City Council - Special Meeting

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Go with the blur. I will go ahead and call to order our special called city council meeting for August 21st, 2025. Um uh first we'll note that we have two council members joining us remotely. Hello Derek Connley and Ray Wade. Uh so tonight we will vote um with our hands raised if uh we need to vote and please indicate if you guys would like to say something by raising a hand at me. Um first item on our agenda is citizen comment. I do not have any speaker cards. Uh next item is our consent agenda. I do want to make uh just a real quick comment about item A here. Um, this is a change to our council rules and procedures actually requested by Miss Debbie Fontaine sitting out here. So, shout out to you for that. Um, in future meetings, our rules will have changed such that a speaker that comes to comment at our council meeting will fill out the same speaker card giving us their name, uh, address and contact information. but when standing at the podium will only need to say their name and if they'd like whether they're a resident of Long View um and if they know what council member they have but they will no longer be asked to state while standing at the microphone their home address uh for safety reasons. So, thank you for bringing that to our attention. We're happy to make that change. Are there any other items on the consent agenda that any council members have questions about or like to pull for discussion?

If not, I will take a motion. I move to accept the consent agendas as written. Okay. And a second. Second. All right. All in favor, please indicate with raise of hand. And I I suppose I I. All right. Consent agenda is approved unanimously. Uh, next are budget items. Budget item A. Consider a resolution establishing city fees and charges for the fiscal year 2526. Mr. McI,

I have nothing to add uh further on this. Okay. Of course, we've had uh many meetings on these topics. Uh, budget item B is a public oop, I'm sorry. This item A requires a public hearing, which I will open at this time. I do not have any speaker cards for this item. So, I will close the public hearing. I need a motion to approve this res resolution. Motion to approve.

I have a second. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor, please indicate with raise of hand and I. I. I. Budget item A is approved. Any opposed? Thank you. Uh, budget item B, public hearing on proposed budget will be held to consider the proposed fiscal year 2526 budget. Uh, Miss Angela Cohen,

thank you. The local government code requires a public hearing on the proposed budget. The adoption of the budget is next on the agenda agenda. So, this does not require a vote. Okay. Um, I do need to open the public hearing. Okay. I will open the public hearing at this time, but do not have any speaker cards. Uh, so I will close the public hearing and move on to budget item C. Consider an ordinance adopting our fiscal year 2526 annual operating budget and appropriating said funds. Mr. Rollin McY.

Nothing to add from the proposed budget presented last time. All right. Um, I do need a motion to approve our budget. Move to approve. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor, please say I and raise your hand. I. Any opposed? Thank you guys. Budget is approved. Budget item D, public hearing on proposed tax rate. A public hearing will be held to consider our proposed 2526 tax rate uh tomorrow at 9:30 in city hall council chambers. Uh Miss Angela Cohen.

Uh the proposed rate is 56.19 cents and this is not an increase to our tax rate. Thank you so much. I will open our public hearing at this time. I do not have any speaker cards. Uh, so I will go ahead and close our public hearing and then no motion is needed on this. Is that right? Okay. So I'll move on to budget item E. Consider a motion to ratify the property tax revenue uh increase reflected in the fiscical year 2526 budget. I believe Mr. Allen is going to help me with an official motion on that one.

U do we need to have a comment first from the treasurer? Sure. Okay. So when sorry, go ahead. When a budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than the prior year, a separate motion and vote of the governing body is required. This motion confirms that the adoption of this year's budget will raise 3,162,000 more in property taxes than last year. The increased revenue is due to an increase in appraised property values, not an increase in the tax rate itself. And this does require a special motion. Um, council member I I'm not supposed to read that or not. You know,

I don't think so. Yes. All right. I move to ratify the property tax revenue increase reflected in the physical 2526 budget. Thank you, Mr. Ellen. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Thank you. All in favor, please say I and raise your hand. I. Any opposed?

Item is approved. Thank you so much. Uh, that concludes our official business. We do have uh some community community items for those that would like to participate with that. Mr. Connley, do you have any community items of interest that you'd like to share? Oh, I just want to say next Friday,

Buckeyes coming to town. Pirate Stadium is going to be rocking and uh had a great first couple weeks of school at Pine Tree and uh wished all the kids the best. District one and rest of Long View. And thank you guys so much for allowing me to share spending time with my family here, my grandkids. Thanks. Thank you for the opportunity and uh the technology with Scott and Richard making this happen and the mayor and the city manager.

Thank you, Mr. Conley. Anything this morning? No. Okay. Mr. Wade, do you have anything? I'm going to think no. Mr. Newad,

he waved. He waved. All right. Yes. So, the uh city of Long View's Coalition for Drug-Free Youth is excited to host the second annual Defy uh conference. The mission of the Defy Conference is to educate, inform, and disseminate information on substances, healthy coping skills, and resources to youth grades 6 through 12 and their families.

Um so, definitely come to this free event and get some more information on drugs and alcohol education. There's mock bedroom, vendor booths, and more. Uh there's also for all there's dinner, door prizes, resources. So come out and support the defy conference and see how best to help the drug-free youth. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Fair Hill. Uh yes, I just want to remind everybody that uh tomorrow evening at Spring Hill Stadium is back to school pep rally for Panthers. I encourage everybody in District 6 and everybody who's got a free opportunity, wants to come out and support them, uh to be sure and show up. The time is at 7:00. It'll be a little bit cooler. enjoy this uh blessing that God gave us today with the rain and hopefully the weather will be that way tomorrow evening, but come on out to Panther Stadium 7 p.m. tomorrow night.

Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Um yes, ma'am. I just like to clarify to make sure there's no misunderstanding on the raised $3,162,000 additional money in property taxes the amount that the city allocated to spend for the raises was larger than that. So, we had to u reduce the budget and these raises for the uh employees here were very welld deserved and I just want to make sure that people understand that the budget was having to tighten and even with these property tax increases to make the raises that the employees deserved. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. McY. Yes. I have one quick thing. First, thanks council for the great budget discussions and cooperation that we had during this budget season. I want to echoing what Mr. Allen actually said. The the Texas Senate just yesterday approved Senate Bill 10, which would set the voter approval rate or increase property tax revenues to 2.5% rather than the 3 and a.5% it's currently set at. While this move is designed to reduce that tax burden on residents there, the legislature again is failing to consider the impact on local municipalities like Long View to deliver vital services. So the desire to reduce property taxes without commensurate support so equal support from the state through or through some other method will continue to strain our local budgets. bill is expected to be heard tomorrow by the House Committee and Ways and Means at the House at the state legislature and uh we'll continue to monitor these and and report to council, but please pay attention and get involved.

Thank you, Mr. McY. Um I have two quick ones tonight. Please join us Tuesday, September 2nd for our National Night Out kickoff and again Tuesday, October 7th for an actual National Night Out in your neighborhood. It's a lot of fun. The kickoff is 6:00 to 8 at Mod Cobb. Please learn more and register your party at our website. Uh and then also of course our city offices will be closed on Labor Day but sanitation will be collected on its regular schedule. That is it for our meeting. Good job guys. We are adjourned.