City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council meeting for December 10, 2025. And I see that uh everyone is here. So, we do have a quorum. We're going to stand up and say the pledge of allegiance to both our nation and to the state. And followed by an invocation. [snorts]

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for alliance to the Texas one and indivisible. Councilman Robinson, would you give us the invocation, please?

Yes. All bow your heads, please, and join me in a word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we humble ourselves before you tonight, and we thank you for your loving grace and forgiveness. May your wisdom and power come upon this city council to whom you've entrusted leadership. May the responsibility of our service to the citizens of this great city weigh heavily on our hearts. Father, I say these words in remembrance of the fulfillment of your great promise to our children through the prophet Isaiah. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Father, in this season, we ask for special blessings on our residents and staff. We ask this in the name of your son, the promise fulfilled, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. All right, we're going to move on to item number five, citizens forum. Citizens are invited to speak for three minutes on matters related to city government that relate to agenda or non-aggenda items. Speakers are asked to approach the podium and give their name and address before sharing their comments. Uh, one speaker, Mr. Samson, John Samson,

mayor, Councilman, and everybody else. Good evening, John.

Good evening. I'm not prepared to speak, so I possibly shouldn't be doing this. And I'm going to refrain from going into some of the things that I might have talked about until I'm better prepared. But I do want to thank you all for all your efforts and diligence and the time that you spend cuz it's obvious to me that you spend a lot of time and you care and you do a lot of review. And as some of you know, I've been listening to or attending every council meeting for the last four and a half years. So, I do know what's going on. So, I want to thank you. I have some constructive feedback for some recent posts. Um, but I'll put that in an email. And the only thing I might want to add is, you know, contrarian views are good. Okay? If everybody thinks the same way, you don't get the best answer. So, I'm just going to say that without making any other point. Thank you for your service and everything you do.

Merry Christmas, John. Thank you, John. [clears throat] It doesn't look like we have any more speakers. Not that signed up.

No. All right. We're going to move on to item number six, introduction of new employee. Chief, [clears throat] come on up here. Oh, so Officer Sherubin started his career in law enforcement with the Houston Police Department in 2021. Officer Sherubin spent three years as a patrol officer at the North Belt Station serving the citizens of Green Greens Point. Officer Sher Rubin spent his last year with HPD on a crime suppression team where he received specialized training and investigations and proactive policing. During Officer Sherubin's time at the crime suppression team, he focused on targeting violent crimes, narcotics, and street crimes and occurred not only in Greens Point area, but all over the city of Houston. Officer Sherubin has worked with multiple agencies uh multiple multi- agency task force targeting violent crimes all over the city of Houston and Harris County. Officer Sherubin is proud of his te uh time with the Houston Police Department and lives and and the lives he affected in a positive way in Houston, but is excited and eager to begin his career with Shando Police Department and is hoping to make a positive impact in this community. All right, raise your right hand. Repeat after me.

I, Officer Go ahead and repeat. I, Officer Derubin, do solemnly affirm do solely affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of police officer of the office of police officer of the state of Texas of the state of Texas. I will never bring dishonor upon my integrity. I will never bring dishonor upon my integrity. The badge of my office. The badge of my office. For the Shannondoa Police Department. Shandoa Police Department. My character will remain impeccable. My character will remain impeccable. And I will never betray the public trust. I will never betray the public trust. I will always have the courage I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions.

Hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I promise to uphold the Constitution. I promise to uphold the Constitution. the laws of the United States of America the laws of the United States of America and the state of Texas and the state of Texas. So help me God.

So help me God. Work [applause] [applause] support. All

[laughter]

right, we're going to move on to item number seven. [clears throat] presentation of a proclamation honoring the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Whereas on July 4th, 1776, our nation's founders declared independence, marking a pivotal moment in world history and establishing a republic founded on the principles of liberty, justice, and equality. And whereas the year two 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America, a milestone also known as the semiquincentennial. And whereas America 250 is a multi-layer initiative dedicated to engaging all Americans in commemorating this momentous occasion by reflecting on our nation's past, honoring the contributions of all Americans, and looking ahead to our shared future. And whereas the city of Shannidora recognizes the significance of this milestone and affirms the importance of civic engagement in honoring our shared history. And whereas the city of Shannidora encourages all residents to participate in America 250 through educational programming, civ civic events, and acts of public service that promote a deeper understanding of our nation's journey. inspire civic pride and shape a shared vision for the future. Now therefore, I, John G. Esso, mayor of the city of Shannondoa, do hereby proclaim the period leading up to and including July 4, 2026 as a time for the city of Shannondoa to

recognize and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and to officially participate in the America 250 commemoration. In witness thereof, I I have here onto set my hand and cause the sealed of the city of Shannondoa, Texas to be affixed this 10th day of December, 2025. I think this is a a great moment and I encourage every resident of Shannidora uh and everywhere to celebrate our 250th. It's a it's it's it's a a landmark date and a landmark anniversary. It coincides with the with the birthday of my beloved US Army as well. All right. Do you want to take this, Mr. Secretary?

It's signed. Sure. It'll be on the record. We're going to move on to item number eight, the presentation of the new CVB website. Mr. Mayor, thank you, sir.

