Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everybody. It's 5.02. I want to welcome you to this regular call meeting of the Temple City Council. Please rise as Director of Housing and Community Services, Rucker Preston, leads us in the invocation, followed by our pledge and the Texas pledge led by Deputy City Secretary Liz Caraway.

redeeming us and calling us to be your children in which we are called to worship you. We thank you for this society, this community, where we can worship you openly and freely and where people's voices can be heard openly and freely. I thank you for our council's commitment to service in this community. As they give so many hours, I ask that you would give them wisdom and discernment in all decisions tonight and hereafter. And this community would be one that worships you and one in which the people who need the most help get the most. We thank you so much for your love. In your name we pray. Amen.

Please join in the pledge for the U.S. flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now the place of the Texas flag honor.

All right.

Thank you both very much.

Now's the time for public comments. Um, any citizens who desire to address the council on any matter may do so as always, we just ask that you step to the podium and state your name for the record. Um, we've got maybe 18, 20 folks and we'll start with, uh, Sarah Royer. Well, is she, I bet she's here. Yeah. And then there she is. And then Joe Royer, you're on deck.

That's one of the last people to sign up. This is nice. I came here. Hello, council. I came here to speak about a few things. But I actually have some questions about something we just found that we've been working on. So there is a contract with the city of Rowan. And I know you can't. say anything to me right now but um over the next 10 years if they elected to construct the city of temples well the city agrees to provide 830 gallons of day of water to them above and over and above what they've already agreed to and this is a contract that lasts 10 years And you have to actually make a formal agreement to get out of this contract. You're also accepting 500,000 gallons of wastewater a day from the company. And this is all for cooling water, which is interesting. It actually goes along the lines. There's so much stuff in this contract. It actually goes along the lines of what you personally told me, Mayor, that they were getting about 850,000, 800 gallons, 800,000 gallons of water out of the well a day. But this happens to be a well that isn't even permitted to run yet. And this has happened for years, I guess. So I did do a open records request to find if there was anything Ever that Eliminated this contract and there's not so far the city hasn't responded. It's been almost two weeks and I've gotten zero response. So This is just another thing that we're adding to it and it kind of is concerning Because it also says in here that you will pay Rowan four point eight million dollars for all of this which just happened recently and So it seems like all of this is in effect. I know you guys are going to do like some hour-long monologue to make sure your lie stays in place, and that's really cool, but all we really want are answers, and it's something we have never gotten from you. You do a lot of PR. This thing is really cute, and we'll be talking about it on the radio. All of this is just really misleading. You guys aren't leaders. You're misleaders, which is really cool. So thanks again for not actually helping us as a community, and we'll be in touch.

Good evening. I'm Joe Royer. I live in District 2. I just wanted to reiterate some of the stuff that we talked about the last meeting and highlight some of the new developments. So the last meeting I mentioned how we first brought up the ASR well and we saw everybody go into panic mode trying to assuage our fears over this ASR well and we got a level of engagement we have not seen in almost six months. And when I called you out on this last meeting about, well, is our aquifer contaminated? Like, what is going on here? Clearly we've struck a nerve. There's something you don't want us to know or don't want us to find. And today we hear that Rowan is graciously donating $38 million to the city of Temple to help with our water issues. But when you peel back the layers on this, that's not true at all. 13 million of this so 10 million is for the asr project that's interesting uh three million is for salmons but that's contingent on the voters approving the bond so what happens to that three million if it doesn't get approved like is that just you know gone up in vapor And the other $25 million is stuff that Rowan was already contractually obligated to pay. So they're not giving us $38 million. But it's interesting that they're putting all this good PR out there to try and get ahead of this situation. It makes me feel like somebody has a guilty conscience or like somebody's trying to get out in front of a lawsuit. So we're paying attention, we notice, I'm showing my hand and this is what I'm seeing from you guys and I can't wait to see what the next response is. Thank you.

You're welcome. Scott Shumate. Hmm. Oh yes. Uh, and Francis Fisher, you'll be up under Mr. After Mr. Shoemake. Yes, ma'am. That'd be great. Thank you. So may I speak? Yes, sir.

So my name is Scott Shoemake. I'm a resident of temple, Texas. And today I just got a notification that my water and sewage rates are going up. And to me, this seems very, very wrong. There are currently six data centers in Temple, Texas, if I'm not mistaken. And the only two companies that came up are Meta Inc. and Rowan Digital. They're getting huge tax breaks. And when I called about my rates going up, they said it was due to infrastructure upgrades. Why am I paying for infrastructure upgrades when Rowan or all the digital or AI, I'm sorry, wait, I'm sorry. Calm down. Data centers are getting huge tax breaks. I don't bring home more money every month. I don't know where they're coming up with So yeah, I don't get more money from work. I work for a medical company that's global wide and I'm very confused on why my rates are going up as more data centers are coming in and they're getting huge tax breaks. Why am I fitting the bill for all these upgrades? Why are my data rates going up? And it's not gonna stop there. It's gonna go to electricity and beyond. It's not going to stop there. And nobody knows the environmental impact that what they're doing in the next 10 years. Nobody knows until it happens. So yeah, I guess I said my piece. I don't know what else I can do.

I'll address that very quickly the whenever the council sets the water and whenever the water and wastewater rates it is water and wastewater is handled out of what's called a enterprise fund which means that the rates are intended to support the cost of the water and wastewater system and so as costs continue to go up you know people cost more equipment costs more But what about the data centers that are coming in that are getting huge tax breaks? What are they paying? That has, that has, um, they need to be paying for this and not us. We, we covered that last week about what they will be paying, but these, the data centers have nothing to do with the water and sewer rates. That's the maintain the current system. Okay. Okay.

So you guys understand that there's going to be more that's going to be coming behind you that you're, I don't know if you're oblivious to it or. but there's gonna be a lot more with these data centers if you keep letting them come in. You understand that? I hope. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Fisher and then Dorothy Sanders. You'll be next after Ms. Fisher.

Good evening, Mayor Davis and members of the City Council. My name is Frances Fisher. I'm a Temple resident, co-owner of Journey Home Rescue, active member of Justice for the Marlin Dogs, active member of PAW, Public Accountability for Animal Welfare. Mr. Davis, you may recognize me from many of us who remember Judy Gate back in 2012. I was one of the residents who publicly called for accountability then and I continue to participate in local government today. Dr. Grant, I am your constituent. I supported you for city council because I wanted to see greater responsiveness and engagement from our city government. I come before you tonight as both a taxpayer and a rescue partner. Journey Home Rescue helps this community. We have pulled dogs from the Temple Shelter, collected donations for the shelter, communicated with shelter leadership about its needs, and worked to maintain a collaborative relationship. When rescues take animals from a municipal shelter, that also helps relieve the pressure from the city's sheltering system. The animal shelter is not the first animal welfare issue I've brought before this council. Many of us have stood with Pearl's Place. After years of uncertainty involving the city and the possibility of eminent domain, we asked for what we believe was a fair deal for Pearl's Place. Instead, after community spoke up, city ultimately rescinded that offer rather than provide pearls place with a fair deal that we believe it deserved. We are here again because we have concerns about the future of animal welfare in temple temple spent more than $5 million expanding its animal shelter, but staffing and programming did not expand at the same pace. Buildings do not feed animals, buildings do not clean kennels, buildings do not socialize dogs, buildings do not process adoptions, build rescue partnerships, operate foster programs, or reunite lost animals with their families. The shelter may house nearly 140 animals, while its direct kennel care staffing includes two kennel technicians and a shelter management. During the most recent budget cycle, two animal kennel technician positions were deferred again, as were deferred the year before, and as were deferred the year before. Staffing affects public access, adoptions and reclaim opportunities, volunteering, enrichment, marketing, and community outreach. The shelter has limited weekend public hours. We would like Temple to examine its actual workload and staffing needs, not simply the minimum. Staffing necessarily to compare basic feeding and cleaning. Stop doing the bare minimum. Over the coming year, you will see us regularly. We will intend to meet with council members, bring information and research, discuss possible solutions, and continue participating in the process. Topics we believe deserve discussion include staffing.

Ms. Fisher, your three minutes are up. Okay. Thank you. Dorothy Sanders and then on deck is Miss Brindley I don't know that I announced this earlier whenever you get to down about two and a half minutes or so I'll ring the little bell as a as a as a alert

Hi, my name is Dorothy Sanders. I volunteer with Journey Home Rescue, financially support several local rescues in the community, and I personally adopted from the Temple Animal Shelter. I'm speaking about the need for a more effective animal advisory committee. I'm also the founder of Justice for the Marlin Dogs and Public Accountability for Animal Welfare, or PAW. Through these groups, I help residents use public records, budgets, data, and evidence-based practices to engage with local government on animal welfare. Professionally, my background is in population health management and whether we are managing outcomes for people or animals, the question is the same. Are the interventions we are funding through our taxes actually improving outcomes? Before I get to the shelter, I want to briefly mention Pearl's Place. Through PAW, I helped organize residents who asked this city council for what we believed was a fair resolution after years of pressure surrounding the property. Instead, this city council ultimately rescinded its offer rather than provide Pearl's Place with a fair deal we believed it deserved. Now Temple may lose a rescue, grooming resource, and community vaccination provider to another city. Services that help reduce pressure on our tax-funded shelter system. That matters because the shelter data tells us we need more community resources, not fewer. Temple spent more than $5 million expanding its tax-funded animal shelter, and with that expansion opening in January 2024. Before the expansion, the 2023 adoption rate was about 40.8%. Now, it's approximately 40%, essentially unchanged. Return to owner outcomes actually declined with expansion. In 2023, 525 animals were returned to their owners. Now, in 2025, only 493 were returned, 32 fewer, even though intake increased from 3,382 to 3,980 animals. That should make us examine the entire return to owner process. Are field officers able to make immediate returns in the field? Are we maximizing microchip scanning and registration? And can working residents realistically reclaim their pets when shelter closes at 3.30 in the afternoon and only open for four hours on the weekend? Because a lost animal that goes directly home never needs a tax-funded kennel, transfer, adoption, or euthanasia decision. The cat data deserves the same scrutiny. In 2023, 636 cats were euthanized. In 2025, that increased to 766, about 20% higher. Of those 766 cats, 322 were classified as feral. Those feral cats alone accounted for roughly 42% of cat euthanasias. This is an opportunity for prevention. TNVR, foster care, neonatal resources. After expansion, the greatest intake growth came from owner surrenders, not stray intake. So the lesson I take from these numbers is not that Temple should have not expanded the shelter. Square footage alone does not change outcomes. Staffing does. Accessibility does. Prevention does. Operations do. And those are all decisions of how we use taxpayers' resources. So my request tonight is simple. Please place the Temple Animal Shelter on an upcoming city council agenda so we could have meaningful public discussion about these outcomes, how our taxes are spent, staffing, accessibility, prevention, and the future of animal services in Temple. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Ms. Brindley, followed by Ms. Frazier.

