City Council - Regular Meeting

It's not much of a warning.

Okay, all right. So sorry. All right. Sorry, guys. With that, I will call to order our June 11th, 2026 Longview City Council meeting. Thank you, guys, all that are here in the chambers with us. We always enjoy having a full house, and we're glad you're here tonight. The first thing that we will do is our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight, that will be led by our three Yakeley children, Rosalie, Harper, and Russell. If you guys will all please rise and join them.

Let us pray. Dear God, thank you for this day and that we get to live in worldview.

Amen.

Thank you for all the people who work to keep us safe and please give everybody here wisdom and unity.

Amen.

We pray that you would give us peace and that you would bless this meeting. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good job, guys.

Richard and Jenna I would like to know how long we practice that a day 24 hours excellent job guys very good yes not shy that was awesome next on our agenda is citizen comment I have two speaker cards well only one for this and I would like to ask our honorable mayor Andy Mack to come on up for citizen comments great to have you back mayor Mack Ex-Mayor, yeah, I mean, anytime.

Hi, I'm Andy Mack, live at 9 Thorn Tree, Longview, Texas, 75601. Mayor, Council, thank you for having me here tonight, everybody here. I just wanted to take a moment to publicly and personally thank Ray Wade for his wonderful service to the City of Council and to the City of Longview, Ray. You have... been a pillar, you have done what is right, you have always been there. I've known Ray since he was a wee little fella and watched him grow into a fine young man, a man of honor, a man of dignity, a man of loyalty, a man of good, just good, a good heart, a good soul, a man who can make good decisions even when times are tough. I've watched him make decisions and the toughest of all was when he decided to voluntarily, on his own, come home, leave a successful business in Japan and New York to take care of his family. And there's no greater sacrifice than that, Ray. You've been a wonderful man, a wonderful human being. I've watched you as I sat in that seat, and I never had to wonder what you were going to do, because I just always knew you'd do what was right. Whatever it was, it was going to be what was right in your mind. You were never influenced by outside people. No one pulled your strings. You did what you did because it was in your heart. And that is a very rare quality in politics today. So Longview has been lucky to have you. I'm lucky to call you my friend, my brother. I love you. Best of luck to you. Whatever comes your way, you deserve it. Thank you for your service. Love you, buddy. Thank you.

Very nice.

Thank you, Andy. That was very kind. Um, we will talk about Ray more later. Thank you. You bet. Uh, first presentation item we have is a Longview police department life saving award presentation, uh, to recognize the efforts of LPD officer BIM and deputy fire Marshall Munich. If you guys would come on up and join me at the front.

Test, test.

There you go.

Thank you. Uh, so thank you guys for coming tonight. Uh, on April 28th, 2026 deputy fire marshal Munich and officer Hayden Bim were working a domestic dispute. The fire marshal call at two Oh nine row Avenue when we were both alerted to a medical call for a cardiac arrest. Myself, so you must have written this, thank you. And Officer Bim arrived on the scene and found one male adult patient sitting in his wheelchair and not breathing with no palpable pulse. The patient was lowered to the ground and CPR was started by Officer Bim. Officer Bim provided quality CPR and his presence played a significant outcome in the patient's status. His presence made it possible for me to establish an advanced airway, ventilate the patient along with gaining IV access before any other LFD unit arrived on scene. Upon arrival of Engine 7, CPR was taken over by those engine's firefighters. Officer Bim was instructed and coached how to properly operate a BVM and began ventilating the patient while other Engine 7 crew members were completing other essential tasks. After several minutes of CPR in conjunction with ventilations and IV medication, a pulse was now palpable and the patient had an organized rhythm on the monitor before the dispatch medic arrived on scene. Medic two arrived on scene and transported the patient who at the time of writing this email is alive and breathing on his own in critical condition at Good Shepherd ER. Officer Ben played a significant role on this EMS call and gave the patient the best chances for survival. Officer Mim, thank you for your heroic actions. We're very proud and glad to have you on LPD, and thank you for your contributions.

Congratulations.

Come on in.

Thank you guys. Always love an opportunity to brag on. Officer, I forgot to tell you that you have a pen. Chief Boone has a pen for you. So sorry. Thank you. Always excited to brag on our awesome first responders. Next presentation item is a proclamation recognizing Robbie Cox for his years of community service that will be given by our mayor pro tem, Ms. Shannon Moore of District 2. You guys want to come on up?

