City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. All right. Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you for being here. Welcome to the Shandor City Council meeting for January 14, 2026. And happy happy new year everyone. All right. I look around and I see that everyone is here. So, the city secretary, we do have a quorum. Yes, sir.

We're going to stand up and uh say the pledge of allegiance to both our nation and state. And it's going to be followed by a short invocation. I pledge algiance 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. I aliance to the Texas one state one and indivisible. And the invocation is going to be given by Minister Tyrone Price of the Tamina community.

Should we bow our heads? Father, we just thank you for this day. God, we thank you for this time. God, we thank you for what you're doing in this season, this new year. God, we pray right now that you would provide as you always do the provision, God. God, your word says that you should apply, you will supplyly all of our needs according to your riches in Christ Jesus. And God, we thank you right now for the city council, the mayor and and the team, God, and the city of Shannondoa, God, that what they're doing in this season will not only be a blessing to the city, but to the surrounding area. We pray this prayer and petition that done in your son Jesus name we pray. We ask of thee and everyone said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you.

All right, we're going to move on to item number five on the agenda. Citizens forum. Citizens are invited to speak for three minutes on matters relating to city government that relate to agenda or non-aggenda items. Speakers are asked to approach the podium and give their name and address before sharing their comments. Do we have anybody signed up? No, sir. Oh. Okay. We're going to move on then. Item number six, recognition of a lifesaving act by officer Shannonor PD Officer Patrick Reed. Chief

Patrick, can you come up here and join me, please, sir?

I can. Mayor and Council, on October 17th, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Officer Reed, a 10-year veteran of the Chandidol Police Department, responded to a call of an 11-year-old female who was distraught and running away from her mother towards the I45 southbound main lanes. The young girl walked along the guard rail until she was able to get up on top of the overpass above 242. Upon um Officer Reed had spotted the young girl and began running towards her and tried to get her attention. The young girl then climbed over the guard rail with her feet dangling over the side of the tall overpass. As Officer Reed approached, Officer Reed pleaded with her to just talk with him in order to delay her from jumping over the overpass. Officer Reed continued to approach the young girl who had looked away for a short second. As she was briefly distracted, Officer Reed took the opportunity to pull her back onto the overpass to prevent a tragic situation. Officer Reed's split-second and swift actions saved this precious girl's young life. We are happy to recognize Officer Reed's actions on this day and award him with a life-saving award. So I have this award here. This is from the Shannondo Police Department.

And then a citizen who had seen the the video online um she felt the need to uh send in an award herself. So this says not all heroes wear capes. So she wanted to provide you with that as well. Thank you. That's awesome. Chief. Chief we want

fantastic. Oh yeah. Can I can I also say with uh Officer Reed, um this is not his first time doing an act such as this. Um he's also gone through several tourniquets to where during accidents he's applied tourniquets u to people to save their limbs and stuff like that. He has he's a great great uh officer to have in our force. Absolutely.

Absolutely. We are very proud to have uh the quality of police officers in our department and you excel in your uh duties and responsibilities. Uh I I can't I can't express with words how how appreciated you are here in this city. Thank you. We're very proud of you.

I remember when you were just one of Courtney's young pups. All right, we're going to move on to item seven, presentation of an Arbor Day proclamation. Mayor and council, um this is an item that we bring up on yearly basis. Uh, our board day will be recognized for April 24th this year. And due to the our weather, Houston's weather, Shannondoa weather, we'll be celebrating our board day on March 7th. Uh, it's going to be from uh 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the public works building.

Great. But the the national day is still April the 14th. Is that correct? April 24th.

I'm sorry. Yeah, April 24th. That's right. All right, let me read the uh the proclamation here. In 1872, Jay Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind, water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And trees and are renewable source, giving us paper, food, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. Trees in our city increase property values, enhance the econ economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community. And trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now therefore, I John Scott, mayor of city of Shannidoa, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Shannidoa, Texas. And I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. I urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. Signed by me. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to item number eight, discussion of possible action to adopt the following resolution. Resolution by the city of Shannidor approving the submission of a grant application to the

office of the governor to facilitate outfitting officers with NJ approved level three or higher ballistic vests for fiscal year 2027. Mayor and council, this is just a formality. It's it's a requirement that is provided for the state um for the Texas G uh general operations act that we have to do this in order to uh procure funds from the state. Okay. I move that we approve this uh grant. Funny. I was just ready to ask for a motion.

