City Council - Regular Meeting

City of Longview City Council meeting. We are always excited to have a full chamber of folks so thank you guys all for being with us tonight. The first thing we will do is our invocation and pledge and that will be led by Sharona Sunshine Jackson and Christina Viramontes. If you guys will join us at the podium and everyone please rise.

Good evening everyone. May I ask everyone to bow your heads for a word of prayer? Good evening, Lord. We thank you so much for waking each and every single one of us up this morning, Lord. Lord, we thank you for allowing us to be able to assemble here in the city hall today. Lord, I thank you for every single person that is involved in our Longview City government, our Longview City Council, our Longview City Masterial staff, our Longview City, anything that's involved. Lord, I thank you for each and every single person that's here. Lord, we lift up Each and every single person that is going to be on this forum today, Lord, we ask that each person come here with an open heart and an open mind in order for your will to be done in each and every single event, each and every single committee, each and every single task force, and everything else that's involved in our wonderful city and our community of Gregg County. Lord, I just thank you for all that you're doing in each and every single one of our lives. In Jesus' name shall we pray. Amen. Amen.

Alright, everybody put your hand over your heart.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

Thank you guys both so much. Next on the agenda is our citizen comment. I do not have any speaker cards. Are there any speakers that would like to speak and then fill out a card after speaking? Seeing none, I will move on to our first presentation item, and that is recognition of participants graduating our Longview InView program. I'm gonna ask you guys to join me in just a second, but I do wanna talk about InView. This is our second graduating class. Richard Yakeley says you're the best class so far. And for those that are not familiar with it, this is a 10-week program. Oh, sorry, Chriselda was in the first class. But, yeah, anyway, this is a 10-week class where the city invites our residents to get to know Longview and how it runs better. So each... class. They are meeting with the director of parks, our chief of police, our chief of fire. They're getting to know our public works, who I think Debbie Fontaine now refers to as the heroes of Longview, learning what our city employees are doing, building an appreciation for them, what they do at day in and day out and helping us spread the word about the great job that they're doing. So Thank you guys for taking the time to do that. It's an investment in your community. And we know that you will help us represent that class well and recruit people in the future. So if you guys will come on up, we're going to take a photo together. And Richard and Roland, come on up too.

Years from now, it's to be indistinguishable. This is not the time to be creative. If you're a formal person, you can start acting. There you go. Are you ready?

If you can't see Quade, you can't see you.

Three, two, one, in view. There we go, one, two, three. Thank you. Bye, Larry. You're one man. No, but two men started and one finished.

No, he does not. Mr. Allen asked if the class was limited to females. It is not. Men are welcome to apply. Presentation B, presentation of recommendations from the Mental Health Task Force, Dr. Tracy Hicks. And if you were a member of that task force, I know there's several folks here tonight, would you please stand so we could thank you for your time spent? Stand on up. Just as a refresher, last year we had several task forces put together, and one was mental health, and they've come back at different times and reported to council on what their recommendations are. So, Dr. Hicks, thank you so much for being here tonight, and thank you for everyone for spending time and all of your talents in coming up with recommendations. So we're excited to hear from you.

All right. Well, thank you again. Thank you for your time. And again, thank you to a wonderful team. It was great working with them. It's such an honor. So I just want to say good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, city council members and community partners. So again, I am Dr. Tracy Hicks. I am a dual certified nurse practitioner in family practice and mental health. I have a practice that I started here in 2015 and in 2020 established a nonprofit and received funding from SAMHSA for planning, development and implementation of a community behavioral health center. So when I was asked to do this, it was a no-brainer. And again, I really enjoyed working with the folks that I worked with. Thank you for the opportunity to share the work of the Mental Health Task Force. It has truly been an honor to collaborate with dedicated stakeholders across the community who care deeply about improving access to mental health services for those we serve. Mental health impacts every aspect of a thriving community. Our families, our schools, workforce, the healthcare system, and public safety. So as a task force, our goal has been to thoughtfully assess opportunities, identify gaps, and develop practical, actionable recommendations that strengthen access, coordination, and outcomes for individuals in need. So this evening, we will briefly share several priority recommendations centered on improving continuity of care, strengthening data-informed decision-making, enhancing workforce capacity, and increasing collaboration across systems. particularly for some of our most vulnerable and justice-involved populations. We recognize that there is no single solution to mental health challenges. However, through collaboration, innovation, and intentional investment, we believe meaningful progress is possible. We appreciate your leadership, your partnership, and commitment to the wellbeing of our community. So I will start. So this is our presentation. So priority recommendations to improve access to mental health services. so the first thing the first one of our recommendations was access to the odyssey platform so this was to establish access to the platform to identify and track incarcerated individuals in need of mental health services that for what is the reason for this what is the rationale so it enables real-time identification of improved coordination and proactive intervention for individuals within the justice system So what do we expect from this? We want to strengthen jail diversion efforts. We want to improve continuity of care upon reentry. We want to reduce recidivism related to untreated mental health needs. I know this personally and professionally. So second point, data collection and system level analysis. We know that data informs the work that we do, so we recommend that we implement a coordinated data strategy to capture the number of individuals currently receiving services and those needing services but not connected. That's very important. And what is the rationale for this? Why do we want to do this? Limited visibility into the demand versus capacity. That contributes to ongoing service gaps. So what do we expect from this? So we want to support data-driven decision-making, improve resource allocation, and establish measurable outcomes for system improvement. We know when we apply for funding and things like that, we need the data to drive that work and understand what the need is. And then third, workforce and staffing capacity. We know that is a big issue. It's not an easy task. But again, these are recommendations and it takes all of us, teamwork makes the dream work. So we want to address workforce shortages impacting access to care through recruitment, retention, and cross-sector staffing models. So that means working across organizations to get the work done. So what is the rationale? Staffing limitations remain a primary barrier to timely access, particularly for crisis and same-day services. So what do we expect from this impact? Expanding service capacity, reducing delays in care, and enhancing system responsiveness. So these are our priority recommendations. And again, I want to thank everyone for your time and attention.

You open to questions, Dr. Hicks? Thank you for your presentation.

Sure. On the incarceration, are you talking about Gregg County, or could you be a little more specific on that, on your first statement?

Yes, we're talking about Gregg County.

Gregg County. Okay. Thank you. I guess you work with the Commissioner's Court then. Yes. Gregg County. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah.

Go ahead, Derek.

So you mentioned the end of data collection and then the shortage of workers in the recruitment and retention.

Does the data give you indications of the reasoning, some of the reasons behind you get feedback as far as the cause that we're, as far as the lack of a shortage of workers? Yes.

So, yes. Again, like I said, data drives the information that we need to get the work done. Yes, absolutely.

All right. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you, Dr. Hicks. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, team. Appreciate you guys very much. Again, thank you to the team. It was great. Next on our agenda is presentation item C. That's a presentation regarding the strategic housing study plan results. Mr. Dietrich Johnson, our director of community services, as well as the Matric Design Group that I imagine you'll introduce.

Thank you. Mayor, council, city manager, We're happy to have the representatives from the Matrix organization here to give us the results of our housing survey and strategic plan. This actually started, it's kind of amazing, in April 2025. So here we are with the results and before they come, I would like to say thank you to the community for your outstanding response to the survey. I think I've chatted with the representatives and they've shared with me that this has been a high level of participation from the community that they've ever seen. So at this time, I present to you our matrix representatives.

