City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm taking It's is 6:30 and we're calling to order our Elgen City Council meeting May 5th, 2026. We'll start with our call to order. We'll begin with council member St. Pierre.

St. Pierre here. Rodriguez here. Crim here, Nick Shan here, Kaznowski here, Gibson here, Wayne here, love here.

Uh, council member Gibson here. Let us pray. God, as we gather this evening in the service to the people of Elgen, we pause with gratitude and purpose. We give thanks for the council members whose season of service is coming to a close, for their time, their dedication, and the countless ways they have helped guide this community. May their contributions continue to bear fruit in the lives of our neighbors. And as new members prepare to take their seats, we ask for wisdom, humility, and courage, remind us that leadership is a relay, not a solo act. Each person carrying the work forward, each voice adding to the whole. Grant us clarity to listen well, the patient to the patience to work through our differences, and the commitment to seek the good for every resident. Let this trans transition be a moment that strengthens our unity rather than divides it. a reminder that we are bound by a shared purpose larger than any one of us. In this chamber, may our words build trust. May our actions reflect integrity. And may our work tonight and in the days ahead honor the truth that we are and must remain one team, one town, one family. Amen.

Stand for our pledge of allegiance.

Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one indivisible and justice for all the flag and indivisible. We have our public comment. First one is Pamela Fowler.

Good evening, Mayor Mshan and the mayor's the city council members. My name is Pamela Fowler and I am here to invite you all to a very special event that we will be hosting June 19th through the 21st. It is the litic junth reunion. This was a yearly celebration that was done many many years ago um to celebrate the community of lit of litic as a freedom colony. So I'm here to invite each and every one of you on um June 19th through the 21st. We will be in three different locations, but the biggest one being at the VFW on Saturday, June 20th, where we will celebrate family, heritage, and culture. And we will have um an actual program going on. We have a lot of uh still living members that were raised in the community of litic that are excited about coming back home. So, we are looking forward to bringing them back, honoring them, and just celebrating the community of Litic. And I have some flyers here that I would love to be able to share with you all giving you more information. So please visit our website so that you can get all the information that you need. I promise you it is about the litic community. It's not about anything else but just celebrating litic.

Thank you

Juan Hernandez. Hello, mayor and hello Elgen City Council. My name is Juan Hernandez and I invite you to the litic community cleanup day. Um, taking place Saturday, May 30th from 9:00 a.m. till 12:00 p.m. at Litic at the town of Litic. Litic is our home, our history, and our legacy. Many people have lived here in the past and many people will be living here in in the future. So we would like to keep it clean and take care of it for future generations. Um last year we held an a cleanup day which brought 28 members and we also cleaned a we also picked up a 100 bags of trash and this year we plan on doubling by two. So all are welcome and we hope that you guys can come so we can clean clean our town and help the environment and um if it is okay could I share these with you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. and Brock and Bush.

Hi, thank you for letting us speak. I'm just reiterating what Pam and Juan said. We'd love to have you. We're doing a community cleanup. We we do one every year of some section of Litig Road to try to keep it clean. And um this year we're going to start in the town of Litig and fan out from there. and we're doing it on May 30th from 9 to 12 in the morning and then we have a rain date of June um 6th if that if it's raining and we would love to have you come. We did have a lot of people last year and we all had fun and then we also would love to see you at the Junth celebration any part of it that you could come to. It's going to be a big crowd and we're really looking forward to it. So hope hopefully we'll see some of you there. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you, John Bill.

Mayor, I have nothing to add. Okay. Thank you. All right. Now, we'll have our announcements.

Good evening, council mayor. My name is Heather Fowler. I am the library services manager for the Elgen Public Library and I'd like uh to cover a few events that are coming up. Actually, there's there is a little oversight on on the agenda. It mentions uh Steve Shrader's guide to financial planning, life insurance 101, Saturday, May the 2nd. That's already taking place. Um also the Friends of the Elgen Library presents Meet the Authors event on Saturday, May 2nd at uh the library. Both of those events have already uh taken place and wonderful events. Um coming up we do have the Elgen Community Health Fair on Saturday, May 23rd at the library at from 10 to 1. Elgen Music in the Parks um featuring the Thomas family May 8th at the Veterans Memorial Park expan expansion at 7 o'clock. Uh, and also this weekend, shop local businesses. Um, celebrating Mother's Day weekend downtown Elgen. Also, I do want to mention um the Steve Schrader's uh guide to financial planning on May 16th. Um, there is another event for retirement investing basics from 11 to 12. So, we'd love to have folks come out and take advantage of that. Thank you. Thank you. So, now we're going to have presentations. Uh, the first one will be a National Historic Preservation Month proclamation. And as I read, would all the members who are present uh stand if you are a part of that board. I don't want to call out all the names, but if you will please stand as I read it. Whereas historic preservation serves as an invaluable tool for communities across the nation, effectively managing growth and promoting sustainable