Well, we have a motion by Councilman Pard. A second. and a second by council councilman Sumland. Any discussion on this? Yes. How much will the grant cover? We won't know that until we we get the funds. So it's it is what it is is we submit and we tell them how many officers we have, how much the vest cost and everything. But the the award for the state is 3 million. So if we get any of that. So, how when will you know the the timeline, the milestones when this will get approved at all so that we don't have to worry about it at budget?

It it won't be till this is for for 2027. It's for 27. Okay. All right. Any other comments or discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed? The motion carries. Item number nine, discussion of possible action to appoint members of the CV CVB committee. I'll entertain a motion. Um, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion uh first of all to add a couple of names that were not on here uh Councilman Pard and Robinson

uh to the advisory board and then go ahead and uh accept uh it at this agenda item as it stands with all the existing names. Okay, I second. We have a motion. We have a motion to to approve the listed um members that are on the um on the sheet plus add Councilman Robinson and Pard. Is that correct? Do I have that right? Yes. By Councilman Summerland and seconded by Councilman Pard. Any discussion?

I got a little bit. Of course, I was the descending vote to to start with on this, but just looking at this and I've got nothing against the people you've got. I don't see John Maynard on there, which I think is is paramount for this committee. Yeah, he's he's automatically he's automatically onicial. Yeah, there they're um

their bylaws uh require that uh Director Maynard and a couple of other staff members plus the city administrator serve as either exeicios or actually on that. So my my my biggest question on this is do you have enough people that are not either city or former city um people that would give you different ideas and I just don't think I just what I see I don't think there's enough uh that and as far as the medical side did anybody we got a doctor that lives at the end of Saddlewood anybody Um I guess John So John if you want to come up. So he uh we didn't talk to him but there are a couple other of the major hospitals in the area that we that John has reached out to. I haven't gotten a final word back from them yet as far as whether they're able or willing to fill that position. That's why their name was not included. We're waiting to hear back. The plan originally was to include someone from the medical community.

That's correct. Correct. Right. So that's good. We can revisit this. So I'll be done. Okay. Thanks, John. I did I had one one things like I I was hoping that for an at large member that maybe would have a woman for a change. Everything we have is guys. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Opposed. No. Motion carries. Uh 3 to two.

Item number 10, discussion and possible action to adopt the following resolution. A resolution designating the courier as the official newspaper for the city of Shannondoa, Texas. I know this is something we go through every Yeah. House housekeeping item to designate the only available option for our newspaper. So move. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Bro. Second. Seconded by Councilman Pard.

The question SB 1062 was passed. where you can use an online paper that was signed into law May last year. Did we look at that? I don't think that we have an online paper that really qualifies. Did we look? We don't know. I don't know of an online paper. There are several in the area. I think the courier's also online. Yeah, they are. I'm just saying. Is there another way? is what's the cost of using the con row of the paper versus another one that is just online? Did we look at that?

I don't know. No, sir. Okay. Any additional discussion? I sure wish the uh bylaws would allow us to make community impact newspaper the the newspaper of record but they won't let us. So if it was a daily deal with a daily so unfortunately

it has to be Houston Chronicle or uh the Courier. I wonder I wonder if that could be reconsidered because they put out a daily uh uh I don't know if it's considered a periodical per se as a newspaper but every day I get uh uh community impact on my email. The couriers I'm sorry to my knowledge the community impact's not a daily newspaper. I wanted to say there were about three or four of them. If you could certify what their paid circulation was.

Yeah. All right. Any additional discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? No. Motion carries 4 to one. Item 11, discussion of possible action to approve an interlocal agreement with 791 purchasing cooperative.