Welcome, guys. Thank you so much. We are excited to be here. We'll start by introducing ourselves and then go into more of the detail about the plan. Maybe.

Here we go.

I am Jennifer Todd Goins. I'm the director of planning at Matrix Design Group. I serve as the basically principal in charge of projects, helping to provide strategic guidance throughout the project process. I have been in community planning and economic development for almost 20 years, doing housing work, economic development, and community planning across the country. As you heard earlier, this project had an amazing amount of community involvement, which always helps to validate the data research that we do in order to give you the best recommendations possible. And with that, I'll pass the baton to Christian.

Good evening, all. My name is Christian Karen. I serve as the research lead at Matrix, where I head our quantitative research and data science group. I served as the project manager for this project. Just a little bit about my background. So I've been with Matrix for about four years now. Prior to joining the firm, I completed my PhD in political science at UNC Chapel Hill where I focused on state and local government as well as quantitative methods. And I've led a number of projects similar in scope to this one since joining the firm. So it's a pleasure to be here this evening with you all.

A quick word about Matrix. There we go. So our firm was founded in Colorado in 1999. We have four offices across the country, including our newest one in San Antonio. We are 100% employee-owned. We have over 200 employees, which allows us to do a lot of the work in-house for projects such as this. You very much get the integrated team of data scientists, of planners, of GIS specialists who are able to produce the work for this initiative. And we do have extensive housing experience across the U.S., communities across the urban-rural continuum and from coast to coast. We love this work. It's very interesting. It's very meaningful. And I think it does a lot to help communities move in the direction that they would like to go. A little bit about the background. So as you heard, we began this study in April of 2025. The goal was to guide future housing development, preservation, and affordability. In order to know where you want to go, you kind of need to understand where you are today. So we did quite a bit of data analysis, looking at demographic, economic, and housing trends, understanding, again, where we are now, what does the market say is happening in terms of population growth, in terms of housing development, and then also identifying some of the key issues of analysis here. of course, is housing cost burden. Christian will talk more about this later. What does that mean? What does it look like? Overcrowding housing quality and barriers to affordable housing developments. The plan outlines our data-driven policy recommendations for you, includes some targeted housing initiatives and implementation strategies to, again, help you take this data and move it into action. With that, I will hand it off to Christian.

Great, thanks Jen. So I'm going to begin by talking a little bit about the data sources and the methods that we use for this project. So we really sought to utilize a wide array of sources. High quality sources of demographic, housing, and economic data. You know, one of our core sources was the five-year version of the American Community Survey, which is a product of the US Census Bureau. At the time we began this project, The most recent version was the 2023 five year version. We recognize that of course the housing market has changed quite a bit since then. So we made sure to supplement that data source with more current market data that spans both the rental and the for sale market from sources like Zillow and Redfin. We also, made sure to take a really deep dive into the county level parcel data, which really provides key insight into factors like housing quality. Next, we had a really robust campaign of community engagement. There were three surveys that were put out by the city. for this project. We also held an open house to solicit feedback from residents and stakeholders in the summer of 2025. And finally, to inform really the strategic planning piece, we made sure to take a look into things like zoning and development standards, as well as national best practices. All right, so I'm gonna begin by talking a little bit about the demographic profile of the city of Longview. What we noticed in looking at the data is that the population growth in recent years has been somewhat modest, but the city continues to grow. In 2024, there were close to 84,000 residents in Longview. But a clear trend that we're also seeing is that the population is aging. So the age of the median resident in the town has increased a little bit in recent years. And what we're also seeing is that residents over the age of 65 now make up around 16% of the population, right? And this is a trend we're seeing not just in Longview and even not just in Texas, right? It's a national trend that's really being driven by factors like declining birth rates, right? What we also saw is that rates of disability tend to be lower than county level and statewide levels. In looking at the data, 18% or so of residents report a disability that impacts their ability to walk, for example, which is still nearly one in five residents, right, but compared to the county and statewide levels, that's actually on the lower side. A key trend we also noted is that the size of the average household in the city has fallen slightly in recent years. And this is, of course, linked to the fact that the population is aging and people are generally having fewer children than they did in the past, right? And this has implications for the types of housing product that are going to be in demand going forward, right? When you have smaller households, you're also gonna need more smaller housing units to really be able to meet those price points. In looking at the 10 year split of households, 53% or so of households report owning their homes, the other 47% rent. All right, now I'm gonna talk a little about the economic trends that we're seeing. So the most recent data showed that the median household income was just over $62,000. The traditional rule is that housing costs should account for no more than 30% of your income, right? At an income of around $62,000, the maximum housing cost that is affordable is around $1,563 a month, right? We also noted that income per capita throughout the city is around $33,000 just for some further context. A key finding that we also noticed was that there is quite a large income gap between homeowners and renters. The median owner occupied household has an income of over $86,000, whereas the median renter earns just under $45,000 a year. And at these income levels, at an income of around $45,000, the most one can afford to pay in monthly rent is just over $1,000. For the typical homeowner, max housing cost should be just over $2,000. Next, we found that around 18% of residents live in poverty. And just for some additional context, the poverty line for a family of four is around $31,000, right? Next, we also took a look at reliance on the SSI program. which covers payments for the elderly, the blind, for certain people with disabilities. In the city around 6.4 of residents rely on this program, which is a bit higher than the statewide rate. In terms of the employment base, the most popular sectors really are education and healthcare, followed by retail trade. The unemployment rate is generally healthy throughout the city. It's slightly higher than statewide levels. But, you know, when at the time we pulled the data the rate in the city was generally between around four and five percent um and last we noted that uh the number of folks who commute into long view from elsewhere to work which is around 36 000 people that's nearly double the number of folks who uh live in the city but commute elsewhere for work. Next I'm going to talk a little bit about the composition of the housing stock. Longview's housing stock currently consists of around 36,000 total housing units. Sixty-one percent of those are single-family detached homes. But the other types of products, tend to be concentrated more so in the rental market, right? In the owner stock, I think it's around 94% of homes are actually single family detached homes, right? In terms of housing stock age, the median home was built in 1979, and rentals are generally slightly newer than owned units throughout the city. The overall vacancy rate, while healthy at around 11%, kind of masks, you know, a challenge that the city faces, which is that, you know, Just about over 1 third of those vacant units were listed for sale or for rent. So what that implies is around 2 thirds of the city's vacancies were actually held off market. And there are a variety of reasons that that could be the case. It could be a foreclosed unit. It could be a unit that is under repair. It could be a unit, for example, that is rented, but someone's not currently living there. So there are many reasons for that. But I think the main point here is that there tends to be a perception that, oh, if a unit's vacant, that means that it's ready to be rented or sold. That's not necessarily always the case. In looking at the data on the number of units that were authorized to be built, we noticed that in 2022, there was really a huge spike in building with about 402 units being green lit for construction. In recent years, that number has dipped a little bit. Oops, I forgot. One encouraging sign that we found in the data is that the rates of substandard housing throughout the city tend to be relatively low. So incomplete kitchens tend to be present in around three units per 1,000. So by that I mean this might be a kitchen that, for example, lacks a stove or a fridge. whereas the number of units with incomplete plumbing that rate is around five units per 1000 these might be homes you know that lack a shower or that lack you know hot or cold water for example all right now I'm going to move into talking to giving a more detailed look at the housing market So as you can see on the right, we have a graph that plots sort of the median home sale price over time. And what you'll see, which is not too much of a surprise, is that during the pandemic, there was a dramatic spike. Prices have sort of leveled off a bit, you know, over the last couple of years. And what we did is we basically ran a statistical model that forecasts in the long-term future, what do we think the median home price will be in Longview if you keep the values in constant 20, $25. And we think that home prices over the long term will continue to rise, though not at the rate that they did, say, from 2020 to 2022. We also looked at data on the median costs that homeowners pay each month for their housing. And just to give some context, these numbers, they pertain – to all existing owners, not just those who recently purchased their homes or would like to purchase a home in the future. And we learned that the median cost for a homeowner with a mortgage is just under $1,500. For one without a mortgage, they're generally paying under $600 a month for things like property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. In looking at the renting market, in the rental market, the typical asking rent is around $1,200 per month, but of course that varies quite a bit depending on unit size, right? If one is looking to rent a larger single family home, those costs could easily exceed $2,000 monthly. What we also found in looking at the data is that renters are disproportionately impacted by cost burden. So the traditional definition of cost burden that's used is a household is considered cost burdened if they're spending between 30 to 50 percent of their monthly income on rent. They're considered to be severely cost burdened if they're spending half or more of their income on rent. And it turns out that around 26% of renters are spending between 30% and 50% of income on rent, and 25% are spending more than half of their income on rent, right, which leaves little money left over at the end of the month for essentials like, you know, food, medicine, childcare, et cetera. In terms of homeowners with a mortgage, rates of cost burden are generally much lower. So you have around 13% of those households that are spending 30% to 50% of their incomes on monthly ownership costs, and around 6% are spending half or more. Rates of overcrowding are relatively low, but it's still a problem to pay attention to. So just for some context, the traditional definition of overcrowding is, um, if a household has, you know, more than one person per room in it, uh, and in long view about, uh, 2.3% of households have between one and 1.5 people per room and around 1% of households have more than that, right? So 1.5 people per room or more. All right, now I'm gonna talk a little bit about housing needs. So for this project, we were able to sort of run a statistical model looking at that compare householder rates by age from previous years to what they are now. And the point of this analysis was sort of to estimate the number of households that are missing from people doubling up, right? from children who are perhaps over the age of 18 who continue to live with parents because they can't afford their own housing for people who live with roommates just because of because housing costs are currently high but would otherwise form their own household if the market were more in their favor, right? So that was the purpose of this model. The estimates also take into account the number of units to reach vacancy rates that are healthy, specifically as it pertains to the rental and the ownership market. What this analysis does is it produces a range because housing needs are inherently unobservable number. And what we found here is that the total housing needs for the city of Longview are currently between around 560 and 1,056 units. And with that, I will turn it back over to Jen. Great. Thank you.