First of all, I want to thank everyone for being here. And this is very, very special to me. We're also honoring him for all his services that he's done over the last almost three decades. And he is our grand marshal for the Juneteenth parade. But just to give you Just a brief of this long resume I'm going to kind of summarize for you to understand the importance of what he's done for this community. During the 1990s, Cox decided to pursue a political career as a campaign manager. Cox was instrumental in the election of James E. Johnson for the first black commissioner in Gregg County. Later, Cox himself was elected as the first constable in Gregg County for 20 years. Cox held that Gregg County precinct for consul position retiring in 2016. In May 19, he re-entered the political arena and was elected to Justice of the Peace for Gregg County Precinct 4. Again, Kay Cox made history again as the first black to have held both Constable and Justice of the Peace as elected position in Gregg County. Cox has served, Cox is a member of Red Oak Baptist Church. He is married to Barbara, was married to Barbara Elder, still married to Barbara Elder for nearly 50 years. Miss Cox is currently a retired teacher after teaching math and history during her career that spanned 43 years with Longview Independent School District. Robbie Cox has two children, Latasha and Brian, and two grandchildren. Latasha works in managing care department at Baylor University, nationally ranked research institute. Brian is a technology professor at Tarrant County Commissioner College in Fort Worth. Honorable Robbie Judge Cox Celebration Day, June 11th, 2026, whereas Honorable Robbie Cox has served with distinction and as the justice of the peace for Gregg County Precinct for protecting the rights and upholding the laws of the state of Texas and the citizens of Longview. And whereas throughout his 20 year career in public service, Judge Cox has executed his judicial duties with profound sense and fairness of equity, ensuring justice for all members of our community. And whereas his leadership of the precinct court, he has seamlessly managed thousands of essential local cases from small claims, civil disputes, crucial managerial responsibilities with underlining professionalism, operational and excellence. Whereas beyond his technical acumen on both bench, Judge Cox has earned the deep-seated respect, trust, and admiration of law enforcement, legal practitioners, and the local constituents of Longview through his compassionate approach and adherence to progressive, proven judgeship and leadership. whereas his unwavering commitment to public safety, community stability, and the civic duty has permanently enriched the legal and social fabric of Gregg County. Now, therefore, on behalf of the mayor and the city of Longview, Texas do hereby proclaim the day, June 11, 2026, as Honorable Robbie Cox Celebration Day in the city of Longview, Texas.

There you go, sir.

This is my spouse.

This is my wife, Barbara, 54 years. My head coach, Trisha. My counselor, Julian. And my counselor, Judy.

Please come up. This is my spouse. They're the best and greatest family. More than I am. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Michelle Hollis. 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3. Perfect. Thank you all.

I'm so sorry. I realized I skipped a citizen comment card. Uh, so we're going to go back to that and Davis bull. I apologize.

Sorry. It's my first time.

You just tell us your name and that's it. And then you get three minutes. Take your time. Don't be nervous.

Ladies and gentlemen of the council. My name is Davis bull. I'm right here in Longview, and I'm here to talk about housing, which I know is everyone's favorite topic right after dental work and property taxes, so I'll keep this as quick and painless as I can. Over the past few months, I've talked with and pulled hundreds of local residents between 18 and 35. The message was unanimous. Please go to council and talk about the housing crisis for under 35 first-time home buyers and renters. I'm living under those same rent pressures myself, and I'm here to give voice to that on paper. The long view area looks great. Our Metro home ownership rate is about 71% second in Texas and well above both the state and national averages, but inside the city, just over 50% of homes are owner occupied. but first time buyers are down to about 21% of purchases with their average age right up at 40 years old. The market is strong for people who already own and much weaker for those trying to get in. The median household earns about $63,000 a year, but the median listing price today is right at $300,000 with an HPI of 350 with a 1995 baseline of 100. On the rental side, official data shows median rents just over $1,000, but current listings are closer to $1,500 on renter incomes of around $3,600 a month. People my age are already making a housing payment every month. What we can't do is get out from under high rent long enough to save a down payment and closing costs at these prices. The way we get loans has also changed. In 1980, there were about 14,500 commercial banks in the country. Today, there are under 4,000. Most of the ones we lost were small community banks, the kind that could lend on a good word and a firm handshake. Now there are fewer local banks who can look at a solid rent history here and say yes, and more automated systems that just see student loans, car notes, and debt to income ratio that doesn't fit their template. In his 1961 essay, Fifth Avenue Uptown, James Baldwin writes, anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. For under 35 renters here, Housing works exactly like that. It's expensive to rent, to carry debt, and then again to try to qualify for a mortgage in a market and a rule book that were not written with us in mind. Your own Longview housing study says that if we change nothing, the market will keep delivering higher-end homes and premium rentals, new homes mostly in the $375,000 and up range, and new rentals mostly in the $1,750 to $2,000 a month range. That's not where the people I've been speaking with live financially. So here's what I'm asking, just propositions. First, pilot a starter home zoning reform in specific parts of the city. Reduce minimum lot sizes, allow duplexes, townhomes, and small cottages by right. and streamline approvals for projects that commit to selling homes under a clear price cap. Second, create a down payment and closing cost assistance pilot for local first-time buyers under a certain age or income, like banks used to do, using tools you already manage to help bridge the gap between what renters can save and what lenders expect. Third, build in a common sense cost share. I don't even care about this part, guys.

It's okay. You can keep going.

I've heard, the rest of it is irrelevant, I've had hundreds of people my age reach out to me in the last couple of days as I've been reaching out, trying to figure out what was the most impressive topic on everybody's heart. And I have heard testimonies and stories of people my age who are just being crushed by the economy and the nation and everything going on, all of the political divide, everything that's happening here. It's been brutal listening to all of these stories of people who can't buy a home, who can't start a family, And there's nothing that we can do about the whole country at a time about social media or whatever the hell else is going on. But we can work on the city because whenever I go driving, I see people playing pickleball at the courts. I see people sitting out at diners and cafes, eating, walking their dogs, riding their bikes. This community has spirit and it has always had spirit. This city, my grandparents have been in this city for 85 years. I know I have friends who have been living here for 100 plus years. This city has spirit. But our generation, my generation, the younger ones coming after me, the spirit is being crushed. It's being shoved down. And we can't do anything about it nationally or globally or whatever you want to talk about. But I implore you council members to hear me whenever I say we need to focus on the future of the spirit of the generations to come, not the future of profits and money-making corporations. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Davis. I appreciate you being here tonight to give that comment and from reading the housing study. I do want to assure you that we have a housing task force and we are looking at putting those solutions into place. So your timing is perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. I do not have any more citizen comment cards. Is there anyone that would like to speak and fill out a comment card after speaking? Seeing none, I will move on to the consent agenda. Are there any items that council would like to pull off for question, further discussion? Anybody? If not, I'll take a motion. I have a motion and a second. All in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Moving on to zoning items. Zoning item A, a public hearing will be held to consider application Z2609 filed by Corey Shaw. This is with Ms. Angela Choi.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council, and Mr. McPhee. The applicant is requesting a rezone of this property seen here on the zoning map. The property is currently zoned heavy commercial zoning. The applicant would like to build some single-family homes on this property. Therefore, it needs to be rezoned. Planning and zoning along with staff recommends approval of this request. I would be happy to answer any questions at this time.

