City Council - Special Meeting

cell phones and excuse me, and council member Troy will say the invocation and then we will conduct the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right, if you'd all bow your heads. Dear Heavenly Father, God, we're just so gracious for you, Father. We just can't thank you enough for not only the wonderful day, but for loving us, each and every one of us. And we're just so appreciative of that, God. We ask you, God, that you would guide this meeting, that you would allow it to be fruitful and plentiful for our city, for not only improvement's sake, but for health, safety, and awareness that we might just be able to grow as a community every time we get together, Father. And we ask that you would go with each one of us as we leave this place, God, and keep watch over all of us as you have in the past, God. And we just ask these in Jesus' name. Amen. with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

We don't do that now. OK. Mayor's announcements. Thank you for attending this evening. This is a very special meeting for the council to have their budget workshops. There will be two more workshops this month, and they will be at 6 o'clock, but we have not determined the exact dates for the other two quite yet. So we will announce those as soon as possible. And you can watch these budget workshops on the stream or on YouTube. Now we have public comments. Any person in attendance who wishes to speak to the City Council on an item not posted on the agenda shall speak during this time. A speaker card must 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 any item not listed on the agenda. Our city council may, however, receive comments, ask clarifying 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 because this is a workshop, we do need to limit all comments to three minutes. The first person that we have that would like to speak is Chelsea Brown and Omar Jones with Chaldane Homes.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for having us. Well, like you said, my name is Chelsea Brown. I'm the Vice President of Marketing Sales with Cheldon Homes. This is Omar Jones, our new home sales consultant. We are super excited. We are just launching and kicking off a new neighborhood here in Keene. It's going to be called Sunset Ridge. We'll be providing homes in the low to mid 300s for homeowners and residents here. We're really, really excited about it. They're going to be beautiful. The neighborhood's going to offer a pickleball court, There's beautiful green spaces. There's a dog park. And we're working on trying to bring a playground into the community as well. We think that'll be great for all the families coming here. It's got great access to the highways. We know a lot of people are starting to move to these areas outside of the Metroplex. So we really wanted to get creative about some of these young families who are having a hard time buying houses in today's market. We are doing everything we can to work with those homeowners. So we know we qualify USDA out there. so we'll be able to get them in zero dollars down. We're gonna be offering help with closing costs. We've got some really unique programs. We're even gonna be offering some $500 earnest money so that those folks who work really hard, our teachers, our first responders, those folks who are doing everything they can, we want to help them find homes, and we think this is the absolute perfect location in a great community in a great town. We're super excited to get involved a little bit about us. We're a family owned faith based company. We've been in business since the early nineties. We've remained family owned this entire time, and our faith is interwoven into every aspect of our home building. And that's how we've stayed in business so long, even through all the downturns, all the different parts of the market. If you look us up, you'll see a lot of reviews talking about how we have that one-on-one client relationship, and we hope to make Keen proud, get really involved, support local businesses here, and we're excited to be a part of this community.

Well, thank you, Chelsea. It sounds good.

Thanks for being here.

And did you, Chelsea, one question. Did you have any dates for your grand opening, you hope, or?

Yes, ma'am. We're looking at an end of September, early October completion for our inventory homes and our model home. And at that point, I think we'll be able to kick off a fall festival for the community to do our grand opening.

Okay. Thank you so much. Our next person that would like to speak is Aubrey Bain. Aubrey has an interpreter.

Hello, everyone. Sorry.

See if the button is pushed. Excuse me.

Yeah, it's pushed. If you want to, you can get that a little closer to you. There you go. Do your best.

So a few of you already know me. I've been here before. I know some of you don't like me, but that's OK. I don't care. I'm here today to let you know about Samantha. I do agree because me and her both live on Fourth Street and we understand the awful situations going on there and how it really needs to be fixed. We both understand that. We both understand our concerns. We know that the senior citizens that have been trying to cross the street there have that issue. There's no sidewalk there. I'm in fear for them. Most of my concern has to do with the water. That has been four years and it hasn't been fixed yet. I mean, come on. Come on, four years. I mean, we say, oh, it's gonna work, it's gonna work. We're almost finished, we're almost finished. We haven't even started on 4th Street. What are we doing? The water issues, everything that's been going on with Corpus Christi. Some people who have moved recently back from Corpus Christi and they see the situation, they don't wanna move back anymore because they see the stagnant. They see Corpus Christi as even better than what's going on here, and so they move. And the situation that's going on there is similar. I would rather go back, honestly. You need to do something about it now, soon. Thank you so much. Okay.

Thank you very much.

I have a question. I have a question. What type of water is it? What water problem?

Yeah, go back, if you can, ma'am, go back to the mic. There you go. Just so we, it's on record, right?

Oh, the water tower. Either we need to repair it or replace it. Looking at the water tower, the water that we have that second, it hasn't been replaced. It hasn't been fixed. It really needs to be improved in some way. We need to find a way to either tear that one down and build a new one or fix the one that we have. It's really simple. It should be an easy problem fix.

Which water tower? The one by 4th Street? 4th Street and College?

Yes, that one, the 4th Street one. There's just three? Yeah, it was just redone three years ago.

Well, what about the other ones? Have they been fixed as well? Didn't we just have a meeting about that and you told me that it hasn't been finished yet?

Oh, I think she's referring to the two wells that went down and one of them has already been fixed. That was fixed that next week and the other one we're just waiting on a coupling that will actually fit. So those are, I mean, the water towers are fixed.

But how long do you expect us to wait for that to be taken care of? Can you give us an estimate?

Yeah, one of them's done.

Okay, so we have one left.

One was done a week later and the other one we're just waiting for a part.

For everyone who is here, I think the woman who was just here that was up at the podium, she's talking about how we're building a new, prepared for all the homes and stuff, but we're ready for people to start moving here, so what are we doing to help them with the improvements? We need to be more proactive instead of waiting for things to be taken care of. Because I don't want this to be the same as Corpus Christi. That was an awful situation that happened there, and they continuously downgrade.

Excuse me, Aubrey?

I think her name is Joanne Bates. Am I right? Is it Joanne? She has Audrey Bain here.

Yes. Joanne?

Yeah.

OK. Joanne. Excuse me.

Oh, you're fine. Take your time.

The new homes in different areas have different water companies. But they're not infringing on what's happening over in your area. But if you have any other questions, our city manager would be more than happy to talk with you about that at another time. Okay? Thank you.

And I do wanna say one thing real quick, and I know typically we're not supposed to respond, but I don't have any ill will towards you, Joanne. I don't know where you came up with that. I know you mentioned that in the beginning. I don't feel like anybody up here has that ill will towards you. So I just want you to know, I just want you to know that I don't feel like this council is that way. And I read your Facebook post, you know, with you and Lisa, and so I understand that you came here kind of with an agenda, but we're happy to listen, so.

Thank you, Troy. Okay, our next person is Owen Larson.

Owen Larson, 1002 Shelley Drive. Again, this is about the retaining wall between Shelley and Jenny Drive. I provided or requested an open record request. I'm gonna read those just so that we can be very specific about what I asked for and what I actually received. So I asked to provide preliminary plat and final plat with amended plats for Spring Creek Estates. That's both sections, both sections. I actually received those and as we, had said the last meeting, there's no retaining wall on either one of those plats.

