City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, that is my thank you.

I will go ahead and call to order our June 25th, 2026 City Council meeting for the city of Longview. Thank you guys for being here tonight. We're always glad to have a full chamber of people and we appreciate you being here to join us. The first thing that we do is our invocation and pledge. I would like to invite up Beth Godsey, who is the executive director of the East Texas Alzheimer's Alliance, who will lead us in those. Please rise.

If you'd bow your heads, please. Heavenly Father, we've come before you with grateful hearts, thankful for the privilege of gathering together in service to our community. We ask for your wisdom to guide our mayor, city council members, city staff, first responders and all who have accepted the responsibility of serving others. Help us to be a community that cares for one another, especially those who are hurting, lonely, or facing difficult circumstances. Give us hearts that are quick to serve, willing to listen, and eager to extend kindness to our neighbors. We pray for the conversations and decisions made during this meeting be guided by wisdom, respect, and a genuine desire to seek the common good. Help us serve with compassion and always remember that our greatest strength is found in caring for one another. We ask these things in your holy name. Amen.

Amen.

If you'll join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you, Beth. Next on our agenda is citizen comment. I do have two speaker cards. We'll start with Criselda Marquez. Come on up, Criselda. And just as a reminder, if you will please state your name, you do not need to tell us your address anymore. I think you pulled down.

There you go. A little short here. My name's Criselda Marquez, and I wanted to talk about voter turnout for the last runoff. In particular, this runoff with District 3. I want to know where all the eligible voters were for this election. We have approximately 6,000 eligible voters within District 3. That is 67 hours of voting that we gave these people to come out and vote. and we only had 439. Where were y'all? Where was district three? Okay, and I'm sure we've had some other low ones before, but I was part of this. There were 383 man hours that were paid by the city. to be here to help these people vote. And that only came out to the 439 votes, which was only 7.24%. And that's less than six and a half votes per hour. I'm trying to put it here for you. 383 man hours work total. These elections cost money. from renting the equipment to paying the poll workers to process the voters that do show up to vote. It's not just the tax dollars of District 3. It's the tax dollars of all of Longview. And it's just not your District 3 tax dollars. You've got to remember that. It's your representation as well that is at stake here. If you're concerned about your district not getting the same attention as others, which is not the case, but that's what we hear over and over, District 3 gets overlooked, you have to get out and vote. So who is responsible for getting all the word out to vote? The candidates can only do so much. Thank you, Brandon and Marlena. The rest of it falls on all of us registered voters. Just get that word out. that includes the on outgoing council member and the mayor i was disappointed that neither of them mentioned the runoff election day that thursday before it may have been mentioned prior to that but that runoff election day was not mentioned we have to do better thank you thank you miss marquez uh next citizen comment i have is from katie estrada

What a great person to piggyback. I kind of agree with a lot of the, what she said. Um, so I'm a little bit nervous and the AC went out in my car, so I'm sweating a lot. So we're gonna start with that. Um, so good evening mayor esteem members of our long view city council. My name is Katie Estrada. proud resident of District 3 since 2019. I'm here this evening as a physical representation of my open mind, my open heart, and my open arms to welcome our new city council representative, Mr. Brandon Smith. Mr. Smith, as a constituent of District 3, let me be the first to say that I stand with you. I'm here to work with you. Thank you for seeing a need in our community and stepping up to serve. District 3 is home to a large part of Longview's history. Some of the businesses and institutions that are here have been here long before the Loop was ever even an idea. Our average median income is lower than that of our neighboring districts. We have a higher crime rate. We are host of the largest portion of foot traffic for our unhoused neighbors. District 3 looks, smells, and feels different than the rest of Longview. But what you don't see in the statistics is the heart that comprises our residents. You don't see the many organizations that have aligned in partnerships that have been forged to address the needs of our community. You can't Google the rate of how many neighbors have reached out and fed each other, clothed each other and supported each other during our time of need. This is the spirit of South long view. And this is my home, Mr. Smith. I love you, man. I ask you with this new position that you bring a spirit of love and compassion. you remember the many eyes that look up to you with the trust to advocate for our needs you are able to make a tangible difference in the lives of our community and i have faith that you will be a great steward of that responsibility tonight i speak not only on my behalf but on behalf of the young gentlemen that are here with me our youth are our future and providing a safe community in which our children can thrive is of utmost importance to me These young men and their peers will look to you as an advocate, as a teammate, and as someone they can call who cares about their needs. Thank you for carrying the torch. Thank you for stepping up. Thank you for caring enough to be the boots on the ground. I look forward to being on your team, to working with you to help our neighbors and our neighborhoods, and to building a bright future for our youth to step into. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Strada. I do not have any more speaker cards. Is there anyone that would like to give a citizen comment and complete a card after speaking? If not, we will move on to our next agenda item, which is oath of office presentation of the oath of office to council member elect for district three, Mr. Brandon Smith with our city secretary, Ms. Lily Duenas.

Would you like to have somebody with you? You ready? Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name.

I, Brenda Smith.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully execute.

That I will faithfully execute.

The duties of the office.

The duties of the office.

Of city council member.

Of city council member.

Of the city of Longview.

Of the city of Longview.

And the state of Texas.

And the state of Texas.

And will.

And will.

To the best of my ability.

To the best of my ability.

Preserve, protect, and defend.

Preserve, protect, and defend.

The Constitution and laws.

The Constitution and laws.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

And of this state.

And of this state.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Brandon, we'd like to give you a chance to say something if you'd like to, and then if you'd like to invite folks up to take a photo, I know you got a lot of people here to support you.