This item does require public hearing, which I will go ahead and open. Are there any questions for Ms. Troy? I have no speaker cards, so I will close the public hearing. Is there a motion?

I move to approve.

I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

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

Aye.

Any opposed? Item is approved. We'll move on to zoning item B. application Z2610 filed by Ricardo Rodriguez in Brooklyn, Miss McCasland, sorry, with Miss Angela Choi.

Thank you. The applicant is requesting to rezone the property seen here on the zoning map in green. Currently, it is zoned planned development for a patio home development that was never built. The applicant would like to subdivide this property into two and just build one additional home here. Planning and Zoning Commission, along with staff, recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

This does require a public hearing that I will open at this time. Are there any questions for Ms. Choi? I do not have any speaker cards, so I'll close the public hearing. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

And a second.

Second.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item is approved. Zoning item C, a public hearing will be held to consider application Z2611 filed by Trent Tutt. Ms. Choi.

Thank you. The applicant would like to rezone this property seen here on the zoning map. from agricultural to single family four zoning district located on the west side of Gilmer Road, north of Blaine Trail. The applicant is proposing to build a single family subdivision. Planning and Zoning Commission, along with staff, recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

This item does require public hearing, but I will go ahead and open. Any questions for Ms. Troy? I have no speaker cards, so I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

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

Aye.

Any opposed? Item is approved. On to zoning item D. Public hearing will be held to consider application Z2612 filed by Karen King. Ms. Choi.

Thank you. The applicant is requesting to rezone this property seen here in the zoning map from light industrial shown here in the gray to single family five zoning district location. south of Sapphire, known as 2614 Lily Street. The applicant is proposing to rezone this property in order to build one single family home. Currently, there is a single family home on the northern property. Staff finds that the proposed zoning change is consistent with our future lane use map and surrounding uses. Planning and Zoning Commission, along with staff, recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

This item does require a public hearing, and I will open it this time. Are there any questions for Ms. Choi? Seeing none and having no speaker cards, I will close the public hearing. Is there a motion?

I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item is approved. Thanks, Ms. Choi. We'll move on to action items. The first action item being to consider an ordinance that repeals and replaces Chapter 46 for our food and food establishments with the Longview Code of Ordinances to update our regulations and permitting procedures for retail food operations and mobile food units. Mr. Michael Shirley.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council, Mr. McPhee. What I'm here to talk to you about is how the city is implementing state law changes into our food and mobile food unit requirements. In the last legislative session, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 1008 and House Bill 2844 that significantly impacted how food trucks are permitted, as well as how local environmental health departments can regulate and permit their brick-and-mortar restaurants. Kind of talking about the brick-and-mortar side first, basically the changes impact that we cannot permit or regulate any stronger or more stringent than what the state does through the Department of Health and State Services. Um, what that means is so like where we used to permit daycares, uh, schools, nonprofits, and things like that, since the state does not permit those, then we're prohibited from permitting them. Um, some cities would have more stringent requirements that they would place on restaurants, such as, uh, noise ordinances or hours of, uh, deliveries and things like that. Um, Really, the city's ordinances aren't going to be impacted because we basically follow the state's recommendations on that. So really, the biggest impact is going to be permit fees. We can't charge permit fees greater than what the state does. And then we can't require permits for anything outside of what the state does. Um, as it relates to the mobile food units, that's where we're going to see the more significant changes. Um, basically that whole state authority is going to shift to, um, to the state. So previously where, uh, this, each of the cities would regulate and have permits for mobile food units, all of that authority is going away. So there'll be one permit required through the state department. um and then all inspections uh any kind of you know follow-up inspections based on complaints that would all go through the state the only authority that the cities will have on the mobile food units will be we can require them to have an annual fire inspection and that can either be done through the city of longview or we have to honor the fire inspection through another uh, agency, um, and then also any zoning related requirements related to where they can locate, how they operate outside of the restaurant side. So like, you know, they have to be located in a parking lot. They can't be located in fire lanes. They can't be located, set up in the right of way. Um, you know, those kinds of regulations that we have more in line with our temporary vendor requirements, those are still be applicable. Kind of going back last year, back in February, we did start the process of evaluating our food truck requirements, and we had a public meeting with that group where we were looking at amending our requirements. We kind of hit pause on that because the state was looking at this, and so we did have a meeting back in August because at that point, Um, the, we knew the food trucks were changing. So we had a meeting with the food truck group to kind of basically introduce them to the changes as we knew it. Um, the state didn't actually publish their website with the permitting requirements and process until last week, but it is live. Um, we have a flyer that is going out in the morning, um, that has the link to our website that has all the updated information and we'll have links to the state's website as far as the permitting process. Um, so we will be working with those food trucks through that transition. And as I understand it, if a food truck already is permitted, uh, with a municipality or with an entity, um, because they're going to be weeks months out before they can do inspections as long as they've applied and paid for that permit and have a permit from an entity they're going to allow them to continue to operate so we'll continue to honor that any new food trucks that have not been permitted from the state though will not be able to continue will not be able to operate until they get a permit and an inspection from the state i'd be happy to answer any questions yeah uh do you know how many food trucks we have permitted now roughly any idea About 20. 20?

