City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you.

and we're going to start with an indication led by Zena.

Bow your heads with me, please. Father, thank you so much for this day that you've given us. Father, thank you for each one of these folks that are here tonight. Father, I just ask that you would just Be with them and bless them and take them home safely. Father, we just ask that you give us guidance on this meeting that we're about to have tonight. Father, just help us as we make decisions for the community of Neal Shue that we do those things in your honor and your glory. Father, we just ask that you be with our teachers and our students and our administration as they prepare to get back to school this month. Father, we just lift them up to you. We ask for their safety and for guidance in that area. Father, we thank you for all that you are and all that you do. These things I ask in your son's precious name. Amen.

Amen. I'd like to establish that we have a quorum. We call our meeting to order. We're going to have the pledge to the flag of the United States of America. Now the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one community visible. Thank you. Everybody can be seated. Dale, we appreciate you being here tonight, as always, as well as the staff and all the guests that we do have tonight. It's at this time in our meeting that we will receive public comment. And so if anybody has anything that they would like to have an opportunity to visit about, now would be the time to do so, unless it's an item on our agenda.

This is Troy Johnston, and I have some things that has been bothering me for a very long time. I'm sorry if I get choked up, because it's been eating at me and eating at me for the longest. And Jackson already knows, I've already talked to him once about it, and he told me to come to the meeting to voice my opinion of what's going on. And I brought my daughter that has PTSD now and she's on anxiety medicine and she's going through mental health because of it. Lately we've been targeted, I feel like, about my house, my animals, my yard, everything. I was forced to get rid of three of my vehicles because it's considered, it's supposedly a junk vehicle sitting in my property, on my property. And I got another citation about some stuff in my yard, which I've already got rid of most of it, and I've already taken care of it, but it was because of the rain. I don't have no truck, no trailer to get rid of the stuff, but I feel like I'm being targeted all the time about it. And then when I mention about that I'm trying to do the best I can, I work at the car wash, and I try to do the stuff at my house, and I'm trying to take care of my wife and daughter that are both disabled. They have a lot of health issues, and I've been trying to fight that and fight working at the car wash and trying to do the yard at the same time. But when I mention about the meth houses that are here in town, there's nothing being done about it. I've been seeing officers arrest people coming out of there but not getting to the root of the problem. and it's been eating at me and eating at me and uh something needs to be done about it and one of the houses is right down my street on east fifth and his name he goes by chief and his house is known for drug activity more than any house i've known in this And there's two other houses that have a lot of weed. And I know Texas is against it, but it's still being a lot. And something needs to be done about it. And I don't know how else to go about it besides coming here. And I've gotten 10 citations within three years. And there's so many houses that I've seen that have cars, One has a white Silverado sitting on center blocks. And it's been sitting like that for over six, eight months. And there's nothing being done about that. There's a motorhome that's been sitting with junk around it. There's a couple of trailers that have all kinds of stuff around it. That's still being allowed. There's a black F-150 on across the trackside that's been sitting with no citation, but yet every month or so, I'm getting targeted with my vehicles, my yard. And I just had enough of it. I don't know what else to do.

Well, Troy, we appreciate you coming tonight and giving us information. you've helped me at the car wash many times and appreciate you. You always take good care of us. I try. Um but with that, I think one thing that you know, code enforcement tries to do is try to keep things clean and most of the time, we're not trying to issue citations. We're just trying to get compliance and so they have also one of ten. They have also approached me pretty regularly about my property as well and so you're not the only one for some reason they like to pick on me as well but I'm with you you can drive up and down any of these streets and see junk vehicles that haven't moved that hasn't been taken care of you know and maybe that's something we need to look into to see what direction we're not picking shoes either because i can think of five in my head just from driving from my house to my office that vehicles that haven't been moved that are up on blocks uh they really need to be addressed and they i don't think they have been so um we do appreciate your time and coming to that and we'll definitely take all that into consideration thank you and there's one other car too it's a nepala

It's a black Impala sitting underneath a carport that has been sitting like that for many years. And I don't see nothing. But I feel like I'm being targeted all the time. My wife and daughter cannot even go outside without Gonzalo or somebody else passing by and just watching. Or if we leave, we're afraid that when we come back, there's a note on the door. And it's happened three times. And my wife and daughter don't want to leave the house because they're afraid coming home and seeing a citation on the door. And you can see my daughter's crying, and I'm trying not to cry. For sure. It's hitting us hard. And we're just to the point of wanting to leave Milchut. But I love it here. I love some people here. I love how I help people and they look out for me. I love taking care of people at the car wash. Now the business is a lot better now since I've been back over there because I was out for six months. Now that I'm back, now all of the clientele is coming back and it's making it better for me. And my only escape route to do things is work and work on lawn equipment. I can't even work on lawn equipment in my yard because I'm being afraid that I'm going to get a citation for working on lawn equipment. That's how I make money, to supply for my family. And I just, I'm at wit's end.

Like I said, we appreciate you being here, Matt. We'll look into everything that you had to say. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. And you guys are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you would like to. We'll probably have a meeting that will last a little longer than normal tonight, but you're welcome to leave as well, whatever you guys are comfortable with. And you're welcome to leave in the middle of the meeting at any time.

Oh, can I address the council?

Yes, ma'am. You can stay there, whatever you're comfortable with.

So what I came tonight for was to encourage the council to possibly consider organizing an effort or campaign towards beautifying cleaning up our town. I think we have an incredible place to live here. I'll never leave here. I don't want to leave here. But I think we have some places around town that we've let go. And I think we have You referred to one. We've got a couple of codes that would help enforce that. But I also think just campaigning for the community to come together in an effort out of respect and love for the place that we live to clean it up and make it a better place for ourselves and for the people that visit here. I know our new business, 90% of our business is coming over from Clovis, Plainview. We've even got people coming from Nazareth and they don't just come here to play. Then they go buy groceries, they go eat and so But just for ourselves, those of us that have lived here and made this our home, I just think there's some things that we can do as a community effort to make this look better. I know there's houses, Ramon and I have talked about it, that have been just completely torn down, burned down, and the rubbish is still sitting there. And these ordinances that we do have address that. We don't need anything new. to clean it up. And I know there's people that don't have the financial means of doing that. They don't have the physical ability to do it. But maybe as a city, an effort, we joined with churches, whatever, to do something to clean up some of these areas that are not beneficial to the kids walking around and the neighbors that are trying to keep their places clean and I would be willing to sit on a committee anything that y'all decided you might be interested in doing I'd be interested in being a part of it thank you for being here tonight and thank you for not only offering some suggestions but offering to be part of the solution as well that makes quite a bit because

mean you know as well as anybody in this room I've been sitting up here for several years and it's just been within the last probably five or six years I don't know exactly when uh a lot of the councils that I've been a part of for over the years just really never addressed anything like that but all of a sudden with new people coming in and better ideas and want to do things to beautify our town and keep up appearances, things have gotten a lot better. That doesn't mean that they're fixed. And we appreciate, like Colt said, you coming in and actually volunteering to take part in something like that. There's only there's only so many things we can do and so many of us to go around. And if we could get a organized participation out of that somehow. I think it'd be a great deal. I'll visit with you about it later.

