City Council - Regular Meeting

city's he's going to be late. It is Thursday, April the 2nd. I now call the council meeting to order. The time is now 6 o'clock. Um I ask that you please silence your cell phones and council member Troy will give the invocation and then we'll conduct the pledge of allegiance.

All right. If you bow your heads, please. Dear heavenly father, Lord, it's a it's another time we get to just say thank you, God, for for allowing us to have this day. And we uh we thank you for the many people that are in the audience today. God, we just one God, we just ask you to bless each one of us here and bless this community for for all it has to offer for uh for the citizens here. And we just we're just so grateful that we get we get to live in a a nice small community orientated place where uh where where it's thriving and uh and people are doing good and uh and we can we just hope that that continues for us. God, we just ask that you would uh uh watch over each one of us council people today as we discuss city business. We just ask God that you would um give us the wisdom, give us the countenance to be uh to be about uh to be about the business that we need to attend to and that we would make good decisions for for the citizens that we serve. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, for the mayor's comments, um today we had a dedication for um the young man that was killed at the Sonic in 2023, Matthew Davis. Uh there was quite a turnout. Uh the family was very appreciative of the acknowledgement of their son and the city uh the city's caring about their son. So that was really a nice thing. Um, Keen is wonderful for caring about people and trying to show their their caring, loving spirit. So, anyway, and right now, uh, on that note too, Keen Fire Department, uh, is will present a life-saving award to a Keen residence, Chief Warner.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager, and citizens. This is one of the times I really enjoy standing up at the podium. This is a a wonderful experience that we're about to uh about to have. I have the honor this evening of presenting a life-saving award to a very special young person. You know, uh when fire and EMS and PD when we respond to emergencies, it's a team effort. It requires a lot of coordination, a lot of training. But it's not necessarily any particular person. It's it's those that are willing to stand up and do what's right. So tonight we have a young family here and we're going to tell a little bit of a story. So please will the family come up? Firefighters, would you join me, please? Aiden, would you come up here with me, please?

Y I'm going to read a bit of a story here. Okay. On January 3rd of this year, at approximately 14:30 hours, the Keen Fire Department was dispatched to a reported drowning involving a three-year-old child. As the child's mother pulled him from the pool, his older brother, Hayden, immediately sprang into action, and he quickly gathered his other siblings to ensure their safety and then ran from neighbor to neighbor until he found someone who could call 911. Because of Hayden's quick thinking, courage, and determination during a critical and frightening moment, help was set in motion without delay. His actions played a vital role in the response that followed and without him the outcome for his little brother could have been very very different. Today we have the honor and we are proudly able to present this life-saving certificate and honorary fire department pin to Hayden as a reminder of the bravery and selflessness that he showed that day. So please stand and join us in honoring him for his extraordinary actions. Hayden, you did a great thing and in large part because of you. So this award is presented to Hayden Wilson in recognition of outstanding bravery, quick thinking, and heroic action in helping to save a life. Your courage, compassion, and willingness to act in a

time of need demonstrate strength of character far beyond your years. Because of your actions, someone was given another That is truly extraordinary. You are a true hero. Nice job, Hayden. Yes. Great.

So, we have a small medallion for you. to your shirt. We have one more thing to give you right now. It's called a challenge. Those are very special people. Look over here.

Where's his little He is sick. I didn't want to. Okay. So, we have a we have a challenge point for him as well. I'm so sorry. He is doing so good though. Amazing. and family, would you like to say a few words to council? Just let us know how he's doing. Come on up. And y'all can have this as well.

He's proud of you. He's doing good. Uh, no one really expects something like that to happen, but when it does, you want a good team. and y'all put together a great team of firefighters, police officers, all the first responders, and uh I want to say thank you for everything y'all do because y'all are behind the scenes. Y'all don't really get a lot of recognition. So, I appreciate it. Everything y'all do. And he's doing awesome. He's gonna grow up to be a great kid.

He is a mess. He's still just as funny as he was. If it's any consolation, we took the pool down. Yeah. So, no longer have the pool. Yeah. Where's it now? I ran it let out some anger with the tractor and uh so it's it's no longer there. But sadly, uh, sadly, the ones who can swim are like, "What?" And then the ones who

we've already looked up, uh, swimming lessons at the YMCA. And so, I don't know. I just appreciate everything that y'all put together here. It's a great town. I've been here about eight years now. And everyone said, "Don't move to Johnson County." And I'll tell you what, this has been a good county to live in. Uh, and a lot of that has to do with y'all, and I appreciate y'all a lot. Thank you. Thank you. We're glad to have you. Thank you guys. Congratulations, Hayden.

They're so cute. What a wonderful little boy. Okay, public comments. Each person in attendance who wishes to speak to the city council on an item not posted on the agenda shall speak during this section. A speaker card must be filled out and given to the city secretary before addressing the city council. Each speaker will be allotted three minutes. City Council may only take action on items posted on the agenda. The Texas Open Meeting Act prohibits the city council from delivery. You all right? I'm okay.

A little emotional over here. Oh yeah. We had one child killed today and then another one almost. So that's kind of like a bad thing.

Anyway, the city council may take action on items posted on the agenda. The Texas Open Meeting Act prohibits the city council from deliberating or taking action on an item not listed on the agenda. City council may however receive your comments on the unlisted items, ask clarification questions, respond with facts, and explain policy. And so we do have some yellow cards here. Are there any others that are coming up? Okay, the first one is Paul not Memorial Day service meeting. Thank you, mayor and councel. My name is Paul Knot and I'm a 39y year resident of Keane all inside the city limits in the last 27 at 107 North Old Mansfield Road. Okay. As you are maybe familiar with, Keen has uh has conducted a memorial day service on Memorial Day for uh veterans who were killed in the line of duty. The service did not take place last year because uh the service was organized by Ido Ortiz and his health uh will not permit him to continue. So Edido and Mary handed that ceremony to the King Chamber of Commerce. So we want to continue that and we're inviting all veterans or others interested to a meeting to discuss the future of this program. And the meeting is 5:00 PM Monday, April 5th. See, there's a fifth or sixth. What's Monday?

It's the sixth. Monday, April 6 at the small meeting room here at city hall. So, um, like to see you there. Okay. Thank you, Paul. Paul, I'm sorry. I can't be here at 5, but I can be here at 6 and I will still do what I've been doing with the Memorial Day. Yes. Good. Okay. Okay. So, if I'm not here, just count on me. Okay. Okay. All right, Johnny. Thank you. And Paul, you had another yellow card while you're there. It's for the general. Okay, it's for the agenda item. Okay, we'll get you then.

