City Council - Regular Meeting

It is Thursday, July the 2nd, 2026. I now call the city council meeting to order. The time is 6 o'clock p.m. I ask that you please sign out your cell phones. And council members, Rob Foster will give the invocation and will conduct the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please bow your heads with me. Kind Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to have to come together once again to meet the needs of the city. Lord, we just ask that tonight, as we deliberate this business, that you would guide our thoughts and our minds, give us wisdom, give us understanding, and may everything that we do tonight bring you honor and glory is our prayer we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Okay, Mayor comments. Just a reminder that the city offices will be closed tomorrow in observance of the Independence Day holiday. All of our citizens are invited to attend the parade and celebration event in the downtown in the morning. Then get your tickets for the City of Keene night at the Railroaders baseball game. A fireworks show will be held at the end of the game. And please see the city Facebook page for details on these activities. On Tuesday evening, July the 7th, our city secretary will conduct a candidate orientation for all who are considering running for office. You must RSVP to the city secretary so that we can provide enough notebooks for those who want to attend. If you can't make it that evening, just call Holly and schedule some time with her. She will be happy to go over the packet with you. Thank you, Holly. For those who want to run for place on city council, the period to file for your application for a place on the ballot begins on July the 18th. The November, the seats for mayor, place one, place three, and ward two are on the ballot. Does council have any other events they wish to discuss or to announce?

Did you, did I hear something on, sorry, did I hear something on social media that today was the last day to sign up for that? No, not technically? for the orientation?

If they notify me Monday, just the package is so huge to run, but Monday would be fine.

Okay, perfect. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew that.

Okay.

Is there any in attendance who wish to speak to the city council on an item not posted on the agenda and shall speak during this time? A speaker card should have already been filled out and given to the city secretary before the meeting. Each speaker will be allotted three minutes. 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, ask clarification questions, respond with facts, and explain policy. Anyone who wishes to speak to the City Council on an item that is posted on the agenda can speak when that item is discussed. And first we have Mr. Paul Knott.

Okay, good evening Mayor and Council. I know you're gonna think I'm out of order and I am because I'm usually here with this presentation after the event takes place. But you have a golden rod sheet of paper in front of you and on that are the names of the individuals and entities who are responsible for tomorrow's parade. So I just want you to know who they are because the parade could not take place without their assistance. And on there, we need to add the, uh, the type B board for purchasing and public works department for installing the electronic reader boards that, uh, are announcing the parade. There's a couple of them around the city. So I appreciate that very much. Uh, very simply the parade stages at Chisholm trail Academy. Registration's at 7.30 a.m. Judging is at 8 a.m. And then parade starts promptly at 9 a.m. And there's a wonderful float built by Chuck Easley for the city council. We also have another float designed, built by James Bells for the veterans. We have a float for you, Samantha. A vehicle being driven by Chuck Shetter, who's the manager at Dollar General. Okay, and then Gary Heinrich is is hauling our our Grand Marshal Ruth just on a hay wagon So that'll be nice. Here's what I want to say public, please There's no Pinnacle Bank is open. So there is no parking at Pinnacle Bank For the public for spectators, so please honor that I General insurance is closed tomorrow. The ABC is closed. So there's parking there and there's parking along old, old Betsy road. So please respect a pinnacles, uh, request not to inconvenience their customers. So we'll see tomorrow. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Paul. Okay. And next our public comments, uh, Owen Larson.

Better? Yes. Owen Larson, 1002 Shelly Drive. Thanks again for allowing me to speak. So this is a petition that we provided February the 5th at that city council meeting. We gave you, in writing, a petition and kind of expected an in writing response. And so we did not receive that. We received what is now a written response or written verbiage of your oral response, right? And so this is, again, an issue that has been going on forever and ever and ever. And so I kinda just wanted to respond to some of it. We have, I have given a open records request to the city secretary who's been very helpful, so thank you, Holly. And so really, some of the responses here or some of the verbiage that was provided or shared was just, it's not, there's no real merit to it. And because you're talking about something that happened a while ago, you're talking about it like it happened today. And the reality is it happened years ago, right? And back then we had the same conversations. None of you were here, right? I get it, it wasn't you. But I had these same conversations back then when there were no homeowners, the homes were not built, the lots were not set in stone. But what happened was is when the lot started being formulated and a home, I guess, was purchased or a lot was said, you know, I want to buy that lot. And then a house started to be built. And then the city stopped. The city stopped the building of the homes. And they said, you need to build a wall here. The city said that. The developer didn't say that. The city said it. And so now the city said, build a wall here. There's, I've asked for a response. I haven't received it yet. And what I think we're gonna end up finding out is exactly what is here. You had an engineer speak and the engineer said, let's see, he said, and I quote, well, let's see, there's two rough sets of plans between the old development and the new development. Y'all remember that? I know it's been two months. But then you go a little bit farther down and he says, there's no real plan for a wall. And so you have two sets of plans that have no wall on them, or at least that's what I expect I'm gonna see. That's what it says here. And so if you have two plans and no wall, no engineering plans, which I expect I'm gonna get no engineering plans for them, says it right here, there's no plan for a wall. How did a wall get there and continue to force water and dirt and silt into our properties when there's no plan for one? When it's nowhere, it's nowhere to be found. At least that's what it sounds like right here because Jonathan, tell me I'm wrong, but that's what it says. Yeah, so again, so no wall, no engineering plans, no plat plans, but yet there's a wall that's continued to cause us problems for, I don't know how many years, but enough is enough. And I know the problem, $305,000, that's the problem. However, had they fixed the problem back then, when I said, hey, stop guys, here's a problem. Let's fix it. If you'd have stopped it right then, the city wouldn't have had to pay for it. The developer would have had to pay for it. But at this point, now that the city has said, don't build a home, build a wall, the city said that. I'm looking for, we've asked for some information. I expect I'll get it. I'll bring that information back to you. But the reality is, There's no plan for a wall. Guarantee you there's no engineering plans for a wall, but yet there's a wall. Homeowners did not build it. That's in here. Somebody, I believe your attorney said, if the homeowners built it, then it's on the homeowners. There were no homeowners at the time the wall was built. And so now here we are all these years later.

Mr. Owen, you're talking about the Spring Creek subdivision over there, right? That's correct. Okay. Correct.

the shipments were the original ones to build those homes out there were they talking about home building yes they actually they were not the original one building the homes okay they were the second home builder and they there was a developer the developer i think was out of california and maybe the guy out of east texas can't remember the name who he is i i had the information i don't have it with me he is the one i think that actually did all the dirt work which is essentially dig all the roads and just dump all the dirt right behind all the landowners of Shelly Drive on the west side of Shelly Drive. And so he, I go home one day and there's 20 feet tall, 30 feet tall mounds of dirt right off of my back, our back property line. But it was not the shipments that, shipments built homes. It was a developer that caused the problems in conjunction with the city who forced them to build the wall.

Okay. Because I was just wondering, because I do know when he was building homes out there, and the original owner, there were certain lots that he had already started to build on, the developer had started to build, and then he sold off the rest of the lots. Correct. And you're saying he was from California?

Well, there was a California developer, I think, that might have used a developer out of East Texas. I don't know exactly how that happened.

Do you remember his name by any chance?

No, but I can get it for you. Please do. Certain of it. But the wall was built before any homes were built. So the shipments don't really have anything to do with it.

Well, I understand that. but if that original homeowner was the one that promised that he would build that wall and he was developing, he should have built the wall and he may have built the wall. We just need to go and figure out who did it.

I'm not actually following you. What you're saying, a homeowner?

No, the developer. If he was putting the roads in and everything and he was gonna put the retaining wall up there, then he may have been the one that did that, the original developer.