Is there any other public comment?

Yeah, I'm here again this time of year. You know, you all expect to see me about the time you're voting on taxes. uh i did decide to go ahead and bring up i was at the county commissioner meeting this morning and one thing they pointed out was that the figures they got from the appraisal district were incorrect they had computer errors in them that would have raised taxes at the voter approval rate 12 and so they they're working on fixing that and trying to work on fixing it themselves before Thursday their next meeting to be able to go ahead and continue with the budget process. But and before they even had all this discussion I talked to them about I would urge all of you vote for the no new revenue rate that that's where We've seen Lubbock County do it, although they were forced to because two county commissioners didn't show up to the meeting on purpose to force them to adopt the nominal revenue rate rather than going to a much higher rate that's closer to or right at the voter approval rate. So I would urge you all to consider that nominal revenue rate when you're down to the nut cutting on the actual tax figures.

but also i didn't know if you were having the same problems with the figures you're getting from the appraisal district well i would say the appraisal district did see a rise in arb protests this year which if i don't know if you've been in and talked to them at all but probably the reason you see the rise in it is the state keeps forcing us to increase values.

I understand that.

Which is really an incredibly difficult thing for me to understand because there's really no correlation between the amount of money that you can sell your property for and the amount that it should be taxed for. And so I think it really complicates it whenever you have the state trying to work an angle and then you just have us trying to take care of local business. And I would say that the city, just like any other business out there, faces some of these inflation problems. So I've done quite a bit of research, and I think this is something to commend the people before all of us that operated the city here in this room. But most cities of our size will operate with at least 20 to 25 more employees. we operate this city at. So, I feel like we do so pretty effectively as far as the operating costs from what it costs to hire an employee today and the benefits that we give to these employees but they also provide a service for each of us in the community and I'm not saying that we can't get better at some of the services and do some things but when we face these increases of you know, 12 to 15, sometimes 20% in the cost of doing business from the big line item is always health insurance, right? So that's just an easy one to pull out. But I mean, even when we have to buy vehicles or vehicle maintenance and repairs, you know, the hardest part for us is we can't continue to operate at the same amount of money that's coming in. But different than most tax entities, uh we do have an enterprise unit and that's selling water and so many times when we work that direction we try to you know consider that we're actually selling a product and maybe look at increasing the water rates rather than the tax rate but it's also difficult for us to go to the no new revenue rate because then how much money does that cut out of our budget from the year before that's wrong maybe I said that incorrectly I would have to look at it once we have it written down but if we operated at the same amount of revenue that we had each year but our costs go up

how do we continue to operate the revenue will go up it's just based on tax rates from last year that were collected on the average across all taxpayers taxes won't go up they will however be there on new items new businesses new construction all that will add to the revenue coming in to the county to the city and so therefore the moment revenue rate it states no new revenue but it means no new taxes on existing businesses and entities from last year and so it doesn't mean you won't have a budget increase sure and and my biggest what what i'm bringing up we kind of got off on appraisal and all that what i'm bringing up is Yeah, I know appraisals been going up every year. 11, five to 11% on my properties. You know, we absorb that and then turn around and the city and the county and I think the school district this year will probably do it but they're meeting right now I couldn't go to that. They, they all also collect more revenue because they raised the rate even with a bigger pot of money they're collecting from. And so therefore we get a double hit. The state right now with the appraisal, unless the legislature does something about that, we can't do anything about the appraisals.

It's just crazy to me that people claim that they can be conservative at the state level and they want to have our hands in our local business. because they don't like when the federal government does that to them at the state level. And I think part of the best way that our country was set up And having local elected officials is like if you, it's so much easier for you as a citizen to get rid of any of the five of us that's sitting here than it is to get rid of your state representative or your state senator. But they want to have the local control saying that they're protecting everybody, just like they increased the homestead. And so we're saving all this tax money. My tax bill hasn't really went down. I'm dead. But I would also state that it's within everybody's right to go protest at that ARB meeting. This is the first year that I went and protested from a business standpoint. I protested five different properties. And one other one we decided not to discuss was four out of the five I got my values lowered. Not to what I wanted, but you know,

it helps i know every year especially on our place out in the country that's just dilapidated for sure they keep raising the values on it yeah i mean i think that's something that's i write assistance and we need to we need to continue to take advantage of that because that's the only way i think we can prove a point for the state to back off well you always do got to remember that all these entities we're just talking about are branches of state government

the city charter the county charter the schools are all part of state government so they're not going to get out of it sure you know my my concern there is what they're doing is they're withholding school funding forcing the local appraisal district to increase the value and that's something that they don't openly say uh But they withhold school funding from ULC ISD every year because they say our values are not high enough. And I sit on the appraisal board, too, and so I'm pretty aware of that issue. But I would encourage you to come to our appraisal board meetings sometimes. I bet it's going to be a hot topic tomorrow at noon, 1230, at the appraisal district, if you want to join us there. The meeting starts about 1230. And so it's just an interesting approach where I think if we could single-handedly just determine our rate without them messing with values, I think you would see a lot less of the fluctuation. We would probably be like, all right, this is where we need to be. Let us adjust the rates and just stay out of it. To me, that's the easiest and simplest way. But I also understand some of the states deal of the big cities of... you know, Dallas County and Harris County, Bexar County, all that, that they probably have some people in there that really drive those rates up and it creates a problem. But what's good for those large counties doesn't fit by the county either. And I do appreciate you being here tonight. I always appreciate the conversation. Thank you. Any other public comment? All right. Seeing as we have none, we're going to move on to our agenda items. Our first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the council meeting held July the 13th, 2026.

