City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the council to order. Please rise for the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Please bow your heads. Dear heavenly father, we ask that you unite us as a team so that we may work together with one mind and one heart. In moments when we feel divided or uncertain, remind us of the greater mission we share. May we continue to encourage and uplift one another in love just as you have done for us. We trust in your guidance and thank you for your unwavering support. Your name I pray. 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. And now the Texas flag. Honor the flag. I pledge algiance to the Texas one state one and indivisible. You may be seated.

I want to thank everyone for coming tonight. This is November 6, a regular council meeting. I have a few announcements. Um, we've had several things going on in the last month since the last time we met. Uh, we had National Night Out. It was a nice event that brought the community together to build relations with the police department and our citizens. So, that was great. And our staff. Uh, we had Starfest. That was a great success at its new location at Keen ISD with a huge turnout. The event, while still a lot of work, I heard went very smoothly. Um, I heard there were three lost children that were quickly reunited with their families. No arrests were made despite the large crowd. So, everyone, most everyone that attended had a good time. So, that is a win. The Fairview Street project is mainly complete. If you've noticed, there's still some gas lines being upgraded. Uh they were working on the road, I know, uh by the church, cutting it across the street, but the road now is smooth with new curbs. Uh so while the grant money didn't go as far as we'd like, it's still an improvement to our town and will benefit us benefit us hopefully for years to come. Uh we also had our C uh council election on November 4 that happened this week. So the unofficial results are Rob Foster won Ward One. Caleb Bowl and Samantha Gillan will be in a runoff for place two and Thomas Gutwa and Charles Easley will be in a runoff for Ward Three. More details about that will be given during the city manager report tonight. All right, so those were the highlights from October. Now for the elephant in the room. The last time we met was September 25, 2025. Not our finest hour. We made the news on WFAA, but most would agree not in a good way. I've spoken to many and read social media post and the citizens are not happy with the direction of the city and

the actions that its leaders are taking. As mayor, I am disappointed as well. We are a community that was founded on Christianity and education, but we are not setting a good example. Not for our town or the residents and the children who live here. So, council, we need to do better. I know that we can do better. My goal has always been to be transparent and accountable to the citizens. And those are the words we all like to toss around, but unless they are backed up by our behavior, they can become meaningless. As mayor, I feel that the council members and staff have continually tried to undermine my authority. Whatever I say or recommend, you all do the opposite. Maybe it's to spite me. Maybe it's just because you don't like me. Maybe it's a power struggle to put me in my place, to show me that you're the decision makers. Whatever the reason, I just want to rhetorically ask you, how's that working for you? How is that working for our town? I know you probably don't understand why I'm sitting here. Why did the citizens elect this woman to be the first woman mayor? Why me? Why in 2022 and again in 2024? And I'm going to tell you, because they like what I represent. I represent them. When they ask me questions, I speak the truth and I give them answers. When they call me for help, I help them. When they ask me to show up for local events, I'm there. I'm honest, straightforward, and genuinely ran to serve the people, to be their voice, and to advocate for their needs. On September 25, council took that privilege away from me, not only from me, but from the citizens who put me in this chair. Council took away that from Proim Gwa. He wasn't allowed to speak or vote on behalf of the citizens who put him in his chair. So, council, I'm going

to ask you to think about why you're here, who put you in your chair, and why. And just to remind you and the public, I wouldn't be in office today if not for a former city manager who decided he was above the law and could do whatever he wanted. He ran the city like a business and he forgot about serving the people. His need for power and control caused him to overstep his authority. He played politics and he made some mistakes. That was eight years ago. Let's not go down that same road again today and repeat history. What I'm seeing across the entire city is a lack of understanding of the law, our role, and why the Texas Open Meetings Act standards are in place. They are designed to protect the public's right to not only know that why what decisions are being made on their behalf, but why and how they are being made. I watched our meetings on live stream this month. Type A needs some understanding of what topics can be discussed in executive session and what cannot. Type B needs some understanding that you can't use your position for personal gain to solicit support or votes to enhance your personal career. Staff need understanding that you can't organize meetings at a council member's house and invite a quorum to be present without the proper posting and access to the public so they can attend. And council needs help with understanding that they should not interfere with the public's right to hear the talking points from all of us on matters of city business and allow all of us to be a part of the process because we are all elected officials. I have great concerns for our city going forward. The citizens have great concerns and I'm going to ask you to please listen to me, heed my advice, listen to the citizens, and make choices that will reflectively that reflect positively on you and our city going forward.

All right, that's all for my comments for the moment. Moving on to agenda item number three, public comments. I've got a comment. Yes, sir. Go ahead. I'd like to ask our attorney, was anything done illegally once the mayor called the recess and left the room? Was there anything that was illegal or not? Correct. Okay. This is not a question and answer time. I don't think the city attorney can answer that. This is not an agenda item. It's under the public comment.

Well, it's not on the agenda. That's correct. But I think it's directly related to the statement that you just made. So, because it's directly related to the mayor's comment, I can answer it. Um the answer is that our office opine that there was nothing illegal or outside of your ordinances or statutes that occurred on September 25th. All right, moving on to agenda item number three, public comments. We'll start with Carrie Warwick. Good evening, council and mayor. Uh Carrie Warwick, management assistant. Uh, I wanted to take a moment to thank all the members of the council who came together to be a master of ceremonies at Starfest this year. Uh, your commitment to supporting our community event was not only historic, but it was epic. To my knowledge, city council has not participated in such a big way in the previous 37 years, which makes this even more special. Not only because Dr. Stevens opened the school to us and opened up a world of possibilities for the future of Starfest, but because you all showed up and showed out and for the community in a remarkable effort of collaboration that made the experience unforgettable and I hope strengthened the bond between [clears throat] residents and our city government. Your energy, your charisma, your style truly brought the event to life. So on behalf of the Starfest planning committee, we are grateful for the time, talent, heart you poured into the role. You helped make Starfest shine even brighter.