So, of course, the data helps us understand the picture of the housing market. We reach out to the community to get a better understanding of what people experience on the ground and what they would like to see in the future. The community survey had an amazing response. We had almost 600 people respond to the survey, which is a very high response rate compared to what we would normally see. Affordability and availability challenges were really highlighted in that survey. About two-thirds of folks said that the cost of housing was a challenge and that many people were cutting back on essentials in order to afford the cost of their housing as it is today. A lot of the squeeze is happening, as you might imagine, for younger residents and older residents as well. There was a lot of support for increasing the amount of housing types in Longview. I think we had about 71% said it was very important to have additional housing types, while about 18% said it was important. So that's almost, I think, 90% of folks said we would like to see more kinds of housing options. Some of that goes to the trends that Christian was mentioning. As households get smaller, they may not want the big house that they raise children in. Young professionals may not want a large house yet, can't afford it, would like to start with something smaller. So that gets to some of these different housing types. We also had an employer survey that had 38 respondents. Some highlights here are that employers are starting to notice that affordability is impacting employee attraction and retention. So when folks can't afford their house, or can't find an affordable place to live, they're going to matriculate somewhere else, try to find employment closer to where they're living, and then that creates a little bit of a challenge here in Longview. There was some support for partnerships and programs where employers could be involved to help solve the housing problem. That's something that we see in other communities as well. The stakeholder survey received about 41 responses, and this really targeted different subset of groups looking at developers, nonprofits, land trusts, as well as other stakeholders. And here there was a clear consensus that zoning has been problematic for their ability to increase the availability and affordability of housing. And so two images here on the right quickly are from the open house, which I'll talk about in a minute, where folks were able to express their preferences on kinds of housing and some different housing approaches as well. Community open house, there you see a photo from the open house. A few of you might see yourselves. There was strong support at this event for smaller scale single family options. That includes something called cottage courts. What those are are not large apartment buildings, but smaller scale apartment buildings for folks as well as ADUs. Those are accessory dwelling units typically built behind a primary house. They're often used for either rentals for elderly family members or for young adults who are moving out. as well as lower density multifamily. And that could mean anything from a duplex, so an attached house, all the way to those cottage court apartments. Very strong need for more housing, as we might have mentioned, for young families, for seniors, and for the workforce, as well as a focus on preservation and rehabilitation. The most affordable housing you're ever going to have is the housing that exists today. New housing will, by its nature, be more expensive. And so we want to make sure that there are structures in place to support what exists today. All of the data, we layer that with what we hear, with our experience, with national best practices to give you some recommendations. This is just kind of tip of the iceberg of what's in the plan. But one big bucket are those regulatory recommendations. So ways in which you can look at your regulations, examine opportunities to create more housing. One would be updated development standards. Examples here include allowing for more flexibility in setbacks. Maybe a front setback becomes a little shorter. maybe in higher density areas, your side setbacks where people can build closer to the back of the lot is one way to increase buildable land on lots. Another way is looking at your lot dimensions, maybe decreasing the required width where people would be able to build in a lot that's currently considered unbuildable. other things looking at building coverages possibly allowing more building coverage in certain areas as well as potentially allowing even just an additional you know story or half story of height allows for folks to get a little bit more room into some of these housing developments updated zoning is another approach having zoning that allows more housing types for example accessory dwelling units in more areas maybe allowing duplexes in more areas that creates what we call gentle density where there can be more opportunities for density over a broad area and you're not dramatically changing property values in any one place updated zoning could also include things like having pre-approved plans for adus So if somebody wants to build an accessory dwelling unit, they can come to the city with a pre-approved plan and move through the process faster. And then staff has the guarantee that this plan meets the requirements of the zoning code. Lastly, I'll mention development incentives that could include things like a height bonus for providing a certain amount of affordable housing. So here we're using a non-monetary incentive to get affordable housing in the community. It could also include a parking reduction. I think we all know parking is expensive. If you can reduce the amount of parking per bedroom, especially in affordable housing, where we know the data shows people don't need as much parking, you can get more housing out of that space. Also, fee relief specifically for affordable housing. We're also looking at recommendations for expanded housing programs. So if we want to look at the development standards, we also want to look at, well, what are those support structures outside of our zoning code and our permitting process? One would be what I mentioned, the rehabilitation and preservation programming, making sure that those programs are strengthened and continued as you move forward. Looking at accessibility upgrades, as Christian mentioned, you don't have a high rate of ambulatory disabilities within Longview, but that is a large proportion of the population who you want to make sure has access to the housing that they need. Also looking at rental partnerships. These can be ways in which folks work together to, one, educate renters on where there's opportunity, how to access housing, as well as looking at homelessness prevention programs and strategically expanding your land bank. There is an opportunity to increase your land bank with unbuilt properties or underutilized properties within Longview, and really linking those to the South Longview Incentive Program is an example of an opportunity that we see. I know it's very tiny on the slide for the folks in the audience. You probably can't see it on that last one. But we do have in the report a chart of possible recommendations. And these, of course, would be things that the city can consider as you go forward. Lastly, we have four major buckets of strategic recommendations. The icons on the right are representative of the implementation matrix where we say what actions do we see as short-term, what might be mid-term, what would be an ongoing thing for you to do from within the plan. I'll start with the first bucket there, the land identification and redevelopment. What this really speaks to is, as a city, identifying where there are opportunities for development and for redevelopment. That could be city-owned properties, it could be properties that have been foreclosed and abandoned, and just trying to get an understanding of where those opportunities are and how they can be linked to land banking opportunities. Second, we'd be looking at brownfield revitalization strategies. Brownfields are tricky. They're usually not the first sites anyone goes to for development, of course, but there is funding available to help mitigate those sites, and so we would want to consider those as well. Secondly, our partnerships. Housing shortages are not created by a city alone, and they will not be solved by a city alone. It's really important, and we see the most successful places working with public-private partnerships, for example, to create additional housing. Looking at employer-assisted housing, especially from anchor institutions who have a really large stake in having a workforce that's close by. They'll often assist and work with the community on getting additional housing. And thirdly, Again, looking at that expanded land banking. And I speak to that so often because it's a very long-term affordability option. You're not looking at a short-term affordability solution. It's something that stays, you know, for a 99-year land lease. Under technical assistance, things we've come up with that we've seen work elsewhere include rental assistance guides. Again, connecting people with the kind of rental assistance they may need. Looking at developer education and outreach, helping developers understand what your process looks like, how to do affordable housing more efficiently here and not lose money on process. And then, of course, funding sources. Affordable housing is developed usually through a stack of financing, and so really working to identify what's available locally, statewide, federally. with your development partners and ensuring that there's cooperation in accessing the needed funding. And then, of course, we did create the implementation roadmap. The plan is full of recommendations, but it is useless if you don't know where to start and how to monitor progress over time. And that's where the emphasis on implementation comes from, so that as you start, metaphorically, literally on Monday morning, there's information on staff on where to go and how to get things done. With that, I want to say thank you for your time. This was a lot of information, and I promise it was just the high-level stuff. The plan does have a lot more there, but we welcome any questions or feedback from the council.