Thank you.

And I do want to recognize Deidre Smith, our environmental health manager, who's been instrumental in helping with these changes as well.

Yeah. So when you say we're going to put this information out, we're going to give it to the 20 food truck people?

Correct. We have probably more emails than that. Everybody that attended those meetings, so those that are just interested in doing food trucks, that we have their information, it'll go to all of those.

Okay, super. Any questions for Michael?

Yeah.

First, is there any grace period? I mean, they've been there grace period or how?

So yeah, so if they have if they currently have a permit from an entity, as long as they've applied and paid the fee through the state, the state has said that they'll let them continue to operate. But if the food truck is new and does not have a permit with an entity, they will have to pay the fee and get an inspection before they're allowed to operate.

Make sense.

And so basically our role will be just making sure that they have a state permit, that they have an annual fire inspection, and then making sure that they're following all of the zoning and operational requirements as related to place.

Are we doing the fire inspection or are we allowing outside entities to do that?

We will offer that. We have to honor other inspections. So if they have an inspection done from another fire inspector, we'll honor that. Okay.

Any other questions? Okay, this does require action. If there are no other questions, could I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve.

Second.

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

Aye.

Any opposed? Item is approved. Thank you, Mr. Shirley. Next is consider a resolution approving the market pay plan and future pay philosophy as recommended. That'll be with Mr. Matt Weatherly, who I believe is appearing virtually. Hello, Matt.

Hey, good evening. Can you hear me okay?

Sure can.

Very good. Madam Mayor, members of council, appreciate the opportunity to join in this manner. You've seen me probably enough times, so I appreciate the spot on the agenda. I believe in-house was maybe going to run just a couple of PowerPoint slides for us tonight. So just a quick reminder, we've collected market data, which was used to one, inform the city's competitive market position, establish a going rate for each job description. So we've done a salary survey. We're proposing updates predominantly to the civilian pay ranges and salary table. we have updated and drafted range placements for each classification really flying under a broader banner of city-wide efforts as it relates to recruitment retention we're realigning all job descriptions to market so what's before you this evening is a proposal for adopting the proposed pay plan for civilians i believe considering those market placements at 100 of average and also some language that you'll see on the next couple of slides pointing to kind of how we maintain this including some maintenance procedures and policies a quick reminder for the audience on the next slide is the cost estimate it's kind of split between general fund and across all of the other funds Some highlights here at that kind of $2 million price tag, employees below $20 an hour were probably the furthest behind. And obviously, there's quite a few of those employees. There's an adjustment of anywhere from 3% to as high as 15%. for those individuals, slightly lower percentage increase for employees that are already at above $20 an hour, but again, as low as 3%, as high as 15% that is proposed. And then the following slides really just kind of introduce the idea behind having some policy language that really reinforces and provides some direction to staff. Not so much to remove the council from ongoing conversation as it is really just kind of creating a standard that this and future councils can point to when the staff asks, hey, can we affirm that we want to maintain our salary range placements at market average? We're going to periodically adjust salary tables for considerations such as inflation, whatever market conditions are going on with that caveat of when financially feasible. So we've got that, you know, in our proposed language, really the goal of having that, as I mentioned, is, you know, to recruit and retain. high quality staff having all jobs have a similar relationship to market. There's some flexibility obviously in there so that as we add new positions or we re-evaluate individual jobs, we have an opportunity to follow some existing rules around where we place those positions. Globally, having a policy like this is intended to be personally motivating for employees to recognize their opportunities to come to the city, to stay with the city, to grow and develop with the city. And then, as mentioned, just kind of adjusting as needed those salary range placements. and or the table. You can periodically do salary surveys, you can do those in-house, your staff does an amazing job of tracking what's going on, both kind of pay and benefits, but obviously this was a big city-wide effort that was undertaken. You can do independent analysis every two to four years, every three to five years. Again, really kind of built around the city's recruitment and retention experiences. But the goal then would be having some of those guidelines and guardrails, frankly, for those interim years and those non-survey years where we might consider some type of inflationary adjustment for things like CPI or any other market conditions. And then in practice, Again, you can periodically perform those salary surveys, survey sampling to understand where you are in the market. And then that kind of supporting language really from a practices standpoint is salary range tables can be adjusted, taking into account factors such as inflation and local labor market, the city's budget constraints. So just kind of firming up a few things really that will serve for both future staff, future council, but some guidelines that are also flexible enough that should you identify sustainability constraints or fiscal impact constraints, you've still got the language in there, but really just kind of Back to the beginning, the salary range table for civilians was not regularly adjusted, and so we got behind. This creates some language there that would at least support those appropriate but periodic adjustments to the salary tables to avoid those civilian positions falling too far behind in future years. So I've got that. I'm not sure how the action item language is teed up, but before that, if you have any questions, I'll certainly try to answer them.