Thank you, Carrie. And thank you all your hard work for planning it. [applause]

All right, Paul not making some notes. [clears throat]

Okay, my name is Paul Knot, 38y year resident of Keen all inside the city limits currently the last 26 years at 107 North Old Mansfield. Um I'm here to praise the TAB board first of all for uh their work in fixing the electronic sign in front of city hall. Looks great. And so kudos to Dr. Ricky Stevens and that uh that type board. Next, I want to praise Carrie Warwick for the tremendous job she did in stepping in for Starfest. And she's already said it, but Starfest just goes to show, it proves that there's cooperation, tremendous cooperation among all the entities in Keen. Uh there just isn't a problem once you get down to that level. The schools get along with each other. Uh there's no town and gown problem and it's it's it was just great. And then finally, I want to invite the candidates who are involved in the runoff to a runoff candidates form. Very similar to the regular election candidates form. This would be two weeks from tonight if we can if we can get some legalities taken care of. But it' be 6 pm uh November 20, two weeks from tonight. And the site is not to be determined is yet to be determined. It'll be in this building, but it possibly could be in these chambers or in the community center. So, be answering the very same questions and uh right now it would be 6 pm Thursday, November 20. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kn.

All right. Philip Jackson. Thank you, Mayor Philip Jackson, 110 Rosedale Avenue. Um, just briefly want to comment on um some Facebook posts that I've read. uh when the candidate forum was held back on the 14th of October, one of the questions was, you know, how would you uh encourage more citizen participation in, you know, possibly attending meetings, even uh accepting positions on some of these uh councils and boards that we have and to have people step up and take on that responsibility and then in fa on Facebook posts that some people uh here have um encouraged be called a spoiler is very embarrassing to this city. I just like to make that comment and hope it sinks in.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. [clears throat] All right, Troy Smith. Mayor, can I defer and let the other the other if you have any other yellow cards, I'd ask you to do those and I'll go last so that way the citizens get a chance to speak first. Okay.

All right. Carl Wright. Good evening, council, citizens, everyone. Carl Wright, 608 Maurice Street, 8year resident. Uh, I'm mainly here to talk about the taxes because there's been so much craziness about it. I want because I got my tax bill Friday that tells me about my property. So, I'm talking about my property, not somebody else's or anything. Uh this my house from 20 to 25 my value went up 20%. On the appraised value which is awesome. I didn't build it to sell it but I'm glad it's going up. That also increases taxes and I understand that. And I'll kind of go off on a little ramp here. I always hear these people know property taxes, but I haven't heard one person say how they're going to get that money that we're not going to have because property taxes aren't being paid. I'd love to not pay property tax. And I'm glad I'm old enough I don't have to pay as much as most people because I do take advantage of all of the exemptions I can get. And I'll show you a little of that in a minute. But in in 23 my house went up 10.8%. In 24 it went up 8.65%. And this is all numbers from the county. And it's all on estimated or appraised value. Well, in 25 my house didn't go up any. Am I lucky?

Sounds like I'm lucky because I've heard people saying 20 25% increase. Mine didn't. And I'm not in a special neighborhood or anything. I'm a newer house in an older neighborhood, but there's newer houses around me, too. So, the confusion, especially about you guys lowered the tax rate, and I want to applaud all of you that did. Would it could it be lower? I'd love it to be lower. The whole new no new tax revenue rate is a joke. especially in this town because we've added houses and we've had it added people. And if you think the employees can run this city on the same amount of money before all these people moved in, you're wrong. We're going to have to cut something if that's what you're looking for. But one of my biggest complaints is about the school district cuz whatever they do, y'all get blamed with. People don't seem to understand y'all are only one of the how many of them? Six taxing entities that I pay taxes to. Some are different. I know because of different school districts, but citizens don't seem to understand the city's tax rate doesn't have anything to do with what's school district charges or the county. And I can tell you the Hill College my in five years mine's gone up almost 10%. The school district and commend them it's gone down 93% on my taxes in five years according to their numbers. I didn't uh city King hadn't gone up or down.

Congratulations. That's awesome to me. Uh emergency services went up 13. Farm to market lateral road went up 13% and I live on city street that attaches to a state highway so I'm not sure if that's included. But, uh, Johnson County only went up 3%. So, all these people saying, "Y'all raised the taxes." Y'all didn't raise the taxes. The appraised values went up. And if you own the land, your appraised value going up should be make you happy because should you ever need to get rid of it, it's going to be worth more. On the other hand, it means you got to pay more taxes. But lowering the rate and having to say that it was a 3 and 12% increase I think due because of the total amount of money we're getting at the end of the year or at the is what that three and a half% uh I'm just saying to ha to lower the rate and have to the government or whoever makes you say we raised the taxes three and a half%. Well, all these people watching, my taxes went up three and a half%. Well, I I'll and now I'm fixing to finish, but we get some exemptions because of our age and a homestead. I I'll use every one of them I can. In 1920 or in 2023, my taxes for my house would have been 55046. Without with the exemptions, it was only 35.94 06. In 24 without the exemptions, mine would have been $54.93.85, which is $1161

less. With my exemptions, it would have been $36.43.98, which is $49.92 higher from 23 to 24. Now we come to the real this year the tax thing I just got my taxes without the exemptions would have been 5421.93 which is $71.92 less than last year with my exemptions because the voters voted for it and I hope it doesn't make people mad but it I'm glad my taxes will be 26 69391 which is $950.7 less than it was last year. Most of that is due to the school district homecom or exemption. And y'all don't get credit for that, but you do get credit for all the stuff that you've seen. And I'll give it to you. I applaud all of you. I'd like to ask you one question. How how come WFAA came here? Do you know who called them?

Yeah. This is not a question and answer session. I'm just asking. Yeah, I knew that'd be Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wright. [applause]

All right, Jeff Henkins. Evening. I'm Jeff Henkins. 503 North View Street. been there 15 years going on 16. I was talking with John earlier about Fairview Street and Oakdale Street now about putting some speed limit signs up, you know, because them people come flying down that road. And I know the road's not all that great and it's going to take a while to get it fixed and all, but we do need to have some way of getting that speed limit signs put up. They shouldn't go no more than 10 miles an hour down that road cuz you have people walking down it and everything. And uh the noise the loud vehicles and everything like that need to be took care of you know

and what street is this? That's Fair View in Oakdale. Okay. And you know where we need to hire more officers or something to where because a lot of times things go on and you don't see an officer. You know, I don't know where they're at or anything like that, but it don't seem like we have enough officers in this town.

