City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6:30 and I'm calling to order our Elgen City Council meeting on March the 17th and we will begin our roll call with uh Council Member St. Pierre, St. Pier here, Rodriguez here, Crim here, Mcshan here, Kaznowski here,

Gibson here, here, love here, and uh Mayor Pro Tim Brazier is out. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. It's been moved in second. And we'll begin with deputy mayor pro Tim Love. Love, yes.

St. Pierre, yes. Rodriguez, yes. Crim, yes. Mcshen, yes. Kasnowski, yes. Houston, yes, yes. Council member Rodriguez revocation. Yes. As we come together to carry out the important work before us, let us do so with a spirit of service, compassion, kindness, and tolerance. Because we've been called to serve, let us be mindful of the diverse voices within the population we serve. Please grant us patience as we seek first to understand and second to collaborate toward the best options for the people of Elgen, especially when those options are not always desirable to everyone. Please continue to grant us wisdom and clarity toward a shared commitment to the well-being of our community. As always, because of you, we have courage in the face of our challenges. Please also grant us a willingness to learn for one another and all those we serve in your name. Amen.

Rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the standy for all. flaggis. We have several uh several public hearings. The first one is a public hearing on an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Elgen, Texas, adopted in chapter 46, section 46-3, revised code of ordinances, city of Elgen, Texas, 2013, and making the amendment a part of said zoning map to it to reszone land from R1 single family residential district to C2 general commercial district located on a parcel of land known by the Bastrop County Appraisal District as parcel 417. 733 Elgen West Countryside lot 11 acres 1.076 076 at 1512 North Avenue C being described as exhibit Attached here to and providing for savings clause and repealing conflicting ordinances and resolutions and I don't believe let's see those public comment

No one signed up for the first one. We'll move on to the second one. Public hearing on an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Elgen, Texas adopted in chapter 46 section 46-3 revised code of ordinance city of Elgen, Texas 2013 and making this amendment a part of said zoning map to reszone from C1 neighborhood shopping district to C2 general commercial district 0.5880 acres of land on Travis County parcel 557535 lot one Canon edition and 2.0920 acres of land on Travis County parcel 557536 lot 2 canon edition located at 13 919 County Line Road being described in exhibit Attached here to and providing for a savings clause and repealing conflicting ordinances. representing the buyers for this process question. When should I open the public hearing and do the presentation?

Uh, did you sign up already for I did not I did not know I need to sign up, but I'm representing the the applicant on this. Buyers, I can I can fill one out now. Would that be under that item? It'll be Yeah, let's wait. that item. Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else? No one signed up for that. We'll move on to the third one. You have two and three on the public comment. So, you can We haven't got to public comment yet. I haven't got you. I missed you. Okay. Number three, public hearing on a request by Vincent Gerard and Associates agent for uh Ramov. Okay, I'm going to mess that name up. Duca, property owner, to grant a variance to the distance uh prohibition for the sale of alcohol per section 8-20, places where alcoholic beverages may not be sold. A1 allowing the sale of alcohol, beer, and wine from a proposed convenience market and fuel station at 3 919 County Line Road. Okay, no one signed up for that. It is 6:36 and that ends our public hearings. Now we'll move on to public comment and we have a few who have signed up. Uh the first one is Keith Simpson, Mayor Council Manager, um Keith Simpson. I'm representing Emergency Service District number three. I just wanted to give you an update. I think at uh the very beginning when the ESD was initially formed um there was some concern that there wasn't um or the city of Elgen didn't know who their representation might be on the board of commissioners. And so I wanted to take a moment to introduce Jimmy Young. He is an Elgen resident. Um he is on the board of commissioners for ESD3. Now, um we've

got two of the five commissioners or Elgenites now. Um we also have our office manager lives in Elgen as well. So, uh the city of Elgen is well represented for uh within ESD3 right now. I wanted to give you an update. We participated in the touch a truck yesterday. We had one of our ambulances out here and one of our command vehicles. We uh did about a month ago. We've got our state provider license now. Uh we had to get an ambulance to get the provider license. Um we're moving on to get our narcotics license and we're getting our NPI number for Medicare and Medicaid. Everything is on track to uh go live October 1st. Uh we've got 15 ambulances, brand new ambulances will be coming in beginning in June. Um we've got an executive team hired on now. We're hiring a communications manager. We're going to be setting up a 911 center um as part of this with a dispatch uh component to it. And so things are moving fast and furious. You're going to have one 24-hour ambulance in Elgen. We're leasing a space behind the double our hat company right now that's getting fitted. Uh we will have a 24 amu 24-hour ambulance there and a supervisor there. We will also um we're planning to have a 12-hour ambulance at the fire station over here with Bassro Travis CSD1. Um so you're going to be having some great coverage here moving forward. Um I'm happy to report that we set a response time goal of 90% that's in the top decileis. Um and uh for priority ones and priority twos currently Elgen urban Elgen is at 87%. Um in the in the suburban area uh you're at 100% uh compliance. That's at the

90th percentile. So, um, that's, uh, we're proud to be able to serve the citizens of Elgen in that capacity, and we will continue to serve having more, uh, resources available to us. We're going to, uh, even increase those numbers more. So, again, Jimmy Young, um, fellow Elgenite, part of the ESD3 board.

Thank you. Welcome aboard. Uh, Darin Sims, before I begin, I sent in a packet, a little, and if you guys can pull it up, I'm going to refer to a couple of those things in the packet. I like to come with illustrations, visuals. It's my marketing background. I'm also going blind. I'm over 55. So, what's ignore me? Okay. Um, good evening, mayor and city council. Are you guys ready?

Okay. Uh, my name is Darene Sims and I'm a local resident with a background in economic development and workforce development in DC. I'm retired. I'm happily retired, I should say. Um, but for several years there, I actually chaired the economic development board and I'm a huge champion of small businesses and family-owned businesses and believe in the growth. You know, Bass County has over 50% of small businesses, you know, are here and those are micro businesses, you know, mostly. So, when I'm hearing about us changing from a C1 to C2 in the lot that is directly across from my home, um, I see a different vision and the vision that is there actually in lines with the aesthetic and the cultural aspect of the community. And what is there could be it's already zoned for restaurants, small offices, and businesses. And I think that it's that's really good. We should actually use that space for that. However, having a gas station selling alcohol across the street of a high school, not really that great. Also, if we're looking at economic development, we're looking at the aspect of oversaturation. So, Texico is about half a mile down the street, uh, about a block or so, and then beyond that is Shell. If you go straight down Avenue C, there's another gas station on 95 and Avenue C. But within a radius of two to three miles, we have over seven gas stations. So, when we're looking at

economic development, that's kind of an overuse and it's really not needed. But what is needed and what my neighbors and myself have been talking about for years is having that land or hoping that land would house like a beastro and I can cheat a little bit, but multi-use property, right? So why not have a multi-use property where we have a small event room for 100 to 150 people along with a beastro along with small businesses. So if you look at page five and six, you will see that I came up at two in the morning. Don't judge me. Uh a couple of ideas. I'm in love with ANF because they're set back and I'm literally on the corner. Sorry, your time is up.

Okay, thank you. Caitlyn Kar, did I say that right? I'm sorry.

Sorry if I butchered your name. No, you're no worries. It's Kaja. Yep. Yep. So, yeah, I'm Kaitlyn. Um, I also live in that same neighborhood right next to the uh proposed place. And so I just wanted to come here and make sure that we were all kind of on the same page because the rumor is that the plan was going to be developed for a gas station. And I say rumor because no one in my neighborhood was informed that this was the plan or proposed plan. And I walk that street every day. So the people who live there and work there and walk there didn't know. And I think That's kind of a problem. Um, but I'm glad I found out so I could be here today. Um, because I did want to know if there was, you know, an environmental study that's been done. As we've said, the neighborhood that shares that road does not want another convenience store gas station. Um, if you've driven down this road that we're talking about that she lovely put maps for you, you know that there is uh three school zones right there. There's a full church uh full church parking lot right across the street from where we're proposing this. Two dayc carees and seven plus neighborhoods and two gas stations. Again, we already have enough gas stations. The existing infrastructure aka people's homes and those community buildings um have something in common. Time sensitivity, drop offs, pickups, scheduled events. the last minute gas station is already covered. We don't need another one of those. Um, I also agree this is private property, so they're going to use it how they want, but let's use this space to address some other needs, some other barriers. Um, there's people who are coming down that road, leaving their house, going into the city, Austin 290. Uh, they're going to stop for something. Maybe we make it

something that's useful that we don't already have. The beastro, the cafe, a space where people can meet up before they leave for work. Um, spend the money here instead of on the edge of Austin. Um, yeah, and that's all I wanted to say. So, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, that ends our public comment. Move on to announcements. Hello, Mayor Council. Christine Alres main street manager. We have a lot today, so y'all just buckle up. Uh, nature night at the Elgen Rec Center. Wednesday, tomorrow, March 18th, 6:00 to 8th. Night Explorers, Elgen Parks and Recreation, and the Girl Scouts of Central Texas at Thomas Memorial Park. On Thursday, the community potluck hosted by Elgen Parks and Recreation is this Friday, and I will have a table. So, I expect to see all y'all out there. Um, spring planting class and plant swap hosted by the Central Texas Plant People at the Elgen Public Library. Uh, the Lexington of Texas with Fletcher Clark discusses the Battle of Gonzalez at the Elgen Public Library on Saturday. poses for posture with body and shine. Also here at the library, music in the parks coming up every Friday in April and May. Um we will have activities from 6:00 to 6:45 to 7:00 with the headliner starting at 7. Music festival is April 9th through the 11th. We will have music all over town. And that's what I got. So I hope to see you all out. Thank you.