Mayor and council senior agenda pack is the resol. The interlocal agreement and board resolution pertains to the 791 purchasing cooperative. Um just a quick summary, cooperatives, uh purchasing cooperatives like this are structured so they do the competitive bidding and ensure best pricing so that cities can use those contracts to then do projects um and purchases without having to do a competitive bid process, a traditional one. Um 791 is totally free to the city. It's just um an an enrollment um and it's very similar to TIPS USA which requires an interlocal agreement and that's why it's presented to you today. Um and also this will help us secure um some um contracts with um an AMI provider that we are um interested with working with. I'll just add that the most recent example of the city using this was when we had one of our chillers fail, one of the phases failed, and we asked council to accelerate the chiller yard replacement portion of the HVAC project. And we use tips

uh because it's it's a lot faster process than putting out the advertisements competitive bid process because that's that's already been done prior to it. So, this doesn't replace any of the other ones. It just joins the list. Okay. Gives us more options to more vendors and more contracts. Okay. Mhm. I'll entertain a motion. So, moved. Second. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Broad, seconded by Councilman Robinson. Any additional discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Opposed? Motion carries. Item 12, discussion and possible action to approve a project development agreement with Amoresco. Mayor and council, as you see in your agenda pack, is the project development agreement with Amoresco company um in relation to the AMI project that was approved during the um into the capital budget this fiscal year. Um, we met with several companies um between um Joseph staff and my staff um to um get some knowledge and also to see what products were out there and um which way to go with this project. Um, Amoresco was one that was highly suggested to us from other neighboring cities um and muds. Um, and they are um the two representatives from Amirco um have been in this industry for a long time. So they're very knowledgeable about AMI um infrastructure. Um so what you'll see in your agenda pack is the project development agreement. So this project will be phased. Phase one is to do an internal audit um of all of our system, our meters. So they go and touch, there's a scope of work at the end of that agreement that explains exactly what they do, but they all basically help us build what system we should implement for the AMI. Um they um will do all that testing for us. Um, so once they get that done, they submit it to the city and then we start underneath that contract with the 791 co-op, we start building our system of what we want it to look like and what um, items and kind of meters we want to put into the ground. Um, so um, there is a second phase. Um, so if we do not elect to go with Amoresco for the project management side of it, um, we would be responsible to pay $20,000 for the audit. Um, but if we go with them, it just rolls into the

project management costs. So it'll just go over the overall. Um, so that's pretty much that agreement. Um, we have to do an audit regardless. Um, so it's either if we do it with Amaresco or someone else, we're gonna have to figure out what's the best system to put in. So motion to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Brat, seconded by Council Councilman Pard. Um, any discussion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I've got some questions. Um Lisa on this um these particular items some of the things that came up as um just what I thought were concerns moving to a different system were these um this is going to be what this uh this evaluation's going to be the full life and all the costs associated with that are going to be identified. So basically the the idea of doing a project development agreement in comparison to a traditional bid is that it doesn't they're going to do an ROI. They'll also do like return on investment um and they'll also do replacement um um what is the word I'm looking at? Probably schedules like that. Um so we will have an idea of what's in the ground, what needs to be you know replaced, stuff like that.

Okay. And the uh whenever we go to these, this always comes up as far as something when we put in new technology. Um when all the reading that's going to be done off of these, who's going to own the data and is that going to resell?

So how AMI works is that traditionally what we do now is that we have a a a laptop that goes into one of the public works trucks and they drive around to get the reads from the antennas that are on those meters. What AMI does is that it uses cellular service or satellite service, whatever you elect to use and it sends that data directly to our billing software which is encode. So Tammy hits a button, it comes right to her. It alleviates a lot of time with the guys driving around and misreads and stuff like that. Um so the data will be our data. It goes into our systems. there could be a dashboard component to it based on what system we go with which is more of like a user friendly dashboard and yeah

that data would be in there as well. I'd just add to that that with the AMR system there is a as Lisa is saying there is already a data transmission process. Mhm.

Uh the AMI it's going to be very simple. It's going to be very similar. It's just more frequent um because you have you don't have to drive around to collect the data. You can collect that data every time it's transmitted which is what allows for um there's a lot of these suites that you know there's an app that every customer can download and you can set up notifications for leak alerts. So if your toilet's running and you don't know it because it's upstairs and you don't go up there but once a week, you can get alert on your phone that you have a leak at your house. So, it helps reduce water loss and it helps customers save money by catching those leaks sooner than later. Um, it that's that's a flexibility that's allowed when you have that, you know, data every 5 seconds, 30 seconds versus once a month.

Yeah. Good. Thanks. Are we planning to use that service? Yes. All the companies that we spoke with, you know, of course, since that's a great advantage, they have some sort of suite or dashboard service built around providing that data to the customers. I I think that's I mean, when I when I've looked at this, I mean, it feels great. I say this, you know, tongue and cheek, but you know, feels good to get our that information in the 21st century for our customers and to get it on this device that everybody's got in their pocket.