We'll get you then. Uh, West Shrem is the next one and it's on item 7 C. That's an agenda item. Okay, we'll get y'all then. Okay. Okay. Any other uh y'all cards or any else? Anyone else have anything they want to say? Okay. Next to the reports, um, receive a report from Aaron Bennett, Texas Health um, and community impact program manager for Johnson County about the THCI program, available grants, information on the 2025 community health needs assessment, and information on receiving proposals for the grants.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Aan Bennett. I am born and raised in Johnson County. So glad that this family is here and enjoying uh Johnson County. It's great to hear um about the love that's here and and the support that's here. Um I'm here representing Texas Health Resources, Texas Health Community Impact specifically. And then also here from Reach Council is Molly and Gracie. They're going to talk about the current grant that we are funding. Um, am I okay? There we go. Let me figure out which way I want to look. Okay, so did you know that up to 80% of our health is actually based on the things outside of the doctor's office? So, we're talking about access to healthy food, transportation, education, the things that impact our daily lives far more than the doctor and going to the clinic um often does. And so at Texas Health, our mission is to improve the health of the commun the people in the communities that we serve. And we recognize in doing this that we have to go outside of our hospitals and clinics. And so we invest in uh the community and community health and well-being through grant making and strategic collaborations. And so what you see here um on the screens is kind of our um upstream approach to addressing community health. Um first we are guided by data. So we have a community health needs assessment that we do every 3 years to assess what the needs are and where those needs are at. Um 2025 we just completed one. Um it is posted on our website at texasalth.orgchna. org/chna you will find um there uh because Texas Health serves uh obviously more than the Johnson County area there's going to be different community health needs

assessment you will find Johnson County area and the Keen area under um Texas Health's Clayburn Hospital um is where you will find that we also use regional expertise and that just really means that we utilize community leaders in the community to help us inform our work and help us determine who to get connected to, what we should um be targeting, things of that nature. And then um of course we partner with community organizations such as Reach Council where we provide the grant funds for them to address those needs that we have identified in the community health needs assessment. And all of this we do because we want to see measurable change in the community. We recently released a five-year report. We've only been uh Texas Community Impact specifically has only been um in operations since 2019. And we've invested $18.2 million across uh North Texas. 1.2 million of those dollars went specifically to Johnson County. So, the southern region, which is where we are at in Johnson County alongside our um neighbors in um I won't spend too much time here. What I really want you guys to take away from uh this slide here is that we have adapted our approach to grant making because this is a unique um community, especially if we're comparing it to like Tarant and Dal County. We're more rural. We have different needs and different resources. So the real main takeaway here is that for um two grant cycles, we invested in community health through community collaboration and organizational capacity. And that just means that we invested in the organizations to help the um nonprofits here build their resources, help them with bookkeeping,

help them with staff development, things of of that nature to help them make sure they have the capacity to do the work that they desire to do. We are currently in the 2025 2026 grant cycle and we took a two-phase approach which I will gladly detail a little bit later. But I do want to go ahead and announce that because we are now able to announce that we are um going to release our request for proposals for the 2027 2028 grant cycle and our focus is going to be on innovation something that has not been done before. We really want to take um unique creative approaches to community health. So this is just some important dates for our request for proposal. It will open on April 13th. It will close on May 29th. We will host a regional webinar on April 16th. And that's just a QR code to sign up um uh to for for the webinar. And that is going to be the opportunity for us to dive more into our request for proposal and the opportunity for organizations who are interested to ask any questions that they may have. Um I'm going to go back in time for a second. Um I talked about how we invested in um collaboration building and organizational capacity. And so one of the things that has come out of that is starting point. I don't know if any of you have heard of it at this point, but it's essentially like uh United not um 211 um if anyone's familiar with that where you kind of go online and look at the resources that are available. Again, specific to Johnson County, which this is huge for us. It's up to date. It's recent. This is information that um we are proud to that has came out of our um investment in the community and it is still um being used in our current grant which um Gracie can talk about um later. Okay, so the current grant cycle I

mentioned we took a two-phase approach. Phase one was a six-month competitive planning grant. That really just means that we funded organizations to work together to develop a proposal. We are now currently in phase two where one collaborative out of the three that we um initially excuse me awarded um is now implementing that grant. Here are the participants that um participated in our phase one grant. So you see we did have two organizations and two separate collaborives that participated from Keen. The Keen Church participated in the Johnson County Wellness Initiative, Nourishing Communities Together Collaborative. And then for the Together We Grow Collaborative, they um had have and currently still have Southwest Adventist University participating in um their grant. In phase one, we we in Johnson County received $100,000. So, we just split that evenly among the three collaboratives that we um awarded the funds to. This two-phase approach was a new approach and so we wanted to make sure that we um what we did made sense and deter and we were trying to figure out if we wanted to do it again. Excuse me. So we surveyed um the phase one participants. We were very happy to find out that 100% of them felt more knowledgeable about collaborating with other organizations. So working together beyond just networking and handing business cards. How do we really work together and become more efficient for the community? They also listed their top three skills as collaboration, data and evaluation and communication. Again, as I mentioned, we are now in

phase two, which is the implementation phase in Johnson County. And so, you see here that together we grow that collaborative, which is led by Reach Council. Um, and then their partners are listed there received $250,000 um to increase resilience and access to education and employment in our priority zip codes. Again, these zip codes come from our community health needs assessment. And as you see here, Keen is listed as one of our priority zip codes. Um, so at this point, I'm going to allow Gracie and Molly to come up and talk a little bit more about the grant, uh, Seeds to Success. There you go.

Thank you. Um, so my name is Gracie Gray. This is Molly Fuller, and we are part of Reach Council, but we're here representing one of our programs, like Aaron said, um, our seeds to success program. So during phase one of the two-phaseed approach that she was talking about, we were able to like really get into some data. If you think that's interesting statistics like that, I love it. Um I could be there talk about it all day. But we found this one that really stuck with us and it really shaped our whole entire approach to this. 18% of youth in Johnson County ages 16 to 19 are not enrolled in school and they're not employed anywhere. And so if you compare that to the state average, the state average is 9% and the national average is 11. So we're much higher here in Johnson County than the other averages. And so it makes you think why why are these kids not connected in school, not connected to their community, not employed, where are they? What are they doing? So on and so forth. And so we started looking at how are we able to get them reconnected? How can we address the gap in services or the barriers that are stopping them from doing that? And so that is where Seeds of Success was born. This is a program for ages 15 to 25 in those priority zip codes. So it's Keen, Cleburn, Rio Vista, and Alvaro. These kids can come and they can be a part of one-on-one mentorship with Molly. She is our trained peer advocate. So she works with them to determine like what do you want to do with your life? give them a real opportunity to explore different pathways. Do you want to go to college? Do you want to go to trade school? Do you just really like need to get your GED and figure out, you know, what your next step might be? She works with them to create an individualized plan. And then they're offered peer support groups to help them um just work through those problems, build a community of their own, the people that are, you know, like in um lived same lived experience and things like that. skilluing workshops um

which we've got one coming up at East Clebran Community Center on April 10th. It's going to be about um empowerment, self-love, self- advocacy just as a kickoff event. Our other topics include like how to build a resume, interview skills, um how to cook, cooking 101, adulting 101, you know, um what do you need to do if you if it's about to freeze for your car, for your home, things like that that maybe these kids were not taught because they didn't have, you know, the standard family structure um or role model to teach them this kind of stuff. And then also pro-social activities. As they reach their goals, we want to reward them. We want to keep them um you know on the track of reaching goals, doing what they want to do with their future, being able to seize that. So we reward them by doing some fun activities. So just some criteria, like I said, open to ages 15 to 25. You must reside in those areas. Um you are able to scan the QR code to join or refer or you can also email us at s2sreachconsil.org. Um and we will reach out to you, get everyone signed on. And I just want to stress that there's no other than where your zip code is, there's no requirements. You don't have to have some great dire need. You don't have to be one of those 18% to still benefit from mentorship when planning your future. I think back to when I was about to graduate high school and I had two amazing parents, still do thankfully. Um but just not knowing what to do with your life at that such a young age and just that guidance can help just any kid out there that's um you know already thinking about that and moving towards it. Um I want Molly to share uh just real quick a brief little success story from one of the participants we've had so far in the program.