Okay. Next is our presentation from the Elgen Police Department. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Chris Noble, chief of police, and this is the time of year for the presentation of our annual racial profiling report. And uh under according to state law, the Sander Bland Act that we are required to do a comparative analysis of compiled information regarding traffic stops for the previous year. And within that there's valuation and comparison of motor vehicle stops than the applicable jurisdiction between persons recognized as racial or ethnic minorities and persons not rec not recognized as racial or ethnic minorities. An examination of the disposition of motor vehicle stops conducted by agency personnel categorized according to the race or ethnicity of affected persons including any searches resulting from stops within the applicable jurisdiction. And then lastly, evaluation and comparison of searches resulting from motor vehicle stops within the applicable jurisdiction and documentation of whether contraband or other evidence was discovered during the course of such searches. So, with that being said, for the year, the Elgen Police Department had 8,955 traffic stops. And of that, uh the ethnic breakdown of those stops does fall within the uh racial breakdown

according to the uh government census as it is so far this decade. And with and And if you can figure out how I'll take whatever suggestion I get on how to read some of those demographics, uh whether or not whites or the majority of this community or uh Hispanic Latinos are the ethnic majority of this community. If you can figure that out, I'm all yours. But with that being said, uh within the uh ethnic breakdown, uh whites were 58% of the traffic stops. Uh Hispanic Latinos were 22.8% with black or African-American 16.3%. Which do does fall into uh uh the exact percentages that are said to be by the census. So in the eight years that I've been here and the five years that I've been the chief that we've contracted with Dell Carman Consulting who Alex Darman is a recognized expert in the field of racial profiling analysis and with that being said we have done extremely well and since we have started this journey of bringing about the change that was mandated by this council when I took office and I am proud to say we've done a really good job and the this is math the numbers prove it and with that being said we even go beyond what is required by law that we also contract through del consulting that we do implicit bias training of

every officer uh every other year and we are scheduled to do it this year. Further, the police department, we've trained all of our sworn officers through state racial profiling training and law enforcement personnel, sworn officers and animal control officers have received initial and annual training on bias-based policing and completed the annual antibbias course which is every two years. And also every officer and employee has to complete ethics training and in we have had no complaints of racial profiling this year and as we have done in the past and with that said it is an excellent report. It speaks for itself. Entertain any questions.

Pretty impressive that like you said you had almost 9,000 traffic stops. Yes. Yeah. And no complaints. Now that's pretty good. No racial profile. Only thing I will suggest is that I don't understand why you stopped almost 2,000 more men than you did women.

That's the part I that's a that's not going to touch that. But uh but to your point for clarification, it's uh we had no racial profiling complaints. Yes, there were complaints just unhappy. Yes.

Very good. Thank you very much. Next, we have a proclamation recognizing April as sexual awareness month in the city of Elgen. Uh whereas April 2026 marks the 25th year of sexual assault awareness month, a time to bring attention to the widespread issue of sexual violence and empower communities. And whereas the theme 25 years stronger, looking back, moving forward honors the movement's history and growth while reaffirming our commitment to a safer future for all. And whereas looking back we remember the survivors and advocates who laid the foundation for change. Moving forward we renew our focus on prevention, healing, and action. As we celebrate 25 years of SAM, we re we recognize how far we've come and the work that is still ahead. And whereas most women and men who experienced contact sexual violence reported that the person who harmed them was someone they knew. And whereas over 53% of women and over 29% of men reported experiencing contact sexual violence. Whereas one in five male victims reported only male perpetrators. One in two had only female perpetrators. and one in six had both male and female perpetrators. And whereas more than one in four black women, 29% in the United States were raped in their lifetime. And one in three Hispanic women reported unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime. Whereas together we shall look

back and move forward by reflecting on where we have been, honoring survivors, acknowledging progress, and recommitting ourselves to creating a safer future for all. Now therefore, our Terresa McShan, mayor of the city of Elgen, hereby join advocates and communities across the country in recognizing April as sexual assault awareness month, and each day of the year is an opportunity to create change for the future. I witness whereof, in witness whereof, I have hereto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Elgen to be affixed the 17th day of March, 2026.

Okay. feel awkward. I was like, I feel awkward.

Oh, you want take picture? Go ahead and say I want her to tell everybody who she is. Hi, Jesia Thompson or GG with the Bast Family Crisis Center. And thank you all for your resolution. We highly appreciate it. We also ask that during SAM in April that you go teal with us on the 7th. It is a nationally recognized holiday and wear denim on the 29th which is an international holiday. So ask those supports for you. Thank you. and we'll have our city manager report.

Thank you, mayor. Um, if I can start with our parks, the park parks and recreation advisory board quarterly report. We are excited to have a board representation and Miss Mariah and please join us to introduce at least to me and uh if you can take it from there.

Sure. Yeah. My name is Lacy Hillyard. I am the chair for the parks and wreck advisory council. Wonderful. My name is Mariah. I'm the recreation center coordinator. Great. What's your uh sorry my uh we're here to obviously u one welcome you. Uh we do have a that we would is there anything special in there aside from your meetings or anything you'd like to point out especially to our city council mayor you know here

I think the yeah so we're looking um into installing some new grills at some of the parks um so uh just looking I I'll be reaching out to uh probably some members on this board to just some guidance on uh who would install the new grills and how that would get done. Uh but that's a a something we've been working on, not so much the the parks advisory council, but friends of Elgen Parks with the um Elgen High School welding club. They actually made the part the or will be making the grills and if we can um set them in parks so people can use. So we've been working on that. Uh the main street coordinator had a lot of the um events and so we've got some volunteers uh working there. So I think just attending those events um as a reminder.

Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate it. Uh item number two, library advisory board quarterly report. This is going to look like and feel like a lot like the one before. So Miss Heather, please join us.

Hello. I am Heather, the library services manager for the Elgen Public Library and and uh howdy. My name is Anelica Werta and I am the chair of the library advisory board. I'm glad to be here. Um and if I can just maybe um going along what you've asked for the parks. Um like y'all saw, there are several announcements of uh library events. Um we are constantly updating our policies. Looking at how we can be um best stewards for the community at the library, not only for children to adult programs, but also looking at updating our information and privacy policies and um always looking for surveys and strategic initiatives to work forward for the community.

Outstanding. Thank you. All right. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. All right. Um, next item. This is another exciting one. This may seem boring to you all, but it's exciting to us. So, the next uh item is to provide an update on a the bond uh refinancing uh item that we'd like to bring up. So, we've got this incredible team aside from our uh staff uh that we'd like to uh call upon and have join us. And I think is it Oh yeah, buddy. Come on down.

You bet a dollar, so you won. You're on the Price is Right. And so, introduce yourself and and I'm going to hand off uh to you and please guide us in this uh path and what we're doing and how we're going to do it. Okay. Uh good evening, Mayor Council.

For the record, my name is Chris Allen. I'm with RBC Capital Markets, uh financial advisor to the city. Um you should have in front of you a one-page report here just kind of summarizing um what we're here tonight. Um there's an item on the agenda. Um so the city has an opportunity to refinance or refund some of its bonds for savings or outstanding debt. You'll see there uh on the left hand side of the page there there's a a table that says refunding targets. These are the bonds that are currently callable. As all of you may know, when the city or an issuer um issues debt, we typically put a 10-year call feature on that. And so, whenever the bonds come to their their call date, if interest rates are lower, very similar to your mortgage of your home, you're able to refinance those and and achieve savings. So you'll see there there's a combination tax revenue uh series 13, some general obligation uh refunding bond series 2015, combination tax cos 2015, and combination tax cos 2016. Those callable par amounts are what we're looking at to take out and refinance uh to provide savings. Um below is a summary of the results and this is um a moving target as you know will go into the market in a couple of weeks and if rates remain somewhere near the same um we'll be able to lock in savings. Currently looking at um what the savings are relative to where interest rates are today. We're looking at um achieving a debt service savings of about $636,000.

Um the next uh if you look to the top right hand corner of that uh slide, you'll see the savings on an annual basis. It represents about you're looking at about 43 to $45,000 annually um through the life or 2040. Um the last um chart there is a sensitivity analysis. Give you an idea of if rates move one way or the other. Um what that does to your savings. You see that the current savings is roughly about um 4.39%. If rates go down by another quarter of a percentage point, you can see that go up to about 6%. And if it goes below or goes down by 25 basis point or goes up by 25 basis points, it lowers the the savings of 3%. Um the market has been a little bit crabby with this Iran and geopolitical issues. We saw rates spike over the first week, but we've since seen rates like today and yesterday. We saw rates come back down closer to where we were when we started this. So, um, what we're looking to do is we will, um, put the preliminary official statement, which is an offering document. We'll put that out on the street on Thursday, and then we will price the bonds on March the 26, a week later, and then we'll come back and present the present this to you. But this is a very good opportunity to take advantage of. So if I can point out a couple things I'm sorry before we uh jump in with that is to say the even the scheduling of it has a couple uh pieces that fall in at least under our purview you know smart people in his office and the team that's made up the financing team that's one thing at least on our side too is that today

obviously we get our our audit uh released and then two we have a Moody's rating that should be coming out tomorrow tomorrow excuse me Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. Yes, sir. And so, of course, having a, you know, smart enough team to say, "Let's go ahead and do this after the fact so that we have that going in that that back win going into the market." Uh, was was smart enough to schedule it that way, but getting on board, getting it ready, and prepping everything and scheduling it the correct way. And the timing part of it, I I think it's key. But it really is Uh it's hyper technical. I'm not smart enough to know any uh bit of that technicality, but I am smart enough to know when we can say the citizen a dollar, we're going to do it. And so for us, what may seem as I don't know who, but 45 $50,000 a year might not seem like much into a 27 million budget. It seems it is a lot to us. And so we're going to take it. We're going to put it before you. And uh that's why we're going to go through this and you'll consider this when we bring it back up. And uh you'll see a couple different mechanical things that we will go through on the agenda and they're just uh helping us work through this and getting this on board as you know having bond council, the underwriting advisors. We've been going through a lot of different uh things behind the scenes to get this to where we're at today. So,

well, and I'd like to piggy back on that. from your manager, all your staff has done yman's work getting all this stuff put together. Also, on top of putting the audit together, they went through the rating process. U we've had diligence calls and they've all done a very good job and I did want to um give a thanks to that. They've done done great work.

I guess do you have any questions? Can I ask a question? Oh, sure. Um can you and this is more just education. Um so are what are the guess what are the maturity dates for the four cos

the the four cos the they're the maturity dates are July 15th uh January and July you know the sixmonth payments so they're callable the July 15th date there that we have marked there those are your call dates so they're callable on a maturity date

and maybe I'm not saying it right. Maturity meaning when how how long is the loan for? So if you look on the cash flows to the right hand top there's a cash flow uh table there. Y it's through 2040 right or okay let me say it another way. So like the first one was 2013. So we're essentially we're paying on that three more years than a 2016. Is that what we're saying?