He did that based on the city's request or expectation. The city forced him to do that.

Possibly.

And I wasn't here back then. It's not possible, but I get it. I understand what you're saying. It's a guarantee. Yeah. I'm not asking a question.

Well, I'm just saying I wasn't here then, but I was just trying to get an idea of what may have happened there. I understand. And somewhere in here, too, we had a computer crash. A bunch of information was gone from everything. Yep. And the city was trying to put all that stuff back together. And so it may be that there's just some errors all along the way by several things.

Based on your May the 5th communication, verbal communication, which we didn't know was happening, therefore I was not here, had I known I would have been here. But based on this, which is a transcript of everybody's discussion, which I think really was Jonathan and and your attorney. Based on that, they've done some research and the research showed there's two sets, there's two plats and no wall. How did a wall get there without it being engineered and platted? So we've asked for some information, but I'll get that. And I'm just sharing with you that. What we're going to end up finding out is that everything I've said from the very beginning is not incorrect. It's correct.

Okay. Well, thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Thank you. Mr. Owen, I would like to apologize. We had already put it on the agenda. I actually reached out. Your neighbor, Eddie, had actually shared with me that you were out on vacation during that time. So I do apologize, but once it's posted, we're kind of, the train leaves the station at that point.

I mean, I like I think I shared with you once before. I'm never giving up. So you can have this conversation every day and I'll I'll show up. So we're going to fix this. Okay. Some way, somehow. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Okay. And next we have an eddy. I'm sorry, I can't pronounce your last name. Arana Arana. Thank you.

For the same issue that Mr. Owen has. Can you hear me now?

Yes.

I've got the same issue that I once got. I've got a room in the back. It's a closed-in little porch. The bottom of it's rotting from the water. Yeah, y'all say that I had put in a French drain. Yeah, that come out of my pocket. It didn't come out of taxpayer's pocket. It come out of my pocket because of the city's mistake of having somebody build a wall that it's rotting. People need to go look at this wall. It's horrible. It just sticks now. I can't see it. The only thing that's holding that wall up from falling into my yard is my fence. And my fence is being pushed in by this wall. I would like some help, and I'm sure Owen would too. We all would. It's not our fault. We're asking for somebody to do something. I would greatly appreciate it. It's already eating at my fence. Backyard was nice until it started raining, and it's just steadily coming over. It's mud packed up here. It was rock, beautiful rock. And after the years, the mud has just come over the top and just, I got mud that thick. I covered my rock garden up. So, I mean, I didn't have nothing to do with that. Somebody had something to do with it. We need to get to the bottom of it. I mean, have you seen it?

Remember, I went out and walked.

OK, I wasn't there, I don't think.

Yeah, no, I looked at it.

OK, but the water comes to my house. It shouldn't come to my house.

Now, you said you put in a French drain?

Yes, but the water still comes over. And the French drain is on this side, pushing the water out to the road. which the money come out of my pocket for somebody else's mistake. I didn't have the money. The city says they don't have the money. Whose problem is it? I mean, somebody's at fault of it. We need to find out who it is.

When did you buy your home?

11 years ago.

11 years ago?

Yes, ma'am.

Mr. Larson, when did you buy your home? I built it in 96. 96, OK. Thank you for that information.

I don't have the money to repair my home that the damage was done by the water. I mean, something's got to happen.

May I ask you, did someone advise you to put in a French drain?

I put it in because I couldn't- No, I mean- No, I did it myself.

Okay, but I mean, did you get an engineer to tell you to put in the French train?

Well, to get rid of the water, I mean, how else was I going to do it? Well, because- I talked to the city and they wouldn't do nothing about it. I understand what you're saying, but I'm asking- No, that was my own choice because it was something that I asked the city about it, nothing was done. me and my wife decided, well, we've got to get this water out of the backyard because it's coming into the house.

Okay. My reason for asking is because I've been involved with the French drains and they do have to be placed in a certain way where the water, you know, I had it professionally done.

I didn't do it myself.

Okay. Then, then he probably did his, his work on it.

Yes.

Okay.

At the end of this street, I think y'all may realize or may not realize, but at the end of the street, Billy and Bride's house flooded multiple times. And he ended up saying, forget it, I'm done. He moved. And I'm pretty certain he lost a lot of money on the value of his home. He sold because the city wouldn't do anything. So Billy McBride, pretty sure he doesn't live far from here now. I think he still lives in the city of Keene. But we can have him come up here and have the same discussion. He's probably even more upset and has just washed his hands of it.

We're pretty close to getting out of Keene, too. To be honest with you. if i'd known i was going to run into this problem with the city i wouldn't have never moved here to be honest and and i don't advise anybody to move the king i'm sorry but i don't because they haven't been over backwards to help me and i've been over backwards to help anybody any of you guys sitting up there i would help well that's all we're asking for some help yeah help us figure this out

I'm sorry.

And I'm with Owen. I'll be here. Whenever Owen walks through that door, I'm going to walk in behind him.

OK. Well, thank you for bringing it to our attention again.

But it needs to be fixed.

Thank you. OK. And next, Councilman Troy Smith has something to say.

Right on. Well, thank you guys for coming. Thanks for the people that are watching online. I've been blessed to be a part-time author. I know that sounds weird to say sometimes, but because I'm in the painting trade, and actually a good friend of mine here in Keene told me it's weird being a painter and an author in the same sentence. It just doesn't quite jive. But I took that as a compliment. But God has given me the ability to take thoughts in my head and put them down on paper for all to read. In that, I have to be so conscious about what I write because it needs to tell the right story in the right way. And if it's a little off, the audience may catch on to it, and it could taint the rest of the reading experience. Whether I'm writing fiction or nonfiction, it's important for me to tell the story in a manner that reflects what the book is being called, nonfiction or fiction. Currently, I'm writing a novel. It is fiction. And the beautiful thing is I have the power to choose the creativity I want the story to be. The liberty I get to have is fun for me. I get to choose my own creativity and my hope is through that creativity, you love what you're reading, right? That's the goal. Nonfiction books are a little different. My creative liberties are dictated by the truth of what actually happened. That's the difference. And if I write true nonfiction material, it needs to reflect the truth. I wrote one of these as well. And wouldn't you know it, it takes way longer to write the truth than it does fiction. And when you decide to write a nonfiction book, your whole heart and mind has to be one in telling the truth of the story. After all, the last thing you want is someone to find out that it was written and didn't really happen that way or you left something out. That's why it's important. Most authors are keen to this philosophy. In the book or whatever writings are being published, the key ingredient is what you're reading needs to be known. Somewhere bold when you look up any book is the genre of what the book you are looking at. Maybe it's a fictional sports contemporary novel. Maybe it's a fictional romance novel. I put that in for you ladies, by the way. Or it could be a nonfiction autobiography. The difference is known before you even purchase the book. That's why they have genres available so that way you know what you're reading. Now, why do I say all this? Most of you are probably catching on. Most of you are probably thankful I'm not talking about the Dodgers. Social media posts don't have a nonfiction section or a fiction section. You scroll and choose to read or not to read what is available to you. But I wish there was such a thing. I would love to know if the reader's intentions were malicious or sincere. I'm more scared for this community today because social media is an ever present guest in our lives if we allow ourselves to be consumed by it. Can social media be used for good? It sure can. We've seen the work of our marketing guy who's posting nothing but good things about this city and I appreciate that. But can it also divide a nation or even a small city like Keene? You bet it can. and it can in a big way. Knowing this, I want to speak the truth and walk in the truth. I do that in my personal life, so why would this be any different? So if books have a genre attached to them, why don't social media posts, right? Like I wish that was a thing. As a country, we are becoming more affluent in accepting what is written rather than questioning its findings. It's easier just to accept it as true instead of searching for the truth. The citizens of our community are being plagued by this right now. The waters are being muddied, and for what reason? Casting doubt, control, bitterness, hatred, you name it, right? We may never know the real reason why people are saying what they say, but I've got nothing to hide. The city has nothing to hide. with transparency at its highest level right here in this room or back there, the truth is here. Now, if you want the truth, we ask that you just come right here. We'll tell you the truth, right? Reach out to us and we'll get the truth to you, right? We've all got our phone numbers and our emails. Come see us, come find out, right? Um, there are some people in the respective fields, like the city secretary, our city manager, wonderful people, honest people, and they don't waver from the truth. Heck I've tried to get away with some things. Just kidding. I'm just messing with you. Um, now I'm not here to say that the truth is going to be all great news, but the good, the bad and the ugly of the truth is always going to be back there. in a records request, in an email back, stating the facts. And the facts matter. So I caution those who only read online that it's possible that maybe the facts are not true that are being told to you. To those who want to know the truth, please come here and find your resolve in the place that can get you the truth that you're looking for. And remember this, it doesn't say nonfiction on any post or comment in social media, but it does when you go to the source where information can be found. So I just wanna, I'm going off script here a little bit now. I'm so grateful that I get to be in this position and I don't take this lightly, but it gives me a platform to be able to just speak truth. And so, God help me that I always continue to be this way. And we are so blessed that the people in the departments that we have here at this city do a fine job of being very honest. I ask a lot of questions, and they know it. And I ask some deep stuff. and they're willing to get me the truth. So I encourage anybody who is seeing a post and not exactly sure if it's true or not, come to the city. You're going to get the right answer, I promise you. So thanks for listening.