So the wall does not exist.

Provide subdivision improvement acceptance packet for Spring Creek Estates, you don't have one. So it doesn't exist. So the wall doesn't exist either. I asked to provide a retaining wall engineering plans for a wall that doesn't exist, but it does exist. You don't have that. I asked for anything referring to the retaining wall that you might have. You don't have anything else. Or any plans specifically related to the building of the retaining wall.

Excuse me.

You don't have that. Provide all communication between the city and developer and the builder of the retaining wall between the homes. You don't have that. Provide all staff reports recommending, denying, approving the mentioned retaining wall. You don't have that. Provide the permit requests and approval of the retaining wall between the homes, between Shelly and Jenny Drive. provide the drawings of this permit, of the wall for the permit, records showing why the retaining wall was required, who requested it, who approved it, whether it was part of the original subdivision design, whether it was added after the plat approval, whether it replaced another drainage design, whether it was required to resolve grading issues, whether it protects public infrastructure, whether it redirects stormwater, who currently owns and maintains the wall, If any responsive records cannot be located or no longer exist, please identify the specific records that are missing, whether they were ever created, the date they were destroyed or lost, the applicable records retention schedule, and the individual or department responsible for retaining those records. You don't have any of that. You have a wall, a retaining wall, that doesn't exist.

Don, was that before your time?

I don't believe it was. I thought you were here.

No, I'm sorry, you were not. It was Johnny.

He is correct, it's Johnny.

Okay, that's what I thought. Evidently, have you ever heard of who might have put that wall up?

The city forced the developer to build it before homes were built.

OK. Well, again, that was before most of our time.

I'm not even asking a question. I know the answer. That's a direct answer. OK, sir.

Be polite, please. I'm just trying to ask you a question, OK? We can't do anything about that right now. This is a workshop that we have. Have you come in and sat down and talked with Jonathan?

I don't mean to be rude, but I did that 20 years ago, and I did that years and years and years after, every year after. Have I spoken with, yes, I have. He physically came and visited. Then we had a discussion about it. You guys didn't do anything. You still haven't done anything. I know none of you are part of that.

Well, let me ask you a question. What do you want the city to do?

I want you to fix it.

So you think it's the city's responsibility?

Absolutely do.

Okay. We will have to have more discussion on this later. This is a workshop and we do need, we've got so much we've got to cover tonight on the workshop. And we've heard you. So let's talk about it later. We can get.

Yeah, can we maybe put it on an executive?

Yeah, put it on.

And this time make sure

You let me know when it is and I'll be here.

We will do that. We will let you know.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Eddie, I believe you're on the same project, right? Would you mind being in that meeting at another time? This is our workshop and we really do need to get to some business here.

Okay. Well, we've got important business too.

No, sir. I know that. I'm not making light of it.

I mean, this is ruining our homes. It's not just ruining the wall. Because of the wall, our houses are getting ruined. Let me ask you guys a question. Okay, you prayed a while ago, right? Work together? Stick together? What would God do? Would he just, oh, let's just throw, no! Let's just throw this to the side. No. He would do anything to get this done. We're asking for help. Because our houses are getting ruined. No, don't shake your head. It needs to be done.

Well, sir, we're trying to talk.

No, you're not trying hard enough.

Mayor, he should be allowed his three minutes. Right? He did say that in the beginning. I'm just saying, you said everybody gets three minutes.

Well, and he does get his three minutes. I'm just saying we're trying. We're trying to get another meeting.

Well, it's not being done. I don't see anything. OK, sir. We've had a lot of rain here. OK. And all this rain and mud from our neighbors behind us is coming to our yard. We're not paying for that property over there, but we're getting it. I mean, it's crazy. What would God do? That's all I got to say.

Thank you, sir. Okay, we'll go down to general business. We're gonna review, discuss, and take action on a resolution to award the bid to McMahon Contracting LP for the improvements to County Road 317 for the total contract amount of $1,174,884.34. And Don, would you like to address that, please? Yes, good evening, Mayor, Council, citizens.

We got a couple of slides. I'm sure you're all aware, but County Road 317 was kind of torn up over the years when GTI dug that big pit down the road there. So we never had the money, but once we sold the property at the industrial part, now we have the money to fix that road. As you can see, from this, it starts at Highway 67 and goes down right up to basically the end of the property that Metal Plate brought just in front of Beale Baptist Church. Let me get to the right page, I'm sorry.

Don, they bought the property to the east, correct?

Yes.

Metal Plate.

Right.

East of the church. Correct. Or right in the, yeah, straight across.

It's the 60 acres. You can see the kind of little horseshoe driveway going up on the right-hand side. They bought all that 60 acres there. Okay, just check. Okay, the proceeds from the sale of the land and metal plate will be used for this project along with the $250,000 that was budgeted this year for the drainage improvements on that road. Staff recommended approval of this item, and in your packet you should have the draft resolution, a letter of recommendation from Jacob and Martin, the bid tabulation sheet should be in your packet as well, and the exhibit map. Does anybody have any questions on that?

Actually, I want to add, because I want to emphasize there's been some confusion that some of this is being subsidized by taxpayer money and all that. This is all being funded by the A Board. And I think it's very important that our community understands these are, because this is promoting economic development, this road is helping make agreements with these manufacturers that are coming in and providing our people jobs. they are allowed to use that sales tax dollars that goes to the A board to fund all of this, okay? I don't want the rumors getting out there that, you know, well, you know, we can't, you know, fix this, but yeah, we can spend it on this. We're very fortunate and very blessed that the A board is doing this to bring these jobs because we have some more exciting news coming down the pipe for the community. So I just, I want to make that abundantly clear that this is not funded by property tax dollars. This is A Board money. They're not allowed to go and take and fix like 4th Street per se because that's not economic development and that would be illegal by state law. So just again, we're blessed, we're fortunate that we're getting a road fixed with A Board money.

Okay, thank you. Council, do you have any other questions?

When will the project commence and how long will it take?

Once we get the approval from you, I'll let our engineers know. It'll probably take them a couple of weeks to prepare the contract documents, and then another week to get them signed by the contractor and the city, and then we'll set up a pre-construction meeting. So we're probably looking three, four weeks before we can get started. End of August, probably. Yeah, and then I can't remember the exact amount of time frame. 145 days, maybe it was. May not have been that long.

don't work well in days what's that in months five months yeah about five six months okay so by february yeah hopefully i mean we're shooting for november but yeah

So it's gonna be a concrete road, 30 feet wide, with curb and gutter, new drainage. It's also gonna have about 700 feet of an acceleration lane if you were turning right or going east on Highway 67. And it's gonna have a deceleration lane turning right, coming from the west. So that's all included in this.

Awesome. So that that hill that you go down is safer for everybody. Anything else from council?

You already answered it. I was going to ask because I just drove by it yesterday and I was like, good Lord, the potholes in this thing are pretty insane. So I was like, I was going to ask you, it was going to be wider because right now it's almost like a one-lane road. Correct. And it's, yeah.