Any additional comments? All right. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 13, discussion and possible action to update the procurement and accounts payable policy.

Mayor and councel, I have the um red line draft of the changes to the uh current uh procurement policy. Um so basically a lot of this is just revolving around state legislation. So this last legislation session um SB 1173 increased the threshold requirement for competitive bidding from 50,000 to 100,000. Um so that was been changed throughout the document. There was a lot of notes to that. Uh so you'll see that's the majority of the changes. There was another change that we had at the last u meeting that we realized because we've never had so much asset forfeit or money deposited like that that the penal code requirement saying that it's at the chief's discretion was conflicting with our purchasing policy of 20,000 as the purchasing limit for the city administrator. So what we did is we just added a little carve out just to say pend in any you know um state statute or code this would be exempt from the policy that it was just to put it in there so it's clean everyone could see it. Um and then there was just a couple changes to the expenditures that are excluded from requisitions and it's just kind of run-of-the-mill items. Um so that's the only changes I have in the procurement policy. Gangs. I have a motion. So move.

Motion to approve by council Robinson. Second. Second. Seconded by Council Councilman Summer. Discussion. Question for asset forefeiture. How will you include that in the annual audit?

So it so this year we've always um it's always been a liability. Um but the auditors and me have been talking um that we will make it its own fund going forward. So after this audit we I will bring up back an agenda item to bring it its own fund. So and it's just not mixed into the um right now I treat it as it's it's it's like not it's in a liability account. So it doesn't go into like our revenues and expenditures in fund 100. It just comes it's an in and out of account. But the auditor said per Gazsby it's kind of recommended that we move this into a fund. So, we will move that into a fund.

And then I'm sure that you would do this anyway, but it it's not a council vote thing, but that you would at least have an agenda item that would inform council. I can send an email. It might be easier so it doesn't um cl um you know, busy up the agenda. Um well, if we get an asset forefeiture, then I think we should play it up as much as we can. Yeah. To let the public know about it. Yeah, we can default. We can figure something out that way. Okay. That's all. Any further discussion?

Um Lisa, on this uh I know that this uh change that we're making is uh you know just following state policy uh law now. And my question is is that it's it's a bit still a big uh jump 50,000 to 100,000. And the only thing that I was going to ask is if staff could uh could provide periodic reporting to us on any items that might fall within that new range uh that we used to vote on. So

So you will right so we'll we'll receive you know per the purchasing policy here um we're going to seek out competitive bids. it. I I'll admit we're staff is really excited for this change because, you know, 50,000s isn't it sounds like a lot, but on the things that a city spends their dollars on, it's not that much anymore. True.

Um I I remember trying to get an awning. Um, we were looking at awning for the police cars a while ago and it was just over 50 and it just didn't make any sense to, you know, the amount of staff hours to to bid it out and then you've got bond coverage like it it was going to be more expensive to bid the project than to just buy it from the man the distributor. Um, so staff is going to continue soliciting, you know, bidding and we do this quite regularly if we've got a a contractor that we use for a while and they they always love it and I'm I'm always open with them. It's like, hey, I'm going to I'm going to be getting some other other pricing on this and, you know, just to keep them honest because you you get some good contractors. You want to stick with them because you know they do a good job. Um but every now and then you got to check and make sure the pricing is is good for the city.

Yeah. So so section B under well um item B under section two requires um quotes. Um so um up to the 100,000 level. The only thing that's really going to probably fall into that gap between the 50 and 100 that wouldn't have to come to you guys anyway because it was out of budget would be some capital project items and then maybe some like contracts in public works like road striping which we do quotes on. So those are typically the only things that would come to you. Um if anything was not in the budget and we needed to buy it that was above 20,000 it's coming to you anyway. So, um, the I think really the only thing we're going to run into this is probably for like capital and like maintenance stuff like that,

right? Which we pull out separately anyway as a capital project so it doesn't, you know, play funny numbers with the operating budget. Thank you. Any more discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 14, discussion and possible action to award a contract for the I45 redevelopment zone storm drainage.