Thank you very much. That was a lot. Derek, go ahead.

It was a lot. Thank you for the presentation. Can you talk about Longview's 53% homeownership? How does that figure compare to other cities in our area, our size?

Sure. Christian, you want to start with that one?

Yeah, that's a great question. So I know there definitely is a figure in the report that has a comparison of that nature. But just thinking to the statewide rate, for example, I think that is a bit lower than the statewide rate. levels that we're seeing you know just to give some some context you know we do a lot of work in the Denver metro area and in some of those places you know the rates tend to be a bit higher so I'd say it's definitely on the lower end and then second part to that with homeownership it looks like from 2020 to 2025

big peak in increase of median household prices. Is that, I mean, we're all, the taxpayers here, what do you see the trend? Because it seems like it's been consistent at least since that looked like in the chart showed.

There's the chart. Very good.

Dropped from, looks like from 20, like around 20, wrapped for 2025, and then we've There's been another climb. We've stayed steady. What's the trend? What do you predict that's going to happen there?

Yeah, so what we did here is we essentially ran a statistical model to sort of forecast what we think is going to happen in the future. We certainly think the dramatic growth we've seen, you know, that we saw during the 2020 to 2022 period was an increase. aberration. It's not likely to continue going forward when you look at a longer span of time. So we definitely think that home values are going to continue to rise, just not to the extent that they have in recent years. So the projection we have here is through 2040, the median home price is going to increase to around $270,000. You have to keep in mind that's in constant $20, $25. If we were to adjust that to $20, $40, right, the price is going to be, you know, much higher than that.

And I thank you for that. I'm interested, you mentioned Jennifer, you mentioned about the, you think there's, you guys feel there's a big opportunity for expanding the land bank. development opportunities. Can you kind of give a little more detail on that, how that would look, what that would look like?

Sure. So the implementation will look a little bit different community to community, but what I typically recommend is starting with an inventory of land. Starting first with city-owned land and where there might be an opportunity with that to turn it into housing, usually through a public-private partnership with a land bank. So you could look there. You can also use tax assessor records to see where there is land either in foreclosure or that has unclear title. That's often land that is either abandoned or abdicated by a family member who has passed and there's no one to take the land after. So that is land that could potentially, depending on the type, be put into a land bank. Once you know where your inventory is, You can prioritize sites for land banking. Obvious ones would be land that's already in residential areas, land that maybe could be used for a larger scale housing development, and then use that to prioritize and partner with an existing land bank to develop is usually how that works. Some larger cities will take it on themselves. I typically don't recommend that just because of the complexity. I think it's a little bit easier to let a land bank manage the land banking, but for the city to look at the properties, and often they're offered at a lower price to a land bank. So a land bank still purchases them, but at a lower than market price with the guarantee that that housing becomes affordable.

Well, that's interesting. I would just to add, the city does have a land bank and Michael Shirley, who's not here tonight, based on the housing, our own task force recommendations, chaired by Ms. Shatiba Marshall back there. Several of the things you mentioned tonight, they also recommended, and that was one. So the city does have a land bank. We are mapping available properties and Michael is working that into his plan. So that is actually in process for us. early win on that implementation matrix. So good.

Love that. Thank you, guys.

Yeah, sure. Who else?

So the one to answer this question. So the the state average of homeownership is like 64%. So we're significantly like 10% down below there. So there's a lot of room for improvement on increasing that. Also, just some numbers really interesting. That's kind of thing is so the 30% of income housing cost for affordability based on the median household income is 1563 a month. The median home price was, what is it? I wrote it up here. Median home price was two something. What was it? $270,000 was the median? $260,000? $268.85. If you're putting 5% down, then at $1,563 a month, which is considered affordable at the 30% of the housing cost, then you could afford at two days rates $193,000 house. So there's a gap there of roughly $70,000 in difference between home prices. And it's not one-to-one. I mean, it's a percentage of income on your gross, so it's not fully there. But for 5% down, that's a pretty major jump. I did notice on the renter affordability, $1,118 in rent or affordability. Now, that is between the current rents of the $1,100 to $1,400, which is the current asking, with the typical asking being $1,200 a month. So that is in line. Now, where it does become an issue, as mentioned, was if they need a house. Because then you're jumping up to a $2,000 for a single-family residence, detached home, which is typically what we have here. So that also is an issue. So my questions, though, two of them were is one is we have 11% vacancy right now. And so you're mentioning about getting to a healthy vacancy of five to eight. But if you add more units, that doesn't really drop the vacancy. We have an issue with vacancies that we currently have that we need to get addressed.

Right, yeah. That's a great question. So the five to 8% number, that pertains to the rental part of the market, right? So the number of rentals that are listed for rent And the denominator would then be the total number of rentals in the stock, right? So that is, I mean, I'd have to go back to look at what that number currently is exactly, right? But it definitely is below that 11% figure.

Yeah. And then if you add it up, I mean, then you're looking at the vacancy rate. I just wrote it down somewhere. But it gets you to that 6.5% to 11%, depending on what range you want to use for those. So we're right there at the 11% vacancy at the top. We're on the high end of that. There's some room there. The other thing is we only have 3% as the single-family residence is attached. Now, townhomes was one of the ones mentioned that was from the survey. Was there anything else regarding any of the single-family residents attached that the citizens were asking for?

