City Council - workshop

Spanish classes and they go to brunch at the end of their class at the old Las Jadas. I won't try to say the new name and because the waiters are really kind and so they speak all in Spanish as part of the end of the class. So these are just a few of the things and a couple of the challenges that we're facing is obviously the plumbing which is scheduled to be started in October, we hope. And we've been working with the plumber and our water department was happy with the plans that he drew up for the outside And I will tell you the water department's very happy to have new pipes outside because every if they're a real problem at this point so and we've worked with Madison from a certified arborist to make sure that the pipes are being placed in a way that is Hopefully we will protect the trees and the pipes at the same time. So that's all been taking place recently. Our mission statement is basically been the same. It does run parallel to the cities so that we provide a high quality of life consistent with our history, culture, and unique character. So our core values are stewardship, excellence, responsiveness, visionary leadership, inclusion, culture, and engaged workforce. So we work to make sure that the people who visit the library have a good visit and that we are doing our best to use the city's money wisely so that it protects or it benefits our citizens and the people who are visiting us. And then so this year we moved to a the terminology that actually parallels with the city So we we use key focus areas and our four key focus areas are feed curiosity innovation imagination lifelong learning enhanced community relationships cultivate a welcoming environment and achieve organizational excellence and within each we have our strategies. And I'm just going to, since y'all can read this, I'm just going to give you some ideas of what we're looking to do, like in the updated programs. One of the comments on Facebook, which we're not, when we advertised the beginning Spanish was, why don't we teach English? So we talked amongst ourselves, and we are not necessarily equipped to do an ESL class in English as a second language. However, our Rosetta Stone program, which we offer online, does offer English, and we could do like a conversational English class. So that would satisfy that. And we're hoping that we can recruit Mr. Robert to do it. So especially if they're a Spanish speaker, it would be helpful to those people. And a lot of folks, though, really want to speak english and so that's something we're looking at adding another one would be adding a canva how to use canva since it's so popular uh... and then the deliver the materials one of the other things we've talked about is adding uh... like a homebound uh... delivery and sarah and i talked about possibly uh... barring the city's vehicle maybe every two weeks to do that and uh... possibly looking at maybe ultimately, and this is kind of a movement. I know League City did it with their library. Take an older that was going to auction and repurpose it and wrap it for the library, not unlike the book bus that you see around town, so that it would put the library in the community. And that way, when Susan goes to do a visit to a various, like she visits the daycares and does story time, she would take the library. vehicle so but again this is a future idea then this was just enhanced community relationships. We do a plant swap with the pedal pushers, and so we would be looking at growing that kind of thing. We are intending to participate in the tree lighting this upcoming year. Mr. Roberts agreed to do story time again, and so the friends will have a booth, and we're looking at having a variety of things. possibly adding some additional social media to reach different groups. Right now we primarily rely on Facebook. And then the Friends of the Library are making some changes. They have, they're working, well, they actually have set up cashless payment, so you'll have a QR code. If you don't, if you want to come to the book sale and you don't have a 20, then you can just scale, we've got Zelle, I think PayPal, and another one set up, Venmo, so that you can do that and you can pay your dues and everything with that as well. And then... The welcoming environment, that's kind of what we've done with the teen zone because the teens area has been repainted. Since when it was created in 2012, it went from being a purple to a brighter blue and we bought new furniture and we've done, we've basically put murals in all of the children's areas so that It just gives it a warm and welcoming environment. And we're looking at doing some other repainting kinds of projects. Just freshen it up. Some of the carpet squares need changing out kind of thing. And then also, this is one where we've talked to Next Step Transitions. And they come to the library. And they come fairly religiously. They've done some volunteer work for us. But we talked about opening like 30 minutes to an hour early so that there are some of the kids that it would be too overwhelming to come in when it's open to the public. And Brenda Spencer, who's on my library board, has indicated that those kids would love to have an opportunity to get out. And this would be, you know, we wouldn't have even staff around. They would just be coming in. Using the children's area or the teen area, whichever they're most comfortable in. So also doing things like a movie for kids with sensory and adults where the lights are on and they're just allowed free to get up and do. And then finally, key focus area four is achieve organizational excellence. I must say, honestly, my staff is excellent. So it's hard to get better, but one of the things we are looking at is doing some team building exercises as well as some staff recognition. and adding some committees maybe inside the library so that they can work on various types like decorating. They do, and if you haven't been in, they do an excellent job of decorating. We had a Spider-Man hanging from the ceiling last month and it was just, I mean, she had put it together actually from a normal sized printer. We now have our poster printer back so she's able to do more creative things like that. And that's the other thing about my staff is that they are incredibly artistic and creative and it's just it seems that we've been very fortunate so so at this point then just the measuring success we plan to try to annually go to the library board and talk about the circulation by material type which definitely talks about that push me pull me between spinning larger amounts of money on the electronic resources because they're way more expensive and we lease them rather than in a lot of cases rather than actually own them versus keeping our print for our folks who still want to check out the print books especially the kids so and then program and outreach event details so That's our plan. And as Vanessa put this together for us, thank you for your support. You know that we do appreciate you. And do you have any questions for me?