Yeah, they'll clean up the bar ditches and fix all the drainage and get rid of the vegetation. Okay. So it'll be curb and gutter so we won't, you know. Right now, we have the issue of water comes and washes across the road. Yeah.

Awesome. Council, is there any other question or a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-502, awarding the bid to McMahon Contracting LP for the improvements to County Road 317 for the total contract amount of $1,174,884.34. Second.

All in favor? All those opposed? OK, it is carried. Thank you. I know that's going to make a big difference for us. Then we need to review and discuss and take action to award the bid to A&M Construction and Utilities Incorporated for the improvements to a 10-inch sewer pipe improvement project with a total contract amount of $138,000. Don, can you give a report on this?

Yes. In the 3-8 agreement with the canyons, when the developer came to us, they wanted to build on those lots. Well, you can look at this and see that there's about 13 lots that back up to the football field, and that sewer line goes into the backyards. And that is one of the main sewer lines that runs and feeds half the city that goes to our wastewater treatment plant. So we can't have that. So we did agree. And we got an easement from the school district. So basically, we're going to move that sewer line 10 feet to the south and get it out of those backyards just for those 13 homes. So I can walk over there and show you.

Go ahead, Hannah. I might want to. Maybe we can start right about here. OK. Is there any discussion on this item?

And that was included in the 380?

That was included in the 380 agreement. necessarily agree to it, but that wasn't my decision, that we would pay for it at the city's cost. And the school agreed at no charge to give us that easement. So that helps. So we had five years to do it. We're coming up on three years right now. And as if you've been through the canyons lately, you can see they've built almost all those lots out already. We're working on phase two with the streets, but it's probably gonna be another month, month and a half before those are ready to build on. So they've been begging me to build on these last 13 lots. So this year we did put $100,000 in the budget to do it this year. So with the timeframe and the cost, which I don't remember the exact cost, $138,000. It's going to carry over to where we'll take the rest of the remaining capital when they finish the project after October 1.

OK. Any other questions or a motion?

Yes.

I guess you don't have a choice, do we?

Nope. Due to previous council's decisions, I make a motion that we approve item, all right, I had that part lined up. Help me out with where I'm supposed to start from there. I know, but where do I read the, let me get the red. Make a council awards the bid to A&M Construction Utilities for improvements on a 10-inch sewer pipe improvement project, totaling contract amount of $138,000. Second. Okay.

All those in favor? Okay. It carries.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Okay, we will be receiving information to discuss operational expense and capital improvement projects, CIP, regarding the physical year 2026 and 2027, FYI, 27, proposed budget. Mr. Seitz?

We're all having that fun tonight, aren't we? Good evening, council, citizens, those here and those that are watching. Again, as Some of you remember from last year, this was something that we started that wasn't done in the past. And this is to help inform you of the needs of the city. And this is kind of the overall list. Last year, we started with revenue. That was actually mostly because Amir and I were very new, and we had accounting that wasn't making sense to us. So Amira, again, I want to compliment her and her team for continuing to just tighten it up and get it to where it's starting to form a picture. So tonight, we want to talk about expenses. Again, these are just items that need to be looked into. And at the end, obviously next month, when we actually do present the workbook and all that stuff, we will kind of tighten it all down to make it work, okay? So, with that being said, I'm going to, this is kind of a mirror and eye thing here, and I'm going to kick it off. Something else we did last year, oops, wrong way, sorry. We think it's very important to understand the demographics of our city, as you know. And when we focus on the demographics and these key metrics, it kind of helps us figure out whether or not we're heading in the right direction, okay? So this first slide shows that there was 102 homes, 102 homes added year over year. And when we were projected at 90, you can see that we outpaced what projections were. So that was a 4.5% increase. Family households went from 47% to 44%. That's a 3% decrease. Married couples at 61% and single households at 21% had no change whatsoever. seniors living alone, okay, so that's a individual or a husband and wife living by themselves, you'll see that was a drastic drop. And usually that means they either moved in with a loved one, they went into a retirement community, those types of things. So what does this suggest for our city? The city adding 102 households in one year represents 4.5% growth. That is a very healthy growth rate for most Texas municipalities and generally indicates continued residential development. The percentage of family household declined from 47 to 44%. That doesn't necessarily mean there are fewer families it means other household types grew faster than the family household. Possible explanations for this include, and it's fun because when we put this into the modeling and trying to understand this, especially on the second slide, you will hear things that definitely point to the kind of community that we have. So possible explanations include more young professionals, more renters, because renters don't own that home. More couples without children, which based on the age demographic, that's a strong possibility, and new apartment or townhome developments. Married couples remain stable. At 61%, the proportion of married couples' households remained unchanged. This suggests the city continues to attract or retain married households even as its overall all-household mixes evolve. So even we're growing fast, we're maintaining, obviously 61% of 2,384 is more than 2,284. So it's growing at the same healthy rate. The significant decline in seniors living alone. The share of households with a senior living dropped from 18% to 11%. This is a substantial shift and could reflect several factors. New housing attracting younger residents. Sound familiar? Seniors moving into assisted livings or with family. Changes in survey methodology. I don't exactly know what that one means. An increase in the total number of households reducing the percentage represented by senior only households. And if you know our community and what's going on, I think that is probably the largest indicator. Planning implications. So these are things to think about as we're trying to build the future of Keene. If this trend continues, the city should expect the positive impacts of increased demand for workforce housing, higher school-age population over time if younger families continue to move in, Expanded local workforce and consumer base, potential growth in sales tax revenue as a customer base expands. Areas to monitor, demand for parks, recreation, and family services. Transportation and infrastructure needs. Housing diversity, meaning offering like apartments, which again, these are all things that I'm proud to say we are already doing. So I feel like we're actually kind of out in front of this. And then continued support for older adults despite their declining share of households. So between, let's see, we can move on from that. So the next slide focuses on kind of the income and what the income demographics are. So these numbers do tell an interesting story and it actually took me looking at some of this modeling to kind of make sense of this. And you'll see what I'm talking about as we talk through this. On the surface, these numbers seem contradictory. The median household income increased, but the percentage of household earnings less than 25,000, which is kind of that poverty level, also increased. While the share earnings of more than 200,000 decrease, and this one's kind of easy to explain, those changes can happen at the same time because they measure different parts of the income distribution. So the median household income, huh? What?

You're feeding me with a fire hose here, buddy. What was that last statement that you made?