I think that townhomes were likely the big ones. I think that condos might have been mentioned as well.

Okay. But mostly townhomes was the main one on that? Yes. Okay. Awesome. That's all the questions I have. Thank you. Thank you.

And I know Sydney's got quite a few. I'm going to let Sydney go first. But I do have a couple questions because I feel like a couple of them is going to get answered. So in regards to rentals, between apartments and homes, what have you seen as a shift in the last five years? Have you seen a lot more people go into the homes? And what's that percentage? And where are we at in that climb as to what we're doing to accommodate that or stay even with that? Does that make sense as a question?

It does, yes.

Do you want me to rephrase that?

Oh, no, I think, no. Okay. I'll start. Nationwide, what we are seeing is a general trend toward more renting because of how expensive homes are compared to incomes. especially given that pandemic gap. Home prices jumped way more than the median income, so there's a bigger gap of people who can afford to enter the market. Something we're also seeing, and it is locationally specific, but that renting is often cheaper than buying a house. And so that also traps more people into the rental market that just the cost of ownership is different. So that is a trend we're seeing generally.

I guess what I was talking about is rather than renting on homes and going to the apartment, have you seen a big shift in the percentage of people that They can no longer afford to rent a home that they're having to go the routes of the apartments and things like that. That's what I'm kind of asking. Cause if you've seen that jump up, you know, 20% increase, what are we doing? And you know, far as building here with bigger availability, it's a little cheaper rent.

Gotcha. I'm not sure of the numbers on that. I haven't seen much research. I don't know if you have. Yeah, we've not looked into that question specifically.

That's a good question, though.

It's a good one, though.

Well, you could look at nationwide averages.

So if you look at the, we're 61% single-family residents detached. Most people want to live in East Texas, and that's typically what they want is a single-family detached. That's just, I guess, the culture of the area. where if you're looking at like but what the nation national average or state average would be i'm guessing that's probably on the high end i'm guessing on the apartment side on the multi-family we're probably on the lower end as far as percentage of what the normal mix is um probably around that so the mix would be are we short on the mix of what the normal state or national average is and that could be artificially keeping people in their homes too and there's not enough of the smaller units available they stay because there's not a desirable choice available but if there were more desirable choices there would be people

matriculating out to a smaller unit, for example.

I have two more questions, but I'm also going to ask you one of them. So we've got 36,000 people that are commuting in. So there's about 17,000 people different. What can we do to get them to move in here to be a part of it? I guess my question is really, did you guys have any idea how far out that they're coming to commute in? You say less than 20 miles. It's less than 50 miles on this commute to come in here and go to work.

Did we look at the distance?

We didn't look at that specifically.

Okay.

Putting on my economic developer hat, I did that for a very long time. There are ways, like having that inbound commuter number is a very good thing for you. Those are potential residents who would want to live here to reduce that commute. I think what you have to do is provide the housing options that would entice them to be here is typically the biggest gap. And so part of that could be either looking at like, Who are those workers and what kinds of housing would they like? Do we need workforce housing that's affordable to the median or the slightly less than median income? Is it higher income housing? I don't have that answer today, but I think that would help you recapture folks. And that's where especially talking to some of your big employers can be helpful to find out where they're feeling the squeeze on workers being able to afford housing in terms of retention and attraction.

All right.

Go ahead.

OK. All right. Excuse me. All right. First off, I'm not too much of an internet person. What are your sources to find these units available for rent? What source on the internet do you go to?

Oh, sure. That's for you.

Yeah. So for current market units, the main sources that we're looking at are websites like Redfin, Zillow, and apartments.com. But, you know, one sort of downside of those data sources, even though they're very current, is they don't paint a picture of the entire Rental stock right so for that we rely on the five-year version of the American Community survey there seems to be thank you.

Thank you Several here there seems to be a trend a little away from home ownership I mean years back 20 years back 30 years back the American dream was to own a home. Well, it seems like now with the incremental cost like a taxes, and you mentioned this, landscape, I mean, yard work, yard work, taxes, maintenance, plumbing, air conditioning, generators, and all that stuff that a lot of people just seem to be comfortable renting where they can call somebody when they have a plumbing problem or the AC goes out or something like that, and they don't have to dig in their pocketbook. In fact, we've got a new development on Judson Road, which is the main thoroughfare going north before it gets the loop. I think they call them East Texas rental homes where they've gone in there and built a considerable number. What would you say? 50 or so homes that they're just putting up for rent. It's a big, it's a company out of Tyler. And so we're finding, or I'm noticing around town, the in the apartments in the north in the pine tree area. We've got several new apartment complexes that are under construction at this time. We've had several completed. So evidently there must be a large demand for apartment housing in this area that do you find a trend across the country that people are more willing to rent instead of own?

Yes. I think that's due to a number of factors. Part of it is the affordability of getting into a home. Part of it is, I think, overall current job market instability and wanting the ability to move if you have lost a job, if you recently lost a job. And so, yes, that is a trend we are seeing nationwide. Again, there are some communities that are outside of that trend, but on balance, given the current market and the difficulty of getting into it, especially for young professionals, we have to see higher rates of rentals.

Okay, how do you balance public benefits to cost? Now one thing we have here that's been ongoing, and I'll just say there's been an ongoing controversy, is sidewalks. And it's great to have sidewalks. That makes it good for people that want to walk. It makes it good for bicycles. But that continues to increase the cost. So how do you balance the public benefits to the cost in limiting the market that you can sell into?

That is a really good question. I worked for the city of Austin for a number of years and sidewalks were a very hot topic, especially because of the cost, especially if it goes on to a homeowner to build a sidewalk. I think in a new environment, It's a little bit easier to implement requirements for sidewalks when new homes are being built. There is a cost associated, but it's lower than some of your other infrastructure requirements. In existing homes, it's a little bit more difficult. Typically, I think that comes from a capital improvement fund more so than asking a homeowner to pay for it. It's often unaffordable for folks. But I do think that comes to a bigger question of where are sidewalks most needed and prioritizing those areas, in my opinion, rather than maybe a blanket approach. The City of Austin, for example, if they were to fill in every sidewalk gap at the current rate, it would take like 250 years, which is not possible, and I think that's for a lot of cities. If you were to tackle everything at once, you can't, but really prioritize where do we need them, where is that connectivity a problem, and building in that way.

Well, also, not only sidewalks, but landscaping and electrical regulations, plumbing regulations. I mean, it just seems that every time we, and I'll be a little political here, every time we adopt a new code, and we've worked very well, I think, with the Builders Association here locally, but every time we increase codes, we increase cost. And these are, in my opinion, these are costs that may be the extra requirements we're putting in there might be something that would happen 2030 years down the road. In other words, we're trying to prevent everything possible in the we're getting away from the homeowner taking a little risk, but I'm not sure where that comes in. But the more the more the builder has to go into the house to reduce the problems that might come later increase cost.

And so I don't know how we think that's a large part of their recommendation changing zoning requirements so that there would be less setback required, less requirements for the builder, less space. I think that's probably the main part of their recommendations when we actually look at the study. What was on one of the slides?

Yes, I saw that. And it seems to be I've heard the number and I don't know whether it's reliable or not. If you're going to live in a home less than 10 years, you'd be better renting because of the incremental cost that you might have during those 10 years. And we have not had the increase in values here that some other communities have had. In other words, you're not going to live there 10 years and and see a substantial increase in your value. I wish you could, but I don't think that's really, uh, what we found here. So, uh, it, it's, it's, it's expensive to own your own home. Yes. Yes.