Nell Brindley, longtime Temple resident, not paid by Rowan to be here. For the record, I publicly oppose the Meta Data Center in Temple, which is now marked into three buildings instead of one. before I ever heard about Rowan LLC. Imagine my shock when I heard about an open house to introduce the community to Rowan, the next invasion of hyperscale data centers that this mayor, city council, and city manager rolled out the red carpet for. You weren't content to wait and see how good a neighbor meta would be before you eagerly signed on to at least seven more data centers that Rowan wants to build in Temple and leach off our precious resources. You failed to get an independent preliminary air, soil, and water testing done to provide liability protection for the city in case of an environmental catastrophe. You secretly and foolishly allowed Rowan to drill an ASR well, which could potentially contaminate our aquifer. Even too much oxygen released into the aquifer is harmful. Somebody of you signed a non-disclosure agreement with Metta, according to former city attorney Kathy Davis, and now it has mysteriously disappeared. Where is it, Ms. Thomas? You have racked up massive debt with your unwise spending and are now raising taxes and calling for a bond election, which is nothing more than a glorified tax increase, to build a senior center to replace the one you allowed to operate in dangerous disrepair. No amount of potential tax revenue from Rowan or Mehta will erase the disappointment I have in you. In my opinion, you will go down in history as the worst Temple City Council, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Manager we have ever had. And we have had some doozies. Your only hope to regain our respect is to vote no on these and any future requests made by Rowan and Meta, as well as any other industry that causes the division that hyperscale data centers have caused in our city. We take no pleasure in calling you out, but we cannot remain silent and watch you destroy our city and our quality of life. For too long, Temple has been run by developers, builders, and construction material providers, and those who benefit from the trade. And stacking this audience and the parking out there is despicable. This is not personal or political. AI is demonic. It is a spiritual battle between good and evil. Choose your side wisely. Christ is king.

Thank you, Nell. Margie? And following Margie will be Ms. Wojtko.

Margie Frazier, Temple, Texas. I didn't know I was speaking on this part of the thing, but I did have a concern because My parents, my dad was World War II Air Force. My mother came out of Germany, Wiesbaden. She came out of concentration camp. And I'm looking at the AI data centers and the information they take and all of that because I see it as another way, like the brown shirts, as they call the Nazis, who collected information on people in concentration camps. My mother, I know, saw a large portion of her family die during the war. They poisoned the salt, the Nazis. My grandfather and several of their family lost their lives that way. My mother saw her sister, as the bombs were dropping and they were running for the shelters, be killed. All I can say is between that and you have flock cameras more than Las Vegas, like twice as much. In fact, from what I understand, your flock cameras that you have brought in are more than most states and cities. And why? We're just a small city here. So why is all this information needed? I'm looking at it from the conspiracy theory situation now, because I look at it as you are bringing in this stuff. Is it to spy on everybody? Because you don't know who you're selling this to. You've already admitted that you have to get partners for a certain amount of these. And I'm looking at it from that situation. I'm looking at it because I don't want to see Americans die because of information being taken and stored against us so that we can go to concentration camps. Because that can happen here in the United States. And don't think it can't. Germany didn't think it. Poland didn't think it. Europe didn't think it. Most of the people in here, unless they're my age category, which is I'm past 70, headed toward the mid-70s, there's people in here probably in their 80s. We're the ones that remember if we had family that were like my parents in the war. Y'all have no clue otherwise, unless you were actually military at some time or another. I've been to Kenya, Africa. I've watched the people in Kissimmee and how they've been treated. You know, you have no clue, just none. So you're opening the door in a can of worms. They've already said AI. Leon Musk and a few others have said this is a scary situation. They have no controls. They said that they do not have the controls that are needed to protect the people. And if Elon Musk says it, I have to believe it. Several of the others that have these bigger plans and so forth, they're trying to put the brakes on it. Why aren't you? Are you gonna put some brakes on this stuff? Are you gonna let us all suck it up, buttercup? Thank you.

Thank you, Margie. Next is Elena Vojtko followed by Jay.

It would seem that these seats should be reserved for Temple citizens. Mayor and City Council, tonight you're being asked to make decisions that will shape Temple for decades. This is no longer one data center. When Meta first came here, none of us were here saying anything. But now it's multiple sites, billions in development, major water and water waste commitments, infrastructure agreements, tax abatements, temporary on-site power generators, and agreements that will govern Temple's relationship with this industry for years. On this very day of this vote, the public is now hearing about a $38 million infrastructure investment from Rowan, including $3 million tied to the proposed Sammons Community Center. I want to be clear, money coming into this community does not replace transparency. The larger the financial relationship between a private developer and our city, the more transparency the public deserves. Before you vote, citizens should be able to answer some basic questions. What is Temple's total financial exposure if these projects do not develop as projected? What infrastructure will taxpayers ultimately be responsible for? What are the cumulative water and waste water electric demands of all these facilities, not just one building at a time? What happens if projected tax revenues don't materialize, or if Rowan sells these projects to another company? And what enforcement mechanisms protect Temple residents if promises that are made today aren't kept 10 or 20 years from now? We keep hearing about the benefits, but responsible government also puts the risks on the table. A $3 million community center, contribution may sound impressive, but it shouldn't distract anyone from the scale of tonight's decision. Temple residents are the ones that will be left here if projections are wrong. We will pay our water bill, we will pay the utility bills, we will live with the infrastructure, and we will live with the consequences of agreements you approve. My request is simple, don't measure this deal by how much money Rowan is offering Temple. Measure it by how well you will protect the citizens. Transparency after a contract is signed isn't transparency, it's history. Thank you.

Mr. Marquez, you'll follow Jay.

Good evening, Mr. Honorable Mayor and the honorable council members. I just want to touch bases. I really appreciate you got an email about that. I'm going to pivot a little bit from the hot topic. I'll come back to the spicy topic later. The farmers market is going to be open on Saturday. It's the first time we're going to be open. I think that's a great idea of bringing all the business to that place. Maybe we could do a lot of business. And then I'm going to switch to the gear. That lady did a great job on the last month of finance. We have a bond rating A, triple A. We had the meeting. Somebody else said our bonds were sold out within five minutes. And if you could get $38 million from Roman, take it, because I want to see my property taxes and water electricity bill lower compared to my house in Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh. So I really appreciate you and your entire staff putting together financial projections last week, telling us where we're at. So thank you, Honorable Mayor. Keep up the good job. Thank you.

Before we start your three minutes, impressive beard, that didn't take long.

Thank you, thank you. Well, my name's Horacio, and I, however, am a resident of Temple, and not paid for by Rowan. But here's one thing that Rowan has done, and the one thing you guys have an opportunity to do, which Rowan has provided an opportunity. For workers, the American working class, for men and women. Those that live in low income housing, guess what, there's opportunity out here to go to work, get yourselves up, pull yourselves up from your bootstraps, and go through an apprenticeship program of some sort, whether it be plumbing, pipe fitting, electrical, iron work, whatever it may be. This is opportunity. Okay, and everybody says about how much money Rowan dishes out. It's not about how much money Rowan dishes out. It's about who's willing to get up off their butts and get out to work, okay? There's a new generation that needs to start pulling their weight around, okay? Other than sitting around playing video games and whatever else, okay? That needs to come to an end. You guys have provided that opportunity for this town. to provide more American working class members to get up, pull themselves up, buy homes in this place. That's why they need to construct new homes so that the younger class can start buying their own homes and get out of mommy and daddy's house. That is a good thing. That is what you guys have done by allowing Rowan and the META to come out here and build these data centers. It is also provide a huge amount of, uh, uh, kids and, uh, men and women of all sorts. Okay. To, um, to learn a, a marketable skill that isn't sitting there on Tik TOK and whatnot. Okay. These people are out here working their butts off in the heat and the cold and all weather types. And they go to class two nights a week in some areas. on top of a 10 hour shift. And people wanna sit there and complain about it's temporary work, temporary work. Yeah, it's temporary work, but guess what, so is people's homes, so is this building, so is every other thing out there. But all that temporary work becomes permanent at some point in time. Then on top of that, you gotta service it. HVAC, plumbing, welding, iron work, it all counts. But it's up to you folks to make sure that the people out here in Temple have a job. Rowan has already provided that opportunity. Those subcontractors are also providing that opportunity. Heck, even City Councilman Mike has provided that opportunity to a kid that graduated high school and put him to work. Thank you, City Councilman Mike. Instead of that kid getting shot out there back when they were graduating high school, he was out working for you. That's what matters in this community.

Thank you, Mr. Marquez. Eve? Sorry, I didn't call you. And I can't read the name of the person on deck. Maybe it starts with a G. Ed, maybe? I don't know. We'll go to the next one, and then if you signed up to speak, you'll be last. And Carly Bird, you are on deck after Ms. Eve. CARLY BIRD.

It's rain, too. Eve rain. DAVID BURRAGE.

There you go.

