electric Cooperative since people are here. Um, you know, we've been in the community since 1937. We were started by a handful of farmers and ranchers in Mercedes, Texas. um first power pole went up in 1938. Um you know, I'm a panhandle plains girl. I'm not from the valley and that really speaks to me. Um a granddaughter of a cotton farmer. So I think it's really cool um especially for Edinburg being such a rural area that Magic Valley is a staple in the community. We do also um give back to our students. We give um many scholarships every year. So, if any of you have kiddos that are graduating high school soon or you have friends and family, uh, every year we give away a scholarship. In fact, Mary, your your wife was a recipient of our scholarship back in I don't know, I don't want to age us, but it was it was a while ago. Um, she received the Magic Valley

scholarship back in I think 2003 or four, somewhere around there. No, 2008, I don't know. Uh, early 2000s. But, um, I used to be an English teacher, so I will talk too much if I stay here for too much longer. Um, but thank you again for all all that y'all do for the city. Um, and as we continue to see Edinburgh grow and move forward, Magic Valley Electric is is really committed to continuing to be that valued partner with all of you as well as all of our all of our developers and residents. So, the checks and there's some candy. And I was actually going to give the candy to the young man because I thought he was so great, but he left. So, you guys can fight over the candy. I don't know who wants the candy. If you leave it with us, we'll make sure it gets to him.

Okay. Uh before you walk off too far, any questions, comments from the council? No. Well, thank you so much for coming. It's not often that we get a presenter giving us a check. So, this was an exciting time, right, for us to be able to provide that. Thank you so much for what you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we did.

Yeah. All right. Uh council, are you okay? Can we come down and take a quick picture? I didn't actually know that you come on. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right, thank you so much. Um, we'll move on to items 7 A and B. And as I mentioned earlier, those items have been withdrawn uh by the requesters. So, no action on those. Um, moving on to item 8 uh A. Uh, secretary can read the caption. Yes, sir. Mayor, consider appointment of a member of the Eden City Council as mayor prom.

Yes. Uh, is there a motion? I would like a motion to appoint David Salasad as mayor prom. Second.

All right. There is a motion and a second um before we take a vote. Any discussion? I will say also just for the record that the ordinance uh was set up and this was a change actually from a couple of years ago uh that there is a requirement that we do this mayor prom vote uh at the conclusion of elections uh and at the beginning of years. Uh so this is the uh requirement of the city ordinance to move into this. Uh so council member DeLeon if I can take a point of privilege to say thank you for your year of service here as mayor prom. it was a very short period of time where we overlapped. Um, but you covered, you know, events that I couldn't go to. You've always been a great sounding board throughout. So, thank you so much for your service.

Thank you so much. [applause] All right. Any other comments, discussion? Sure. Let's finish this up and then we can take a picture. All right. So I I will say just for the public mayor promp like like mayor ooa said um when we got in office we thought it was a a great opportunity to share the title a year uh per council member uh that hadn't done been done in the past and I think it's a great thing because we can all represent the city and uh and uh congratulations David I know you'll do good.

I say thank you guys for especially council member DeLeon for making the nomination. I'm looking forward to helping and joining along with Mayor Ooa and all the activities that happen and everything that comes up in the future for the next year. Excellent. All right. Okay. Let's make this official. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your right hand. All those opposed. All right. Motion carries. Congratulations.

Thank you. [applause] All right. [clears throat] Thank you.

Okay. Uh, moving on to item 8B. If the secretary could read the caption. Yes, sir. Mayor, consider appointments to the following city advisory board, council, commission, and committee. Edinburgh housing authority, board of directors, two members. Mayor appointed.

Right. Um, okay. And so, this one does not require a motion or discussion. It's just an appointment by the mayor. So, just to um to note, I will not be making an appointment this evening. Um, I am under review of the appointment process in general. Uh I know currently we accept uh applications and there's a there's a process that's in place. Uh but I I take these appointments very seriously. Uh and so I just want to be able to review what that appointment process is, perhaps make any changes uh that would be helpful to it. So I'm not prepared to make an appointment tonight. Uh any members who are on this board currently, we they'll just carry forward until a new appointment is made. I don't intend to delay this uh for very long. I just want to be able to make sure that we've got a good uh appointment process.

Yes, ma'am. All right. Okay. Questions, comments from the council members. No. All right. Okay. Um moving on to item nine, which is the consent agenda. Um I will take a motion uh to entertain all items uh A through N at this time, unless there is a separate motion. I'll make the motion from A to N to approve. Second. All right, there is a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed. Okay, motion carries. Uh, that takes us to item 10A. Future items requested by city council

members. Yes, ma'am. I do have an item I want to add to the agenda. Discussion of Austin Elementary. Um, I know that we've looked into this in the past. It has gone to the school. It's gone to a board. I'm not quite sure where we're at, but uh um I'm so proud of the resident that showed up and her son, and I think, uh, we need to discuss this and hopefully get the council and everyone to make a decision on it. Any other items, members?

All right. Okay. So, we will move on then to item 11, which is executive session. Uh, can I get a motion to enter into executive session? So, move. Second. All right. There's a motion in the second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed. Motion passes. We are entering executive session. Time now is 6:29 p.m. Thank you.

Item A, consultation with city attorney regarding pending potential and or contemplated litigation settlement offers and removal matters subject to the attorney client privilege under the authority of the open meetings act. Item B, consultation with city attorney and possible action regarding agreement with Palm Valley Animal Society. Item C, consultation with city attorney regarding development ordinances. Item D, discussion and possible action regarding the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property, Burns Brothers Ltd. Two, tax forclosures. Item E, discussion and possible action regarding economic development matters. One, project KIDA. Two, project Ribe.

Where? What? Time now is uh 7:49. We are entering back um into the open. Can I get a motion to go into open session? So move. Second.

Uh any objections? Hearing none. Motion passes. We're back in the open. Um based on the discussion uh occurring in in executive session, um I would ask for a motion uh to um uh confirm uh action uh I guess confirm and approve action taken by the EDC board uh regarding uh project rivi which is under uh executive session item E2. That's correct, mayor. We need a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. All right. Motion to approve and a second. Any objections? Hearing none. Motion passes. Any other action required at this time? No further action is needed. Okay.

Thank you. Uh no further action needed. Uh no additional agenda items. Meeting is adjourned.