Thank you, Councilman Smith. Okay, next we go to reports, information reports only. There's no action to be taken on them. Receive an update from the City Manager and Director of Finance on the physical year 2024 and physical year 2025 audits. Local Government Code Chapter 103 and the letter received from the Office of the Attorney General and an update on the IRS audit. Mr. Seitz? And Ms. Lamb?

Sorry. Good evening, Council, those of you at home watching online. It's going to be a busy month for us with budget workshops coming up. But let me start with, first of all, the most well, no, this is the finance part. I'm sorry, I was going to mine. Forgot we changed the order. Yes. So the good news is and and you may have a lot more questions and Mira has a lot more of this information than I do. The poor finance department has been through it, and I am super proud that they have continued to stick with it. It's funny to me because we love to throw that word transparency around. Okay. And yet when we feel like this is the most transparent the city's ever been, we get in trouble for it, or there's a backlash from it. And I want to preface this with, it's not because people were hiding information. It's because, as we've talked about, the constant churning, 35 directors in five years, the top leadership changes. You can never get your feet under you to figure these things out. And And we haven't had Amira, who I'm extremely grateful for. We were talking in the hallway just before this, and it was funny because I had been asking for reports from accounting because that's the only way I know how to run a business. And I couldn't get it. I couldn't get it. And within weeks after she got here, I got my first financial report. Now, was it accurate? No, but at least gave me something to look at. And from there, things have gotten better and better and better. So the 2024 audit, everything is in with the auditors. They have everything. You know, there's comments out there that, you know, we've been lying about it, this and that. Well, the way audits work is we have also been funneling the same type of information that they're gonna request for the 2025 audit to the auditors at the same time. But you cannot officially work on an audit as an auditor until you have the previous year done, okay? So at this point, we are literally waiting on the auditors. And then on top of that, because of state and all the wonderful regulations that we have to abide by, we have to deliver that 2024 audit report And while that's happening, they will be working on the 2025 audit. So if for some reason I have not communicated well or whatever the case may be, I do apologize. But both of them are in the works. It's just the process that we have to go by. So why has this audit been so rough? And Mira and I talked and we decided it was time We release all this information so you can appreciate the hill that that department has had to climb. And again, Mira, at some point you may want to come up and correct me because I'm probably going to be wrong with some of this stuff. But these are the notes that I've kind of been taking as this process has gone on. There were no bank reconciliations done since 2021. Okay. the auditors would do adjustments at the end. And let me preface this, okay? Again, this is not, I don't blame anybody for this, okay? Small cities, there are, the term that we've heard a lot is this is the kosher way to do things. I don't know how to do kosher. I only know how to run a business, okay? So the auditors would always do the adjustments at the end. Those adjustments only work if they're entered into the system. So when Mira took over, there were 6,000 transactions that had never been processed in five years. There were duplicate journal entries. Two bank accounts had never even been entered into the system. Some of those bank accounts had, and they're minor ones but still, had not been reconciled for eight years. Now, how did we get there? The city went through a major cyber attack. There's all the reasons behind why this happened. This is not a malicious thing, okay? The people that have come through these doors, I have no doubt, started out wanting to do well. But the simple fact of it is, they were set up to fail. And it's because of the resilience of the entire team that we have right now that we are finally starting to untangle what I call the spaghetti mess. So the update is, and Mary, did you have anything you wanted to add or did I do good enough? I think this is a example of this team's tenacity because the people that are on this team are not here for a paycheck. They're here because they love this community and they want to see it succeed. And so I publicly want to thank my entire team, all my directors, Mira, council, for continuing to be patient because I am very aware that you could be up here pounding the desk and screaming for results. And so sometimes being patient, because Lord knows I am not even a very patient man from time to time, it is one of the hardest things that we can do. And so I want to thank you for being patient with us as we continue to put processes in place and continue to... just work to make this city run like a real city. Because we're not small. I mean, we're small if you compare us to Dallas. Poor Dallas. But we've doubled since I moved here. And the population is about to grow again by 30% to 40% in the next five years or less. So I'm thankful. I told Mary, I said, if you look at the positive on this is, Because we've had to do basically forensic dissecting, we are going to know this team better than any team has ever known this city. So last chance to add anything.

Well, I am really proud of our team. And I've seen how hard that little gal there works. And you. We thank you for what you're doing.

Give them a standing ovation.

Yes. Yes. That goes for our police chief and our fire chief as well.

Well, it has definitely been a team effort. And we will be doing state of the city opportunities here pretty soon. And When I start thinking about the last 18 months, what's been accomplished, it is absolutely mind-blowing. So I'm looking forward to sharing it with the community because I promise you we're not sitting around just collecting paychecks. We are working hard. And I know, trust me, I'd like to be focusing on all the pretty stuff, but you have to get the foundation of a home secure first if you want it to stand. And so that's what we're working on right now.

Well, and as we all said, God has been blessing Keene, so that's a good thing.

Yes, he has.

Okay. Anything else from you, Mr. Seitz or Ms. Lamb?

Any questions for Amir and I? Any questions? Oh, sorry. Yes. Oh, man. I have notes here somewhere.

While you're looking at your notes, let me just say something real quick. This is about finance. So about four years ago, I started coming to council meetings and just being involved. Maybe it was five years ago now. Well, it's been a while. Which I love, right? And we've seen the different formats of how finance presents. And I'm not gonna lie, you move from one person to the next and you think it's really weird and it's awkward because somebody's presenting in a different way. But I gotta tell you, I've come to love the way that you present and that and your tenacity up here just being being a light and doing and doing what you do best. Right. Which is bringing us the facts about the information. So and I also want to just add that when you present to us in paper, it is so thorough. And I don't even want to read it, because there's just too much information. It's like information overload. I do read it, but I just want you to know that I'm just like, boy, it's so nice to just have all the information. And it is the good, the bad, the ugly, right? Like, we get to see it all. So I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate that.

When you give him his report, please give him Excedrin, OK?