Um yes um we end up serving young people of all walks of life. Um, one of, um, our favorite stories is we were informed of a young woman that was living in supported housing and she had aged out of the foster care system and when she aged out, she did not have a driver's license. She did not have a high school diploma and she um, ended up getting in a relationship with a man and they got pregnant very early. um and she had a young child and that man was struggling with some substance issues and domestic violence became an issue and eventually her child was taken from her and um the cycle you know continued when he was put in foster care. So we have been able to work with this young lady and she is almost done completing her high school steps um to finish her um to graduate high school. um she has been able to start the process of getting her driver's license and she's been able to hold gainful employment. Um we've been able to help her by mentorship, but because Texas Health has been so generous with us, we've been able to cover those those fees. And the the $11 for a driver's license might not seem a lot or the $300 to pay for a high school diploma program might not seem like a lot, but whenever you don't have any support system, it's it's a huge gap. So, we were able to help her with those things and we were able to in the meantime help her with transportation to her job and thankfully she will be getting her child back full custody um sometime early spring um early to mid-spring so that she's going to be able to take care of her child and that cycle can end. So, we're very proud of her. Um and then if I might add, we also have high achievers that need a little extra help. especially with the economy being the way that it is, parents don't always want to reach out for help or they might not qualify for help. So, sometimes we can kind of help offset

some things um with that and help their um young person succeed.

Thank you, Molly. Um one last touch on just the seeds of success program. We are also going to be partnering with Paul at the Keen Chamber on their lunchon for the 23rd. If you guys are able to join us, we'd love to have you. I think we're going to do barbecue. It's going to be awesome. But just as another way to get this word out to people who this program could benefit. We're here for the kids. Um, and if you don't know much about Reach Council, I'm going to just briefly talk about other things we do, but we really are focused on youth and families in all of our programs. We have a coalition where we partner with 12 different sectors in the um county community including health care, education, law enforcement, so on and so forth because they each have a different perspective in their day-to-day life of what these youth and families are going through that we can really work together to come up with a a good solution that our community has the capacity to um use. And then we also have youth programs. These are youthled and adultg guided. So we give the power to the kids. We are trying to build leaders in our communities and our schools. So, we've got a youth coalition where um we're going to be opening our application process up for that grades 7 through 12. Um just empowering them and giving them opportunities to be that leader in their school um as well as in their community. We have a youth recovery program for ages 13 to 21. This is for students um youth that are either at risk or have already started using substances. Vaping has been a huge issue in all the school districts that I have worked with in Johnson County. And so just trying to help them um break that habit and live a life of sobriety. And that also has some, you know, goal forming and things like that for their future as well. In that program, we offer trainings, overdose response like Narcan, workplace burnout, emerging drug trends in the community, youth mental health. These are for parents, families, um businesses. we can kind of adapt it to what whatever you guys may need if that is ever a need. And then we also do prevention education in lots of the

school districts. We're around for Red Ribbon Week in October at pretty much we're all over the place. Um but just wanted to share a little bit about that. And then here are some ways that you can contact us. So um anything community related you can reach out to me. I'm the assistant director of our community programs. Seeds to Success Molly is going to be your girl. And then we've got kind of a general inquiry um email address there as well. what we'd love to hear for you and see what we can do for the city of Keen.

Um, are there any questions for myself or Gracie and Molly? I have a few flyers if I can hand them to you. If not, thank you for the opportunity to speak uh tonight. Well, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. Appreciate it. Sounds got good programs. Okay, next uh city manager comments. Good evening, council uh community. Thank you very much for I'm pretty sure you guys sponsored a a lunchon last year, too, right? Yes, we did.

Yeah, that was very nice. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you again this month. Awesome. Um so uh yes, good evening council uh community here, community at home. Um so um we have a lot of good going on. Yes. So the first one, forgive me, kind of been one of those emotional days right there. Right there with you.

I'm emotionally exhausted. I'm going home going to bed after this. Um, so the first thing I wanted to report on is May 9th, uh, Project Hero will be coming through here again. And I'm actually going to read this so the uh, citizens at home can hear this, too. Project Hero has a tradition of coming through Keen for more than 11 years. And I want to give a big shout out to our police department, but mostly Allison Arnold, who has been organizing this um, for years. Um, they support community-based rehabilitation and recovery programs for veterans as well as raise awareness for national PTSD mental health crisis to make make a difference in the lives of veterans and first responders along with their families. They have built more than 200 adaptive bikes for injured vet veterans, donated more than 2500 bikes to veterans, and logged more than 30,000 bicycle miles in 30 states and six countries to bring hope, recovery, resilience in support of America's healing heroes. And uh last year I got to see this for the first time and I would encourage our community to come that morning around 7:30 and um our police department escorts them from from Cleburn and they come through and the Pathfinders uh from the church provide them breakfast and it is just such a neat event um to be a part of. So that's uh May 9th um the morning of May 9th. So we'll remind you all again in the community uh next month. Now, the fun one. Uh, God is blessing this community. Metal Plate, it is official. The money has funded. Um, and jobs are coming to Keane. Um, they purchased almost 60 acres and this is where the story gets better. Um, they are a galvanizing plant and at our next council meeting May 7th, they will be doing a formal presentation at council to our community about what

this means. Um, they are very excited. they want to be involved um with this community. And when we first started going down this path, they typically do one manufacturing facility and then they partner with one of their clients within two to five years to build a second manufacturing facility. Um, one of their clients reached out to them and come to find out they also do metal stamping and they have moved their biggest client that they do this for has moved to Metallotheian. So they have requested for them to step up the amount that they produce which is mostly coming out of Houston. So they have decided that they will be building two manufacturing facilities and instead of you know 80 to 150 jobs now I'm hearing when this is all said and done up to 250 jobs for this community. Um and um so uh definitely next council be looking forward to and this has all just been transpiring this week the additional good that that uh is coming to this community. Um uh also when they're here doing their presentation next council um this is uh again Carrie and Keith uh thank you for putting this together. Um we are also going to be starting a community hour where you sip share and connect. And so roughly from 5:15 till about 5 10 minutes before council starts uh we are going to start having different departments provide some sort of refreshment before council so that they can get to know uh the people that work in the city and the people that work in the city can get to know the community. So um it'll be a perfect little kickoff and of course we'll have more promotional things that Keith's putting together. So, thank you uh Carrie and Keith um for doing that. The LSE arouso