I'll make a motion to approve those minutes.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second to approve those minutes. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Our next item is to discuss consider and take possible action regarding the request from L and L ministries Inc to grant an exception grandfather in the placement of a storage container for human habitation within the city of Muleshoe city limits in relation to city ordinance number O-558-0526, including discussion from the rep, the representative of L and L ministries. Ramona, I'll let you start with them.

Mayor, I want to echo your words. Mark Leckie from Illinois Ministries has requested the opportunity to address council on that issue. They are requesting an extension or grandfathering for the placement of the storage containers in the city. So, Mr. Leckie.

Thank you, Mr. Sanchez. Council members, I think I've met everybody except for Mr. Myers. Mr. Myers, Walter Lackey. Nice to meet you, sir. I'm sure my father and my granddad and his brothers did business with your dad and your grandfather, no doubt. And I think I hung out on a Saturday in high school every now and then, pushing stuff down the pens. But yeah, I came last month and introduced myself. So I'm not here on behalf of myself. My name is Walter Lackey. I am an attorney, but I'm not here representing L&L Ministries as an attorney. When we have legal issues, we always seek outside counsel. And so I stepped away from the practice of law in 2019, and then have even stepped further back from my relationship with the State Bar, although I am still licensed. and so uh i think this could boil down to and uh obviously mayor has the authority to cut me off but i really want to be concise here i don't know if council uh have you all read the email that i sent i know it was fairly long had some attachments you can get lost and replies and emails because i've looked at those for a living before and even when i look at them it gets confusing from this date to a reply and so forth But I think we're talking about who, where, and what. Who, where, and what? Who's the who? It's L&L Ministries Inc. It's not me. It's a nonprofit. It's the 501c3. We're recognized by the federal government and, of course, the state of Texas. And I think you all, I gave you our website. It kind of says what we do. What do we do? We do four major things. We visit jails. Three of our teams are certified with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to go to prisons. We haven't started that yet, but we are soon. But we go to jails. We go to the Smith County Jail. There's about 950 inmates there. And then last year we started coming to the Bailey County Jail. My understanding was there was a shortage maybe since pre-COVID on some ministry services there. So we go to jails. We go to nursing homes. That's just our heart. Yeah, they're both kind of a tough gig, but the rewards are really high. We enjoy it. Number three, we feed the poor and we go to homeless camps. And so I don't like to talk about that too much because that's extra special. Tyler, Texas, and we just go get in the dirt with them and go easy on the religion and heavy on the kindness and give them a cup of coffee. My daughter, Madison, she's here with me. She's headed that ministry before. She's our secretary and treasurer currently. And then last, something that hasn't come up yet, I am a certified law enforcement chaplain and so I was trained with the state crisis team. My last deployment with that team was to Kerrville. Quite a heavy, heavy deal there. I stepped away from that organization. Now I serve as a chaplain under our own entity with the Smith County Sheriff's Department. So I ride out a couple times a month. with the men and help them deal with their stress and on their marriage. So that's what we do. We're doing three out of that four here since last year. We started here and I don't really want to talk about the spiritual side of what we do, although I can, because what we do is for a reason. And that reason has a name. His name is Jesus. We serve Jesus. And so it's expensive to serve him. And I don't want to compare how we do it to other people because that's the problem, you know, in Texas. I realize all that, but I'm going to set that aside. But we came here last June, I think. We started a little quiet, a little prayer meeting, renting the... the little meeting, the little room out at the Coliseum. And we started that because we know that everything runs on prayer. Not my kind of prayer. It just runs on prayer. We gotta pray. We gotta pray. The country's in trouble. Texas is in trouble. We have cultural issues, so we have to pray. So we did that. Then we started at the nursing home. We're going there once a month. We've been through maybe two administrators there and a couple activities directors but we we do well with those folks i think and then we've worked our way in it took a few months to get into the jail and get comfortable and you just earn people's trust the jail's a little bit more strict depending on which one you're in you got to be safe and all that so that's what we've been doing here so that's the who the where is 1701 west avenue g and I tell you what mayor if you'd allow it I have just a little three page staple thing we can put in front of y'all that's okay with you just give them one so we we do have a map there some of you all may have looked at the map and we probably need to glance at it it's probably the second staple page there because that's the where the who where what who is L&L ministries the where is 1701 West Avenue G It's on that little map there. And the lot, of course, is our cabin. I included the picture there. That's what L&L Ministries has purchased is that container cabin. It's the picture there. from an outfit called Excalibur Container in Grand, Texas. Used to be a mom-and-pop place, now they're big. Actually, while they were building our cabin, my salesperson called me and said, Mr. Lackey, can we pull y'alls off the line? I just sold $9.5 million worth of these things, probably to an oilfield company. I said, sure, you can pull it off in a minute. So that's the who, where, what. And here's the rub, and to be frank, I'd rather not be here tonight, but here we are. so we'll work through it here's the rub i have council so i came to neal's here of course i was born here and i graduated from high school here in 1990 my mom and dad my dad farmed in pleasant valley he retired at tog my mom was a school teacher here and so forth and i put some of that in the email just to give you all some context but uh as as best as i know how mayor and council I came in November and started communicating with the city via Mr. Sanchez to just try to honor the authority because I've been around and I'm old enough to know that's appreciated. When you hit town, you just don't start. And I don't consider myself an interloper or a carpetbagger anyway. I'm kind of from here. And I have connections with a lot of people in the room, including Mr. Sanchez. I know I went through two-a-days with Miguel, one of his siblings. And so, you know, I know folks. But so I come here and I start communicating with Mr. Sanchez, and at least I can document it as early as November 24th of last year. And so I said, hey, this is what we want to do. And there was, you know, resistance from – is okay but the rub I had was we could just never get a definitive yes or no it just drug on and on and what I what I was communicated with and what I understand and please let me say at this point I've been around long enough Nobody has a steel trap for a mine. There may be minor details where Mr. Sanchez remembers something that was said that I don't and the other way around. So I get that. But I was communicated with. It wasn't a yes or no. And it seemed like there was a little bit of angst from the city. But at least a willingness to work with us, at least. And I was looking back through the emails today, just kind of working along, look at this property or do this. But unfortunately, we got a few roadblocks thrown. And I counted five, just in going over the notes today. The first concern was that this cabin container wasn't wired properly. So