Okay, so the 103, as we all know, we received a letter from Paxton. And I thought it would be good to just read you the definition of what the 103 is. Okay, so local Texas government code chapter 103 regulates the audit of municipal finances requiring all cities to undergo an annual financial audit and publicly file the resulting financial statement. Now, if you all remember, We had been using the same company for five years, okay? And again, very thankful for them. Mira at one of her conferences bumped into one of the auditors from that company, the lead auditor from our previous audit company. And even they made the statement that we were becoming too hard to audit because the things they were telling us and the reversing journal entries we weren't doing So the only reason we've even really been able to survive the last five years is because they were the previous auditor. They can kind of take those last year adjustments, figure it out and adjust it again, okay? And if you remember, I recommended that we go with a new audit company because it's best business practices and I needed fresh eyes in there because it wasn't adding up to me, okay? So this poor new auditor is helping us untangle this spaghetti mess along with support from ZacTax. So it is taking longer than I expected, but here's my prediction. The audit costs have continued to increase, and it's easy to go, oh, well, that's just inflation, and that's what's going to happen. Cost is going to go up. No. it was going up because it was becoming extremely difficult. Now, audits are not cheap, but my prediction, thankfully, when Mira got here halfway, almost halfway through 2025, she went back to, at the recommendation of, I think, Doug and Zach Tax, and of course what you know because of where you come from, she went back to the beginning of the fiscal year and started putting those processes in place, okay? So my prediction is the auditor is going to give us really bad marks for 2024 and a recommendation list probably a mile long. My prediction is in 2025, which the information is funneled over there, they're gonna see that a large part of their recommendations has already been implemented. What does that mean for the city? It means much quicker, timely audits in the future. And you also heard me say this. I would rather do it right and fix it than continue this, the trend, what we were on, okay? So 2025 audit, I think, will go much quicker. And I also believe the cost of auditing will begin to go down to what other cities that are more organized are paying. So ultimately, this will save the city money and time in the long run, not to mention give us timely, accurate information so we can run the business. So, sorry, key components of the statute include annual requirements, 103.001, municipalities must have their accounts audited annually by a licensed CPA or a qualified regular employee and a financial statement must be prepared based on that audit. We're working on that. Filing and public record 103.003, the annual financial statement and auditor's opinion must be filed with the municipal secretary or clerk within 120 days of the end of the city's fiscal year. These documents are considered public record. I can promise you that'll happen on day one after the audit. Retirement valuation, 103.004. If a city provides retirement, disability, or death benefits for its employees, the annual financial statement must include an actuarial valuation of the program's assets and liability. And yeah, that's a whole other thing. That's something else she's doing that we've never had an asset list. So anyway, that, sorry. Tax penalties 103.005, a municipality that fails to complete or timely file its audit faces strict penalties. If the Texas Attorney General determines a city is in violation of chapter 103, the city is prohibited from adopting ad valorem property tax to exceed the no new revenue rate. So until the audit is successfully completed and filed, that's what we're actively working on. Um, I promise you I'm pushing them as fast as I can because Mir's done her part and it's in their hands now. So. All right. I got a lot of papers up here. Y'all sorry.

Okay. Are there any other questions council? Okay.

And just for the record, I did, we were not required to submit a response to the office of the attorney general. but I went ahead and did file a response out of respect to his office because I wanted to let him know that we received it. I didn't go into all the reasons why, I just simply stated it had been received and we're working rapidly to get into compliance. So that's the letter in your packet.

Thank you. Okay, and next, city manager's comments, general city development updates. The city secretary, Holly Russell, is officially TRMC certified. Congratulations, Holly.

We are super proud of our city secretary, Miss Holly. That is not an easy certification, and it takes a long time. Yeah, we have an official certified city secretary, y'all. Once again, Keene is a city on the rise. Okay, so city development updates. Metal Plate is moving forward. Don, I'm so thankful for him because he comes in behind to get this all going, and gas lines are being moved over there, and Roads are, in two weeks, we're gonna be back here to award officially the contract to get 317, so we do what we say we committed to doing. Continued conversations with some more manufacturing facilities. Our goal is to, I mean, I think we can get 1,000 jobs in Keene in that industrial park, so that is what we're actively working towards. So again, I can't divulge details yet, but we're getting close. So candidate orientation, which you already announced, so I don't need to repeat that, right?

Yeah, he's going to be doing that.

Okay. Yes. Do you have anything you wanted to add to that?

Okay. Sign up for the candidate orientation.

Something else that was kind of fun was, and unfortunately I was actually out of the office at a meeting working on one of these development meetings, and Alyssa Carver herself, came into our city hall and shared with us that she loves how we're maintaining the park. She loved looking at the city and she was just very thankful for all the hard work that our employees do to keep the park with her name on it looking good. So I wish I would, man, that's one of those I wish I'd have been there because I would have loved to just shaken her hand and say thank you for being the kind of person that We wanna put your name on a public park, so.

That's good. Now we hired a new fire marshal?

Yes, we hired a new fire marshal, Archie Gerbein. So we're super excited. That's a position that we'd added, but we just haven't been able to really, other things we had to do. So we finally got one coming and he starts July, And he comes to us from Alvarado. He's got, from what I understand, quite a bit of experience. So we're fortunate to be adding him to the team. So this will enable us to just be more reactive, proactive, and also start to ensure that, you know, fire safety concerns in the city are being met before they become situations. So that's it.

Any other questions of Mr. Seinf?

I had a question for Holly. Does this mean that you get to run the elections in totality this coming election? How does that, how does that?

Funny. If we had started hiring old workers, possibly. Oh, gotcha. Kind of behind on that process, but we'll see.

And just, I kind of want to, A lot of people think it's going to save us a lot of money to do that. It really doesn't. And it really doesn't save us, especially with the share. Now, in a runoff, that one could be disputed a little bit. But during a normal election, it really doesn't save us money. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I like having the third party that has no... No say in the game? Yes. So it just keeps some of the chatter away.

OK. And then we go to the 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 to be withdrawn from the consent agenda to 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. Number one, consider approval of the minutes for the regular Keene City Council meeting held on May the 7th, 2026. Council, do you wish to remove this item from the discussion, or is there a motion to approve the consent and agenda as presented?

Motion to approve as presented. Second.

OK. I have a motion, two, and a second. All those in favor? Okay, second one is a motion to be made to have city secretary make the corrections as discussed and bring the minutes. And there's no discussion, no minutes to do any of that.

There was no discussion, so we can skip that.

Public hearing items, there are no public hearings scheduled for this meeting. And the general business item for discussion is discuss and receive information from the city manager and city hall staff to address misinformation circulating on social media regarding city matters. Mr. Seitz?

Yeah, I'll kick this off. So one of the hardest things we do is, and again, I want to start off by saying I'm very thankful for Keith, our marketing coordinator. Every Monday, and some of you have seen this report, every Monday he gives me a report. And it's based on our postings, that come from the city, the metrics, the things that you look at, what's trending, what's not. And then he always gives me a little summary at the end of external, what's the temperature on the external items. I can't tell you how thankful I am for that because I am not on social media. And the reason is because there's too much to do. I can only control the things I can control, and things that go on social media is not one of them. And so it's a distraction for me. And before we had him, of course, you know, kind of between Orna and him, I did have to take a more active role in that. And it was very distracting. And so I'm very thankful. And what I love about him is, you know, it's kind of like, well, that's not correct. That's not correct. Should we be, you know, engaging in all the things? And my instructions to him has been and will continue to be, let's just focus on what's actually happening in the city and put it out there. Now, that being said, we've had to do a couple kind of informational, and there are times that there's enough that gets out there that we feel it's probably best to put an accurate statement of what's actually happening. But for the most part, unless he comes to me and says, hey, this thing is getting legs, I think we need to do something to it, I don't look at it. But there's been enough kind of going on Now, just because I'm not on social media doesn't mean I don't know what's going on because, thankfully, this is a community of sharing. And they love to let me know. And I do appreciate it. It keeps me from just staring at it. A screenshot is a lot different than sitting there and scrolling and going down the rabbit hole. So there was several people that have come to me and have requested that, hey, we probably need to put some of these things in a discussion so that we can get the facts out there. So, go ahead. Ask me the questions and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to answer them because again, I do have the pulse of what's going on, but.