So the fact that percentages don't always line up, case in point, those families, right? If you add those up, that doesn't add up to 100%, right? But there's different people that can fit within the same kind of... Descriptions and different definitions. Okay? So I'll give you a perfect example. There's a young man that, right out of college, and he makes $25,000 a year. But he's living at home with mom and dad. He's making below that poverty line, right? But the household income that's associated with that house, all right, is... making that median level go up. You see what I'm saying? So you kind of have two different demographics inside that same household. Okay. So, um, so, uh, poverty level isn't necessarily means you're poor. Um, Lord knows when I was going through college, I made well below that, you know? So, um, so, um, household levels with 200,000 decreased by 1%. Um, The city added households with lower incomes is what this basically possible explanation. This is one of the most plausible explanations based upon that we added 102 homes. Your earlier data showed that the city added 102 homes. If many of those new households were young adults, first-time renters, students, entry-level workers, or retirees on fixed incomes, those are all things that would contribute to that 25%, okay? The median level can rise if more houses are low income. The median is the middle household. So if you imagine a median is not average, okay? If you have 100 homes, median is those homes kind of around that 50 mark, okay? That's a median. The median can increase even while the number of households at the lower end grows. So a higher median and a lower income share are not mutually exclusive, all right? So fewer high income income, that's because the population is growing. That 2%, 2% only represents 26 homes, okay, if everything stayed the same, okay? So it's not necessarily that they moved out, it's that the other income levels have grown faster. So you have more people, that percentage is going to shrink. Does that make sense? Now, and I will tell you that, you know, you know, Don and the team has done a great job of getting these neighborhoods here and growing, okay? But we do need to be thinking about how can we attract some of these higher income families and maybe put someplace where they want to move into to help lessen that burden on the lower income families and this is something that is in our uh strategic the things we're working on right now so um let's see combined with your okay um the city is growing but the growth appears to be concentrated in households that are middle income younger smaller homes at the same time the share of family households did decline slightly, married couples remained stable, senior living, and the proportion of high income levels decreased. What does this mean for the city? This trend could affect municipal planning in several ways. The strengths of the things that have happened, population growth increases the customer base for utilities and local businesses, and we're seeing that. As our population grows, we're seeing more businesses wanting to come to Keene that brings in sales tax revenue that also brings jobs. More residents can support future commercial development because of the growth. A larger share of lower income households may increase demand for affordable housing and community services. I'm proud to say that, again, we've been proactive. That apartment complex, it's AMI, that is going to be a beautiful place for people that are lower income can move in there, okay? Residents may be more sensitive to utility rate increases or property tax changes. Again, these are things that we as a council are going to have to address during this budget season. The city may need to attract higher paying employers and expand its commercial tax base to strengthen long-term revenues. Again, these are all things that are already being done. Two manufacturer facilities coming, two more on the horizon, and by the middle of next year, I'm hoping that our industrial park will be bringing about 500 jobs to the community, higher-paying jobs. So the good news is we definitely have some hills to climb. We have some things to continue to try to work towards, strategic plan. But the other good news from this data is saying that a lot of these things are already being put in the pipeline and in place.

So...

So.

Any questions?

Clear as mud, right?

The charts help.

Well, and again, these are things that we have to look at every year to make sure that what we're doing is going in the right direction. You know, it's like the CIP, the sewer line. I mean, it takes time to put these things in place, just with all the rules and the processes and the state regulations and all those things, it definitely kind of slows things down. So I'm glad to see that CIP project finally going.

OK. Well, thank you for that report. Now, executive session pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act.

No, no, no. Sorry. This is my portion. Now we get to talk about the expenses. This is where.

All right.

Mira, our finance director, Mira, gets to come in.

Good.

No, no, no.

Sorry. You stopped like you were done.

I think he was waiting for me.

He was waiting for you.

Thank you, Mira. No, we know this doesn't really work. Okay. Good evening, Mayor, Council, citizens of Keene. Happy to be here. This is my second budget workshop. Look at that. I made it. This marks to be like my 16th month at the City of Keene, and what a very humbling experience this has been. I just want to say thank you for your support. Thank you for chewing me on. Thank you for the hall prayers. Thank you for all the goodies and the brownies on the suites to keep us going. Thank you for the hallway chats, Councilman Smith. And thank you, Councilman Easley, for keep popping in that city hall. It makes a lot of difference to know that you guys are here. You guys are here to stay, and you guys are supporting us all the way. So I just want to say thank you for that. It means a lot. Okay, well enough about me, let's go and do what's hard to do. So I just want to preface this. Most cities right now are preparing for GASB 103. It's something GASB is Government Accounting Standard Board. They started GASB 103 last year in June 2025, and this goes with exactly what we have been doing. Isn't the Lord just good? He always just keeps going before us. And what GASB 103 demands is that it demands a much more detailed management discussion analysis on the financial statement. I think I have like a few of you would come up to me and say, even Councilman Smith says, I forgot your Tylenol, by the way. I'll bring it next time. Because I choose to always go in detail. But you know what? With GASB 103, this will be required. So no more just 5%. from last year to this year, but it actually requires what we are already doing. Isn't that like, that's just good. So we're already ahead of that. But I just want you to know the other thing that you will see differently in the next few months is the reporting requirement of proprietary funds fund accounting. So what it was before, I keep saying that in the past it's okay when we have been reporting our grant funds in our general fund and our utility fund. Well, with this new standard, it is no longer allowed. It is now not allowed. So what you will see in this slide anyway, this is something that you didn't see before. Before, I think I broke down I know it, that's what I did. I broke down the expenditure budget by department, if you remember that. So it is now required that we have to do it by fund. So it's going to be, I'm really sorry, so it's going to be a lot of like accounting terms, but I'm trying to explain it as easy as I can. So basically, in a nutshell, I want to say we have maybe like 10 funds There are various funds, obviously, but the ones that you all recognize is the general fund, which pretty much covers all the government activities, and the other big one is the 200 fund, which is the utility fund, which is the water sewer. The other two big ones is the 300, which is the EDC board, and 400 for EDCB. The other two, three that I still have to mention, 700 represents our debt services. 800 represents our capital improvements. You remember how before our budget, all our capital items were nested within the general fund, right? This year, we cannot do that anymore. We have to separate them by funds. So I just want you to understand what I'm doing here. And the last one that I have not mentioned, since the utility fund is actually a business run, it's not really governed by the same GAAP, I guess it's governed by GAAP and not by GASB, so we have to do it separately. So all the capital improvement items that we are going to do or we're requesting for you to approve this year is going to be on a separate fund and it's 225. So to look at this, The one on the left is how we've broken out our expenditures and how we budgeted last year. It looks pretty much the same, right? If you look at it, you're like, okay, the orange looks about the same, the blue looks about the same, the yellow, the dark green, the light green, the yellow, sorry, that's supposed to be an orange, whatever that color is. And then you see there is a bigger portion of the pie on the right-hand side when it comes to the blue and the pink. You know what I'm talking about? I can't really point this out. Yeah? OK. Those two, if you look at that, OK, so what's different about this? If you look at the two pi's, the only difference, that huge difference that you see, are the two blue, sorry, it's the two, right, the blue and the pink. And the blue represents the CIP, capital improvement items, plans, for the water sewer. And the other one, the pink one, represents the capital improvement items for the general fund. Any questions? No. Yes, questions?

So what is the water? Is that the well?