She was talking about me. She appreciates me. She does. I do. We do. Yes.

I really want to compliment Rebecca and the library staff because they're very cognizant and aware that the landscape is changing and what the community wants is changing, and they remain flexible and committed to making sure that they continue to update to offer our residents what they're wanting. And a really great example of that is how digital everything is becoming. And so I know in her presentation she mentioned our electronic downloads, but For those of you that don't know, if you have our library card, which you do have to come in person to get, there's two electronic applications that you can sign up for for free. And one is called Libby, and one is called Hoopla. And one of them is where you download e-readers, and the other one is where you download audio books. And this is a free service to all of our patrons. And anecdotally, someone made a reel on a streaming platform that we are not allowed to watch on our government devices. um, promoting hoopla and getting a library card with the city of Deer Park and all the free Audible books that they could listen to from that and it got thousands of views And so they're doing things that really impacts not just our residents, but our community and our surrounding communities. And so it's really been Great to see them transition through that as the needs of the community has changed. So I definitely want to applaud I sent it to I have a non-government phone as well I was watching it on my city, my personal site. I requested she send it. There, and I viewed it that way, very legally.

Yes.

Yes, please.

It was interesting because we couldn't figure out why one Saturday we got like 25 library cards and people were just like coming in wanting library cards and we looked at our hoopla. I mean, we've had an explosion and it is not an inexpensive resource, but they have to come in physically to get a library card. So we control the best we can at this point.

And I will say also as far as in the inside too, just what y'all have done, the painting and stuff to update to attract the kids, it's amazing. Thank you. It's like totally different. It is.

It really is. It's all Whitney. So it's all murals by Whitney. And she really has. She's good. Yeah. She works with us and she takes our ideas and turns it into what you see on the wall. So yes. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Thank you. Comments, questions, anybody? Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Agenda item number two, discussion of issues relating to amending the city's ordinance pertaining to short-term rentals.

Thank you, Mayor. I apologize for my tardiness. I have tried to send y'all this picture a few times. It didn't go through. It was me stuck behind an ice cream truck. I think that was the one that left the softball complex as I was on my way here, actually. But if you recall, for a long time we didn't have any regulations with short-term rentals or VRBOs, Airbnbs. And we didn't really have too many. And then they started popping up. in 2024, late in the year, and then y'all took action in 2025 to amend it. We had some recommendations about if we're going to have these, what are some reasonable standards by which they would need to get a permit, they would need to identify who the owner is, and we could call the owner if we're having problems and whatnot. And I think it's fair to say that part of the opinion of council at the time was if we had the ability to just not allow them at all, we wouldn't want them at all. And at that time, we really didn't have the ability. Some things have changed, and Jim can address that. They talked about it at his city attorney's conference that he goes to every summer. Y'all may have seen legislation or lawsuits in New Braunfels and Fort Worth and other places. Recently based upon some some changes that have occurred with the lawsuits It's becoming more clear that you can regulate cities have the Texas have the ability to say no in a residentially zoned area we do not allow this and Mayor asked that we revisit that issue just if y'all want to go that far or not and if you do What would be some fair ways of going about it given that we currently have 18 permitted? within the city. And Stephanie's here also. She's the one that is in charge of the collections. And if y'all have any specific questions about how collections are going or the number that we have and that type of thing. The information I sent y'all the other day came from Stephanie. So I'll turn it over to Jim.