I called Excalibur and said, hey, I'm sure Dollar doing the electrical wiring properly. These things aren't cheap, and they're bought by guys like me and rich guys with gentlemen farms and hunting cabins and all that stuff, and like I said, to sell nine and a half million dollars worth. So I contact them and said, hey, as far as I know, you guys are wiring these safe and they came back with some language about the international building code, which I responded to the city with that. The next roadblock, that was put up was just trying to get an approval of a lot that, you know, L&L Ministries and the city of Milsha could just agree on. You know, we hadn't bought a lot yet, and I wanted to work with the city and tried to work with Mr. Sanchez, and we looked all over town. It ended up being just harder than I thought it would be just to find a lot, and I drove around town quite a bit, saw some of the things that were, you know, a concern of the gentleman here tonight. Just, you know, some things need to be cleaned up. So we tried to work, and Mr. Sanchez and I talked about two or three different lots. And at one point, you know, we had searched, we drove around, and Mr. Sanchez suggested even those lots over across from UDA that LaGioia Farms owned. I think they own a lot in this town, which is fine. No complaint there. And so there's some lots that look like they were built for an RV right across. I guess that would be the east side of UDA, maybe there. So my understanding from Mr. Sanchez was that that gentleman might be amenable to selling us those lots, us being L&L Ministries. And so I wrote the guy a letter. I think I included a copy. And, you know, it was crickets. Didn't get a response. And I wasn't offended or anything. There wasn't even a for sale sign on that lot. And, you know, there's not a lot of for sale signs in town. And so we're looking at roadblocks, codes, approved lot. I was told by the city that this particular cabin doesn't have a back door. And to me, it's too small to need a back door. But I said, okay, we're in production anyway. So I called Excalibur, talked to our salesperson. I said, how much does a back door cost? She said $2100. I said put it in because I'm one of the things I want things to move along here and when I when I say $2100 it's not coming out of my pocket. I have to call the board and say can I get us on for another $2100 put that back door in. Uh it's not necessary in my opinion but it is what it is so I did that. That was our response to that roadblock as I'm calling. Uh the next roadblock was I was informed by Mister Sanchez that the Bailey County to be an RV, which didn't make sense to me. But it's okay, I'm learning. So I go to the Baylor County Presle District, talk to the appropriate individuals, show them a drawing of this container cabin, and I said, is this an RV? And she asked me one or two simple questions. I answered them. She said, no, it's a dwelling. It's not an RV. So that was my response to the roadblock. And the kicker is the problem, at least in my view, while we're here tonight, the one that got me. The roadblock was delayed. And so I start talking to the city in November. of November 24th, 25. So that's our bookend. And then on June 22nd of this year, I'm left with a hard copy. We came by. We had been ministering at the jail. We had just bought lots the Friday before, we being L&L ministers. So we stopped by the city hall, and Mr. Sanchez had left a copy of the new city ordinance that was passed May 16th. So I hope you, I'm trying to communicate. Here's my rub. I mean, I feel like I got played because I started communicating with the city out of respect in November of 25. Here it is June 22nd of 26. I dropped by and get a hard copy of a new city ordinance that happens to specifically prohibit the very cabin I've been talking about with the city of Milshoe for four or five months. And I don't think that's right. don't think it's fair play and you know I took I took a look at some of what this council goes by and uh let's see here I think in the in June of 23 you guys passed your own city council standards of conduct the first one is honored and that just doesn't seem honorable to me it doesn't was there miscommunication with me and Mr. Sanchez maybe I mean, I've documented it. I mean, we were talking for four months. I couldn't get a yes or no. But what I got is four roadblocks, which I addressed as best I could. And there's no city ordinance in place. And so if y'all's code say there's a principle of honor, it just doesn't seem like, it doesn't smell like, and it doesn't taste like that to me. principle number eight that you guys and some of you council members respectfully were on the council at that time principle number eight is transparency being transparent you know and i was communicating that length of time with the city because i wasn't going to just buy that thing and come plop it down right quick get my foot in the door before it closes because that's generally speaking that's just not going to do business and we need yes or no if it's a no you know That's really the rub. here for me and you know it it it irritated me further when the email came from the city that didn't even mention my request for the grandfather and it's just like denied based on the city ordinance well I get that and I read the city ordinance and frankly it is what it is you know you all decided that passed that I'm sure went through the public comment period and I'm assuming it's legal as is I don't know I don't know what he's litigated it or anything but the problem is for one container One container, one cabin that was professionally built is probably wired. It has a neutral color. You know, it's caught in the middle here. It's caught in the middle. And I feel like I'm just coming to ask y'all to do the right thing. I mean, this is the right thing to do. And I get it because I've read the ordinance and for your reasons, not mine, and everybody has different opinions. You all have decided that this is the standards in this town. Obviously, I have to respect that and that ordinance until it's pulled down for some reason that could be constitutional or otherwise. And I'm sure the council's educated. If you get the temperature of what's going down in Austin right now, let's take, for example, on September 1st of this year, there's going to be a state law and play that forbids cities from wholesale prohibiting mobile homes. So that starts September 1. And so I didn't take the time to look at every new law that's coming down the pike because I know just with the whole idea of the economy, people shrinking, even the idea of minimalism, people going smaller, even the first trillionaire we have, which is Elon Musk, What does he live in sometimes? A fold-up little cabin that his company builds. You know, it's a $50,000 deal. You know, it's already hit the news. He sleeps in that thing. Granted, he's a trillionaire. He can sleep where he wants to. But, you know, this idea of minimalism, mobile homes, you know, it's kind of taken on. And you guys, I know, are going to have to deal with tiny houses, everything else. It already are. I know that. So, I mean... I'll take all questions, but I just feel like I'm asking y'all to do the right thing just because we were caught in the middle. At minimum, we weren't communicated with right. At most, I was just played, and I don't appreciate it. and uh you know i've been around long enough i stopped by that tuesday after the monday that the city left me a hard copy mr sanchez and i had a a spirited conversation didn't get out of control i was just like hey i feel like you played me and you know i've been a lawyer to know Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. When you lose, you go across the desk and shake the guy's hand and say, well played. You beat me today in court. And I wasn't being sarcastic. I told Mr. Sanchez, well played, because I feel like I got played. Because all that time, I was delayed, and we mentioned there is at least one legal issue. There's probably two for y'all. There's probably at least one. It's called intentional interference with a contract. And I told him, you know, this is not good. I changed the