I'll get to it. Yeah, this is the break, sorry. Here it is. Okay, so now this is, I'm just like breaking it out now by, you know, the general fund 100, the adopted budget for 2026 last fiscal year was 6.8 million, whereas this year we're budgeting Now just before we move on, I do want to say that within the general fund, the water sewer, EDC A and B is nested already 3% increase of all expenses just to cover inflation. So everything in general, there's a 3% increase. And if you take, I'm just gonna summarize it, but you're free to ask me questions. If I summarize that between 2026 and the estimate budget for 2027, there will be a difference of 1.3, sorry, $1,333,816. So that's going to be the difference, which is a 10% increase overall. And if you look at it, the first column on the left is the definition of the fund, description of the fund. Then the next to it is the 2026 budget. The other column next to it is 2027 budget. And then you will see the variance. second from the right, the 4%, 6%. And then you see for CIP, for general fund, it grew to 203%. And on the right, the very far column where it says notes, it tells you what they are. So the total Wow, the total budget for 2027 for just CIP for general fund is $318,000 and 40, sorry, $479. And that makes up of 208 of it is from the fire department request is for future ambulance, which is 150 that we're planning to put aside every year. And there is a full turnout gear Do you remember, like 48,000, right, ish? Right, and then the last one, and then some portable radios, I think it's about $9,000, I have all the details. And then there is a request from the police department for the body cameras, that's for 9,943. And our annual street fund, the rehab fund that we always have, that we've always put aside, is $100,000 nested in the CIP fund. The next one, the one that I think I should mention, is the CIP for water sewer. Yes, sir.

I thought that the street fund was the leftover funds from the previous budget year, if there's anything left over.

That's correct, but we still budget it.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we still budget for it. Yes, but that is correct. So if there is, you know, like if there's money at the end of the year, I think it actually says so in our, where is it? I brought along the key in financial policy. I wanted to speak to it in a little bit, but it does say so. Any money left over is to be put back into operational and improvements and all that good stuff. You are correct, sir. Yeah, okay. And the next one, okay, I was on water sewer CIP and you see we are asking for 354% more. The total of the amount is $607,980 and we will be working on four different things. One is a sewer extension on Old Betsy. This covers where the Old Betsy Dental

It's an old clay system that is, our team has gotten really good at declogging it. And I'm really glad they know what they're doing because to do it the normal way, there would be toilets exploding. So it's a line that we have put off and put off and put off. And again, please understand This is just expenses. We've got really exciting news to help fund some of this stuff with other, but we're not talking about revenue tonight. I've got to make sure I abide by our rules and stuff. So this is just outlining the needs that really need to be addressed in the city right now, urgently.

So this says sewer extension, though. Is it adding on or is it replacement?

What's that? Oh, okay. I will change it. It's a sewer replacement. It's replacement.

It's been a lot of long days, especially for this young lady. Oh, I imagine.

It's okay. It's okay.

We have to do things right. We do mess up words here and there. Hey, no worries. No worries. Mistakes, not malice, I promise.

No worries. So what is the approximate location of this replacement area?

You know where old Betsy Dental is and chamber office and the pharmacy? It's along that, between the fences and those buildings. So the backside? Backside. Okay, gotcha. And we'll also be addressing a water line that needs to be updated as well, since we're already there.

The next one is a sewer extension. I don't know if this is extension or replacement, Derek. Relocation, my bad. This is what happens when you copy and paste, Mira, okay?

And if I'm not mistaken, I'm looking at that while you're trying to correct your own mistake there, Mira. I'm just kidding. I see that it says the canyon's 100,000, but that was budgeted for this year, so it should be 38,000, right? Because that will be the carryover for next year, based on what we just agreed to.

Did we already spend that money? I feel like, did we?

That's why it's 100,000. Okay, yeah, so the 100,000 should... Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why it says carry over. It's for this fiscal year, but the 38,000, so I feel like that should be 38,000 on that sheet based on that. Because if this is for next year's budget, that should only be 38,000. Do you want to speak to that? Yes, I understand.

But I think it's when you're going to expense. So this is expenditure. So when you're going to, the difference is expenditure is cash. When are you going to spend the money? And I thought we were going to spend it in the next, am I wrong?

It depends on when they start.

Yeah, come on.

This is not a big project. I don't think they're going to ask for 30% off. Okay.

Okay. Okay, what are we saying? Are we saying that we take this out?

What I'm saying is if $100,000 is already earmarked for this year, and that next year's budget, this right here that we're looking at, is $38,000 for that project, that should say $38,000 so it frees up $62,000. It doesn't free it up.

It just needs to be properly accounted for. There's 100,000 coming from 26 and 38,000 from 27. The 38,000 is not delineated on this sheet. Correct. In the 607,000, is the 100,000 in that or the 38,000 in that 607,000? No, no.

I see six, it's 607, that's exactly what it is right there on that.

Right, but does that include the 100,000 or the 38? You know what, let me just look.

Or both. We'll discuss that.

Yeah, so. I mean, I know it's a clerical thing and I'm not trying to, I just want to make sure it's right so we have an extra $62,000 that's not being spent.

I agree. And where this could be coming from. So again, the 380 agreement, and this is the beauty of inflation, when you don't do things as quickly as possible, things become more expensive. So originally, when this whole thing was budgeted, it was budgeted for $100,000. Well, then it took three years to finally start the project. Again, we've had a couple of high inflation years. So now, the quote came back $38,000. Now, the good news is initially, we were thinking it was going to be $200,000. But thanks to the bids that our engineers did, it went back to $38,000. So yeah, we'll dial that in a little bit more. but the good news is it wasn't 200,000, it was 138,000, so. Okay.

Okay, the next one is the belt press with awning at sewer plant, which is 300,000, right? Give or take.

I just wanna know what a belt press is.

It waters the sludge from the sewer. Before we haul off the, when we process the sewer, the water goes out, after it's treated, it goes into the waterway, but all the solids that are left over have to be de-watered before we can take them to the landfill. Right now, we use a de-watering box. We put it in with polymer, and all the water runs out of it. Unfortunately, as of late, we've gotten, we've been getting the higher flows, and it's hard to keep up with that, that de-watering those solids, We actually did get a violation because our ammonia was high because we couldn't get rid of the solids fast enough. Fortunately, we got it back down to normal for three months, which cleared the violation. But to keep that from happening again, we were trying to get a belt press because It presses the solids. It compresses the solids, right. It runs through two screens and it presses the water out.

I'm thinking of a belt that goes around your waist.

Oh, no, no. Or a belt that runs a pulley.

It's a machine that's to press the solids, squeezing the water out.

Right. It's, not only is it more efficient, it's a little faster. I mean, we're gonna keep our box too, because, you know, just in case. Duality. But it also, we pay by weight when we haul off the sludge.

I'm the same way with my dump trailer.

Right, and the dew watering box dew waters it some. Belt press makes it look like slivers of clay when it's finished. It's just completely dry. So it'll save money. It'll actually save money.

It'll save money in the long run. And the awning goes over that machinery? Right. Got it. Got it.

Now, are we allowing for the potential expansion of this sewer plant? Is this big enough to handle when we expand, or is this going to just get us by for now?

Well, I mean, yeah, as we get more flow in, we'll need more. I mean, it's... I can't tell you exactly what the capacity is of that, the belt press, because I'm not sure which one we're getting yet, because we're having, I've talked to our engineer, Jacob Martin, but we have some other people coming in. They're going to come to the plant and just look at what we have and give us an idea of what it costs to put one in, so I can get a more dialed in cost of it. Thanks.