All right. Yeah. That slide stated that, um, I don't know if it's on there or not, but the current average rate of homes here is that two 60 is what it was. Correct. I think. And then by 2040, you are projecting that it'll be 270 and you're in a house for 15 years or even more so than that and you're only seeing a $10,000 appreciation in that property is also a little

I would say one important footnote there is that that is in today's dollars, that if we were to account for inflation, which we don't know what it would look like, that value would be higher. I can't tell you how much higher, but in general, we do expect, you're correct, that those increases in home values are going to start flattening out. And that's not just a Longview problem. It's nationally we're seeing a flattening.

I bet we could give you real-time kind of a... a survey of all of us here on what it's been like to own homes here yeah and you're not far off though you know give me questions oh yeah so i was just listening to everything that y'all were saying and it seems like to me um just going back to

like the code and I think that that would be the biggest issue because we have a lot of people with land that only and they would pretty much that was given to them but they can't do anything with it because of the restrictions. So what did you see the biggest restriction was that was keeping them within our city because this and that I think that's one of the biggest issues that we have is like you have all these people that own property and only and they can't do anything with it because all of the restrictions I think that's one of the biggest to to try to make it affordable around here.

Someone you want to point to for that? I think I'd have to revisit the report to remember exactly what the biggest hurdle was. Typically what we do see, though, are those development standards. It's your setbacks. It's your building coverage. And I would say maybe even most is your parking requirements. If you're looking at multifamily housing building, that those are usually the three biggest, I would have to revisit our research to remember what the correct answer for long view is though.

Yeah. Because just thinking about just a person, just a single family home, not even multifamily or anything like that, just with a single lot of land that would like to do something with it, but it's show many restrictions for them to even get started. But then when you go, 10,000 miles a road, the restrictions are different there and they can do more there. So I would just be interested to see how we could help in that way to make it affordable for somebody who already owns land that would like to develop it.

Yeah, I think one answer to that is expansion of the slip area, which also is something Michael Shirley is looking at based on their housing task force recommendations, because some of that, I think, would be related to fees charged by the city. um in doing some of that permitting and our slip area is restricted now and we're looking at expanding that so that there would be additional ways based on a number of factors i haven't figured that all out yet but um that more people could take advantage of that program yeah i think it was some of it is like requiring a driveway to even get started for them to even try to even start building or whatever it was just different it was different areas that

they were having problems with people with their own land, who own lots of land, that tried to get started, and it was just like they got stopped at the gate because they had to have specific things. So I would really like to know what those things are.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I think also one thing you mentioned is you said gentle changes in neighborhoods. That would be, you know, that's I think worth noting for Longview. That would be a big change. So if I could take my single neighborhood, family residence and build on uh you know there based on changing of setbacks or other things and now my mother and my mother-in-law none of those people are gonna come live with me but you know what i'm saying uh that those you know you could add additional people there or in my neighborhood put a duplex um those would be new things uh for a long view that would be able to change uh gently i think that would help a lot you know Yep. Yep. I heard that out of there. Thank you. That's very interesting. I didn't want to just say from our own task force, we are already working on a rental resource guide expansion of the slip program and land banking. Um, and so thank you. That's a good confirmation that we're headed in the right direction. And, um, what, this is probably a question for Dietrich. What is our next step after receiving study, uh, recommendations?

so if we have you know an implementation matrix who's in charge of making sure that we implement things well that is going to be between me and shativa marshall our next step is we're going to share the complete 126 page page document with the three entities the council the Housing Commission and the Housing Task Force. So you're going to get that full report, have the opportunity to take a look at it, start looking at your questions like you did tonight for the Task Force members. Then we're going to schedule a video conference with the Matrix representatives to kind of talk about the questions that you have, and then we'll move forward from there.

Okay, so is it a draft report or a final report right now?

It's a draft report because I made a couple of changes.

Okay. Okay. So it's not ready to publish on the city's website is why I'm asking. Not yet.

But it will be there, those changes made? Yeah. Oh, okay.

We'll try to get those done within the next week or two. Yes. Okay.

Okay.

Some really good summer reading. Well, I want to make sure residents know if they'd like to read it. Can we put the slideshow and the final report on our website too? Yes.

Yeah. And we're going to make sure that, you know, that our housing liaison is a critical part of this. So she's going to help us to develop the next processes as well.

Okay. And I know our housing task force is still meeting and so can help us by continuing those recommendations. Okay.

We want people to have access and to look at the full report. So.

Yep. Perfect. Okay. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate you. Next on our agenda is consent agenda. What items would you guys like to pull for further discussion? G, G. Okay, Derek.

B, B and H. B and A.

Okay. B and A. A is an apple. Oh, nope. Thank you, John. Wrong one. H. Got it. Any other? Good, good, good. Okay. B. Oh, consider a resolution for appointments, reappointments, and shared designations. Do you have a question on that one or a comment?

Yes, I just have a comment. I know I appreciate, I know Jody and Sydney worked really hard on this and just kind of want to go through. If you guys can give an explanation a little bit on the process.

Spent a lot of time together.

reports from staff on what they had information on as far as

how these people had been involved in city committees before, city appointments, city committees, and whether they've gone to, just as we did tonight, the city view, just how involved they've been. We're looking for people and with people that have got some past history. If they're on a committee, that doesn't necessarily mean they get reappointed. We look at their attendance. And we looked at the attendance very heavily and see, I mean, we, I guess I should or should not say it, but anyway, we used 50%, should have been higher, of a minimum attendance. If you hadn't at least attended 50%, we didn't think you'd need to be considered for reappointment. I mean, so the attendance, and Jody really did a great job on it.

I'm going to say that number was higher. I mean, we really like for people to volunteer, but it only matters if you show up and help us with the conversations. And that's something that kind of stuck hard with me. I'm not going to keep a job showing up about 60% of the time. I feel that way. That's the way I grew up. Another thing is we really broke down the information that people put in there and some people I wish they would have put a little bit more because we really looked at folks that I told Sydney when we got started I said it doesn't matter if somebody's been here a year or been here 20 years I want to look at everything because new voices, new ideas coming from other places Sometimes they've seen stuff that we're talking about implementing. Hey, let me give you some bad things. Somebody comes in with just a fresh voice that's out of the box. That's great to hear. And I know we run across it. We thought we were done. And I called the mayor and I said, we're not done. We can't do this where we're at. We need to go back through it. And I know I sat down personally, went through every single person. I wrote every board that I feel that they should fit. And I put them together. And then when we sat down again, we had a deep conversation. Mm-hmm. in discussing this and I said it's not about friends it's not about people we know who people want I said let's get the best people for the job and we we put extra time into it and I really feel good about what we're bringing you here tonight I know when I walked out I think you and I both

were happy yes yes i will say anything unturned it was not a 100 agreement all the way around in other words if we went on to air dirty laundry here no wait no no it was a very thorough uh i don't want to use the word but i will it was a very thorough investigation into what each one of us felt was important for the people on the different committees and and we looked into that very thoroughly

Well, I would like to really commend you both for spending that much time and Richard also for leading that process. This is the first time that we've had over 100 applicants and only 27 spots. So really, you know, we want to encourage people to volunteer. We want them to participate. Man, we want you to be involved. Thank you so much for applying. And you guys spent, I think, over 10 hours reviewing people, cussing and discussing and placing people in the right spots.