Mayor Council, this is a project that was really excited to see these numbers. We had a total of 11 contractors within this project. I've heard stories in the past where we were begging to get one bid. Uh now with the reputation that we have as a city, we had 11. Uh it's also a project could have easily gone over $800,000 and Coastline rail engineering provided a base for well base with um extra atom for a total of $367,775 with 50. And I added a table as you can see later that shows the money we save um with the funding that we have, the design cost and the lowest bidder. So we save over 300 $300,000 on this project.

That's great. That's Does this include u contingency then? There's a contingency line that there's contingency built into it already. Yes. and Lisa, um MDD would like their money back. So, if we could release that at the next meeting and we'll look for another another project to work on. Let's get through the project first and then I'll release the funds just in case. Wait, we already have contingency built in. Why? Yeah. What's the problem? Typically, I wait until the end of the project and then I release the funds to make sure there's no else I can get done now, not later.

They say the money saved, council ready. I know it's saved, but it's like, yeah, but it's tied up. It's encumbered, and I'd rather that it not be encumbered so that we could use it for something else for MDD. I'll take a look at the SIP to find out, but this is a project that's go pretty fast. So, yeah, it should only meet every quarter. Yeah, but we'll be meeting in February. Oh, okay. I'll see where we're at. All right. Okay. Entertain a motion. Can I get a motion? I motion to accept. Yeah.

Second it. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Slain, seconded by Councilman Pard. Any additional discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 15, discussion and possible action regarding a change order for the wastewater treatment plant.

M council, this is uh change order number four for the wastewater treatment plant. It's a change order that consists of different items. Uh involves the clarifier, the um uh portable water line, removing valves, and uh changes in the chemical building. Um there's also removals from the contract that we were able to um negotiate with the contractor. It was a lot of negotiation between all those all these items. At the beginning, the change order was running over $100,000. We were able to run it down to $31,485. Let me know if there's any questions on this.

So, how close will this get us to completion on that? because I was I was chasing the the budget numbers and whatever with this and uh I I've assumed this 31,000 is going to come out of available cash, right? Uh water water and sewer fun. So when we so by the time the the um the Texas development board loan was closed on in 2022, by the time we did the bids, there was a discrepancy between the loan amount and what the bids came in at. Right. And at that point, council said that they would use available cash, but

we're going to wait until the true up at the end and then I'll bring it back for um approval. Um but we do have impact fees that can also go towards this project as well. So after after punch out okay I'll bring it back. Yeah. So there's a lot of there's some contingencies that probably won't be spent some cash allowances. So we'll let everything balance out and then we'll bring it back. Um but impact fees are eligible for this project as well. So is a contractor waiting for this money then more urgently than at punch out time? We're still paying and then we'll do the true up at the end to where the differential and the funding will come from. Yeah. when you wash out or punch out or whatever.

This is a large project. So, unfortunately, there's a lot of moving parts that go into these billins and I'm always on the billing side. I'm usually about two months behind when I finally get the payoffs. So, um but we'll bring it back for council approval of the funding differential. All right. I had a question uh Ro on the just it's kind of the way the verbiage is and the first line you have there. Uh it said attempt to remove blockage. Um that that leaves me kind of unsure whether uh you know we're approving a fix or we're looking for some additional cost. Could you elaborate?

Yeah, definitely. Um so yes as you mentioned this item number one is to remove blockage from the influent line. The influent line is located on the clarifier drive. Excuse me. The what line? Influent line. Okay.

Influent line from the main clarifier that we have on our wastewater treatment plant. And we don't know what's blocking the line. This line has been there for since the 70s. Uh we don't know if it's wood or rags or a piece of metal that is in there. So, what this item is is going to give us is a contractor will be able to lower the levels of the clarifier and by doing that they're going to be able to put in a um um a camera through the line and find out what's blocking the line and if able try to fish it out. I mean, if it's a piece of metal that is already that will damage the line by not uh by removing it, we'll have to uh find like a second um version of this solution. Got it.

But right now, it's just to televise the line, see what's out there and try to get it out if it's just rags or a piece of um wood that we can break out. But yeah, great. Thank you. Uh, get can I get a motion? So move. Second. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Broad, seconded by Councilman Pollard. Any additional discussion on that? No. All in favor say I. I. I.