pocket park that was donated by Gary Heinrich is now in the process of being built out. Um uh this is including perimeter fencing, playground equipment, picnic tables, and a grill to start with. And we will hopefully with the generosity of the Bboard continue to build that park out. And ultimately the vision someday is going to be to connect our two parks. So, um, uh, citizen, uh, as you know, Shelley Drive, there were some citizens that came and and kind of presented a petition. I just wanted to give you an update on that. Uh, we did have our engineers come out. Um, they took pictures, have looked at it, and we will be putting together a formal presentation on what all would take to uh, try to fix that and and of course all the legalities and all the things. So, just wanted to give you an update that we are working on that just in case they're reaching out. Um, now here's another fun um a fun one that again God is blessing and his timing is perfect. The fleet is starting to arrive. Um, most of our fleets uh fleet vehicles are being outfitted right now. Um, we suspect a large bulk of them will start delivering in the next couple months. um with one of them already delivering and um the rest will be shortly behind. But this is perfect timing because we have two police vehicles that are completely out of commission and um thousands and thousands of dollars to try to just fix them to keep them patched and on the road. So, the timing is perfect and and the best part is is that right now this is just projected because until it's all said and done, you know, the dust settles, we don't know for sure, but right now the fleet program is projected to come in at $127,000 under budget this year.

So, great. Um, God's good. He's moving. Yeah. A lot to be happy for and a lot to be proud of. So, um I hope the community is is seeing that and feeling that in um as they commune in this community. So, thank you. Thank you, council. Okay. Anybody have any questions of our city manager?

I didn't want to um I didn't want to talk before you because I didn't want to spoil anything you had to say. So, I'm glad I let you speak first, but last month I talked about just the the trajectory of our city. And I mean, isn't it just evident? I mean, we are just we are moving and and I know God's doing something great for our little city. And so, um I'm just so excited. Um you know, we we get to hear some of the back things before before you said them tonight to all of us. And uh in my mind I was just like, "God, you are just so good." You know, it's just it just keeps on it just keeps warming my heart that that I get to sit up here and do this and make good decisions with you guys. And uh and I just this is just a good feeling right now. So, thank you, God. Appreciate that. Well, and and the other exciting thing is is there's so many things that we just can't share that are happening behind the scenes of real needs that are coming to this community and and you know, and it's it's not the, you know, 5,000 homes and it's I mean, yes, we're we're growing our community, but the needs of our community are being met and it's in these back, you know, office conversations we're having right now. And it's going to be so exciting when for Don and I when we can start really announcing, you know, some of these things that are that are are happening. So, um, just again pray that the community be patient with us. Thing I've learned from corporate to government is it doesn't go near as fast, but it is happening. So,

for sure. So, anything else?

Okay. Consent agenda. All items listed below have been previously discussed, require no deliberation, or are routine by the city council, and will be enacted with one motion. There will be no separate discussion of the items. Items to be withdrawn from the consent agenda for a separate discussion by the city council. If discussion is desired, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. Otherwise, approval of the consent agenda authorizes the city manager to implement each item in accordance with the staff's recommendation. A consider approval of the minutes of the Keen City Council special meeting held on March 1 and 02, 2026 in Granberry. Two, consider approval of the minutes of the regular Keen City Council meeting held on March the 5th of 2026. I make a motion that we approve consent agenda A and B.

Second.

All those in favor. Okay. Okay. Public hearing items would be general 7A. Review, discuss, and consider approval of the second reading of resolution number 2026495 approving the following EDC type B board projects approved by the Keen Community Development Corporation, the purchase and installation of a skate park, the purchase and installation of specific sidewalks in the city, the naming of the pocket park to lose Aruso Park, and the purchase and installation of improvements to the park, the purchase and installation of additional secondary outdoor for warning submarines and the purchase and installation of additional lighting at Elsa Carver Park.

B. Review, discuss, and consider approving the expenditures up to 115,000 to repair well two at 12. Excuse me. We got to we got to vote on A first. I'm sorry. We got to vote on A. Discussing A. We're discussing A. Okay. Is there any discussion on A? Yes, she's We're on a road. We're We're on a row. Gonna keep reading them all. We ought to be out of here, right?

I would like to comment on this um in our discussion. So, it's funny how God works. Um, so I voted no the last time we came here to discuss this. And wouldn't you know it, um, I ended up going to two different skate parks um, by way of Ubering people to or from skate parks. And I drop somebody off and of course I get to sit there for a second and I get to see what's happening, who's doing what on the skate parks because there's quite a few people there. And this is a this this two different skatep parks in Fort Worth, just so everybody's clear. And then I pick up another passenger at a skate park. And this is the big one in Fort Worth. This is probably like 10,000 square feet. It's massive. And it is full of kids. And they're all trying things, you know, that they probably can't do. And, you know, I get to watch it from the sidelines. And then finally the the young woman who comes to my vehicle has a skateboard with her and she gets in my car and I get to ride with her for 20 minutes and ask her questions about why she comes to these skate parks. And I I know it was a God thing because I I was I left feeling uneasy about the way I voted. Um, I felt like I shouldn't have voted no, but I but I was hung up on something. And when I got to speak with this young lady about why she comes to skate parks, it it just totally made me want to change my my vote. So, so today, um, you know, this thing's on the agenda and I'm like, okay, I'm voting yes for this now. So, but I wanted to explain that because it makes me look like I'm I'm flipping sides. But when

when God sends you two people, you know, at at a skate park and forces you to pay attention and look at those things, you just can't ignore things like that. And so, um, anyway, again, I So, um, so I'm all for the skate park. So, thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Welcome to the light. I didn't say I purchased a skateboard. If If there's no more discussion, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve item A. Did you need We do have to have a reading of the resolution.

Spoil spoil spoil the fun. Speed read. I promise. Go ahead.

Okay. City of Keen Resolution number 2026495. A resolution of the city of Keen city council approving and authorizing the following type B projects. The Keen Community Development Corporation K CDC will provide funds for two additional outdoor secondary secondary warning sirens, additional lighting to Elsa Carver Park, improvements to the Lu Arzo Park, the creation of a skate park, and the addition of sidewalks to the city. Whereas the board of directors of the KCDC, a type B economic development corporation, has initially approved the following projects subject to final approval after conducting public hearings as required by law. To provide funds for the purchase and installation of skate park and related amenities in the amount not to exceed 300,000. To provide funds for the purchase and installation of additional sidewalks in the city in the amount not to exceed 200,000. to provide funds for the improvement of the green space to be known as Blues Orzo Park to be used as a community space in an amount not to exceed 50,000 to provide funds for the purchase and installation of secondary outdoor warning sirens in the amount not to exceed 100,000 and to provide funds for the purchase and installation of additional lighting to Eliza Carver Park complex and parking in the amount not to exceed 194,000 here and after the projects. Whereas the board of directors of the KCDC found and determined that the projects are permissible projects pursuant to the development corporation act chapter 505. And whereas the city council of the city of Keen also finds and determines that the projects are permissible projects pursuant to the development corporation act chapter 505. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the city of Keen, section one, that the findings and the premises contained in the preamble above are hereby deemed to be true and correct. Section two, that the public hearings on the undertaking of the projects were held by the KCDC during a

meeting of the board of directors and that notice of the public hearings was published as required by law. Section three, this that this resolution will come back to the city council for final approval on second reading after the board of directors has approved the projects after conducting the public hearings on the projects. Section four, that the city council finds and determines that the projects are permissible projects pursuant to the development corporation act chapter 505 and the city council hereby approves and authorizes the projects as described in this resolution. It was already passed and adopted on the first reading on the 5th day of March, 2026. That was a lot. Um, okay.