I'd like to say thank you to, first and foremost, Lord, I gotta say thank you to my God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because for me, this was an assignment. This wasn't nothing that I prepared myself for, something that I planned on doing. God put an assignment on my life to come to this city and to help make a change. I thank everyone who had to spend their time to come out and vote. But most importantly, I can't thank my family enough for the hard work that they put into this. You know, my mother set the tone for what we wanted to do. You know, the first door we walked up to, you know, nowadays there's ring cameras out and a lot of people don't want to open the door, so you have to talk to the ring camera or talk through the door. She didn't care. She'll talk to you through that door. You know, she talked to that ring camera. But at the end of the day, for me, what I saw was a woman that wanted you to know about her son. She had a message that she wanted you to hear about her son. So we couldn't fall short of what she was doing. She set the tone. And each and every person on my team did that same exact thing. We took no days off. And it was hard for me after the first run to – I know it was going to be a long shot to win in a five-person race, but it knocked the wind out of me because it was hard for me to ask for more of your time. But they gave it anyway without me even asking once for it. So I appreciate that. I want the city of Longview and the district that I serve to believe in me, because I believe we can accomplish a lot together. I believe iron sharpens iron. That's why everybody that's up here on this diet, we have to work together. We have to do what we are called to do. We have to be responsible to make the right decisions. And we have to do it for the city of Longview, each and every person in Longview. For every citizen in Longview, we have to do our jobs for them. So I just pray that we can just get it done. We pray for your support and ask that you just have an open mind to what we have in store. And I just want to thank everybody again. Everybody I met with this week as well, thank you all. Every conversation I had with each head of every department, it meant a lot to me because you opened your doors to me. You opened your book. and showed me what you had going on personally in your own department. That was great to be able to experience as well. I want to thank the NAACP who, when we ran into problems with voting, they answered my calls. I didn't know who I could call legally. I didn't know who I could call or who I wasn't supposed to call, so I reached out to them. And the NAACP alone, you can't run it, you know, told me, okay, hey, this is what you do. This is not what's, you know, supposed to happen. So without them, this thing could have went another way. So I appreciate them for taking their time out to answer my call and to come out to make sure that things were corrected that were wrong or things that were mistakenly happening, they came and made sure that they educated all of us, especially myself. So thank you, NAACP of Longview as well. And I thank you all again, city of Longview.

OK, we will move on to our next item, which is community recognition. I know I have a lot of great Texas balloon race folks here. If you guys want to come on up, we're going to take a photo and talk a little bit.

You know, you're good. Thank you guys for being here.

We just wanted to take a minute and celebrate the Great Texas Balloon Race. It's amazing volunteers who have been doing it for how many years now? 49 yes and what that means to the city of Longview so it's not just a fun weekend while it is certainly that and I enjoy taking my children there every year it is much more to the city of Longview than a fun weekend so I wanted to bring you here tonight to celebrate that publicly Shawn worked really hard to help me with some numbers that I'm gonna use tonight but In addition to, of course, the strong local support, the balloon race estimates that more than 4000 visitors this year come from out of our area. So that's not people in Longview buying tickets or supporting it. And, you know, we have lots of sponsors, lots of pilots, lots of vendors. We love this event. This is 4000 people that have been brought to the city of Longview that come here, stay in our hotels, spend their money buying food and gas, and that has a large economic impact. So your volunteer hours are not just creating memories and great family events that people come to for decades. They are bringing economic impact here to Longview, and that means something to everybody. So I just wanted to recognize you for that. Also, Sean told me 24 other states People came to the Great Texas Balloon Race from 24 other states. That's amazing. Altogether, we estimate conservatively that this event creates an economic impact in Longview of over $1 million from the spending power of those visitors that would not otherwise be here. Those are people coming from more than 90 miles away to be here in Gregg County. I just want to celebrate all of your efforts. I know putting on an event like that takes hours and hundreds of hours and that you sacrifice that time from your family and your loved ones. But please know from the bottom of my heart and all of Longview that we appreciate all of your efforts and all of the time and sacrifice. It does not go unnoticed. And we just wanted to celebrate you guys tonight. So thank you so much for all that you do.

I'll just say, you mentioned this was our 49th year. Next year, we'll be celebrating our 50th year. This is just a 10th of our working board. We are an all-volunteer organization. There's not one paid position in this organization, and we could not do it without the people who dedicate themselves year round to this event. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you gay Rhonda One two three

One more. One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you very much. Thank you.

Next on my agenda. Next is presentation of a proclamation recognizing June as Alzheimer's Awareness Month. That's with our Alzheimer's Alliance friends, Beth, and all East Texas Alzheimer's Alliance folks. Come on up. Volunteers, board members, everybody that's here for the Alzheimer's Alliance, I see your shirts.

This is for a photo, but then that helps for you to take.

Do you want to say something before I give you your proclamation? What is my privilege tonight to do the proclamation for the East Texas Alzheimer's Alliance. When did you form? In 2017, there were a number of medical professionals that got together in Longview that realized Alzheimer's resources were lacking here for families that were dealing with Alzheimer's or dementia. The Alzheimer's Association does a great job with their walk and with research. However, for local resources, there was a gap. The Alzheimer's Alliance provides a day facilities and club, as well as awareness, education, support groups, uh, respite, uh, life bands. They do a lot of things. Please check them out. If you have a loved one that is in need or a family member that could learn. Uh, but it is my privilege tonight to declare June 25th, 2026 as Alzheimer's awareness month, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias affect millions of Americans and countless families, friends, and caregivers. who face the challenges of memory loss, cognitive decline, and the emotional and physical demands of caregiving. Nearly seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, and countless family members, friends, and caregivers provide daily support, often sacrificing their own time, health, and resources to care for a loved one. Caregivers are the backbone of dementia care providing compassion, patience, and support through one of life's most difficult journeys. Increasing awareness and understanding of Alzheimer's disease and related dimensions can help reduce stigma, encourage early detection, connect families with resources, and foster dementia-friendly communities. Organizations such as the East Texas Alzheimer's Alliance work tirelessly to provide education, caregiver support, respite services, safety programs, and resources for individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer's disease and other dementias through East Texas. It is my privilege, on behalf of the City of Longview, to recognize the importance of supporting caregivers, honoring those living with dementia, and promoting hope through education, advocacy, and community engagement. I, as Mayor of the City of Longview, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Alzheimer's Awareness Month in the City of Longview. Congratulations. on up.

So we're in a line and then we'll take volunteers that work at the day club and some of my board of directors are here as well. Thank you. Let me give you one. Thank you.

Next on our agenda is a virtual presentation, which is to have a presentation of safety audit proposal by Hub International Risk Services. That's with Matt Gilmore. Hello, Matt.

Hi there. How are you today?

Good. We can't hear you super well. Let us turn up the volume real quick. Try again.

I'll try to do the same. Hi. How are you today?

Perfect. We are doing well. Thank you for being with us.

That's great. Thank you. And I wish I was there with you guys. You guys look like you have a very fun and engaged community. So I'll try to be brief. We have a PowerPoint presentation and, oh, excuse me, David Bell, my colleague, is also joining me today from Hub. David, I don't know if you wanted to say anything.