Well, it just means that you issued the debt in 2013 for the first issuance and then for the 2016 you issued it in 2016. So what we're doing is we're looking at the col the collable bonds. So the 20 let's just for instance a 2013 they probably the bonds probably go out to because we typically issue 25 year bonds. Um

and maybe that's my question like 25 year I was just I was just trying to look at the math of like how long we're paying out and just wondering is that normal. This is the first time we've done this since I've been on council. So it's it's very normal. Typically issuers in issue between or cities, counties such as yourself is it's typical to issue 20 to 25 year debt. Some issue 30 and 40. It depends on the you know useful life of the asset that you're borrowing the money for. But um yes, it's very typical. And we're not extending any maturities to refund this. So it's going to be exactly what you already have on the books. That may be where you're going.

Maybe that was what I was trying to get. So I appreciate Yes, we're not extending it. We're just basically lowering the interest rate and keeping it the the term the same. Yes, ma'am. That's a good question. I have a question actually. Um Yes, sir. Uh the collable bonds uh when we go through this process, is this a process that can be repeated next year or five years from now or when?

Well, the refunding bonds, they'll they'll also have a 10-year park call. So, we would have to wait 10 more years to refund these in the future. There was a time that you could advance refund where you could you could refund them prior to the call date, but they changed the tax law. So, now you can only issue you can only refund bonds 90 days prior to the call date, which is what we're doing here. Thank you.

We do have an item in the agenda. So, we'll continue conversation in case more. That's true. Um, next, uh, we do have a review of our 20 26 27 budget calendar. Um, so you do have a copy in your hand. We're we are using this as a as an example as what it looks like generally for the public. We apologize but uh technically we put up some uh key dates up there. You have in your hands though what it uh we suggest it to be. Um

good evening mayor and council. For those watching at home I'm Pam Sanders. I'm the HR director and interim finance director. in front of you. The dates on here are pretty standard for staff. The ones where you need to pay attention to would be the workshop dates because those are in between council meetings that are already scheduled. And if these dates aren't good for you, you still have time to organize and refine those dates. We are asking this year though that at the workshops we plan a discussion in advance so that staff's prepared to answer your questions. So because we're um providing this today um we would love to kind of hash out all the calendars. We don't expect that to happen. I in fact don't I mean it's unless there's something extremely obvious where something overlaps with a national holiday. Um the expectation though is to come back to us u staff and let us know individually how you're seeing this and if you've got uh any comments. But outside of that, we wanted you just to have this in in hand by now

and so we can plan with as much time uh possible. But mayor really um again if there was just something that is just totally out of the realm of possibility, we'll obviously make that change. tonight. It wasn't necessary to hash out everybody's calendar and date unless yall want to do that because again you all are driving the ship.

Those are all Tuesdays too. They are. Yes. That's just been the practice. Again, we'll carry a conversation. We got some other ideas and some suggestions as well.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to our consent agenda. Uh the first one is Elgen Wildcat Showcase special event application fee waivers. Veterans moral park expansion rental uh waiver waiver for street closure. Thursday, April 9th, uh, 1 through 8 I mean 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Depot Street between North Avenue B and North Avenue C. Event time, Thursday, April 9th, 5:30 to 700 p.m. Uh, the cost of this this particular waiver is 1275. And the next one is Elgen ISD education foundation crawfish festival special event waiver Elgen Memorial Park Pavilion uh rental waiver open uh container waivers sound ordinance waiver September I'm sorry Saturday April the 11th 7 to 8 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And the cost of those waivers is 1225. Um, I can speak to both of these if there's any questions. Uh, we also have the, uh, foundation president, Mr. Noble Smith, here uh, for questions if necessary.

Is Noble doing the crawfish? for join.

Introduce yourself in case people don't know who you are. Oh, good afternoon everyone. I'm Noble Smith. Um, at this moment I am the president of the Elgen Education Foundation. We are doing a crawfish boil. I'm sorry. We're doing a Elgen crawfish festival to benefit the Elgen ISC students and teachers. We are asking for the fee waivers and ordinance waivers in order to save money for our fundraiser. Um it's an event that we want to make a staple within the community. We do a Top Golf fundraiser that's really for our vendors in the fall. This is a community event driven towards our community, our teachers, our students. Um, we're really asking to save money on those fees. That way we can make all the money from the fundraiser. We are going to have live music. We're going to have a raffle. We're going to have an auction. Plenty of things that are going on with the fundraiser. But we're asking for was it $1,200 in fees to be waved. That way we can hopefully reach our goal of raising $20,000 for Elgen ISD uh for teacher grants, student scholarships, teacher scholarships. Um we are not asking for anything crazy, right? We are basically needing the park for the day. I know we said 7 to 8. It's really going to be about 9:00 a.m. when we start setting up to about 5:00 p. p.m. when we should every Let me call it 6 pm when we should should have everything shut down. Um, it's an event that I hold dear to myself. My family's from Louisiana, so we love some crawfish. We're looking for a spring event that'll be a big fundraiser that will rival our fall fundraiser, which is the top golf fundraiser. and we are wanting to invite the city, partner with the city to bring y'all out if any officials, whether it's the mayor, any of our city council members, want to speak on behalf of the

city in reference to the event. Um, we're looking to just have a a grand old time at Elgen Memorial Park, the big park, on April 11th. That way, we can raise as much money that we can for our school and for the foundation. A lot of foundations around us do all kinds of stuff where they're raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and that's exactly what we're looking to do for Elgen ISD is to raise that money. The foundation is the nonprofit arm of the district. So the district raises we as taxpayers raise the money for the district for the basic necessities. But what we're looking to do is to raise that money that goes beyond those basic necessities. Um, again, teacher grants, scholarships. We've raised money for Lego robotics programs, for headphones, for different um the testings that they have that we have within the district. We've raised money for I'm sorry we didn't get the mariachi ban this year but the district has so many different initiatives from elementary school, middle school and high school that we as a community and as taxpayers just don't have the money for. So this is what we are raising additional dollars for is to raise money for those extra things. We have outdoor student learning centers. We have in uh classroom libraries that we've raised money for and we just want to be able to do all the things that they do west of 35 here in Elgen so that our students and teachers in the community want to praise what we're doing here in Elgen ISD. We have this F rating within our district when I promise you we're not an F rated district. We are a B+ district from what I've seen. The teachers and what they give back, what our administrators give back, what our city gives back and events like this help us

create PR to put out there. So when what I'm trying to think of the website that the racist school school, it's one of the the big thing the big websites that people look at. We have Fs, we have D's. These are the type of events and type of programs that we can put together to actually help raise our district's rating. So, when people are moving here from all the stuff that y'all vote on for giving bron extra lots to to sell homes on. When people are looking at homes in our district, they see, oh, this district actually doing stuff back for the community. That's why we're putting on this program. It's a community event so everyone can come out and see what we're doing here in Elgen and raise money for our students and for our teachers to actually put us on the map in a good way. We get all the negative press. This is positive press that we're trying to bring into the community. We're asking for the fee waiver which is about $1,200. We're asking for the sound ordinance waiver and the alcohol waiver as well over container waiver to where people can be y to the event. But we would greatly appreciate the council support in reference to putting on our event and making it something that's going to be a event that will last throughout the years. I don't want this this first annual. I want when my children who are in prek that are grad that will graduate from Elgen in 12 years or plus I want to be come back here again asking for the same thing or whoever's in the president role at that time to say hey we're looking to do it 13 years 14 years and it's kind of a automatic thing. So I greatly appreciate y'all's consideration and if y'all have any questions for me please let me know. I think you've covered it all, pastor, in about three minutes.

Pass the collection plate. Thank you, Noble. Okay. Consent agenda. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. I'll second. Second. Okay. Who says? Who said second? Tiffany made the motion.

Make a motion. I second. Okay. All right. We'll begin with council member St. Pierre. St. Pierre. Yes. Rodriguez. Yes. Crim. Yes. Mcshen. Yes. Kasnowski. Yes. Gibson. Yes. Yes. Love. Yes. Motion carries. All right. New business. Presentation and acceptance of the annual audit report for the period ending September 30th, 2025 by Brooks Watson and Company PLC. PLLC.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh, it's great to see you all again. Um, my name is Mike Brooks, a partner with Brooks Watson and Company. I will be presenting you with your annual audited financial statements for the year ended September 30th of 2025. Oh, thank you. I believe you all have a copy of the full audited financial statements. It's a pretty significant report. I've tried to summarize some of the more important numbers and statements within the report in a summary presentation. Hopefully, it condenses condens condenses it down for you. Um, but I'm open it up to questions at the end. Okay. First, I just want to briefly go over the audit process. The audit can be broken into three general phases. So, the first is the planning and risk assessment phase. Uh this typically occurs prior to year end, but we're coming out and doing our factf finding mission and putting together our preliminary audit plan. So we want to find out what's happened this year, what's different, what's changed. Uh the next stage is the bulk of what we do. So this is what you're typically used to with most audits. This is when we're coming out looking at all the source documents, bugging all the staff, doing all of our tests, um and looking at all the support for all the material, assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenditures. And the final stage is the conclusion and reporting. So this is the wrap-up of any findings that we did have and the presentation of the report uh by myself to council. Um next next is the independent auditor's report. So this is our contribution to your audited financial statements. So all the information contained in those financial statements are derived from city data, city financial data and policies. um this is our letter and this is our opinion over those financials. So we can issue four possible outcomes of

our opinion. It could be an unmodified opinion which is the one you want or an adverse opinion uh which is one of the worst. Um so those are varying varying levels of assurance over the financial statements. Um we have issued a clean unmodified audit opinion over the financial statements. So this is the highest level of assurance that we can give that these financial statements are free of any material misstatement and all footnotes are disclosed in accordance with GAP. Next, I just want to touch on several financial highlights. So as of the end of the year, total citywide assets exceeded liabilities by 68.7 million. Your governmental funds, which includes your general, general fund, capital projects, special revenue funds, and debt service funds, had total combined ending fund balances of 8.7 million. This was a decrease of about 2.6 million from the prior year. Your unassigned fund balance in the general fund totaled just under 2.8 million this year, and the city had an overall increase in net position on the full approval level uh of 11.3 million. Next is a summary of your governmental activities revenues. So this excludes your water and sewer fund. This is just your general fund and other governmental funds. Uh total revenues for the year were 22.2 million. This was an increase of about 3.4 million. Your property taxes totaled 7.9 million had an increase of 1.4 million. Your sales taxes totaled 2.9 million also had an increase of 117,000. Your charges for services totaled just under 6.4 million and had an increase of about 550,000. And your grants and contributions totaled 3.7 million and had an increase of 1.6 million. Next is a summary of your governmental activities expenses. Again, this does not include your water and sewer expenses. Total expenses for the year were 19.1 million. This was an increase of about 1.2 million over the prior