contract based on our conversations. You know, like adding the door in. I wouldn't have done, I wouldn't have spent the $2,100 if we wouldn't have had that conversation. The contract was altered. And so, did I threaten to sue anybody? No. No, I spent 10 years in litigation. You stay out of court and you work things out and you do the right thing. And you move on. Otherwise, people waste a lot of money. The insurance companies get involved. The lawyers get involved. And a lot of times it's a waste of time and people just get together and do the right thing. So, two more points and I think I'm going to wrap it up. And I really do want to entertain questions. All questions. Hard ones. Tough ones. And I'll do my best to answer, and I'll do my best to say, I don't know. If you ask me a question, I don't know. When I was practicing law, I learned that. If you don't know the answer, just say, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. And I know we're sitting with a bunch of educated people in here who may have whatever eight different opinions on what's going on and there's some specifics in the neighborhood but you know I looked at the code again today that I'm sorry the new ordinance and it says whereas the City Council has determined the following ordinance is necessary to protect the public health safety and welfare of the citizens I just don't see an issue with grandfathering this in with this particular lot that would affect the public health and the safety or the welfare of the citizens here. And I'm just being direct and blunt. I don't see that reasonably here, how grandfathering the sin. And if you all would please just turn to your map here, I want to show you this 17, we're at 1701 West Avenue G that we landed at L&L Ministries because I think it's important. where this exception may or may not be granted what you all decide because we're talking about 1701 West Avenue G what's unique to that well first of all there's a dead end there and you all know this I'm sure and the rest of 1701 West Avenue G is grass so this cabin my understanding is the city would require it to face the street in other words I can't face this cabin towards 17th because it's not planted towards 17th and frankly Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to spend the money to get it replatted. I don't care. I'm fine with the cabin facing the grass. It's a little awkward, but I'm fine. I'm not trying to buck the system here and just buck everything. But we're talking about the cabin that would face the grass. It doesn't even face the street. What does that cause? Well, it caused me to have to put the mailbox on 17th. And I've talked to a couple of people about that. I've talked to the postmaster and he i said is that even allowable he said oh yeah he said we'll just talk to laura the local carrier you put that mailbox there on 17 so she can come around make a ue dump the mail in and leave i said sure whatever you want to do so it's awkward to put the mailbox you know on 17th over there we're on g and we plan on putting a metal fence there on the line between 114 and 113 and i guess at this point probably do nothing with 113 although i wouldn't swear that we're never going to do nothing with it you know so we're talking about this specific location this specific exception based on the communications and i think not professional uh handling of the matter from the city it's facing the grass and i'm i know mr myers lives close here and he's seen this stuff So we've got the grass. Next to that, you all know there's a large barn there. Excuse me, there's chicken coops. I heard the chickens this morning because I went by to work on the post just a little bit more. I went ahead and put the post in because I don't think I'm breaking any rules by that. And I know there's an issue. I know it's a small town and I know there's an issue with the dirt and the vehicles there that is on Avenue F there. So I think that's important. council members because of the exception and I think where it's located because I don't see this being applied to the community if I face it toward the grass from the park you'll see the end of this you'll just see the end of it and it's brown I don't see that as an eyesore reasonably obviously I'm already in my position but I don't even see that reasonably being like an eyesore or a blot And I know you guys don't want these in your town. I get it. The city ordinance is in place, but I'm asking for an exception. So I'm going to ask you all for three things tonight. I'm asking you all to grandfather and make one exception for one cabin and move on. And I get it. The ordinance is in place. So be it. I'm asking you all to just make sure there's no more delays for this matter. Why do I have to ask that? Because the email that Mr. Sanchez sent where he didn't mention my request for grandfathering, but just mentioned, hey, you're denied based on the ordinance. I get that. I'm asking for a grandfathering. What he did was he attached some deed restrictions from like 1957. I looked at deed restrictions before we started. I shopped around different land. Those deed restrictions don't apply. What I've read on them, they're from 57. They talk about a thousand square foot limitation. And what's distasteful to me is they talk about service quarters. I think we're past that. I think we're past that in 2026. So my assertion is that those deed restrictions that were attached to that, although they weren't mentioned in the email, and I think they weren't mentioned for a reason. i don't know that reason so that's why my second my second of three requests is just to make sure there's no more roadblocks and my third request is that we be waived the permit fees for this because of just the expense that i've been out i don't think that's much to ask based on what i've represented to you all on the extra expense and i definitely get the reward for a person who traveled the furthest time i mean it's 540 miles this is what i do for a living I left the law for a reason. I serve people. I don't ask for money. Our money comes from the right sources at the right time. I don't take up an offering at the jail. That would be illegal. I don't take up an offering when I go to the nursing home. You know, we're there to serve. I'm not tooting my own horn. I'm just saying what we do. What we do. That's what we do. That's what we do. When I go out with the Smith County Sheriff's Department, I don't wink at the deputy who's just making a living and say, hey, can you give me 20 bucks today? It's just volunteer. That's what we do. And that's what a nonprofit does. nonprofit is. So that's what we're asking for. We're asking for a grandfather exception. We're asking for no more roadblocks and delays and be advised. I realize it's in a flood zone. It's kind of a problematic property anyway. I don't know who'd want it. It's in a flood zone. So we've already retained a reputable survey company. We've got the pre-construction certificate done. We've got our flood certificate done and we're ready to move on. You know, I'm just going to have to have you all to move. And frankly, Mr. Sanchez looked at me in our last meeting and said, yeah, I'll grant for you, but not on that property. And I'm just like, I don't understand that. I don't understand that statement. And frankly, I don't think it's up to one man or one woman to decide where. a non-profit buys land. And I know there's some frustration, but I didn't know about the city ordinance when we closed on the land on June 19th. I didn't know about the city ordinance. Why did I not know about it? Because I was never told about it. Because it was never posted on the website. And because I wasn't emailed a copy. All I know is I've been having conversations with the city of Mill Street for four or five months. I don't think this is all. What was done? I don't think it's transparent and I don't think it meets the purpose of the ordinance to protect the public health safety and welfare of its citizens on denying my request my three requests tonight and so that's my request and I respect the fact especially probably Mr. Myers but I'm guessing I think he lives the closest that there's been some angst there and I