Area president for Hub Dallas. Thank you for having us.

Thank you. So I'm Matt Gilmore. I'm from Risk Services Division here at HUB. I'm Senior Vice President and I oversee our regional team. Our local manager for Texas is on vacation, so he could not join us today, but he developed our proposal and I'd be happy to be brief and go through our proposal and answer any questions you may have. There goes alright so so hub international who we are, we are a group of. Over 100 consultants across the north of North America, but we feel like a regional a close local team supporting Texas we've got several members locally but we're backed up. by over 100 consultants all across the country, bringing a wide variety of technical skills and safety and risk management. In fact, some of our consultants are city council members themselves. So they're very community-based folks, but also bring a ton of applicable experience for risk management city government as risk managers. So it's very applicable skills, but we bring that expertise to you locally because we leverage that to bring a wide variety of skills as needed as we continue to work with you and figure out what's needed as resources. So I just want to introduce us real quick. As we move forward into our main goal is really to just preserve what makes you guys operate well, make sure that we're building resilience within the community, but also making sure that we're protecting your assets, right? Like we're making sure your people, the assets you have from a property or liability that we look at using all those resources to fully leverage and maintain your risk management programs. And we do that through a wide variety of areas. So we're very skilled and very experienced in either helping folks with base level things like regulatory compliance, all the way through to doing risk assessments, providing training, cyber protection. It's a wide variety of expertise from property risk to risk liability, auto liability. We bring all that and we have over 20 industry specialties that could be applicable even to city government. So if you think about the transportation space or you think about construction, all those things come to play. But we can't get involved until we become strategically aligned with your needs and we build that trust, so one of the key things that we believe is that it's best to be. connected to our clients as far left of loss as possible what that means is is that when you're farthest left of loss that's where you have time to strategize and think about. risk exposures, figure out what could be a potential loss versus when you're working a right of loss where you're in a panic or you're in a crisis. That's where you can't be strategic. That's where you have to react. This proposal is really built around that far left of loss approach where we can really slow things down and look at what's going on within the city and all the departments and answer that RFP that you put out and give you some intelligence. So I'd like to just really focus on that for a minute. What we're foreseeing is a five part plan that would take about 130 days to accomplish with a buffer zone of a couple days in case we have some scheduling issues or additional time that's needed. But our first step is foundational. This is where we look at the data, the analysis of the losses, what's happened in the past really predicts the future. And that'll give us guidance on where to direct those risk control resources. And then we're going to take that and bring that to the city and present our findings and make sure that we have alignment that you agree with what we're seeing as far as what key departments need to be and what priorities we need to focus on. And then that's where we do our site level work. And we identify physical hazards, but also looking at your programs in place, but also looking at it through interviews of your staff and your leadership, understanding what the culture is. And from that, we develop an assessment, a risk assessment report, as well as working with looking at some of the industrial hygiene exposures that I know is critical to this proposal. And we provide that series of recommendations to you in a unified report along with a corrective action plan. And these aren't things that we just tell you what to do. These are things that we agree upon are of value and come to an agreement and timeline that makes sense for you. And that's all packaged up in the final executive presentation. So if I could just focus on that a little bit, when we're talking about phase one, that is really truly about the loss trend analysis. This is where we look at frequency as well as severity of losses, because those are both very important. We look at key loss drivers. We try to map out what areas of loss are most important and really steer our focus because we want to make sure that everything we do on site is important and value added to you and has the highest leverage focus. Phase two is really an example. This is an example of what we're looking at in phase two is showing you trend analysis in a way that you prefer to look at. We always look at frequency and severity, but we can break down this in numerous ways as we work together and we can customize this as the city guides us. And then phase three, this is really where we look at the overall operational risk the organization, we look at leadership and governance that could be through the inner interviews of of department leads. Talking to other leaders within organization really understanding how you set the tone, looking at the regulatory policies and procedures and how those are implemented. but also looking at those physical hazards and how you address those as well. I mentioned earlier the industrial hygiene areas specific to noise and other chemical exposures, and then evaluating those policies and procedures. With that, we'll be on site. We've targeted key departments that we need to go take a look at. Those have been identified. We will take firsthand with experienced folks in that industry, taking a look at that, providing you with a department by department summary of findings. And then finally, our action plan will be driven based on priorities. What are the high risk to medium risk and focus on those with the lower risk areas being less of a priority. But again, this will be done in concert with the city. And phase four is really building up those internal skills so you're self sustainable and that's where we will support internal training, bringing that expertise that we learned from our findings to the city so that you're more self sustaining and then we will look at this, not just from a regulatory perspective, but what is it that aligns with your culture and what are you trying to drive within the city. So in our briefing, what we'll tell you is, what did we find? This will be a repeat of why we're doing what we're doing. Key findings based on priorities and risk, establish potential costs. So those are also put into your consideration with our recommendations and our corrective action plan. So what we'd like to do is work with you, pull that data together, develop that first level of our project, really wanna exercise our expertise, show you how the city benchmarks with its risk against like industries and other organizations that we've seen and we have experienced with firsthand and build that partnership with you, not just provide a report or be just an outside vendor, but someone that we can really partner as we are currently, but expand that partnership with the city. And finally, Where are we? We've got folks all around the great state of Texas, and we have a ton of resources with a tremendous amount of experience that will serve the city well, including, like I mentioned before, city government risk management, also law enforcement on the DOT side, as well as very solid consultants that are excellent at safety and health services. And with that, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Matt. What questions do we have for Matt?

Did I understand correctly that 130 days would be about the approximate time to receive results?

Yeah, that's what we're looking at is the overall project would be 130 days. So, yeah, we would get to as long as we get all the site visits completed and all those dependencies that we have, we're forecasting that would be the time frame.

OK, and I don't think you mentioned it, but I saw it in the original proposal. Do you know how many days on site your proposal included?

That I can't answer. I didn't write the proposal. That's where Jim grieves. I can provide that. Okay.

Is there any, um, just for my knowledge, is there any touch points in the 130 days back with council or is that all done with staff throughout, um, during that timeframe? Does that question make sense? Yeah, during the 130 days, is there at any point that that comes back to council where we're looking at findings or is that all done with staff during the 130 days?