Well, the city of San Marcos had an ordinance that prohibited short-term rentals in any... residentially zoned area. There had been other people doing it, and there'd been some lawsuits and a lot of conjecture about what would happen, whether that was protected under constitutionally and under property owner rights or not. And there was a decision out of the Fifth Circuit, which is the federal circuit that Texas is in, or this part of Texas is in, and upholding the city of San Marcos ordinance. prohibiting short-term rentals in neighborhoods. And if, you know, you've had people here complaining and stuff, so I don't think anybody would want to live, you know, next to a house like that because it gets, there's a lot of people that just rent them for parties and things like that. So after the Fifth Circuit came back, you know, after analyzing that, there's a big push for other cities to come up and increase their enforcement and borrow them from the residential areas. I've already prepared the ordinance. The only concern I have is about the existing permit holders.

About the what?

The existing permit holders that have already paid for a permit.

Do they expire all at the same time?

No, I think they're for a year. Isn't that correct, Stephanie? They're for a year. So they all have different dates. Right, that's what I'm saying. Most of them started whenever we had the requirement. Yeah, so in the draft, the ordinance I made, I said they would all terminate at the end of the year. We could give them more time, less time. I mean, I think we need to give them a reasonable time to transition from short-term to, because we did allow it. So we give them a reasonable period to transition from short-term rental to maybe an annual or six-month or an annual lease or something like that.

What's the time? What is short-term, like the legal terminology of short-term? Is that less than 30 days? Under 30 days.

Okay, that's what I thought. Thank you, Stephanie.

I would think six months just to be fair.

Yeah, that's fine. I just picked the end of the year, but I think the more time we give them, the less likely it is that we have any litigation over it. We could just let them all, it would not renew them when they expire. That would be the 100% safest thing to do, but I think giving them six months is a reasonable time.

So do we know, do we have quite a few that expire past the six months, past the end of the year?

Most of them, according to what Stephanie found the other day, just renewed from May to today. Most of them have 9, 10, 11 months left.

They paid for a permit for a year, but we're cutting that short. I think we could justify that. Again, the safest approach would be to let existing ones run until they expire. I just thought the six months was a reasonable period of time to terminate it. In the worst case, we refund them

Is that legal to do that?

Yeah, sure.

What does that fee anyway?

It's not much. How much is it, Steph? What's that? The fee for the...

The permit?

Yeah. Oh, okay. So if we prorated it according to what they had left, it wouldn't be much?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

But that was my thinking in the drafting ordinance was to cut it off at some point, but give them a reasonable period of time to convert over.

If memory serves me right, when it first came up, there was a lot of litigation, and we didn't really want to get into the narrative, which put us on this narrative now that that's been worked out in the courts. it's pretty clear that we do have the right to do that. And I am of the opinion, and I think most of you are, that we should go ahead and regulate it to the point where they don't exist. So no one disagrees with that. So then the next one is six months, where y'all want to stand on from the time we pass this?

I'm fair with that. Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah.

Would you all want, so you'll take action presumably at the next meeting, which will be our short meeting in October. Would you want us to notify the existing holders of permits between now and then and say, FYI? Or do you want us to wait until you do it and then tell them?

It's not going to change anything. I mean, if they're going to know about it, they're going to, they're probably going to.

Well, I think the sooner, I mean, more fair to me, the sooner the better. Sure.

Okay, well, we'll notify, we'll prepare a letter and get it out. very soon, that the plan is it's your next meeting to take action on that.

You just gave Stephanie more work, is that what you're saying?

Yes, ma'am. She's good at it, though. The reward for hard work is hard work.

She good at something. She's very good at it. She is good. You're very good at it. What is it? Tax rates, water bills, you name it.

Everything.

She good at all of it. She's her tax registrar.

She's the Vanessa right hand. She's the tax registrar. She's the Vanessa right hand. She had to go to school to be a tax registrar.

Several years.

We've thrown a stick out in the middle of the yard and we've all chased after it. She's good at it. All right. Any more comments? We good? You got what y'all want? Yes, sir. That's all that we have on this workshop. This meeting is adjourned.