So, I'm going to proudly make a motion to uh approve item A. Second. I'm probably going to second it. All those in favor. Okay. To review and discuss and consider approving expenditure up to 115,000 to repairs. Well, number 12. I I think we can move on this one pretty quickly. So, the bad news was a pump went out.

The average life of pumps I have learned through this is that it's 10 years. And this pump was right at 10 years. So my next question when I found about this is what's the current age of all our other pumps? And the good news is the next oldest one is like six years. So we should be good on this. Obviously this was not something that was factored in into our budget. So there's always reserve money, but I did re reach out to Derek Turner. Um he's the one overseeing that TWWDB grant. And because this is something that we had put Wells is something we had put in there. Um uh I do have a follow-up meeting with him on Monday to discuss some other grants to for water and all that thing. But that aside, um he said that in a matter of two to three days, his team can put together this is considered what they consider an emergency um and we can actually utilize all the funds for the 115,000 from the TWWDB3 and half million dollar grant. So unless you tell me otherwise, if you want me to take it out of reserve, we can. But I would recommend we go with the grant money.

Any discussion? Do we need to make a motion and clarify it that way? So that way it's very line specific. That would be good. It it is definitely over that 100,000 threshold that you know that state says we can do. So it would be nice if you would just give us the official go forward. Okay. Okay. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to uh go ahead and fix the $115,000 repair to weld 12 with the with the grant money. With the grant money that was just discussed.

Second. Okay. And a second by Troy Smith. Uh and all those in favor? Okay. Okay. Okay. Next motion is carried. Uh on number six, review and discuss and consider action to adopt a revised board's commission membership appointment policy amending the section prohibiting council from being appointed to a board or commission to allow for council to be appointed in the event there is a shortage of appointed members. Um

th this was just that minor tweak per our last conversation that in the event nobody and there is a vacancy a board member could fill it is is that on all boards or just the AB board? Only the ones that legally council can be on like council can't be on P and Z. It only be A and B. Right. Okay. On the approved boards. We have two yellow cards on this. Yeah. One is Paul. Not Paul. You wanted to discuss 7C.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor and Council. And uh the exhibit I have to accompany my presentation, there's three white sheets of paper that are stapled together and they have a blue line like this across the top. So uh I am concerned about a shortage a shortage of appointed members. So that would be a lack of a quorum, right? And I'm sure those boards have stipulations to deal with people missing when there is lack of a quorum. But that's not what I want to talk about now. Do want to say Gracie Gay is the real deal. Reach Council is respected throughout North Texas and they will be sponsoring the entire lunchon on April 23rd. Okay. I'm here to talk about a person serving on multiple boards simultaneously and to speak against it. uh it leads to myriad problems. Here are some reasons to avoid one person serving on multiple boards. And I'm just going to highlight these bullet points. You can read uh the uh the supporting descriptions of each bullet point. Creates a conflict of interest, the time commitment, reduced effectiveness, reduced diversity. I do want to have you read along with me there. Eliminating overboarding. So already this is a negative term in in civil government uh by reducing the opportunity to recre recruit fresh talent. So overboarding already is a concern and then constructive thinking and uh you bring the same background experience. It's the same prejudices and biases to each board. And finally I thought this is very interesting. It attracts suspicion to

the council as to why is it appointing a council colleague to multiple boards and that's something we don't need. Last month I gave Mayor Gillan, acting mayor Gillan the next uh the next she which is page two this list of names and there was accompanying phone numbers and to her credit she did contact quite a few of these people. All that had numbers.

Yes. all that had phone numbers and I didn't have every phone number but as I as you told me I think Jason Fathery Lee Mononttoya and Don Myers and I spent about 15 minutes with Steve Stafford and Bev Stafford and they were very interested so there is people there are people out there who want to be available uh we just have to go after them okay let's move on to page three the last council meeting I felt uh we may have left the impression that because the city council is having trouble or it's a challenge to recruit new members for type A, type B, board of adjustment and so on that uh the residents in Keen do not volunteer uh for any organization and that's just not true. Keen is a volunteering town. If you refer to page three, this is very briefly put together uh yesterday and today in talking to the principles at these entities. Uh and I'll just highlight a few. Keen Church Board has 55 board members that meet 12 times a year. The Keen Chamber Flag Crew has 18 and there's usually 12 that show up, including Mr. Smith and Mr. Easley. The Christmas parade has 31 volunteers in addition to the 26 paid like firefighters and police to total the 57 people who put on the Christmas parade. Keen ISD has a concession stand for track and for football games and there's 10 people that volunteer to operate that and there's 16 events per year. SWAU board of directors has 32 volunteer board members. Of course, they're from coast to coast. Keen Elementary School

in the elementary school has a parent teacher organization that has 15 volunteers who assist the teachers every day in the uh in that grade school. And Loops of Love, even though they've moved out of where uh uh Neo Ortiz's office is, Mop and Broom, they still meet and there's 10 people sewing those uh uh prayer shaws. So volunteering is going on. Town Hall Estates has five people who show up every day and play checkers or chess or read to the to the residents there. Yes, there's some duplications and I've highlighted a few that I'm aware of. Steve Weaver is on the flag crew. He's on church maintenance. Jonathan Sites is on parade planning. He's a chamber board member. When Bon's on the flag crew, Taipei, you she's a she stitches. She and Debbie Belts stitch all the flags that are initially identified as need re repair. They are stitched and put back in service before we have to buy another flag. There's usually about 15 of those each time we we we put up the flag. There certainly are others. So why don't residents volunteer for public service? Let's go to page four. I asked my two best friends, Perspective Perplexity AI and CHAP GTP. And there's the question and I it's right there and so you can duplicate it when you ask perplexity and chat GPT. Why are residents reluctant to volunteer for public service consoles and boards? Now the following paragraph is sub is summarized in these bullet points. time constraints, fear of responsibility. Uh they're kind of skeptical. They don't think their participation is going to make any difference. They're not aware. Steve and Bev Stafford were not aware of how type A and how type B work and what they do with the two cent sales tax and

how uh the city takes one cent and type A and type B share the other cent and the half cent goes to each and that's where that money comes from. So I think those people are interested and I think others are will be interested as they're educated. The very last there people are more willing to volunteer when the role is clearly defined. Let's go to page five. I asked Chap I asked Chad GPT the very same question. Why are residents reluctant to volunteer for public service councils and boards? Many of the very same is what perplexity said. time constraints, lack of awareness, perceived lack of qualifications. You know, I'm not qualified. I can't help. What can I do? But here's a new one. Uh, political tension and conflict avoidance. And that's my wife. Exactly. Bonnie just she just wants to teach nursing. She does not want to become involved in in government, but she'll help in other areas. She this just isn't her thing. And finally, number seven, look at that. Fear of public scrutiny. Uh, people are concerned about criticism. I'm going to digress here because I wanted to talk about this for some time and talk about Aristotle. And if you if you are online and can look up Aristotle, how to avoid criticism, do that right now. If you can do that in your computers, Aristotle, how to avoid criticism. He was a Greek philosopher lived about 350 years before Christ. And academicians, Greek historians debate whether he actually said this, but enough believe that he did that I'm going to give him credit for it. Aristotle, how to avoid criticism. If you had it, I wish you could say it wouldn't me. Aristotle said how to avoid criticism.