CARLY BIRD. So good evening, Temple City Council. A Mr. Scott Brooks of Waxahachie has written an op-ed article. My understanding is that one of you on the Temple City Council had reposted it on social media. My comments are based on excerpts addressing that article. Quote, nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. So said Marie Curie as quoted by Mr. Waxahachie. Temple City Council, we are not sitting in our sad sacks, flustered and floundering in our fear funks. We are actively, responsibly, and cognitively pursuing an understanding of the issues regarding mega data centers, participating in the civic process, all to the best of our individual abilities. The default accusation and insult hurled most often toward those of us with legitimate concerns, besides Communist China paying us, is that we are fearful, that fear is our master, that fear is the driving force stirring up our hysteria over this new technology. Au contraire. Maybe the tables need to be turned. Maybe the proverbial mirror needs to be spun around. Now, Mr. Waxahachie also says, accusatorily, skepticism is very different from hysteria. Get over yourself, Mr. Brooks, and anyone else who jumped on his bandwagon. Hysteria? No, more like a healthy concern spurred on by our healthy curiosity undergirded by, yes, a sous-son of fear, just a pinch, that is measured with a dose of skepticism and stirred with a desire to investigate further, to question persistently, and to ponder deeply. Here's another excerpt. Data centers are being greeted as though someone were asking permission to build a chemical dump beside an elementary school. Well, yeah, because that is an appropriate metaphor. Besides being a gigantic black eye of an eyesore, these mega data centers are being reported as the cause of a myriad of problems. by Mama Maria's and Papa Pedro's and Aunt Susie's and Uncle Harry's and Grandma Shuggie's and Grandpa Boogie's from states across this nation. Oh, but these citizen reports are anecdotal. They're not from scientifically, statistically based entities. Yeah? So? Why not heed both types of assessments? Both may not be accurate or applicable. Before we frighten ourselves into saying no, this Mr. Waxahachie said, we should at least know what the heck we're saying no to. Well, aside from Mr. Waxahachie's ending with that non-standard grammatical preposition thingy, we know, Mr. Brooks, we do. We know.

Thank you, Ms. Rain. Next up, Carly Bird, followed by Jose Martinez.

Hello, my name is Carly Byrd. On March 25, 2014, Matilda Paul entered her recall effort to remove the city council, falling short of the votes needed. Two weeks later, that same city council adopted a resolution appointing a 27-member charter review committee charged with undertaking a comprehensive review of the city charter and submitting any proposed charter amendments back to the city council for a charter amendment election. After three months of meeting and deliberations, lots of articles on it in the Temple Daily Telegram, The committee decided on 20 propositions that were then presented to the very council who elected them. Therefore, a vote to the residents in November. One of these propositions that was put before the council was regarding a charter review amendment. The agenda language initially was whereas in recent months it has become apparent that a comprehensive review of the city charter is needed as the last comprehensive review was completed in 2000. The proposition language, was then shall the city charter be amended to require that the charter be reviewed by the city council for possible amendments not less than every 10 years. The result was 7,500, sorry, 7,552 for and against was 1,371. So the charter language ended up being the charter may be reviewed as needed, but the city council must perform on its own or by committee a review of this charter at least once every 10 years. As far as I understand, the last time a charter review committee was created was 12 years ago. The 2014 charter amendments changed the rules governing accountability conflicts of interest in municipal decision making. Those rules determine how citizens can respond when today's government makes decisions that create tomorrow's infrastructure obligation. So I would like to know when was the City of Temple Charter last formally reviewed pursuant to section 15.1 and where is the documentation of that review?

Just a minute, are you, is that the end of your comments or do you want to use the rest?

Um, I'll use the rest. Also, I want to know what the council reviewed, who conducted it, what correct recommendations were made or whether the council formally conducted that no amendments were necessary. Um, yeah, that's it.

Charter review was conducted in 2024. Um, it was conducted at a council meeting and there's a resolution confirming that.

And is there documents that support that?

There's a resolution supporting that.

So that's a no? That's a yes. It's a document. OK. But there was not a committee created, correct?

There was not a committee. It was conducted by the council.

Right. OK. The council, the city attorney, and staff. So I just want to point out that it's- Sarah, wait.

Would you please start her time again?

The agenda language, I mean, the charter language is that the council shall review every 10 years, either by a commission or on their own initiative. Right. The charter, and they reviewed it on their own initiative. Without residents or any committee, correct?

The charter allows them to review either on their own initiative or by commission. Which a commission has not been created in 12 years, is that correct?

can answer with factual statements i mean it's open records it's everywhere so i can answer with factual statements and my factual statement is that the council did review the charter in 2024 and there's a resolution supporting that action got it thank you thank you ma'am uh mr martinez and then milton can you hear me you're up after mr martinez not yet close hey start walking in this way

Mr. Martinez, let Mr. Hensley make it across the room first. They're halfway.

My turn?

No, you're next.

Mr. Martinez is up next.

OK. Mr. Mayor.

Sorry, Mr. Martinez.

City Council, I thank each one of y'all for letting me come here tonight. I want to invite. all of you, the people that's here, to the 18th annual Life Change that will be held on October the 4th, 2026. The location is on South 31st Street at the Chick-fil-A parking lot. We will start gathering at 2.30 and take our positions along the South 31st Street at 2 o'clock. Recently I was asked if abortion, the taking of the little newborn baby, is murder. You have to answer this question yourself. Each year in America, an average of 1,126,000 unborn babies' lives are taken each year by abortion. That is 3,452 lives taken each day. In comparison, the lives that was taken on 9-11 was 2,977 in comparison to 3,452 taken by abortion each day. You answer the question yourself. Is abortion, the taking the life of an unborn baby, abortion? To me, it is. I don't know what it is to you. To me, it's abortion. And I know one person that's going to be there. Thank you, Ms. Brindley. There's something else I want to thank you about. I was visiting my wife out at Hillcrest. And it is amazing, truly amazing, how y'all have maintained Hillcrest. It has come from terrible to beautiful, if a cemetery could be beautiful. Thank you for taking care of Hillcrest. And I look for each one of you at the Life Chain on October the 4th.

Thank you.

And I thank everybody that took care of me and helped me up here. I'll take your hand.

Milton, it's good to see you again. It's been too long. Let him come a little closer.

I'll shake your hand after a while.

Yeah, it's good to see you. You bet. You take care. Mr. Martinez. And then Ms. Lara, you'll follow Mr. Martinez?

Excuse me. Hello. Last time before this last council meeting, I was kept from talking about what the mayor was talking about, and I was referring to the closed-loop water system. Colleen already defeated a closed-loop data center, in case some of you don't know. This was only two months ago. Last time also, a speaker concisely put it by saying that your approval and the counsels of a data center are literally killing his family. And what all of you are doing is disgusting, sick, and disturbing, exactly what he said. Yet the mayor is happy about batting some home run, but no amount of money is more important than a counsel batting out our lives. Projected are 1,300 deaths attributable to data centers pollution by 2030. Residents will pay $26 billion in health care costs. Hearing loss results from the constant hum. Temperatures rise 4 to 16 degrees for miles, a heat island. Residents will pay for electric rate heights of 267%. Over 90% of new power demand is going to data centers, not us. Look at the transmission lines. going up, yet resorting to generators, the New York Times reports, manufactures pollution. Don't accept the false claims of data centers. Americans have experienced the problems already. See for yourself, listen. Listen closely to the hum of your computer and touch the heat of the computer itself. All multiply tremendously from a data center. You can see it for yourself. In general, these are the costs to us while Trump resurrects a China boogeyman. China has four times the US population, but only 369 data centers in April, increased by only one from February, while Temple increased more than China, 14,000 times the population that China has than Temple. We're doing more. Britain has only 515 data centers, Germany 514. The US has 8,000 current and proposed data centers all battling each other for billions, costing us our health and resources while they bring their PR team here. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Lara? I don't know.

Good evening. I'm Belinda Lara and live in District 2. I want to submit a formal objection regarding the sequencing of items on the agenda for this meeting. The council has to vote for final approvals on Rowan's Phase 1 development, infrastructure, and utility agreements tonight. Simultaneously, you are hearing the final readings of updates to the unified development code designed to regulate data center developments by executing these votes concurrently the city is intentionally grandfathering grandfathering a massive industrial project out of the very regulatory oversight and public review process that the staff has acknowledged are necessary to protect temple's water and power grid I want to cut through all the drama and get straight to the facts of what I and other residents have witnessed over the last few months. In public meetings, this Council and staff have repeatedly denied our request for caution. You have undermined our knowledge, criticized our intelligence when we brought forward valid concerns. Perhaps the lack of understanding stems from the intentional confusing titles in your agendas. What good is intelligence without the wisdom to do the right thing? to keep a community intact and protect our resources. Again, I am not opposed to the evolution of technology, but rather to the outdated codes and protections that have not evolved with it. The main goal here is to preserve our sacred resources. This council has haphazardly allowing companies to take over in a way that you cannot guarantee it. Instead, sorry. You cannot guarantee they will not deplete our resources. You point to the gifted synergy water well. This is not goodwill. We could see through the manipulation. Rowan handed that well over only because they completely abandoned the original data center plans at the Moriah site, leaving us with zero guarantees. What guarantee does the city actually have? that they even have a long-term tenant secured for the project lasso. Mr. Davis, you have expressed your disappointment with our complaints, but we are not the cause of the problem. We are pointing out that there is a problem. We have shared our solutions, pleaded prevention, and offered ideas. If our complaints are overwhelming, This leadership needs to prepare for the disasters that lie ahead. The UDC codes need to be put in place before Rowan. I want to demand the community to directly involved in letting us set up these new UDC codes. We demand the immediate creation of a citizen advisory panel to ensure the local community has a binding voice in crafting the safety limits, water caps, zoning restrictions for all the future industrial developments. We have already allowed five data centers, and that's too many. Thank you.

Okay, there was the one that I was not able to read. Maybe the last name is Garfield, if I've deciphered that correctly. Anybody? Could someone out there maybe ask around if anybody signed up to speak but their name has not been called? Okay, Garfield maybe? Ed? I don't know. We'll give him just a second. Based on that autograph, he has a future in the NFL, I think.

Or a doctor.

Or a doctor, yeah. What's your name? OK. You were told you did not have to sign up? You don't have to sign up for a public hearing, which is what we're going to get to a couple of items here shortly that are public hearings about specific agenda items. And you don't have to sign up for those. But for general comments like we've had tonight, you do have to sign up prior so as I read through the agenda item shortly if the comments that you fashioned are around that agenda item then you're more than welcome to speak then okay dope all right do we have her finding you nobody okay all right well if somebody comes up and says hey what happened I'll check his signature and if it matches. Okay, thank you. All right, next item is public comments. Citizens who wish to address the council, nope, that's not, we just did that. Consent agenda. All items under this section are to be considered by the city council and may be enacted in one motion. If discussion is desired by the council, any item may be removed. From that consent agenda at the request of any council member and will be considered separately Council we in workshop agreed that we would remove a couple of items one two that we'd remove a few items from The consent is there anything else that needs to be removed since we spoke last everybody, okay All right, give me just a second to be sure I'm straight here I

I don't know. I don't want to remove it. But I would like to highlight item E. The 24th Street bridge. I'm glad we're moving forward on that. That's exciting to get that kicked off. I know that a lot of folks have been waiting a long time for that to reopen. And of course, we're not reopening it right now. But we're in the process of heading that direction. So good news.