Sure. We appreciate your expertise, Matt. Questions, discussion for Matt?

John's got a question. Do we know?

Sorry, go ahead, Shannon.

No, I was just looking at the language on the master agenda, and it just says where we're going in when feasibly possible. Can you give us, like, an example of what y'all are saying when we say feasibly possible, like where we're at now? Because, like, right now we're trying to get everybody to market, so. I want to know at this instance where we're now, what do you feel like we're at as a feasible possible of getting everybody close to market? Because when we're adopting this language, that's what we're seeing, correct? Right. So where are we at right now?

So the number we have that we've discussed, the 2.1, we think that's within the range of something we can accommodate moving forward, as well as some we're working to find across the board. What I would tell you is, if we didn't have the money to do an across the board raise, let's say it was a 0% and we just got people to market, then we wouldn't adjust the table at all for inflation or for market because we don't have the funds available to do that. But it would set the goal for us to always be looking to do that to keep us in line with with the future.

Yeah, it could be like you bring us options kind of like last year, like if we did this, it would cost this. So we could talk about during budget time is when we would actually like vote on setting aside the dollars.

And I guess that's why I'm questioning it. I mean, us doing this because I want to make sure that it still has to be considered in the budget time. Because, I mean, basically because we don't know any revenue. We don't know the numbers of the revenue coming in right now. We don't know what we can possibly do. And I just want to make sure that this is not locking us into something that we can't accomplish and, you know, do false hopes and say, okay, yeah, this is what we're going to do. This is a guarantee that We're going to make this decision when right now we don't even have any numbers, any accurate numbers to make that decision.

I do think the reason and the timing of this being June 11th is because we're having those budget meetings now. And to know what your goals are as a pay market policy, I'm going to work with the budget team and all the directors to get that done in accordance with council's desires on this.

Yeah. And I mean, that's what I'm saying. And we're not part of those discussions. So we don't get the numbers until y'all come back here.

Right. Right. And it does not lock us in. And I think you and I have had conversations about that where I've told you, no, it absolutely doesn't. But it does help set our sights on the target.

Yeah. Figure it out. I know John had a question that I'm coming back to.

Yes. I was just wondering, do we have an idea how often we're going to do the periodic salary surveys and independent analysis? When are we going to be doing?

It feels like a new question. I think if you look at it every year.

We will check it every year, but I think, as he said, whether that cadence be every three years or five years, it depends on the experience of whether we have turnovers or whether we are not able to hire people or whether we have the vacancy factors, then maybe that signals a time that this is something we've got to address because we're not keeping up with it, which is what drove us to this process. That's correct.

I mean, just thinking more systematic would be a better approach, so you're not subjective.

So every three to five years would be our target to look at, depending upon the factors that we're seeing.

Okay. Right. All right, so we're looking at the three to five years instead of, okay.

Yes. Derek.

Just a few questions. First, when was the last time, I know we talked about this before, when was the last time we did a survey like this?

2023. 2023? Yes, sir.

And then kind of echoing a little bit what Shannon talked about with the language, in the resolution it says 100% of market. What does that mean exactly? What's 100% of market comparison cities?

We'll let Matt do that one.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's effectively the average, right? So, you know, we're currently sitting for a lot of our civilian jobs at about 82 to 85 percent of market average. So that's where you do start to see some of the larger increases for some of those lower wage earners. Really trying to create an average, meaning average. now out of these 14 cities still seven are going to pay a little bit more than us and seven are going to pay a little bit less but instead of being third or fourth from the bottom i'm trying to move you up to seventh or eighth you know from the bottom so just average 100 and average is the kind of the interchangeable you could say 50th percentile is also very very similar number um you know and then from there we can you know extrapolate even in years where We can't quite hit average. Maybe we strive for 95% of average or something like that. But 100% in average for these purposes are just average.

Right. So with that, it's basically an aspiration. It's a goal. It's not set in stone. And then same thing, the last part I had was in Section 2 where it says approves and adopts said pay plan. You know, as counsel, one of the main things one of our primary objectives is value in taxpayer money as we do the budget. And I'm kind of echoing what we're going back and not we're not locked into something. This is gives us a got a framework we approved to go into the budget season because you know about 80 of our budget is these salaries and payment and benefits so we want to make sure um i just want to make sure like we're what we're what we're approving tonight is just giving us a framework for this sir we're telling roland and marianne to figure out how to make enough cuts to make this a priority absolutely all right thank you guys being here over on the end you get a lot of your questions answered but uh one of the things uh

I was going to ask Matt, you know, normally three to five years people do these PACE studies. Do you ever see a time that it comes up quicker or somebody allows it to go longer? I'm just curious what you've seen in your experience.