think he might live close.

Oh, may or may live close. But anyway, it's a small town. I've heard the rumors and I know about the dirt and the construction equipment there with that gentleman who now owns those lots there and whatever. That's not my business. It doesn't really look like a residential neighborhood there. Because of that, because of the barn and the chickens and what I'm saying council members is I don't think this cabin is going to degrade that neighborhood one bit. I think it'll sit in wise. Facing G, I think we can put up a metal fence. I don't think it'll be a blight. As I said in my email, we chose a color that was easy on the eyes. Y'all put that in your ordinance, rightfully so. You don't want some interesting person coming in with a bright orange or bright yellow cabin for whatever reason. So I think that's all I wanted to say. I think I can tell by looking at your faces that you all paid attention. I really appreciate that. Just hearing my point of view, my side. I guarantee there's two sides of it. But I want to say thank y'all for just listening and probably taking up more of your personal time by reading that long email. and try to make sense of this but that that's my take on it mayor council members and uh i really would i would be happy to do the best i can do as far as i'm not running the meeting and you know mr sanchez or however the mayor wants to proceed but i really i'll entertain questions and i'll answer them to the best of my ability and if you have questions if you don't if you don't think something i said is true hey that doesn't add up what about this You read that in the email. Did you stretch the truth on that? I'm entertaining hard questions. Yes, sir.

What are you planning on putting in there?

Me. Me. We've been coming monthly since last year, and then we've been staying in a hotel. I do have family members here. But we've been staying in a hotel, so I usually stay four nights, the ministry. That's $400 or $500 a month. I run a 501c3. Mr. Myers, this cabin will be, for all purposes sake, what's known as a parsonage. yes sir and obviously i'm a simple dude so or i wouldn't live in a space that small but you'd be surprised about the inside frankly it's got shift left really built out nice but it will be me sir and i've already mowed that place twice paid for it from the non-profit funds and i'll be there and usually where i live i keep up because that's the way i was raised before we get into too much questions or back and forth one thing that i do want to clarify

from the honor comment and what was the other thing? It was principle eight, transparency. And transparency. Yes, sir. From the council's perspective, and I'm going to speak for all of us on this. Yes, sir. And they can correct me if I'm wrong, but for our honor and transparency, when we passed the ordinance in May, I don't believe any of us were aware of really any potential storage container houses.

I appreciate that.

And so I just want that clarified from all five of us sitting up here that none of us wanted to ask that to get at you or create an issue for you.

I appreciate that a lot, Mayor. I didn't know, and I try not to be accusatory or suspicious. Of course, we all can. That's human nature. You know, who's against me or one of y'all, and I'm just like, I just need to come and have a conversation. So I really appreciate that, Mayor, because I didn't know that factually. I didn't know what was going on.

So I think from this point right here, what needs to take place is the council needs to ask Mr. Lanke questions. I think you need to develop an opinion while we're having this discussion. And then we need to have a discussion amongst ourselves. I mean, of course, with everybody in here on what direction that whoever would like to start with any questions you have for Mr. Lackey, I think you're welcome to do so and maybe that will somebody asked a question about the answer to answer another question that you might have so is that open to everybody um on the question for On the question, yeah, I'll open the chair, buddy.

I might have misunderstood you, but how often do you expect this to be inevitable? How often are you planning on staying here?

It's a really good question, because right now we're coming once a month. However, that's going to continue, but I will be here probably straight, I suspect, between 9 and 18 months. I've got some business here to do. And the number one thing I have to do is pray over this town. I will pray. And I fast too. A lot. And I left the practice of law for a true calling. And it cost me. And I'm not doing no harm. I pray. And I fast. And so I will be here between 9 and 18 months. Probably solid. And I'm not here to fight the system or fight you all or fight Mr. Sanchez. To the best of my ability, I'm here to serve. But it's a good question. Right now, once a month. However, once L&L owns the cabin, which we do, anybody could stay there, but it's not going to be any riffraff. If they stay there, they'll be under L&L's authority, under the board's authority, and I will have a say-so in it. And we don't put up with much in our little organization because the ministry's a bloody business and there's a lot of people doing... squirrely things behind the bullet. And I've met people from all professions who don't have integrity. So, yeah, once a month for four nights. We come on a Thursday. We usually leave on a Monday. But soon I will be here between nine and 18 months. And then I'll have business in other parts of the state.

In regards to what you're asking for, we're probably going to disagree on this. Yes, sir. but in my opinion we cannot grandfather because the way i understand grandfathering to mean is if you have something established and at a later date you set a rule to we're not going to do that anymore you grandfather that in because it's already established yes you don't have anything established yes so we cannot grandfather it in in order If we decide to allow you to do this, it would be an exemption. Okay. And if we go to exemption, I'm afraid that we're opening ourselves up from now on. Because if you exempt one, why are you going to say nothing? Yes, sir. So that makes our ordinance worthless. Yes, sir. And I don't think we need to go that route. The other thing, I know there's been some Let's just call it back and forth. Yes, sir. Like you described it earlier with you and Mr. Sanchez. None of us had anything to do with that. Yes, sir. But I have to wonder, you never had the okay to put one of those anywhere. Why did you buy land and plan on doing it without having the okay that we can do this? That's a very good question. And I just, that part of it, I really just can't wrap my head around.

Yes, sir.

It doesn't make sense.

Okay, very good questions. And I'll address them in order that you spoke them. So the first question, or the issues I understood it, was we really can't grandfather because I wasn't there to be grandfathered. My response to that is I wasn't there to be grandfathered because I couldn't get a straight answer on a yes or no, or I would have been there to be grandfathered. I was ignorant, and I was kept in the dark while the city ordinance was being passed. Regards to an exception or an exemption, pardon the verbiage, I should have used an exemption instead of an exception on my verbiage and my request. I just don't request an exemption if that's what we need. Will this open the door for future exemptions? Certainly could, because when you deal with adults who act like kids, well, she got one. Why can't I have a blue shirt? I want a blue shirt. And I get that. But my response to that, Mr. Parker, is that no one in the future will ever request an exemption. or an exception, or whatever, based on the reason I'm requesting them, L&L, because this is a very specific set of circumstances where I started communicating with the city on November 24th of last year. That communication ceased when I got knowledge of this ordinance. And the reason of your last question was, why did you go ahead and buy that if you didn't have approval? And the answer is simple, because I didn't have disapproval. Sir, I had no knowledge of the city ordinance. And we have been going since November. And I'm on the hook. When I say I, I mean L&L Ministries. We're on the hook for storage fees in Grand, Texas. And thankfully they waived those because that thing's sitting down there ready. And I feel embarrassed. And I said, there's been some delays. And so the reason I went ahead is because I didn't know about the ordinance. As stated earlier, it wasn't posted online. It wasn't emailed to me. I got a hard copy on the desk out here.