But I hugged him when I walked out.

uh but really i mean i feel very confident in the process um and so yes congratulations to the folks that are being appointed if you are not selected um i am emailing you about 15 of our local 501c3 nonprofits that need quality board members do not take this as an opportunity to not invest in other places there are lots of places we need you Just this year, it doesn't happen to be on a city committee, but come back next year, sign up for Longview InView, serve on one of our many amazing nonprofits. There's lots of ways to plug into the city. And thank you guys for spending that much time doing it. We really appreciate it.

Well, again, thank you for all the people that applied. We had a wonderful, wonderful list of applicants. Yes.

I'm telling you, we're all on the same page. We walked out of here. You can agree to disagree, but when we come to this point right here, I can tell you I fully support what Sydney and I put together.

We're not perfect, but we did our best. Appreciate it.

I mean, just like tonight you said, there's a lot of people here, a lot of people love Longview, and volunteers appreciate that. And I also appreciate, I know you guys put a lot of time into it, but also questions and asking for some of our input on some people, and I appreciate that.

Yeah, thank you guys. Good job. You're signed up next year. Congratulations. Consent. Consent item G consider a resolution authorizing the city to apply for a grant with Miss Laura Hill. Straight from knee surgery. Come on down.

Okay, question.

I don't remember who asked for this one. Oh, yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Laura. I just want to know a little bit about the program and exactly what what type of grant it is and what it does and

How about you, Liz? Okay. This is the FY26 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act Local Drug Crises Grant. It's federal. We are allowed to apply because we have received drug-free community grants in the past. And this will be assisting with programs currently done through the Coalition for Drug-Free Youth within Partners in Prevention. So, for example, our DeFi conference that we work on with the police department. So it's bringing in education for parents, teachers, youth ministers, to be aware of all of the dangers with youth and the exposure to drugs in our community.

So are you saying that it goes to the people that are going to be educating, educating people on it, or going out educating kids on educating the youth?

It's to, for example, bring in guest speakers. to help teach parents. We have worked in the past with DEA to bring in speakers and put on seminars for parents. So it's gonna be developing those programs within the requirements of the grant.

Okay, so is it possible to actually go into schools and talk to the students and get them involved, to get the youth actually involved, and actually have a time and a place for them?

That's what we want to do. Now we will see what the schools will allow us to do. Well, I hope so. Yes, ma'am.

I mean, that's what the biggest problem is.

That's a lot of what we discussed was going where the children are. And these days, I think families, they're more comfortable going into the school system. They spend so much time there, so even with the parents also. So we'd like to take it on the road, so to speak, to all of our school districts.

All right.

Thank you. That's what I want to know. Okay.

Good question. Thank you, Miss Hill. Next one is resolution authorizing directing the city manager to execute any necessary documents for the purchase of 32 ballistic windshields and installation. Chief Boone. And that one was Derek.

Yeah, Chief Boone.

I just piqued my interest when I see Region 7, Education Service Center, and just kind of explain how that works with the tips.

That's a very good question, sir, and that would be more of our purchasing agent, Amanda Phillips, that knows the background on that, but no, it's a request that we've made, and of course this will be the fourth time we come to council because we start off with the requesting to apply for the grant, and then once the approval to receive the grant, and then to do the budget amendment for this, and now we're at the point of the actual purchasing side, but I'll be honest with you, I'm just the police chief, so when it comes to the buying it and doing it right, I leave that over to the finance and the purchasing agent to do all that the right way.

Chief Boone's a very humble man. Can you tell us a little bit, what's 32 ballistic windshields installed? Is that in... What's like the percentage and how does that benefit us?

Where we got that number is that's actually 28 vehicles. That's 28 of our line units and then our four sergeant cars that are line units as well. So that's how we got the 32. And unfortunately, the need for it is... You know, we've seen this increase across the state and across the nation where criminals are a little more brazen, and literally we had an incident May of last year where our officer pulled up to a person. He opened fire on the officer right then, and several rounds went through the windshield. In fact, we have a clip of that if you all would like to see it.

Sure.

Sure, I'd love to.

You brought it up.

I think we have a clip of that. This technology is really impressive tonight, Richard.

It is startling.

So it's very unfortunate that we have to have something like this, but because of what's happened throughout the state, that is why the state even had such a grant for police departments to apply for. And it's unfortunate that we felt the need for that, but I think for what we've seen here in our own hometown, we need to protect our guys.

Absolutely. Thank you, Chief. Is the shooter in jail?

Yes.

He's actually, that case is already gone, and he was convicted.

What fire station was that?

That was on McCann Road.

Oh, was it?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Chief. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I move to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Moving on to our only action item, which is to consider a resolution that authorizes the Longview Fire Department to purchase Class B live fire burn props. Chief Grimes.

Well, it's not a super glamorous presentation-worthy project. It's basically the first phase for us to be able to realize the full extent and the capabilities of the training center that we have down there off of Eastman Road. Lion has provided this list of items that they'll do for us in Phase 1, which is why we're asking for the $450,000. And we can actually then do our own live fire training in the city and then provide that also as an outside external capability for other agencies to come in and utilize as well and do joint training.

Great. What are y'all currently doing?

Oh, that's a good question. I know it's not in the city. I want to say, is it White House? I'd have to get back with you on that one. I'm not exactly sure where they do that.

But not a consistent spot probably since we shut it down at Stanford Park. Correct. Yeah, so good progress. Glad that we can get that going again somewhere consistently.

Okay.

Any other questions? Okay, I need a motion. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Item is approved. Thank you so much, Chief Grimes. Next is our presentation honoring... Our city secretary, Angie Shepard, who's super excited about being honored tonight. I think we have a slide show that will start. I told her we were going to have embarrassing photos and she said there were none. Uh, uh, uh, yes. Uh, but I'll talk while that's going. So, um, she doesn't have to suffer any further. further time um angie i i know i tried to get him to get all my swearing-ins but i think there's only one of me sitting at your desk you're a hard person to catch on camera um but anyway i said this last time and i mean it with all my heart uh you have been professional loving capable you've represented the city in just the best possible way you've i feel like you have mothered us Um, those, those that don't sit on council don't realize Angie will text email and make sure that you have it calendared when you need to turn in your campaign, uh, finance report. Not, it is not her job to chase me down and make sure that I turn in my stuff, but she mothers us and always has made sure that we look good up here. We look good in the public. Um, and she's made her office more transparent, more voting locations. When she took over, she moved us electronically. So she's moved us into the next century and, again, trained Lily, who is an excellent, excellent choice. And so I couldn't say enough wonderful things about how blessed we are to have had you as a city secretary. I did want to give council an opportunity to say something if they'd like to. And then, Angie, I'm going to ask you if you want to say something, too. Go ahead, Derek.

i get to be the first one no no you are just sorry you're number one no i mean i just we talked about last time i just really appreciate angie's uh just like you said from the beginning and we don't we don't know what we're doing when we're running for office there's a lot of complicated things just the comfort that you made me feel like and i know others have said the same but just you know uh just always smile on her face uh answers questions uh not only professionally but courtesy it's courteous and i'm excited i saw her daughter was here earlier with little miles and i know she's excited to spend more time with you and wish you the best and thank you for all you've done for longview and honestly the slides she hasn't aged a bit

yeah so thank you thank you so much i just want to say thank you for being you you know thank you for just being that person that you could come in and it's that neutral person that makes you feel not so dumb when you're coming into something in an arena that you've never been in so just thank you for being you ms shepherd as your favorite council member of all time

I just want to say thank you for all the years and your service to our city. We're a better place because of you, and may God bless you with this next chapter.