It's growing. And I know the city police need to have more people, you know, to watch out for people that don't know what they're doing, you know. But, um, you know, I know the city council, I watched the deal on the news and everything. To me, city council is like a military. You're supposed to be one unit. No. And it didn't seem like y'all were all one unit. You're supposed to work together, not against each other. You know, that's, you know, cuz we're one nation. So, we should be one with each other no matter what. you know, put all your u problems to the side and work together as as one team. Don't work against each other because that don't work up very good. I got plenty of time in the military and everything. I've been doing a lot of things my life and I've been down in the big house. I learned my lesson. No. and I tell other people that I know and everything because I'm not afraid to be that I've been praying tin off. There's [snorts] a lot to learn if people work together. If you don't work together, you you don't need to be here in my books, but I see this council city should be able to work together as one. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Henkins. Mr. Sites, if you'll check into his question about where the speed limit signs are and and report back to council if we need to add that as an agenda item. Yeah, I I added it when he was up here. You have Okay, you got it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Vincent Castro.

Hello, gentlemen. Vincent Castro, 503 North Fairview Street. Keen resident for about 12, 13 years. Um, sorry I've haven't been here for the last couple months. Um, back in September, my service dog passed away. I was dealing with that and then I've been in and out of the hospital, so I haven't been able to get up here. But I have watched the videos of things and and the reason why things have happened is partly because of me and I'll get to that. First, what I want to say before is Mr. Smith, you had talked about that you guys needed to be here for the meetings that that you have two meetings you guys should be up here for. I agree with that. And then you turned around and said, "Well, sometimes you can't make the meetings." Well, you all made a commitment when you got elected to make the meetings. So, if you can't make these meetings for any reasons, maybe you should just resign and let somebody who can make the meetings be here. You guys made that commitment when you guys got elected. You need to keep that commitment. Secondly, the reason why channel 8 knew about this place is cuz I told them. And I'm going forward with more that than just channel 8. What you guys did was wrong. I don't care what the attorney has said, but she what she forgot to you guys talk about is that the mayor was not gone. Neither was the mayor prom. They were just out in the restroom. That is not a reason to take over their meeting. You could have waited another five minutes. It wouldn't have killed you and the and the tax rate would have still increased. You didn't have to take over somebody

else's meeting and do it the way you did, Mr. Foster. That's just wrong. It's not about the tax rate getting increased or anything like that. It's about how you do it. We are de a democratic society. We don't just get things pushed on us like you guys did. And I'm going to make sure that a judge decides whether or not it was legal or not. And we'll go from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Castro. Bud Finley at Finley 224 West 4th Street and Keane. Pick it up. Lift it up. Okay. Is that better? Mayor, I heard your opening remarks and I would just like to present an opposing viewpoint. Go ahead.

You work under the opaces of the city charter. The city charter was voted on by the majority of the people in this community. If you have a debate or you have a reason that you're upset because something didn't go a direction that you wanted, this is a deliberative body. And if you can't carry the day with your viewpoint and you cannot carry the day with your issue, it doesn't mean that you need to be rough-handed. Mr. Castro, in dealing with this council in the manner in which you dealt with them. Now, Mr. Castro, how many times did you meet on this budget? Would anybody venture a guess? Is it five, 10, 15 times? [snorts]

Okay. During that period of time, you developed a consensus about what you were going to do and what you were going to support both tax- wise and and and prioritywise. [snorts] This isn't a surprise to you. You were here during the whole process, mayor, and you were here during the whole process. So that you exit stage right or left or caller recess and call foul is unconscionable.

Legal legal. It is free speech. Now I delivered to the city secretary a set of questions. Now you've already told me when Mr. Castro was up here that this wasn't a question and answer session. So I I I get it. You're not going to answer any of them. But to play to WFAA in your interview without informing anybody here that you were going to do it, the callousness of that, the arrogance of that. You can call it your duty all that you want, but you didn't use the deliberative process and have them have other members present before you did that. I'm not I'm speaking, not you.

Well, to get your facts straight. [snorts]

I wish you would answer these questions. I gave everybody a copy of them because I think this is a staged tantrum and you've gone out and I use the word literally, okay? because of what it was and taken this out into a complete DFW spectrum because it didn't go your way and you should be ashamed of yourself. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Mr. Finland. [applause] All right. All right. Last Troy Smith. It doesn't wasn't turned in before the meeting. Supposed to be turned in before the meeting according to our rules.

All right. We We could overrule that if we'd like to. Would you? Who Who was the speaker, ma'am? Mayor, Miss Gillan, would anybody like to let Mrs. Gillan speak before I speak? I would. I would. All right. Do we Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Before you go, you are not in a position to call for a vote. Only the mayor can do that. That's part of Robert's rules of order. Don't even try and uh opt Don't even try to take over the meeting. You're not allowed to, Mr. Smith. Well, then I would I would like to make a motion to allow Mrs. Gillan to speak. All right. I have a motion on the floor. Do I have a second? Second

to all in favor raise your hand. Those opposed. All right. Motion is carried. Miss Gillan, would you like to step forward? Under our rules, just so the citizens are aware, the request to speak, audience members who wish to speak during the citizen comment section must first complete a speaker card sheet and submit it to the city secretary before the beginning of the meeting. I received this one about 30 minutes into the meeting. Sorry, I was late. We've let people speak during this time the whole time I've lived here if they just wanted I'm allowing Miss Gillan to speak. Mr. Wright, if you'll please contain yourself. Miss Gillan, go ahead.

Sorry I didn't follow your instructions, but I didn't know what the content this was. I'm just clarifying it.