development while revitalizing neighborhoods and fostering local pride. Safeguarding our historic landmarks and embracing our cultural heritage ensures we maintain the unique character of our communities, but also enhances livability for both current and future generations. And whereas the city of Elgen was established in 1872 on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad as a one square mile around the H and TC depot and named after Robert Morris Elgen, the railroads land commissioner. And whereas Elgen celebrated its cesentennial in 2022 with a year-long series of events and projects, including the creation of a time capsule plaza at the library, which serves as a lasting tribute to our city's rich history. And whereas downtown Elgen has a historic district with 14 city blocks of commercial buildings constructed from locally produced brick from 1872 to 1947 which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And whereas all people are created equal is the theme of 2026 that celebrates the historic sites, neighborhoods, and landmarks that tell the full American history. places that remind us of how far we've come and how far we still have to go. Now, therefore, I, Terresa McShan, mayor of the city of Elgen, proclaim May 26 as historic preservation awareness month and call upon the people of Elgen to join their fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance. In witness whereof, I here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Elgen to be affixed this fifth day of May, 2026.

Okay, the next one is the 57th annual Municipal Clerk's Week 2026. And we'll have any clerks that we have, our municipal clerks, our city uh secretary, our assistant city secretary. If y'all will stand. Okay. care. Whereas the profession of municipal clerks is essential to the effective functioning of local government in Texas, ensuring transparency, accountability, and the smooth operation of municipal services. And whereas the office of municipal clerks is the oldest among public servants. And whereas Texas municipal clerks have pledged to ever mindful of their to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality while serving as the professional link between the citizens, local governing bodies, and agencies of the government at all levels. And whereas Texas municipal clerks serve as the official recordkeepers, managing vital documents, conducting municipal elections, providing legislative support, and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations in the cities across Texas. And whereas municipal clerks demonstrate exceptional dedication, professionalism, and integrity in their work, often going above and beyond to serve their communities and facilitate the effective governance of local governments. And whereas the Texas Municipal Clerks Association represents more than,00 municipal clerks who contribute significantly to success and efficiency of local government throughout the state of Texas. And whereas municipal clerks week provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the invaluable work of municipal clerks, acknowledge their vital contributions to public service, and highlight the important role they play in day-to-day operations of our cities. Now therefore, I, Terresa

McShan, proclaim the week of May 3rd, 2026 as the municipal clerk's week in the city of Elgen and encourage all residents to recognize the important work of municipal clerks and join in celebrating their contributions to our community. In witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Elgen to be affixed this fifth day of May, 2026. Who is they? Who is they?

We just say you. You say Okay, last but not least is the public service recognition week. I want all the council and anyone who is providing public service please stand as I read this. And I think there's quite a few of us in here.

School board. Public service. Public service. Public service. All right. Uhhuh. For sure. For sure. For sure.

All right. Whereas the week of May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 has been designated as public service recognition week to honor employees of the federal, state, local governments, and members of the uniform services. And whereas the citizens of Elgen are served each day by public servants at the federal, state, county, and city levels. And whereas 133 hard-working, talented people with a variety of certifications, specifically trade um specialty trade, I'm sorry, backgrounds, training and education are employed by the city of Elgen, Texas. And whereas these individuals provide our community with safe drinking water, water uh wastewater services, police services, utilities, streets, drainage, facilities, and grounds maintenance, municipal court, economic development, development services, library, parks and recreation, downtown development, finance, human resources, management and administration. And whereas without these public servants at every level, continuity would be impossible in a democracy that regularly changes its leaders and elected officials. And whereas public service recognition week has been celebrated since 1985 to honor honor the men and women who serve our nation as government employees. Now therefore, I, Teresa Mcshan, proclaim the week of May 3rd through the 9th, 2026 as the public service recognition week in the city of Elgen and encourage all residents to commend, recognize, and honor the important work of all public servants during this time and join in celebrating their contributions to our community. In witness whereof, I hereto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Elgen to be affixed this fifth day of May, 2026.

on our city. You got the best suit.

Looked in the sharpest tonight for sure. So All right, we have our city manager report.

Yes, mayor. Thank you. Um, city council for your uh city manager report tonight. You will see your board of adjustments quarterly report, the planning and zoning commission quarterly report, public safety advisory committee quarterly report, economic development corporation quarterly report, Main Street Board quarterly report, and last but not least, our updated budget calendar. Of course, any questions I I could possibly try to answer, I will on the quarterly reports. Uh, but what I will stop and and recognize without a doubt is item number six, which is the updated budget calendar. Um, it's been updated by making the font a little smaller for you to read.

Um, yeah. So really uh what I'm uh just trying to show here is that um our counter will lay out what is anticipated in the budget calendar recognizing uh some known dates. Uh and so we will be working through this and of course as we onboard uh new council members and and the likes, we want uh to express that having um this calendar in front of us to know that the expectation would be to please already know in anticipation um some of the ideas you may already have uh to come with um anything u prior to and even meet with you know myself staff that we can also provide some back uh ground information for. So this is more of a tool uh that we use internally and then of course with the US council guiding us throughout the process but um this is the end of my report.

Thank you. Yes ma'am. All right. Our new business, a resolution for the city of Elgen authorizing the city manager to execute a proposal for Kim Kim Lee Horn engineers for grant writing services for 2026 safe streets and roads for all SS uh for a grant and Michael. Evening council mayor Michael Gonzalez, director of public works. Thank you for having me, Mr. Eats. Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir. Thanks for coming. H I thought there was going to be some slides with this one, but I'll go ahead and get into it. So, the grant before you tonight is um federal transportation dollars by the US Department of Transportation specifically for smaller communities to bypass state government and go to local planning organizations and uh smaller governments like oursel when we originally put this. Oh, there it is. Um just click forward. City Secretary celebrating per week. Isn't it on? You know, there really wasn't much to that slideshow anyway.

Thinking about it on a second. Oh. Oh, there we go.

There you go. So, just uh the awards that were handed out in 2025 kind of focused in the Williamson County area. Austin in 2025 chose to do a planning study instead of an implementation grant. So, I'd bring that up to say there's two versions of this grant to go for. There's a planning grant and there's the implementation grant. We had just gotten done with the public engagement session over there at First Baptist Church to um kind of show folks the overall concept of Counterline Road in three phases. And the number one question we got was exactly when are you going to start on phase three and so um which includes sidewalks for sure. And so um during that time I was felt really excited. I thought, you know, this will be the opportunity to show council, yes, we're thinking about phase three just as much as any one of our constituents or anybody else. And so, putting together a grant application with Kimley Horn to address kind of phase three. As we got into it a little bit more, um went together and put the um agenda item for you today for council along with that an agreement letter. after you kind of got into it and looking at some of the data that supported why this grant would be um eligible. It kind of focuses more on which is good and I think we'll have that opportunity in Caroline Road more on pedestrian safety. Um we kind of imagine the grant a reviewer looking at this project saying you just want to expand a roadway with our federal yes exactly is what we want to do. So tonight before you is to um consider this grant opportunity for the planning side of the of the either option. Uh but I did want to bring this before council to let you know we are thinking about any funding opportunity. So tech we advise them that we're trying to apply for this grant. They are also putting it forth before Campo and so both of us working on together should in my mind bring some gravity to the situation about what we have going on on phase three. So the three ways that you could

fund phase three and the sidewalks that are around there is um developer funds which we're all collecting uh grants that recognize that area specifically for a corridor and then um also incurring debt through cos. So this is our opportunity to go after it with a grant. Um just our recommendation at this point is to do the planning side of that grant instead of the implementation side.

Why planning and implementation if we already have phase three we yes uh just based on what the grant entails as far as the way we think it would be successful tonight before you is both it's the um planning grant and the implementation um but our my recommendation tonight is just the planning side based on what we think it'd be competitive for looking back on what was funded last year um Austin did chose to do the planning side of things and Williamson County chose a variety of smaller projects in some small communities.

I saw that we got like 20 days to put this grant together. Um um are we actually do we have everything available to send out for this grant? Do we have like the GIS maps? Do we have crash reports? Um I'm just concerned that we may be applying to in in rushing rather than applying, you know, competitively. um because it is 40 grand and if we do not get this grant that is 40 grand that we are out. Um and I'm also just do you have any idea of how successful this firm is with writing grants for other cities this size?

I don't know how successful they are in other communities our size but I do know that Kimley Horn's been successful successful in getting this grant particularly to speak to the timeline. That's another reason why we're just focusing on the planning portion of this grant which would be considerably less than the 40,000. We do have all the stuff we need to Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And so it to take action on this item tonight, you can vote on it just as it is, the actual contract that will go before the city manager, not to exceed 10,000, not the original 40. Okay.