Be nothing, say nothing, do nothing. Okay. So, Chuck's aware of that. Be nothing, say nothing, do nothing. So, there's no way that city council type A, type B are going to avoid are going to avoid criticism, but they just want to make sure that they're dealing from their heart. Excuse me. Okay, I'm going to wrap this up. Here's the close. Page page six. people are volunteering in Keen. It's just the public service may not be their interest. And yet, we've really experienced an influx of some new faces. I mean, Johnny Shaw has been around forever, but now here he sits on the city council. I know Bob Chapman, you've been here. You're you're really new as far as I'm concerned. You just got here. You came through B and now here you are sitting on the city council. And look at Alma Davalo, Daniel Gaths, Rolando Kindras, Efim uh Costellanos, Nelly Ember. Nellyberg lost the city council race and bounced back and now she's really serving on type B. So doing a good job and that's the way it's supposed to work. Good. It's supposed to be like that. You're doing a good job. But praise God that there was an open seat for them that wasn't taken by somebody who was already on the city council.

Thank you, Paul.

Yeah. Um West Ram wanted to discuss 7C. Okay. West Shrem. I uh currently live at 210 Nottingham Lane, Cedo, Texas. I lived in Keen here for about 35 years and have recently moved. So, I'm not a citizen of Keen anymore. But, uh I served on boards. The first first one I I served on actually was uh was building standards and I don't know if we still have a building standards committee but uh we cleaned a lot of the decrepit homes and homes or buildings that were being used for drugs uh during that period of time and we had trouble getting anybody to serve with us. There were periods of time when there were just two of us on that one particular uh council. I served on type A and type A we had a tough time getting people to actually serve on type A. And I'll take exception to Paul on this because people don't want to serve. We we can't get them to serve. But if we had a newspaper again and I'm and I I've moved to a little town that is 2,800 people has a newspaper and we read that newspaper and so we don't know what's going on. The people that are move moving into this community don't know what's going on. You've got a lot of new faces and you're going to have to reach out to them. As far as what I see on on this one agenda item, uh there's there's an opposition to having

city council people serve on these boards. And I think that you need at least one city council person on the board to help steer that board because they know what's going on at city council and what the uh atmosphere is uh as far as really uh what city council is is looking for as well. Even though A and B boards are completely separate entities, they are not city entities. they are paid by the taxes as Paul talked about, but uh we need that combination of the people at least one person on city council A and B and that would be my uh very strong stance on that my recommendation.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else have any comments? I remember the day very well when we had a newspaper of course and people took criticism. The Bons the Bishops, the acrimans, the shrams were always criticized. What are what are they after? Power. They're running for this. They're running for that. They're serving on everything. And that's because no one else would serve. No one else would serve them. So the Acammans and the Bons and the Shrams and the Bishoffs and Hinrich year after year, but it's different now. That's when the town was 4,000. Now we're almost eight. It's doubled. So those people are out there. I just gave you 45 names. They're there. You maybe there's more interested than what uh what I said, but you know, I'll help you make those calls. Anyway, uh I just

all all of us would like to have more people interested in getting on our boards. I guarantee you that. And I'm no longer president of Taipei board now. I'm still on the board. I have someone that has applied for it. And should he really be sincerely interested, and it was one of the ones that I called, I will step down so he can have that seat because he's a good man. Uh he has a wife that is not well and he just like some of the others that I talked to on your list, they had other obligations. They would think about it.

Well, he was the only one. Yeah. He was the only one that actually applied. And so my comment to you about that is that we try. We want them to come and apply for those seats. Now sometimes they don't have enough time. Seriously, I could use my time doing something else, too, but I also want to serve my city. And so, that's important, but if it's more important for him to have the seat, I will gladly give it to him. Okay. Um, just re real quick, I I I I feel like we're kind of getting off topic. Um, we we've discussed this a lot.

This is one of those things that has been discussed a lot over the course of the last year. And I think I think the fear is is that we're going to find ourselves in a situation where the boards are not full. The good news is the f the the boards are full and there's there is people that are interested. This is just a fail safe. So in the event that there is a position and no one wants to take it because you know like Paul's little presentation that that really struck out to me was the fact that people don't want criticism. Well, that's

you know, uh, we are definitely a city of volunteers, but there's a difference between volunteering for an event and volunteering to be in the public eye. So, I think it's just a failafe to say in the event that there is no interest and a and a council member is willing to serve, we have that latitude is all this is really what this is. So, just an alternate position. Correct. Correct. So, I think that's it. I think that's good.

And I believe we talked about that at the last meeting and I think the consensus was to offer that as a solution because I've been to the type B board meeting because I served on that board as well. And there was a time that I came here and we didn't have a quorum. So, we left. And had we had somebody that we could have appointed, you know, from a council member, we would have had a quorum. We would have been able to discuss and do and do what we needed to do. So, and and the other thing sometimes that I think might get forgotten is council has ultimate say, you know, right?

Um, in the event that, you know, there is an empty position and one of the council members says, "Well, I'll do it." the rest of council can still decide whether or not that person can take that position. Exactly. So keep that in mind too as an as an additional fail safe if you will. Right. Okay. Is there any other discussion on this? Okay. Is there a motion? that we

I move that we approve this because I was the one that was against it. But as a fail safe that has multiple approvals before anybody can do it, I'm for it just as a fail safe. So I I move that we approve it. Second. Bob second. I have a motion from uh Ry Shaw and Bob Chapman. second. Troy Smith, I'm sorry. And Troy and Troy, I'm sorry. Troy as a second. Um, all those in favor. Okay. Motion is approved.

Um, also, since you kind of brought it up, and again, this is just to make sure we're being transparent, all those wonderful things. Um it it was kind of recommended to us by the city attorney that that the council approve and make sure that you know everyone's okay that Samantha's on the type A board at for this time is can do I do a vote a con yeah if we can just get a consensus that each one of you are okay so that there is no blurring of lines And I do believe we discussed that as we went through the whole process. Um, so yeah, I think we should

we discussed it, but we never really did a consensus to where make sure each one of you and we have a a majority that everybody's okay with it. So again, so the public knows that we're all on the same page here. No, we just need a consensus. So, we just say, "Yeah, like I'm in favor of it." And just so we like again for transparency, a year ago, we'd started discussing this matter. And the consensus was that if you were on a board, you could serve until the end of your term.