Okay. Samantha Gillan to 18 West Fourth Street, Keen, Texas. I've lived here about 21 years. I've been to almost every meeting except when I was sick. I love this city. I have my business here. I have my home here. I have really tried to be understanding about everything that you do, Lisa and Mr. Gwa. That meeting, the last meeting, it was not what you said, Lisa. You called for recess. You left. You said Mr. Gutwa was not allowed to speak. That's a total lie. He got up and Mr. uh Foster asked him, "Mayor Pro Tim, do you want to carry on with the meeting because the rest of the council wants to continue with the meeting?" He walked right past. He did not answer. He did not look at him. He he took his stuff and he walked out. Now, he didn't go to the restroom because he took all of his stuff. And you implying that it was a setup because you were going to the restroom. I don't think anybody even knew when you were going to go to the restroom. How could they set it up? It's just it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to see that on WFAA. I mean, it is embarrassing to see that we have to argue over a restroom break. We had council business to do that had already been approved before and then all of a sudden it comes up again and you two, Mr. Gutwa and Lisa, wanted to redo it again. So, I I just don't understand the process at all and I don't understand why you feel like you're being picked on. Everybody has tried their hardest to work with you. I would love to see it work. It's not working. But I think it's not working because the two of you believe everybody's out to get you and nobody's out to get you. They're just trying to take care of Keen. I wish the two of you would get on board with everybody else rather than you keep telling everybody else to get on board with you. Just do it together. My

goodness. Thank you, Miss Gillum. [applause] All right, council. I received another public comment card after the meeting has already started. So, I'd like to have a motion to allow Ray Johnson to go ahead and speak like we did Miss Gillan to be fair. So moved. Motion. Second. All in favor, raise your hand. All right. Motion is carried. Mr. Johnson, proceed.

Mayor, council, uh, Ray Johnson, 1009 Christine Street, Clebrron, Texas 76031. I'm going to start with the mayor and the council all together. I talked to two business people to stop me today. If you don't stop me and ask me, why are we on the news? Why is council got to deal with this stuff? I'm just bringing up if council, the mayor and council don't stop all this, all we doing is losing customers coming in this town. So, I'm just letting you know from experience by talking to the two today that we got to do something to stop it. So being on the news ain't going to make the city any good or better. So this guy here calling him and doesn't even know about it. First time the council and he's making a scene out of this big deal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. All right. Now, Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Mayor. All right. Again, I have to write these things down because I want to make sure I'm concise and clear on what I need to say. So, good evening, everyone. I've been con contemplating a specific word over the last month or so. The word is adversity. And before I before I talk about adversity, I'd like to give you just a little bit backstory. So bear with me here. Um I grew up in Southern California, 30 minutes from the beach, less than 10 minutes from both Disneyland and Knottberry Farm. I lived in a suburban area. My neighbor was none other than Tommy Lorta. At that time that I knew him, he was the manager for the Dodgers. That was the same time I became a fan of the Dodgers. From then until now, I have suffered heartache and excitement over the struggles and successes they have had. Last year and this year were successes. Baseball is a very unique sport. There is nothing else quite like it. As I watched the Dodgers take the field through this postseason run, the word adversity came to mind. When they started playing in the wildard, they were able to sweep the Cincinnati Reds.

Calm down. It's my time. [clears throat] That was the only team they faced that had less wins than the than the Dodgers this season. All the other teams they had faced had more wins and they were forced to play more away games than home. Due to their adversity, they overcame the odds and won games on the road. In the World Series, it was no different. Even coming from behind to win game six and game seven in the to seal the victory. records were broken and ties uh through the battle of the through the battle of the best. And even when it looked bleak, like one out in the bottom of the ninth, suddenly the Dodgers tied it up with a home run from a guy who hadn't had a hit in a month. The most unlikely circumstances had just happened, leaving the Dodger nation with a glimmer of hope. Me as well. That same guy in the bottom of the ninth saved the Dodgers from elimination by throwing a play to home plate. It wasn't until the 11th inning where another Dodger hitter blasted a home run to take the lead. The other team battled hard and a double play ended their season. Bear with me. I'm almost there. The pitcher for the Blue Jays said after the game was over, he had lost the game for his team. Despite the team having a better batting average and probably more talent, it didn't matter. The Dodgers overcame adversity. Now, back to the word adversity. We have had some of our own adversity here in our own city. We have a mayor who not only does for herself but only thinks for herself.

We do in fact have a pitcher on our team, the mayor. And sadly, she is not throwing her best stuff. It's as if she refuses to listen to the manager, coaching staff, catcher, or any of her teammates, which is us. Baseball is a team sport and can only be played in one when all the players are doing their absolute best. Like Hoffman, the pitcher who mentioned he failed his team, I believe we are seeing the same thing right here, except our mayor will not take responsibility for her actions. In fact, she doubled down by calling the news media to yet again play a victim. As a mayor or pitcher, however you want to see that, the buck stops there. If either are not performing to their potential, we all know what happens. We see a commercial break on the television, but it's because we have another pitcher already warming up to ready ready to resume play. When that time comes, I want to remember the adversity we faced and how we were able to get through it. Before I finish, I do want to thank the staff members who join us at these meetings. Despite what you hear loudly from a crowd of people when you feel like you are at an away game, the silence of a bat hitting the ball might be the one thing that shuts them up. And you didn't have to do anything to to to get that. I implore you to keep having hope in our offense of our team rather than our defense or maybe just the pitcher. Lastly, I do want to acknowledge the other teammates on our team. Again, in baseball, there's outfielders and infielders doing their best to field balls that are put in play. Much like my

colleagues here, as hard as it is to play the game of baseball, it doesn't go without a few errors. I know we, my colleagues and I aren't perfect and we've probably made some mistakes in the past, but I can tell you from me that I will always fight for a win for this city. I'm sure my colleagues would agree. So, adversity, how long do we endure? How long do we leave the pitcher in? As long as you leave the pitcher in the game, this is the way I see it happening. As long as you leave the mayor in charge, this isn't going to end. Citizens, you are the manager of the baseball team here. Now, come take your pitcher out of the game so that way we can throw strikes and have more wins for this town so we can have a little bit of a healing process here. Our pitcher is negative on social media. She doesn't have Keen's best interest at heart. Let's move forward and get another picture to start warming up. It's time. Thank you for listening. [applause]

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Madam Mayor, would you like to say something real quick? Go ahead. I have to correct Mr. Smith about something. He sat there and said that you're the one that called the news. I had already said in my comments that I'm the one that contacted Channel 8. So, Mr. Smith, if you're going to say something, please say the truth and not lie. How can we believe anything you say when you lie right in front when the truth was just told to you? Well, you should be sitting down. You should Thank you, Mr. Cast. I can talk if I want to. Are you going to stop me? Mayor, can you control this crowd? Mr. Johnson, go ahead and take a seat. Mr. Castro, please take a seat. Thank you.