We can customize that to whatever your needs are, but we're foreseeing that we would have checkpoints throughout the presentation. What we're envisioning is a formal checkpoint at day 50 to make sure that our preliminary findings are in line. If that's with whatever audience you need, that can be completed.

Okay, I understand. I see some questions over here. Derek?

Yeah, I just noticed, Matt, you mentioned that we had some consultants, one in DFW, Sean, and then Phillip in Houston. Will they be working with us, or will you be involved with that?

I will not be involved in the project. Jim Greaves is the local manager, and he has the team that he will leverage, Sean and Phillip, because they have that expertise. But if we need to bring in additional consultants, we can do that. It's very easy for us to flex and flow.

Did I hear you mention that you had some areas you wanted to prioritize right now? Can you share with us some things that you would focus on to start with?

What we would do is look at your losses first. That would be the priority would be to look at your data because that would steer us towards looking into priority areas. And I'm at a disadvantage because I personally just don't know the city as well as Jim does. But what I would do is you've identified some key departments that you mentioned in the proposal that we would look at around the water treatment facility areas for obvious reasons, and that's where we would look at those key sites.

And I'll add that we worked with Lee Lloyd and his scope of operations and scope of services for us to kind of focus in on, so to speak.

Okay, thank you, guys.

Thank you. Janet? Are we focusing on one department or are y'all doing, is this the one that had the more than one, all of them? and then so in 19 days on site y'all are going to look at all departments yes yes so how many staff will be able to look at our departments within 19 days we foresee leveraging three three per department over the over the group we'll have to look at the size of the department and balance that out And can we go back to the slide on, it was in phase three, but I think it's another, I wanna say it was the second slide. So when I look at this, the leadership, governance, regulatory and legal compliance, how far do y'all go back and what do y'all pull?

We look at five years of lost data to drive our data, but we look at your current policies and procedures. So if we're talking about what are you managing to, from a regulatory perspective, we look at your policies you have now or the most recent ones you have. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, but what I would be more interested in is like, so of course we're doing this based on an incident, like how far based on that incident, like would you be able to go back and kind of trend from that incident and see the areas that you need to go to? Like what would be y'all's process?

Well, we would look at the last five years because that's what really drives a lot of the current. That's typical because that's where we look at cost because workers' comp mods settle down after three years. So we would look at that as our tail. If you felt like we need to look further in time, that's no problem. It's just a typical approach. Then we would look at, again, those key departments. Where is the frequency and severity coming from? If it's a frequency issue, then we know that it could be an opportunity to look at loss prevention. If it's a severity issue, like higher average cost per claim, we know that there could be some injury management issues or some other type of programs or just severe cases. I work with the second largest city in Illinois, and one of the things that was a big challenge is some of the post-injury policies that drive up some of those costs that are a concern for the city. And that's the primary issue we're trying to tackle. However, you might find that you have a frequency issue that we need to address with safety management training and other types of processes. The challenge is that we can't direct our solutions yet without really diagnosing your problem and making sure we're all on the same page.

Okay, and I saw on there on one of the slides you were talking about the expertise. what kind of expertise and experience are y'all saying that y'all have as far as public works and things like that?

Yeah, sure. So in general, I mean, just city specific, one of our consultants there in Texas was the risk manager for a water district there in Texas. Plus the other person was with Texas DOT and law enforcement. We've all got over 20 years of average experience. We're all credentialed board-certified safety professionals, so we bring that technical expertise as well as the practical expertise as well.

OK, thank you.

That's all I have. Matt, would you tell me what loss data means that you're pulling when you're looking? Oh, sorry.

Workers comp data, your general liability data could be important, but mainly workers comp.

So that would point to injuries on the job that we would be pulling and looking at? OK.

Correct. Basically, your claims history. Claims history. Thank you. So we get mired in our own dialogue sometimes. Thank you.

Thank you. Derek, go ahead.

Just an observation and a question, Matt. Your company, you know, in some of the slides it mentions about loss, you know, as far as workers' comp, the risk analysis with insurance. Would you say, are we, because we want to find, obviously, our responsibility is keeping our people safe, and I just want to, I guess one of the last questions I have is, is this analysis geared more towards cost effectiveness or making sure we're doing the right protocols to keep our employees safe?

Oh, it's both, but we use that as a lagging, we call it a lagging indicator because what's happened in the past is going to tell us how you're doing what you're doing around the culture. So what we do is that just as an indicator of what we're seeing and where the problems could be symptoms of a bigger safety management issue. what we do is through the interviews, from what we see, what we see and feel in the written documents you have, the interviews we do with your employees and your leaders, that all comes together to tell us a story. So it's going to help you develop that the gaps in your safety culture. It's going to help you identify regulatory issues, which lead to that financial performance. But the primary concern is helping you guys identify where there's gaps in your safety culture and improving your safety maturity, if you could look at it that way. But these are just tools we use to figure out where to start. Thank you.

Who else has questions? John. You're talking about comparing against the peer benchmarks.

What are you comparing on that? Is that data? Is it going through their current procedures? What does all that entail for that?

Yeah, there's a couple tools we can use. One is, again, back to workers' comp mod. That's one factor, but it's difficult with a lot of our city clients. And then you have OSHA data that you can use. But again, that's difficult. One of is look at your own data and look at how you guys have performed year over year inside that data to compare where's your average cost per claim going, where are your frequencies changing. It could be based on your payroll. That's an exposure basis. So we try to make this, use those benches to compare your performance, if that makes sense.

Yeah, thank you.

any all right okay I think there's one difference I've been in private industry for a long time and there we have the OSHA regulations which come in but I found out after talking with the city staff that we do not We're not subject to OSHA, so it's up to the city here to set our safe work standards and such as that. And I think my concern, or my thing I want to see out of this, when you mention dollars and cents, We're not really talking about dollars and cents. What we're talking about is how we can effectively take the money that the citizens pay us and use that in a most efficient manner all the way through. Fire department, waste department, Every service we provide, we want to make sure that we do that in an efficient manner so we can effectively use the tax dollars we receive. And then right on top of that, we want to make sure we have a safe work environment. So I think that's, in my opinion, that's the two things we're looking at, efficient use of the taxpayers' money in a safe work environment.

Do you have a question for me? I agree with you, but I can explain how this aligns with you.