year. Uh some of the larger expenses were public safety at 5.4 million, had a decrease of 580,000. Um public works totaled just over 2 million and had a decrease of 84,000. General government total 5.2 had an increase of 1.2 million. And your parks and reck wreck expenses total 3.8 million and had an increase of about 875,000. Next is a summary of your changes in fund balance for your governmental funds. So the numbers I'm going to point out here are your overall increase or decrease in fund balance for each of these funds. And then we'll talk about the ending fund balance for your general fund. Uh but starting on the lefth hand side, your general fund had a decrease this year of about 2.4 million primarily due to a transfer out of the general fund into the capital projects fund. your capital projects fund uh had an increase this year of just just under eight million. Uh this was almost entirely due to transfers in uh if you recall there was a um fund balance over spent fund balance last year of about six million and funds were transferred in to replenish this fund balance up to a positive position. Uh that came from the general fund and your other capital projects capital improvements fund. So that fund currently has an ending fund balance of about 1.8 million uh in the positive. Your debt service fund had an increase this year of about 880,000 and your non- major governmental funds which also included that capital improvements fund had a decrease of 3.7 million. So there was an additional fund that had to transfer into your capital projects fund um which replenished it. All right. Next is the ending fund balance for your general fund. Um this is an important number to look at because cities do want to maintain an adequate unassigned fund balance reserve in case of emergencies

um or unplanned expenditures which um came in handy for current year transfers. But the ending fund balance uh the unassigned portion of it of that ending fund balance can be compared to your annual general fund expenditures uh to assess the uh the reserve. So when you look at it and you say it it could fund operations for two, three, four, five months or maybe just a percentage of the annual expenditures for your general fund. Um the city's policy is to have a 25% uh reserve and that's a pretty general rule of thumb, pretty common. Um this year the city ended with just under 2.8 million which equated to about 17%. Um, and this was um, you know, entirely due to the the decrease this year related to the transfer, but overall it's it's not in a terrible position. Um, the GFO recommends a minimum of at least two months and that's that's right where you guys sit. So, it is below city policy. Um, but I assume the city will be taking steps to to increase that. Next is the budget to actual for your general fund. Um, so on the lefth hand side you see the final budgeted numbers. This is after all amendments have been made. Um the city did have a final budgeted deficit, so a planned reduction in fund balance this year of about just over just under 4.3 million. Um the city had positive revenue uh variances, positive expenditure variances and positive other financing sources and uses which are generally going to be your transfers. Um, so as the city did have a planned deficit, so you anticipated decreasing fund balance uh by just under 4.3 million, you had a smaller decrease of about 2.4 million. So that's that resulted in overall positive budget variance of about 1.8 million. Next is a summary of changes in net

position for your utility fund. The utility fund is often called an enterprise fund um because it is ran similar to a private enterprise in that it is funded with fees and rates. Um that's different than your governmental funds which are funded by taxes and other other grants and sources. Um these funds should have rates that are set at the appropriate level that should fund operations, debt service, um and any capital improvements. So if these funds are losing money or you have a u decreases over time within these funds, it's typically an indication there's some sort of rate issue or operational issue that needs to be addressed. Um as of the end of the year, the utility fund had an overall increase of about 5.8 million. So that amount was added to your ending deposition. And I will say at least three about about three million of that was related to impact fees which are restricted for capital projects. Um, so just operationally it wasn't quite as significant, but it still was in a positive position. All right. In addition to my audit presentation, you do have two additional letters in your packet there. One is our required auditor disclosure letter. So this just gives us an opportunity to discuss any issues we that we had with the completion of the audit. Um, some of our more significant disclosures and estimates and risks. Um overall uh the audit went um much better this year and we were able to get it issued much sooner. The city did a lot of work uh to get it to that point and I think it's been quite some time uh since the city's been able to issue prior to March. Um so I don't know how many years at least at least three but possibly more. So it's um a significant change from last year and the the staff here did a did a great job getting everything for us. Um, in addition, we do have our findings and recommendations. Uh, so we did have several findings. Um, I would say about

half as many as we did last year. Uh, so the city did make improvements there as well. And, um, I won't go over each of those, but if you had questions or would like me to talk about anything else, I'd be happy to.

Could we go over the findings? Sure. So the findings are going to be the slightly thinner letter. Uh the first finding is related to the city's controls over uh the financial statements and financial statement disclosure. Uh this is a required required finding whenever we as auditors come in and prepare the audited financial statements. So we're putting this this document together for the city. Um we are essentially serving as the city's internal control over financial reporting. So without us doing it um the city is not technically able to do this complete report. Certainly not uncommon. Most of our cities contract us or someone else to do that. It's u it's not super common to have somebody on a staff especially of a city this size uh that has this ability. Um however it is a reportable condition whenever we do that. So that's why it's included. Uh the next finding is over pulled cash. Um so the city does utilize what's called a pulled cash fund where you have one bank account that's shared by various funds. Um now this is a convenient way to maintain your cash cash. There's only one bank reconciliation. Um you don't have to monitor multiple banks. So it is although it is convenient it can be um it can cause issues if it's not monitored closely. Um so what can happen is a certain fund may um although the the cash account itself has a positive balance a particular fund may have a negative balance because they're pulling from uh the pulled c one single pool cash account. Um, so what the city uh needs to do is monitor those pulled cash accounts with the individual funds, make sure funds are transferred in from the various investment accounts or other accounts uh to replenish any negative balances questions on that

might have been a little confusing. Yeah. Um, in the event that there's a deficit one fund or one of the others We're not required to do an amendment to the budget. We just because it's in a pulled account, we can just So, it's not the expense that's being overspent. It's really just um imagine the city has uh your investment account. So, you have a text pool account. You have a pulled cash account. Um and the pulled cash is pulling is spending cash, but the city isn't transferring it in from the investment account to replenish that. Um, so it's it's a matter of monitoring it, putting the placing the cash into the back into the pool cash. Um, so it's it's not as if the city is spending money it doesn't necessarily have. It's more of a administrative function of making sure

I just in terms of trying to keep track of it, it you know, I don't know. Yeah. My I mean our recommendation is that the city reports these cash balances to the to the city um at every meeting so you have you have a visual of what's going on there. Um, but overall the the count itself, the pulled cash is is fine. It's really just the city's administration over how it works.

How many is multiple? Uh, have to look back. Um, I don't want to give you a number. It's several though. Um, sorry. Uh the next comment is related to the city's compliance with the public funds investment act. Um so the city does have to adopt an investment policy in compliance with this act. Investment officers are required to attend um compliant training and the investment officers are al also required to submit um compliant investment reports to the city council on no less than a quarterly basis. Um so the city uh had not reviewed and approved the policy annually related within this audit period and some of the investment reports did not have all the required documentation. So our finding here was recommending that the city make sure that you follow this act and and uh become compliant with it. And the next comment is related to a change in the state law over competitive bidding requirements. So recently there was a change which required um bumped up the minimum threshold from 50,000 to 100,000 for competitive bid competitively bid projects. Um so the city should update and have have that incorporated into your current um purchasing policy. So that concludes the findings and recommendations. So, mayor, also, um, we do have a couple things we'd like to kind of go over on the internal processes that we have after Mr.

Brooks is completed with whatever he needs to be presenting this council so that we can, and I know he's He's got his presentation. We don't want to get in front of that. So, but we did want before we go off to the next one, we did have a couple things we wanted to kind of just also provide the council as well some updates to

more questions for him, Mr. Brooks. All right. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Thanks for the work. Absolutely. And um you guys know how to find me if you do have questions. Oh, we will.

All right. Thank you. Great. So, can we have Miss Anders and and Miss Lori from Gradient? Uh, and this really is just to fill in some some gaps and bring it up to this period as well because remember too um when we're talking about uh our audit as well, we're talking about the year ending up to September 30th up to 2025. And so it almost seems like I even told him I said man it's been a whole year and stopped myself. It was six months ago. So, putting that in context, right? Uh, but still some good stuff uh with all this and some good stuff that's actually happened. And so I just like to bring up a couple things in in the timing of some things and some of the reporting that we're doing some internal controls and some things that we're doing right now as to how some of the stuff that we're caught up to date and doing some things already so fast and so clean and clear that I want the council just to know how on track we are with doing this. Um he was he was tasked with doing up to 25. I just want to already start talking about, you know, October 1, 25 forward too. That's what excites me as well. But that's why I want to give you a sneak peek as to since that October one, 2025, what we've been doing to course correct and even get better since then. So, can you give us a couple things on talking about?

Sure. So, I don't know if you all remember this slide from last year. We've updated it. So in for the fiscal year 2024, I want to remind everybody that that was presented to the city council on October 21st of 2025. We had already completed a fiscal year that at that point we had no control over fixing because that fiscal year had closed. So moving forward, we knew we were expecting and anticipating certain things to happen for fiscal year 25. The list that we anticipated was longer than the list of findings that we've got. So that tells you that we have improved. We had eight findings in fiscal year 2024. We had four findings in fiscal year 2025. The last finding for purchasing in my opinion is not a finding. It's a recommendation to improve our policy. We are still compliant with the law. We are stricter than the law. So when I say that, I look at three findings for this year. They are the same findings that we've had in previous years. Um, you'll notice that they're green and yellow and not red anymore on this slide. We will always have the internal control finding. It's not an internal control as far as procedures. It's an internal control because we do not prepare our annual audit report. We rely on our auditor to prepare prepare the financial statements. So, until we have staffing at adequate levels with competent staff, we do not have the means to do that internally. So until we get to that point, we will always have that finding. Pulled cash has improved tremendously. Um it was explained in a sense that I think might still be confusing to everybody. The problems that was um the question that came up was we didn't transfer money from bank account to bank account. Our funds are still accurate. Our pulled cash is still accurate. But when you don't do a transfer from bank account to bank account, that messes up

your cash accounts because it is two different things. Fund accounting, cash transactions. Um the investment reports, we are aware in 2025 that we didn't bring those reports to council. Wasn't aware they needed to come to council. We did pass the investment policy report in December of 2025, which is actually fiscal year 2026. We started bringing you um the investment reports in January 2026 like we discussed and agreed upon. These were our upcoming goals last year when we presented the audit. Three of the five have already been completed. We are working on reconciling the pulled cash and reserves. It's been an ongoing process and we anticipate by the end of this fiscal year we will present you with some revised financial policies. So we are moving in the right direction. Can I say also or can I ask how quickly are we reconciling and how how how are we doing that?