Very informative.

Oh, that sounds pretty explanatory to me.

Yep, I was going to go for that too.

No, okay. You good? Yes, okay. Okay. Debt, we actually have an amortization schedule that we have to follow, and this year we have to pay $785,127 for all the debt. We still have the GO bond 2021 A, B, the tax notes, and the tax payable. So that's $785,000 is that. Another CIP, which is kind of weird, it's a minus 0.3%. It's because we took out some of the trainings and some of the dues and memberships from EDCA that we will not be attending this year, right? Mr. Martin, yes, I got a nod. And the 250,000 in the 471 is actually a CIP that is for the Country Road 317. The next one, the increase of 13% for EDCB is also $355,000 for CIP. Do you want to, do you remember what they are? I don't remember all of them. I'll pull it up. You're talking about them.

I know they budgeted a couple hundred thousand for sidewalks. They budgeted 100 plus thousand for skate park. Another 160,000 for lighting at Eliza Carver Park. And we budgeted 50,000 for, I got them. Right? Am I right?

Yes, you do.

50,000 at Los Arauzo Park. Did I miss anything?

The additional two outdoor warning signs.

Oh, yes, correct. The two outdoor warning signs which are already in progress and I believe they've been paid or a down payment has been put on those two outdoor warning signs and the stuff has been ordered. So some of that will carry over depending on when it gets done or not. And again, this is money that they've had in the bank and reserves, you know, sales tax revenue.

For 2026, we had 200,000 earmarked for sidewalks for Type B. Did they put any sidewalks in this year?

They're doing one right now. They started over on 4th Street where they left off last year, kind of like halfway between Gale Lane or... Gale and Fairview. And Fairview. And they're working... going all the way to Fairview right now. They got about 30, 40 feet port already. They got another 50, 60 feet to go. They're waiting on, there's a sewer line, I think, that comes out of the house and a gas line they just put in to get marked. So yes, we started on some little sidewalks already. Okay.

It looks like they're ready to pour that. It was formed up and stealing it today.

Yeah, there was just one little spot about as wide as this podium that they had a question mark and waiting on locates.

Fair enough.

So that was this morning.

Don, Bristol Oaks put in sidewalks in front of their homes down there on 4th Street?

Yes.

To a certain point and then it just stopped?

Right.

Is that the sidewalks on from 4th Street on down to?

I'd have to go back and look. I presented several ideas to the B Board, and I can't remember which ones they said to do and not to do with that $200,000. But that was one of the ones that I presented to them was going all the way down to CTA.

I believe that's one of the concerns of one of our citizens. Right. If we can get information on that.

All of our streets need science.

Oh, I know. All of them need it.

The new home on 4th, will it have sidewalks in front of it?

Yes. Fantastic. Yes. Any new home is required. Required, yeah. That's why you drive down Pioneer, there's one house with sidewalk. Yes.

And this year, did we spend any of the money that we earmarked for... Skate park?

Not yet.

I know they had like 300.

Other than, well, I don't know. We haven't done any engineering.

No engineering or anything?

We've done some engineering at Los Arauzo Park.

So essentially we're just carrying that money over and into the next year kind of thing. Okay.

And I actually want to address something because words matter. And we're in this habit of calling it reserves. They're not reserves. And again, this is just, it's called fund balance. Reserves makes it sound like we're dipping into our safety money. we're not we're using so you know we have this emergency fund that has 2.1 million dollars in it that's the emergency fund that is what we call reserves the money that's in the pool is taxpayer money that needs to be going back into the community so again i'm not i'm not getting after you don i'm just saying we we need to start using proper terminology terminology so that we're taking money from our fund balance that was allocated for this project and using it so that it doesn't have this kind of scary negative connotation.

Four big carryover funds.

In government accounting, it's called a fund balance, so, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, Dawn. Thank you.

Great job. Oh, I meant to, I have two more things that I need to say on this slide. Both EDC A and B capital improvements will be funded by cash. They are estimated to have over $402,000 in revenue. But as you can see, their costs, their expenditures, their expenses are going to be a lot more than that. So we're going to use funding the CIPs from their cash accounts. And as of the 30th of June, 2026, EDCA has $1.3 million. And EDCB has $653,312.14. So they have enough money to cover for the ACIPs. Okay, Sydney, this is something that Mr. Seitz requested me to do because it's what we're used to, just looking at it line by line and just showing you down the line. On the right-hand side, basically it tells you why there is an increase of what was budgeted last year to this year, and the percentage of the increase would be on the one, two, three, four, the fourth column from the left. So for our city manager office, the increase is, there will be like an increase in legal services by $10,000. It was budgeted for 80, and this year we're budgeting for 90,000. For non-department, okay, this is going to be, non-department is, in the past we have used that as almost like, I want to say a catch-all. This is where we're going to start funding transfers because we no longer can, you know, or have a general fund do everything. So now we have to dedicate one GL to transfer things in and out, and that will be the non-department. And if you can see, the last year's budget was 740,000 something, and this year will be like over $1 million. And that change is because the huge difference in this is actually just account, it's really just accounting. And this is why, Mr. Seitz, I didn't really wanna do this because it doesn't really make sense. This is just for accounting purposes that we do this. If you look at this and you're like, well, you're kind of like, duplicating the expenses, Mira, but it's just counting. So transfer to capital fund, this is what's driving it, is $318,000 to the capital fund. Remember, like we talked about that, like for general fund, there will be 208 for fire department, almost $10,000 for police department, and another 100 for the street fund. That's what that $318,000 is. For the city secretary, we are requesting there will be an increase, it's budgeted to have an increase on election expenses by $14,000 and the agenda meeting software for like $6,000 more. For finance department, it looks like we have to increase the budget for the county appraisal for $10,000 and I put on there temporary service for $20,000. Of course, this is a wish list. What I have encountered this year is is so enormous. If we could add all our working hours in my team, it's ridiculous. And I just want to thank them once again for their dedication and sacrifices they're making. We're dealing with a lot of, we have to pivot a lot, and this is what I'm understanding why it's so challenging to work in a municipal government. a facility or like entity because there's a lot of GASB pronouncements that happens like within a year. And to accomplish that, most times these are things that are new and you have to do it within eight months or 10 months. And in our case, this past year, in this past 16 months, I had to deal with, I'm still dealing with, oh, I had to deal with three audits, four, three IRS and two annual audits. This is mind-blowing things that you have to deal with when you come in. There's a broken system. There are standards that have not been met. I don't want to say compliance, but there are things that are being done because of all the challenges that the team before me or the team before my team have faced. The ransomware attack. turnover of the directors and city managers and HR directors, I think this all is bringing back to where we are right now. So the temporary service that I'm requesting, $20,000 is at its peak. Spoken to Sandra Overstreet, HR director, and even Ms. Russell, they've been sending me information about the TML Wranglers. So TML Wranglers are used by, I want to say about 32 or 35 cities. I've spoken to about maybe five or six other finance directors. And I want to get this done right, and I want to get it done once and for all and be fixed. Like, you know, everything is going to be correct. I think what we're dealing with right now is really too much. for my team to deal with and just trying to keep our heads above water. It's very, very challenging. And so what I'm asking is a temporary service, the $20,000 is at a high price. Some cities will only cost them 5,000, will only cost them 10,000. It's just to go in, look at our processes, what's missing, and get us to be audit ready each year. So that's what the temporary service is going to do. So there'll be an increase of 36,000 that finance department is requesting for next year.