Like if you were on council, you could you could finish out your term and then you couldn't reapply if you were still on council. So that was the verbiage that we originally had set out to portray. So that way there wasn't a you couldn't overlap or do anything outside that purview. Okay. Well, like I said, it's just been kind of this Yeah. discussion. So, I just I appreciate you all doing a consensus. Okay. Thank you. Let me make one comment, please.

I would like to serve my term out on the Aboard just to see the things that we're we've been doing that they get completed and everything as I'm sure you and Don are going to make sure they do. Uh, but if Mr. Leroy Montoya applied for this job and he wants this or the the spot my spot on the board, I will relinquish it to him retire beforehand. But if not, then I would like to serve out my term. Okay. Welcome. Let's see. Okay. Do we need a motion on that or anything or just they voted? Okay. We already did voted. We did a consensus.

You already did it, huh? Item D. Okay. Then this is number seven.

D. Review and discuss and give direction regarding posting a dress code for those who attend and wish to speak to council or to revise the rules of order or and procedure. Miss Russell, what did the city attorney advise on this matter? Okay. So, it was um council had asked about a dress code in response to a citizen request or complaint on the matter and um it was advised that we already have a um courtroom, a rules of decorum which addresses dress code and you know food and drinks in this courtroom. and the council can um just make the statement that they are going to follow that same rules of decorum since it's the exact same room. Um or if you wish to put it in your rules of order and procedure, we you know, we can certainly do that, but we can post the they're they're out there right now for people to read. Um it's the exact same verbiage that was provided in your packet. Um if you wish to do that, we will just keep them posted permanently. um on the wall. Um otherwise, we can put them in your rules of order and order and procedure. Either way, just let us know.

So, if we keep things posted uh and we we see something that we don't like or we don't think is proper, we can just talk about it right then and say, "Please accuse yourself." Does that Yes. I mean, we don't want to get any lawsuits over someone, but just please excuse yourself and go get dressed. Yes. Yeah. That sounds easier to me than to Yeah. rule of border. I think we should just adhere to that one and keep it posted. And and this is where we hold court. So it's, you know, kind of the respecting the room or the the office, per se. Do we need to vote on that? Have a motion on that. Holly,

you can give a motion or um just direct staff to post the courtroom rules of decorum by the doors and that you will Excuse me. RJ

Ray Johnson, 109 Christine Street. What are we talking about this dress code for? Is there a reason, council? Was there a reason for it? There was a citizen that um requested it, Ray. Okay. You got one person that's all talking about it. But you got What are you call talking about dress code? How how we're not in the courthouse. Well, he was we're not going to court. That's a whole different setup than me in court. You go to court, you know what you got to dress like coming to council. I don't care what you dress like as long as you come here

with respect. Now, if you're going to come in here like I see so many people, I could see why, you know, like he said, you know, ask them to leave. That's the way I believe it. But we're not in the courthouse. I mean, I come here with shorts on, but I come here with, you know, with respect, too, with shorts. So, that's what I'm talking about. We're not in the courthouse trying to judge. Otherwise, there is a problem. Well, we had a cut. We had a citizen that was where you were at talking to council and the back camera caught that much crack. I know who you're talking about. I jumped on him before. Well, and I jumped on the guy before. So, there's no shame in the game. That's why that's why we

But you got one person. One person. So, you're talking about one out of 50 people or 20 people, 10 people. So, you know, they don't you you profiling people now. No, we're not profess profiling. No, R.J. there were a lot of people that have complained about the dress in in the council meetings. Well, if I come here, I'm going to come with shorts on. If you got something to do, then throw me out. Oh, well,

that's all I'm going to say. So, I I think this goes to the respect of the room, the respect of what we do here. When I began to attend city council, I wore my good blue jeans and a nice polo shirt. I came dressed to fit the room. I didn't come in basketball shorts and a white t-shirt. I came presentable because I respected the room. I respected what's happening here and I respected the city council members that were here. And I think that's all we're asking is to if you want to be respected and respect this room, let's dress respectfully. Well, I do. But the thing is, you wouldn't even come to council till you just was running. That's the only time you showed up.

So your excuse is you came with all this stuff on cuz you was trying to look pretty like you are now. That's not true. That's what I can tell you, R.J. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

There there is a you know, I was doing a little bit of research on this and there uh there's a thing called reverence, right? And of course, yes, this is a courtroom, but but the room still stands. And and the reverence is is that you continue to honor this place no matter who's in here. And that's what the reverence is all about. So, it's not always about the courtroom proceedings, per se, but it's about the reverence of of what, you know, this symbol is for and what this courtroom is designed to do. And so you you you revere to what the standards are in this room. And that's that's that's the research that I did in in accordance with that. So

and R.J. common courtesy like for instance, one of the rules on the dress code out there is taking your hat off when you come in. I agree with that. Well, the reason for that is our mothers and dads have always told take your hat off or take it off for dinner. You know, take it off when you're going to a movie. Those different kinds of things. And this is just out of respect. A lot of this is a respect for the place. When I was on council, I came with a suit on. Okay. I knew how. Yes, you did. Professional. But coming in here with shorts on depend on how you dress with shorts. But now you talking about counsel. Look at Johnny. I like Johnny, but look how he dressed. Is that way a councilman should come to council? I apologize. I just came in from work. Doesn't matter. Are you a councilman?

Yes. Okay. And that's the way I think about it. If you want to be a counsel, come in here with respect. Not come in with work clothes on. I showed up. I never came in here with work clothes and got off and went home and changed. Well, he did not have time. He's on counsel. He made counsel. He's covered. But if you profiling people, you need to profile counsel. He's not wearing shorts. He's not wearing shorts. But anyway, our councilman is here with a reason and he is dressed appropriately. He doesn't have a hat on. He's not showing anything he shouldn't be showing. And he's respectful.

Thank you. Anybody else have any comments on this? Okay.