Today is March 17th. We are currently reconciling February's bank statement. So how was it you what months were we usually in March? What were we usually doing? In my experience what I have seen that we were reconciling fiscal years the month before auditors came in. So, so when we also say that we are keeping track of all of our um financial um movements, we're strict about monitoring those financial movements. We cannot go a step further. This is the new floor and we ratchet it up. That's a new floor. And ratchet up. That's a new floor. And so, we're not going back and we're just getting better. So that's what we're trying to continue to say. And I think from even the numbers that are showing this, y'all took a great step, a difficult one, and course correcting on the six million that needed to be applied. And we did that, right? I didn't have fun doing it. I just got here. But we knew that's the adult decision to do. Fund it the way it needs to be. And that's why we had to take it mid year, fund it, course correct it, and it pops up here to say, "Hey guys, you're now you see, you know, the accounts that are now all trending in black because you've course corrected, course corrected, course correct. Are we where we need to be?" No. I want to have four, five, six months in reserve. We're going to be there. We got to fix the foundation first and then we're going to be there as we continue to grow forward. But we got to fix the foundation first. I'm sorry y'all did the heavy lifting. There's a little bit more heavy lift than go, but we are on a glide path that is positive. And so I'm proud of the team that we've got. I'm proud of the team that we've put together. Gradient's done awesome work. And um you know our audit team again everybody's clicking. We're doing what I think needs to be done now. We need to start seriously looking at

getting that, executive level team, that infill team of the mid managers to start now coming out here because we have a big story to tell. And I think we start attracting those people that we want to attract. Uh even with an investigation or not, the numbers show what we've got and um that's what gets me as well. Not just this, but finally that one thing that's still left off on my list to find a good or great finance director may soon come and we can only do it with this kind of stuff. So that's what I'm sorry taking the time, but that's what really is important because first it's your people, then it's your cash, and you better be good at both. So we're getting there.

I think this is also showing that the city has t step forward from what we received last year. The paper's not as thick. And Pam, I have to agree with you on the comment about the purchasing. I mean, we have to deal with the same thing with my employer. And it's it's funny that that's considered a finding when you're actually you're just being strict, but you're being more aware of what's going on.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. So there's technically there's no um requirement for you all to accept it to be honest. Uh there is um just a presentation that it is delivered to you by virtue of you uh getting it delivered to you that is checked off the log. So even if you'd like to disapprove of it, don't like it, don't like the um it is still a function of what we've done. So um but I think again if there's some conversation we need to have especially during budget I think that's a healthy approach to where we drill down into some of this to get even better. So

thank you. All right. The second one is consideration and possible action with respect to the issuance of refunding bonds up to 12,000 12 million sorry 670,000 to achieve a debt service savings including appointing a a pricing officer delegating bond pricing authority to the pricing officer within established pricing parameters and considering approval of an ordinance authorizing the issuance of city of Elgen, Texas general obligation refunding uh bonds. Series 2 2026 living and adorum tax in support of the bonds approving a paying agent registar agreement a purchase agreement and an escrow agreement establishing procedures for selling and delivering the bonds and authorizing other matters.

This lawyer is always using the long the longest words we could find. Good evening mayor, council members. My name is Angela Avula. I work with MCL Parkers and Horn, the law firm that represents the CDS bond council. It's a pleasure to see you all. So, this item um essentially addresses the presentation your financial adviser Chris Allen talked about earlier with regards to the bond um refinancing and the ordinance itself just it um it formally issues the city's general obligation refunding bond series 2026. It outlines the purpose which is of course to refinance certain of this city's outstanding debt um to achieve savings. Um it also allows um it appoints an a pricing officer a delegate's authority to um specifically your city manager Mr. Eid or u Miss Sanders to execute a pricing certificate on the pricing date which as of now is March 26th. But if the market isn't doing so great that day, then your pricing officer can choose to execute that certificate on another day and essentially close the transaction and actually issue the debt. Um, so again, if you decide to move forward today, you are not issuing debt today. You're just allowing your pricing officer to do so whenever it's most convenient for the city to achieve savings. Um, the ordinance also outlines parameters your pricing officer has to stay within. So, in other words, you you cannot execute the pricing certificate unless certain savings are being achieved. You're not exceeding a principal amount, which is that 12,670,000 amount um and so forth. So, again, you're just delegating authority um to your pricing officer to take the steps ne necessary on on a given day. Um, and that's all I've got for you, unless you have other questions for me.

Refresh my memory. What was the ceiling for the the savings? We said a percentage, didn't we? Yes, it's 2.0. 2.0. I think she promised like six or something. I cannot do that.

That's what I heard. I got a bad ear, but maybe and our pricing officer Who is the right? So you know it's um your either your city manager or your finance director. So Mr. Eids or Miss Sanders can execute that certificate

and by virtue I'll also point out that we're both uh public funds investment officers for the city. So we are actually by virtue of resolution passed and from our training and the requirements as well. That's that's why we come up also on the radar. And so you're working with her to know exactly when to hit the button.

Okay. Because I want to know how you gonna know it's Oh, no. I I don't know. Yes. Your financial advisor put together a timeline for all parties involved and Okay. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Allen. So pricing is tentatively s set for March 26, which is not this Thursday, but next. So they will be, you know, buckled in their seats and should numbers come in, Mr. Allen and his team will be looking at the market and confirm, you know, today we should price or say let's delay and we're all in constant communication so we'll know to proceed.

So this is to give authority for them to act on our behalf of refinancing. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second and we'll begin with Council Member Rodriguez. Rodriguez, yes. Crim, yes.

Yes. Casnovski, yes. Yes. Yes. Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes. Motion carries. Thank you all. Have a great evening. Okay. Okay. Number three is an ordinance amending the uh official zoning map of the city of Elgen, Texas adopted in chapter 46 section 46-3 revised code of ordinances the city of Elgen, Texas 2013 and making the amendment a part of said zoning map to wit to reszone land from R1 single family residential district to C2 general commercial district located on a parcel of land uh known by the Bastaster up county appraisal district as parcel 4173. 33 the Elgen West Countryside lot 11 acres 1 point uh 1.076 at five 1512 North Avenue C being described in exhibit Attached uh here to providing for a savings clause and repealing conflicting ordinances.

Good evening everyone. Um my name is Melissa Lipic. don't normally see me here. I am Bo Perry standin. So my role is the secretary for the planning and zoning commission. Uh my title is planning technician for the development services commission. So this item was one of the public hearing um items earlier today. Um and the current zoning of the property is residential. It is under a specific use permit for a child care facility. It's the former Mabber's Munchkins. So, a new owner has purchased the property and is operating a another uh child care facility. They would like to expand. By expanding, they're going to be adding a larger building and the R or residential zoning uh regulations don't allow for that expansion. So that is the reason they are requesting the zoning change to commercial and I'm here for any to answer any questions.

This went through planning and zoning. Yes, the planning and zoning commission met on this item in their February meeting and they have recommended the change. So they want to expand I know the house I know where you're talking about. So they want to add an additional house or they or

they want to make it larger or a separate building. they want to add. And this building would be used as a indoor recreation center for the children because it gets so hot here. They want to have indoor play space instead of, you know, setting the kids out at 100 degree weather,

right? It's been a daycare for like 30 30 years. Yeah. They keep coming back 30 40 years. They come back. I I I make a motion that we approve this the ordinance. I mean the zoning change for that particular propert. We'll begin with council member Crim.

Crim. Yes. McShan. Yes. Kaznowski. Yes. Gibson. Yes. Yes. Love. Yes. St. Pierre. No. Rodriguez. Yes. All right. An ordinance number four is an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Elgen, Texas adopted in chapter 46 section 46-3 revised code of ordinances city of Elgen, Texas 2013 and making this amendment a part of said zoning map to wit to reszone from C1 neighborhood shopping district to C2 general commercial district 0.5880 acres of land on Travis County parcel 557535 lot one canon edition and 2.0920 acres of land on Travis County parcel 557 536 lot 2 canon edition located at 13 919 County Line Road being described in exhibit Attached here to and providing for a statements clause and refilling conflicting articles There he is.

Yes, we do have the applicant here for uh with with a presentation. Same thing. We did have a public hearing earlier today and this property is current currently zoned C1. So, it's already commercially zoned and they want to change the zoning to C2. What is the difference between C1 and C2? In addition to adding more commercial uses, the main difference is the size of the building. C1 limits the building size to 5,000 square ft. And they want to um they propose building an 8,000 square foot facility. That would be a gasoline, you know, convenience store with fuel sales as well as uh food. So that's the main difference between C1, which it's already zoned, and C2. It's a be able to have a larger building and more businesses there.