Here we Can we confirm that we are going to remove item 5A and 5J? Or A? I'm sorry, my notes up here aren't...

Okay, I and J? Okay.

Okay, very good. Thank you for that clarification. All right. Council, if there's no discussion, then I'll entertain a motion on item 3.

I'm sorry, 3A through 3O less I and J. I'm going to approve items 3A through 3O minus items I and J. I'll second it.

We have a motion by Council Member Cookington. We have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. Council, please cast your vote.

Mayor Davis, I accidentally did not include Councilmember Pilkington when I started it. And so let me save and close this, click him, and then come back if you'll bear with me.

Yes, that's fine.

He verbally voted.

Yep, so can I move on while you work on that? Okay. Very good. No, no, that's fine. Consent agenda passes four votes to zero, five votes to zero, which is 3A through 3O minus 3I and J. Item 3i is a second reading and a public, I'm sorry, just a second reading and a second and final reading. Consider adopting an ordinance authorizing the voluntary annexation of 316.13 plus or minus acres located in the Maximo Marino Survey, abstract number 14, located in the City of Temple's extraterritorial jurisdiction, Bell County, Texas, identified by Bell County Appraisal District Parcel ID numbers 7755, 24955, and 1068. 228. Can council entertain a motion on that item? Make a motion to approve, aye. 3, aye. Second. All right. We have a motion by Councilmember Immons. We have a second by Councilmember Pilkington.

Aye.

Council, please cast your vote. Aye.

We're spinning. Can I call your name? Yes. Grant.

3i passes four votes yes zero votes no and one abstention second and final reading to consider adopting an ordinance authorizing a rezoning and binding site development plan request from ag to planned development lot industrial on 316.13 plus or minus acres located in the city of temple bell county texas identified as bell county appraisal district parcel id number seven seven five five two four nine five five one oh six two two eight this item isn't subject to a public hearing it's a second final reading So item 3J. Council, I will entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. We have a second by Council Member Emmons. Council, please cast your vote. 3J passes four votes yes, zero votes no, and one abstention. Now moving on to the regular agenda. Item four is the second and final reading that includes a public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance redesignating the boundaries of tax abatement reinvestment zone number 47, located generally east of Bob White Road and north of Lorain Avenue, and further currently identified by Bell County Appraisal District with property ID numbers 239676, 36491, 12894, 7755, 24955, and 106228 for commercial and industrial tax abatement. Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah. Sorry about that. So that was item four. Item five reads, the second and final reading in a public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance designating approximately 303 acres in Synergy Park, located generally east of Highway 190 and both north and south of FM 3117. further currently identified by Bell County Appraisal District property ID numbers 7 0 6 8 7 0 7 3 7 0 6 7 7 0 6 9 7 0 7 1 2 0 9 9 8 6 2 0 9 9 8 8 and 2 3 4 5 8 7 as city of temple tax abatement reinvestment zone number 50 for commercial and industrial tax abatement

Good afternoon, mayor and council. Um, this is the second reading of a redesignation of tax abatement reinvestment zone number 47 and designation of tax abatement reinvestment zone number 50. Um, which you heard on first reading at your September 3rd council meeting and conducted a public hearing. We'll be hearing second reading tonight and conducting a additional public hearing. Um, after some notices were sent to taxing entities. tax code section 312.201 permits a council by ordinance to designate a tax abatement reinvestment zone if the Designation is likely to contribute to the retention or expansion of primary employment, attract major investment in the tax abatement reinvestment zone that would benefit the property and contribute to the economic development of the city. The ordinance must state that the boundaries of the TARS and eligibility eligibility for tax abatement, finding that the improvements sought are feasible and practical and would be a benefit to the land and to be included in the zone and to the municipality. Currently, TARS number 47 includes approximately 554 acres located generally east of Bob White Drive and north of Lorain. This was designated by council at its October 2nd, 2025 regular council meeting on second reading. And then a public hearing was conducted on first reading on September 18th, 2025. If redesignated, the TARS would include an additional approximate 316 acres of land adjacent to the initial project site which was acquired by Rowan for phase one after the city purchased land originally proposed for building three for the proposed landfill expansion. The land is located in synergy industrial park and is in nearby proximity to the landfill and to the Panda BKB power plant. Uh, you just approved on second reading the annexation and, um, PDLI zoning for this additional land. Um, this PDLI zoning can, um, includes plan development conditions, including screening, noise mitigation, traffic impact study requirements, and a utility services agreement. TARS number 50, the land is currently zoned PDLI as of April 16th, 2026. It also has planned development conditions, including screening, noise mitigation, requirements for traffic impact studies, and requirements for a utility service agreement. The land proposed for this TARS includes approximately 303 acres in Synergy Industrial Park, located generally east of highway one 90 and both north and south of FM 31 17. It is also located in the synergy industrial park in nearby vicinity of the landfill and Panda BKV power plants adjacent to the BNSF railroad council can consider designating a tax abatement reinvestment zone and authorizing abatement. If at least two of the following criteria are met. that the project involves a minimum increase in property value of 300% for construction of a new facility or 50% for expansion of an existing facility. The project makes a substantial contribution to the redevelopment efforts or strategic economic development programs. The project has high visibility, image impact, or is of significantly higher level of development quality. The project is in an area that might not otherwise be developed. The project can serve as a prototype and catalyst for other developments of a higher standard. The project stimulates desired concentrations of employment or commercial activity, or the project generates greater employment than would otherwise be achieved. Staff still believes that this project meets Temple's standards for tax abatement and the criteria in Chapter 312. The project involves a minimum increase in property value of 300% for construction of new facilities and makes a substantial contribution to redevelopment efforts or strategic economic development programs. The project stimulates desired concentration of employment or commercial activity and generates greater employment than would otherwise be achieved. And the project will expand the employment base, attract major investment and contribute to economic development in the city. On October 2nd, 2025 council approved a tax abatement agreement with row and temple LLC to abate a percentage of the increases in taxable value of property associated with their property and synergy industrial park. The agreement contained a provision that the agreement is applicable to future phases of development under the same terms and conditions if the next phase of land is in a TARS. Rowan must invest a minimum of $700 million and retain 40 full-time employees per phase in order to receive the abatement. Today, as I stated, is the second reading of the ordinance to redesignate the boundaries of TARS 47 and designate TARS number 50. Staff recommends council redesignate the boundaries of TARS number 47 and designate TARS number 50. It's located in an industrial park, appropriate for this type of development and subject to planned development zoning conditions, and it meets the city's economic development policy and tax code criteria for tax abatement. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you, ma'am. Council, anything for Ms. Thomas?

Anything?

Okay, very good. Then with that, I will open the public hearing on both items four and five. If you wish to speak on items four and or five, please step to the podium and state your name for the record. Do we have anybody virtually tonight?

Hello again, Joe Royer. I'm a in district two. Um, I just want to clarify here. Um, this is items four and five being combined into a single thing, even though these are two separate items that each require public hearing, they are non-contiguous pieces of land, but they are both subject to the same applicant or at least parent applicant.

So Joe, are you speaking on item four or five or both?

Um, both apparently. Okay. Right. Um, But I'm just pointing out the fact for the record that you're combining two items that each separately require public hearing. And they're not contiguous land. So for plain English benefit, this is to expand the tax abatement zones so that we can give additional tax breaks to Rowan for Project Lasso and then additional tax breaks to Rowan for Project Ranger. As the presentation mentioned, each phase is only required to create 40 jobs. That's an interesting number because as long as you're under 50 jobs and the way Rowan is structuring these as separate companies, separate LLCs, if you have less than 50 employees, you don't have to pay benefits. And the fact that we would even consider a tax abatement agreement for an employer who's acting this way is just baffling to me. Again, as I've mentioned at previous meetings, I've had some experience with tax abatements in other counties and other states. And typically, the threshold is 80 jobs. And the fact that we're considering something under 50 is just surprising to me. But my main point here, I think, is that we should not be giving tax breaks to billionaires. We should be giving tax breaks to everyone else. We should be giving tax breaks to people that can afford these utility rate increases that supposedly are not because of the data centers. Like, our groceries are going up. Inflation is going up. I mean, the cost of living, our taxes are going up. We've seen several different tax increases just on the city front alone. Why are the people of Temple having to suffer this cost instead of the billionaires who can easily afford it? Again, we should not be giving tax breaks to billionaires. We should be giving tax breaks to everyone else, people who actually need them. Thank you.

Thank you.

A couple questions, Joe.

So under 50 employees, they don't have to pay for benefits. Is that what they're doing?

I don't know if they are or they're not, but they're not legally required to. And most companies don't do things that they're not legally required to do.

I'm in the health insurance business. Well over half of my clients have less than 50 employees. So we represent 60 or 70 local employers right here under 50 and they all have a full suite of benefits. Good for them. And yeah, that's it. And I'll, I bet a multi-billion dollar company will do the same.

That's an excellent example of a lot of small companies do take much better care of their employees than big companies. I mean, we're talking about a $13 billion company here that has broken themselves into lots of small pieces to get around certain rules. They don't have a good track record for being a responsible employer or somebody you would want to do business with.

Your opinion is noted. Thank you. You bet. Yes, ma'am.

Hi. I'm Joanne Dudley. I live off of 34th Street, off of 53. My biggest question is traffic. A lot of these trucks do not use the loop. The loop is atrocious because of all the construction on the loop, all the houses, all the businesses. What we're finding is these big trucks, these tractor trailers coming off of the industrial park, a lot of the trucks with the all these construction trucks they're taking coming down um avenue h coming down 34th street going on to 53 going down adams go to get to 30 to get to 35. they are not taking the loop to get to 35. so you're having all of this um you're now rebuilding more more businesses on off of 53 but no way for them to get onto anything other than going down Adams to get to 35. and if you go If you take 53 down into town, you get in front of Cody's, there's a big bump in the road. These trucks are going boom, boom, boom, boom in front of Cody's. So you hear these trucks going boom in front of Cody's. These trucks are going down 34th Street and they're coming to the stop sign and they're waiting and they're waiting. And there's a bottleneck in front of the stop sign. And then they're going down East Central, which is a dead end off of 34th Street to try to turn around. And you're getting these tractor trailers trying to turn around down the cul-de-sac down East Central. There's gotta be a different way, a different way to, I'm not against the construction. By all means, I'm not against the construction. I'm against, there's gotta be a way to manipulate, to maneuver this construction. There's gotta be a different way to figure out a lot of this. And the sidewalks on 34th Street are atrocious. You've seen them. We cannot get the city to come and fix the sidewalks. There's handicapped people using these sidewalks, but they have to use the street because nobody comes to fix the sidewalk because I call the city and the city sits there and goes, sorry, call somebody else. I've gone to the city councilwoman.