I do want I'm gonna I'm gonna sympathize with Ray a little bit here. Right. So, so for the brand new guy who's never been in here and walks through those doors because he says, "Hey, I just saw somebody post that they want to be at or the city council meeting tonight and they want to show up and they don't understand a dress code and they walk right by that sign, don't even look at it and they just walk right in here. What's the, you know, are we g are we gonna ask Chief Kid or Chief Warner to go speak to that person and say, "Hey, you can't be here unless you have, you know, the the proper attire, or are we going to say, we'll allow you to sit in this one, but for the next time we'd ask that you would do this? Are we are we giving strikes strikes and, you know, balls and strikes or are we calling fouls and giving them giving them chances? Do we do we I'm I'm kind of playing devil's advocate is is what I'm trying to do just so that way there's there has to be a little bit of an understanding. I mean I get courtroom when you show up for a courtroom

the judges and the and you have your paperwork before you get here. You already know the rules are set and it tells you that in the verbiage. It it even tells you that if you're a uh if you're asked to come here to be a juror, it tells you how to properly dress. So, but people don't know that when they come to this place. So, how do we address that? I

think there's a question the attorney to how we properly should enforce it. and the attorney, our attorney will be at the next meeting just because of some things. But what we were just kind of discussing is and again to speak to Ray Johnson, what he was commenting on, I can go to a court and sit in the peanut gallery and pretty much, you know, I don't necessarily have to be dressed in a proper attire, but if I'm going to address the court, okay, and again, it's up to the presiding judge whether or not they want to enforce it. Okay? And so I I think I think having a standard is not necessarily a bad thing, but I also believe in having compassion, right? Or understanding the event. And so it can even be something and again we can discuss this with the attorney more. Again, this was an issue that was on the agenda because of citizens bringing it to us. This is not just us going, "Hey, we don't we don't want people to wear certain things, right?" Um, and so, uh, it can even be one of those things where when addressing council, if they're coming to address counsel, it's just like the court and you need to be dressed and be respectful to the the position. So, again, these are just little ideas um that we can discuss more.

It seems like we could make a statement that doesn't necessarily require enforcement. Does that make sense? because we make a statement that we require cell phones to be turned into silent, but if they ring, they they they will go out.

And for me, for me, it's the hat thing. I mean, that's how I was raised. You don't wear a hat. Um, you know, and if if you're wearing a t-shirt that is, you know, speaking negatively to a t a class of people or whatever, that's that's more of the concern that that I have for our community than are you buttoned up wearing a tie, you know, that's that's not what this is meant to be. Um it is but it is meant to have to create a level of reverence and respect for what this room represents.

Well, is there any possibility that we can have a male council member or a male from the audience to ask men to pull up their pants from a down around their ankles with a belt or something before they come in? I have I have I have told somebody and the same person you guys are talking about, Troy knows it. I told the guy what he should do. Well, that's the concern of some of the people, you know, and again, we want to try to get more and more people coming into council meetings. So, we would like it to be, you know, comfortable for everybody. We're not trying to make it church. No, we don't want that. I agree with what you said. Going to court, everybody knows. I mean, when you go to court, go with shorts and see what the judge tell you. Oh, yeah.

I've been there. I've seen how they talk to people. So, you know, I I'm just saying this is a council meeting. I can see when you come showing your butt and doing all that crazy that it's not showing respect for for you guys and the people out here. Okay. So, I'm just saying if you come in here with shorts and you dress nice, I don't think there should be a problem with that. Okay. I'll say it again. I think we can have a statement of a dress code without enforcement. It's a recommendation and maybe you need to talk to your lawyer about asking people how we can leave this like a statement on the agenda. Yes. Just like we have a handicap statement and such

that you know city council meetings are you know business casual dress or whatever the term needs to be. Well, there was a language verbiage in there on that code too. So there was more than just a dress code on there. Yeah. And we we can circle up with Judy more in this. So, we're going to go over all of that with trying to talk through some of this concern from citizens. So, is Judy planning on being at the next council for Can we Can I just make a motion to postpone this until the next meeting? Second. Absolutely. I'll make a motion to postpone this the next agenda. All right. Thank you.

All those favor of postponing this. Okay. E review and discuss and take action to consider rescheduling or cancelling the June 4th, 2026 regular council meeting due date uh to administration staff's absences and attendance seminars and conferences. This is a little bit of a housekeeping item. Um as you all remember last summer get busy.

Oh yes. Um and so uh uh June 4th um both the primary and secondary people that kind of make sure this event goes or this meeting goes smoothly will be out in training. And so I'm simply kind of putting it out there that you know we're still a few months away but June 4th is going to be very a little bit harder to make the meeting go. So, either um look at the third Thursday, which is June 18th, um or if we get closer and there's really nothing to discuss to just cancel it. But either way, I just need council to be okay with us not having or moving the June 4th if that's all right.

Are we going to be entering budget season at that time? July. We'll we'll be busy pulling things together for you. Yes. So at this time I think we we put it on the 18th and then review it in May. Okay. So you want to change it to June 18th? Yes. If if you all are that's my motion. Make a motion we put it at June 18. Do we Sorry. I'm going to pause on that one. I was also looking at July. Right. So we have July 2nd. So between the 18th and July 2nd is less than two weeks. Darn near. Right. or it's right at two weeks. Um, do we want to move that one as well or do you feel like budget's going to be No, I I think we almost weekly in that

I think we get back on schedule. Okay. Um, going into budget season, there's a good chance like we did last year that that we do every two weeks because again, we're going to want to do uh work. We're going to have more meetings during budget season. So, um, yeah. Okay. I just want I just didn't want you to feel like No, I appreciate two weeks is all we get to get things together. Holly's looking at me saying amen to that. We learned last year. So, okay. All right. What was your motion? We move the June to uh June 4 meeting to June 18. Second.

Okay. All those in favor? Okay. And then Okay. Executive session council. Do we need to um recess for executive counsel? Miss Russell, would you please read the agenda items?

Sorry. Pursuant to the Texas Opens Meeting Act, chapter 551, Texas Government Code, the city council may recess into executive session at any time during the meeting. that a need arises for the city council to seek advice from the city attorney as to any posted item on and by the following authority. A the Texas government code 551 071 consultation with an attorney for advice about pending litigation. Um and then B, Texas Government Code section 551076 deliberation regarding security devices or security audits to deliberate and the deployment or specific occasions for implementation of security personnel or devices.

Okay. Um time is now 7:28 and we recess for executive session.

you did like you started going down instead of across.

So, I'm just trying to rewrite it real quick. Sorry. Risk attorney to timely file an answer to the lawsuit filed against the city, city council, and city manager by Vincent Castro and take any measures necessary. I'll

second. Okay. Troy Smith made a motion and Bob Chapman did a second. Is everybody in approval or Okay, there we go. Raise in approval. Okay. I move that we give the city manager the action on 8B to go ahead and move forward with it.

Second. Okay. So B is is also given a okay approval on it. Okay. Is there anything else on this? Was there any request for future agenda items? This is more of a question, but uh did we ever have that conversation with Texot as far as a turn lane at 67 in Old Betsy on the eastbound D? No. westbound direction. Excuse me.

Yeah. So, um actually have one of our semionthly meetings coming up that is already on their radar. Um unfortunately the shoulder isn't wide enough just to turn it into a turn lane and so that's something they have to work into their budget. They will be fixing that little hole thing. Um he did tell me that was going to get fixed. Um but yeah, I have a whole list on my whiteboard of of things that we're we're working on, but it's just like us. we have to they have to go through their process and all that. So they are aware that we would like that um along with several other text items. So but they've been they've really been great to work with. Okay, perfect.

And Holly, didn't we put something else on the agenda for future agenda? Um you talked about revisiting the June meeting date. Oh, the June meeting. Okay. And the dress code. Was that going to be on the next agenda as well? Okay. Okay. Is there any others for the agenda? Okay. Returning the meeting at 8:16 p.m.