We're just going to go in order. Go ahead. Yes.

Angie, as the last council member you've sworn in, appreciate you. And what Derek's mentioning and what we've all felt here, especially when we come in for applying for candidacy, it is an overwhelming experience. And you're the very first person that is sometimes our, you know, entry into that level and so to have you there and it's not just like you being warm and everything it's it's also just the organization the binder the whole thing like everything you do to put the experience together and you celebrate the experience uh while we're nervous and all through that and i'm also always been amazed at your ability to do all the swearings without any anything you do you memorize them all and you do it so uh so great and then We never have any issues with deadlines or any sort of reaching. And like Mayor said, reminding us to turn in our finance reports. I do expect that to continue, Lily. All the things that you do. Thank you. So you will be missed, and we are just so lucky to have you.

I've said it before and I told you before, the comfort when you walked into that office and the confidence you had coming out knowing you had been told the right things, what to do, man, I can't say enough. It meant a lot to me. If you hear... Angie Avery, Bad Mouth, and Jody. Her boyfriend, Jody, is back there. It's not me she's talking about. He's been patiently waiting back there. And you're going to have fun. This next leg of the journey is a great leg. Get your lasso out because I know Miles is ready to play cowboy. And I wish you the best. Look forward to seeing you around the neighborhood.

Well, this is my second time around. And over the years, previously and currently, Angie has always been a helping hand, just right there when we need her. And Lily, would you please come forward and shake her hands? Thank you. If you'd come forward at this time, we'd like to give you a handshake.

All right, Angie, my friend, it's your turn.

Mayor, Council, and even going back to the Council of 2017, thank you all so much. It's been a true honor to be a... All right. It's been an honor. Thank you.

We love you.

I do want to take a picture with Andy.

Make sure you take a good one, please.

The only chance we get? Yeah. Got it.

Okay, community items are next.

last time i was here pine tree graduation about seven days ago at this time we had a lot of clouds in the area and a lot of storms coming but congratulations i appreciate the the experience those kids had and the people supporting them and just wish them the best and all the kids that are in pine tree and long view and Longview area, Hawesville, and Spring Hill. Enjoy the summer. Summertime is here. I know there's a lot of fun activities planned around in Longview, and I hope you guys can participate in all of those.

Yeah. Miss Moore. So yes, yes, yes. It is time for our Juneteenth celebration. We will kick off our first part of our events for the month of June with a gospel celebration Saturday, June 6th. You really do not want to miss this event. We have a lot of people that will be performing from Longview, from Dallas area. We have praise dancers, poetry. It will be an excellent event. I truly, truly invite everybody to come out to that event. I mean we literally have a fluid this and this was like I said before this is all from the community these ideas came from the community we have people donating to this event so I'm very very excited we have a a tribute to Michael Jackson so there'll be an impersonator there live singing but it's going to be a good event we have A slew of events, honestly, all month long. If you go to longviewtexas.gov slash Juneteenth, you can get more information, more details. The ticket events, you can click the links on there and you can get the tickets there. June 1st, the Michael Jackson tribute event will open up on June 1st for you to get the tickets as well. That's all I have. Awesome. Thank you. Mr. Wade.

I just want to congratulate all of the school districts on a successful school year. And I'd like to let everyone know that, you know, students are out in the summertime to be careful on the roads and be aware of pedestrians, mainly our young folks that are out and wishing them all a very good summer. And that's it.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Yes, I want to recognize Keep Longview Beautiful. They're the 2026 winner from the Governor's Community Achievement Awards, and this reflects the dedication of our volunteers, residents, and our community partners who work year-round to keep the real East Texas clean and green. They got a reward recognized for their Keep Longview Beautiful, where they pick up trash based on how many likes they get from the previous day. So with the group I'm doing, we're doing ours on Friday. So you'll be seeing the group with that for Theater Longview is going to do it. And then as a prize, they're going to receive funding for a major landscaping project along a state maintained roadway. So awesome job, Keep Longview Beautiful. The awards and recognition just keep coming. They're doing a great job. So I appreciate them. I know that sometimes I'll get a message about some litter that needs to be picked up, and there was one street recently, like here. Sharon knows. She's here. Messaged me, and within a few hours, the whole street was cleaned and picked up. I mean, they are on top of it, and they're doing an amazing job. I don't have a slide for it, but I am going to shout out the pavilion at Mod Cobb. So Gay, Sean, Sean here, all them that did the part for that pavilion is beautiful. It's did a great job. I'm sorry. I'm still somebody's thunder. I'm sorry. Great. So they did a great job. So it's available for rent. So definitely go check out that and book it as well. Thank you.

Good job. Again, just kind of echoing what Mr. Connolly said, I want to say congratulations to all the graduates. Parents, if you've got younger kids, there's a lot of things happening within the city of Longview. Just take advantage of it. I don't care if it's Laterno or you bring your kids. Well, right now, our Friday Night Live is going to cool down for hotter weather. But we've got a lot of items that you can take advantage of that don't cost you anything. Take advantage of that. Again, Angie, congratulations on your retirement. Lily, look forward to working with you. And that's it.

Mr. Allen.

I just want to say, as they've mentioned, several other council people, the kids are out for the summer. Let's have a nice, safe, a lot of activities this summer.

just be careful thank you absolutely yeah oh yes that's right that's on my list you have okay all right we're all on your turn so Angie I didn't get to address you earlier so I wanted to talk to you I know thank you for putting up with me for five years while you and I have always had candid conversations with one another I'm incredibly thankful for the relationship we've developed and And thank you for never letting me down when I needed something.

Thank you. Sorry. I skipped you. I'm sorry. Do you have any other community? I have a couple. Um, and since we're talking about teens, I will say that tomorrow night, the museum of fine arts is having a free team night. So if you have a 14 to 19 year old, I will be taking mine and dropping them off. So take advantage of that. That's a fun event. Um, the summer reading club and adult summer reading club begins June 5th. Join us that Friday at the long view public library for our summer reading club kickoff. And then throughout the summer for our kids summer reading club program, as well as the Adult Summer Reading Club program. If you didn't know, the adults can participate too. You log the books, you get registered for a free weekly drawing. It's a lot of fun. Please join us. splash day is coming up june 6th is the kickoff to our summer splash opportunities june 6 will be at ingram park for our splash day as we open open the ingram pool and officially kick off our summer swim season we anticipate the stamper park pool will open there at the beginning of july so please join us for those things the garden pavilion was opened yesterday beautiful space there at mod cobb that can be rented for events so please check that out And I wanted to say a special thank you to Church on Purpose, who this coming Sunday is their normal 5th Sunday Serve Day, but they will mobilize 200 volunteers for their I Serve Community Outreach Program for the past 15 years on the, any month with the 5th Sunday, the church. skips traditional worship service and dedicates the morning to serving neighbors. This Sunday, the ISERF coordinator, Ora Thomas, assisted by her husband, Ray Thomas, and a dedicated committee of 15 members have spent months preparing for this Sunday's work, which will include eight to 10 projects, six of which are Connect Longview home projects. So thank you, Ingrid, for investing that time. We're excited about the work and the love that they will spread on Sunday and just wanted to give them a special shout out. And with that, we are adjourned. See you next time.