Justice. Thank you, Mayor and Council, City Manager. Uh Vincent Heinger with Vincent Gerard representing the the proposed buyer for this thing. As you know, it's been vacant for a while. Let me get this right. Um, can we start? Okay. Um, this may be the old one. Uh, okay. So, uh, basically, um, this is an area. It's a, uh, of County Line and Raymond Johnson Road. It has been vacant for a long time. Um, we're going to, uh, I think this is the wrong PowerPoint, but let me see if I can make this work. um thousands of rooftops around there, even existing, even planned. Um it's on a major arterial FM100 that's going to be improved by texttop. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And also, um on Raymond Johnson Road, so it's a hard corner. The previous zoning case, yeah, this is not the right one. Okay. Well, we we'll make it work. I'm sorry, mayor. Um the previous zoning case was C2. that is just about four lots to the right on the same road. Um, it can do exactly what we're asking to do, gasoline sales. And and we're we're not trying to do that. We I mean, we're trying to do that, but we're trying to go from C1 to C2. The difference of land uses from C1. C1 includes umarmacies, markets, supermarkets, groceries, stuff like that. Um, those are all high traffic, highlight, high intensity, like this young lady was talking about. We don't want to do that. We want to do a nice neighborhood market. We have one in my neighborhood I go to all the time. HB is three and a half miles down. Got across 290 from here. Yes, there's convenience stores, but this isn't a convenience store. This is a neighborhood market deli with the

drive-thru. It's very well done architecturally and it has great elements of it and is very large. It has sitdown seats. Uh you can see the dining room uh area over there. You can see the drive-thru as such. Um it's very well done. Um if we get through with this um the development requirements would be to provide a traffic impact analysis which will decide the staff Bo Perry and them on the improvements that are necessary. They'll also have to do a reubdivision which unifies the two lots into one. dedicate rideways, build sidewalks, and we can certainly put buffer systems and landscaping in there for for like this corner in the major arterial. Um, that's a shot of the Round Rock store. Um, ba basically uh a really nice market as well. There's the inside. There's the drive-thru for the students, teachers, anybody in the neighborhood can come in and get a hot meal. Breakfast going to school. every everybody can run through this thing and it's really convenient as well. Um I have much more slides and uh that I had prepared. Let's talk about the economic value. Um the Round Rock store created $348,000 of sales tax for Round Rock. That would be uh given to the city of Elgen. We just saw the presentation that your increase last year was only $100,000 in sales tax. This is three times that amount. Um, they're going to hire 12 full-time employees and four part-time employees and and they're going to start at around the $45,000 mark for a manager or something like that and $17 an hour

um working from memory. Again, it is um it is also going to increase the the school taxes by $46,000 a year. It's going from a vacant track that's valued $431,000 and the buyers estimate that this site will be about $4 million. So, so it's a good windfall for the city. Um, all the elements that were worried about that these young ladies are worried about from uh the C1 zoning, they're not marketable. The thing has been zoned this for ever. And nobody wants to put an automobile parking lot. Nobody wants to put a beastro. Nobody wants to put any office park there. It is on two major arterials. So, it is a hard corner. Unfortunately, that hard corner is in Tex DOT's plans. So, they're going to go come in and expand that intersection, too. And this developer, the proposed buyer, will have to participate in whatever that traffic impact analysis recommendation is in negotiation with the city. So, I apologize the latest one didn't get here, but that uh that leads me to a couple of things. We had last 24 hours, we had three letters of support sent to our office, and I shared those with Bo Perry. Uh Blanco Woods Boulevard is right behind us to the south. um lady named Maris Saul Pauline, another lady named Mur Murray Cruz Guerrera and a gentleman named Ian Pauline. So they support this thing. Um there was a young man at planning and zoning commission uh that was in support. I asked him to please show up here tonight. Um he was nervous about speaking in a public forum, but I don't see him here. He was also in the neighborhood as well. So this this basically is just the same thing you approved in a residential

neighborhood but on the hard corner for the benefit of these neighbors convenience and market. So I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. We have the a very tough variance to talk about too. So I'll just stop right there and wait for that one. Thank you. Can I uh Melissa, what did uh this went through planning commission already? Yes, the planning and zoning commission um met on this item in their February meeting just like the item before and there's a they're a seven member uh commission. Their vote was to deny the change or recommend denial of the change and the vote was split. It was a four uh four people voted against it and three people voted for it or voted no on the motion. So, it was a split vote, but they did ultimately vote to recommend denial.

Thank you. Um, ask question here, Mayor. So, in speaking to Mr. Perry, uh, earlier today, he did mention to me that he's in receipt of a memo or letter from text. Um that is I'm just texting him right now to verify that that is true and just to make sure that we're all on the same page. Um but he is saying that text has put in writing that uh they are not they would not or will not allow for any curb cut permits uh on FM100. That that's going to be have that will be have to be worked out eventually when if Can you you mean a curb cut

meaning entry point entry point and the entry points on this are really difficult. I was looking at this. I live right there. Um the amount of traffic violations that I see from people doing U-turns or illegal U-turns to try to get in and out of this place is going to be absolutely insane. Um, and I'd have to disagree. I don't think this is what our neighborhood wants at all in this area where you said that they didn't want any beastro or cafes. I think you're incorrect. What we don't want is another gas station.

And just so I understand, you mean no curb cuts off 1100? Correct. It's going to be on Raymond Johnson and County Line, and they're both situated where those road uh those block medians with all the rocks and stuff in the middle, they're on those sides. So, you would have to make Uturns to get into this place. Coming south on County Line Road, if you wanted to get in there, you would have to make a U-turn. And if you're coming off of 1100 onto Raymond Johnson, you would have to make a U-turn at that four-way stop.

I guess I would ask the buyer's representative what what has been the conversation regarding that. Thank you, council member. Um, in the real presentation we had the text dot plans. They're going to eliminate, let me see if I can go back to the map. They're going to eliminate the entire 1100 curve and improve Raymond Johnson Road and County Line Road. So, I think that if we would do something, we would probably do something like this on Raymond Johnson Road and have one on that. I also believe that the traffic impact analysis would make the uh the developer put in money funds for improving this intersection as well. Maybe like a street light or something like that. But my conversation with Bo Perry was like that's a negotiation item that's not set. Um it's a based on the amount of linear feet of street that we'll have on 1100 which is,000 ft.

Yeah. And and I will say um that that we still work at least Perry and myself on this side of the table, this little portion of the table. Uh we work at the will of the council too. So if this is something the council wants to move forward with, we definitely can make it. There are ways to um zone it uh to be able to work in concert with the property owners to have a PDD and negotiate something. um that's outside of the conversations that or the questions that you're having now. So that I just want to speak on behalf of Bo that he also did mention look the council still wishes to move forward. There are ways to do it and so that that I want to put on the table. Having said that, the other questions is really up to this council to say how do you, you know, manage it with community uh noise pollution or traffic concerns or pedestrians. That that is something to heavily considered as well.

Yeah, I've received multiple phone calls and um had a young lady pull me aside at work that I didn't even know lived in Elgen. um and stated that a lot of people in the community did not want this. They were not in agreement for this based off the schools, the daycarees. There's a lot of foot traffic. There's a lot of students. Um we all see that see the high school students, the middle school students, everyone walks over there. Um this just does not seem a good fit for the community in that area.

I agree with you. I sit at Shannondoa every day waiting for my grandson to walk from the high school and I see all of this and I'm not talking about our students but they don't drive just the best way possible and or the parents or but I mean they're racing some of them are racing they'll come through parking lot and I want to stand out there so bad and go stop it you know but that's this is just too much that's there that's too much going on in that little corner And that corner has never been a good place. Uh it's been there for for many years. It's never been a good place. And the way the traffic goes now and have those students that are driving and they're not they're leaving school doing what they want to do and they're not paying attention. You add a store of any kind,

whether it's beastro, cafe, drive-thru, whatever. That's just not the good place for that. And I'm not our students. I mean, kids are kids. I just kid myself, but uh that's just not a good place for traffic. We have enough problems, like you say, there's enough problems there already

without adding to it. And this would be adding to it. I don't think anybody's going to get up and move and sell their house because they don't have a beastro or they don't have a God, we don't need another service, uh filling station, gas station. You're right. We don't need that there. There's just too much congestion already.

I also think the Texico there serves very well and that Texico has been here long before I've been here and I'm sure some of those others and I would be disheartened to take business from them when they've been in Elgen for so long to put competition a 100 yards away from their front door just doesn't seem right.

And even adding that extra part of the cost that's going to be even added. We haven't even figured that part in. It's just it's too congested already. You don't need to add anything.

Well, I mean, I I guess I'm going to play devil's advocate. So So does that. Do we just say that nobody can ever build anything on that parcel? Because I I grew up I I grew up at a high school and People's Pharmacy was right across from my high school. And guess where everybody spent their money? At the People's Pharmacy in their deli. It's already C1.

Yeah. Like nothing could be I know. But the way you're talking like we can't add anything there. And I'm thinking and I'm thinking, you know, again, people are looking at data. They're looking at rooftops. They're looking at those apartments. They're looking at students. What do they buy? And the data says this is what they buy. And that's why they want to put that there. And and so I'm just trying to make that objective that back to your comment um Robert about a PP about a you know um

PDD PDD that if it's it sound because it sounds like the neighborhood what I heard from the neighborhood is that they want an amenity. They don't necessarily want this amenity but they would like an amenity. So maybe I would like to steer us towards well if there's an amenity that we want then why don't we sit down if the developers are agreeable to say is there something where we can both get to yes rather than saying no this is never going to be developed is there something that the community would like because me personally I would love to be able to walk out my door a couple blocks and go grab a bite or something like that. Do I want a gas station? Not my first thing. this is not my neighborhood, but um I can I can understand the push back. So, I guess I'm just trying to say is there is there something where we could get something that's viable for both sides

and the people that I spoke with did agree that yes, something they are okay with something there. It's the gas station aspect of it. I think that's the part of that's that's the the problem then and I guess the next item that we'll get to is the problem. So it's it's to those two things in one. Not saying

keep in mind this place has been vacant for about 30 years. Uh and I'm not advocating for a gas station or anything else. But at the same time we have an obligation I think to our taxpayers to to at least entertain uh gentleman commented that what sales tax and stuff it would generate. I uh I I I think it's too congested too for for for probably that project. My thing is also if text dot says they're not going to allow any cutins, then why are we even having this discussion? I mean, it's a moot case, right? If if text dot I had a piece of property in Bastrop as a realtor and I tried to sell it and it's right right next to the uh the movie theater. So, it's on that opposite corner. belongs to uh oh what's his name used to be our uh anyway and we couldn't sell it. texttop would not agree to allow us to put cutins there for access to and from that that facility for that they were going to do basically the same thing and textile said no kill the cell so I I don't know I'm not sure that we don't need to clarify that that would be the case

well the cut ends were on 1100's going away right there well I thought they said they wouldn't allow any any at all on 1100 right you're 1100 that but that Johnson Road will then be 1100 road and county line will be 1100.

Yeah, but Johnson Road is going to turn into 1100. I would guess right. I mean 1100 curve right there. I believe I believe you're right. I think I think maybe Melissa knows this. I remember this that they're going to take away the curve, right? And just go and just go 1100 straight into county line. So, and so I guess I don't quite understand how they maybe I'm not understanding the map.

What? Please, if you can come up. Not even sure who you are, sir. Maybe you tell us who you are. Which way? Sorry, who are you? Michael Gonzalez, public works director, interim downtown plant manager. The uh memo this morning was for the curve part of Texas um FM100 and that's what the applicant was referring to, just the facts that it was for that curve portion. We call Raymond Johnson this other portion over here, but it was for the curb cuts on that side. I got that memo because it was dressed to Michael Gonzalez, but not me, the engineers, Michael Gonzalez. Just wanted to provide you that information. So, so in lie of all that, are we suggesting that they wouldn't or would provide cutins?