You wandered off the topic of the actual agenda items. The construction was fine, sidewalks.

But the whole thing is the trucks are using 34th Street. but the San handicap people and the kids are using the street because there's no sidewalk on 34th street because the sidewalk on 34th street is all broken down. There's big holes in the sidewalk.

Understood.

So you've got the sidewalks that are busted out and there's the kids and the, and the handicap people are using the sidewalk. And I mean, we're the East side. You're throwing the construction trucks, you're throwing the big trucks, you're throwing all these people down these east side streets. I'm sorry, I love the construction. I'm glad it's finally happening on the east side. But don't kill us before you finally get it done.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. You bet. Who else would like to speak? Ms. Brindley? Oh, I'm sorry. Ms. Brindley?

No, no, no. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Your Honor, we're talking about the ordinance four and five, right? Tax payment? Yes, sir. Yeah, great presentation. And about the jobs, about 40 jobs in the state of Texas, the Department of Labor has a form. They had it filled out. they're normally checked every year. So regardless what jobs you get, economic impact on these data centers for our municipality, I think our budget covers like 15 to 18%. from our $325 million budget, we get about $40 million, and other economic impact we have. As my neighbor, I live in Martin Luther King Road in 1405, next door neighbor who rented out two years of lease with a guy coming from Houston to build a data center here. So those are economic impact we have here. So overall, I appreciate doing this. I really appreciate the entire team. The state of Texas are a $2.9 trillion economy. We get over $990 billion in economic impact from a data center. So I just want to let you know again, thank you very much. We need everybody here. I want to keep my taxes low. So that's my bottom line. I don't want my water bill or electric bill to go to hire. Thank you very much. What do you guys do? Thank you, sir. Ms. Brindley?

Nell Brinley, Mr. Emmons District. I never can remember what number it is. I can't for the life of me understand why this council would give massive tax abatements to a foreign investor to come in and use our water, our grid, cause the division that they've caused in this city. I've never seen it like this. I really haven't. I mean, I'm sure there have been divisions in the past, but I can't imagine why you would do that. You don't have to give them a tax abatement. I mean, they're already here. They're not going anywhere. You've already let them in. You don't have to give them every single thing they ask you for. Would you please give the citizens of Temple a plum and vote no to this? And show us in good faith that you really do care about the citizens of Temple, that you really do care that the cost of diesel is $5.99 on 31st Street. That you really do care that people can't even afford ground beef much less a t-bone steak Take care of the people of temple not a foreign investor from Australia Who wants to come in and take our water and our electric grid? Show that you care about the people of temple and the fact that you would invite workers to come in so that citizens don't can't even get in the room and and can i mean i barely found a place to park there were so many out-of-state pickup trucks parked outside from the workers that were here so much for allowing senior citizens to come in show us that you care please vote no who else

If you know that you want to speak on this, Adam, I'd appreciate if you'd queue up, if you could.

This has to do with the debt and the tax abatements. We're fiscal debt. The Temple, Texas data center was the last straw. Let me point out a few other facts and give our city council credit. Fiscal debt in 2019 was $321 million. Now in 26, it is $818 million. I don't know with all these tax abatements how you're going to pay all this, but we'll find it out somehow. $15 million of that went to buying the agricultural acres on Bob White to rezone it industrial for rowing. All this is money out the door, is what I call it. They get a 10-year tax abatement. You lost a million dollars on last year's Tanglewood music event and you took 18 million out of the tourist funds. All of this is the tip of the iceberg. Okay. The truth will come out always. You know, God will reveal his hand is slow in our minds sometimes, but he does reveal the problems. You guys are raking up debt. You're not getting enough money back. You're going to go after the taxpayer in the end. because that's what's gonna happen we see it we know it but you're racking up debt you're supposed to be paying off debt so how you gonna pay it off with all these tax abatements you keep giving these people in commercial industrial tax abatements to people that are going to provide how many jobs not enough for anybody a lot of them are coming in from out of town they'll be living here I'm sure maybe because a lot of this

Last week, whenever we talked about this, I encouraged folks to go out.

It was probably two weeks ago, not last week.

Two weeks, whatever, Margie. Last time I saw you.

I know, but you don't want to hear it.

I encouraged folks to go out on the Belcad and see what these properties paid two years ago versus what they'll be paying in tax now.

I know.

So we're not abating current income. We're abating future income.

Well, you need to take care of what you owe now. I mean, you owe millions. I mean, you're almost up to the billion dollar mark now. And this is what size town? I can understand an Odessa Midland area because they got the money rolling in because they are gas, they are oil. They don't have this kind of debt.

Thank you, Margie.

You're welcome. You bet.

Who's next?

Think about your household because it's your city.

So how you doing? So first things first is with the abatements, right? The abatements, from my understanding, is that that's supposed to be a way for them to help out with future work to get fixed that's what the abatement is for is it would you say that'd be correct the abatement is used as an incentive to bring a large economic development project to do right but with that abatement like let's say for example we're gonna need a encore know more power grid that's a way for them to also put money towards that because that is possible something that has been talked about uh in the past separate buckets but go ahead okay so um so yeah so i don't see an issue with this because on top of that whole abatement situation like i said the workers on those jobs get paid very well They get paid top dollar on top of that to sit there and throw shade at the workers that are showing up the same people that are not part of the community are also showing up. And the workers that are showing up are just as much citizens okay and working from this area, even though they got work trucks, because they have been promoted. So. enough with throwing shade at the workers, because let's not forget, it's those hard American working men and women that helped build the country to what it is today. So let's stop throwing shade down their way.

Thank you, sir. Who else? Yes, Miss Lara.

Hi. I'm going to ask a not so intelligent question. I'm a little lost. I'm sitting outside, so it's a little hard to hear. So we're under four and five ordinances. Did everything else before that is no longer on the table or is moved or like IJK consent agenda has already been approved?

We've moved on.

Item four and five.

The agenda was approved. For which ones?

All of the items before items four and five. Items three was the consent agenda. It's already been approved.

So the UDC codes have been approved? Because that considers light and industrial heavy for like J?

Yes, the second reading was on consent agenda and the consent agenda has been approved.

So does this apply for this sixth data center? Since the UDC codes have been approved, what exactly are those codes? Because they're not listed here. So how do we know what was approved or what was created?

It's the same ones that we discussed in public hearing last week. They've now been voted on a second time and approved two weeks ago. They're now being approved this week. They have been approved.

They have already been approved. They've already been approved?

Correct.

OK.

Thank you. Who else? Anyone else from the audience? Is it on items four and five?

It's about the tax abatement, right?

Yep.

It's about creation of the tax abatement reinvestment zones number 47 and 50.

Cool.

This is just the zones.

Well, I'm just going to come up here and say that basically the same exact thing that everyone else has been saying. I oppose all of it, including these tax abatements. Obviously, you guys seem pretty dead set on bringing in these data centers, regardless of what we have to say. Do you mind stating your name again? My name is Adam. Okay. I mean you're already going against us and bringing them in and now you're you're talking about we're about to pass a tax abatement which I think a lot of us already knew that this was coming there's these tax abatements and um I just earlier you were saying that you know we could you know you encouraged us to look at belcat and how much those properties were bringing in for the city okay but that's regardless of the point these companies can afford to pay full taxes The entire reason that they're even bringing them in here is because we provide the infrastructure for internet, water, all the stuff, electricity, everything that they need to run these, but that puts them in the middle of populated areas. They shouldn't even be anywhere near populations. I'm not even against AI data centers, by the way. I think we should be the leaders in them, but they need to be nowhere near anyone. All these people are doing is using us to save money. and you have all fell for it hook, line, and sinker. If you're gonna be so dead set on bringing them in here, at least charge them full tax rates because there are so many other industries that you could bring in here from other states where taxes are higher, where they might wanna move into a place like this, where taxes are actually cheaper in Texas, all right, without any abatements, just paying full taxes, where we're cheaper than other states. Other industries might wanna come in here instead of these data centers, who are only gonna be giving, what, 40 jobs per data center that we have? And I don't even know how many now we have, like about a dozen, I think, is what we're talking about, right? So, I mean, I don't even get it. I don't even get why you guys are even doing all this, because it's, you know everyone hates you guys for this. You know you're not gonna win your re-elections. Like, this is it for you guys. No one's gonna vote for you. I mean, no one even voted for you, Tim, the last election, y'all canceled the election because somehow suspiciously you ran unopposed in a city of almost a hundred thousand people, you know? And then when we come up with thousands of signatures to recall you, Oh no, we don't, we don't meet the threshold. That's not a democracy. That's dictatorship. I oppose all of this. Okay. You're way off topic. I don't care. This is way on topic. This is way on topic.

You have to stay on topic.

This is on topic. I'm talking about the tax abatements and how we ended up in this freaking mess that we're in. You're talking about my election. That's great, because it's related, right? You're voting in favor of this, right? It's not related at all. It's very, very relevant, because when you guys... Sir, the posted item... Listen, stop, please. You're trying to violate my First Amendment, and I'm not going to stand for it.

The Open Meetings Act requires that we stay on topic.

Okay, fine. I will stay on topic.

No, just give him let's let's give him the opportunity one more time to stay on top.

All right, fine. Regardless of that, obviously, nobody even wants these data centers here. But then you're furthering by giving them these major tax write offs, charge them the full amount. They're not even American.

Anyways, that's it. Thank you. Just as an interesting point, Texas is a great place as an individual to live because taxes are individual, taxes are low. Texas ranks 47th out of 50 among all the states regarding corporate taxation. So Texas is not at all a friendly state when it comes to corporate taxation. So whenever it's said that you could bring, there's plenty of other industries in plenty of other states that you could bring in to do business right here in Temple, simply not true. Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Hi, I'm Carly Bird. I just think it's interesting that you put the word consider in the verbiage. Because words are important. I mean, when you consider something, you contemplate it. So what should be in there is that you are going to vote, because you rarely vote against each other, I've noticed. Like, you don't disagree on stuff. I noticed that. And it seems like the main people supporting the data centers are directly benefiting from the data centers or the government of the city of Temple. That's obvious. Right now, by the influx of upper class individuals that seem to have filled the seats, whether directly asked or in an unspoken contract, exchanged financially or through fake adulation like bootlicking. That's it.