Well, the other thing I'm wondering too, and I don't know because I didn't hear the conversation. I'm not going to pretend to. Yes, sir. I can hear your side of it. I can hear his side of it. Absolutely. I can weigh it however I want to. Absolutely. But if you started out in November of last year pursuing this, why did it take until July before I ever even met you the first time? I'm pretty sure that One of the two of you is, and maybe both of you are gonna say, there's been some heated exchange between this because I can't get an answer and I can't give you an answer right now. Why did it take all the way from November to May before you came to this council and said, I would like to do this.

Yeah, that's a very good question. I think there's a couple of answers, sir. I think the main answer is because this thing didn't come to a head until June when I got the copy of that thing, which was a surprise to me, to say the least. And so I came as quickly as I could last month. We run down just to introduce ourselves, although it's just public comment. these people right now to say hey here's I am you may like me you may not like me but yeah I can't be as quick as I could it's a very good question about the delay that's a long time and there's there's a couple of reasons first one being I could just couldn't find a lot in here that we liked and That L&L liked. And we're just shopping. There's not a lot of choices. I thought, man, we'll just, I'm from here. I thought, man, there's some choices. There's not a lot of, not a lot of choices, sir. And I see you shaking. There's not a lot. So we kept on driving around town. We're coming every month. We're driving. I'm like, where do you want it? I'm praying about it. Where's our spot? And I felt from the get-go, frankly, it was the ones we got, but I thought we'll never get those. And then when I heard about the flood zone, I'm thinking like, oh my gosh, there's more problems for us. And so part of it was the shopping process. Part of it was we had some delay, and I'll just be frank. We had some delay in some donations that were expected sooner than later. That caused delay with Excalibur. I don't want you to share that business, but I will. It's pertinent to this conversation. And the third reason we had delays, I mentioned earlier, our salesperson called me, sweetheart lady at Excalibur, and she just told me, can we pull y'alls off the line? I said, why? She said, we. We just did $9.5 million worth. I was like, what are you doing? talking about it's like 60 or 70 of these things and I just I smiled I said well I hope you sold them because of commissions she said I didn't somebody else sold them but she said I'd like to pull yours off if you'll let it sit for a month or so and I just said well we're not we're not finding a lot anyway and I can't get a straight answer so I allowed them to pull it off the line and they appreciated it and it was give and take You know, I don't think I left them with a bad taste in their mouth. They waived the storage fees and just let it sit. I just kept email. I'm sorry. We're having some delays with some donations. I apologize about the lot situation. And then finally, I didn't even tell them about this. May May 11th. And I may have said May 16th a while ago. I didn't tell them about the May 11th ordinance because it was still sitting down there. I had to get it off their property and it's off their property right now. And they were very gracious to me and I told them, we're gonna buy we're gonna buy another cabin put it in another room so Mr. Parker I've tried to answer those questions that you concerned but I think the biggest one is why'd you go ahead do it anyway because I knew of no rule that said I couldn't and I didn't put a cabin down what I did was just buy two lots so what I went ahead and did was at least buy the land because it came open I made a very reasonable offer and the gentleman accepted it on behalf of L&L Magistrates. So I didn't just come in and try to plop it without approval. It's not like that, but we did go ahead and buy the land. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I didn't know about the ordinance.

Anybody else have any other questions? Questions? Well, I think... We should start with maybe having a conversation amongst us and decide what route we want to take there between the five of us. And then once we decide what we want to do, then maybe we'll confer with the attorney and see the route, how we get to the conclusion of what we want. You know, something i think about and we've heard information tonight in public comment it's weird how that happens on the same night that we're having this conversation in a positive to mr lacking i think that a lot and i believed a lot to the south heavy zone by fred locker does that sound correct that is correct mayor okay those two lots or fred locker's lot seems to always get taken care of and be mowed the rest of those lights down there don't seem to be taken care of very often so i appreciate that we actually are able to have a clean property that's a place that i drive by every day I also think that there was a barn built on the next lot. I feel like maybe there was some conversation sometime last year about the weeds. You guys can remind me of that conversation. Because they got so out of hand over there. And I think the property owner maybe sprayed them. But I don't think the ordinance refers to dead weeds or alive weeds. I think it refers to the length of them. Is that correct? And so I think those weeds at that property have looked horrendous for at least eight, nine, ten months probably, if not more. I think the property next to that has become a construction holding lot, I guess you could say. I don't know what happened between Friday and today. But before that there was weeds that was as high as the pickup that was sitting on the property. Like I said in public comment earlier, And I was trying to tell Troy, like, he's not the only one that, I mean, code enforcement will get to address things because it happens to me pretty often. Anytime my law on Main Street gets a little over ankle high, which typically we're watching it, but typically I already called somebody to address it. Gonzalo has contacted me or contacted me multiple times to make sure it's addressed. And I make sure it's addressed. But in the same sense, where I live, there's a vacant lot to the south of me that's owned by somebody from, I don't believe, even in this state. And I've lived at that house for seven or eight years now. You know, one time I think that the Anything's been done about that, which creates a hazard for my family and kids and between snakes and a hazard for mosquitoes. But either myself or me paying somebody or my neighbor down the corner is the only one that takes care of that. So I can see a positive in this lot of Maybe allow this to be on there. But at least it's going to get maintained. Because it probably hasn't been maintained in I don't know how many years. But that's where my mind starts.

I really don't think we can... compare apples and oranges if we have problems with lots not being maintained or junk vehicles or whatever the case may be i think that needs to be addressed because we already have one that's in place for that i don't think we can use that as an excuse for this i just i don't feel comfortable doing that um made me wrong i mean you know everybody's entitled to an opinion I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. I'm just stating my opinion. We're starting to see more people, I think, concerned maybe a little bit at a time with how our city looks. And I appreciate that. I take pride in the way my house looks. Do I live in the biggest, nicest, fanciest house in town? No, I do not. to take pride in it and try to keep it looking decent and i think most people here feel the same way i just wish everybody in town did but it makes it really hard on enforcement to try to contact or find somebody or get somebody to answer a phone or anything else that doesn't even live in this community whether they live 50 miles away or 500 miles it doesn't make any difference if you can't get a hold of them it's kind of hard to enforce sometimes i understand that but there's a lot of things that can be addressed and maybe needs to be addressed a little more vigorously but that needs to be dealt with under the city ordinance that we have to handle that i don't think that really pertains to the city ordinance we passed not allowing these i've looked at the deep restrictions on that richland hills edition and it specifically says no you cannot do this is it still worth the papers written on i don't know i'm not a lawyer not my place to decide that until i'm told differently i think i would uphold So I don't think it meets the criteria for the deed restriction. I'm sorry for what happened. I'm sure they're probably handled differently from both sides. But I can't in good conscience go against something I just voted for three months ago.

