City Council - Regular Meeting

Seeing we have a quorum, I will call to order the City of Kemah City Council and Kemah Public Facilities Corporation Workshop Agenda, August 19th, 2026 at 3 p.m. We do not have anybody signed up to address council, so we will go right into the budget discussion items, which is August 19th, 2026. Finance. Hello.

Oh, I got to turn my mic on. I'm sorry. Okay. So here we are. We're getting to the finish line. Pretty excited about that. What you all have before you all is the city's and the KCDC's proposed budget. I mean, we can still alter and make changes if we need to. But, you know, we're making small strokes now instead of big slashes. So probably best just to say what's in our budget for the coming year. In the budget before you, there's a 3.5% COLA for employees, two new police vehicles at mid-year, a VPN solutions for police officers, SharePoint migration and move to Zara AD, I do not know what any of that is. Desktop replacement program, a plotter, and one new zero tower mower.

Cesar, how many laptop replacements is that? Do you know?

We estimate anywhere up to 10.

Okay.

average lifespan of laptops is give or take five years we want to be able to be on a five-year rotation so budget permitting we're hoping to be able to get ten if we're able to get more because of bulk pricing we will but just to be able to be rotate them out the ones that are obsolete we have some that are beyond end of life we have one other one that I think what was the battery was about to blow up or something on it and we had to just take it offline so They're also very helpful. Those that are a little bit older, we've used those for interns or volunteers when we have them. So they're still being used. It's just they're not used for regular day-to-day use. And also we went with laptop versus desktop because should we be on a training, be anywhere else and have to be mobile or a storm or God forbid something happens, closures, that we were able to stay remote and move.

And the plotter is the one that's for large items, correct?

Yes, ma'am. That would be to be able to print large items, a set of plans if needed, but also, more importantly, to be able to scan some of those big documents that we have.

Then KCDC. Oh, my gosh. KCDC. We have a $900,000 or 50% match grant for 57 Acre Park. Wanna talk slower? Also 57 Acre Park, Go Mesa grant for 2.6 million. Some of that's already been spent this year, so that number will get adjusted down a little bit. Once the new year starts. Just so everybody's aware, that's in and out.

We're just funding the project. We get reimbursed on the grant. So money's coming in. We're just plotting the money for the city. And then when the grant money is reimbursed, we get reimbursed. So that's not really a project per se. It's grant money that we're just fronting the money to. So it's in and out for us on the KCBC budget. It costs us a little bit of interest.

I just want to also comment on that. I explained this last night during KCDC, but I feel the need to do it here as well. That amount is going to be fluctuated from one year to the next. What does that mean? We're putting a full amount of 2.6 on there because depending on how much is spent this year versus next year. We know that there's going to be some amount that's going to be spent this year, so that amount is going to change or drop, correct? So next year's budget, it will be whatever we would have spent up until a certain point deducted from that 2.6 because we would like to get it done in this fiscal year, but it is hard slicing to try to get $2.6 million worth of work done within this next fiscal year. So there's a good chance that that will be a carry forward until we get the project completed. Does that make sense to everybody as far as accounting-wise? Okay. Thank you.

Cesar, correct me if I'm wrong, we approved the digital sign project last night, or declared it as a project?

We declared it as a project, but it has to go through the 60-day comment period.

Yeah, I get it, but he says it's in there already for 100 grand.

It is tentatively in there as a placeholder, but not out of CIP. One of the tables we had last night that we showed took the possibility of it coming out of either beautification or business retention.

just put as a placeholder because last night we put 182.4 in the boat ramp and we only have to come up with 45.6 and we actually had an extra hundred thousand dollars so i just moved it over to the digital sign project just since it's a project so to be in budgets we have to do a budget amendment if we proceed forward correct and that's just for one one side of the actually it should be both sides and then there's going to be some back-end work that will do some creative work. So this is actually just for the physical signs as anticipated. Prices of course can change.

One of the challenges we have now is we have to go change the message board over there. We have to actually go over there and use a computer that is hardwired into the machine. So we have no remote access for changing it. That laptop is about to become obsolete. That software cannot be taken off of that laptop. So we're trying to creatively find a way to do that. That's why it's a little bit more challenging for us to make changes to that message board.

And then the Placer AI virtual assistant and then a 3.5% increase to the management fees for management fees and for the public work employee transfer.

So there was a consideration made for the increase in the management fees, although this did not cover the full amount that was requested, KCDC did take into consideration amount roughly about $5,000. well three and a half percent three thousand five hundred was on public works but if you go down the fifty something thousand dollars below it's half of that so okay the thirty five hundred plus seventeen fifty rough math it's close to five thousand yeah so it's fifty two fifty three hundred dollars give or take all right thank you

And that's the highlights I got for what's in the budget. I don't know if... Got a couple questions.