Yeah, I think there's a couple of indicators that we keep tabs on. The American Compensation Association, which is now considered or called World at Work, they do a salary budget survey that's forecasting, and it's always pushed out like six to 12 months. And it starts to create a framework for us as analysts as a guide for what the projected wage and inflation might be. I don't know that anybody saw 2023 coming, but that would be an example where inflation was very high. And frankly, the demand for data was very high. It kind of moved everybody's cycle up. yell a little bit in the maybe 25 years that I've been doing this, I would say that I'm going to stand by the three to five. You're in a very extraordinary market still in that globally, or not globally, but at least statewide, Texas wages have grown pretty aggressively. Right. There's a lot of growth. There's a lot of demand. People trying to bring online things like police, fire, utilities, provide services for those. It's created a lot of competition. That's a little bit different than some of the other states that we do work in. That can be another maybe trigger that moves us faster than kind of that five year cycle. I think in this particular case, your staff having done some sampling, Yeah, we're kind of at a three-year mark, right? So if the last one was 2023, where we supported some sampling, if not surveyed a couple hundred jobs again then, you saw how quickly it moved. And that's largely due to that inflationary hiccup that occurred 23, 24. I would anticipate that with some of the things that the legislature seems to be throwing at you all, that things will normalize for a while. I think there is still a lot of uncertainty in the markets around wage growth a little bit. And so there's kind of a reluctance to you know invest in more staff or increase staffing and so i don't want to get ahead of your budget conversations about what's being requested in your budget with respect to personnel and then with respect to salary and benefits for those personnel uh but i think you you have staff that helps keep track of things like obviously revenue um and then we'll help you with that and that is really just in our travels you know, to say, hey, you know, is it a year where, you know, cities pause a little bit on table movement, but still focus on employee growth, employee step increases, employee general increase across the board, COLA, whatever you want to call that, that still marches along at three to three and a half percent. And I think we're just kind of starting to see being at, you know, 15% behind for some of our jobs or more, those years where we didn't move the scale or we didn't move those jobs. I'm hoping that we would be closer to a four or five year pattern, but in those non-survey years, we'll help with some sampling too, and that'll kind of create some of those triggers balanced against Hey, we're making a lot of change here. We're adopting some expenditure. Did it shore up recruitment and retention? Did we get good feedback from the staff in what we're proposing as part of the budget? Because I want to kind of match that up, obviously, what people's needs are. with what taxpayer expectations are, staffing expectations, council goals and priorities. I think they all it's never a singular kind of one piece. It's I think these four or five things have to come together that create some of these triggers around the timing. But, you know, I don't I don't think there's a proposal there. You know, to, to, you know, change tax rates or, you know, anything like that. So, you know, staff as part of the budget sounds like they're, they're bringing to you a, you know, a balanced, but very intentional, you know, proposition here.

Okay. Uh, 2023 was our last place study. Wasn't it quite a few years prior to that when the one before. Big one. Okay, because I kind of refer to it as like a dog chasing a rabbit. We've kind of been the dog, and the dog isn't really a good thing. We want to be the rabbit. I know we compare ourselves to Tyler a lot, and I'd like to be the rabbit, you know, and people looking for jobs here. And I know we talked about this $2.1 million, and My partner Sydney is not here right now, but we're talking about being able to do this without a tax increase to our constituents. I think that was it because everybody else kind of hit me along the way.

I just wanted to recap how far we are on market for civilians and how far we are from market for police and fire.

Civilian average is about 83% to 85% of market right now, so about 15% behind. And using this full list of cities, we are within 5% of market for police and fire. I'm kind of waiting to see what Tyler decides to do next year because they have been the rabbit in that conversation. Yeah, the numbers change a little bit. look at those 14 survey cities that we're considering simply because we have historically pegged police and fire to Tyler. Tyler pays more than you do, especially at the top out for police officer and firefighter, there's no doubt. They're one of our 14, at least in this salary study. And we wanna obviously keep working with staff around what we're proposing for part of the 2027 budget should those scales need to move. But currently they're in much better shape than the civilian. We're not, you know, intending to leave them out, but they're part of that conversation around. All right. Yeah. What is that 2027 plan to maintain our position in the market?

Perfect. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate council that we've had this pay study done. I think that was driven by council request to review the cities because we hadn't done that in a long time. And so I feel really good that we've updated our peer cities to compare to that sets us in a good position moving forward. And I love that we're having this conversation to just emphasize how important our employees are and their recruitment and retention and all the wonderful things so proud of us but anyway i do can i have a motion to approve second motion and a second all in favor please say aye aye any opposed item is approved thank you matt we'll miss seeing you we'll miss seeing you

You guys have a great summer. All stay in close touch. Yeah, sorry.

That's all right. Next on our agenda is a sad one for me, our presentation to Councilman Ray Wade, who declined having an official reception. So let it be known that we did try to do something official. But this is my time to say nice things about you, and then you get a chance to comment. But Ray, Roland and I were talking earlier today about our favorite thing about you, and it is your sincere love and concern for others. I have no other person that checks on me to like ask how I'm doing. So we had a real rocky start to me being in this seat and you checked on me maybe almost daily to make sure that I was OK, like with a genuine concern for my well-being, not like did we figure it out, but just Kristen, are you OK? And I know you do that for others walking in around here and checking in on them. And I very much appreciate your heart and love for people. uh... that comes across not just with us individually but everything that you do in the community all of the events that you put on that people come to that i know you pay for out of your pocket that you do so much for the community uh... and we got you a special recognition in honor of everything that you have done for broughton and now that uh... facility has a large place in your heart and you are up there playing basketball all the time uh... but i did want to just make sure that we gave you honor and recognition for really pushing the changes we made to our recreational facility fees. I know you talked about that for a long time and asked us to look at it and asked us to look at it and asked us to look at it. And for a long time, we were like, no, Ray, go away. But you pushed it. And because of that, we more than cut in half the family rec fee and made use free. And because of that, the usage at Broughton has more than tripled. And that's your legacy. So I want to thank you for everything that you've done for the city, for all of us, for me personally. You've been a very good friend. We referred to Ray as our statesman during that initial rocky time because he was the calm in the storm. And you could make me mad and you could rile me up, but you couldn't make Ray mad. So we are grateful for your calmness, your demeanor, your love, and all of those wonderful things. And I do want to give you an opportunity to say something after I give you your thing. It is a miniature Broughton Rec Center plaque from 1978. Oh, wow. Yeah, pretty cool. Oh, and Chief Grimes has something to give you, too. Come on up. You can do yours, too.