Well, I'm sorry, Melissa, can you can you detail us the way taxing the the the project uh layout as as it will be built out, where they're getting rid of the curb, and how we're seeing this come out officially.

Yes. I'm sorry I don't have a map but no use what we've got up there if you want. I don't know how to use this pointer. So yeah, this is the portion that 1100 uh that uh text will be eliminating. So this portion that comes over here will become will go away. I don't know that they will completely eliminate that road because the apartment complex that is being being built here may still exit out onto that, but it's just going to be a kind of a small feeder road. But, um, that will be major traffic won't go through there anymore. They're going to go straight down here and tee into County Line Road and then have to come this way and then T there's another T where 1100 will continue down.

That's the way I remember both explaining it. Yeah. So I assume the access points or the curb cuts are coming going to come off county line in Johnson. Yes. So one is shown here. This is not an approved plan but this is their proposed plan. So this is the one that is uh proposed on County Line Road and the First Baptist Church is down here.

Sorry, Michael. And then the other one is uh on Raymond Johnson and there may be a median that is prohibiting like um council member St. Pierre said that you would not be able to turn here to get in if that was there's a median.

It's same thing on County Line Road. there is a median and so you wouldn't be able to turn traveling south on County Line Road into there either. No. And so if those are going to be 1100 County Line Road that portion and Raymond Johnson 1100 and text a saying no cutouts then the proposed cutouts are on 1100 both of these.

So definitely you would have to plan to get there the correct way. I think it's doable on their part but again because we don't have that TIA or traffic impact analysis. Um, we're not there yet. Um, I think I think um there is some speculating that we're trying to foresee some things for sure, but what we do know in front of us is you would go from C1 to C2 and C2 allows for certain things including and up to the proposed use, right? And

fuel sales and alcohol sales are included uses in C2, right? And so I and I I don't want to sound this way, but I think this is where we we kind of stop and because anything past there from our part would be speculation and where it could be and how it may be. But what we do know is that outside of what council suggested in what I brought up with the PBD. The only thing really here is going to be that C1 to C2 or some split the baby somehow and shifting over to negotiate with them to provide some sort of PDD agreement that it somehow gets both parties to agree to something that's more manageable. I can't I don't know what the owner rep would say about that. if it needs to be whole and we haven't gone down that road and I don't know if you've gone that g down that road with Mr. Perry but uh

yes we talked about that with the b um yeah this is tough this is a tough case I I I had a lot of research I'm going to go back to the variance there's a lot of TABC research I didn't know about that I found out about but what what Mr. is talking about is can you can you do this with a PDD and and the answer is yes. That was going to be am I close enough? That was going to be kind of our fallback position because a PDD will allow buffers and and improvements and those things that are worked out between the staff and then brought to you guys. It's almost like a consolid conditional use permit. So you can mitigate the gas. You can mitigate certain things. You can work and and come up with a solution that benefits all. And yes, Mayor, something's got to go there. It's been vacant for such a long time. I don't know what it could be. These prospective buyers want this. They've studied it. They will not buy it if it's not zoned appropriately or they can't sell beer, wine, because that's like 10% of their profit and that's make or break for these stores. That was one question. Um, can you and maybe there's a backup question for Melissa. Can you have a restaurant that sells beer and wine on site like a beastro in C1 or is that only C2?

Yes, you can have a restaurant that does sell beer and alcohol. How, however, when you start looking at that, you start looking at a different chapter of our ordinances that deals with alcohol sales. And that's another item that's coming up after this item where a part it's it's a total separate issue. So strictly speaking, alcohol sales are our ordinance currently prohibits the sale of alcohol within 1,000 ft of uh school property. And so this property is right across the street from the school. It also limits sales of alcohol um within a thousand feet of churches. And there's different methods to measure the distances. For for schools, it's property line to property line. For churches, it's front door to front door. So, First Baptist Church is right across the street from this property. But the way you measure the distance for the church, it's outside of that 1,00 ft. But definitely the school would be an issue. So, I'm confused though if why are we having this discussion if that's the case.

Well, I was going to suggest mayor if I can suggest and I think we're going to at the same point. Can we maybe take the next item first and then take this one? Right. Because maybe one will dictate the other. I I I don't know that to be true, but I think

I thought it was 300 ft. Well, but it but it's a question about next. Right. Why not maybe take that one because that'll dictate it'll dictate what we do, right? You want to do that. Okay, let's go to number five and talk about um the alcohol sale that's in there. Sorry. show is consideration of a request by Vincent Gerard and Associates agent uh Duca property owner to grant a variance to the distance pro prohibition for the sale of alcohol per section 8-20 places where alcoholic beverages may not be sold A1 allowing the sale of alcohol beer and wine from a proposed convenience market and fuel station at 13919 County Line road.

Thank you, Mayor Vince. You're back. Uh oh. Can we go back to it? Yeah. Um I think Council Member Joy, you were talking about the percentage of I mean the restaurant there's some kind of a

deal where 51% of their food sales they can serve alcohol. they just have to turn it into the city to check every year. I think that's something that that maybe is at a sit down on premises. This is just take out off premises. So anyway, here's my TABC research. Um actually this rule was was put out to by right after prohibition 1935. Um they wanted to I guess appease some some uh uh some people, some church members, stuff like that. Um, alcohol will not be consumed on premises and 15 10 to 15% according to the buyers is is about their market for the sales. It's not any more of 85%. They're going to be, you know, focusing on other things sales as as well. The distance from the school front door is 540 ft. I think the distance from the church front door is a little bit a little bit further like 580 ft. Um, buyers have told me is in their other stores. They they program their cash registers to make sure that that nobody either tobacco or alcohol sells anything. My personal thing, I've raised two adults. They were teenagers. They want to find beer. They're going to find beer somewhere. Um, and I also personally think the last place they'll be going to is one right next to the school um, where those probably the teachers get gas and and food and stuff like that. So, similar to Rudy's General Store except less less tables. Um, and it caters to the need. Um, I don't have these other There it is. Yes, this this is the AI origin system of of check. So, in 35 they passed the rule. Um, they allowed municipalities to to applied as well. In 83, they expanded it to

1,000,000 feet. And the biggest thing that I found out talking to the uh the the buyers is that TABC just wants a $10,000 bond. They just want to ensure that that this is more scrutinized. They watch the place more. If it's within that distance, uh these buyers have an impeccable record with TABC. no violations, no anything. So, I I didn't never understand what what this rule was supposed to do. Um, it's just com community tells us what is acceptable to them. This is on you guys. Has nothing to do with anything other than what you think as a community you want that distance to be or is that just really something important. So, that's my presentation on the variance. It's very arbitrary. It's very personal. I guess in your in my opinion is just a personal thing that you guys have to make a decision on.

Staff making it work for this. Yes. And Councilman Crim was correct. It is 300 feet. That is what is currently in our ordinance. Our ordinance also says, this is where I got the thousand feet in my head, is that the school district can request that the city council increase that distance to a,000 ft. To my knowledge, we have not received that request from the school district.

Is it is that 300 feet property line to property line for the school? Right. For schools, it is 300 ft property line to property line. We're we're within that. We're inside that. So unless we change an ordinance, we're we're violating our own ordinance if we approve it.

So our ordinance states that the council can grant a waiver to that section of the code and that is why this item is before you today because they have the the applicant has requested the variance.

What's the point of a an an ordinance? I mean, if we're just going to wave it, then we got to wave it for everybody. So what's the point of having the ordinance in place in the first place? And that is why it is up to I think you could also say why are we waving fees for the school district to have a Crawfordish festival and have BYOB? I mean I'm just I'm just I'm just going to be real honest tonight. you know, there there's a lot of waving things. And anyways, I I in my opinion that what I'm hearing from the neighborhood is they more of a sit down place where they can hang out, coffee shop, beastro. I mean, I I don't you may want to get a beer or wine, but that's not what this is. That's kind of what the the push back that I'm hearing is really about. the neighborhood is not thrilled to have another.

We just haven't had anybody throwing money at us to do a beastro of 30 years. I mean, well, I know and I mean that I think that's what I'm trying to play with devil's advocate is that what we ultimately want or what the community wants may not make sense from avel from a development and economic standpoint.

Um there's a reason nobody has opened such a business there. Um so I guess the is is if we vote this down, then it's likely to just kind of sit there for however long. So,

and that could be a strong possibility. So, may I make one more statement in in talking to the buyers? They're they're they're looking at the market. They they they will they've told me on on the school the the the market in New Bronals and other places are doing they adjust to what works for the community. So that's a very good point. Beastro sit down coffee shop could be part of this as well. But anyway,

so just spitballing. If this were to not pass, I mean, the buyers can't come back with something else because this is this is just for this item particularly, not a beastro or anything else. We're talking about what they directly stated, which was pretty much a gas station.

I I think he said though that they weren't interested unless they could do that, right? But he just also stated that they would be willing to have a sit down for or come up with something else. Yeah. So since we're talking on just this particular item which what was stated if this is not swaying but if this was to be voted no then as the buyers it is their land they can come back and state okay if you're stating that they're in for what the community and can adjust for what the community wants then that's the conversation to have whatever decision outcome comes from this tonight. Yes, on on on the first part, but if they can't set sell the off premise uh beer, wine, it's 10 to 15% of their income. So, they're not interested in trying to throw that out and and do something else. So, but yes, on your part about managing the land use and the possibly a a beastro or sitdown coffee shop inside there. Sure. still sounds like a stronghold from the the developer or owner side. So if if they want it, then they want it, right?

What can I say? So, if I can restate this just in plain English is that it's almost a hard set requirement um to have that at alcohol sales in whatever form um to embed it in somewhere to sell it somewhere just to have that ability to do that because of the slim but sizable profit u that needs to come out of it. So I think the decision is first is that even something you want to entertain because if you can't entertain that you can't entertain the second part that's gonna so call it what you want on the first part to zone it. If you can't get past that piece then you can't get into a PD because there's never going to be a negotiation about the alcohol um piece. And so I'm just trying to to some

sit down place and they want to serve alcohol while people are dining. That I'm fine with that. I I I just don't agree with the gas station and taking it off premises. And I don't know. So, mayor, what I've consistently heard is that that could be part of the project, not a replacement to the project.