Thank you, ma'am. Who's next?

Hello, Sarah Royer. Um, okay. So we're talking about tax abatements and the issue we have with tax abatements right now is they don't get to play by the same rules as we do. Um, like meta, it was just in the newspaper that look at this beautiful $1.4 billion facility. That's great. Right. Um, but we evaluated them, uh, bell county, uh, evaluated them at $28 million. Um, which is interesting. And, uh, but the, we've seen this, the rowing properties we've seen, if you go through bell cat and I've got all of the property numbers, we've seen it go from 1.4 million reevaluated to $70,000. And then they're handed to them and they only have to increase it by 300% to get their. tax abatements and spend so much money they're spending this money on themselves that's what they're spending it on so I don't know why we're giving them tax abatements and then also not appraising it if I got to have my house to be appraised at what one percent of what i put into it that would be amazing and if that's what you guys are looking to do i would love to participate in that program um but a company that has 1.4 billion dollars in a piece of land being evaluated for 28 million and then you're still giving these tax breaks and you know i can't speak to rowan because it hasn't come out yet but i can see what you've done i can see the same thing you've done what's happening in fact they held up all of Bell County appraisal district because they were fighting to get this 28 million dollar evaluation on that out which is really interesting and you're shaking your head no but go to Belcad that's what it's evaluated that it's that's what's it that's what's in the record so if you know something we don't why isn't it in the records mr. Pilkington No, it's not a city thing but you know you get to work with the same guy who says yes to that you guys are all related so your RT Schneider is voting on that. So you guys are given huge tax abatements and RT Schneider saying oh It's only worth $28 million. I mean, this is a pretty good old, good old boys network. All these people are good old boys. We are the citizens of Temple, and we're saying this isn't cool. This is not fair. What you're doing isn't fair. It's not fair for your citizens. It's not fair for the people who live here. How's that for being on topic?

Here's something that's on topic. You are correct. The metadata center, the operating data center, was valued at $28 million. via Belcad. Belcad's industrial appraiser was called on the carpet about that, and I was in the meeting when that appraiser was fired. And then, no, that's not true. And then the tax appraisal district, along with the city of Temple, along with Bell County, worked with META to correct their appraisal. And that went up to what?

Yes, Mayor. Their appraised value, and it was what was on the ground as a 1-1 of 2026? Correct. It did go up to, let me see the proof. It's projected the full value of the building will be $563.7 million. The $28.8 million is what the land was appraised for. Then they had personal property that was appraised at... It was nearly $400-something million, too. When the certified roll first came out, they had it appraised at $25.6 million.

And that was land and buildings?

And what buildings were completed as of January 1 of 2026. That's when we got. heavily involved in META work too with what the valuation was as of 1-1 of 2026.

So I know there were other communities that stopped their budgeting process because the valuation, they were expecting more income and based upon the valuations and all taxing entities worked very closely with META who worked with the taxing entities voluntarily worked hard to get corrected valuations to the tax appraisal district, and paid the additional tax. And we're volunteered to help, and we're happy to do it. And they did. They could have, if you'd like to speak, do public hearing. But they could have drugged their feet until everyone had to get their budgets done. They didn't do that. They worked very quick. I think we were down to maybe two weeks or so. before we all had to get our budgets turned in, and META worked very closely with all taxing entities to shore up and pay the proper amount of tax. Based upon what should have been the real valuation as of 1-1-26, it was the appraisal district's industrial appraiser that dropped the ball, and META worked very hard to fix that with the taxing entities. Tax appraisal district fired the appraiser who'd been with them 20 plus years.

So what are they appraised at now? Because it's not public record that we can find.

You're just looking at the land value when you look at probably if you're going on to Belcad. There's different tax IDs and typically land has a certain ID. Building improvement has a different one. Personal property can have a different one. Those records are kept by the Bell County Appraisal District so you can always call or request information from them. But according to Tracy's records can you. Full build out.

That will be as of, what will be on the roll as of 1-1-2027 is over $1.2 billion, and that's personal and real property.

And after the updates, are we able to confirm what 1-1-26 was?

When you look at the BELCAT system, you don't always see the values on there. It usually just shows the length.

So as of 2026, it was what one, one 26, 570 million. Is that what you said?

I'm just trying to get my numbers. Grab the spreadsheet with the exact number on it.

Well, cat has enlisted at $28 million just for the land. There's no improvement. It says $0 for improvement.

Tracy, while you're looking that up, why don't we move on to Margie? Sarah, we'll get back next.

And in 2025, it was $1.6 million. So it went up by $27.1 million in one year on land value only.

You have land value. Margie Fraser is going to read this right now. Temple, Texas is projected to lose approximately $14 million annually to tax revenue due to data center tax abatements over a 10-year period. This is part of a broader trend in Texas, where the state is losing over $1 billion each year in tax breaks for data centers. And they are going to be bringing up in their legislature legislation session coming up that they will not have any more that tax abatement so they're going to get very low because these were all meant for work small data centers not AI data centers these AI data centers are taking advantage of you they're taking advantage of your land I've seen how it's backed up to that new residential area and how those trucks are still going and I have complained to Greg Abbott and he might lose this election over this The loss is experienced significant financial impacts due to tax abatements granted to data centers. These abatements are designed to attract investment, but come at a cost to local revenue. How are they helping us? The city of Temple, I know, I buy a lot of stuff around here, I guarantee it, the prices keep going up, to lose approximately, of course, $14 million annually in tax revenue. This loss is part, I've already told you that, so while they can stimulate economic development, the loss of revenue poses challenges for funding essential city services and infrastructures. So you're going to have to learn how to balance your attracting of new businesses with the need to maintain financial stability for your residences, which doesn't seem to be happening. I haven't seen how it's happening. So if y'all can explain that to me, I'd appreciate it. And I bet every resident that lives here, actually lives here, would appreciate it. Everybody in Bell County would appreciate to knowing that, OK?

If I go buy a new suit for $1,000 and they instead put it on sale for $800, but all it cost them was $500, did they lose money?

No, they never did.

That's a tax abatement right there.

Well, we're losing money. We're not. You've already seen that. Who's next?

Do we have those?

We've got streets out there that are terrible.

Ms. Rory, I think we're addressing... Are we ready to?

$1,235,106,671 is META's total valuation of 1,126. That's full. That's completed, full build out. As of 26. That's what they'll pay taxes on, real and personal property. Yes, ma'am. Who's next?

Anybody else? Going once? Milton? Yeah, let's take him to the mic. We're coming to you. OK, I appreciate that.

Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. We'll talk about tax abatement. What is the percent of the tax abatement that's going to be given?

On that one, it's 25%. 50%. 50%.

How much? 50%. 50%. OK. It's valued at $1 million. We give them 50%. We make 50%, correct? Yes, sir. Where do we start making 50%?

When their building is 100% complete, or their improvements, as of January 1, the year that we're going to catch the revenue. So the certificate of occupancy, when it's given on the building, and also they have to file some various reports. That's when we'll start receiving the revenue.

When are we going to start making money? When?

We've already started making money. OK. Whenever they pay their 2026 tax bill and their 2025 tax bill.

So they have to pay the tax bill by April the 1st?

It is levied October 1.

OK, October 1.

And then it's due.

So we are looking at 50% of what evaluation?

Well, 50% of the tax paid on the $1.23 billion. Are we talking about META or Rowan? I think we're talking about META. I'm not sure.

Have we?

Which is off topic.

OK. We have not received any money yet.

We have. Yes, sir. We have.

We have?

Yes.

Thank you.

I guess.

I don't know.

We need to assign someone to go pick Milton up before every council meeting. It's been a while since he's been here. It's because he doesn't have transportation. Somebody go get him. Who else? Going once. Everybody good?

Anybody outside downstairs?

Y'all holler at the folks outside, please. We're good? Nobody out? Nobody back there? Okay. Going once, going twice. I will now close the public hearing on items four and five. And council, I'll entertain a motion on item four.

I will make a motion to approve item four, although I can't seem to get.

I'll second. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. We have a second by Council Member Emmons. Council, please cast your vote. I can vote. Did you switch over? I saw, there, here we go. Item four passes four votes yes, zero votes no, and one abstention. Council, I'll entertain a motion on item five.

I'll move to approve item five as presented.

Second. I have a motion by Councilmember Pilkington. We have a second by Councilmember Emmons. Council, please cast your vote.

I'm spinning again. Can I call your out loud? Yes. Grant. Same. Pilkington. Aye. Emmons.

Aye.

Walker. Aye. Davis.

Yes. Item five passes four votes yes, zero votes no, and one abstention. Item six is consider approving an amendment of the tax abatement agreement with Rowan LLC, which abated a percentage of the increase in the taxable value of certain real and personal property located in synergy park. This Thomas.

Yeah. And council members, um, before you for consideration is an amendment to the tax abatement agreement with Rowan temple LLC. As a reminder on October 2nd, 2025, You approved a chapter 312 tax abatement agreement with Rowan temple LLC in accordance with chapter 312 of the Texas tax code The agreement abated a percentage of the increase of taxable value of certain real and personal property for a project located in synergy industrial park to develop one or more data centers the project is permitted to develop in multiple phases and To be eligible for abatement, Rowan is required to invest at least $700 million and employ at least 40 full-time employees per phase. The agreement contains a provision that includes future phases under the same terms and conditions if the land acquired for that phase is included in a tax abatement reinvestment zone. This amendment amends and adds certain definitions, adds provisions regarding permanent connection to the grid, and further defines eligibility for abatement for personal property. It strengthens the agreement in three key ways. It prevents companies or affiliates that already have their own tax abatement agreement from also benefiting under another company's agreement. It clarifies that temporary on-site electrical generation does not count towards the company's required investment and is not eligible for tax abatement. and it provides that a company can lose its abatement benefits if it continues relying on temporary generators for long-term power needs instead of transitioning to permanent grid service. It does not reduce the company's investment commitment, extend the abatement period, or grant any new incentives. The tax abatement criteria per the city's economic development policy to be eligible for tax abatement, at least two criteria must be met. Staff still believes the project meets these criteria. It involves a minimum increase in property value of 300% for construction of new facilities and a substantial contribution to redevelopment efforts or strategic economic development. It stimulates desired concentration of employment or commercial activity and generates greater employment than would otherwise be achieved. It will also expand the employment base, attract major investment and contribute to economic development in the city as required by chapter three 12 of the tax code. And, um, as you did on the last two items, the council may designate a TARS. If the designation is likely to contribute to retention or expansion of primary employment or attract major investment in the zone, that would be a benefit to the property and contribute to the economic development of the city. Um, You've created three separate TARS that are subject to this tax abatement agreement. Uh, TARS number 47 designated by council, October 2nd, 2025 TARS 49 designated by council on April 2nd, 2026 for a subsequent phase TARS 50, um, which was approved today. All properties are subject to plan development, light industrial zoning regulations located in synergy industrial park near the landfill. BKV Panda power plant and the railroad. As a reminder, the projected revenue during the abatement period is 40 approximately $42 million annually, whereas the abatement will be just under 14 million. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Counseling thing for Ms. Thomas. All right, moving with that, council, I will entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve item six.