I just wanted to emphasize as a council person and as a council the things that we're looking for you to help us with and what we're paying you to help us with.

Yeah yeah yeah I think that that's a that's a that's a true statement, I think, if you think about you're right, I mean with OSHA standards, however, we're seeing in other states that that's no longer true in New Mexico, for example. we're seeing county governments being held accountable for regulatory standards. And I don't know if that's gonna change with Texas, but the thing is that while your comment about OSHA is true, we, I would hope, would wanna exceed OSHA standards because that is a legal base, right? And if you think about the things that, from a reputational risk or an indirect cost of these things, we don't want these to happen at all because we want to be a employer of choice we want to have people like feel good about working there and also feel safe right so it's not even really it's really not even about osha at all it's just one uh uh milepost that we can measure to see how we're doing we want to go beyond that and that's what we're trying to do here and i think that uh It makes a lot of sense, but I also know there's competing competing dollars in budget focus areas.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Did you have a comment, Jody?

I do have a question and mine's just kind of once you get done with the city and you've spent 120 130 days with them going over everything. what have you kind of find found out uh as a final result you know hey we kind of recognized x amount of problems or issues uh we made uh a change in a certain percent of protocols that was going on uh just kind of looking at hey what are we going to be seeing at the end

Yeah, so you'll get a full report on what we did in the corrective action plan. And then that's where our project would potentially end. And then we would either, because that's really where the scope of what was proposed in the RFQ. We'd happy to re-engage the city and talk about what follow-up is there or what stewardship is there or what resources are needed moving forward.

i i guess what i was looking at is in for your history of cities and municipalities that you've worked with what have you kind of that's what i was looking for the end result have you seen a lot of changes do you kind of find out hey and i know it's going to vary from city to city the way things are managed but i mean uh what are you looking i mean just put us in an average you know we recognize six problems that we know need to be addressed or know we run across more. That's what I was looking for.

Yeah, I mean, and I'm coming at you from Chicago, Illinois. So that's, my perspective is different and Jim would probably tell you something different locally. But what we see is, you know, we identify some problems that are really major, but we have, either labor issues or something that are big barriers. What we do is we try to chip away at the things that make the most sense. For example, implementing workplace violence or cyber programs or other policies like training and education, like defensive driver programs that will chip away at that. We've seen success with that, especially being in the insurance industry, we have carrier partners that we bring with that as well. We identify what you're willing and can do with your resources because we can't overwhelm you either, right? So, yeah. So, I mean, it's really, we identify the things that are priorities to us, but if it's not a lineup with you guys, then we try to chip away what we can do.

Are we looking for measurable things? Yes. Yeah. Exactly.

Oh, I mean, I mean, yeah, I'd say we look at, we look at frequency, right? Accident frequency. We can look at the dollars. We look at, you know, if you have engagement programs, we look at increased engagement. If that's when you're, particulars and it's really back to what do you want to measure are you trying to measure near misses are you trying to look at potential violations those are things that we can score in our assessment tool and then we could come back and re-score you to see if those points have changed I hope that answers your question I don't think I'm answering it very well yeah I

Would you have an example of a recommendation for corrective action that would include training specifically? I mean, you kind of rattled off a couple of those that corrective action might include defensive driving training or others. I mean, I think we kind of anticipate that corrective action might include some additional training. So maybe give some examples of what that might look at. Like, is that classes, certification, time, daily meetings? I mean, what could that look like?

Yeah, it's a good question. Okay, so let's say we have... a recommendation related to respiratory protection. That could be things that we put in that are gonna require classroom training. It could be use of a local medical provider for respirator testing, documentation. It could relate to, like I said, a follow-up with that in observations. It's a broad thing to answer without us really digging into it, but if you look through the regulatory standard, there's different performance criteria for all those things.

OK, did you want to say something wrong?

Well, you know, when you go and look at cities, do you find like three critical things and two medium things and then a dozen of those? I think it's kind of I know it varies from but that's what he was looking for. How many have typically how many high critical things do you find and then how many mediums and low?

in a general overview of an organization i see i see i'm sorry i'm maybe it's uh it's late in the day for me so uh yeah we're gonna find typically we're talking texas we're all talking texas here sorry yeah i mean we typically find we we typically find three to five things that are hot right that's that's that's it's either going to be a frequency driver or a big cost driver, and they could be both. Like, let's say, for example, you got several confined space areas that could relate to a concern anytime. It could be some broad like that, right? So with that, we have tackled that through training. It could be even additional vendors we bring in. You're going to have obviously more of those mediums, not as much as the lows. And we're going to see a ton of those low priority things. We typically just let know them and we don't even focus on because they're not going to be impactful for you so sorry. it's just hard to answer because, with all the departments, we have and we just haven't had a chance to see you I don't. I don't know your current state of your safety program or how good or where it's ads it's really hard one for me to answer this.

no that that's that's more what i was looking for because i didn't want you to all of a sudden show up at the end and say well here's how many you've got and all of a sudden if we're at 10 and three to five's norm we got to step back and be but if we we come in in that range or under it we know that hey we're doing a pretty good job let's pay attention to what we're doing so thank you i'm glad you asked it that way but jody i'll tell you i mean it's it's if we if we if we're working at the first site visit and we're coming out of there with with

15 like super important recommendations we're gonna call time out and be like wait a minute we got to start tackling stuff now, because those are going to be issues, so I think it's going to be. will make it manageable so we're not overwhelming.

just following up it's like the measurables so we've got this 130 days so matt like what's the like is there a follow-up period so like we'll know like you'll come back and go hey we'll have we'll know what we did was successful i guess that's the way it looked like we're dealing with taxpayer money how will we know with what the your with your accountability from hub your services that it benefited Longview, the city of Longview. How do we know? Will there be a follow-up, like say after the 120 days, that we'll be able to measure like, hey, your findings helped us save this many accidents or, you know?

Yeah, we haven't designed that into this proposal, but we could easily do that. That's not a big lift for us. What we would do is... show you the action plan, figure out where your resources are that you need. We probably, there might be an opportunity to scope those resources out. Let's say you say, I want a six month look. I mean, it's really hard to, see a huge drop after six months, it may be a year. And we could come back and rescore this, repeat what we did and show where we're at. It could be, you might say, Matt, you know, we found that our average cost per claim or accident frequency in this department was really high. come back and look at it after a year and we see if it's gone up or down, could include interviewing some employees to see how the culture has changed. Without knowing all your KPIs that you guys are utilizing, it's pretty broad, but we could build that in if that would help you guys with this project.