Honorary fireman?

I mean, maybe.

I am. So in light of your new spare time that you might have and your compensity to stop at fires, I want you to at least look the farts. And I will take your phone call immediately after you call 911. And just be it known that this is the color that we give for probationary firefighters, which typically need a little bit, I won't say a little bit, a lot of guidance and oversight. So, again, my phone, I'll answer it, I promise. But congratulations on your years of service. Thank you.

That's you. That's awesome. Thank you.

This is pretty cool. That is very cool. It's heavy.

I assume you want to say something. Oh. Oh, yeah. Would you like? I'm so sorry.

Yes, if you would like to say something, go for it. No roasting. No roasting. But if you'd like to say something, go for it. I'm sorry.

I can handle it. I know. Yeah.

So I'd just like to say, you know, when you start out in this council thing, you don't know what you're doing, really. And it's kind of like I'm really proud of the time that we've had together, Ray. And I think I'm proud of what we've done the last couple years together. And I really appreciate building relationships with people and friendship with you. I can echo what's been said I mean we've had so many private conversations about things that it's always you've been steady about doing what's best for Longview you love Longview you love all of Longview including Pine Tree I know you do and Longview High and you know you told me one time because we were you know we were you guys might not know but Ray's got a He's a pretty good little basketball player and likes to coach. And I know if he was coaching last night, this person would have definitely won that game at the end. But, you know, he talked about a team, and I think we've become more of a team. But he talked about the team. You know, everybody can't be taking the shot. You know, you have to have a set of teammates. And I'm just letting you know, from my friendship to you, man, best wishes to you. Go take your shot, buddy. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much.

first of all I always say I mean it's a lot to be committed to this city you know and the time that you put in so I always want to thank anybody that puts any much time that you've put in and people might not know but I met Ray, I think, for the COVID drive or Thanksgiving drive or something or whatever, and we end up going to eat. He was like, you know, you talk a lot. You might want to get on a board. And so y'all blame him for me. So good luck on everything that you do.

All right, Rollin, I'm going to let you have a chance. You want a chance? You want to definitely be done? All right, go ahead.

Sure.

ray yeah like as kristen said uh you've been the ballast to the council uh you've been the elder statesman that you know when you spoke we listened and so i appreciate your guidance your loyalty and your friendship uh you've been just a tremendous person to serve with and i learned so much from you and so you will be deeply missed and and felt uh on this council and i'm gonna miss your you know showing up right on time and being right there and and you're oh wait not a roast not a roast okay hold on i was going off no no love you ray appreciate you so much thank you very much i've only got to work with ray a year but i'll never forget the very first meeting council meeting that i had we also went into executive session

And man, the feeling, him talking to me, I felt comfortable because I really didn't know who I was working with and what was going on. And I just, I took it as like you welcomed me into your home. And it meant a lot to me. And since that time, I've got to learn a little bit about you and the children that you've taken on and raised as your own. And I just admire you for that. That's a figure that a lot of people need to look up to and see. You took it on as your responsibility. And I think a lot of people ought to do that. There's things out there you may say, well, it's not mine. I didn't create the problem. But you've got to take responsibility for some things that happen. And Ray has done that. And that's one of the things I've learned. And I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Yeah. And you're still quick.

I take him right ever since he told me he was getting off. I said, You can't be a quitter now.

Thank you so much.

Right. Again, I think the mayor mentioned it, but you calling me out of the blue, stopping by, bringing people that you knew. The one thing you would always do is come into my office and say, Are you doing okay? Are you taking care of yourself? Is everything fine? And I would get calls Out of the blue, and he didn't eat anything. He was checking on me. Now, when he had an opinion on something, I respected him because he came to me and said, I'm going to close the door. And he can be not congenial. He can be very direct and very blunt. But he's always respectful and passionate. I love the person you are. I love our friendship that we've established. And apparently you didn't listen to me when I said, are you sure you want to leave? So we will miss you. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Absolutely.

Would you like to say something?

Yeah, just a quick message. You know, to all my friends and family that are here tonight, thank you guys for being here. The city of Longview means a lot to me, you know, to move away like I did for college and life and all those things and come back and serve the community where you grew up, the street that you grew up on, the neighborhood, is a huge, huge honor. And, you know, to be here, to see this written in Japanese, I'm the only one that can read it, I guess. And my friends in Japan that are watching as well, it says, arigato. And from the bottom of my heart, domo arigato gozaimashita. Thank you very much.

Oh, and there's your picture.

Oh, this is the worst picture. I'll take it. Thank you. Just so you can get rid of it. Ray, we love you. One last thing.

Go for it. Chief Boone, PD, thank you very much for this. You got a couple of people on your force, though, that we need to discuss. Back there, Bray and his partner is running me. Please keep your eye on them, Chief Boone. Keep your eye on the council. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

Well, we love you, Ray, and we're going to miss you. Thank you. We do need to excuse Sidney.

Motion to excuse Sidney. Second.