I'll go first. There's been, likewise, blocked for some of the major postings on Facebook, but I do have people ask me, they see things on Facebook and come to me like, how big really is the PD building?

So I have heard that question, and so I did research it. So something that a lot of people don't realize is when you, your home is they only tax you on the livable space. So if you have a garage, that square footage is not included in your taxable square footage. That's why a lot of people love to convert their garages into a nice big media room, and they don't have to pay that additional. So I had many friends that have done that, and they've been great rooms. On the tax roll, which is being posted out there, is that the building is only 8,179 square feet. The thing that a lot of people don't realize is that down below, there's a bottom level behind the back of the building that is pretty much one big garage, okay? So I will admit, I've been running around saying, oh, it's like 9,100 square feet. This is like 15, this is 18 months ago, y'all. So went back and looked. So you have to, we did an appraisal on that building. The appraisal, they actually go in and actually measure what the total square footage is. So for the record, the total square footage is 8,984 square feet. Okay, so I was off by, I don't know, 100 and some. I don't want to pull out my calculator right now. The thing that I think is important to, The importance of this is, again, based on a report that Chief Kidd shared with me when I got here, a city our size should have a police building that is 8,500 square feet, okay? The point is, is this building is that and then some to help us allow for growth because growth is coming, so.

And then on that same vein, did Samantha Gillen get the commission on that sale?

Oh my goodness. You know, I love Keene and I did not take one penny for that commission for that sale. Number one, all you have to do is go down and see how packed our police and our fire department are like sardines into a small building that is way too small for all of them. barely large enough for even just the fire department. And I chose to live in Keene, my business is in Keene, I'm getting older, I know a lot of older people in Keene, and they need to have first responders on hand at all times. And we need more policemen, we need more firemen. And I chose to give that commission in order to allow our city to get a building for our police department. Not one penny did I get. One cup of coffee, I think, was what I got.

So for the record, the city bought that building for $641,000. Right. The appraisal, and they've got an estimate for income approach. They've got sales approach and a market value. The estimate value of sales approach and the market value, we're just going to go the market value because that's the one that I typically look at when it comes to properties. is $690,000. So by her not receiving a commission, even if she got a commission, it would have still been a good deal for the city. But I'm thankful that she didn't because A, it was the right thing to do. We don't wanna be a city that's shady. And it also made it to where it's a valuable asset. And again, I don't know if council members this and A board, but cities can only invest in certain things. We can't, you know, there's even been some chatter I've seen where it's like, well, the city should have invested this and that and money, you know. The only thing we can invest in legally is money markets, bonds, and CDs. That's it. We can't go ride that roller coaster on the stock market, okay? The other thing we can invest in is land, okay? And I made the comment that even if we don't Even if we don't use it for a police building, that money can either sit in a bank or it can sit in real estate. And real estate is always, I shouldn't say always, but it is a very strong thing to invest in. And I'm pretty sure values are just going up, especially for commercial, especially because Keene is growing. And that area is going to be very, so the point is, We need it for a police building, but it's a good investment. So thank you, Samantha, for not taking a commission, and thank you for bringing it to the city because it is a need that we, it's a need, period.

Well, I appreciate that because I'm glad and I'm praying that they eventually can get into it.

We're getting there. Yes, we are. God will open it up when the time's right.

Well, God handles everything.

there's a, there's been another question or two as well, but like, um, is the city going bankrupt based because of the attorney's fees to get this thing through litigation litigation so that we can get the title to it.

So that's another fun one because a lot of here's the problem. It is our building right now. It is our building and it will remain our building unless we choose to sell it. but there is some things out there that are getting squared away, and I don't wanna necessarily go down that rabbit hole again, that Stewart Title, because of the title insurance, is the one footing the bill for the attorneys, okay? Now, it's our name on all the legal documents, but if you remember, we had to give them permission because it's to, do this lawsuit because it's our building. So the title insurance is paying. Now, I track all this stuff because when I came, attorneys was a hot topic, if you all remember. So from the very get-go, I track everything. All the attorney bills come to me first, and I analyze them, okay? Now, when we first bought the building, There was, let me see, PD building. We first bought the building. The first couple months, there was a $3,400 charge, and then the next month, a $1,900. Well, $3,444 one month, and then $1,921.50, okay? Now, it's just like metal plates. When you're getting these deals done and you're especially dealing with a city, you want to make sure everything is T's crossed, I's dotted. Some of that was probably this thing that we're dealing with right now. But for the last, so that was the first few months. And just so you know, I didn't start tracking attorney items until we went to Messer and Fort officially. And I've only done through March. I'm sorry, I'm a little behind with other things going on. but I've got 14 months worth of data. So the first two months, there were attorney costs associated with the building. I'm sure a lot of that was just getting everything finalized and making it city property, all those good things. In the last 12 months, the city taxpayer money has spent $267.75. And that is only because there are moments that we do need to make sure our attorneys are comprised of where things are at. Can you say that again? $265, or I'm sorry, $267.75.

So we don't need them at every meeting now. In the last how many months? 12. In the last how many months?

12 months. 12 months. On the PD building? On the PD building. Wow.

Well, then how much are we spending on attorney fees for other things?

Well, again, can I go grab something real quick?

Your excuse. May I excuse you? Yes.

I'll be back in 30 seconds.

30 seconds. Okay. Give him a minute. Well, I just imagine our two chiefs out there would be very, very glad to get that building all settled. We might turn down the air conditioning a little bit and save some money.

I need to get back to the gym. So this stays at my desk. This is every attorney bill that comes to the city, and I analyze it. Again, I can only control what I can control. So when you break this stuff out, okay, every month, I take an invoice, and I break it down into five items. Six, kind of, because you do have citizen-type stuff. But the main ones I look at are council, city development, open records, HR and miscellaneous, and PD buildings. Okay? Thank you, Mayor.

I got it.

Because I track it. So, for fun, let's go, well, we already did the PD bill. We're going to go backwards. HR, and this is for the last 14 months, okay? HR, And also, by the way, I don't do a forensic on this. You know what I mean? Like, if you take this to an actual CPA, I'm sure he's going to tweak these numbers a little bit. I just want to say that up front. But I promise you, they're not going to change enough to make a huge difference. OK? And at the end of the day, it's all coming out of taxpayer money and a board. OK? So HR and personnel matters and miscellaneous in 14 months, we spent $12,696, okay? About a thousand, a little less than a thousand dollars a month, okay? Open records, this is something that will never go away, all right? In 14 months, $37,520. And typically, On average, we're between $2,000 and $3,500. That's kind of a normal month. The lowest it's been is, you know, $1,500. So, now, city development. This is one that I would hope would increase because with city development attorney fees, that means you should be getting a return on your investment, okay? And they're protecting the city with, contracts and making sure plats and all the things are are lined up and we're following governance and all that good stuff for the and again some of this in fact the last couple months was largely from the a board because of metal plate okay so the last two months one month was four thousand eight hundred nineteen dollars And another month was $5,036. But again, large part of that was metal plate. The sad thing is there was one month in the last 14 months where it was $325. So if you look at when I started and where we're at now, we've seen that cost going up. But again, these are things that I think is a positive. Now, the last one is council. This one blew my mind. In 14 months, we have spent $67,939.75 on council. For the last, okay, of the 14 months, the first 12 of those 14 months, there was one month that was $9,797, just in one month. Whoa. How much? $9,797. The lowest one up until these last two months was the first month I started tracking it was $2,300. And it typically averages around $5,000, $6,000 a month. The last two months, and this is where I want to commend counsel, February was $483, and March was $453. And there's always going to be a cost associated with counsel because attorneys have to review the agendas and make sure, right? So, thank you, because that is saving taxpayer money. So.