I'll second it.

I have a motion by council member Emmons. We have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. Council, please cast your vote. Item six passes, four votes yes, zero votes no, one abstention. Item 7 is consider adopting a resolution authorizing the following agreements. Item A, a development agreement with Rowan Lasso LLC for the development of approximately 316 acres associated with Project Lasso, which is Phase 1B, establishing development coordination of phase permitting process, transportation planning, utility coordination, and other development-related activities. requirements for the project. Item B reads an infrastructure agreement with Rowan Stampede LLC related to the approximately 1,443 acres comprising project temple and lasso, which is phase one. Project Stampede, phase two, Project Ranger, phase three, establishing responsibilities for the funding, design, construction, dedication, and timing of the water and wastewater infrastructure necessary to serve these projects, together with certain community benefit contributions. 7c is an is uh an amended and restated utility services agreement with rowan temple llc for project temple lasso phase one establishing the amount timing conditions and limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project 7d is a utility services agreement with rowan stampede llc for project stampede phase two establishing the amount timing conditions and limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project And item 7E is utility services agreement with Rowan Ranger LLC for Project Ranger, which is phase three, establishing the amount, timing, conditions, and limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project.

Thank you, Mayor. We've had several action items on this topic tonight, so I'll be brief. Just a quick project overview. This is three campus phases with six planned data centers. As Sharla said, all of them are located in the Synergy Southeast Industrial Park. They have a capital investment commitment of $700 million per abatement phase and 40 full-time jobs. Again, these are all located in our Synergy South Industrial Park area. You can see there the map. They're located generally in the same park that we have our regional landfill and where BKV Power Plant is located. On the agenda tonight, Mayor, as you read, there's five different agreements for your consideration. The first item is a development agreement for the Project Lasso or Phase 1B of their campus. This covers approximately 316 additional acres that will be added to Phase 1 as a replacement for the property that we purchased, the City of Temple purchased for the landfill expansion. The agreement addresses comprehensive plan coordination, thoroughfare plan alignment, phase permitting, noise mitigation, utility coordination, and relocation of city infrastructure at Rowan's expense. Again, this is for project land that was added to their original phase one when the company assigned the contract that they had to purchase this property that had been identified as the only viable location for the city of Temple to expand our current landfill and added up to 50 years of additional capacity life to our current landfill facility. The next agreement is the infrastructure agreement. This creates one coordinated infrastructure program for all three row and phases. There is a series of core infrastructure improvement that support Rowan's requested capacity, but also provide significant water resources to the broader South and Southeast Temple water system and help ensure reliability and resiliency of our water system as a whole. Rowan will fund a total of $38.5 million for infrastructure and projects. This includes approximately $25 million that they will contribute to the core infrastructure program as well as a $10 million contribution towards the aquifer storage and recovery program and $3 million for the Sammons Community Center if approved by voters in November.

Ms. Myers?

Absolutely.

The $10 million for the ASR, does that give them access to the ASR?

No, and I do have some additional slides about that in a second. If I didn't cover it sufficiently in my slides, will you remind me to come back? OK, thank you. The next three agreements are related to the specific utility agreements for each phase. Each phase will have its own contractual water and wastewater limits. The agreements do not provide unlimited access to city water. Permanent service is tied to completion of infrastructure and satisfaction of their payment obligations that are outlined in the infrastructure agreement. The agreements require that the company use closed loop cooling technology and the initial charging water has to be staged and coordinated with the city and used over a period of days in times that the city has indicated the system will be able to safely provide that amount of water. Water use is monitored and may be controlled through physical or SCADA restrictions if necessary. The company cannot pay a fee or penalty to exceed its contractual limits. The contract limits are binding and cannot be exceeded by just paying a fee to exceed those amounts. Temple's long-term water position, we have, as council knows, we have over 44,000 acre feet of water rights in primarily surface water rights. The majority of those rights are state adjudicated and many are senior to are very senior in the state, including to other rights owned by BRA. Of course, senior rights means that there's stronger legal protections for the city's rights and stronger reliability of our water. Today, we currently use an average, we have an average demand of water of 18 million gallons a day. That peaks in the summer at 33 million gallons a day. Our current treatment capacity at our two water treatment plants is 54 million gallons. The council, as you know, you recently funded and added and completed a project that added 13 million gallons a day to our membrane treatment plant. And that expansion included a modular, the ability to modularly expand that plant with another four million gallons a day by adding an additional membrane rack. So the system is built to handle growth with a large buffer between our peak usage and our treatment capacity. We've also through your leadership invested in our future water supply, namely through our aquifer storage and recovery system, which can add up to 15 million gallons a day of water capacity to our system. Again, for these specific projects, the contracts require that a closed-loop cooling system be used. The initial charge for each building is 1.5 million gallons, but that amount of water is recirculated for at least 10 years, and that water is phased over a number of days, and the timing of that is planned with the city. On a day-to-day basis, each project also has contractual daily limits for both water and wastewater. You can see on the screen there the limits for each phase with a total average daily water consumption at 32,000 gallons, an annual use of 11.7 million gallons, and a peak daily use of 78,000 gallons. For scale, the total campus, all three phases will use less than 1% of the total daily water used today by City of Temple customers. Each building will use less than what a restaurant typically uses per day, and each building will use less than what a 150 lot residential subdivision would use on average. Again, we've mentioned this before, but the water use will be monitored through remote meters and physical or automated controls can limit the use to the approved amounts. The company can't pay a fee or penalty to exceed their contractual amounts. The company has committed to significant contribution to the South Temple Water Infrastructure Capital Program. This is a series of 10 projects that will bring significant additional water capacity to the south and southeast portions of our community. These projects total $71.1 million, and Rowan has committed to fund 45% of the total infrastructure cost. They also built the first part of our ASR program, which was the Synergy Well. It's been built originally as a production well in the Synergy Park area. It has a capacity of 3.8 million gallons a day and was constructed and designed in such a way that it's intended to be converted to an injection well to support the first piece of the ASR program. For those who may be unfamiliar with ASR, ASR stands for Aquifer Storage and Recovery. It allows us to store treated water underground in the aquifer. Water is injected when supply is available and then can be recovered during times of drought or peak demand or other emergency conditions. The reason that this is pursued is because it allows us to store water underground instead of in above ground reservoirs that are subject to significant evaporation and significant land acquisition. ASR helps Temple make better use of the water rights that we already have. It helps us capture water during lower demand periods, store that water underground for later use. It reduces our reliance on surface water availability, creates a drought and peak demand reserve, and helps support future growth needs. The city of temple owns and controls the synergy Well as I mentioned it was built by Rowan as part of a previous economic development agreement where Rowan Constructed and paid for the well on behalf of the city of temple But the but Rowan does not have ownership of the well the water rights from that well the aquifer The project that was contemplated by the original economic development agreement that had us that that had Rowan Constructing this was cancelled and the conditions required to trigger the city's reimbursement obligations were not satisfied as a result the city won't be reimbursing the company for those cost as was originally contemplated in the in the agreement and HOWEVER, THE COMPANY STILL COMPLETED THE INFRASTRUCTURE, WHICH INCLUDED MORE THAN THE WELL. THEY BUILT WATER INFRASTRUCTURE, WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE, AND SOME ROADWAY INFRASTRUCTURE ALONG WITH THE SYNERGY WELL, AND THEN THEY DEDICATED THOSE TO THE CITY AS WAS ORIGINALLY CONTEMPLATED BY THE AGREEMENT, EVEN THOUGH THE FULL PROJECT DIDN'T MOVE FORWARD. the water rights that are associated with that original agreement are very specific i say water rights the water usage water availability to them was very specific to the original project it was tied to the specific parcel of property and the specific the the specific project and it can't be transferred to their current projects or any other project so because that project was cancelled All of the obligations in that agreement are no longer applicable, including their ability to use water from the Synergy Well. It was limited only to that specific project, and there's no ability for them to transfer those agreement terms to any of the phases that we're talking about today. Instead, the three agreements that are on your agenda today would govern these projects. The water use would be granted expressly through those three agreements. It does have limits for the domestic water use and limits for the cooling water for the controlled closed loop cooling. The agreements do not allow unlimited access to city water They do not allow a provision for Rowan to exceed the contractual limits. They do not provide Ownership interest to Rowan in any of our water infrastructure including the ASR system or the well and they don't allow Rowan to charge to discharge their wastewater to the aquifer As part of Rowan's agreement to fund infrastructure, it allows us to free up funds for other important projects, including the relocation of Fire Station 7. As Council knows, you've made a significant commitment to building new fire stations in the six-year plan, including the relocation of 7, the addition of 9, the relocation of 6. You have future fire stations planned as well. 10, 11, and then in future parts of the master plan address stations 12, 13, and 14. Already mentioned tonight, but again, Sammons Community Center is part of Rowan's commitment. They have committed to a total of $3 million towards the total $15 million project cost. This will lower the amount of the bonds that will have to be issued if this project is approved by the voters in November, and thus will lower the tax rate impact of this project for our community. As Sharla mentioned in her presentation, there is a phased-in project revenue during the abatement period. The project will generate $42 million per year to the city, and then post-abatement, conservatively estimated at $56 million per year. That's an annual revenue, and that is in addition to the over $38 million in infrastructure and other project contributions that I just went over with you tonight, as well as additional revenue to other taxing entities that Rowan will also pay taxes to, including Temple. Rogers ISD Bell County and Temple College that is a brief summary of the five agreements that are before you tonight mayor I if I didn't address your ASR question please allow me to go back to that but that's all I had prepared I think it's it's worth noting and emphasizing that Rowan was contractually obligated to build the well and in that same contract they

knew all along they were going to hand that well over to the city of temple and as you mentioned that any water that was generated by that well that rowan would use was specific to project mariah correct that's right which is the old bitcoin mining operation that is defunct and so um at no time did they own it did they have um unilateral access to it in fact as we've said before That well has never been operational on a large basis. We get water out of the ground to test it right now, but as far as any infrastructure to then distribute that anywhere else simply doesn't exist yet in a large format.