Good question. Go ahead, Janet. Okay, I think what would be good is like if we did come up with a scope and we know exactly what we want because we already know what we're kind of looking at. And if we come up with a scope, do y'all do that where we can kind of tailor what we want you to focus on and let you come back with that? Because I think it'll be more better for us.

uh that's is that that's a question for me yes yeah our proposal is following your your your scope of work that's defined that we got through um through lloyd uh if it's if it's different than that uh we're happy to reevaluate that if you have more details yeah so yeah i think matt we see it as a benefit that you would look at the entire city but that we might like to prioritize where you spend yes yeah and that's what i was looking at because i look at the 19 days on site

And we really have priorities on what we want you to focus on rather than spending the 19 days on site. That 19 days on site is going to be real critical. So and then I also want to know, how are you going to do those 19 days or those 19 days planned? Do you just come unexpectedly? Because I think in that way, well, the thing about that is that I'm saying that to say that when you're coming in and doing a safety audit, you kind of don't want everybody to know, hey, I'm coming on June 1st. That's the day that I'm coming. So once you start, I know you got to come in and meet the team, but I do think those 19 days, one of those days should be a day that you drop in. You've already kind of noticed what you've seen and I need you to come back and follow up on what you saw.

that make sense yeah yes yeah so so when you think of the visit we're we're going to have those it's you know the inspection piece that yeah that can be just done with that announcement uh but we'll of course make appointments with people that we need to interview with make sure they're available that they have time uh and those kinds of things so okay good good perfect all right everybody done with questions for matt

Okay. So we have two agenda items. That's presentation. And I think, Matt, we're going to let you go at the end of our presentation here and then move into our discussion. But I'll let you know if we have additional questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all.

Nice to see you.

Appreciate you. The next item on our agenda is just a discussion. So I just wanted to have open time after the presentation for those, I guess, here with us tonight are listening. Council has received multiple requests for this service from other providers. And so this is just open time for us to discuss hub presented. I think they were one of our higher picks. Um, but so do we want to hear from other people? Do we want to discuss? I just want to hear from you guys where we're at. I mean, I definitely want to hear from other people.

I don't want to just go with the first one that we have. I want to hear from other people.

Okay. So you would like a presentation from the national safety council at next meeting whenever they can. Yes. Okay.

Do we have a history with this company?

Uh, with hub? Yes. Uh, Marianne, do you want to answer that?

Yes and no. Uh, we have, we definitely have a history on the health side,

we have used them on the risk side back in 2018 but we haven't used them since on the risk side we have continued to use them on the health side from 2017 forward I just think I just echo what we just mentioned what Shannon brought up I think prioritizing what we need to work on you know figuring out what we want to prioritize is a need and then making sure that it's done in the most advantageous way possible and then the last thing is like a follow-up to where they have some accountability whatever company we pick to where we're actually it's not just a consultant firm that they you know the actions that they use to help us we can they're you know they we they're going to have a follow-up like we may i think he mentioned maybe you need even 12 months out after the first actions yeah that's just i just think that makes sense

It makes sense to me. What do you guys think about timing? Go ahead.

Real quick. So the sounds like, you know, moves on the ground is important. Signing to counsel. What was the timeline of how long they will be here versus the other ones that we've heard from?

OK, so we have timelines on GC for and National Safety Council. National Safety Council is at 45 days for the full assessment. but four days on site.

Four days on site.

And GC4 is at 10 weeks for the length of assessment and 25 to 30 days on site over those three phases.

So this is the longest one of 130 days? It is, 130 days and 19 days on site. 19 days on site.

shannon what did you ask me oh no they answered it okay is there a big variance in the cost of these three yes there is hub comes in at 66 000 gc4 comes in at 86 134 and then national safety council comes in at 123 000 120 000. so national safety council is only here for how many days they are here for four days four days and it's 120 000. they're they're from they're based out of dc

And this one's the most regional one then?

Well, GC4 is actually based in Longview. Okay. Hub is based, the risk side, based in San Antonio, as he said.

GC4, how many days are on the side, 20?

They are here 25 to 30 days over the three different phases. So they'll come in, then they'll back out, then they'll come back in, so they do that three times.

And they're 10 weeks? Mm-hmm. And he said their cost was?

$86,134.

I mean, I'd be more asked to hear from GC for the next season.

Absolutely. Especially local.

Tell me about timing, though, because I've gotten some pushback on how long we've taken to get here. Is this a special call meeting you guys would like to have or you'd like to just hear them present at the next meeting? Or what do you what? What's the thoughts?

I mean, as soon as possible that we can actually hear from you.

OK, like you would be OK if I called a special called meeting.

We all came to you and I mean, that's I think preference would be next meeting on this. I mean, What's the process with the contracts and how that starts?

If we have a presentation at the next meeting, then we'd be voting at the following meeting unless you wanted me to set it for presentation and vote next meeting.

We don't do well with that.

Right, we don't do well with that. So if I did a presentation at the next meeting, then it would be a month away that we'd be voting at the soonest.

And that's fine. I mean, it's I mean, we want to do it right. So I don't think there's anything wrong.

I just I've gotten some feedback about it being.

And GC four is ten weeks that we get a report quicker in that in that regards. The other question I had to and this is just something I guess not even a question, it's more of a comment. I'm understanding of the scope of work and prioritizing and things like that. One thing I I like to empower the people that we hire and let them kind of be the experts. And I was kind of worried sometimes if we're steering them one way, then we may have an incident that may happen the other way because we interfered. And so just be just my thoughts on that is I rather if we're going to hire the right people, hire them and empower them to do the right thing. and let them have what they need to do the best job that they're going to do. I know now we have priority on focus because of incident, and that, of course, is going to be one of the things that we'll look at. But overall, I just always caution about trying to be too narrow.

I don't think it will be that narrow just, I mean, based on what we're doing the audit for.

It's not going to be too narrow. I mean, we do have a priority, and, I mean, that's what we want to focus on is prevention and how it led to it. Yeah.

And I do want to say, and I hate that Bonnie's not here, but I did have a couple opportunities to talk with Bonnie, and I went through and looked and found three or four more companies that did this, and they're more, I'm going to say, the defensive side. They only come... and try and look and see what your problem was. And then they bring specialists in for the particular area. They don't necessarily have them. And in fact, they wouldn't even return a bid. They said, no, thank you. That wasn't what they were interested in. So it really kind of shocked me when after I did some digging that there isn't more companies out there like this. Cause I was like, I was just like, you would, I think you would ask, you know, do we have a relationship with hub prior to this? Because I really wanted to make sure we had somebody who was independent of us, but even through my digging and giving her names, i i couldn't find anybody and i'm i'm thankful for what they did i was shocked at the cost difference and the number of days on site that really bothered me and just me speaking I can be good for 30 days. You give me 130 days, I can screw up. Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying that. You know, I was a teenager one time. But, I mean, that's something that you've got to look at, you know, when you look at the long term. And the reason, like I said, I was asking him about your final result, what do we expect? Because I would love to see him come back in a year and say, hey, our losses, you know, we may not have dropped but a certain percentage, but we know that we're doing more things the right way in-house. So.

Okay. Okay. I think I got it. All right. Here's my summary. Oh, I'm sorry.

So I do like what he mentioned on Hub about like I'm looking at this as like there's an incident that we're looking at, but I'm looking at raising our standard to be to a level. And he mentioned about being not at OSHA level, but being at a standard higher than OSHA. And we're looking at as fully encompassing our entire organization. And as Sydney pointed out, like, you know, we don't have that as a municipality that we have those situations. So something that has a broader look and beyond just looking at what he called it, recovery or whatever, to be more proactive and being strategic, I think is an important part. Like you mentioned, some don't, some are just focused on that reactive part and that's all they want to do. So I do like that hub is full encompassing and trying to set a standard for our entire organization and not just a certain piece of it. Okay.

Yes.

First off, I know this mentioned before, we don't have any standards, do we? OSHA has got a book that thick or thicker. They've got standards for every industry, and we are not subject to OSHA. So we are individually, this community here is responsible for setting our standards. so we don't have a book that we can, no, we have all the manufacturers that supply us with equipment, all the equipment to use, they all have standards how you should apply that. And the reason we're here tonight is we had a situation where a piece of equipment was not used properly and resulted in a death. And we never want that to happen again. So we've got to come up with standards on what we're going to apply and how we're gonna do that. And I think that's the whole purpose of what we're hearing now. Quite a few of these companies, bigger companies, they go into, private companies that have to work with the OSHA standards. We don't, we can take the OSHA book and throw it in the fire and burn it. That has nothing, we have no, you know, we need to look at it, but we have no federal government coming in telling us you're not applying. So we have to set our standards and we have to apply those standards and again, we need a safe, efficient work environment. You see, industry all over town in Longview, Texas, where they say we've gone so many days without an onsite injury or we've gone so many days without a lost time injury. We need to keep track of that. I don't think we are. We may be. I'm not sure, but we've got to set some standards that apply to everybody that works for the city of Longview in an efficient manner. Thank you.

OK, I'm going to summarize what I think you got. So at our next meeting, we will invite GS for to come give us a presentation and I will set for discussion just like we had tonight where we'll discuss and if we're going to vote, it'll be following me. And then we're also going to make sure that we are including in our scope a time for follow up. Just see where we're at. to do a unannounced visit as part of visits on site and that in some capacity we give some level of priorities because obviously we are responding to something. Oh, everybody good. Speak now.

Yes.

Okay. All right. Plan for next time. Okay. Moving on from discussion. Thank you, guys. Good job. Consent agenda. Are there any items we'd like to pull off and discuss or learn more about? G. G. Anything else?

F, please.

F. I'll pull off B. I hope Jen's still here.

If Jen's not here, then don't worry about it. I just want to give her a chance to speak about it.

Did you say E? B. B?

She's still here? OK.

Can I see yours? I think I think Richard messed up my number. It's OK. It's like I don't have a B. OK, sorry. B. I did see Jen. Come on, library extraordinaire. Tell us about an ordinance that authorizes the city to spend funds from the Commission of the Arts Performance Support Grant.

I'm sorry, Jane, I just wanted you to give an opportunity to talk about what you're doing. Sure.

No, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. So the library hosts a wonderful program every year called Summer Reading Club. And this year we have had a wonderful turnout since January or sorry, June 1st. I keep doing that. June 1st, we've had 11,000 people in the library, and over 5,000 people attend our programming. And so one of the things that we do with our programming is we have performers come, and some of those performers are paid for by the TCA funds that are available. So this ordinance would approve us accepting and using those funds for those performances.

Thank you, Jen. Awesome. Great job with the Summer Reading Club, too. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. F is with Mr. Rick Evans. Consider a resolution authorizing and directing the city manager to execute any necessary documents for the purchase of a clarifier drive unit and parts. What's a clarifier drive unit?

What is it?

Saw that one coming.

The clarifier is like a big swimming pool, okay? It's just a big concrete cylinder that at the bottom of this concrete cylinder is about 20 feet deep or so. It has a rake at the bottom of it that rakes all the sludge out into a drain that drains it to the sludge press, rotating thicker than that.

Where do we use this?

Every water and wastewater plant has one. Oh, it's in the wastewater plant. Yes, sir. So most water plants have about, I think Cherokee has eight of them. Oh, okay. And wastewater plant has about four or five.

But it's an item in the plant itself.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rick. Oh, you're the next one though, G. Derek. Oh, I'm sorry, Derek. Go ahead.

No, I just wanted to be educated on this Lake Cherokee water. In order to do our final payment, it looks like it was a $1.1 million project. And I just kind of educated this Rick on, a lime slurry tank and a volumetric lime feeder. Can you kind of talk about what all that did and how that helps our water treatment plant there?

OK. Lime is used to help treat the water that we drink. They have to have so much lime that feeds into the water whenever they are putting it out into the system the one that we had was really old and deteriorated so they upgraded it it has three lime feeds on it and they all feed at different intervals into the water as the more water we pump the more lime you have to pump into the water and how much is that like that Lake Cherokee water treatment plant is that a

big percentage of our drinking water?

Yes, sir. The Lake Cherokee Water Treatment Plant is the oldest plant that we have. And it does pump about, it can pump about 26 million gallons of water by itself.