Do those numbers get posted on Facebook by any chance? Or social media?

Of course not. I'm asking for a friend.

So, anyway. Thank you. That's all the questions I had, guys.

I got one. Yeah. I see a post about water meters. We're changing out water meters to get them accurate. Can you explain that, how that works?

Hey, yeah. So this is another fun one for me when, okay, so you have kind of, there's all kinds of revenue buckets, right? But the two main ones in our city is property tax and water. our enterprise, right? So, and I asked Derek, and of course, again, this is 18 plus months ago, so we've kind of forgotten, but my memory tells me that when, if I remember right, when I started, there was something like 800 meters that were not working.

So... By not working, you mean...

So let me give you a little back history.

And 800 out of how many? How many meters are there?

Oh, do you remember that one, Mary?

Approximately.

Well, there are 2,500 houses. So if I look at accounts, there are like 2,400 accounts. So to me, accounts is a third. That's 30%. Yeah. But by not working, are they not reading, not reading accurately, or not transmitting?

So let me give you a little history of how we got there. We all, well, I don't remember because this was before my time, but the water tower got painted. On that water tower was an antenna that all these smart meters communicate with, okay? When they went to paint it, they took that antenna down.

Wow.

Now, when that happened, these meters are supposed to have a 10-year lifespan. OK, the battery life on them. And again, Don, if I'm wrong, feel free to jump in and correct me. But they don't just sit there and ping. They ping. They send the data. That's how we know how much water you used, OK? The problem was when they took the antenna down, now these meters are just pinging, looking, looking, looking for what it's supposed to communicate with.

It's the same thing your cell phone does when you don't have a signal. It'll run your battery dead.

Correct. Exactly. Perfect. Perfect. Exactly. We've all been there.

Yes.

So what happened is it shortened the life of these meters by several years because this went on for quite a while. And again, if it ever were to happen again, we now know what to do. Okay? So that won't happen again. The problem was... Again, kind of the mode that our city was in was this kind of self-preservation. And I think it all stems from the fact that the city did almost at one point go bankrupt. That we didn't spend money on anything, even if it would generate revenue. Those meters generate revenue, okay? It ensures that people are paying for the water they actually use. Now, when a meter does not work, we consider that a blank meter. And so the way the city bills for it is it just charges the minimum. Okay. Which I actually do have that information. Um, so inside the city limits, the base rate is $25. Okay. And then there's taxes and I don't know all the other, I don't know everything that goes into it, but it's got all this stuff, but the water portion minimum is $25 outside the city limits is 37 50. Okay. So, What's happened is because we didn't do this push to get meters fixed, there was a lot of people that have gotten used to this is what my bill is. Now we're fixing that. In fact, the last report I got this week was that we only have 76 meters that are blank right now. Now, we did have issues, if you remember, We were doing this push. We were having a hard time getting meters in. I mean, it's been a year-long process just to get us to that point. And you have to remember that as we are replacing these meters, more meters are going out because they don't all die at the same time. So we are actively staying on top of that. And I want to give a shout out to our public works team because even our director has been out there helping change meters because We all know that the time is coming for the city when we, you know, we need to address the water treatment plant. There's all these things we need to do. But once again, we cannot come up with a plan if we don't fix some of these things first. Okay. So there's perceptions out there that, you know, the city is adding, we're tweaking these meters and we're adjusting it because we're trying to, you know, we're trying to gain more money and all that stuff. It's not true. In fact, I also want to give a shout out to Alyssa in our public works because she saw these posts. Again, it's out there. And when I asked her about it, she said that she went and looked up some of these people's accounts just to verify, and every single one of them they had blank meters. So they were only being charged the minimum. Another perfect example is you have residential meters, you have commercial meters, okay?

And water sprinkler.

And you have sprinkler meters.

They're big. Yeah. They're big meters, right? And they're a lot more expensive. Keene ISD is a perfect example. One of their meters had gone out and for a year and a half, How long? A year and a half. They have only been being charged the minimum, which for them is $133. Last month, that was one of the meters we fixed. It's almost $700 for one meter for one month. And I think it is now in summer. So when it was active, we fixed it back in December. One of their hires Yeah, and out of, you know, I called Ricky and I was like, hey, you know, like, get ready. Yeah, you know, but what I'd appreciate about his response was, hey, if that's what we use and that's where the city, that's what we need to pay, you know, because the problem is, is if we don't fix this. We are gonna repeat history of what happened 20 and 30 years ago where we have no choice but to just do this massive increase, okay? And again, I did the State of the Union last year. I reported on this. Are we the cheapest? No. Now, some of the people have been getting the cheapest because their meters are blank. But when you look at everything together with water, sewer, trash, and everything, we are right there with everybody else. And so we've got Waterworth right now doing an evaluation. But again, and we can finally let them do an evaluation because things are working. So anyway, so what I did want to state was, again, thank Alyssa for actually being proactive to just look into it to make sure, just confirm that those were people that had blank meters. And then here's the thing. we're government, I know a lot of people aren't gonna trust us, okay. That doesn't mean, there's two ways, if residents honestly believe that their meter is wrong, we are dealing with technology, things do happen, okay. They can call us and request a ratio test, and this is kind of step one, step two, They can also do a flow test where they pull the meter out, they pump 100 gallons through the meter at a slow, regular, and high rate just to confirm that at the end of that 100 gallons being pushed through, that meter says 100 gallons. And if anyone thinks that something is wrong, is inaccurate, I encourage our citizens to reach out to us so that we can put their mind at ease.

That brings me to my second question, dealing with water. OK. We used a lot of water from J-Sud in previous months because we had some wells down. Where are we at with that?

So, and again, I go 100 miles an hour, guys. I'm not probably the best at communicating stuff. I apologize. If you remember at that council meeting, I said we should have pump 12 up and running the next week. I think it was a week and a half. Pump 12 has been up and going since a week and a half after our last council meeting. And here's the impressive thing about this is before it went down, it was producing 80 gallons per minute. That same well is now producing 120 gallons per minute. Now, pump 11 is not up and running, but it's not because of any other reason. The pump is here. But the problem was is that the fittings with the pump It doesn't fit. And so we have just been waiting. So let's see, new pump. The pumps that were replaced were no longer available. And the new ones had different sized flanges. And the lay length of the pump is longer by 1 and 1 1⁄2 inches. And so we're just waiting on this custom part to get here. And that's all we're waiting on. So pump 11. And Mira, what was the positive and the good news is, Because again, if everyone just pays the minimum, yeah, we're not going to have a wonderful public work. I mean, it's going to be ugly. But because of the steps that our staff has been doing to give us an accurate picture, for the first time last month, we were, what was the increase? How much? 8% increase. OK. And so what does this mean? Will you indulge me for a couple more minutes on this?

You have all night.