Opposed. Motion carries. Item 16, discussion and possible action to adopt the minutes of the November 12, 2025 regular meeting. Motion may be approved as read. We have a motion by Councilman Brock. Second, and seconded by Councilman Ray Maker. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. City administrator updates.

I just have a couple here. So, the first Saturday of the year, it was uh a cool day, frigid 68 degrees at our city pool and 35 people decided to jump in at our polar bear our polar bear plunge. About 60 residents showed up. The others were more levelheaded and just had hot cocoa and cookies. But, um it was it was well enjoyed. Uh, I heard that, uh, when you got in the water, it was better to stay in the water than to get out. Uh, but everyone had a really good time at that annual polar bear plunge that we have. Cool.

Um, and if you have not been by the main park yet, I'd urge you to to swing by and see the completed expanded parking lot. We were able to double our parking, and it looks really good. Uh, I'll admit I was a little concerned with some of the trees and the green space we were going to lose. Um, but it it looks really good. It it fits in and and solves a problem that that we were having for a long time. Joe, so how's the impact been on your house? I actually could park in front of my house.

That's great. I had one thing, Joseph. The the facade that's along that elevation from the pavilion all the way down doesn't look good at all. It's pretty brown. Um it is getting water right now. Under it's Yeah, they didn't grade it. Um so, so they did um I'm I think you're talking I think I know exactly what you're talking about between the new parking and the the main park. It's an elevation. Yes. Yeah. It's a bit of a slope there. Um, I'd say let's let's give it some time. We have a one-year warranty on on everything for the project. I just wanted to bring it up that

Yeah. Yeah. I I know what you're talking about. Um, let's give it some time. I'm always surprised because I get real picky about that, but then over time it's somehow the bumps just smooth out. I It's like magic. But if it doesn't, we can always have them come and tamp it down again. That's all I have for All right. Council inquiry. Council Ray Maker, the community room. I I did ask I know you didn't have much chance to look at it yet on the utilization of it, but I did get a comment that that someone thought that the fee was pretty high at $200.

Does everybody get their $200 fee back? That's the deposit. the deposit, right? Yeah. There there's a a fee for the use and there's a $200 deposit. As far as I know to this day, everybody's got their deposit back. People have taken The fee again was what? Refresh me. So, the the fee for the deposit's $200 and then I think for a half day it's 50 and for the full day it's 75. For a full day. Um and then the $200 deposit gets refunded as soon as they turn the key in and um public works establishes that there was no damages or anything. And I we have not withhold a deposit to date.

And there seems to be at least in the last month at least two instances that I've heard of of the a problem collecting the key. Is there a better way to distribute the key to people? Some people have missed picking it up on time and then they're wrapping on the door trying to get in. Yeah, I let them in. We were there. I was working late that night. Um so the process is

they were detailed. Uh it's detailed when you reserve the room that you need to go to the front desk to get the key because it's a physical fob uh that you have to get so you can key in. We don't want to just open the door because then anybody could get in. Uh so we try to restrict the use to just the person who's paid for that space. Use some kind of key box or something. Um I guess the concern I'd have with that is, you know, typically you'd put a code and then that code gets out. It's only a matter of time. you would go through a rotation like some realtor do. But

yeah, I mean, we we tried to when we first put that together, we tried to keep it as simple as possible, but but I know uh I know what you're talking about cuz they they knocked on my door. We're able to get them in that night. Um I mean, we can put our heads together and see if there's an easier way. I don't know. I I don't think you need to open a courier service, but it doesn't happen often enough that maybe you couldn't just take it to their house and bring the key to them. I I don't know if I'd know if I'd want to do that. Going to people's homes. I I think I'd rather come to city hall to to just thinking of possible solutions. So, I got you. Yeah. But I think u I think the uh

nothing else the residents should bear a little responsibility come here get get here on time to get the to get the key you know I mean it's it's stipulated in the in the directions right the ins

yeah about four months ago uh our police department was down 20% in staffing and we were so short-handed that uh policemen We're uh having to do have one or two people on the shifts. How are we standing now uh chief as far as personnel since you raised the raises? You raised the the rates and were able to compete with the other areas. So we're just down two positions now. You're down two compared to what were you down? We were down five at one time. Good. Good. So it's it's great. It it has been a significant improvement as far as the the amount of applicants we've been getting as well as the quality of applicants we've been getting.