Mira, this is situations that are having to be cleared up from years past, correct?

I am still hopeful that we can have everything done by next year, by 2027, March 31st, 2027, however.

Including this year's audit. Yeah, including this year's audit. We're talking about having all this behind us.

Our audits are going to be completed on time. Yes.

However, I think I need another set of eyes who are used to this. Because this is not just Keene, by the way. There's a lot of other cities that are going through it. And as I'm networking and I'm talking, they're saying, this is the way, Mira. You've got to get a professional. Come and look at it. what skills are needed, what software needs to be, you know, how to fix the software, all these great things that I cannot do with the resources that I have now.

Do you think that these other cities that you're talking about, there were some of the 13 that were all hacked at the same time we were? I don't know, but I can find out. Yeah, I would be interested to know if they're all having some of the same issues because that created a real problem for us.

Yeah, it still is. Yeah. It still is. Like even like where I am now, I think some of the challenges that I've been, that I'm having is that I don't have the data that they need, you know, and this is not going. It's not there. But anyway.

Well, and real quick, I kind of want to speak a little bit more on this too. So when I first got here, if you remember, I was criticized for saying I want to run this, like the business world where I come from, the accounting was so convoluted. It just did not make sense at all. And so, and again, the world Mary came from was the same way. And so the thing I'm very thankful for, and again, the Lord is continuing to lead and go before us is we were already making these changes before the requirements came in. And so right now we're actually ahead of the game versus, you know, trying to play catch up right now with a lot of these cities. So again, we're very fortunate that, you know, Mira understands because now in the corporate world, if you don't have good accounting, you don't know what's going on. You go out of business.

Yeah, exactly.

And so now the government is starting to adopt a lot of this stuff. And so thankfully, we're actually, like I said, ahead of the game right now.

Yeah, that's good.

So real quick, I'm sorry, I just want to make sure, I just want to clarify what I'm reading.

Yes, absolutely.

So the temporary service is a one-time thing that we're going to pay in the next fiscal year, and then we won't need that anymore because we'll be back on track.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Because if you remember, I think for two years in a row, the auditor's report actually included an extra person. to be added to our team, to the finance team. Correct. And what we have done this year, and I'm very, I'm telling you, it's just the Lord. But I really feel like we are doing everything we can right now. We are being very mindful. We are good stewards of the taxpayers' money. We're not going to add another person because that would be a fringe benefit, this and that. So what we're doing right now is looking at the processes, what's right, what's wrong, take out what's wrong, make it more efficient, fix the system with three people.

So we're going to have team Trinity and then one man in the fire, right?

That's right. That's what we said last time. Always fourth man in the fire. Okay. So is that it?

That's all I got, thank you.

Okay, so next one is human resources. The human resource department is asking for increase of other professional services, 8.5, and then a small computer, and a little bit more training, and a little bit more budget on the employee relations. Right, Sandra? Yes, and the police department, the only increase is the Increase on annual software license, $12,000. And there's a training and travel for $2,000. And I'm just explaining where there's the CIP, that's the body cam that I've already put in the previous slide. Fire department, the only thing that I mentioned there are all the things that I've already said before. The CIP for the future ambulance and the portable radios and the full sat turnout gear. Yes.

So I thought I heard you say this already in the non-department. I thought I heard you say that the transfer to capital fund was $318,000, which included the fire truck or the ambulance.

That's correct.

So how do we have both? And this is just me being stupid. How do we have both of these line items? You have it listed in the fire department and non-department, so.

That's correct.

How does that work? And I'm just.

It's not, okay, so if you see the increase from fire department from 26 to 27 is actually only $11,000. And I'm highlighting the big increase for the fire departments only like the CIP. Yeah, it's not, I'm not asking for 300 and whatever, what is it? Sorry, 2,000, 208,000 within what is increased and decreased. So only increased by 11,000.

I see what you, yeah. So again, we have been used to looking at by department. This is why she said, again, the way we're required to report is by fund. but we've never done that before here. So I asked her, so until we kind of get used to it, so like next year, we're just gonna talk about fund, because that's what every other city does for budget workshops. But this year I asked her to put it by department so you could see how it's associated to each department, just because that's what we're used to seeing.

Okay. That was just my, I didn't know which bucket it was in, so that's why I was asking.

Oh yeah, absolutely, yes sir.

And then I haven't seen the line item for the police building, is it coming?

Mr. Seitz, you want to speak on that?

Yes. I mean, like I've said before, I, you know, again, we own the building. We can move on it whenever we want, but that's your, to bring that building to code, that is going to have to be kind of a, either a loan or a bond or something, right? Because we don't have $102 million. Now we could, you could pull out our reserves, I guess, if we wanted to. But those are all discussions that we, we need to have when we can actually move forward. So I am still hopeful that we can move forward with it this next year. But right now, it's still in that limbo right now.

I think the ones here that are worth mentioning is the code enforcement. There will be an increase of 15% and that is the increase of annual software license for iWork. The other one will be a minus 18 development services and minus 18% of what happened there. So I found just going through it line by line, there was a duplicate of other professional services that had already been, I guess, budgeted on a different line from last year. So we budgeted twice last year, so we're correcting it this year. The other one I think that's worth mentioning is streets department. a reduction of 32% and we spoke about that. That's the street, it's reclassing the CIP street rehab fund to the CIP fund. And the last one is community center. There will be an increase of $6,000, just a variety of purchases of transmitters and microphones and all that good stuff. So, the total, like I said, this is kind of like, it's very difficult for me to explain because it's not reporting the way that we're supposed to. I'm hoping this kind of makes sense. Of course, I'm open for questions. Anything that you want to ask me? Yes, ma'am.

Talking about the community center, do we have any place where it shows what the income is on our leasing out the community center for different functions? If I may.

Different meeting. Yeah, we got to stick to expenses. That's revenue, we'll have that conversation.

Yes, I'll be doing that on the 30th. All right, thank you.