I don't know. I don't want to do all night. I've missed these meetings. So here's a little, and again, this is, You know, when your significant other goes on vacation for two weeks, you have a lot of time to work and stay in the office late and research, right? So I will warn you, we will, during budget workshops, be talking heavily about the water department. There's just no way around it. And here's why. The city has not increased. Now, trash has increased. but the city has not done a rate increase since 2009. What is that, 17 years, 18 years? Okay. Since 2009, our country has seen two of the highest inflation rates hikes. During COVID, it went up almost 14% just in three years. Now it came down a little bit the next three years, but when you look at the overall inflation rate, it has never gone backwards. prior to 2009. So you have a thing called a consumer index comparison so that people can kind of understand what does this inflation rate mean. So if you spend $100 in 2009, today you would have to spend $155 to $160 for that exact same item. And yet we have never increased our water rate. And cost has gone up. I mean, you've got employee costs, you've got material costs, you've got all the things. And if you look at all the other water companies out there, they've increased. J-SED. I mean, you know. And I'm thankful for J-SED. I really am. But this is why, with that TWDB grant, we are working to get two more pumps. I mean, we are on a mission so that J-SED is our backup.

Correct.

Okay? Okay. And we'll get there. It's going to take us a couple years, but we will get there. And I know, I hear these poor citizens come and talk to me about how they're so scared about water and they're scared about water. We're fine, you know. And the city is doing things to make sure that it's not a concern, even with the growth. Okay, we are trying to be proactive. We're trying to stay out in front of it. So, the way I see it, and again, I'm just I just report the facts. But water is something we will, when we get the reports back from, what's that people called? Waterworth, thank you. I just said them and I forgot them already. I'm tired, I need to drink more coffee. Yeah, so when we get the reports back from Waterworth, we're trying to have something back so that when we get to our budget workshops, we'll be able to talk about this. And again, the goal is not to do this, but we have to start doing something. And residents need to know this isn't something shady that's going on. This is us fixing the infrastructure so that we know what we need to do to ensure stability for our city.

Cool. Got one more. I saw some comments. No one's a really big fan of the lease program. A former mayor talked to me this morning. He never was happy about it. When we get these new vehicles, I've seen them. I've noticed them because I'm around Keene a lot. I noticed Friday our fire chief got his two vehicles. I'm proud of that. They're beautiful. Let's see him tomorrow. Are we making social media posts about it? Are we making a big deal?

No. And again, we're trying to fix things. Again, if you all remember the fleet program, Average age of the fleet was 17 years old. Police officers were pulling people over with smoke coming out of their head. That was my favorite story, and I will forever remember that story.

I like the one where Chief got locked in the car.

And I'll be real honest. What pushed me for the fleet was mostly because of the dire need of our police department. Based upon, and again, yes, we could have done it ourselves, we could have done it over time, but just to replace three to five of those vehicles every year was gonna cost us as much and more than taking on the whole thing. And the fire department, they've gotten some nice fire engines and stuff, But they were driving some of the oldest vehicles. I think one of them was 21 years. One of them was 21 years old, all right? And yes, tomorrow, so here's the thing. Police still have not received theirs, unfortunately, and we're, what have we got, five working right now? Five of them working right now because the other ones are too expensive to even fix. And so... The reason those are taking the longest is because getting light bars and things and getting the items needed to outfit them has been held up. I don't know if they're in the straight with all those cargo. I don't know where they're at. But they're starting to come in, so we're hopeful that we will start receiving our PD cars here shortly. We did receive in the last week, week and a half, our two new fleet vehicles for the fire department. They will be in the parade tomorrow. And again, did I pause? Put it all over social media, no. Was I pushing to get them in the parade? Yes. It's not that we're hiding them, but honestly, council, I want you to understand, these are tools. This isn't like I went and bought a new car, and I love that new car smell, for me. This is literally, our team needed these tools to do their job effectively. Now some of them, did they need them right then? No. But we fixed the whole problem at one time, so once again, Thank you to council for seeing that and allowing us to address the problem.

And this fleet program is not going to bankrupt the city. We're not going broke.

We have to present a balanced budget every year. And no, the city is growing. And we needed them. We needed these vehicles badly. So it's a good thing. Thank you.

And thank goodness we have a city manager who's watching this stuff.

Forethought.

Yeah, forethought. He's looking forward because our city's growing and everything. And I'm one of those people that I want to make sure that the police can get there if I need them. I don't want the patrolman sitting out there on the side of the road with his car broke down and he can't get anywhere. I mean, that's horrible. And not only, it's not safe for them.

During those discussions, I said if my car doesn't start in the morning, it's an inconvenience. If a policeman or a firefighter's vehicle doesn't start, people die.

Oh, that's exactly right. And our fire department. I mean, those are our first responders. So if anybody's griping about that, think about the next time you have an emergency and you need somebody.

Well, we are looking forward to those PD cars very much. And I know our police officers are looking forward to it because right now they're having to, take turns and ride together.

One thing that I remember, I'm trying to remember when this was talked about, but I think it was a few months ago. I think you and I talked and you had mentioned that the budgetary numbers that we talked about last year for the fleet program have actually been better than what we actually calculated. Can you elaborate on that just a minute?

Well, so I can't give final numbers yet. Right. And the reason is because we have 17 vehicles sitting over in public works waiting to be picked up to be sold for revenue. But because of some filing, well, out of 17 titles, we couldn't locate 11 of them. So Cary has been working with Fort Worth, and as soon as we get those titles in hand, Enterprise will be coming with a big old truck, and then we will see the revenue. So to answer your question, that's all projection right now. But so far, they've been projecting that the cost is better than what they forecasted. And trust me, as soon as we know, even if it's not good, I will let you all know.

Well, thank you all for the hard work. Okay, next we're gonna review, discuss, and take action on a resolution approving the establishment of a business.

I had a question.

Oh, I'm sorry, Bob.

So regarding this Ken Paxton letter, has the city hid a letter or is hiding the letter that Ken Paxton had written to the city and the AOG?

I'm gonna let Holly take this one,

So, no, we are not hiding anything. When we first heard that the Attorney General's office had issued letters, we started asking, who's getting the letter, who's getting the letter? I started watching my emails because a lot of the information requests from the Attorney General wanting to know about the audits and stuff was coming to me directly. But nothing was coming up. And then, of course, the big press release went out, news medias about all these cities are on this list, and we were listed. And then, of course, an open records request came in. I even, at that point, emailed the Attorney General's office and said, we cannot find this letter. How is it sent? Can you send us a copy? Yes, yes, you're jumping ahead. But, you know, our attorney, Jonathan, finance, other directors, no one could find this letter in their emails. And so, yes, I did use, it's eDiscovery, it's a Microsoft, basically a crawler through every single account that the city has ever created. Put in your search terms and it does a search. It did not turn it up at all. So the open records request, My mistake, I closed it early because we couldn't find this letter and I wanted the requester to know we don't have this letter. And I'm still waiting for the Attorney General's Office to respond with a copy.

So they haven't produced a copy?

Oh, they did like three or four days ago. But the day I closed the request saying that we had no responsive records, The director found it in their email and turned it over immediately. It just was overlooked. Now, why the e-discovery couldn't find it, I still don't know. But they turned it over to me immediately. And the same day I closed the request, I sent the record to the requester. Now, if they haven't seen it, it's the same. I can only assume it's the same issue. They're not seeing the email in their inbox or wherever. So no one was hiding anything. And then, of course, we've provided it in your packet. It's public. I mean, everybody can see it now.

OK. Any more questions?

I just wanted to make a statement. If we're all done asking questions, I just wanted to say one last thing, because I saw this in a post as well, which was that this entire agenda item that we're speaking about tonight was to thwart somebody's First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, whatever amendment it is, the whole idea is that we were going to try to suppress people, and I, as a citizen, and even council member, right? Like I wouldn't want those restrictions put on me either. So no, we're not here to suppress anybody, but we are here to tell the truth. And by way of my first little talking points that I spoke at the beginning of the meeting, That's why I wanted to be the truthful guy, right? Be the honest guy and let people know that that's why you just come to a place like this and we talk about the facts. And so I didn't see any of that happening. I wanted to wait until we surfaced all of this to find out if somebody was going to be trying to do that. And clearly we did not do that. So I just wanted everybody to know that we're not here to suppress anybody.