Yeah. And I I think the piece that we're talking about today is something that is allowable allowable under my purview, which is $10,000. you could allow up to the 40,000, but right now the way to make sure we're spending wisely is to say, let's go after this 10,000 portion that we we are most likely to get. And I can do that at my level to be able to do that. But still, council being informed, jumping in this, and to answer some of the community questions, especially because this is at the forefront today. Um, we wanted to put that before the council as well. We are asking for the approval at most 40,000. Um, but I can go ahead and make this transaction at $10,000 already. So, don't mean to circle back, but getting the vote today.

Is the approval for the 10K that you can approve or is it for the full 40,000? you're asking right now. Yes. It won't be for the full 40,000 um to keep the item on the agenda as it is. You can make the same same vote. It'll just be for a smaller study, not to exceed 10,000. I guess to try to uncuse real quick. Yeah. So, I can do this on my own, right?

But I wanted to show this. Y'all can vote or or not. So, it's almost a just a vote of confidence, right? But I'm able to do it at my level. But because we have this project ongoing, I brought it to the council anyway to show that we are working on this project more than anything else. But I can do this action myself. So it's almost it doesn't need to be an actionable item at this point. We put it on there because it started off as a $40,000 one and we're like that doesn't make sense for us right now. The timing and the rush, we want to make sure it's better. And as we're talking, Bo, Michael together, we said, "This is more like we feel better just getting this into just the planning one." And that's about 10. And we're like, "Well, you can do that yourself as city manager." I said, "Yeah." But at that point we had posted and we said let's this is perfect because it explains to our community that we're trying to get

for every option

the third phase going and but uh I can do that in house but you can vote or not I can I can still get that. So, uh, at this point, because of the amount that we're asking to turn it back to, it's I'm not going to say it's a moot point, but $10,000 you don't necessarily have to vote on. It doesn't hurt that you vote on it. You know what I'm saying? Treating this agenda item more as an update to council that we are looking for grant opportunities everywhere. Yeah. This one I don't think really aligned with what we're trying to do as far as the roadway expansion, but we do believe as staff that the study will be beneficial anyway to grab attention towards that middle phase and and an 88 transition plan all up and down kind of land.

So the more we talked through it after it got posted, we're like, yeah, let's make sure we fine-tune this and we found a way to not go the full 40,000. And so it's on the agenda as 40,000. And so really we could the council could table item move on and I could just go with it or the council could say that's a great idea to me. Okay, since it's on the agenda so we keep it all clear in everybody's mind, let's do a vote. I'll second. Okay, it's been moved. It's been moved and second.

We'll begin with. Yes. Kesnowski. Gibson. Yes. Swain. Yes. Love. Yes. St. Pierre. Yes. Rodriguez. Yes. Crim. Yes.

Okay. Motion carries. And the next thing is uh Oh, that's it. Okay. Um, so we will now, it is 6:59 and we will adjourn into executive session pursuant to chapter 551 of the Texas government code to discuss any matter as specifically listed on the agenda and as permitted by chapter 551 of Texas Government Code. The city count number one, the city council will convene in executive session pursuant to section 551.074 074 personnel matters and consultation and deliberation regarding the evaluation duties and performance of the city manager. Number two, the city uh council will convene an executive session pursuant to section 551.071 consultation with the attorney for the uh regarding legal issues and potential agreements involving emergency services district 3.

It's 7:48 and we're reconvening our regular meeting. Uh from executive session, our findings or comments were shared with the city manager and uh he has exceeded our expectations and we're glad he's with us and we look forward to bigger and better things as we go forth. All right. Uh, next week, Tuesday, May 12th, we will be having another meeting, special session coming. Uh, please be here.

6:30. 6:30. No, this is part of canvasing the votes and getting people in and all that kind of stuff. All that good stuff. special meeting for that so that we can continue on the 19th with our regular work. Do you want me to read? Yes, I do. All all members, current and new coming. Yeah, look nice for the pictures. She said look nice for the pictures. What new pictures? Uh the city secretary said look nice for the pictures. Okay.

Oh yeah, we do that every Yeah. I don't know what I get the nails on, but I'll get the other part. I might not do the nails. I will be getting my hands. We'll be all right. Okay. And we will be doing swearing in at that time. So, if you want family members to be here, whomever, uh please invite them. And uh we'll try to do this orderly and in fashion orderly fashion so that uh uh we don't prolong the time and get some things done because we do have a regular meeting to take care of and then we'll move forward with the that's it. You got it ma'am.

Oh yeah. I mean, you can there's a bunch of them.

I about to say we have to have our cakes, regular cookies, and all that good stuff. Yeah. Right. Okay. Anything else? It is 7:51 and we are adjourned.