Can I make Can I make another comment, Miss M. Mayor? Go ahead. Um, so I was contacted by channel 8 as well and I asked that question and his response was the mayor's the one who called. So that's where I got my information. So thank you very much, sir. All right, let's move on. That's all I have for the public comments for tonight's meeting. Agenda item number four, reports, city manager comments. Mr. Mayor, mayor, if I could, I've got a hard meeting I've got to get to. Okay.

And so if I if we could go to executive now and then reconvene for the reports after executive, would that be okay with the council? I've got to leave at seven. All right, council. Do I have a motion to go ahead and convene into executive now? I'll make a motion to convene into executive. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor, raise your hand. All right, motion is carried. All right, we're going to reconvene or convene into executive session at this time and jump to agenda item number eight. I'm sorry.

Yeah, I know. Do I need to go ahead and read it? Okay, it is 6:43 p.m. We're going to be discussing Texas Government Code 551.071, consultation with an attorney, and [snorts] item number B, Texas Government 551.089. 089 security devices. All right. At 6:43 p.m., council is adjourning into executive session.

All right. It's city manager comments. Mr. Sides,

uh good evening um mayor, council, uh citizens, I do apologize. [snorts] I've been feeling a little under the weather, so uh I tried to save myself from medicine head and wrote down kind of an update. Um, so we're going to shift to uh couple action I want to say action items, but things we need to figure out, but also focus on some positive happy things. Um, quite literally um Don's birthday is actually today. So, [applause] and

and uh Carrie just had hers and Miss Holly is about to have hers. So, um just I love the staff and I love how this team celebrates um another year of life on this earth. The Lord blesses us with it. So, thank you staff. Um so, uh runoffs. So, uh, November 13th is when we will get the official results in by end of business day. That gives us either based on timelines, we either have to do the 13th, 14th or 17th, um, to canvas the vote and then we will go into early voting. So, the first thing I need to know is when what day would you like? Um, granted, understand we can the 14th, we can do it in the middle of the day, we can do it whenever, but on the 13th it would need to be after five because we won't potentially have the results in yet. So,

so and yeah, I'm okay with that. 13th, are you sorry, what date? The 14 13th. I was going to say the 14th is Friday. Banquet. Oh, yeah. The 13th is the banquet. Okay. So, this is going to be fun. I knew there was a reason. What time is the banquet start? Six o'clock. Oh, yeah. Can we canvas in 15 minutes? Well, what you have suggested is Monday, November 17 at 6, which is a Monday. Yeah, we can do as long as it's after six o'clock. I Okay. Or at 6. Let's just do that. That way it won't interfere with the banquet. It's not going to be on a Friday night because sun's going down early. Now Judy, can you be here? No.

No. So I mean I think that I have another city council meeting that evening as does Andy. But if you you can patch us in if you need us. It should be a 10-minute meeting. Just just keep your phone on. It should be a fast it should be a quick meeting. Okay. All right. So 17th we're all in agreeance 6 pm. That's fine. Okay. Okay. You good with that, B? I'm sorry to be November 17. It's a Monday,

right? Um, okay. So, moving on into early voting. Early voting will be December 1, uh, December 1st to the 5th from 8 to 5 and then December 8 and 9 from 7 to 7 with actual election day on Saturday, December 13th from 7 to 7. Now, the way it is right now, and props to Holly um for for for foreseeing this, um the way it sits right now is you would have to go to um the actual county elections office in Cleburn to cast your vote. we can designate city hall, but uh per going back and reviewing November 4th from last year, um there is and everyone understood there there is an additional cost for them to have to provide staff and everything. So the way it sits right now, of course, we don't have the final bill in from what just happened, but we do believe that we padded it enough for the election like we talked about during budget season. So, it could be a little under, could be a little over, but we're going to be pretty close. So, if council would like, we can designate, you know, um, our building for early voting as well if we want to help the citizens. [clears throat]

Well, I think if we don't, we're going to have a lot of people that don't vote. Yeah. Because they're not going to want to go to [clears throat] clean. They're going to want local. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to want to stay local to do their voting where they can be five minutes from the house. Mhm. They're also going to be very confused because they came here for voting but then there for the Yes. Yeah. It needs to be here. So, as long as you all are good with it, then we will reach out to the county and say we want to designate our community center again as an election spot. We'll see where the chips lie when Yeah. Yeah. Whatever the cost. Okay. All right. We all good there. Easy Troy. Easy Troy. [laughter] Yeah. Hopefully.

Starting to sound like Jurassic Park. No, no expense spared.