And how far away are you from filling the other two positions? Um I can't rightly say, but we do have some people that are on board that we are um in the process of um we have the oral boards and everything like that. So great. Keep it up. Keep up the great work. Cosmo brought Mr. Mayor, I've I've talked with Lisa and I've talked with Joseph quite often about unavailable um cash, but unavailable un unencumbered unencumbered

unencumbered funds.

Lisa's got tons of things to do. she can't, you know, and it does incode doesn't help her at all. But I would like a process somehow that even on monthly reports that every time we we get something here that we going to use available cash, nobody knows what's encumbered, what's not encumbered, or what that amount is. Okay? Neither nobody does. Joseph follows it on a spreadsheet on capital projects or did at one time. And uh I just think we need a council needs a process that works so Lisa can keep track of it. In other words, when we did this 31,000, it would be it's encumbered and it lowers the amount that's available

on a on a going thing and that wouldn't be so hard for staff and everyone else to Am I saying it right, Lisa? Well, I keep track of this. This is No, I know you do. And you know, but it never gets to us and it always comes to us. Oh, we're just going to use available cash. And I before, well, now all all of the capital projects are going to use unavailable cash. Well, we're going to get ourselves in trouble, I feel. Okay. Because nobody's What are you What are you looking for? A policy to to uh to govern that uh un get in code to do it for or

so there's there's really no way. you have to keep track of it a different way because there's a lot of calculations go into it. It's not a calculation that we're going to update every day obviously because it does take time when we when we vote on to

Yeah. So we keep track of it and the situation is like this is the first year that we've really had to use general fund unencumbered available cash. Um typically it's just because of the HVAC project. you know, that's the biggest project that we've had in that fund in since the fiber. Um, so water sewer, how we build the rate study is that it accounts for all that CIP coming out of available cash. So it banks every year what we should be bringing in and we keep track of that as well. Um, and then CVB, you know, has a very large reserve. Um, so that's not an issue. So really um on the budget documents I always provide it when we're talking about these projects um the unencumbered cash and it show out how it goes in and out. Um so um there's really no way to like I I think I'm confused like the mayor a little bit like what are we trying to gauge here? Is it to be on the monthly report every month? Is it to be

Well, you put the available cash on on it every month, right? But you say I just put the unencumbered. You're saying it's an accordion and it does this and you can't keep, you know, I've heard you mention that and I and it's not you. It's just not a daily thing you're going to do. It's going to be based on when you're doing larger projects, you're going to figure out your cash balances. I just think it's a problem. It does get confusing. Yeah. I'd like to see if we could find a process, Mr. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's let's study that research. Okay. See if we can come up with something like if it's something the encode has a module for, but I don't think can handle it. Yeah.

Um just we'll certainly look into it. That's all I have. Council Robinson. Yeah, I actually share the a similar concern here and I think there is a way to address that. Uh it's it's just one more thing that you're placing on top of the staff. Yeah, you know, these are important issues. These are fiduciary responsibilities that we have. Sure. Yeah.

And I would be more comfortable if I knew our standing. Not sure how you're going to approach that. But the other the other thing too, uh, we've had, you know, several months now since we've changed our trash service and we had some issues going into it. We've and I I just kind of wonder, have we addressed all those? Are they are we doing are you happier with what's going on now? And is there anything that we could share with the public that's encouraging about

uh they they have been taken care of. We've had several sitdown meetings um uh after the the contract was started in the new services. There have been definitely movements for improvement. Uh I know there's areas I personally wish they I could see better improvement and one of those is their customer service wait time. Uh it's still it's hit or miss. Sometimes I've I've heard reports of people saying it's great two minutes somebody's talking to me or 30 seconds and then other nightmare stories of 30 minutes 40 minutes before somebody finally picked up the phone. Um, so I don't like how sporadic that is and that doesn't match what they promised with their customer service. But we have seen improvements um in other areas as far as, you know, some of the senior elderly disabled. They were there were some homes that they were missing, but they're not missing those anymore. Uh, so there are improvements, but I'd like to see more.

Yeah. I I I think um we may have to make some modifications to this at some point. Uh I I know I I don't know about the rest of my colleagues on the council, but I certainly hear occasionally about uh uh some dissatisfaction with the one time a month heavy pickup and things that we we're dealing with. Now, I have one other item that I wanted to bring to council and and that is this this on street parking issue. I don't know if you've been following some of the conversations through our social media and what have you, but uh I'd be interested in what our citizens are feeling or how they're feeling about the people parking cars on the street, leaving cars overnight. Um, cities that I've lived in or or managed or worked in had ordinances that regulated that that required no more than 72 hours of parking on a street before a vehicle had to be moved. Uh there's a concern about especially in our our some of our streets might be narrower heavy equipment, fire equipment and stuff getting through and I'm wondering if maybe we should take a look at that or make an inquiry of our citizens, give them an opportunity to respond to a uh a survey off of our uh a website or something. Just take the pulse of what what's the community feeling? How they feeling about this? Is it a problem or is it not a problem? Well, the last time I addressed it, and chief back me up if you need to, that if there was two cars, one on each side, there has to be 12 ft between them so emergency vehicles could get through there or whatever. Is that the rule or

Yes. You just have to have enough for the fire trucks to to to get through. Yes, sir. But currently now, we don't have anything outside of that. We don't have any anything as far as how long they can be parked on the street or anything. Um, I don't want to make it a discussion item, but we kind of touched on it when we did the park parking, right? And an idea that I had at the time was like a permit. I know there are some areas of the city where there are people that have I've heard seven, eight cars parked on the street for one house. So maybe that's an avenue you go along.

Yeah, that's an issue in my neighborhood as well. uh the the overflow of cars to the driveway and spilling out onto the apparently a large family or just uh very affluent people who can afford you know seven eight cars but it's a it's it's an issue uh uh also in my neighborhood I'd see opposite parking cars parking in the opposite

way too much of that going on there's there's you know if we can enforce that chief I know I spoke to you about that before um is is you know getting heavy on and enforcing those those issues both what what Councilman Robinson addressed you know the narrow gaps that are left because of the both sides of the street parking for our garbage trucks, fire trucks or whatever. I've seen a a garbage truck back up and go the other way because he couldn't get through right

in my neighborhood. So that's that's an issue. And definitely when when people see this, just make sure they call and we can take care of that, too. But but I know that um Officer Fran, he wrote some tickets the other day for some vehicles that were parked the wrong way. So is this an item that the council as a body would like on a future agenda to discuss? You know, I was just going to suggest that perhaps uh we ask staff to come back and talk to us about what ordinance do we have today? How is it structured and is it possible to amend it? Should we add to it? Should we take a look at some new issues that maybe have been out there for a while that just haven't been addressed?

Well, let's let's put that on discussion item for the agenda for for future discussion. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh I just have a chief, we had there was an enforcement action uh in our uh in the valley. Uh can you tell us about that because it was a big issue on social media about it? I think it's Rose Rosewood, was it?

Yes, it was on Rosewood. U it was it was a warrant service and it was uh executed. Well, uh, the Department of Public uh, safety, they were the ones that had the warrant and they had, uh, gotten with precinct 3 in order to help them execute it. Um, so it it was just a warrant. Did they think that Shangola was in precinct three and not notify us or Well, uh, that was a question. There was some phone calls made. Yeah. About that situation. Is that definitely I appreciate you following up on that because uh

Yes, sir. People I received phone calls asking what's going on and I don't know what's going on. You know, it's a it's an embarrassing position to be put in. I can I can tell you that uh uh Lieutenant Pulock can uh affirm this that I don't get very happy when stuff like that happens. I know. I get I get your phone calls, too. I do make phone calls when that stuff happens and you know why are we doing this without notifying us. So yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. The word on the street is that that Chief Dunlap was very angry. Yeah. For people infringing in our market without letting us know. The word would be correct.

All right. We're going to move on. We have an executive session uh today. Yes. City Council is going to recess the regular meeting and go into close executive session at 6:56 according to the Texas Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of Texas Government Code Bernance, Texas Code Annotated in accordance with the authority contained in the Texas Government Code as follows. Texas code 551.087 087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations and 0074 personnel matters city administrative vacancy. We're going to recess until we complete our objective session here. Okay.

Okay. We're going to reconvene. Are we on? Chris, are we on? Okay. We're going to reconvene the meeting at uh 8:11. No final action, decision, or vote with regard to any matter considered in the closed meeting was made during the closed session. It is now 8:11 and we're going to adjourn this meeting of the city council.