They had the option in their original economic development agreement to construct the well on our behalf. It was permitted. It was always under our ownership. It was never permission that they were given to construct a well for their own ownership. If they constructed the well, then the city of Temple would have sold them water from the well, but only specifically for that project. And so they completed the construction of the well, even though they were no longer going to continue with the project. They've invested over $6 million in that well that the city would have otherwise had to fund in order to establish our ASR program. And again, that was in addition to, I believe that the... the engineer's opinion of probable cost for the other infrastructure that they were building on behalf of the city, the water and wastewater lines and lift station, that was, I believe the OPC was 4.8 million for that. They also completed those improvements and dedicated those to the city.

And related to that, there were three pavements in the reinvestment zone financing plan. of $1.6 million a year. It was to be paid over three years. And since their investment commitment wasn't made, that money was not paid out, will not be paid out, and it's been reprogrammed.

In an economic development agreement, the city of Temple is going to pay over three years about $5 million. If they performed what they were required to do, they did not perform, therefore the city of Temple kept that $5 million, roughly.

Roughly, yes, sir.

And still has full ownership of the well.

Yes, sir.

And that well, when operational, will increase the city of Temple's water capacity roughly by 10% to 15%. through the reclaimed water process.

And the reimbursement to Rowan was, which again, they completed the infrastructure even though they weren't completing the rest of the project and just weren't reimbursed for it. But the reimbursement amount, which was capped at, I believe, 4.8, was based on the opinion of probable cost for the other infrastructure, the roadway, water line, wastewater line, and lift station. It didn't include the cost, the estimated cost of the well. If they spent less than the $4.8 million on that other infrastructure, then they could have used their portions of their investment for the well against that 4.8, but it was capped at 4.8. And so really the reimbursement that was contemplated in the original economic development agreement was for the other infrastructure, not the well. But the agreement was structured as so that if those costs came in under budget that they could apply some of that four point eight million dollar cap towards the cost that they spent for the synergy well Again, they ended up doing all of the infrastructure Dedicating it to the city and the city but they didn't meet they didn't they didn't meet the other obligations of the agreement so the other portions of that agreement are are no longer in effect, including our obligation to reimburse for the infrastructure or the obligation to provide water or wastewater service for that project, because that was tied to that specific project very clear in the agreement.

Very good. There is so much misinformation, disinformation, or simply misunderstanding about that well specifically. And I think it is worth going over like you've done tonight again. around the parameters of that well because it is, the ASR well is the first of its kind for Temple. In fact, the city of Temple partnered with Bell County and others, Department of Defense included, to find proper areas along the aquifer that could, what's the right word? that could take on the water through the ASR process. Not every aquifer is ideal for that, but in this case, one on Fort Hood was found and one out in Synergy Park was found, and we're just simply taking advantage of a geological structure that is perfect for ASR use. So it's a blessing that we have that, and it's a blessing now that we know about it and are able to take advantage of it. And frankly, take advantage on somebody else's debt. That is nice.

One other thing that I would mention is that outside city limits, the city of Temple does not have the ability to, let me say it differently, Property owners are required to get the city of temples consent for wells drilled inside the city limits They are not required to do that outside the city limits They're still of course is the Clearwater underground conservation district process that they would have to go through but that you know there there are groundwater rights that that property owners in Texas have and if they meet the requirements then they're going to get the ability to drill to use groundwater and so the both the Mariah project as well as all of project temple phase 1 Lasso phase 1 B and Most of Ranger were outside the city limits and so I the if those projects had stayed outside the city limits, then rowing could have drilled that well, which they wanted to drill on their own. But through those negotiations, we didn't grant them authorization to drill the well for their ownership, we granted them authorization to drill the well for public ownership. And that's only available because they voluntarily, that control was only available to the city because they voluntarily annexed into the city limits.

We've explored buying water. And the cost of the water is very high. The cost of getting the water from where it is to where we would need it in Temple is, that number starts with a B. And to know that we have water available right under our feet and to be able to take advantage of that will pay the city of Temple, will be an advantage to the city of Temple for decades. Fair statement. Okay. Counseling questions for Ms. Myers? Okay. All right, we are going to take each of these items separately. So Council, item 7A, which is, and I'll read them in since it's been a while. I'll read quickly. 7A is a development agreement with Rowan Lasso LLC for the development of the approximately 316 acres associated with Project Lasso, which is phase 1B, establishing development coordination, a phased permitting process, transportation, planning, utility coordination, and other development-related requirements. Council, I'll entertain a motion on item 7A.

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion by Councilmember Walker. We have a second by Councilmember Bookington. Council, please cast your vote. Not this one, Milton. Not this one. Item 7A passes four votes yes, zero votes no, one abstention. Item 7B is an infrastructure agreement with Rowan Stampede LLC related to the approximate 1,443 acres comprising Project Temple Lasso Phase 1, Project Stampede Phase 2, Project Ranger Phase 3, establishing responsibilities for the funding, design, construction, dedication, and timing of water and wastewater infrastructure necessary to serve the projects together with certain community benefit contributions. Council and all entertain a motion on 7B.

I move to approve 7B as presented.

Second. We have a motion by Councilmember Pilkington. We have a second by Councilmember Emmons. Council, please cast your vote. 7B passes, four votes yes, zero votes no, one abstention. 7c is an amended and restated utility services agreement with rowan llc for project temple lasso which is phase one establishing the amount timing conditions limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project council entertain a motion to approve okay we have a motion by mayor pro tim walker we have a second by council member pilkington council cast your vote 7c passes four votes yes zero votes no one abstention d is a utility services agreement with rowan stampede llc for project stampede phase two establishing the amount timing conditions and limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project council entertain a motion make a motion to approve 7d second we have a motion by council member emmons a second by mayor pro tim walker please cast your vote 7d passes four votes yes zero votes no one abstention 7e is utility services agreement with rowan ranger llc for project ranger phase three establishing the amount timing conditions and limitations associated with water and wastewater service for the project council obtain a motion motion to approve 7e we have a motion by council member emmons we have a second by council member pilkington 7E passes, four votes yes, zero votes no, one abstention.

Before you go to the next, can I say something, please?

Yes, ma'am.

When you first read these, there's only so much we can take from individuals. So I was called to my face a B word from Sarah Royer who has left the building. I wish she was in here because that's not my name nor it's who I represent. OK. So please tell your wife that we're going to only take so much from you and I'm going to probably get in trouble for this but we're only going to take so much from you. None of these women up here deserve to be called a B word. None of these women in this council needs to be called a B word. We've been called a cunt. We've been said that we need to not be alive. And there's only so much we can take. But I will not allow you to do that in my face. You can do it on Instagram or wherever you want to be and hide. Facebook. Not in my face. Not in any of our faces. Would you call your mother that? Well, somebody did. And it's disrespectful. And it's intolerable. We will not take any more of this. So if there's legal rights for us, you know, we've been quiet and we've said we're not going to do this. We're not going to press charges because we don't want to ruin that person's life. You're ruining our lives. So stop, please. Because I love every single one of you. regardless, and there's nothing you can do about that. But I am not, nor are they, a beat. Thank you.

It's against my nature not to say anything, but I'm not gonna follow that. Thank you for that. Moving on to automate is consider adopting resolution, appointing members to various city boards and commissions. Y'all think I've read a lot tonight. Here you go. Um, for the airport advisory board, we're going to reappoint Tony hell and Jeremy Walters to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2029. and appoint Lisa Carlisle to fill an expired term ending September 30, 2029. On the Animal Services Advisory Board, we're going to reappoint Amy Strunk and Zoe Grant to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2029, and appoint Dr. Ashley Winkler to fill an expired term ending September 30, 2029. On the Citizens Police Advisory Commission, we're going to reappoint Roland Carnahan We're going to reappoint Roland Carnahan, Gary Smith, and Lydia Alaniz to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2029, and appoint Richard R. Wood and Elizabeth Roth to fill unexpired terms ending September 30, 2027. On the Civil Service Commission, reappoint Brent Walker to fill an expired term ending September 30, 2029. On the Emergency Services Advisory Board, we're gonna reappoint Maria Aristi and Steven Fisher to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2029. Library Advisory Board, we're gonna appoint Jordan Valentin to fill an unexpired term ending March 31, 2028. Parks and Recreation Advisory Board appoint Louie Phillips to fill an unexpired term ending March 31, 2029. Planning and Zoning Commission reappoint Judy Morales, Jeremy Jurasek, and Caleb Longino to fill expiring terms ending September 30, 2029. And on the tax increment financing reinvestment zone number one, board of directors reappoint Rob Marshall, Tyler Johnson, Thomas Cloud, Lacey Wagner, Lester Fettig, John Keila, and Gary Schmidt to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2028. I'll entertain a motion on filling our board and commission seats.

Move to approve filling our board and commission seats as the mayor read.

Do you memorize all those?

You've got to repeat it. You've got to repeat it. That's right.

We have a motion by Council Member Pilkington. Second. I have a second by Council Member Grant. Council, please cast your vote. Item eight passes five votes to zero. Item nine is the Temple Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors. We're gonna reappoint Tony Hale and Perry Cloud to fill expired terms ending September 30, 2029. Council, if there's no discussion, I'll obtain a motion.

Approve item nine.

Second. We have a motion by Councilmember Grant. We have a second by Councilmember Emmons. Item nine passes five votes to zero. I want to thank everybody that volunteers with the city, both on the various boards and TEDC. We appreciate your time, we appreciate your involvement, and we appreciate your guidance. And it is now 7.23. Thank you all for attending, and this meeting is adjourned.