All right. Um, so [clears throat] updates again, quite a few positives. Um, the resilient uh community grant, that's the one that I'd been talking about since I got here a year ago. Um, we did receive the grant. We were hoping for 300. We got 250 in the sum of $250,000 which I'm very excited about this because this is also going to help us uh open doors to get additional grants. So, um with this uh there is no matching. This is just straight uh money given to the city. Um with this we're going to be able to create maps showing where all utilities and infrastructure lies uh lines are located. um you know between maps and dawn um we you know but without kind of some of that tribal knowledge um we are going to hit lines. It's it's happening now because it's not uh marked properly. Um they will create a road study that will also incorporate population and movement and growth to determine which roads are most critical ultimately creating an order of which roads need to be addressed first. um designate an official downtown helping secure downtown revitalization. And I will tell you we'll be moving um that's one of the things we're going to be talking about is the downtown revitalization grant. Um help with studies on staffing and what positions we'll need to add sooner than later. Um and then look at land development coming up with uh economic development, those types of things. So um I'm very excited about this grant. Um so we did get it. Congratulations to the city. Um, next thing is, uh, we recently had our SWAU, uh, service days, um, where the students take a day and go out and help the community. Um, they helped clean our fire station and painted fire hydrants. Um, they cleaned up, uh, the granite uh, Keen sign. Um, and uh, they also

repainted the base and the lettering so that it pops more. This is going to be a continuing project into next year. Dr. bunch was very excited to lead that charge from the university. Next year we want to add um some additional landscaping, some maybe some sprinklers, some better lighting, all those things just to beautify that corner up a little bit more. So um and then lastly, we had another group help paint a bunch of the equipment at our city park which enabled us to uh put swings and stuff out. I will say the tire swing is not up um but it is ordered. We actually had it. We have it. The problem was is that the the old system that was used for the old one doesn't work. So, we're just waiting on that to come. So, again, little projects that are getting done at, you know, and I really want to thank Southwestern Avenous University for um helping us. So, um city personnel update. Uh the fire department has promoted Mr. Bailey to captain. Um a wonderful young man. Um I think he will continue to do our city proud. um they've already hired a firefighter to kind of fill back fill that void. Um as well as we've been interviewing and hoping to extend um offers to three. So that'll once we get those three filled, we'll ship uh Chief Warner will shift his focus to a fire full-time fire marshal. Um and then let's see, uh Miss uh Mr. Don Martin has also had several interviews to uh add to the development team and hoping to extend an offer to that pretty soon. Um and then lastly, we have quite a few applicants for the marketing position for the city, which I think we all realize Orna was wonderful. And so getting a full-time person in here to help with videos and those types of things to promote our city um will be very beneficial. So I'm hoping to start interviews uh next week um along with Holly um and HR. So, um there's the personnel update from the new uh

positions um that you all so graciously uh gave us to add. I have an update here on pending items. Um do you want me to go over that? I mean, they're all in the works. I I I'll hit some of the the You can I asked I asked for a list of all the pending items. We had several things over the last two or three months we asked to be on the next agendas. I thought a lot of them were going to be on this meeting. They weren't. And so I was just asking for an update on how those were progressing. So go ahead and just touch on them briefly.

Okay. So the parking ordinance 7210 um uh that we the staff had requested to do that in December. So that'll be coming up soon. Um the review the impact fees that research is in progress. Um again we can't touch ours but I am gathering the data from other cities. Um and there are other impact fees that we can add. um you know road and storm drain impact fees and there are some things that um we'll try to pull that data. Um the master fee schedule um that's really finance team is really heavily needed for that. Um and right now they're very busy with trying to get the last two-year audits complete. We're in the middle of 24 and then hoping to have that done, you know, by January and then we're going to immediately go into 25 so we can be caught up um so we can do a mid-year uh budget review. Um let's see. Uh had really good meetings with Tex DOT um as far as the turn lanes. Uh I did meet with them um and uh showed them our concern and you know and and again almost being rear ended a couple times. I get it. So the problem is is that because it's also drainage, it's not just a simple, hey, let's widen the road and and and do it right. So they are going to do the study to see if they can't work that into their schedule. That's going to be a longer process. Um but I did talk about that turning lane because it backs all the way up to the street light um during rush hour. And um just initial review, they said it looks like the shoulder's wide enough. We should be able just to turn that into a turn lane. and I said that would be a great little win, something that's easy. So, um they're working um looking at that to see if they can make that happen quickly. Um and then um lastly, the other good thing that came out of the meeting is we will now be doing a um uh we also had a winter preparation

meeting this morning. So, um which is very nice having them here because we kind of get first priority. If they can't get out, then they can't get anywhere. Um and then we also uh will be setting up a bimonthly meeting between the city and text dot to start collaborating more. Um so that was also positive. Um uh as far as the financial report um we'll our plan is to present that in December. I do apologize but in reviewing how things used to be um organized versus how we are going to do it moving forward. The good news is is there's nothing in the red. Okay. The problem is is because grants and everything were just kind of labeled as miscellaneous income. It it overinflates and it's not accurate. And so we're Amir's has been working really hard to actually allocate to designated funds moving forward in the future because grants just make it look like we're doing a whole lot better than we really are. And we're thankful for those grants, but they need to be they they can't be miscellaneous income. And so she's kind of cleaning that up right now. Um so the good news is there's nothing that says, "Oh my goodness, we're in the red." Um but we just don't know exactly. We want to make sure we're reporting accurate accurate numbers. So um stay tuned for that. Um again, the marquee sign, a big thank you to Robert and his radian team as well as Cody Thornton. Um it's almost there. Uh right now we're just trying to run cable from the building to city hall so we can actually change. Right now you're just seeing a loop and that's kind of locally stored. We're trying to get it over to here so we can start utilizing it uh more. So, thank you to them. Um and and of course the Bboard as well. And then lastly um uh Starfest uh that was an event that just um it it reminds uh my

me and my staff um this is why we do what we do for the wonderful community. Uh big thank you to the Starfest committee, Carrie, uh city staff, uh the volunteers, um council, the vendors, and most of all, all the citizens for coming together um and and coming out and and of course, thank God for the wonderful weather. I don't think we could have asked for a better day. So, um yeah, and everyone went home safe. So, um a lot of positive. Um it's been a month since we've met, and I know my staff and I are all excited to to get back into a groove. Um my my whiteboard has a lot of things on it and I think we crossed off my team uh enabled me to cross off 90% of it and we're looking forward to doing that again. So

all right, any questions for Mr. Sides? No, I just wanted to add this. Uh I talked with Chief Werner and we estimated approximately 5,000 people there that night. Wow, it's a lot.