Sweet. Let's start with 01-45-15. Are you in the real budget or KCDC budget? Real budget. What was that number again? 01-45-15, open records request. We're going from 500 to 5,000. I don't know if that's a typo. I don't know that we're going to... I'd say $500 is not enough, but $5,000 is the right number.

Is it revenue? Yeah, revenue. We've had an increase in open record requests.

I'm just trying to— You think we're at $1,200, and you think we're going to do another $3,800 on top of that? That doesn't make sense to me.

I might be a little high on that number.

I would just question that number. What's the reasonable number we agreed to drop that to? That one right there, $20,000 of that is from the codification from like two years ago, and then the $50,000 from that one-time audit payment from sales tax to make the $70,216. but that won't be available next year, so we're gonna have to make up, or somebody's gonna have to make up $75,000 next year because that won't be available.

Oh, we're doing that to pay for the one-time items like the equipment for the police car, something like that.

And you said it was from the codification and then the one-time fee?

Remember, we got that $250,000 one-time audit, and I took $50,000 from that. That's going to go into the general fund. Basically, he's pulling $50,000 from that and put it into some of the CIP items for the year.

So we're pulling from general fund to balance the budget. Correct. I like that. And then I had the street sweeper. I would have budgeted for two years in a row, and neither here we've done any street sweeping in our roads with a portable. So what's the status on that? And we're not budgeting again this year. So are we going to try to do it before the end of September?

You should see some of that work getting done before the end of the year.

I guess go to hot funds would be my other question. 045108150. Hema Visitor Center maintenance. What's the page number?

228.

Okay. If we're taking back over possession of that building and then leasing it out to a third party, are we going to have that $35,000 Hickey, or will that be part of the lease when we lease it out to somebody new? It's just a question that we plan to address before we put the lease on fire. Who's responsible for maintenance of that building?

I guess it could be negotiable at that time. I mean, it depends on who comes in here to do it. The general maintenance, remember, since, again, I wasn't here when the original lease was signed, but I'm assuming because Electric and water is also necessary for the bathroom that is accompanying the building that is for public use. That's probably why the reason that the city decided to pay for that. I'm assuming it was back ended into the rent. I don't know, I can't speak to that. But that's probably the reason why that was. One thing we've learned now since is there is the opportunity to, possibly sublease or to lease some of that space separately since there is more than one spot uh should whatever come in the future by doing that uh so it's going to be up to whatever whatever new tenant wants to take that and does that come out of the city budget because now that we're going to take it out of a visitor center it's really not a hot fund anymore so

true true accounting purposes that should not be there anymore so if we're going to leave 35 000 in maintenance it needs to be flipped over if we're not going to make it a visitor center just be questions to be had i mean sure that's not good accounting practice no i i concur i think that's a

Fair statement. If this body wants to make that move now, preemptively, before we figure out what's going on with that item, it's completely this body's call and we'll adjust accordingly. That's simply us reducing hot by $35,000 and increasing it.

Taking consideration, if we're going to put it out for a rental factor, we need to figure out what that cost is because we know now, I guess, we've been subleasing in essence for... know what that cost is over the last three years so we should have some sort of estimate that we can figure that into the lease base so correct oh on that i could argue on on leaving the 35 in this year because i mean we don't really know what shape it's in we know we know it was a good shape legally if it's not a visitor center can you take it out hot funds to fix the building that's not yeah no but if it's vacated properly before the end of this fiscal year you could argue yes

because it did occur during this fiscal year, but next year, you're right, the argument would be that if it's not being used as one at that time, however.

And whoever goes in there might put a visitor center, so I'm not saying that might not be the case. I'm just saying we don't know who the tenant's going to be.

Not just that, the argument could also be that if it happens next fiscal year, prior to a new tenant coming in, the argument would be that the repairs were made for any use, wear, and tear that would have occurred while the center was a visitor center. So there's that argument, too. But we will go at the will of this body. So you guys let us know how you want to handle that. No problem whatsoever. The last thing I want to do is be in trouble with HOT.