Well, I just want to say, you know, we've had this discussion up here before. We discovered a few people did not drink water out of the fountain. I do. And I think our Longview Sea, Longview Waters, some of the best tasting water that I've ever experienced. It is.

Good PSA.

And I think we need to take a vote up here sometime about who actually does it without the filter, because I do. And I appreciate that effort. Hey, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Evans. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

thank you in a second all in favor please say aye any opposed consent agenda is approved next thing we will do is items of community interest starting with Derek appreciate Richard sharing this again update on them and I just want to say again anybody out there that's listening there is anybody out there you can tell friends or family in the audience any kid age 1 to 18 gets a free breakfast and lunch, all throughout the month of July, Monday through Thursday, Pine Tree's offering that. We did eliminate the Pine Tree primary and the Birch, but you can go to Pine Tree Junior High or you can go to Pine Tree High School, 8.30 to 9 o'clock, free breakfast, any kid, doesn't have to be a Pine Tree resident, anybody in Longview, anybody, you're anywhere tell you you have family visiting from wherever but in 11 to 12 at the junior high and then 10 45 to 12 15 at the high school just the free service and I hope some people take advantage of its times are tough money's tight and make sure you have an opportunity to feed kids there's a lot of kids you know working in education we may not understand there's a lot of kids that the summertime months are tough and have an opportunity to have a meal is important and a lot of kids look forward to school coming back to school because of they know they're getting two meals a day so i just want to share this again i appreciate richard putting that out there thank you thank you janet um i just want to talk about this past weekend we celebrated um

juneteenth in the park and it was even through the rain we enjoyed it i mean to see people sitting out there with their umbrellas weathering the rain through it all i want to thank everybody parks y'all have a big part i don't see john wherever john is thank you and your department thank the police and fire for everybody's participation in it it was a well enjoyed weekend we have two more events coming on and we will do a full recap the events that we did have next meeting with we're doing something for the Juneteenth committee right yeah yes next weekend I mean next week so they will be here and I just want to thank everybody for showing up I mean I had so many compliments about the Juneteenth festivities so

Yeah, that's been your turn.

I mean, thank you. Just tell everybody one more time. Thank you again and look forward to work on everybody.

John. Yes.

Theater Longview presents Laugh Out Long Improv Festival. So this is an annual festival that we do. It's a weekend of improv, laughter and community. It's this it's this Friday and Saturday, so June 26 and 27th. And it goes from 6 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. You can buy tickets at theaterlawnview.com. And they bring people in from all over the state of Texas. I think they have one this year that's outside of the state of Texas. It's coming from Chicago, I believe, Richard, right? So they have that. They have huge headliners, Improv Broadway and some others. And so it's just a great event. My wife and I was able to go last year, and we got tickets again this year. Come out, support this. This has the opportunity to be something that Longview is known for. And it's part of the arts community and improv as far as being the original comedy, right? I guess it's important. Bring it out. Come out here and support it. Without your support, you know, we can't do things like this. And so this brings a lot of people into our community too as well from outside of Longview. So go buy tickets, theaterlongview.com. It's this Friday and Saturday. You can go one night. You can go Friday or Saturday or do both.

uh that both nights is what i recommend because they are different they have different performers and different acts uh so definitely do that if you can as well thank you thank you jody and i don't have a screen but uh i know we won't meet back here before july 4th but we've got a lot of events that are happening around the city you thank you richard man on the spot and if i took something from you i apologize But I wanted to tell you, be sure you get on the website, look at it, take advantage of it. But I want to remind you, hey, be safe on the 4th. We don't want our police officers to have to come out and tell you, hey, fireworks are illegal in city limits. And I believe last year our fire department had to go to a home not very far from my house because of some fireworks that started a blaze. So be careful. Remember, July 4th, I want to say thank you to all of our veterans and all of our people that are serving now. We appreciate what you do, and you don't get enough thanks. But thank you.

I just want to make a second motion for what Mr. Connolly said about Pine Tree Food for the Kids. That's an excellent program. You know, when you lose the routine of the food at school, things can get really messed up. But that's a wonderful program at Pine Tree Food for the Kids. Thank you.

Thank you. Anything for me? OK, I have a couple of things. Jody took one, but I got a couple of things. I don't care. I do want to say, Brandon, welcome. We're excited to have you. Campaigns are draining. And I know you felt that. And I want you to know that it is our job to support you and make you successful up here. We have worked hard to build a team. And I think we operate that way, and we look forward to doing important and exciting things with you. So I hope you will consider from this point forward to be fun and worth the pain. Fireworks and Freedom Celebration is my first one. Join us July 4th at the Longview Convention Complex for our annual Fireworks and Freedom Celebration, which is bigger and better than ever in honor of America's 250th birthday. You can find our full information there at longviewtexas.gov backslash fireworks. Please note that the city offices will be closed Friday, July 3rd in honor of Independence Day. But sanitation, as always, will be collected on its regular schedule. Recycling. You probably if you are in our blue crew or have been paying attention, you realize that recycling has had a rough couple of weeks. We want to make you aware that we received word that our recycling partner will no longer be accepting all plastics one through seven, but will only accept plastics one, two and five. Thank you for being patient. We do have to work with the recycling partner that we have. We apologize for changes. We are working hard to keep the recycling program in Longview. We're in the process of updating all of our messaging regarding that plastic recycling, but for those participating, please stop recycling plastics three, four, six, and seven, which our MRF will not accept. Thank you again for your patience. We will convene into executive session to deliberate regarding economic, oh, I'm sorry.

I just I'm sorry I didn't say I remember last year and if you could share with the mayor again the 4th of July with the fireworks we had a campaign about firearms safety and yes sure can you oh yeah that was a really I think we had a lot of big reduction in that that was good yeah we had a good video with Richard throwing a basketball in the air we have

engaged in a campaign to make sure and educate our citizens that shooting firearms in the air is deadly and what goes up does come down. Please do not shoot firearms as a means of celebration during the 4th of July. That will get you a ticket and will get you in trouble with LPD. Fireworks are also illegal within the city limits, so please do not shoot off fireworks. We are running campaigns to send LPD to your house to give you a ticket because both of those things endanger the public set things on fire, or can kill people. Please take it seriously. Good enough, Derek? That's awesome. All right. Executive session under deliberation regarding economic development negotiations under Texas Government Code Section 551087. We will not return after executive session. All of you lovely folks are free to go home.