And and I love I you know, you always get nervous. People don't like change. Um and and it wasn't a I changed it just to change it. It was safety concerns and and again understanding that our town is really going to be growing. And so you always kind of had that in the back of your head like was this a good decision? Is anyone even going to show up? And and it was just I mean it took me all three hours just to weed through the crowd and meeting and and I will say I met a lot of citizens and the thing that excites me is it was amazing how many young families are moving into this town. and people that have only lived here a couple years and they're there with small kids and it was it was very exciting. It it it to me shows that a city that's going to grow and and so we're we're blessed by our citizens.

I'd like to throw a big thank you to mom out there for getting there at 12:00 and lining all the vendors and out where they're going to set up at and and for and for feeding me

because I was starving. I hadn't ate all day. So, thank you. Any other questions, Mr. Sides? Okay, moving on to agenda item number five. There are no public hearings tonight, so we can move on to agenda item number six, consent agenda. There are four items there for consideration. They are just the minutes for the last three special meetings and to approve a resolution um for a [clears throat] deferred compensation plan. Council, do you have any items that you would like to remove for further discussion? Okay. May I would like to remove item C. Okay. And then if there's no any other council that wants to remove any item.

Okay. Can I make a motion? Um, no. You just need to tell me. So, we're just going to remove item number 6 C. Anything else? Council, you want to remove for discussion? All right. That I need a motion to approve items 6 A, B, and D. I move that the council approve the consent agenda A, B, and D as presented. All right. Do we have a second? Easily.

All right. We have a motion on the floor to approve the consent agenda A, B, and D by Guta. Second by Easley. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous. Motion is carried. Easley, did you vote? Yes. Okay. It's unanimous. Motion is carried. And just so council is aware, Rob Foster had to leave. That's why he is no longer present with us. He left during executive session. Okay. So, we removed item number 6C for discussion. So, I'm going to open the door to Mr. Gwa to explain what questions you might have about that item. Yes. This is uh concerning the the meeting that we had about the tax rate. Mhm.

And the only problem I have is the way the interpretation of being present or absent because I know when we come we take a roll call when you are present like Raw Force left the building and the the the facility is gone. So he's absent from that time that he left, but before that time he was present all the way through up to the executive. So [snorts] being that it was a recess and we know in the past we have had 10 minutes recess, 15 minutes recess which is an normal thing in Keen without taking a vote to approve the recess. Will this be considered stepping out during the recess being absent?

Judah, you want to answer? So, no, you're not absent. Um, but the m the purpose of the minutes is to reflect what happened. So, we can't change the nature of the facts. So, is there something in the minutes that you think has been misrepresented? Yeah, because during the the vote there was there was a comment where they call the mayor to vote and we know the mayor doesn't normally vote unless there's a tie and there was Okay. So, what a statement that the mayor was absent.

What number what item on the minutes are you talking about? It was during the recorded. I don't have the Well, the whole the whole the whole minutes that we have in the packet represent what happened. So, if I may, he's referring to the line just above number eight where it says not present at vote. Am I correct, Thomas? Yeah. being counted absent. What does that mean? It says not not present. It doesn't say absence. Just not present.

That's not what I heard. That's what it says. Councilman. Yes. But on the recorded video, I think, which is also a record, there was a statement that I was absent. The mayor was absent and that was not correct. We were present but we did not participate. Yeah. But where do you do the minutes have the word absent? Where do you see that line? Oh, you're saying do the minutes have the word absent? Because you're approving the minutes that the city secretary has prepared. So I'm I'm not seeing.

Okay. I'm just saying for the record, there's a record out there which is a video that is recorded. Just for the record, we are approving the minute of the action that took place that was counting some of the council members are absent. I'm just trying to say for the record. I don't think it's right to say we were absent. We were present even though we Your minutes don't say that. I'm just saying I prove it so that we can talk about that incident.

No, we can't. We're here to This is approval of the minutes. If you have an objection or a correction to the minutes, this is your opportunity to point it out to the city secretary, but I don't see the word absent in the minutes. So, they're not here. So, it's not an issue because this is your record of the meeting. Yeah. By state law. Yes. And I agree with you. I'm just saying for the record, for the sake of

I know, but what I'm saying is you can't do that because it's not on the agenda to have a discussion about what happened in the September 25th meeting. What we're discussing is whether or not the minutes are correct. So, if you think the minutes are incorrect, then point out the word, tell us what the correction is. The city secretary will go back and review. But you're talking about something that's not reflected in the minutes. Okay, I have also another question. The mayor had a suggestion of uh updating some statement on the minutes.

So, mayor, do you have something in the minutes that is incorrect? I have a couple things that I'd like to see corrected on here if you would like if if you'd like me to present first. Mayor, go ahead, Mr. Smith. So, there's a line here that um where it's talking about the mayor asked for a motion uh and a second. [snorts] It doesn't say who. And so, I would like it to say who made that motion in the second. Troy, that's farther down. Y motion made by Foster, second by Chapman.

Okay, it it's there, but it's not in the wording in the in the actual paragraph. So, I guess that qualifies. The other thing that I'd be asking is uh there's a a line here that says the mayor recessed the meeting at 6:19 and I would ask that right after that be be said without council approval because council did not approve going to recess.

That's not something that's required to to state on a on amendments like that and it's not required to call a recess and have to have approval. Well, so since we're trying to approve the minutes, the proper thing to do is the city secretary is going to make a record of what you have to say and anybody else that has to say, she's going to go back and she's going to revise if necessary and then she'll bring the minutes back for the next meeting. Okay. Can we just table that then and have her do that after we give direction?

No, I mean I I would s that that it's on the agenda. You need to let the public know what the what the corrections are in the agenda. So this is the opportunity and everything that's been said so far, Holly's writing down. So she's going to go back after you tell her all the things that you think misrepresent what happened in the meeting. And you know, if if necessary, she'll make the revision if she finds that what you're saying is correct. And then she'll bring it back for you and you'll look at I mean, it might take a while for you guys to agree, but that's the way the process works.