That sounds like this is we already know how we're going to do this. Just do it. Right. Because what it's sound like it's we're changing what is actually listed right here. So, we can only vote on what's listed right here. And then whatever we vote on, whatever decision is made, if it's yay or nay, if it is nay, then they can come back. This is not stating that they can't come back. This is what we're voting on which is on this paper on this agenda. Nothing else.

In this particular case, we're deciding whether they can sell alcohol there or not. Right. Right. So if we if we deny that then the rest of it is with according to the the rules on requesting variances. Um is there a time limit as to when you can bring it back for consideration? Uh you can only do it once a year or

so there's not a limit for variance requests but there is a limit for zoning requests. So, should the item for zoning change not pass today, the applicant could not bring forward another zoning change request that is similar to the one that they submitted today for 12 months.

That's what that's what I was thinking. Let me ask you this, Melissa, just for clarity sake, and I apologize, mayor, if I can just ask this. You have you have said that there could be alcohol sales in a currency one. Yes. Right. But then they would have they would hit the same wall per se where they would have to come to the council to request a variance.

But then they would only be requesting a variance as opposed to a zoning change and a variance. Right. Yes. Had had they requested to only put in their 5,000 square foot store, we wouldn't be here for the zoning like a wine and cheese type thing, you probably it would just be a bar. I got you. Yes. I have the C2. C C1 allows sit down like Beastro and consume on site. I I think C2 only allows offsite onsite purchase offsite consumption. That's what I have. But would that if if so requested by this council, would that replace the sale of alcohol and the would that replace that? And if you if you were to swap out the sale of alcohol with a in store beastro sit down it would

I think I think these guys are clear about wanting the offsite um sale of sale of beer offremise consumption. I got you. I understand. That's something for him to have to go back and talk to his people about. That that's not for us to decide. Well, I mean, if the Yeah, but like you said, if the variance doesn't go through, we we can come back, but the variance is really the integral part of the project, then

and he's already saying that this project doesn't go unless they sell beer online. They already stated too that they if this is they want something, they want to do for the community. So, it's two two parts to it. Come on back.

Okay. So, um, any more discussion before we So, we're Are we on item number five, though? Right. We're on five. Okay. Any more discussion on that? Okay. So, do I have a motion of some kind? I make a motion that we adhere to our ordinance and deny alcohol sales.

I'll second. Okay, we'll begin with council member Crim. Yes. Crim. Yes. Yes. Yes. Kaznowski. Yes. Swain. Yes.

Love. Yes. St. Pierre. Yes. Rodriguez. Yes. All right, then we'll go back to number four. I have a question for you.

Since the uh developers have said uh if this doesn't pass, this probably won't go. Do we need to even make a It's on our agenda, so we Yeah, we need to do something.

Can Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I have a with respect to the zoning change. I think that that should be tabled and I would make a motion to table that. Give the developers opportunity to go back and have the discussions rather than vote down right now and not give them any chance to come back for a year.

Okay. So, it's been moved by council member Rodriguez to table number four with the zoning change and second by uh Gibson. And so, we will begin with council member Rodriguez. Rodriguez, yes. Grim, yes.

Yes. Kasnowski, yes. Gibson, yes. Yes. Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes. Okay. All right. Moving on to number six, a resolution in the city of Elgen, Texas, authorizing the city manager to execute a proposal for grant writing services for a Texas Water Development Board water supply and infrastructure grant. Michael evening council, I'm back. Michael Gonzalez, public works director. Um, that's your pointer. So, um, just to look back at the last couple of years in the way that we've used grant proceeds. Um, there's two general ways that we funded big infrastructure projects and that was that obligation and then the grants and the city has been very successful in getting some of these grants in the last three years. You've seen some of the projects that we've been able to accomplish with them. Um, not including the ARPA funds because I think everybody got those. Uh, just under $20 million in infrastructure that was that was put into the utility systems. Um, back in the legislative session, Texas decided to give the tech um, water development board um, a billion dollars to put into water infrastructure. And I said they should make that number lower because a billion sounds not real. Um, but we're in a position to go out and be eligible for some of that funding. Um, the item before you tonight is to authorize grant writing services with Kimley Horn to go after those funds. Um it'd be in the order of 25,000 to do the grant writing administration and that would be reimbursed if we were successful in the grant. Um we're looking at different projects that already stand in our capital improvement plan right now. Those are the um items that are going to be most competitive and um we have a list of projects that would be well under 15 million, but we want to make sure that we put together a competitive package that would be close to that. That's Keith there down in the home. Um, and then just some general overview, we're a smaller rural community. That would make us more competitive for this

type of funding. Um, our moderate uh, mean and household income would be competitive for this type of funding as well. And, um, we think we're in a good position to have these folks try and get that money for us. Um, tonight it's just authorizing, um, Kimly Horn to do that grant writing services for us. And if we don't get the grant, we're just out the money

potentially out um just for the administrative services 25,000. We're able to use impact fees to pay for that initially up front, but we're pretty hopeful that we be competitive for this. Have you used this person before? We have not used Kimley Horn before, but they have been successful in other communities being successful in similar type grants and um they reached out to us, they found us and so

and I've used Kimley Horn in other communities, other cities. So they are a highly qualified uh group and so I I think it's a good investment to be able with the returns. I think we got a great story to tell. So um we got a real good chance on this. Plus when the bids go out for construction, we're going to competitively those just as we normally would. This is only for the grant portion. That's what we're asking for tonight. Just to wrap it up, it's a 100% grant. There's no city cost matching other than the administrative services that we'd be putting up.

Um, we're not going to do any property acquisition for any of these foreseeable. Um, yeah, I know. Gosh. Um, but we do have a list of projects from our capital improvement plan that are near ready to go, if not already designed, and that's going to make us ultimately competitive for these is they want to see projects that are ready to move forward for construction.

Any other questions? How much did you say that we could potentially get out of this? Were they based on our population size. So, we're under the 150,000 for a while longer, our population size. So, we'd be in range for about 15 million. Our projects don't add up to that, but Bo and I are really good at finding stuff that we

All right, I'll make a motion. I'll second. Okay, I heard before I heard by Joy and second by Council Kasnowski. Kasnowski, yes.

Yes. Swain, yes. Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes. Rodriguez, yes. Crim, yes. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Number seven, resolution for the city of Elgen, Texas, authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement upon acquisition of all related properties for services for general land office contract number 22-085-029-D270, also known as the Kennedy Street and County Line Road Drainage and Roadway Project. I see one more time. You might you might see it one more time.

Okay. So, uh we tell Robert all the time, you be optimistic. I'll be realistic. We kind of have that kind of argument going on. Really um proud to say that we're at that point now to award this contract to um construction services. And so, this is the Kennedy Street and County Line Road. Um two separate projects, one grant that's that's being funded. um 16 different property owners that needed to be contacted in order to do this way early on in this program. They found us and they said, "You've got to make a determination if you're going to go eminent domain or if you're going to go voluntary acquisition of these properties." And we said, "We're going to do voluntary acquisition of these properties because we know how important it is for the community to have that same kind of buyin that we have on this project." And so each time we went to these property owners and we explained the project and this is going to be improvement of the roadway. Um, but keeping in that same spirit, we um, the staff, Bo, everybody that's been working on it, Carol back at our office and the folks in finance did not strongarm anybody into selling any of these properties. We want to make sure they had the facts. And so that's why we're on one of the um, one of the properties right now. Um, so here's a general overview of the projects. Count Road, we've got um, all voluntary acquisition of the properties that we need on County Road. Kennedy. Um we're nearly all the properties that we need on Kennedy Street. Um we're in a position now to move forward with the project and not have it hinder anything. Um Grant Works thought it was prudent to let you know that we have one property that we were not able to acquire as of tonight, but we're still hopeful that we can acquire it. And it's just a piece of property that would dip out down into the sidewalk portion of Kennedy Street. So, the rest of the project is on it be on its way. It'll be a major drainage improvement, but um just this portion of the sidewalk, the staff has still got to figure out how we're going to we're going to get to that, but to keep in line with the spirit and the theme of things, we wanted ultimate community buyin and make sure that they had a good feeling about selling us these

properties and they did it voluntarily. And um a lot of them had the opportunity to negotiate with us, which we came to an agreeable conclusion and you've seen those over the last couple of months. Um tonight, we're in a position authoriz construction services through this item here. Um, so competitively bid, we had Larry Young Paving comeback is the is the reasonable offer and we've worked with them before here at the city. TRC wrote up a recommendation recommending them, but we also have some others in there. This price right here before you puts us under budget for the project, which we're really, really proud of and we're not going to tell Larry Young that we're under budget. and um so for you tonight um to authorize this construction contract and then we'll work continuously closely with grant works and the GLLO to make sure that um this construction moves forward and then we also acquired the last property.

What was the budget for the project? So um the GLLO gave us um 10.9 million and you have it here in your packet seven. So, what what can we do with Well, the administrative fees, we're getting pretty close to that. Um, we do have a breakout that we'd like to give you probably one of our next workshops of how we see the funding broken out, but just those two largest numbers that we had construction and the grant itself. We're under the administrative gets us up pretty close to where we need to be, but still under.

I'm ready to get this done. I make a motion we run with this. We have a motion from moved by council member Swain and second by council deputy mayor pro Tim Love. And we'll begin with council member Swain.

Swain. Yes. Love. Yes. St. Pierre. Yes. Rodriguez. Yes. Crim. Yes. Mcshen. Yes. Kasnovski. Yes. Gibson. Yes. All right. We're going to go into executive session for discussion on the emergency services district. Uh we will enter chapter 551 of the Texas government code to discuss any matter as specifically listed on the agenda and are as peritted by chapter 551 of the government code. City council will convene and uh It is 8:46 and we're going into executive session. The city council will convene an executive session pursuant to section 551-071 of the Texas government code to consult with the city attorney regarding possible and contemplated litigation arising of an employment matter for which city seeks the advice of council. Okay, now I think it

9:16. Are we reconvening to our council meeting? All right. Address number eight, resolution of the city council of the city of Elvin, Texas, authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with emergency services district for emergency medical services for the Travis County residents of the city of Elen, Texas.

I have a motion. I motion that we deny the resolution as requested, as written, and direct the city manager to seek uh seek negotiations with other governmental entities and counties uh for our options.

I second. Rodriguez Rodriguez. Rodriguez. Yes. Crim. Yes. Yes. Asnovski. Yes. Gibson. Yes. Swing. Yes. Love. Yes.

St. Pierre. Yes. Anything else?