well and I have to agree I have a hard time making an exemption for something that I voted for and the next person that comes in here is going to ask me for that same exemption maybe a little different circumstance but how do I honor that if I can't stand on what I've already voted on I guess for clarification I wasn't trying to use

those properties of being a problem as an excuse for this my thought is is i have a lot of driving by now that is finally being maintained i'm trying to maybe find a little bit of positive in it i understand i do but i just wanted to to clarify the way i look at it i mean you know i'm not i'm not trying to say anything bad about what you're talking about i'm not sure that's not my reason for other clarification Brian tell me if this is wrong but my understanding is deed restrictions are not enforced by the city or any government entity that is a separate civil matter that takes place between those that are separate to the deed

factoring to the city's I'm sorry I didn't understand it's it's the restrictions I mean city has nothing to do with the restrictions so that would be private cause of action from those that are subject to those de-restrictions would happen to do something about enforcing those does that mean neighbors yeah yeah whoever's whoever lives with that addition would have to yeah whoever is subject to them they're the ones that have to enforce two restrictions

I'm kind of splitting two here. You know, I also agree with what Mr. Parker said about how can I go and get something I voted for. At the same time, I feel like, you know, they're coming from the right place about what they're wanting to do and how they stand and what they're trying to accomplish. I would probably say I could. Vote for the exemption somewhere else.

Do you have any thoughts you want to share, Kristen?

I took really good notes and I appreciate you sharing your side of the story. I did read everything. I think in this case there's also like a third side to the story where all of us have our version of it as well. I would like for us to come together to talk about this in group to see where we want to move forward with some of the stuff. But thank you.

You're welcome.

Would there be any way to have an executive session and a discussion for this legally? Not tonight because we don't have it.

Sure, but in the future we could? Yeah, there's plenty of legal issues that we could.

Under like real estate or?

More consultation with the attorney. Okay.

I just think it's really hard because I know everybody on this board wants to do the right thing and be honorable and transparent. there's just I guess on I know Cole mentioned that we um did not know about it but I don't know if this was a conversation with Ramon or he mentioned it and that's something that I took down on notes but I know there's several people within the community that are interested in tiny homes or the train cars popping up and it's even all over Facebook you know, who's buying houses, I see it being shared. So this, I do not feel as targeted towards you in any way. We didn't, we didn't know it was you reminded to share a specific person or case on who was wanting a tiny home or wanting a train car. So whenever it was brought to us, I think we all agreed that we did not want the train carts coming. So when we pass that ordinance, but I am well aware that there are people that are possibly actively working on creating the train cars or the active homes or trying to get them to code or not doing them the right way either. Yes ma'am. I'm sure we could talk to like works to confirm that but I know people in this in the community um because I see them shared like I said on Facebook and I I in the moment before reading all of this I was like oh nice you know we passed an ordinance so even though they're sharing on Facebook and saying what they're going to do with theirs we know that it's not going to happen because we passed the ordinance um I also think if we did grandfather make an exception we run into that issue of like okay we were posting this on Facebook before. Does that mean we all get an exemption as well? Sure. Um I think if we go that deep, it's almost to the point where maybe we bring it back and not have the ordinance. If we want to open it up that big to bring in the train cards in. Sure. I love the value. I read the website. I think it's great and I think Neal she needs it. You're reading there.

Did what? That's the general if you're just operating in a

Now we're taking it away from the street. That's what we're discussing.

So just to make that clear, because I've been asked, well, I'm in a golf cart. I can drink with you.

No.

You've got open container laws. You've got VWIs. Just so that's clear across the board. For sure. I hope that'll work.

I appreciate that. Item number six on the agenda is considered Ordinance O-560-0826, Approving Atmos Energy Rate Settlement. Hey, Ramon, thanks for being here tonight. Appreciate you.

Hey, Ramon. This ordinance approves the settlement between the West Texas cities of Atmos Energy for 67 cities. This is regarding a rate case. It was filed with the PUC by admins requesting $13.1 million of additional revenues for cities. After negotiating, the settlement was probably down to $10.8 million. What that does, the effective date is October 1st, 2026. The impact of the average residential bill, we look at about $5.17. So this is an agreement with Texas City Council and West Texas City Council.

We'll make a motion to pass that ordinance. I'll second it. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Next item is to consider the official ballot of the Texas Health Benefits Pool Board of Trustees Region 3 election. Ramon?

Every citizen may vote on a representative of the T&L Health Benefits Board of Trustees. Elena Quintanilla, city manager of the town of Ransom Canyon, currently serving on the board. We recommend that we vote for the incumbent, Elena Quintanilla. She's pretty

I'll make a motion that we resubmit Elena Quintanilla for that position.

I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. The next item is to receive the financial statement for the month ending July 31, 2026.

I'll make a motion to receive the statement.

I'll second it.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Motion carries. Administrative reports.

The School Supply, the summer special, was held on July 27 at the Newport Park. The School Supply will be giving school-aged children, and they were also allowed to swing with free admission. We provided a hot dog in the fire department. I think everybody came out. I think everybody helped and was part of it. It was a great success. I believe it was 250. actually were passed out i know the fire department said it cooked about 320 condoms so it was a pretty well attended event uh maybe the first of many in the following years and there was not a single hot dog or bottled water left over no no that's great it was a great turnout uh the last moving department of the season will be thursday august 20th uh we will be showing the obama We call it a day 19, so if you have a place to take your significant other, come out and join us. Bring your popcorn, drink, and that is going to be on the 20th. The annual conference will be in San Antonio, November 11th and 13th. Tamara's been in contact with us all about that. More to follow. And the Mutual Water Park will close for regular season hours and all these

um i think the school supplies and summer supplies still went great appreciate everybody that was involved you know tamra had a lot to do with that and crystal had a lot to do with that zaina i think he has ron bob gary um all the staff that helped it was just a great great event that i think was very impactful does the council have any remarks As it is done, the City Council will now hold a closed executive meeting pursuant to the provision of the Open Meeting Law, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon, Texas Codes, and dated in accordance with the authority contained in Personnel, Section 551.074.