That's okay. So I have some I have some more. I have I have a couple here. So, so I'd like that to be added without council approval. And then I'm I'm sure you can go back and find out the timeline, but there was no mention of Rob Foster calling the question in the beginning, which was also seconded. And so I'd like that added. And I know that happened at 5:31 on the on the meeting, but I don't know how that correlates to your timeline as far as So you'd have to go back and look at that one. Um the other one that I'd like to make sure that gets added is um after before discussion B I know it says not present for the vote mayor parish mayor promg and after that I would say neither the mayor neither mayor parish nor mayor prom returned to meeting and I'm asking that because I was looking at all of these meetings in in uh the special special um meeting that we had before that you actually recorded the fact that um Foster had left the meeting and came back and I believe it was Chapman who had left and come back. So I'd like that to be reflected as well. That's all I have.

[snorts]

All right. Anything else, council, on this item?

So, at this time, would I would would a table be necessary or she just needs to come back and bring us another one? Yeah. So, we're just So, we're going to give direction to the city secretary. Okay. To revising that. Okay.

Do I need a motion for that or just consensus? It It's never It never hurts to get a consensus. Okay. Okay. So, let's get a consensus by a show of hands, I guess, that we're going to give direction to the city secretary to make the changes that we just discussed. She's going to bring this back to us at a later date and then we're going to approve these minutes. Okay. I see some nodding. Okay. I'm going to go with your nodding. I have a consensus. I do want to clarify though that she's going to check to make sure what you're saying is correct. Yes. So the corrections will be reflected by whatever the recording. She'll verify it and bring it back to us for another read. Okay. And if you need clarification based on anything that I said, I can certainly sit down with you.

Well, I do have um when Mr. Foster called the question, we hadn't even had a motion yet. Um so I'm a little confused on how to record that. I'll help you. I'll look at it.

Okay. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Okay, agenda item number seven A, review, discuss, and give direction to the city manager on possible participation in applying for the downtown revitalization grant program. Mr. Sites.

Um, thank you. Yes. So, uh, this is another positive. Um, [clears throat] and basically, uh, as I'd mentioned in that grant that we just got that we part of one of the things that we can do is designate a downtown. So, a year ago, again, when I first got here, that was kind of this, well, what about here? What about there? All the things. Now, in order to apply for this grant, we do have to designate it downtown. The problem is there's all these regulations. So 80% of it has to be commercial and you know those types of things. So a lot of the areas we were looking at um wouldn't apply or it would take a massive movement to get them in compliance. So thankfully um [clears throat] the company we partner with for helping us find these grants had this wonderful um suggestion. Why not make where our city hall is downtown? Well, that makes sense when you look at a lot of other cities. So, um 80% around it is already commercial uh immediately. Um and the other thing is is by because of its correlation with the grant in proximity um it would enable us to take that million dollars and divide it into several areas of the city to actually help. So, case in point, because a city park is within close prox approximation, we can take $250,000 of this grant and put it towards things in the park, you know, and I know that there's a skate park that's been mentioned. There's um there's uh lighting for the the pathway in the evening, which again, we will present that at we presented to the Bboard um you know, but it's a it's a wonderful solar option. Um, the other [clears throat] cool thing about it is, uh, I'll tell you, I get a lot of citizens concerned with the development

of this community back here. And, and right now, because of the way the roads are designed, there's really kind of this you have to weave in over here. And we would actually because of the proximation be able to use 250,000 of it and actually put it to a road. So we could actually extend widen this road here and continue it into 2280. Um and then we can also use it for uh lighting um you know uh sidewalks that we can actually connect the park to the city so people can walk. Um so there there's a lot of things we can do with this and the match is only a 5% match. So for $50,000 we get a million. um because of our demographics, they feel like we have a really uh good opportunity to get this. And and just so you know too, we will also be reapplying for the sidewalk, the million-dollar sidewalk grant, but that can't happen for till middle of next year. But um anyway, so so kind of step one is uh between January and April, we apply for this grant. So we would like to start the process to apply for this if council. Alo directs.

Yes, please. I was hoping you'd say that. How much [clears throat] does it call to cost to apply for the grant? Are we paying a grant right or anything? No, they they would get paid on if Okay. So, really just we're out the 50,000. They're incentivized to try to get us to help us get the grant. Okay. So, they really have been great to work with and I would Yeah, I would suggest moving forward with it then. It sounds like it's a great deal. So, more good news of things we're trying to do. [clears throat] All right. All right. Council, do you want to give him direction to move forward? Did you give him direction? Okay. Everybody move forward. Give me a thumbs up. Let's do it. Okay.

Absolutely. Thank you, council.

All right. We've already done agenda item number eight, executive session, and number nine and can be skipped. So, now we're moving on to the last item. Agenda item number 10, request for future agenda items. And we've already got three listed here that you guys have. Is there anything else besides these three that you all would like to add to the next meeting, which will be December 4. We will have a special meeting on Monday, November 17, but this will be for December 4th's meeting, the regular meeting. Anything else to add? Yes, Mr. Easley. Yeah, in my talking to a lot of citizens, uh, they're concerned about parked cars on the road, high grass, condition of houses, code enforcement, what I'd like to talk about. Okay,

we have a code enforcement officer. Where we at with that, etc. Okay.

And Mr. Sites, what did you say about the street lamps? Is that coming along that project? Re researching that? Yeah. So, um, Don's actually, uh, again come up with, I think is a pretty cool solution, but we also want to get the hardwired, you know, kind of cost and stuff as well. Um, okay. You know, uh, so we're we're kind of working on that side of it right now. But that might not be ready for December 4. What do you think, Don? You need more time. You can be ready. Sure. Sure. All right. December four it is. All right. Street lampitude. Year older and a year wiser. If that if if well it should go to type B first. No, this this is for street lights in the city.

So we've already presented the items to Bboard but with the park. Okay. I thought I thought we were talking about the park. Sorry. Yeah, with that we've also looked at adding this this solution could be used kind of anywhere. Okay. Got it. Um but obviously there's a cost and so right now it's just conversation so that we can if we want it officially to try to work it into the budget for next year, we can. Okay. Anything else, council? All right. You ready to wrap up? Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to moved. A motion to adjurnn. We have a second. All right. Okay. We have a motion to adjurnn and a second. All in favor? All right. It's 7:58 p.m. Meeting is adjourned.