Okay, so now this one. I have here a copy of page 12 of our Keene financial policy. So before we start, I just want to make sure that we understand one thing. I think it's very important that we understand this. Though our utility fund is part of our business as a city, it is illegal for the water sewer utility fund to be used to subsidize government activities. I just want you to know that. very clearly. However, having said that, there are structured legal ways for the Water Sewer Utility Fund to be able to support the government fund, and that is mainly to reimburse the expenses that incurred through people like me, Sandra, Siri, Manager slash the administration. Okay, so I want you to see this. Page 12 from the Keene policy. I didn't want to, you know, do the whole packet. But so if you see G, this is where we govern. This is where the council agrees on how water sewer utility fund is to support general fund. So out in the world, here, out in the world, they do it by three ways. And that's pilot here, a pilot is payment in lieu of taxes. So basically, any buildings, any vehicles, any equipments that belong, that sit where Pioneer is, right? The public works building is. They are, here, in our in our policy it says that we can actually tax them with property tax. We can do that, and right now we're not. And the other thing is that we do is the administrative cost allocation, which you all know that we did that last year. And the third one that we introduced was franchise fees. Remember that, right? Okay, so the administrative fee, administrative cost allocation, If you read this, it tells you, and I'm quoting this, the transfer of utility funds to the general fund for the reimbursement of administrative expenses shall be up to 10%. So if we look back, well, I know it. If we look back, our total, what is this thing? Oh, man. Oh, this one. Oh, no, not this one. Okay, so you see a general fund, the estimated budget for 2027, we're budgeted at 7.1 million. According to our policy, we can charge the utility fund up to 10%. That's $710,000, $710,000. And right now, in 2026, we budgeted for 360,000. Do you wanna speak about that?

Yeah, so the hard part about this is there, and again, these are things that we are going to be discussing more in depth when it comes to revenue time. We are obviously bound by the no new revenue rate, which was kind of a blessing in disguise because it allowed us, kind of forced us to only look at the one thing we can really kind of look at right now. There has not been a water increase since 2009 in the city of Keene. The water rates have not been increased since 2009. Based on consumer price index, okay, and I've also gone back and I've had our partners give us, you know, like electricity rates, I've had them give us the Republic trash rate increases and all those things. What the CPI means is when chlorine cost $100 back in 2009, it now costs $150 to $160 for that same chlorine. We have not been good stewards of managing the enterprise of the city to keep up with inflation and consumer price index. And so what can't happen or shouldn't happen is all of a sudden people's property taxes are supplementing and funding But we are right there doing that. Okay? And again, this goes back to the way the accounting was done before. We didn't, you, council, and I don't blame anybody, council didn't have a clear picture because of what used to be allowed from government accounting was being supplemented by grants, by all these things that looked like we're doing a good job when in fact we weren't focused on the business itself and what the business was doing. And so it is something that, you know, and again, I do not want us to go into panic mode because right now we are looking at, we have Waterworth, they're doing some modeling. They're going to come with projections and suggestions. But if we don't start doing something, we will repeat history, which was, how many years ago, 20 plus years ago, when all of a sudden we jacked the price way up, history will have to repeat itself. And then we will be right back to where we were, that Keene is the highest water rates. And again, I do live in another city. And my base rate is $20 more than what it is here. So... Anyway, so did I explain that good enough for you, Mira?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, but my point is actually, I just want to, yes. Okay. I promise I'll be done like in five minutes. The first line, this is basically what is requested from our water sewer department. The big increase is obviously is shown in one, two, three, four, fourth column from the left. The biggest one there is 95% increase is from the sewer. department, right, and we spoke about that earlier, is the $607,980, and that is of the CIPs that Derek explained earlier. Other than that, there is also, oh, why I mentioned the administrative allocation expenses, last year, we saw it coming from one line and going to another. This year, because of GASB, is going to be coming out from each department. So that's what you see. One is a reclass, like the top part, the water sewer administration, you see I noted that it's reclassing admin allocation of the total 360. So what I'm doing then, I'm taking them out per department, so you see $216,000 from water distribution, which represents 60%, and then I'm taking 30% out of sewer department, which represents $108,000, and sanitation's $36,000, which represents 10% of the total admin allocation. But that's pretty much it. Their increase other than, oh, sorry, and there's also sanitation. Sanitation increase 35% is to reflect the, wow, where are the people? Republic. Rate increase and to budget for the additional 90 homes for sanitation. We are budgeting for 171, okay, I'm not supposed to talk about that, but it's 171 new homes for this year. Any questions? This is my last slide.

Some expense increases represent good things.

Thank you. Thank you, Mira.

So to summarize, again, these are just, This is just the initial information, again, as we continue to meet, which we do need to discuss our next meetings. Because council is allowed to have a life and they have families, we need to juggle up the – we were originally scheduled to meet next Thursday. Even though there's no action being taken, our attorneys have recommended to keep with TOMA so that we just keep everything above board. Because we can't have a quorum next Thursday, and we still want to keep that last Thursday for revenue to discuss because we'll have the certified values of the city and all that stuff by then. We need to make sure. So there's two options. We can either plan for a long night because we also have to discuss voter lines, city limit lines, all those things on the 30th. Or we can break it into two and do Tuesday and, so based on, because we also have Rodney coming to talk about fringe benefits, thankfully he was able to adjust his schedule. So we need to, he can come either Tuesday the 28th, thank you, or Thursday the 30th. So if we want to break it into two meetings, then we can do that. Or we can do one long and remember the good old days meeting.

depends on the snacks talking to you Johnny I don't really care I honestly if it's if it's gonna be impeding anybody else I'd rather just do one so that way we don't have to be impacted twice in one week but I don't care Mira did you what was your preference

for you because you've got to kind of compile all this. Okay, all right. We were kind of trying to figure it out from our end, but so really it's just a matter of whatever council. I did talk to Bob, you know, he's flexible that week. So whatever y'all decide tonight, we just have to make sure that the 30th, we have to have a quorum because this is very important with elections coming up. We need to make sure our new communities have the ability to go vote

So two of these?

OK. Chuck, you want two? Mr. Shaw?

I would say two, because it'd be easier for me to schedule.

Two. And I would like two.

That's fine. Let's do it.

All right. So then we will plan for employee costs and fringe benefit costs on the 28th, Tuesday 28th. And then we will discuss revenue and how we're going to apply that revenue to this wish list and the expenses of the city. on the 30th. Sound good?

Okay. It's still at six o'clock on Tuesday.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much, council.

Okay. And now we have executive session. Pursuant to the Texas Open Meeting Act Chapter, excuse me, 551 Texas Government Code, the city council may recess to 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 and by following authority. Will be delivered 551.072 deliberation regarding real property to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property in the Keene Industrial Park. The meeting is now recessed for executive session and the time is 7.34. I was killing a bug, I'm sorry. I don't like bugs. Okay, reconvene. I'm calling the meeting back to order. The time is now 7.59.

The council would like to, I'd like to make a motion to allow the city manager to move forward with the sale of real property of the remaining acreage in the Keene Industrial Park.

Second.

Okay. A motion and a second. All those approve? Okay, it's... Okay, carried.

I was just gonna say, thank you, council. This will bring more jobs to Keene.

Yes, thank you. Okay, are there any requests for future agenda items? Come on, Mr. Owen.

You wanted to put the Shelly Drive issue?

Oh, okay.

Is that something we just put on the first of the month, correct? Because we're still in budget stuff, right?

So it would be an actual council meeting would be the ideal because, yeah.

And so that would be? The first one in August.

Yeah.

It's August 6th.

And do we plan to have one for that meeting?

I would say so. Okay. Just making sure we're. Because right now the primary focus is just making sure. The budget. We vote on things that we need to so that the upcoming election can take place. And then also budget items. So actual, we'll shift and focus on other items like, yeah.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Wayne. Okay. Any other questions? Agenda items that anyone would like to have on there? OK. Meeting is adjourned at 8.01.