Did everybody submit all the events or contractors that

they all submit the stuff they're supposed to have submitted already so we can is this for the for the hot applications yes that'll be for the next meeting but yes they have already come in um we are sorting them and putting them together to bring them for you we didn't want to bombard you with another workshop today um i'd like to actually since we're on that subject if it's a freedom to ask is how do you want to handle that we've handled that in different ways in previous years there's been a committee there's been uh suggestions members of the public there's been to this board do it how do we want to handle the allocation of hot because if it's going to be a workshop we need to make sure that we probably note that for the next meeting prior to the next meeting

I can just inject with the phone call that I got from the Patels at the Marriott, and they're very happy with the results from the fireworks. So I can just report that back because that came straight from the owner. So we were having a conversation today, and he was very impressed with the results of the fireworks show over the boardwalk on Friday nights. Just so you know.

that's the only feedback i've gotten from any i mean i think just bring us the list and we can work through so you want to do it as part of the meeting i would just do it or you want to do it as a workshop it's your call i think at this point in time it'd be really hard to get a committee going we always you have to go and ask them they have to accept you have to then try to find one day that all of them can meet on i think we're beyond that now we've done it with the a city administrator and employees as a committee and we've done it as council as the committee so it so it sounds like next meeting i think internally is better at this point next meeting okay and would you like to do it as part of the meeting or as a workshop prior to the meeting let's just do it during the meeting and everybody be sure that they get their ideas before they walk in here don't think a plan and we'll make sure we have all the applications out to everybody for review

Comment, question? Year to date. And I realize this is back a little bit. This may only be till June, but $17,500. I know, and I won't mention their names, for a fact of an applicant that was awarded hot funds. But again, staff is stretched out, but they didn't get their money. oh four five ten eight five five three i'm still on hot funds so what you're saying is that there was a group that was awarded funding and have they submitted an application to get reimbursed with the proper backup documentation i think that when they received it that they weren't given, because this is migrated over, as the mayor said, over different committees or different entities doing it. So they may not have had all the wherewithal sorry in terms of what was needed so it's just if it should be followed up for the next because we're at the end of the year well there's actually so time i'm saying going forward for instance if you find maybe an applicant because i believe the period is over with now yeah it was august 1st so if you find an applicant that you noticed from last year and you didn't get anything back

bear that in mind i will i will ask i think the money that's sitting out there is outlaw challenge that we paid and then we got the money back because they canceled there there was one of those situations where they canceled the event we asked for the money back but what we'll do in essence to not tell anybody who it is or whoever it might be we'll do an audit of everybody that was awarded everybody that was submitted for payment and then we will counter that with minus the one event that was canceled uh who may or may not have turned in their paperwork so we can follow up

Ryan, can you make a note of that?

Jerry, could you help me have Devin follow up on that, please? Sorry.

Kudos on the...

I'm sorry.

And I'll be very brief. Kudos on putting in the money next fiscal year for pump maintenance here. And I'm hoping that because we had $20,000, and what I'm talking about, I do need to identify the line, so I apologize. 015308220 under Public Works.

What's the page number in the bottom right-hand corner?

222. So we still have $20,000 that was budgeted, and I realize it just goes over to general funds in the next year, but in essence that's $40,000 that can be used, and will there be any opportunities to use this year's allocation?

Some of that will be utilized before the end of the year or maybe in pending invoices that haven't been processed.

All right.

So I expect that line item to be at zero before the end of the year or close to it.

And then the other thing is, I just need examples of what this is. I'm still on the same page, 222-0153-08325. Can you give me an idea of what you're talking about when you're saying rental and services? Again, I realize this isn't all the way up to date, but that's a 90%. We're still budgeting 90%.

Yes. I will go ahead and tell you, actually, perfect example. Right now there is a piece of equipment sitting at 57 Acre Park. We had to rent for those heavy trees. It's a 12,000 to 16,000 pound forklift to be able to take those trees down. That's out there right now. That hasn't been taken out of the account. Every year towards the end of summer, we rent a lift to make sure we can trim some of the trees before the winter comes so they have enough time to strengthen themselves beforehand. Those are the type of expenses that normally come out of there.

But with that new equipment, hopefully we won't have to rent a lift.

No, no. The new equipment is the aspen, which is to cut certain berms. We can't use that to trim palm trees and things of that nature. So those are slightly different. Also, if there's any facade improvement that needs to happen under here, fixing of the net, For example, changing of light bulbs when we have to do them in here. As you can see, there's a couple that are in here. We can't use any type of equipment. We need a lift to be able to safely get somebody up there to make those changes.

Okay, and the last one on this one, again, same page. I just need an example of 015308215, stormwater management program. Can you give me some just...

two or three at most items that make up the stormwater management yes thank you so stormwater management is every city needs to follow a ms4 permit an ms4 permit essentially making sure that you're maintaining what your stormwater system is in this case The city uses a engineering company by the name of SPI who comes out and does certain engineering work that have to happen. So that's checking our outfalls, that's making sure that we're maintaining our storm water, things that we're having drains covered and so forth of that. So if I'm not mistaken, again, I don't have where I thought I'd go in there and check right now. But if I had to guess, most of those things in there are going to be tied towards that type of expense. Another thing that we used out of that is if you remember the decals that we had donated for the adopted drain program, we may have taken some of the glue that we purchased, some of the glue to patch those on that type of thing, because it's tied to stormwater event. That can also be anything to do anything that we're trying to promote stormwater management, whether it is Gloves, rakes, anything else of that nature that we may need. Usually we take that out of maintenance, but if need be, that's another line that we can take that from. But that is specific to making sure we're aligned with our MS4 permit needs.

