Kemah Community Development Corporation - Regular Meeting

We'll call the KCDC regular meeting September 15th, 2026, 6 p.m. to order. Invitation to address the board. We have no one. Number three, proclamations, presentation, awards, and spotlights. We don't have any. Number four, board member comments. Dustin.

Thank you, everybody, for showing up. Let's just get the show on the road. Megan.

Megan.

I second those sentiments.

No comments. All right. Item number five, President's comments. Pura Vida to everybody. That's all I can say. Three weeks in, Costa Rica was very refreshing. So look forward to get back to work. Item number six, City Administrator Report. Cesar.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I want to go ahead and just provide the update for item seven on the Opportunity Zone 2.0 application. I did want to let everybody know that the application did go through the state. Governor Abbott did approve our application to move over to the next phase, which is for the federal approval, and we're hoping to get a response before the end of the calendar year, maybe as early as the end of October. That's my update on that item. Obviously, you've heard me talk about it enough. That's the only item that I have to report at this time. All right.

That was item 7. So item 8, a consent agenda. 8A, approve the minutes of the 8-18-2026 KCDC workshop. 8B, approve the minutes of the 18-26 KCDC regular meeting. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Got that, Natasha? Yep. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Item 9A, consider possible action to review and recommend appointment for position three of the community, Kima Community Development Corporation. We're going to do that. I thought last time we did it in back. Are we going to do that again?

That's what the intention was. We have the item there. We want to go to the next session, come back to that item table until we have to do the session.

Okay. So I have a motion to table. So do I have a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Do I have a motion to move 10 up?

I'll make a motion to move item 10 up.

Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Item 10, Texas Open Meetings Act, Section 551.072, Government Code, Deliberation about Real Property. Can we go back there for that other?

We can certainly go back there for both if you want, but did you want to?

Well, I have to go back on what we just did, won't we? We just moved 10 up, technically.

Did you get the application from Carol? Carol Parker? Yes. Yeah.

I think it was Matt Mumford, Carol Parker, John Conrad. Yeah.

Okay.

Does that know they're supposed to be here tonight?

Like you ain't even got your chair turned around yet.

Thank you. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Amen.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Read with us.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay.

All right.

Amen.

I would like to make a motion to nominate Jenny Meter.

Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Okay.

9b discussion possible action to award rfp 2026-06 for grant administrative services we probably do need to limp along for this one because i know devin did i think of the scoring yes for personal reasons

Well, based on the scorecard, there is a clear winner. But again, like you said, he may have.

I just don't know about like price and stuff, because I know that said it probably is that one. But I mean, I know that he's worked with some. I know we did more than that works, didn't we, Dustin? Wasn't that 7th, 8th, when that grant works that we did that with? I know we've worked with them in the past, so. Wait on you, LeBron. Now we're waiting on the RFP. We're already past scorecard. That's why I say we're waiting on you. We've got eight bids here that we really don't understand.

Okay, great. I'll go over. As far as the grant administrator, you had eight bids come in. The way the scoring was done, you'll see the section that's highlighted below. That's after every one of the graders graded them. We had three different graders. We took everybody's averages, came across. Looking at them, the one that graded higher was bid number eight, which is provision.

Are you familiar with provision?

We are familiar with provision. They have helped throughout here on several things throughout the city before as a general contractor. Here and there on a few things, they have helped with some items. I'm also familiar with GrantWorks, who was the one that was awarded second highest, or excuse me, third highest. Those are the two that I'm most familiar with based on the ones that submitted.

Anybody got any questions? Do I have a motion?

If I had to go with one, I'm going to go with provision only because I've worked with them the most. Either them or grant works, just because I know that if there were one that I had not worked and had not done favorably, I would have told you not to go with them. I have had favorable results with both of those. There are some that are bigger grants that you might go with one, some that are smaller grants you might go with the other. Cost-wise and everything else, I think provision is the most efficient. So I would probably why they scored the way they did. I was not part of the committee. I'm never part of any of these committees on purpose. So that way everything can be validated as such.

All in favor? Aye. All right.

non-seed discussion of possible action to award rfp 2026 07 for virtual assistant services i think we have a score card similar to the last one yes we had five bidders for this one five bidders came in on this one bid one is the highest scoring bid however their budget was

enormous compared to some of the others. $90,000. Correct. And what you budgeted for this was about $20,000, if I remember correctly, as far as what was budgeted for this item. So that's why the second highest scoring one would qualify during that. Again, nothing against. Also, Blackridge, the first one, bid number one, was giving you 60 hours total per month, while VR assistance was giving you 40 hours a week in total.

So your recommendation would be VR assistance?

I would recommend VR assistance based on what they responded.

And I can say in my business world, I've worked with VR assistance as well, and I just worked with one last week with one of my customers, and just truly impressed. It is crazy the amount of work that they're getting done for the amount of money that they're spending. So it's definitely an interesting concept for sure. So I'm not familiar with other companies. I just happen to... dabble with that company twice now in the last six months, and I've been impressed both times.

And also, I did reach out to IT because one of the concerns that the body had, the folks that were scoring specifically, was like, hey, how do we feel about IT and how that would be if these folks are not here within the U.S. or whatever the case is for any of the vendors? regardless of which ones were selected. And I did speak to them, and they're getting this. This is becoming more of a thing. There are a lot of people that are working out of different countries and providing the service and users. Not that they are not U.S. residents. They might be U.S. residents living abroad as well, but that's part of kind of what's happened with technology advancing the way it has. So we do have some parameters in place at IT. We did speak to them about in case that ever comes up as a concern. That's a concern anybody would have, right? People are tapping into your stuff or You're working with people all over the place, but we work with people all over the place now as it is.

And I will say, if they do get engaged and start emailing with your clients or folks that you're doing business with, notoriously it'll go to junk mail, and sometimes it will throw you in a tizzy just because it's coming from the Philippines. But I have the same issue in Costa Rica with my business. Until you get a VPN or get some sort of secure network, we'll just have to work through that to make sure that we're doing the right processes. I just know from experience in Costa Rica as well that there have been some challenges because they shut you down because you're out of the country. Well, do I have a motion?

Sure. I would like to make a motion to award RFP 2026-07 for virtual assistant services to VR assistants.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye.