City Council - Regular Meeting

I now call to order the joint meeting of the city council of the city of Baytown and the Municipal Development District on Thursday, April 23rd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers, city hall, announcement of quorum at 6:54 p.m. We will now have the pledge and invocation given by council member Laura Alvarado, District 1. Um, thank you, Mayor. And if you'll indulge me for a moment, um, I've invited this evening Pastor Ramado Gonzalez from Central Baptist Church, uh, out in Pelly, who will be doing our invocation after the pledge. 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Let us pray. Father, we come before you and we give you glory, honor, and praise. And Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day that you provided for us, Father God, and the opportunity, Lord, to to come together, Father God. And Lord, we just want to come before you and we want to raise this council to you, Father God. Be with the mayor. Be with the members of the council, Father God, as they they, uh, take care of the business of the city, Father God. We know that you have put all leaders in their positions, Father, and we're just lifting them up to you, Father God. We ask, Lord, that you would give them guidance. That you allow them, Lord, to discuss the topics, Father God, in a way that will honor you, Father God, and in a way that that will lead the citizens of this city, Father God. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. We thank you for the love and the mercy and the grace you give us. And Lord, we ask,

Lord, that you would move in this place. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Start off with citizen comment. Do we have anyone signed up to speak? Moving on to item 2A. Consider resolution authorizing funding for continued engagement of the Husch Blackwell LLP to advise on economic development and general legal matters. Mr. Moran. Yes, um, Mr. Mayor, city council members, board of directors. So, this item um, is recommending approval funding for a Blackwell. They provide specialized expertise, uh, particularly for our large-scale economic development matters, particularly pertaining to industrial district agreements and our Chapter 212 agreements. And they've been instrumental, um, in those. To name a few with CP Chem, Tinsley Materials, Walmart, um, Enterprise Products. And we are in the process right now of renewing approximately 25 IDAs and two, uh, new 212s. Good deal. Any questions or comments? I need a motion. Motion to approve item 2A. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We will now move into city council items and we're going to start with recognitions and citizen communications. Y'all are in luck today cuz we have some proclamations. So, council, I'm going to ask this one time after we give each proclamation if you all would join us down to take some pictures. Are y'all willing to do that? That's what I'm talking about. Good deal. First, we're going to start off with National Public Safety Communicators Week.

Chief, you want to start on this? I Of course, I'll let you read that. There was, uh, Just very quickly, our telecommunicators or dispatchers, they are that calm, quiet voice on the other end of the line on some some of our citizens' worst day of our their lives. And they're a lifeline lifeline for our police officers when they're out there on the street. They set the tone for professionalism throughout the call. And we're incredibly appreciative of them. Thank you, council and mayor, for recognizing our telecommunicators. Proclamation, City of Baytown, National Public Community Safety Telecommunicators Week. Whereas, the public safety telecommunicators of Baytown Emergency Communication Center, who process on average over 500 telephone calls each year, serve as the first and most critical point of contact between our citizens and emergency services. And whereas, the safety and effectiveness of our police officers, firefighters, and paramedics depend upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained by these highly trained professionals from those who call for assistance. And whereas, the public safety telecommunicators of the Baytown Emergency Communication Center play a vital role in the apprehension of criminals, the suppression of fires, and the provision of life-saving medical response. And their tireless efforts in answering calls, dispatching emergency services, and providing critical instructions to help save lives and protect our community. And whereas, the work of public safety telecommunicators require exceptional skill, unwavering composure, and deep compassion as they calmly and efficiently manage high-pressure situations while providing reassurance and guidance during times of crisis. Now, therefore, I, Charles Johnson, Mayor of Baytown, do hereby

proclaim the week of April 12th through the 18th as 20 and 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. And in the City of Baytown, encourage all individuals to recognize, honor, and express their appreciation for the dedication and service of our public safety professionals.

[clears throat] [laughter]

Next, we're going to have Public Service Recognition Week. Whereas, the City of Baytown recognizes that public service professionals play an essential role in maintaining the safety, health, and overall well-being of the community. Their daily commitment ensures that essential services are delivered efficiently and effectively to residents and businesses throughout the city. And whereas, employees of the City of Baytown demonstrate dedication, integrity, and professionalism in serving the public across a wide range of departments and functions. Their work often goes unseen, yet it is fundamental to the city's quality of life and continued growth. And whereas, Public Service Recognition Week provides an opportunity for the community to express appreciation for the individuals who devote their careers to public service. It also highlights the importance of civic engagement and the shared responsibility of building a strong and thriving community. And whereas, the City of Baytown recognizes that strong public institutions depend on the continued recruitment, retention, and support of skilled public servants who are committed to excellence and response service responsive service. Investing in the these professionals, the core of Baytown life, ensures the long-term resilience and effectiveness of municipal government. Now, therefore, I, Charles Johnson, Mayor of Baytown, do hereby proclaim May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 as Public Service Recognition Week in the City of Baytown and encourage all individuals to recognize and honor the dedication and contribution of our public service. Do we have any public service in audience today? Lots. Would you Well, would you mind joining us up here for this photo? Let's be sure we get the library in this, also.

[laughter]

Everybody keep their eyes wide open, big smiles again. Here we go. One, two, three. Let me get one more. Hang on. Here we go. Okay. Meeting's over. [laughter] [laughter]

Now we are going to have BACA, that's Bikers Against Child Abuse. We do this one yearly. And they are already here. Would you all mind coming up? And is there anyone that's going to speak? Let's do it. BACA, Bikers Against Child Abuse exists with the intent to create a safer environment for abused children. We exist as a body of bikers to empower children to not feel afraid of the world in which they live. We work in conjunction with local and state officials who are already in place to protect children. And because of what these kids go through is why we ask for this proclamation for Heroes Weekend. They don't have a choice in what they went through. They don't have a choice in going through the court process and how how long that takes. But because they will persevere and we will do our best to stand there with them through the whole process. We'll go into court with them. They are truly heroes to us. From the tiniest little toddler to the teens that age out because of the time frames, they are amazing. And we just really appreciate you guys taking the time to allow us to be here and to recognize April as well as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. Just remember, if you see something, say something. Thank you. Proclamation, City of Baytown. BACA Heroes Weekend. Whereas, the City of Baytown is pleased to join Bikers Against Child Abuse, Inc., in celebrating the last weekend of April 20 26 as BACA Heroes Weekend in Texas. And whereas, Bikers Against Child Abuse is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing

support and healing to children who have been abused. These young victims are known among the organization's members as heroes. And whereas, this exemplary organization has instituted a number of initiatives to champion the victims of child abuse, including empowerment ceremonies where an abused child is welcomed into the Bikers Against America's child abuse family. And whereas, it is truly fitting that a weekend be set aside to pay tribute to the bravery and determination shown by the victims of child abuse in facing and overcoming their trauma. And whereas, the City of Baytown commends the members of Bikers Against Child Abuse, Inc., on their important work and commitment to supporting the victims of child abuse and extends to them best wishes for a successful BACA Heroes Weekend. Now, therefore, I, Charles Johnson, Mayor of Baytown, do hereby proclaim April 24th through the 26th, 2026 as BACA Heroes Weekend and encourage individuals to join me in recognizing the important work of Bikers Against Child Abuse, Inc., and in honoring the courage and resilience of the children they serve. Same. One, two, let me get one more.

[clears throat]

I'm not going to ask any questions, but I'm going to say something about this next one. Municipal City Clerks Week. We would not be able to hold, I'm going to say, any of our meetings if it were not for the City Clerk's office. They take very good care of us and provide us with candy in our candy drawers. And I really appreciate the candy. I appreciate the coordination of the meetings and the events that they help us put on for the public. They make us look good. Proclamation, City of Baytown Municipal Clerks Week. Whereas, the profession of municipal clerks is essential playing a vital role in the foundation of local government in Texas through the promotion of transparency, the assurance of accountability, and the support of efficient municipal service delivery. And whereas, Texas municipal clerks are committed to upholding the highest standards of neutrality and professionalism, serving as a vital connection between residents, elected officials, and various levels of government. And whereas, municipal clerks are entrusted with maintaining official records, managing vital documents, overseeing municipal elections, responding to public information requests, while serving as the public information officer and ensuring adherence to applicable laws and regulations throughout the Texas communities. And whereas, these dedicated professionals consistently demonstrate integrity, expertise, and a strong commitment to public service contributing significantly to the effectiveness and continuity of local governance. And whereas, Municipal Clerk Clerks Week offers a meaningful opportunity to recognize and honor the contributions of municipal clerks and to acknowledge their indispensable role in supporting the operations and success of cities across Texas. Now, therefore, I, Charles Johnson, Mayor of Baytown, do hereby

proclaim May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as Municipal Clerks Week in the City of Baytown and encourage all individuals to join us in recognizing the valuable services provided by municipal court clerks in our community.

[clears throat]

No, we have one more. Proclamation, City of Baytown National Correctional Officers Week. Whereas, correctional officers play a vital role in maintaining public safety by supervising individuals in custody and ensuring safe, secure, and orderly operations and their work often occurs behind the scenes, yet remains essential to the well-being of our communities. And whereas, correctional officers demonstrate professionalism, integrity, and resilience while working in challenging and sometimes dangerous environments where they must balance safety, security, and the treatment of those in their care. And whereas, these dedicated professionals contribute a to positive outcomes by fostering structured environments, supporting constructive programs, and encouraging accountability, thereby helping individuals work towards successful reintegration into society. And whereas, it is important to recognize the sacrifices made by correctional officers and their families and to honor their commitment to protecting our communities and serving with distinction. Now, therefore, I, Charles Johnson, Mayor of Baytown, do hereby proclaim May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as National Correctional Officers Week in the City of Baytown and encourage all individuals to join me in expressing appreciation and for the dedicated service and contribution of correctional officers. Thank you, sir. That was the last one, right? Yeah, that was the last one.

Thank you for everybody. Thank you for everybody.

One more thing, I have to They're all got one more receipt. What's this? See recognition from Texas The parks. Oh, I guess I'm confused. Is this them? Yes, they are. Are they here? Good deal. Now F receive recognition from the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool TMLIRP for the City of Baytown's implementation of their Road Ready program in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, Mr. Joey Lopez. Yes, good evening, Mayor and Council. It's always great when we get to recognize employees, but tonight we get to recognize an entire department of employees for the great work that they've done and the hard work they've done. So, with me I have Ava Hudnell, she's part of our risk management group, and I have Manny Trejo, who's part of the Texas Municipal League. And I'm going to have Ava share a few words about what this program was, and then Manny's going to actually present the award to Parks Department, the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department. Good evening, everyone. So, one of the things that we have been really trying to do throughout the organization is put a greater emphasis on safety overall just to try to combat issues like employee injuries and those sorts of things throughout the different departments. So, one of the ways to take a proactive approach is to do things like the Road Ready program. And so, today I'm super excited to get to present this award to our Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department. And so, I'm going to ask everyone from the department that is coming to accept the award, if you don't mind coming to join us in the front, and then Manny from TML is going to read y'all a letter here in just a second. Who is that guy?

Does anybody know that's Leonard Graham? The infamous Leonard Graham. The B The The Leonard Graham. [laughter]

Thank you for having me. Good evening. We're thrilled to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the City of Baytown for successfully completing all five digital badges of the Road Ready program. This noteworthy achievement is a testament to the collaborative efforts and dedication of your team. Working on a new roadways roadways creates the potential for catastrophic encounters with other vehicles where the extent of damage or injury is not necessarily related to fault. The Road Ready initiative was specifically designed to ensure all staff are aware of these potential hazards and exposures. The City of Baytown Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department has exemplified a proactive approach successfully completing major activities associated with the Road Ready process. The enclosed certificate recognizes the organization's completion of the five Road Ready badges and the dedication of all staff to provide a safe and healthy workplace. This effort is paramount to the partnership the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool seeks to create with its members. We look forward to to continue partnership in loss prevention and risk management. Thank you for your commitment and congratulations once again on this remarkable achievement. Thank you. Oh, wow.

[laughter]

You really want to go take a picture with him? It's all a blur. Public Hearings. We will now go into the public hearings. The public hearings today are being held for the purpose of giving all interested individual interested persons the right to express their views regarding the subject of the public hearing. Everyone desiring to be a part of today's hearing should have either signed the appropriate list in the foyer or emailed the city clerk prior to the posted time of this meeting. Each participant shall give his or her name and address in order to provide proper record of these hearings. The rules allow each person 3 minutes to present information. However, I encourage everyone to be as brief and to the point as possible. If you are a group of persons wishing to address Council on the same subject, please select a spokesperson to present the information, and if anyone has any questions, please direct them to me. 4A Conduct a Public Hearing for the for a proposed text amendment to Chapter 111 Unified Land Development Code of the Baytown Code of Ordinances to revise Division 2.3 and 10.2 of the ULDC regarding short-term rentals rental operations within residential and mixed use zoning district. It is now 7:19 p.m., and I call to order this public hearing concerning the proposed text amendment to Chapter 111 of the Unified Land Land Development Code to upgrade to update regulations for short-term rentals operations in residential and mixed use zoning districts. I would like now to request staff to summarize the subject

of this hearing, Mr. Calvin Abel. Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Uh Calvin Abel, Planning and Development. As our Mayor has identified, um the Planning Department is presenting to you a zone I mean a text amendment for our Unified Land Development Code. Uh a little history about what's going on. In 2014, uh the 2014 ULDC did not identify short-term rentals within the Unified Land Development Code. That essentially means they were not allowed in any zoning residential district. Our 2025 update to the Unified Land Development Code allows short-term rentals within zone within residential zoning districts. However, through the special use permit process, since 2025, January 2025 to this date, we've only had one special use permit application, and that was an application that was at Ashwood Drive. That application was approved by both the Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the City Council. But through that process, we identified several things. The length of the process took, you know, several months to get through. It appeared to be subjective with some gaps that was in there. So, through that, the Planning Department received some feedback that the City Council would like us to reevaluate the process that we were using with the short-term rental. And through that process, we looked at 12 cities within proximity and the state of Texas to what they were doing. What worked for them, what didn't work, and what would they like to do differently. We took all that feedback, compiled it, and created the text amendment that you have before you as of this moment. Uh as I identified, we're requesting

essentially two text amendments. One is to essentially a clean up of the Unified Land Development Code. In some areas, we identify short-term rentals as less than 28 days, and other places we identify short-term rentals as less than 30 days. We're going to clean that up and make it consistent throughout the Unified Land Development Code to be less than 30 days. Uh when we look at short-term rentals, there's essentially three types. Uh that's hosted owner-occupied where the owner lives in with the within the residence and uh does a short-term rental for uh rooms within the development into with within the dwelling unit. And then the unhosted where the owner isn't there, people go onto a particular app and rent the entire entire dwelling unit, and then of course we have vacation rentals. As I identified, uh currently our short-term rentals are complaint driven. Someone complains to get things to move forward, then they go through the special use permit. It takes longer to do it because they have to go through the SUP. Uh we don't have a way to track those, and uh compliance is kind of difficult to do. Our current regulations, what the regulations identified that the uh short-term rentals have to pay hot taxes, a hotel occupancy taxes. We identified the length of the stay in there, and that that they have to meet the existing residential um character of the community without having a negative impact on it. Um so, where we are right now. Currently right now, um we don't have an opportunity to gather data from the short-term rentals. We aren't collecting the hot taxes for them. Our current cases are essentially through SUPs, which is a long uh process. And as you have seen through um several complaints from the community that it appears to be subjective, and they

at times they've shared that the safety and decisions on where they are located um and their deeds may not be appreciated, uh hence why we are presenting this text amendment. Uh future state. What we want to do is we want to be able to capture these short-term rentals and place them on our GIS map. We want to be able to collect our hotel uh occupancy taxes. Uh we want to be able to uh make certain the uh short-term rentals register and they're in compliant, and we have some type of regulations that will capture the safety and inspection for those short-term rentals. Uh what you have before you, I'm not going to address all of these, but one thing in terms of registration, uh there will be according to the text amendment that we're present providing, there will be a yearly permit fee and inspection. Uh we will also capture hot taxes. Um there will be safety inspections as well by a designee of the city. Um guest management, there will be um postings with internal to the site identifies who's the 24-hour contact uh in terms of um occupancy limits, we're looking at uh what's being proposed to you is essentially two people per uh room that's rented out plus two. So, if it's a uh three-bedroom home, they can have three times two, which is six plus two additional, so eight people can uh stay in the unit. In addition to the parking, we're recommending one parking space plus one for each room that's rented out. Um I won't read over this slide, but more importantly, one thing I want to identify with the short-term rentals proposed regulations, what we think this would do for uh the city, it would allow the city to be proactive to address the changing markets and set clear

expectations for property owners and residents. It will It will cause the uh property owner who's has the short-term rental to be more in compliance and reach out to their HOAs to make certain they're in compliance with whatever they have at that point. Um so, that's what we're trying to make certain that they are more self-regulated, and we find a way to track these short-term rentals and uh be more consistent with our regulations. Um the Planning and Zoning Commission heard this um text amendment. Uh the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of the proposed text amendment. Uh staff, based on our research, the uh information that we're providing to include the amendments uh for the 2025 ULDC, we're recommending approval for the short-term rental. And with that, uh I conclude my presentation, and if you have any questions, I'm here to answer. Questions or comments? Yes, sir. Good. So, kind of looking at that, you know, when you go back to slide, you're doing a three three-bedroom house times two plus two, that's eight occupants in a household. Um we're we a lot of our short-term rentals generally here are not for vacation, they're for work. So, generally you're going to have eight gentlemen there with eight different vehicles in a neighborhoods that aren't designed really weren't planning on having that large many people parking in the driveway generally. A neighborhood you're going to have three cars, maybe four cars. Now you're going to have eight, which is going to put a big burden on the neighborhood. Brings vehicles getting through there. The the homeowners on that other part. And and it's really not proper parking. They would now be putting them on the street. Right? And we know that there's some streets in some subdivisions where you can't park on the street and get a emergency vehicle through. You got other issues where there's some places that they can't park on the

street, so they park on the grass, which then we have the issue of the grass becoming uh the contaminants leaking into the gas grass, which then causes sewer issues and water water issues. So, it it's there's a lot of issues that I've I've already addressed and and talked about this and how you know, a lot of people know how I feel about this. I I just I'm not a big fan of them or what they're coming and what they're doing to some of our subdivisions. And I get we have deed restrictions and HOA restrictions that they have to, you know, comply with, but that's not us to to comply with it, you know. It's It's I just I just don't think that's enough. You know, you're you're basically like in a three-bedroom home putting eight grown people living in there is what you're going to end up having. And that's And then you're going to have What happens when they say, "Okay, well, I I I converted my garage into a to another room." So, now that's, you know, it's it's not what the original dwelling was meant to, it's not what the original development was meant for. Was not meant for this. And that's big concern for me. I understand, Commissioner.

Uh and I just wanted to address in terms of the parking. Uh the way the text amendment is written, uh the parking have to be off-street parking stalls. So, if the applicant who has the short-term rental cannot does not have the space to allow parking in the driveway, um they will be denied the short-term rental. So, but when you're saying parking, the parking's going to be based on how many people are staying in there or how many bedrooms? It's It's based on how many rooms can be advertised to be rented out. So, if it's two bedrooms, So, you're advertising three bedrooms, and if you have a normal in a normal subdivision like for instance in mine, you can put three cars on the on the street, but that doesn't account for the other gentlemen that are also coming with it to make it five more vehicles. So, you're getting three cars parked. Yeah, that's fine, but you have five more that are still coming. That's the problem. But it's per bedroom, not per person. I I I understand that, but generally with with a lot of our short-term rentals are for work. We don't get a lot of short-term rentals for vacation. So, you get a short-term rentals and you're you're going to get six, seven guys staying in a three-bedroom house, and there's going to be six vehicles. Did they supply that data in it? Uh let's let's be realistic about what's going on in in the city of Baytown. We don't have a lot of people coming for a vacation. Yes, sir. Yeah, to your point, I would like to see the data for that just to say that to be realistic, it's not enough. But for me it becomes convoluted and now we're collecting a hot a hot a hot tax. So, by definition, that facility becomes basically a general commercial facility in a residential neighborhood. It doesn't fit into the zone zoning maps. I mean, how how does that I guess becomes a sticky situation.

Mr.

Yeah, what I mean, what if we're collecting a hot tax, is that Is that Is that defined as a a general commercial? No, sir. Under state law, it's residential, period. Um all of the cases that have discussed short-term rentals discuss it in the context of individual residential ownership. The the hot tax issue does not impact that analysis. And and also in addition, even if um planning department wasn't bringing this text amendment forward, um our current 2025 ULDC requires short-term rentals to pay a hot tax. Okay. Thank you all for everything you all did to put into this. I did get to attend one of the P&Z meetings a while back. I think it was six months ago when this conversation first started up again. Um Can can we really and truly legally put a lot of bounds on on Airbnbs or or short-term rentals anyways? I mean, I To me these ordinances are good to set up. I don't I don't think we can dictate who's parking in streets and not parking in streets as long as they're within the bounds of the law. Of the the on a public street. So, I know the concerns. I mean, where I live is very different than than some of the areas in District 4. Um but I just want to make sure that whatever we're doing is it is within our legal jurisdiction, I guess is the way to word that. So, Council, I'll I'll answer that question the same way that I did when we talked about the SUP.

And that is to say that um to res- to to eliminate short-term rentals entirely is almost certainly unconstitutional. That That's probably why

We can uh place reasonable restrictions upon uh short-term rentals, but the the the the boundaries left and right boundaries of that have not been decided by the courts. So, uh this body, P&Z, staff, legal, uh can work together to figure out the best way that we can to determine what we're comfortable with, but there is no uh firm guidance uh from any court, uh court of appeals, or the Supreme Court on what those what what it means to be reasonable. So, I um I want to make sure that we're doing what the citizens want, but I also want to make sure that um Baytown is not operating or trying to set a precedent that I I just don't know that this is our battle. Is is where I'm going with this. I mean, I think it's good that we I I like what y'all did. I I mean, I think it's good that we're asking them to permit to to um I'm reading all of these really quickly, I'm sorry. All the different things that you said. I won't reiterate all of them, but um I don't know, Ringo. I just I don't know that this is our battle.

I mean, think about corner of Houston and Hayport, you got that's a three-bedroom house. You got se- seven people that are going to park on there. Where are they going to park? They're going to park on the street. Can we legally tell people they can't park on the street?

you can change instead of having the the parking limitations. You can you can adjust your parking limitations. Your parking limitations are based on three. On three. So, what you [clears throat] know, he's allowed So, if there's three rooms, they can have four vehicles. If there's three rooms, they they have All they have to do is prove that they have three parking spots in off off off the street. In the driveway. They have to prove they have three parking spots in the driveway, but you're going to get more than three people there. Well, Commissioner, uh I would I would like to uh share um in terms of one the city of Baytown setting precedent. The um the text amendment that we're presenting to you are things that cities around us are currently doing. We've only looked at what cities around us are doing and other cities within the state of Texas and we've taken portions of it that are applicable to the city of Baytown. So, none of what we're presenting are new or precedent setting. These are already established in cities around us as of this moment. No, I just to be clear, I was agreeing with you and I'm concerned with if we start limiting parking and things on people the parallel to that. No pun intended. Well, so you know, we're we're okay. So, I I've been to other cities where they limit parking to just one vehicle. Regardless of the number of bedrooms and regardless of the number of people that are in there, they limit it to just one vehicle and that's it. Um now, that might be extreme. I might go with like two um but I think even staying within the parameters of what you can have within the driveway. If you can fit two vehicles in there, three vehicles, that's all you get. Um I I think you're right that other people are going

to go and they're going to have their own vehicles, but they have to abide by the rules of the short-term rental. They're signing that contract that states I will only have except X number of vehicles. Yeah, but we can we can only regulate what's in the driveway. You can park in the street all you want and then I get that and I understand, but I mean That can be part of the contract.

And then we have to look at this and then and I'm not trying to to say anything bad. We're looking at Graham and Associates for a lot of our help to help us in what we're trying to do here. That's the mayor of Arlington. Arlington does not allow short-term rentals. Period. They're banned. So, I mean I get we're looking at some of the cities around us, but we there's other cities that are just completely saying no. The The lawyer just told us that there was no But there's no left or right that says yes or no for sure. No, but you said Arlington has them banned in Texas. has them banned. Which is it? Is it a ban in Arlington?

It's It's banned yet to be challenged. There are numerous cities that banned STRs, but yet to be challenged because the state has made it very clear to staff and lawyers that are working on this throughout the state that it is coming from the state soon that cities will not be able to mess with STRs. So, are there other discussions on short-term rentals, but what do we do when we have a rental home That What I'm dealing with right now is I have a rental home, it's a 1-year lease and they have 10 cars parked everywhere. So, I don't I don't understand how we regulate one and not the other and we limit it to the driveway. I agree. I don't No one wants that kind of that amount of vehicles parked out there. I just Who Who Who's going to um You know, you said you're having an issue with the with the 1-year lease. You're opening Pandora's box to everybody now. But we have an issue with people parking on the street with people who are purchasing homes. I actually I I turned on the corner the other day and couldn't and a bus couldn't get down my street to drop kids off because people weren't parking in the driveway. My My My question is going to be what's to stop someone from having a car, they park it on the street and when someone knocks on their door, they just say it's not my automobile.

[laughter] I'm I'm serious. I mean, at that point How How can we enforce this? Mayor and Council, that would be my advice to y'all as y'all talk through these regulations. Um what what Calvin and and the PDS team has brought to y'all are regulations that are that are around from other cities.

Mhm. The the parking piece, how it's designed and Calvin, please step in if I'm saying this incorrectly. How it's designed, it's only regulated at the very beginning in the permitting process, right? And so, they only look at it during the permit approval. Do you have a two-car garage and two spaces in the driveway? You do, you have four, you meet the minimum requirement. The issue is for the residents, that will be in the code that you have to have four parking spaces. So, if if we say that there's has to be four parking spaces and to Mr. Franco's point, eight people show up and then the citizens call to report it, how is that? And we won't know with each Say a home is a short-term rental and they rent out 300 days out of 365 days to a different family for 300 different days. We will not know who's coming in each and every day. And so, as you look at these regulations, I would ask you to consider, is it really enforceable? And if it's enforceable, uh great. If it's not enforceable, I would I would advocate that we already have too many ordinances in the in the uh in our We have too many ordinances that are unenforceable at this point. And it creates confusion not for just staff, but for the citizens as well. And that's why I was asking the question, how we going to enforce it? Because if it's not, what's the use of having it? Uh just to say you're going to check a box to get it approved. I don't know how I feel about that if we cannot enforce it. Well, Mayor, what we're looking at um and what several other cities does, they work to hire a third-party um consultant and that third-party um consultant is the one that tracks things, take complaints, responds to complaints, report it to the city and move forward

with the owner of the short-term rental to uh improve whatever deficiencies they have. In addition, um within the text amendment, there is revocation um authority that the planning and development director has. Um currently, it identifies if there's three enforcement or three instances where a property owner is not compliant, the um planning director has the ability to revoke their uh permit for short-term rental. So, my question now is going to be we just had a work session where we discussed we have zero latitude in our budget. What is it going to cost to hire a third party? Right now, what we're looking at is we looked at the city working with a um a third-party uh that they did this uh provided some information and there appears to be over 80 short-term rentals within the city of Baytown as of this moment. Um when we look at what at least two uh consultants who do these type of things in terms of tracking and uh compliance, with the rate that we're considering for permits and inspections, that would pay the amount for those short-term rentals would pay for the third-party consultant.

[clears throat]

Um right now, we're still talking and there's further things to uh sort out, but at this point, it appears that the city would not come out of pocket in order to hire the third-party consultant. That's the intent. To be clear, that's on the administration. That's not on enforcement from staff. That's on administration. That was going to be my next question. Yes, ma'am. If we did not pass this ordinance, would we be stopping short-term rentals in Baytown? No, you would not. They would have to move forward through the special use permit process and as I shared, uh currently, we believe there are over 80 uh short-term rentals. So, eventually, if citizens complain, they get a code enforcement, hence we saw on Ashworth Drive, then we would have a volume of those that comes through the planning commission and city council taking three plus months for one SUP and I I think you can But the we would have no way to stop the rental anyways during that time, correct? Uh the this body could ultimately deny the SUP. But could this body stop a homeowner from renting out their home as a short-term rental during that time? Not not literally during the time because they would already be doing it. However, when they come to this body and if this body denies the short-term rental, then That doesn't mean that they're going to stop At At council There may be other enforcement mechanisms. I don't think public session is the time to discuss legal strategy, but if this is something you want to discuss in executive session, we can certainly do that. I was saying that out loud because I think there's a perception that if due to some citizens contacting me about

this that there's a perception that if we don't pass this that it somehow just stops all short-term rentals immediately. And if we do pass it that there are citizens that think that. So, that's why I was just saying that out loud and getting that response. There's already 80 operating SUPs who have to come one at a time or two at a time or whatever and it would be a very long drawn out process with litigation involved. Potentially. How many complaints have we had about four short-term rentals outside of Ashworth? We only had one that actually moved forward to enforcement and had a special use permit from it. Okay. Yes, sir. Do you Well, we're still in public hearing. I can save my comments. We have folks signed up to speak. Yeah, but I want to do this so when they come

Well, I've got some. You've got on here property limitations. So, if somebody if this was passed we would not issue a permit if they had deed restrictions or covenants with an HOA? So, that puts us in an enforcement position of

No, that I don't think that's being recommended. No. No, that that is a civil matter. What we would what's written within the text amendment, we are encouraging the property owner to reach out to their HOA to um identify if that is an allowed use. We need to be very careful about taking what could be perceived as an enforcement position of deed restrictions or HOA covenants. Cuz I tell you from my perspective, I'm going to oppose that. Yeah. It that's a civil issue and I'm not going to get into an enforcement posture trying to enforce deed restrictions or HOA limitations. That's civil matter. So, so that's my first concern and if you've written that into the rules, I have concerns about that. Parking and one parking space per bedroom plus one I think's a little tight but reasonable. So, I could go with that. Annual inspections, we require an annual inspection for the permit and an annual inspection for safety and it's all Now we're inspecting them. I think that's too much. And so, in some ways I agree with P&Z that the the what y'all have proposed is a little restrictive. Now, I agree with regulation but let's not be and I'll go back to the comment that was made when my first term, well, we're doing it because we can. We got to be real careful with that. Now, if it's a reasonable requirement or regulation, I'm good with it but let's not be too restrictive. Um guest management sound monitoring What what what what rules or regulations are you going to put on that? Uh we would encourage it. Um that would

Encouraging it and having it as a as a requirement in the permit process is two different things. So, if you've written in there that that there's going to be sound management or monitoring, what rules are you going to apply to that? The standard rules we have with the city? So, that my neighbors gets loud and the same issues or are we doing some more stringent issues with short-term rentals? But as I mentioned, we would encourage it. The property that was approved by the city council, the Ashworth, they actually volunteered to have a condition with sound monitoring and But you're writing it into the rules. These are proposed ordinance changes. Encouraging. We we're not requiring that. We're encouraging that. Okay. So, again, we're encouraging something again unenforceable. So, we have to be cautious with that. Um sound monitoring annual inspections again two two inspections a year. I agree with the one um but two I mean an annual inspection for permitting process, you're going to do the hopefully you get you're looking for the fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide requirements and everything else. This this issue is for apartment complex. Internal signage my understanding is that's required from some of the Airbnb stuff anyway. So, that's my concern is um that that we're trying to regulate it out of existence and that's where we can get into trouble um with with legally issues and stuff like that. Um This number of occu- occupancy limits, number of occupants is it minus one party or multiple? I mean, I don't know what that means.

either or. Huh? It could be either or. One party or multiple parties. That would be on the the property owner how they do their applications and and/or contracts. I would argue this is an unenforceable ordinance, Mayor and Council. Yeah. Cuz we wouldn't know each day who would

We wouldn't. who would rent it. Yeah. And nor should we. They get an annual permit, they go with it. I like the idea of charging the hotel motel cuz it's just like an apartment. Also, short-term rentals I've heard the discussions, well, the you know, there's going to be transient plant workers and stuff like that. I don't know of any turnaround that happens in 30 days. And if it's 31 days, this doesn't apply. That is correct. So, so again, we're not a major tourist destination point. Now, I did have somebody bring up the issue that, well, you know, when the event center gets finished off and built that this may become more of an issue for the areas surrounding the event center because people will come and rent for a week or 10 days if there's major programs or whatever going on that. I hadn't even thought of that.

So, so that's kind of an interesting but you know, folks don't come here to sit on the beach for two to three weeks. We don't have a beach. Um So, we're not a major tourist destination point. So, it would be for some of the activities that we have at that at our parks or whatever but they're going to be here for short periods of time but how do we know who rotates in, who rotates out? So, again, unenforceable issues. I'm just again, I have the same concerns as certain members of the P&Z that this was a little bit over regulation. Um So, that that's my comments is and as far as parking again, one parking space per bedroom. Typically, if you have a three-bedroom house, you're going to have a two-car garage. Your driveway's going to hold two. So, that's four, you meet the standard. If they have friends or guests come and and visit or whatever, they're going to park in the street just like everybody else does. Uh so, kind of and how would we regulate I don't want to get y'all involved in looking at everybody's contracts for renting a house for 10 to 15 days. Y'all have plenty to do without that. Um and if you don't, I'm sure we can find some stuff for you.

[laughter]

Um yeah, the city manager tells me how busy y'all are all the time and I agree that y'all are busy. So, those those are my concerns. Again, I understand the community has has concerns um but potentially 80 in town and we've only had one come to us and that's the one that we're dealing with now. We gave an SUP to. I I just if if it was 10 or 15 or 20 complaints and on different addresses and major problems and that's a completely different story. But at this point, I think it's kind of an I won't say a non-issue but it's just we're spending a whole lot of time on something that's not a major issue. Yes, Council. I just wanted to reiterate and and we discussed this during the SUP matter that um the city cannot, does not, and will not enforce deed restrictions or other private agreements between citizens. Can't do that and that's not what this ordinance is designed to do. Got you. Councilor I thought of a question. Um on the occupancy limits cuz we kind of have the limit of people based on the number of rooms and then you talked about the parking limitations. So, if you had a um if I'm doing all the math right if you had a three-bedroom house, it would be able to hold uh eight people, right? That is correct. The parking limitation was based on the number of rooms. Based on the number of rentable rooms.

Rentable rooms. So, it would be that same house, three-bedroom would hold eight people and would would need how many parking spaces? Four parking cuz it's that plus one. So, if it only had three parking spaces would we say they could only list the three-bedroom house for a max of six people? Would we would we say that one room is unusable? Or how would that Or you just deny it all together because they don't have enough parking? Like how would that work?

Yeah, they would be able to deny it. What they would do, submit their application for a permit and we would review or the third party would review the application based on what they have before them. If they have a three-bedroom but they can only show two parking stalls or three parking stalls, then if they are saying three bedrooms, then they would be denied of that application. But if they said two, then they would have been approved of that application. just update their application to list one less room. That is correct.

And then change it online to more. Well, the what we've identified the third party would be able to do, they would be able to in real time follow all listings through the major sites. So, they would keep up with when the short-term rental is rented, they would keep up with how many rooms are being rented. So, they would track all of that data. Okay. Um I guess where I'm at on this is I don't disagree with putting regulations in place to some extent. I mean, we have if our numbers are right, the rough estimate's right, we have 80 short-term rentals out there and we're aware of one of them. So, I mean we have 79 unregulated short-term rentals right now. Um so, I'm I'm not opposed to putting some level of regulations in place. It may not go as far as what some people want to see, but I mean I think 79 you know halfway regulated is better than 79 not at all unregulated uh short-term rentals. Um but I think before I would approve um this change, I'd like to hear from one of these uh administration companies you're talking to. I'd I'd like to know how they're doing this in other cities. Like, what are they actually enforcing? Um what does that look like? And what can we really do that, you know, at a net zero cost to the city? Um you know, is it the fees and the the the hot tax or whatever it may be, is that enough to cover this entire service? And do they really have the teeth to enforce whatever we put in here? Um I think I'd like to hear and maybe there's some other cities around us that are already doing it. Maybe they could come and share maybe someone from their planning department from a neighboring city would be willing to come share with us. I would just like to see

you know how does this actually you know, how how do we actually put this into effect? I mean, it's great to to put some regulations in place, but if if if it's unenforceable, like we've said, or overbearing, I mean, there you can go either way with that. Um you know, I I don't really want to I don't want to put a bad ordinance in place just for the sake of rushing this through. Um I I think I'd like to hear from some of these um these contractors, administrators, whatever you want to call them and how are they really working with other cities and you know, share their data with us and and I'd like to see if it's actually been successful. Um Council um in in deference to Councilmember Powell, the city manager says I wordsmith things too much, but uh I think this part of my my job description. Um just so that the public is aware. I think what the Councilmember meant is that we have 79 non-compliant uses right now. They are regulated. Um they're just not in compliance with the current ULDC. Okay. Yes, sir. Speaking of wordsmithing. Wordsmithing. But I'm I'm going to reiterate the question that came from the mayor. What's the cost of the third party? I understand we're going to cover that with the 80 proposed, but what if we pass this ordinance and 40 of them said, "We're not doing it anymore." Yeah. We're just going to double the fee to cover the cost? I'd like to know what the cost of the third party is. Well, from what we looked at, um the the couple of third parties that we looked at, they provide more of a an a la carte service. Um for what we're looking at in this the fees that we're looking at um would cover what we're looking for.

I want to know the number. Um right now, we were looking at approximately $300. Um 200 for the permit and 100 for the annual inspection. What's And that's what the consultant's going to cost us? No, that's how much the permit and annual inspection would cost and that would cover the full cost of hiring the consultant. Okay, you're you're not answering my question. How much is the consultant potentially going to cost us? Well, right now, until we get a contract in front of them and we can solidify the the options that we're looking for, we can't get a solid price until we get that information. But it was below the 24,000 that we would collect is from what I remember. If we have 80 properties and they pay $300 a year for this process, that's $24,000. And so, I believe when we chatted, I y'all were less than 24,000. I don't remember the specific number.

But it was less than 24,000. what I'm shooting for. I want to know the number cuz that's the question the mayor asked. And and so So, again if it's less than 24,000 and we have 80 and 40 of them drop off If 40 of them drop off, we're going to have a lot of happy homeowners. Yeah. Well said it's a la carte.

pay for the consultant. If it's a la carte, then if 40 drop off, then you only pay for 40? Yeah. You only pay per I Instead of us speculating what the cost would be, I think it would be best if we come back with a consultant and talk through all those things because it's probably does grow a little bit depending on the service that you're asking them to do. And the other thing is like we just talked about last council meeting, the fees, right? We're talking about for inspection fees and everything. We just raised those up. If you're you're talking $300 to cover say $24,000. Well, how much is it costing us to do also? We have 70 80 inspections. And we have our inspectors going out for 2 hours, 3 hours. That ain't covering it either. So, this needs to be about almost $1,000 to $1,500 a home. $300 ain't going to cover it.

Yeah, we're going to build in the inspection. Yeah, for our We got to build our cost. No, our inspectors our inspectors would not be doing it. It'd be the third party.

The consultant's going to do the health inspection and everything and and do all that stuff. They have the jurisdiction to go look at to do all the structural inspections and everything for three, man. We We've looked at we've at uh technologies that they could use to be successful in this venture and that's what they would be utilizing. I Yeah, please bring them. I'd love to see that. I only mess with my company. So, we have people here signed up. Yeah, we'll go ahead. Yeah. So, now, thank you, Mr. Abram. Uh we're going to go ahead and go and

and do some We have Mr. David Quarter signed up to speak and we have Mrs. Marie Grznowski who's given him who's passing time to Mr. Quarter. Is the Well, I'm just reading how it is here. So, we're going to have Miss Mr. Quarter given time to Mrs. Grznowski. Okay. Good deal. Mrs. Grznowski, you were not going to have 6 minutes and if you would please state your address for record. Marie Grznowski, 4705 Burning Tree, Baytown, Texas. President of Country Club Oaks Civic Association. I hope everyone had a chance to read the article the Country Club Oaks Civic Association shared regarding short-term rentals in Texas towns. I also encourage you to look into additional perspectives on this issue. I've done my own research and reached out to officials in Kingwood, Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, and League City. They offered useful insights and a range of approaches to managing short-term rentals. One key takeaway is that thoughtful regulation takes time. For example, Dallas spent several years from 2019 to 2023 gathering community input conducting research and holding multiple meetings before finalizing its ordinance. This was not a process completed in just a few months. Across the board, these cities treat short-term rentals as businesses and collect hotel occupancy taxes accordingly. I'd also like to share two examples from Country Club that illustrate the real impact short-term rentals have had on a neighborhood. In one case, a property generated

repeated disturbances whenever it was rented. Loud music, excessive noise, cars blocking streets and driveways, insignificant litter left behind including trash, bottles, and even diapers. There were also incidences involving gunfire. The homeowner who stayed on site in a travel trailer did not intervene, leaving law enforcement to manage the situation. In another instance, a large dinner with 20 to 30 guests along with hired staff caused similar disruptions. Parking again blocked access to streets and driveways and large amounts of trash were left behind. Overflowing bins sat on the street for days followed by empty containers left out even longer. This gathering was not held at the host's own home. They brought the impact into our neighborhood and residents were left with the inconvenience and aftermath of the dinner. The cities I spoke with have have taken creative approaches to limit or deny short-term rentals in single-family residential areas and have emphasized the importance of community input. Since the current Baytown proposed regulations were developed without community input, I would like to suggest the following additions to that. Define bed bedrooms strictly based on original house plans. No converting living spaces such as dens, living rooms, or sunrooms into sleeping areas. Limit each property to one rental unit. For example, 5111 Ashwood currently operates two short-term rentals on the property. Implement permit fees, renewal fees, and inspection fees to help offset enforcement and monitoring costs. Clearly define parking rules which you've been talking about, whether limited to driveway or if street parking

is allowed. Require posting of emergency contact numbers, house evacuation routes, and instruction documentation [clears throat] inside the house. Establish clear responsibility for enforcement, including handling violations, suspensions, and revocations. Who is called when there is a violation of the policy? Cap the number of short-term rentals per neighborhood or subdivisions to two to preserve community character. Require background checks for all adult renters. Recognize that Baytown is not a resort destination. And tailor regulations to the typical use and clientele. Provide HOAs and civic associations with an updated list of short-term rental properties, including owner names and contact information. Country Club Oak residents do not want short-term rentals in our single-family residential area neighborhood or in any other single-family neighborhood in Baytown. There are other areas of Baytown that short-term rentals would make a better fit. This could easily be fixed by limiting short-term rentals to mixed-use zoning districts and commercial zoning areas. That would eliminate single-family residential areas. Given the scope and impact of this issue, I strongly recommend postponing any vote on this matter until further research is conducted and additional neighborhoods are notified so residents can provide meaningful input. And talking about where a location would be, I thought about this. And with the new building, I don't know what you want to call it, the ExxonMobil building,

and its proximity to Market Street, that area down there with by the park and everything with those houses would be an ideal spot to have short-term rentals. They could come in, renovate their houses, make them look nice, rent them out, people have access, short access to going to Lee College, getting a basketball game, going swimming, going to the new convention to the new center, ExxonMobil Center. Uh there are bars down there, there is that speak-easy down there, a place to walk. That would be an ideal place instead of putting them into residential areas. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Nora Smith. My concern also is that Well, uh Okay, sorry. Nora Smith, 507 Ashwood. And I think we've had even with long-term rentals had some problems on that street and everything. And as they said, we need to have people be vetted and I hope with the short-term rentals, how can they be vetted? We've had problems with people not being vetted and background check on long-term rentals and there's been problems with that with uh vandalism, theft, even had even had them come somebody come over and pour pour hair dye on the mailbox, that kind of thing. I finally knocked on the door and said, "I will be calling the police because we had teens and preteens unsupervised wandering around the street at night. It it was a problem. My other concern is the uh uh having absentee landlords. That's one of the problems some other cities have is they say, "Okay, here, if you have a problem with this rental place, you can call this

company." And then they just get a you know, a transferred to an out-of-state number and no help at all. I believe on this 5 5111, this uh LLC that you granted the SUP for, is it is he What do you consider local? Do you consider local is somewhere in Texas? Do you consider local the United States? This man here uh Sandeep Doll, I believe his name was. He's listed as being Leander. That's an Austin area. That's not local my viewpoint, maybe it is in yours. He's also listed as being in California. Which is his What What's his location? I mean, is that going to be part of what you um also Do you Are you going to make sure that the person who's renting this is local and available for any issues? It It's just I I think we all know uh and you've got problems like Houston's had problems with theirs uh because uh just just I mean, you see all these kind of problems, you just if you do any kind of looking about this, they they Who's the short-term rentals in Houston? Houston has a big problem because they don't have the zoning that Baytown does. So, they're they're trying to figure out what to do. They have the thing is the rising noise, violent crime, neighborhood disruptions. They Okay, and it's a fest affecting the rental make contributing as they say to a lack of affordable housing. And the You have the problem with monitoring. They They're having the As I said with the calling, they keep getting off out of center call centers when they call somebody calls to complain. And if I had known And if I'd known, I could have given you

more time. I thank you. Thank you. Chet Bease. Hello Mayor and Council. My name is Chet Bease. I live at 211 Post Oak Drive in Lakewood. Um I was not prepared to speak tonight. Didn't even know about this meeting until late this afternoon. I crossed paths with the mayor here at City Council this afternoon in City Hall. Didn't even know this meeting was going on tonight. That the that the short-term rentals was on the agenda. Been talking about it for a long time. It's been an issue in my neighborhood. Heard a number of people throughout the city talk about it. Um But I'm also a real estate appraiser who holds a broker's license. And I can tell you there's a lot of people and I don't quite know that this room is hearing the the noise. People are talking about it. It's out there. Maybe a little bit of undertow, but it's concerning to me that it doesn't seem like it's being really listened to and considered. I know every one of you will probably argue that and I understand that. But it is a real issue. Um Just to come speak this evening, first thing I thought about make a list real quick. One other thing real quick. Um this came to my attention back when Charles was when you were my councilman. We had a meeting here at City Hall with the former city manager. And we were talking about some of these things. It was an issue back in 2000. The reason I know that timestamp-wise was because that's when COVID hit. We had to put that meeting off before we could meet. And that that got lined out. So, we finally did have the meeting and then we added another two properties to that. Just the four already. These These properties are underground. They're not advertising very much. Now, there's some that are on

Vrbo and Airbnb, but there's an awful awful lot of these that are underground. Just like people say, "Well, how do they find out about these?" Well, how do they find out about the houses that are for rent? The word gets out. People get it and it's underground. I don't say it's word of mouth to mouth and neighbor to neighbor, but there's an element of that. I can tell you now there's a lot more than 80-something properties that fall into short-term rentals. I don't want to say it's double that, but it wouldn't surprise me if if it was double that. There's a lot. Um hadn't even Uh to get to a list of issues that things that I've considered, just made a list. First off, destruction of neighborhoods. Cuz I'm not looking I understand these will work fine in most most of a lot of Baytown short-term rentals will probably be fine. There's some neighborhoods and I understand it's not the city's job to enforce deed restrictions. That's given. I understand that. But where those deed restrictions are in line with our zoning of short-term rental I'm excuse me. SF1 time neighborhoods, single-family resid- residential only, I think consideration ought to be made. It's like, okay, City Council, Planning and Zoning, look at where those zoning ordinances match up with the deed restrictions. It's deed restricted on to single-family only and also zoned single-family only. There's been some changes in zoning and that's another topic for another day, but I'm ready to talk about it here real soon because we changed some zones that lack all common sense. I don't have it just a minute longer. You need a minute longer? May Well, hold on.

I'll I'll wrap it up real quick. Well, no, hold on. I need a motion to extend Mr. Extend his time by 1 minute. Second. Thank you guys. All in favor? Aye. Go ahead, you got 1 minute.

I'll try to wrap it up real quick. Uh in reference to those destruction of a neighborhood, it's just a start. And some of our neighborhoods already have some serious image issues and some things undermining neighborhoods. Not that that's in your domain, I mean, but it's issues. We know what you've heard what a nuisance they are in some cases. In fact, just to highlight one in my neighborhood, this took place on Halloween night. I don't know if it was 3 years ago or 4 years ago. Baytown police was called after a gunshot. They don't know if it's a suicide, which is what I I never did hear the final story on it. I don't know if it was a suicide or a murder, but the Baytown police showed up ready for a a murder. And the neighbors none of the neighbors knew how many police cars we had in this town till that happened that evening. Anyway, where I'm going with that is there's a lot of serious issues that come with these things because of a party that was going on at that property. Um my time's up. I've got a lot of other things that I'd like to talk to you guys about, but uh I really do appreciate it. I agree with Mr. Jeznacki. Please put this off. This is It's not this that sophisticated of a conversation. But there's a lot to it. That's it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Good deal. Any other comments? All right. There being no one else desiring to speak, I close this public hearing at 8:15 p.m. Um concerning the proposed text amendment amendment to chapter 111 of the Unified Land Development Code to update regulations for short-term rental operations in residential and mixed-use zoning districts. And now we are on to 4B considering ordinance for a proposed text amendment to chapter 111 Unified Land Development Code of the Baytown Code of Ordinance to revise division 2.3 and 10.2 of the ULDC regarding short-term rental

operations within residential and mixed-use zoning districts. Um Mr. Abram. Yes, Mayor. Anything else? No, I'm That is complete.

Okay. So, what I'm going to uh say is I don't know that we're ready to I believe we need more time. Okay. Uh Ms. Jeznacki, I appreciate your comments and I can agree with what you said and not rushing through this and taking our time. So, um I am going to need a motion, but I am open to receiving a motion to maybe table this or suspend it so that we can have more time to discuss this. 60 days? I'm fine with that. I move to suspend for a minimum of 60 days. I'll move to uh Let's see. That's May. By the second bring it back by the second meeting in June. That's got 60 days. Well, you know, one of the things we discussed and one of what I heard from our constituents was getting that community input. Within that 60 days, are we able to put something together to get that community input? Maybe we can do a workshop or something.

What are you trying to achieve? Just hearing from the community to see what [clears throat] what they would like and If they say ban it, are we going to ban it?

Well, that's that's where I was getting to. We can actually have conversation about They may suggest something. It It may not It may or may not be legal. Okay. But the only way we're going to know that is if we have dialogue with them and city attorney can advise us on some things. Okay. What are we doing outside of that in the 60 days? There was no consensus gathered on what you want to change in the ordinance. I'm not really clear on what we want either. I know we want more time, but I That's actually I was going to ask for clarification. What What are we asking staff to do? Are we asking them to amend this or are we asking them to come back Like I I don't even know what we're asking at this point other than we want more time.

was asking for more time so that they could come and tell us I like some of the points that she made, to be honest with you. Mhm. Um I don't know if anyone was taking notes on it, but that would give them an That would give them an opportunity to voice to voice their concerns for us to hear. Mhm. And then staff can go back, work work it, word smith it, whatever, bring it back to us and we can say, "Okay, we like this or we don't like it." and get it approved. We have 60 days. It's going to be four meetings. I believe we can put some time aside in a workshop or bring it back for discussion in the meeting. Um we are actually only having one meeting in May because of graduation.

going to go ahead and have two. Graduation's going to be the week before. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Um and and I think we already had um Mr. Powell mentioned some of the things that he wanted to hear, which is something that we can wait for. Um Yeah, I'd like to hear from I'd I'd like to hear from one of these consultants kind of understand like what do they typically do Right. with cities. I I I do hear y'all on things, but one member asking to hear something does not give me direction on what council wants. And so I would need four of you to agree on what you want so that we know what we are bringing back. And I'm not trying to push back. I'm just trying to get clarity

bring it back for discussion so that we can hear from them and then we can give direction from there on what we want to have brought back within a 60-day period. So, we're just having an open Q&A with the same ordinance that's currently in place. No. No, I That's that's what I'm seeking clarity on.

all want to see what the consultant's offering, what that cost is going to be, how we're going to incur what they can and cannot enforce if it's something that is can't even be done. Well, why would we do that if we're not even accepting this ordinance? I don't Because why do why would I accept the ordinance if I don't know how much the cost is going to be and if they can even enforce the ordinance? Council, if it's it's not May with regard to any discussion with a consultant who is not currently under contract, I would ask you to avoid that. I think staff can probably come up with information for you in that regard, but uh I would ask that you uh avoid hearing from any potential vendors until we're ready to bring a contract to you. Okay. Yeah, cuz I think y'all can you can get some of the kind of the parameters what they offer, kind of a brochures and how that's all going to come together. You can put something together for us. On that part? We We already have that information. That's what we used to come up with the pricing and the

we can see with the brochure kind of seeing, "Hey, this is what they're going to offer. This is all this all everything they're offering." I already answered the question. Well, um Mayor, if I may. And Mr. City Attorney, I don't know if this is what you were uh alluding to. If we look at one flyer or brochure, I mean, this is something that would potentially need to bid. And so we can't just be targeting one particular vendor. mean one flyer. I mean, you can kind of look at all You can look at six flyers and kind of put a presentation together on your city on the city's behalf saying this is what things can be offered and based on that. [clears throat]

I I think staff can put something together for you without running a foul of any procurement requirements. Okay. And then going back to this, there were some things that we clearly said we didn't like. Some things said that we were open to. Readjust it. Bring it back to us. That'll give them an opportunity to get more citizens to show up and be involved where they can hear and we can get some feedback. Yes, sir. I I do understand that. I'm just not I'm trying to clarify what exactly you're getting feedback on other than just having an open Q&A session. We're getting feedback on the things that Some of the things that she mentioned, I liked it. I I would want to see if that's even possible. We We clearly said there were some things in here we didn't like because it was going to be too stringent or is unenforceable.

Yes, sir. Right? Yes, sir. So, redo it. Bring it back to us so we can discuss it.

But that's my question to y'all. Y'all did not give a consensus on what you don't agree with. Yeah, that So, yeah, I feel like we can go list, Mayor. Like Yeah, because when you're you're you're saying that I'm really not clear on who liked what. I know there was things about parking, things about but I didn't I could tell that it looked like we didn't as a group support this, but I didn't know where we wanted to go either. And then as far as community involvement, there I don't know what we're doing that either because there's been I mean, um Mr. Theis talked about being here 6 years ago and talking about this and Well, whatever we talked about it 6 years ago, we were basically told we couldn't do anything with short-term rentals. So, that that's why it didn't go anywhere. Uh now that we want to clear goal for what we're doing. Yeah, well, let's go around and say the things that we did or didn't like to give them some direction. Um I don't know if we can put it back, please. The ordinance. Yeah. And and I don't know if we're spinning our wheels here or really ironing out what we really want. Um I I've already met I already brought up the only thing that I I just think that we're allowing too many cars, but um other than that, Too many cars.

issues. I mean, I would I agree with Councilman uh Powell that I would like to see more of the figures and things that the contract consultant would really be able to do. Um if this is what the consultant will do, then I don't know if we need to bring it back. So, I'm just That's where I'm at, Mr. Mayor. Mike, some of the things that you mentioned, would you go back over some of those?

Sure. And and I I would like to see us have an open work session with the actual proposed ordinance so I can see what's specifically in there. Cuz again, I'm looking at the chart that you provided and the bottom one says property limitations, deed restrictions, covenant rules and and then and then the comment is, "Well, we're going to encourage them to do that." I want to see the code. I want to have a work session that shows me the code. Cuz that's that's what we we're going to have to use to make it enforceable.

Yes, sir. And if and if it's like, "Well, it's really it it's in there, but we're just recommending." That's that's not a code. Um So, again, my concerns were sound monitoring, how we're going to do that. I agree with the with the the um I can't think of what Mr. Nowski. Mr. Nowski's comment, it needs to be real clear, who's going to enforce this? Mhm. Which is goes back to it's unenforceable. A third party administratively consultant can't enforce it. They could probably send it over to us and say, "Well, they're in violation." And that's it. Okay. So, we could have

1,300 employees. Who's going to go out there and enforce that? And if it if it comes back to staff, well, that's an extra burden on staff. So, but we need to be aware of that. Do we then ask to write an ordinance to ban air That that's what I'm asking is like if we I think we'll get in trouble if we try to ban it. ban it. That's where I was where I was trying to explain it and I can't find the words tonight. I agree with what we're over enforcing.

to go through the code and say, "Here's Here are the changes. We're changing X to Y, W to Z." And we can say, "Well, well, you know, that part we don't agree with or agree with listening to our our citizens, our constituents out there in general, and coming back. We have one council member who's concerned about the number of vehicles. I I think the rule is is too tight. Um So, and then the two inspections, we have a permit inspection and then we have a safety inspection. I I think that's too stringent. Let's have a inspection, annual inspection that that covers all that. Is that written specifically in the code or is it two separate inspections?

So, yeah, cuz you The cost. Again, I know we can't hammer the cost down specifically, but we should be able to see a chart of here's here's a menu of items that if we get the consultant to do this, it costs us approximately X. So, we know. I mean, that's we get Oh, man, I'm going to get in trouble here. We we make decisions on information that's provided. I don't have enough information. And it's tough to make that decision. Yeah, cuz I mean, looking at what you're saying about the the the rule right here like seven it says [clears throat] the property owner and or property management must comply with the following rules. It then says that 7D the owner is responsible, right? But then you go to 7G says the use of interior monitoring device is encouraged to help ensure compliance. But it's saying that at the top the following rules you you're kind of grace a little bit there. So, again, I I'd like a work session we can walk through those sections one by one. Yes, sir. Yeah, Council, I'm a little confused. Um I I know you I know you didn't get the um It was available in the packet. This this draft because uh Calvin and I have been working on it, but Exhibit A to the staff report is this document. So, the changes should be available in Exhibit A. The document was provided. I didn't didn't mean to mislead that. That was provided, but I think a verbal workshop working through this so we can cuz we feed on each other's questions sometimes. I might read something think, "Oh, that's okay." My colleague may bring up a concern that and all of a sudden it brings up concern for me as well.

Mhm. We just had that open discussion though. I mean, there was really not very many questions from this dais on this item. Well, I'm not going to say it wasn't very many questions. I think it was. Um I have an issue with the property limitations. I have a issue with the occupancy.

it right now? Yes. I mean, can't we just amend it? I If we go and we do a workshop and we do all this I I just y'all just need more time. Is that just to amend what's on here because there's only like a couple options. We amend what we see to the things that we like or we don't like or we are saying we don't want an ordinance at all and we get a bunch of SUPs and we go from there and or we ban air bnb short-term rentals. I feel like there's like three big ticket items we can do. I think it's two. I don't think we're going to ban short-term rentals because we'll it may come back on us. Um So, workshop to amend to to discuss each item and then amend

better understanding of what we can and can't do. Okay. This was uh just for for the council, this was actually meant as a workshop item today uh only because the workshop before this was 2 hours Mhm. and we're book solid for the next few months. And so, we were trying to put it in the council agenda just as a open discussion. Um Just so y'all know, that's how booked we are with like things y'all We're going to have if we want to do this in June, we're probably going to need to start around 4:00 to have another workshop on this to do um a another discussion. This has already been an hour.

It has. So, what about a jet future agendas? Are we booked up on future agendas? Not on future agendas, Mayor. No, this we just put it on this one because we we already knew that workshops are going to be Y'all had asked us to bring this back uh by May and so we didn't have a place to put it on the workshops and so we brought it into the agenda. Got you. I think to appease my colleagues and if they want to give it some more thought, um I would be okay tabling it for 60 days and see if we get any further on this. I'm okay with all that. I just need to know if staff needs to do anything in between. That's the that's the only clarity I'm seeking. I'm I'm happy to do whatever y'all want. I just need to know if the team needs to work on anything.

Mhm. Would it we have by before the agenda is created to submit anything for this agenda item? From the citizens? From From us. From us. Like if there's something that we want to amend or add or change or if Mr. Powell is able to get information or we're all able to get information, any [clears throat] further information on then we can just come to you during our agenda our Yes, ma'am.

before the agenda is set and give our recommendations. Okay. Do y'all trust me to use my judgment to if you have four or not? I trust you. Okay. Would My questions are just going to be around what does this look like to actually I if we pass it tonight, what happens tomorrow? Like how do we how do we enforce it? That that's the question I'd like to have more clear clarity around.

I I will give y'all my experience of the consulting firm that will probably be used if if this goes forward. What they do and Calvin and talked about the use of digital. It most of it is done from a desk. Okay? Almost every piece of it is done from a desk. The they look at the pictures that are posted online. They see if the fire extinguishers in the photos. They see if the the the maps on the door. They see if you have a parking if you have a garage or parking spaces. Almost all of it is done online. So, no one comes out at all?

I'm I'm not saying that. I'm I'm giving you past experience on that's why the cost is so cheap. Right? To Mr. Franco's point, how are you able to do this for, you know, $300 a unit and do inspections because he's right, it costs more than that for our workers to do an inspection. So, majority of this stuff is done online. And it's um I don't know what the consulting firm even is. The the crux of the permit is because all of that is done, by and large, at the very beginning of the permitting process. Okay? I'm not saying that nobody goes and checks for life safety in the house. I'm not saying that. But a majority of it is done from they apply online. They say, "Here's a photo of my house. Here's the photo of the interior. Here's how many rooms I have. Um does it meet the requirements? Does it have If it's a three-bedroom home, does it have two-car garage and two cars in it in the driveway? It meets the parking limitations. Um does it have three bedrooms? Okay, on your permit says you can only have eight people in the house." That's what the that's how it goes. And then they get a permit. After they get a permit, if any complaints come in, right? It's for staff to still go out and it it's for PD actually to go out and address the complaints. It's not for anybody else because when they call, it's a 911 call, by and large, to complain about something and PD goes and check it checks it just like you would a house party, right? That's what what happens. The administrative stuff on the PDS side is just getting the permit issued. I don't know if that answers your question or not. I know there's more to your stuff, but that's That's the general rundown. And and Mayor, if I can add to that Again, this is why we should be able to go through this the section five A says [clears throat] that they have to make arrangements to schedule a fire marshal's inspection of the property for the initial That's the

life safety one I was saying. Or or or his designee. Or his day Well, obviously or his designee. And then in seven, you know, residential character talks about the property owner's responsible for complying with all applicable rules, covenants, and restrictions of any homeowner HOA or similar subdivision of management organization. Again, that's I'm leery of enforcing deed and HOA. That's a slippery slope for us to get into. So, again, that's why if we have a work session, we go through this I think we could resolve for staff as we go through these. Nope, I'm not going to go with that. Nope, I have concerns here. Um reinspections, there's an inspection fee. What the Again, let's let's make sure we're aware what the fees are going to be. Um revocation issues, you know, okay, so the they could have their permit revoked if they're not following all these rules and regulations. So, if they're not complying with HOA or they they're going to get their permit revoked? That's not appropriate for us. We we should not be involved with that. And that's what I keep going back to. It's like it's it's inferred in this time. We have to make sure we get this clean if we're going to do it. And if if the rest of council's okay with that and we want to bring it back to a work session just to go line out of my line out of my like Mr. Lester's suggesting, we can do that. I just need to know what council wants as a whole to do. That's all I was asking. That's it. So, my team is telling me we can possibly get this in on to an early work session for June 11th. Um and that will be the the one where it was come back and we would go line by line from this. And so, there's I'm just clarifying there's no expectation for PDS to go do any additional work at this point. Other than maybe Help to be bringing more info on how the inspection process works works out. I I would like to see at that work session addressing the constituents what they're asking for, what we can do, what we

can't do, and why we can't do it. To to Right.

Understand that to what extent? Like everything that everybody wants or are there a few things that we need to look at? Um based on what was what was presented to us by our constituents. Okay. Okay, so there's a lot of questions about um what other cities have done and what they're expecting for us. I want those those concerns addressed and what they think we could do versus what we can actually do and why we can't do it. Okay. Does does that make I think it's it's a little kind of like what we and you were talking about today. Right. And then we This is This is what we could do. And we had a we had a good discussion. We talked about and brought up some legal cases. Right. So, we're still we we kind of I understand. Right. I think that's what we're saying.

that addressed. Some of that's also been discussed at the P&Z meetings in great length. There's [clears throat] been two P&Z meetings. Um and so, that's also a resource that we can give some of the citizens that that they can see some of those questions answered already. Yeah, there's But but there there seems to be a uh an opinion that when you know, we're not getting the best I'm not not to say we are and I I believe we are, but we're not getting the best legal advice. But we want to show them, hey, this is why we can't do it legally. Uh if to address certain issues. Well I think we're getting phenomenal legal But what makes sense

I want I [laughter] want to keep going forward. You know, the biker's got the biker business. I I feel that [clears throat] I I don't know if that Well, some of it could be a legality. Some of some of them, but on the others, those are the wants of a neighborhood. Mhm. I mean some of the things are the wants of a neighborhood that we can't go in there and say, "No, you can't have this." Or yeah, we're going to do it um because we have another other neighbors and maybe they're okay with it or they don't care about it. So, um and and not to discredit the members that have come here and you know, I applaud them for coming and they've been very consistent and I truly appreciate that. But I haven't seen a widespread need for further regulation. And if there is, maybe this next work section work session would give us that. And so, are we tailoring everything on one particular area? I don't I don't think we're tailoring everything to one particular area. Uh the people who show up help make decisions. I understand that.

And these individuals show up, we post the meetings, other people have the opportunities to show up, but most people don't show up unless it's a nuisance or something that's negatively affecting them. Um and we went through that in 2017 with the with the annexation. And the people who did show up we made a decision not to annex them cuz they showed up and spoke up. And now we're hearing back from other people on the on the other issue who didn't show up back then. So, the people who show up, they help make the decision. And um um I'm not going to say that we're tailoring it for one neighborhood, but we're hearing from citizens and we're making our decisions based off of the ones that we hear from. Which is why I mentioned that could be done in the workshop that Mr. Lester mentioned. Bless you. So, we're going to have a workshop, we're going to go line by line looking at everything and then make a decision on June 11th. That's it. Can it be in a workshop and then or they'll need more time to redo the ordinance? You can amend the ordinance. You can amend it. If you amend it, could we vote on it that night too on June 11th? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Everybody agree? Yeah, we're done. All right. Well, that was fun. So, We got a we still got a motion on the table. Yes. The motion is to suspend to the second no later than the second meeting in June. Second. That's the June 11th, right? June 11th. Well, no later than the second meeting in June. No later. Second. Were you seconding it or what? Yes, I was seconding. Okay. I. I. I. Any opposed? No, motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Calvin. At the request of the applicant, 4C and 4D have been pushed. We are now on to discussions. 5A discussion regarding

closed session agenda items, Mr. Kendrick Griffith. Um I know it's getting kind of late. Do we Is there a way we could push this discussion for another time? Um or is there another time we can? Are y'all y'all okay with going on? I'm here. I'm okay with it. Y'all okay? Okay. Um First of all, I want to thank Jason Reynolds for um putting this discussion item on the agenda. Just a brief discussion. I'm going to try to keep it brief. Want to discuss the way we we um we post our executive session and closed session items. Um as I looked it up, TML allows us uh a little leeway to to post these sessions to where um the language is rather broad. Um but I was wanting to see how council felt about um posting closed session items in a manner that's more uh specific, especially when it applies to our litigations. Um TML record, you know, recommends best practices uh for transparency and um public trust to post the nature of litigations. For example, you know, the city versus Jane Doe. Or um economic development to be the language to be more pointed. Um I believe uh posting the nature of our uh executive sessions could help bolster transparency. I know the city's done a phenomenal job over the years of the last year um providing a transparency piece. And I think this is a step towards that, building trust, building the building the public trust with uh

with how we uh publicize our closed meetings. I also want to hear from our our city attorney what we can and cannot do. Again, this is something that uh you know, TML you know, they they recommend that most cities are doing it this way we have our uh our school district, they kind of they um post the nature of their meetings. Um I know we do you know, when we talk about real property, we uh we actually I've noticed that it's listed on our agenda that they're supposed to real property. Uh our our economic development uh closed sessions, I'd like to see that a little bit more pointed. What economic in in terms of what? Is it to our hotel? Is it uh marketplace, what have you? So, I just want to open the floor for discussion on that and uh see how uh sta- how council of like to move forward with posting closed sessions our closed sessions in a manner that uh really helps our public trust. So, I'll turn it over to hear from my colleagues and legal. Maybe. Any comments? Any questions? Mr. City Attorney, could you uh um give us some input on what the implications would be if we were to be more appointed in Councilman Griffith's words in how we list our work executive session items. So, I think in order to provide an accurate answer, we'd have to discuss those items specifically. There's not a one-size-fits-all answer. Uh the the first item that Councilmember

Griffith had brought up was litigation. Mhm. Um Remember, there there two kinds of things we discuss when we talk about litigation. We talk about pending cases and and if the desire of council is to name pending cases that we're going to discuss, I I have no problem with that. The the second uh type of matter that we discuss is contemplated litigation. Um It is very very important that when we discuss contemplated litigation, it is not disclosed in any public manner because that would lead to us definitely getting sued when we're wondering whether we're going to get sued or it's going to interfere with our tra- our trial strategy when we think someone has done us harm. Um the other things that we discuss once we get back there are strategy issues that I would never want to discuss strategy issues related to either pending or contemplated litigation in public. So, that is uh and and I will go back and say, remember that these are based on privileges that exist in the law. So, the way the public information I'm sorry, the the open meetings act is written to allow us to do these closed sessions is based on existing law regarding attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, investigatory privilege, um and also attorney ethics requirements. So,

since this is kind of a long answer, to recap, I have no problem disclosing the names of pending litigation in our uh agenda. I would not disclose any information about contemplated litigation and I would not disclose any information about strategy. With regard to economic development, um the answer is similar. Um There are some matters that we discuss in economic development that are uh general and and will not harm us to to name something like you know, consider building a sports facility. Um When we start to identify specific items, uh we one run the risk of uh having other cities uh win those economic development items. We run the risk of offending our partners who have provided proprietary confidential trade secret information and remember those things are privileged and confidential under the law and disclosing even the name of those partners before a deal is done can subject us to liability. Um often times our discussions about economic development involve contract terms, which I would never disclose publicly until contract is has been executed by the parties and approved by City Council.

Uh often times in economic development negotiations, we have to discuss the purchase of real property and uh if that type of information is out in the public, it would inevitably lead to us spending a lot more to purchase property as land speculation uh starts to increase uh based on what people might have gathered from our our meetings. And that leads, of course, to discussions of real property. Uh I I won't go back and reiterate that, but that's the reason the real property uh uh confidentiality provisions exist. Um I'm not sure if I addressed everything you brought up, Councilmember Griffith, but those are the big ones. Right. And then and I do understand what you're talking about with real property real real property and how it's you know, how it's listed even tonight on tonight's agenda. I have no I have no issue with that. And and that reminds me, remember, we always take action in public session. We allow for public debate. We allow for citizen input. So, for example, when we are discussing a real estate deal in a closed session, we don't consummate the transaction until later on in a public meeting. And I and I do understand all that and we don't want to um in terms of litigation, talk strategy. You know, we don't want that language in the executive session, but just a general layout of what case we are talking about. I do hear what you're saying about contemplated litigation. That's something we don't want to put out

there. Um uh just if there's avenues where we could be more transparent um without um divulging sensitive information we don't want the public public, you know, to hear or get in the wrong ears. Uh I think whatever we could do as a as a council would be in in the the best interest of building public trust and transparency. Staff is happy to go back, reevaluate legal department, city manager's office, and city clerk's office uh on on ways to to tweak that agenda. Something else that came to mind and I don't know if you mentioned this, but personnel matters are discussed uh in executive session unless at the sole discretion of the employee uh is discussed in public session. Uh typically, when we talk about non-management level employees, we do not name those employees in our agendas, although we might refer to a position uh with respect to management level employees and public officials, uh we either disclose the name of individual or the individual's title. Uh and that is per the Attorney General's uh uh opinions uh in regard to how an agenda is created for a personnel matter. Thank you. Anybody else got anything? Yes, Mayor. Yes, sir. This is a maybe a little bit off topic. If it is, you can cut me off quick. I I have no problems with the way we do executive sessions at this time or or post executive sessions. I would like a consensus of this council to

have a review of how we get items on the agenda. No. Um I'm not upset with the city manager. I'm not upset with my colleague, but we have procedures that we've all agreed to to get things on the agenda. Um I'm a little concerned that as an individual council member, there are issues sometimes that I'd like to have on the agenda, but I know it's not going to go go well with my colleagues and so I let it ride or I visit with you to try to convince you as Mayor to put those on there. So, I I just like to go back and reaffirm our processes and I'll be quite clear. If if Councilman Griffith had come to me and said, "Hey, I want to talk about this." I'd have signed it as a member of three to get it on the agenda. But for an individual council member to request it and I'm not upset with Jay, but I am scolding him a little bit. Um that it should have been absolutely get two more members of council. And again, I would have signed the the request cuz I I think it's about it has value to discuss it. But I'm I'm a little concerned about the process. And I just want to reaffirm what our process is. And and I I want to step in there uh because it was something that I I I brought up to the city manager and he decided to put it on here. So um I hear what you're saying and and and uh it's noted, but um it wasn't I wasn't thinking it was something that I was going to throw it on the agenda like that, but here we are. So um I hear what you're saying. Uh but And and I'm I'm a The city manager does have discretion to put on the And and I'm willing to

to put things on the agenda for discussion purposes of whether I agree with them or not cuz I I agree with our ability to do that, but we have a process and I'd like this to stay a little more attuned to that process. Well, part of the process is the city manager is allowed to put things on the agenda. I I I I had the conversation with Jay also. And um my question was how does it get on the and he told me how it happened and um I'm not scolding you at all. No, it's but I received. It's okay. I I was just what how how did this get here?

seven bosses. It it is. It is. And if we can if we can send something out reminding of the process three council members mayor or city manager um when I when he told me he put it on, I said, "Okay, that's fine. I have nothing to say about it cuz it it went that way, but I did ask that question not trying to scold you. No, it's okay if you are. It's fine.

No, I'm not. Uh but um it was a discussion item. It was a concern for you. You put it on. Yes, sir. I'm going to say thank you for doing it cuz now we have clarification on why we cannot list some of these things on here because it would actually hurt the city. It would hurt us in negotiations. Yes, sir. And that's one thing we don't want. We're out here looking for We're out here looking out for the city to do the right thing to get the best deal. This is what this what we're here to do. So um Thank you, city I have a question. Once you're finished with your comments then Thank you. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney for putting that out there so everyone will hear if there is will if there was any doubt is now they know why we don't list things verbatim when we're going to um I I also just got one thing to say is is you know, we had a an agenda item put on a month ago. A staff worked with one city councilman to put councilwoman to put uh an agenda item on because so this is this isn't anything that's out of the ordinary.

It's not. So I I I really Yes, I know. That's what my comment was going to be. So um because if I remember correctly, it's either three the mayor or the city manager. Um and so again, that's what I was going to mention is like I had an agenda item put on and now Jay could have said, "No, I don't think this is pertinent." and I would have been okay with that. Um or I could have just said, "I disagree. I'm going to get two signatures or I'm going to get with the mayor." So I I have no problem with it going to Jay and he having that discretion of whether he's going to put it on or not. I'll I'll just I was going to say I just made the assumption that because he professionally speaks to all of us all the time that he just said, "Well, you know, it's probably something we should put on the agenda and and discuss." I didn't Well, that's again, [clears throat] that's some of the the the burden we put on this guy. I can go visit with him four days a week and then emphatically stress certain issues that I'd like to see on the agenda. And I'm sure as being one of his bosses he would probably acquiesce and put it on the agenda. But that's not fair to him. We have a process that if if an individual wants council member wants something on the agenda, we get two others to say, "Hey, yeah, we support putting it on the agenda." Again, whether I agree or disagree with what it is, give me a call sometime. But that's not fair to Jay because now I'm going, "Okay, he and I have talked about several issues. I don't see them on the agenda and we're going to have that conversation."

I look forward to our next conversation, Mr. Lester. Yes, I'm sure you do. [laughter] So So again, that's sometimes we got to realize that man's got seven bosses and he does everything he can to give us what we want. But we have to discipline ourselves to stay in the rules. Well, I didn't see him getting

we we were we were within the rules. No, I didn't see him get getting what someone wants. I thought if he thought this was a valid discussion as city manager for all of this maybe over the course of four years of these heard several of us mention it and thought, "Oh, well." So I'll I'll jump in real quick. We were within the city council rules. So um Mr. Lester, I appreciate the scolding. I appreciate the words uh of understanding of of what's happening as well. Uh Mayor, I appreciate the comments that we've had discussing this getting stuff on as well. I Your voices are heard. Um when things get on, I am using my best judgment from where I think it's going to go with council if there's going to be a lot of blowback. If there's going to be um I think I'm very I I know I'm very honest with y'all when y'all bring something and I said, "Hey, you probably need to go find two members to talk about those things." Um I I greatly appreciate Mr. Lester's uh point on like follow the council process and keep me out of the the the fray. I really appreciate that. Um the the other piece of that that I want to publicly acknowledge um Mr. Griffith and I have had a different relationship than a lot of the other members on this board, okay? And Mr. Griffith and I have been working together to try to build a better relationship and I want to publicly like say that. And so part of this piece is trying to work with y'all well. I work with all of y'all. And I work with all of y'all a lot. And I am trying to do my best when there are um perceived to Mr. Lester's point having seven bosses is very challenging

because over time it seems things are skewed from your views. Um if I'm if I'm appear to be favoring one member over other members or group of members over the whole council. And um Mr. Griffith and I have had those conversations before and trying to find things that I know will be discussion items that can go. I'm using judgment to see if they can go on there, but also try to mend relationships and have better working relationships with all of you, okay? And this was one of those instances. And if the council wants to go and like, "Hey, we only are going to do this and stay away from the city manager's office for putting something on the agenda." I fully respect that. I I really do. And I do appreciate that because it does take it when I put something on like this, it appears as some kind of political aspect and puts me in the political arena and I I think that's what Mr. Lester was getting at uh from that piece and I understand that. Um but a lot of this was also trying to mend relationships with the council member. Yeah, you know, that's fine. We're adults. I mean I'm not going to say you have seven kids, you have seven bosses. They can act like kids from time to time and grumpy old men. grumpy old men

[laughter]

Um some of us older, some of us younger. And women And women. I'm in individuals is what I will say. And uh I don't I mean, I think that's kind of remedial and elementary to say you would have a favorite to be honest with you. I mean I I'm not saying that I don't have an issue with how things are put on. I think it's done fairly because I would probably say something if you're putting something on the agenda every agenda item every every meeting and you're doing two or three things from two or three different council members, then you know, come on, man. We need to slow down on that. But that's not happening and I can respect that you took the time to listen to a council member and put something on and I think other council members would appreciate it if it was something near and dear to their heart that you found um [clears throat] worthy enough to get on there. So again, thank you. Thank you for the discussion. And we are going to move on to proposed resolutions. 6A, consider a resolution granting the petition for the proposed annexation of approximately 2.0 202.48 acres of land located on the north and south sides of Battlebell Road and the east side of John Martin Road and sections of Battlebell and Jones Road, Mr. Calvin. That should be west side. Thank you, Mayor. What you have before you is a proposed annexation as the Mayor identified the parameters of this um annexation. Uh it's approximately 202 acres. Um staff is bringing this before you for a request to move forward with the uh service plan. Um and that concludes my presentation. Good deal. Any questions or comments?

Mr. Mayor. Um before you all deliberate, the city manager brought to my attention that the item and the proposed ordinance say east side of John Martin, it should be west. So, that I I would ask that whoever makes a motion uh amend it to uh refer to the west side of John Martin Road. Can I just reread it? Or you can do it later. when the motion is made. Okay. Good deal. Any questions or comments? Remember when you do this is the west side as Ice Cube would say and not the east side. [laughter]

You got to Yeah, you got to do it right. You got to physically do it. West side? West side. Okay. There you go. I can't do it. I got to physically turn my fingers. Turn your fingers. I can't do it. You're in the '90s. I mean, that's I'm in the '90s, but I can't I got to physically do it. But you don't have uh 20-year-old hands anymore. [laughter]

You know what? I can still do this. I can still do this. Grumpy. Now I can't get that whole album out of my head. Okay. Um I need a motion. Motion to approve item 6A on the west side of John Martin Road. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carried. You said nay? Yeah. So, we have on record one nay. Yeah. Good deal. Okay. Consent agenda. We will move into consent agenda um items A through I. Anyone wish to pull anything? Good deal. I need a motion.

Motion to approve items 7A through I. All in favor? Second. Up. I'm trying, y'all. I need a second. We got a Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now, we are on to manager's report, Mr. Jason Reynolds.

Mayor and council, thank you. Four members of our PDS team recently earned their ICC certifications. Lorena Portillo, Stephanie Blanchet, Alex Yilmaz, and Dallas Edwards. Congrats and thank you for your commitment to serving our community. And I like the photos with the tree. That's pretty great. Good stuff. Our uh the city of Baytown has been recognized as a tourism friendly Texas certified community. This program highlights our commitment to growing tourism as a key driver of economic impact. Our focus is on creating meaningful connections to our public spaces, programs, and events, enhancing quality of life for residents while improving the visitor experience. We will continue promoting the unique assets that make Baytown special. Congratulations to our team and community for this achievement. Fantastic photo with There you are. And just Are they going to Texas Travel Alliance, Cliff? What's that? Okay. So, Baytown will be mentioned there, just FYI. They're going to do a presentation about the things we're doing in Baytown. Uh and Jeff Williams is going to uh do a whole thing about that. So, more people knowing about Baytown. All right. Three of our departments were recently recognized during National Telecommunicators Week, National Library Week, and Community Development Week, as well as Fair Housing Month. I want to thank each of these teams for their incredible work they do every day. Our organization wouldn't be what it is without your dedication and commitment. So, um please spread our thanks and thank you um for putting all this together and uh it's great to see. So, thanks, everybody. Sterling Beaver presented at the Design Build Institute of America last week. He joined the Carollo and BGE teams to share insights with the Bayway East Surface Water Treatment Plant expansion. Uh so, thank you for representing our organization, Sterling. And Ser- Sterling also had a uh a big week as well. We did the the groundbreaking uh for our Bayway East. And uh thank you for the council uh showing up for that groundbreaking. And I hope uh Sterling and the rest of the

public works team is excited to to what's going on with that. So, thank you. [snorts] Uh Mr. Lesser, do you want to read this one? Household Hazardous Waste. [laughter]

Okay. The Household Hazardous Waste event was a great turnout with 69 tires collected and 278 vehicles coming through. A big thank you to everyone involved who helped make this event a success. And I'll I'll add to it. I was there from about 10:15 to 10:45. They'd already done over 100 vehicles and the line was around the block. The only negatives that I heard from folks was it just took forever. And it's kind of that is a good thing cuz it was such a successful event. So, again, kudos to the public works crews and the crews that were there working it. Um it was well received. There was a few disconnects between what we put out on the flyer and in the webpage and what was actually posted on the signs on site. But staff worked through that quite well, calmed everybody's concerns and took care of took care of everybody. So, it was well attended. If If y'all haven't gone to one of those, you need to next time they have it, go by and see. Again, it was around the block from NASA Road. There was probably 60 cars in queue the whole time. Thank you, sir. Uh we also had the ExxonMobil Baytown Event Center public meeting last week. It was very well attended. Uh the community received a presentation from our consulting team and then participated in multiple feedback activities. There is a survey for those that were unable to make it. You can find the survey on baytown.org uh /imbec. We want to hear from as many of our residents as we can as we go through this process. Thank you to all of the staff that made the public meeting happen. And thank you to the residents and council for showing up and uh getting involved. Um I'm told we had 165 total people there, around 165 total people there with uh 117 of those being residents. Um they were active. They did um uh

take part or they did engage with the the the little exercises. And uh we will bring that back to council. And uh we have another public meeting, I believe, in July. July. Um and we will continue to do outreach and discuss uh imbec as this moves forward. So, Mayor and council, that's all I have. Good deal. Before we go into the district

oh, sorry. I do want to um Baytown Voice magazine is out. Uh please go check it out. There's a lot of great information on building a greener Baytown, uh a ton of great info on what's happening in the parks department, uh and all of the uh um green spaces that we have around Baytown. And a big thank you to the public affairs team and everybody that's involved with putting this together. That's it. We're going to receive a a report from council member District 1, Ms. Laura Alvarado. I was sitting back here If you're going to do your library bit. [laughter]

It's not a bit, it's a lot. I well, it's amazing. I love the library, but that's why I was just kind of waiting. Um so, I'm just going to run through these. I know it's getting late. Um so, I'm just going to go through some of the new uh business development going on in District 1. Um obviously, we all know about the um uh Fire Station 2. Uh many of you have seen uh a lot of the trees that are coming down. We did have to do some additional uh retention um um out this way. Um but I have been assured that as we remove trees, we'll find other areas to put additional trees. So, um so, hopefully, we can get that project uh completed soon. Uh area homeless uh services, um you know, that's well underway. And you know, we've been issuing the permits to that for them to continue their construction. They're at 3404 Wisconsin. Um St. Joseph Catholic um church is being remodeled. They're at 1907 um Carolina Street. And they're working to get it back to its original historic area. I want to thank Mike um for for him uh working on uh ensuring that we get the permits processed and bringing in those to light. So, I appreciate you. Uh the Baytown Primary Medical Center at 2802 Garth Road. Um Rolling Brook Center 1901 Rolling Brook uh Drive Building A. Uh Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church continues um to move forward. And of course, our new City of Baytown Traffic Control Building right over here at 2123 uh Market Street Suite or Unit C. We have been selected to host the Veterans Judo um USA tournament on August the 29th at the Baytown Community Center. So, we're hoping to get uh maybe

about 80 room nights over at the Hyatt. That's going to be part of this programming. Um Baytown recently welcomed a regional cat show um that was hosted um it was hosted by the International Cat Association at the Hyatt Regency Baytown Houston and it um was supported by our parks and rec and tourism team which resulted in 103 hotel room nights and Texas Parks and Wildlife's March 2026 survey of the Buddy McBride McBride boat ramp found higher recreational use with 15 groups observing 13 15 groups observed 13 fishing so anglers visiting from eight counties and 65 fish caught across seven species indicating strong regional use and continued productive fishing activity. The community center continues to experience strong participation and engagement across wide range of programs and for the second consecutive month you can go see Ballet Folklorico who continues to maintain a high um enrollment and this group will actually also perform at the upcoming Dollar Taco Night at Town Square. and um I've already talked about fire station two and so they're working in the coming weeks to shift excavation and soil sampling along with grading and stabilizing the building pad so more to come on station two so that's all I have thank you. Good deal I'm going to I want to say something about something I saw this morning at about 8:30 no had to be about between 8:45 and 9:00 this morning I was driving down Alexander

Road headed to a meeting and I saw an officer with two individuals in a car. Now I got the I didn't stop to get the name cuz I was running late but I did get the license plate of the vehicle the officer was driving and I just want to say I was proud to see what I was seeing this officer was actually changing someone's tire. He would he had taken the time to stop change your tire and was getting ready to be about on his way but I've heard the stories about officers doing things like that and it was the first time I got to witness it first hand and it made me proud to see it happening first hand. So Chief I'll I'll give you that license plate and if you would just tell him thank you I'm pretty sure that they said it but I just want to say thank you because it it was it was a moment that I was able to witness first hand and it made me proud. Yeah. Now Councilman Franco said he wanted to recognize some officers also. Yeah and I think Chief knows about this one. So last week at Jason's Deli Officer Rash and Officer Lewin were there Officer Lewin was off duty and Officer Rash was not in uniform while the gentleman outside they had a little road rage and decided to brandish a weapon there was two assailants Officer Lewin being in street clothes with no body armor and no gun stood between all the people at Jason's Deli and the assailants as that man he would not I was right there witnessing it he would not he would not lower his hands for a long time he didn't it was a little tense there knowing if he was going to actually pull his gun or not so I commend Officer Lewin and Officer Rash

for their quick response while not being actually on duty and uh especially Officer Lewin for putting his life in in front of other people with no protection and that's that's a great sign for your officers I really appreciate that and the the people at Jason's Deli really appreciate it they said it was the safest lunch they'd ever had after that because there's nobody that was coming in there doing anything but I know you ragged on you picked on Officer Rash a little bit about it but he he was holding the gun steady but it was it was a it was it was amazing to see the officers in action and then and then putting their life on the line for the for for citizens. Thank you so much for recognizing that but thank you thank you very much. Good deal so now we're going to recess into executive session pursuant of Texas Government Code 551.012 of the Texas Government Code to deliberate the purchase and exchange lease or value of real property. Thank you sir. Mayor and Council this is the project that's was discussed in executive session if you would like for me to go over it in the public at at this point I can if After this we're going to have comment. But he has we're allowing him to explain what's going on and then I normally open for public comment. So Mayor and Council what this exchange will be is uh Lee College did a resolution I believe it was last week or two weeks ago where they authorized the exchange of these properties with the City of Baytown's properties that are on Market Street that were recently purchased and one that's on um Texas Avenue the city would work with Lee College exchange the daycare area and the small business

development building that's on the front part on the intersection of Decker Market and Texas Avenue um in exchange the city would hand over the piece PSI building that's there and they would be able to do infrastructure improvements as necessary for their needs and it's not our place to talk about what Lee College wants to do but they would have that area and it's a it's a an equal swap of land both parties worked to do as as fair and as equivalent as possible and this would be for the ExxonMobil event center that's all I have at this time Mayor and Council. Good deal any questions or comments? We're going to have we have one person signed up to speak that is Miss June Stansky. Please state your address for record. Okay June Stansky 4601 Driftwood Drive Baytown Texas. Most of you know I'm an optometrist right across the street from this property. I mean my office is I look out my front door and I see the big Lee College building. That thing is going to come down and just create havoc. A working daycare center is going to be coming down to create more space for this terribly proposed Project Vector that's going to be on Decker Drive. The equipment the heavy equipment's going to rip up Decker Drive even worse the noise is going to be crazy in my office. As you've heard from me several times in the past terrible location no hotels nearby I just think the whole thing should be trashed from this area. I I don't want to see the construction at my office for three years first the

coming down then the going back up the heavy machinery not conducive for my business I mean it's bad enough we get you know the fire department and the EMS workers coming down with with sirens blaring down Sterling Street but this is going to be nonstop noise just not not good for business. I don't think the whole project is good for Baytown it's not you don't have hotels nearby for tourism just just poorly planned you didn't have a a citizens council to plan this location you didn't take a vote on it it wasn't on any I mean I'm sure you say oh well Exxon's giving us the money but it's Exxon's not giving us the money they're taking 75 million dollars out of our tax dollars over the next few years so it's it's not a gift they shouldn't have naming rights this whole thing should have been a stadium up near Interstate 10 so at least we could get hotel occupancy taxes where it's going in now people aren't going to want to go up Garth they're going to jump on 146 and go down to LaPorte and they're going to get occupancy taxes the whole thing should be gutted and it's just going to kill off Decker Drive and my business. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Okay I need a motion. Motion to approve item 11A. Second. And with the Oh yes. um Council if we could amend the motion to include West direction that we enter into contract as discussed during executive session I'd appreciate it. Motion to approve item 11A

with to include to include items on the contract that are yet to be negotiated. As discussed As discussed in executive session. [clears throat] Yes. Too late to present. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Having exhausted everything on this agenda I now adjourn this meeting at 9:44 p.m.