This next one I have is actually for Chief 2224. I'm hoping that the K-9 expense, is he going to be trained to be a drug dog too?

That's what he does. Actually, the rest of these have been.

But it's just it jumped. And I'm not disputing the cost. Okay. On page 224, 01540-7600. Okay. So we spent about $8,000. And I realize you don't have all your maybe invoices, but it's up to $25,000 next year.

What was the account number again?

I'm saying for 2025.

Yeah, we budgeted 25, and I think it was mainly for, we got that from other agencies who have canines, and they have a lot of vet bills, and we've been very lucky with Tyson.

We didn't have to do room and board. We didn't have to do any vet bills. We didn't have to cover anybody for going on vacation.

If you go downtown and take some vacation, we can't.

Consider that almost like an insurance line item in case we need it. For the record, canines are much cheaper than adult officers. Although we have to feed them, they're definitely way cheaper.

So what I got is reduce maybe that open records request revenue a little bit and then move that 35K out of HOT.

I'm not saying move it. I'm just saying we're addressing because it's not going to be a business and it's not qualified. Yeah. But maybe we should. I mean, I don't know. It's just a red flag we need to put up there so we know when to appropriate funds.

I have no argument with that. I'm also... very hopeful that we won't have to use that full amount. I think that's budgeted for catastrophic type situation, holes in the walls, missing units, whatever the case is. I firmly believe we won't have that problem this year, but then again, that's another one of those things you have to kind of budget for just in case. You don't have to pull it from contingency, but if you prefer, we can just eliminate it and God forbid something does happen, we can pull it out of reserves if that's what we have to do. But that is whatever the will of this board would be. We try to plan to be conservative That's a direction that we've been given budgetarily year after year. So that's why we approach that with that. If nothing else, I do wanna take a point of personal privilege. And I'd like to shout out Ryan here for a moment, if I can. Last year, we set out on a goal to try to calculate. I think he and I are both competitive spirits and we challenge ourselves to try to calculate to be within a certain amount to get us where we're going. Our goal that we set out and we kind of had direction from council most part was, let's see what we could do. Our internal goal was if we could make this happen, we thought that collectively we could try to get to a reduction of one penny from last year to this year. Our goal was to be at 19 flat. And with the projection and everything else that we did, with the collection rates and everything else, again, you're talking about projecting 16 months in advance. The numbers that Ryan calculated came up within $651. on a seven million dollar budget and I want to just personally on record thank you for that because that's pretty damn good and I don't even use curse words so that is something that I wanted to say here on the record that that is a kudos to you testament to your hard work and to the fact that you're able to calculate and have that so much so that instead of being at 19 flat we wanted to commit to the full penny so we dropped at another point me get my decimals right zero zero zero one to get it to a full one penny drop which would have been from last year that was our commitment we wanted to be at 19 flats we could have a nice flat number for for clerical reasons, but we also want to be committed to a full one cent drop. So that's what the number is now. So Ryan will be known as Mr. 651 for the next year. So when you see him, please greet him as such. But I want to say that testament to him and his hard work in that case. That's why you have a balanced budget before you. That's why you have a budget that is one whole cent lower than last year. We don't control the assessments. We have no control over that. Our control is to drive this city as efficiently as possible through fiscal responsibility, and I think the budget before you does that, and we're setting ourselves up in a way, hopefully from year after year, to continue to drive that, if that's still this council's will. So if nothing else, I have nothing else. Ryan, have you got something else?

That's all I got.

Council, we are open to any other changes you'd like, but if you say differently, this is the budget we expect to present to you at first reading at the September 2nd meeting.

Does anyone have any questions or comments?

Either Ryan's really good or you guys are really tired.

No, I'd like to say thank you because it's the first time I have actually went through a budget cycle where I got to deal with the same people. So it was very enjoyable to actually deal with the same people through a budget cycle. So much appreciated. Kudos because, I mean, it made it a lot easier and not having to recreate the wheel and having conversations about the same things that I had three years prior. So it was very nice to not worry about the budget as much. Good job.

If there's anything that we learned from the retreat earlier, I wrote down the C's. It was communication, cohesiveness, continuity, and connection. So I think you hit on communication, continuity, and cohesiveness, and the fact that we've all stayed connected through the past year. I think that kind of sums up why you have the budget you do in front of you today.

we aim to make you guys and the residents of keema proud and we're hoping this budget represents it thank you all for the hard work i know each section of every department every department every department plays a role i guess if there's no more comments or questions we'll adjourn until four at 329.