Motion and second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. I'm going to ask him to send us some more texts about his vacation. All right. Let's get it. Items of community interest. We'll start with Mr. Conley.

Well, I want to... lot of people you may not know this and I want to share it's been last few summers I know that pine tree ISD has free summer meals for any kid it doesn't have to be pine tree student any kids ages 1 to 18 lifted listed a few locations that it happens it'll be monday through thursday breakfast and lunch it's at the pantry primary this is june 1st through june 25th monday through thursday breakfast is at 7 30 um at the elementaries at the high school and junior high it starts at uh breakfast is at 8 30 at the junior high and the high school so if you're in that anybody that wants to come eat lunch at 11 o'clock at the elementaries and 12 kids i mean i know we mentioned earlier the economies um really struggles for a lot of people, so that food's there for the families and kids that need it, so take advantage of it, and shout out to Pine Tree ISD for making that happen. Thank you.

That's awesome.

Ms. Moore?

Yes, I just wanted to talk about our first opening our gospel Juneteenth gospel celebration. We had a packed house at the community center. It was it was very well attended. It was an awesome time. Awesome time of praise. I mean, we really, really, really had a good time. I will thank the committee, the city for helping. It was an awesome time. It really was. We have subcommittees, and so those pictures right there are people from the subcommittee, Mr. Marshall, Terrell Edwards, Phyllis, Regina Wayne, and myself. And it was a good time, and it was well attended.

Was that standing room only?

Yeah, it was. Oh, right. It was. So it was a good time. And then our next event is this Sunday. This is a beauty expo. And what this event is about is celebrating culture, the culture of black people and our hair and everything about everything that we do. And so it is free entry. We have competitions. I got a call from a movie producer that's going to stop by. So a lot of little surprises going on there. Like, I'm really excited about that event. And this is all, like I say again, these are things that the community asked for and that the community literally spearheaded and wanted to jump in there. We have a list of events. Always go to LongviewTexas.gov slash Juneteenth to find out and pick something to come to. I think it's something for everybody. Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So there's this past week, the city of Longview was recognized with four statewide awards for recent communication efforts from the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers. So the city took home four awards. So Tammy Award first place for media relations for the Longview Fire Department Tower Rescue. the award of excellence for our LFD Longview Fire Department Tower Rescue video, award of excellence for our The Bend is Back recycling posters, and award of honor for civic engagement events for our Howling with Laughter improv show with the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center and Duck Duck Moose Improv Theater Longview. So this was, they needed a wagon to get all these out, which is amazing. And this was a, what was great about it was this was a joint event with a different department for each one of them. So Longview Fire Department and Duck Duck Moose and Longview Animal Care Adoption Center. So it's that team collaboration that really brought this home. And so congratulations to the media team and all the other departments that were involved in this as well, too. It's an amazing job. And then the other is we just had our splash day at Ingram Pool, and the total, we had 364 people there. And so it's been packed and hopping ever since. My kids have been able to go there with one of the VVS's, Vacation Bible School. They are going there every week this day, or every day this week, I should say. And when I went there today to pick them up, it was there was a wait line outside. They were at max capacity and they were waiting to get in. And so it was hot.

I guess we need a new pool. We do. So it is.

So once Stanford gets there, it's going to be awesome. There's going to be they're not going to wait in there and have fun with the recreation. So good job to the parks department for the pool maintenance. I know there was a lot of work at ingram pool that had to be done to get this ready uh in addition to that the lifeguard training and everything else that was uh it was great to see all the lifeguards there and them watching out for the kids so great effort parks department everybody else that's involved in keeping ingram pool going and making it a big success that's all mayor thank you

And my next one, my area of community interest, he doesn't even know he's a part of this, but Officer Brown, would you be glad to come up here and show us some of the new garb that is part of police issue? Because I know he's proud of it. He had to step around the corner.

He's not coming back.

Yes, he is coming back. He's coming back or me and Chief Boone will have a conversation. No, I'm teasing. I'm teasing. There we go.

Sorry.

So if you're going around and you see any of our police officers wearing a cowboy hat or boots, they are not out of uniform. We are from Texas, and he's representing us. Thank you for being on the spot with us. And, Ray, thank you again. Thank you, sir.

Okay, I have a couple of things starting with the Great Texas Balloon Race, which is happening tomorrow through Sunday. So please check out their website. There's a lot of really wonderful things happening, including a balloon glow and drone show Friday and Saturday nights and mass ascension Saturday morning. So please get out and go to the balloon race. It's wonderful for families. wonderful for kids. It's a great, great thing that happens here in Longview, Texas that you need to take part of. Juneteenth, we've already talked about it some, celebrations in full swing, standing room only. So make sure and get out and enjoy all of those wonderful events. This Saturday is the Beauty Expo that Shannon talked about and next weekend there are whole host of events I pulled up the website the other day to try and figure out which one I was going to and you could do things really from this Saturday through the end of the month so get out and enjoy some things that people volunteers in our community have been working hard to plan for you to enjoy So please make sure and take part. You can find those activities on our website, longviewtexas.gov backslash Juneteenth. City offices will be closed Friday, June 19th for the holiday, but sanitation, as always, is not impacted. Last, the Youth Advisory Committee. You are almost out of time to apply for that, so if you are a junior or senior, is that right, in high school? Sophomore and junior, sorry, sophomore or junior in high school, please check that out and be part of our first-ever Youth Advisory Committee. We would love to have you. And thank you guys for being here. With that, we are adjourned.