And I would encourage our citizens, if you have questions, just come talk to us. Again, if you're saying something on social media hoping that I'm going to respond, I'm just not. I don't see it. So please, come get to know our staff. We're, again, nothing to hide. We're trying to be the most transparent city possible.

Well, the reason why I asked that question is because there were comments about you and hiding the letter from everybody and hiding it from Paxton. You're just hiding the audits and not taking care of business. Speak to that. I can't imagine.

Yeah, again, we're a sharing community. And there was even a comment that you know, I'm going to go down in history as the worst city manager in the history of Keene. And I really thought, I shouldn't say this, but I am human. My staff is human. We are going to make mistakes. And my hope is, is that if I do make a mistake, I'll get to stick around long enough to fix that mistake. and not just be ran out of this town because I love this community. And I still get the question, you know, why haven't you left? Well, that's because for me, this is not a resume builder. This isn't for the money. This is because I love this community. And that's why when I tell citizens, come talk to me. You're part of this community. You're part of the community that I love, that our staff loves. You know, I guarantee you, Pretty much every leader I have could go make more money somewhere else. But they choose to be devoted to this community. And I am proud of the leadership team that we have. Don keeps moving back his retirement. And I'm thankful he's moving back his retirement. And he's having too much fun anyway. No, but we work well together. So my statement back to that is maybe I will be. Maybe I will be the worst city manager this city's ever seen. But what I can tell you is that I plan to be here long enough for you to actually make that determination. There we go.

Well, I, for one, think that you're probably the best. that we've ever had because your eye is on the ball all the time. You're picking up mistakes and things that were done years ago, you and Ms. Graham there.

The whole team.

The whole team, yeah, everybody. Everybody is working really, really hard to make Keene the best city around and be that jewel of Johnson County that it used to be and can be and is, whatever, anyway. I love Keene. I think it can be the jewel of Johnson County. And I know that the team here Jonathan, with you at the head of it right now, is what we needed, what King needed, and everybody should be thanking our Lord for it.

God is good.

Any more questions? Okay. Okay, we're gonna review and discuss and take action on a resolution approving the establishment of a business improvement grant program to be provided by the Keene Economic Development Corporation Type A Board. Council, are there any questions about this item or is there a motion? We did discuss this before.

Just as a reminder, this is the grant and we're super excited for hopefully this to get passed tonight because The A Board has set aside $50,000 so that businesses that need some help updating facades, different things, can actually come and get assistance. It's 80% up to $10,000, if I remember right, so that our businesses in Keene can get some help from our A Board.

I'd like to move to approve resolution number 2026-500, establishing a business improvement grant program for new or existing businesses located within the city limits of Keene.

I'll second.

Okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Okay. It is approved. All in favor?

Thank you, Council. This will be a real blessing to the community. Great thing. And thank you, A Board. Thank you, A Board.

Then review and discuss and consider action on a petition for release from the city's Extra Territorial Jurisdiction, ETJ, from the property owner of track 288 of the Seth Morris Survey, abstract number 536 in Johnson County, Texas, also designated as 6572 Farm Road 3136 in Alvarado, Texas. Counsel, are there any questions about this item, or is there a motion? Ms. Russell?

Yes. You need to give a report? If I may present on this before any discussion. I'm sorry. I had a question. So this is similar to what we've done before. We have a property that wants to be removed from the ETJ. Now, it has passed the statutory 45 days for for the city to respond, so technically they are out, officially out of PETJ. The city attorney recommends that no action be taken on this because of the appeal in the state.

Legislature.

Legislature, something, yes. On the constitutionality of the bill that allows for this petition and removal to take place. If it's overturned and we have taken action to allow the removal from the ETJ, then it's permanent. They cannot be added back. If we take no action and it's turned over, then yes, we could potentially take it back into the ETJ and allow the process to happen again. So again, council recommends no action. But just, I did put pictures up here. This is the property. The blue line is actually Alvarado's ETJ boundary. If you're looking at your monitor, the green line is ours. So right now it is in two ETJs. And this business, for whatever reason, is consulting engineers, and they are recommending removal from one of the ETJs, and ours was picked. I don't know any more than their reasons in that. And so just in reference, so the red pin at the lower side of the screen is where the property is, and then that's 6700. that goes across on the north side of the image there. But that's where the property is. It's really close to Alvarado and I guess the Crazy Gun Dealers, probably the best known landmark there to the north of it. So again, y'all can discuss, you can take action. I think last time y'all made a motion to take no action, but honestly, you just don't do any motion if you wanna take no action. But choice is yours.

Okay, so just no action?

That is what is recommended.

Okay. Is that okay with council?

Absolutely.

Do we vote on it?

No.

Okay. Just no vote. No action is no vote. Okay. Okay. There's no executive session either this evening. So move on to, are there any questions from council for future agenda items?

I had one about four months ago. I believe we authorized somebody to use a piece of property to start a little garden of some sort. And I would just like to get a little update and see how that is going, if they've done anything. I haven't been able to drive by there, but I'd like to see what kind of update there might be for that. It looks like we might get that update now, yeah?

Yes.

It's not an agenda item, but do what you got to do.

Yeah. I mean, if you drive by, I haven't driven by there myself in a week or so, but she kind of started Miss Jovita. What's it called? The open air? Open air garden. Garden is called the open air community garden. Right. Open air community garden. She has a little sign up. She started... with just some small flower beds and has been planning and we're working on getting her irrigation there as well. She's I think working on a plumber to get the line done. So she's working on it and part of the railroaders game in that gratuity, if you bought tickets, is gonna go to help that. But yes, she has been making slow progress. She's trying to get other people to help her as well.

We can try to get her to come give an update. That would be good.

I did take a couple of drone pictures of it when I'm out at the Covington Acres. I'd fly over and take a peek and go, oh, she got one more flower bed up. And then I'd fly back over. So it's been a couple weeks.

So the gratuity from the Railroaders game tomorrow night is going to go toward the open air community garden?

Correct.

$5 from every ticket. OK. So everybody needs to buy their tickets.

Yeah, she's a wonderful lady. You remember when she was here and she's so.

Now the presentation she gave was really good.

Yeah. She needs help too.

Thank you, Dawn.

Thank you, Dawn. OK, any other agenda items?

hold on sorry sorry sorry so just a reminder we are going into our budget workshop month which is July so and we will be sending out agendas and all that but as your last year if you remember we kind of started with revenue and then did the other things but again last year was mirrors and my first time to really kind of not to mention all the I can't wait for you to see the new budget book, because this woman has fixed a lot. And so we'll discuss that more. So this year, on the 16th of July, so the last three Thursdays of the month, are budget workshops. And so the 16th, we will start with expenses and CIPs. The 23rd, that Thursday, we will be doing employee cost and fringe benefits. Am I doing this right, Mary? Okay. And then on the 30th, and the reason we're doing this in reverse is because on the 24th, we will get certified valuations. So we will actually be able to speak to the revenue. And so then on the 30th, we will take what we've discussed. We will take that revenue and try to figure out how we're going to make it all work so we can produce you that awesome budget book in August. Sound good? Great. Sounds great.

Ted Gumm, sorry. You're good. If you would, email me those dates so that I can put them in for work to be off to be here.

Yes, sir.

Because if not, they're going to have me in God knows where.

Yes, sir.

I could end up in Odessa, Arkansas, Louisiana. There ain't no telling.

It'll be our pleasure. We'll get it to you.

Thank you.

Okay, no more questions? Or agenda items? Meeting dismissed at 7.48. DAVID BURRAGE.

Thank you, council.