Well, good evening everyone. Um [clears throat] um as some of you may remember, this was actually approved in last fiscal year's 2425 budget. It's been a bit of a journey. It's taken us 13 months to get here. We um actually launched soft launched this the week before Thanksgiving and um there are lots as as I handed out to each of you there's lots of technological and feature enhancements that we've built into this and as I've shared with y'all before this was a big step for all of us as it is a moving us to a platform that is truly travel and tourism focus and centric and [clears throat] this is all that they do so if I go up to the top of the website. Some of the things that I wanted to talk about here that are high level to give y'all a chance. You can see we have integrated video capabilities and stuff throughout the website. These are some of the videos that we put together in clips [snorts] that we have built and accumulated over the last three plus years and part of our digital um asset management system. So, we've got this in to give people an overview of what's going on in our city. We've got a very clean and simple, elegant design of this website where things are all templated, [snorts] easy to navigate and get around. We have lots of cross references and entrance points that are built into every page and listing that we have done on this site so that people can be going anywhere within the site and there's going to be information to direct them to other places. sometimes in cases where they may not even know they wanted to go or need to get information on. That's the hope. So that we can really put forth more time on site, more visitor engagement and focus on that. So right now you can see as we go down we've got

the hotels section. We have beautiful photography and video. Some of this was stuff that we've accumulated over the years and shot through our efforts with Yellow Texas and those other video projects. Some of it too, I would say 95 to 98% of this photography is also from our partners or us. We only have a very few shots that aren't one or the other. And they were all happy to participate. So, we've got our hotels, we've got our dining, we've got new technology that I will be talking to you about that we've integrated, including aerial drone virtual tours of our city and surrounding areas, as well as threshold 360 virtual tours on the ground on premise for our hotels, entertainment venues, and our restaurants as well. those in particular that have private and semi-private dining rooms so that when groups or meeting planners are looking at our city, where can they host a meeting, where can they take their sports team, who has capabilities, those things are all going to be easily organized on the pages by subject matter, where they can go in and look. So, what [clears throat] you will see, I just wanted to finish this up because you've got going in, you can see we've got these done visually. We have them here into the areas. We've got them by topic matters, plan your visit blogs. You can see our margarita trail. We've got all sorts of blog post. And one of the things that's great, we also have um helpful maps. And so you can literally go into these sections and you can move around and you're seeing on the map. So you can click in, you can see actually the listing, you can go to it or you can go back. And so what we will do, like I said, lots of entrance

points, but I will show you right now when we go in, we also have a hamburger menu up here on the top where people can navigate this way in the upper right corner. So, if we go into our hotel section, what you're going to be able to do is go in and you can see we've got links in here to take you to our restaurants, to our entertainment venues, and we've got all of our hotels, all templated, addresses, phone numbers, websites to take you in. They're all here on the page. You then have a sort capability by amenities where you can see if there's something you're looking for. So, if you're looking for complimentary breakfast, if you're looking for meeting space, if you're looking for things like that, you can click in and go and take a gander at all of those things. So, we try to make it very easy for you. I'll show you really quick. I'll take you into courtyard just to give you an example. So, you can go in. We've got a variety of wonderful photography that's in here. It's also fully expandable on the page to where you can see it in larger format. Take a look at all of that and get out. Takes you to their website. You can book your rooms. We've got a menu of the restaurant. We also have integration, full integration with Google Maps, so you can get directions showing you where these all of our partners are listed. So, you can go in there and print off your directions if you're traveling in. We've got links within the body copy. And these are accordion boxes that we have and you're going to find these in all of our sections. They're fully expandable. So we have a list of amenities. You can go in and see what these each of our our and this is going to be something that you'll see not only in our hotels, but they're also in our entertainment venues and they're also um in our restaurants. We have room details in the hotels where we talk about the

breakout by room type. How many doubles, how many kings, how many suites, all of that there. It's very important when you're dealing with sports teams who want doubles and are on a budget. Things like that are really critical. We have a meeting space section where they can go in and we put the breakout by meeting space rooms and type and what their sizes are. So here you can see the full capacity chart for the hotel where we go in. We've got a boardroom, the Austin room, and then we've got their divisible meeting room into two, Lonear A, Lonear B. And then this is an integration what you will see below of our Threshold 360 virtual tours. So you can see we're outside the restaurant or outside the hotel, I should say. We can go into the lobby and you can drag and turn around, take a look around wherever you want. They also do this on their own with the play button. And if you click up at the top, you can move your way around. Say you want to look at the fitness room and see, well, what do they have in there? Do they have all the kind of equipment that I want to use? You've got an ability to look at it and take at it. Take a gander. And in particular, all of the meeting spaces are in here as well. We've got the pools, the outdoor patio. You can go in and see the boardroom and the beastro. So, you've got the little dining area and you can see how that really works here and then um [snorts] so you go in to the Austin boardroom and you can turn around and you go, "Oh, well there's the boardroom. That's what we've got." So we can get out of here can take you back up and we can go into likewise if we do this with our restaurants.

What you're going to see here is a similar setup and layout. We've got this all sortable by cuisine types up in the left. So you can look and see what's available. And then we have amenities to sort by from there. So, do they offer catering? Is the facility available to rent for a private event? Do they have private dining, semi-private? Do they have outdoor patios? Are they pet friendly? So, I will take you in. Let me go to page two and I'll take you into Mia's. Whoops. Actually wanted to take you do page two. Missed that. Okay. And now we can go into Mia's table. And once again, just like in the hotels, you have the map. You've got the function all about it with the body copy. We've got the amenities. We have meal service and cuisine types with the restaurants. So you can go in, do they serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch? We've got, do they provide catering services? That is in here as well. Then we have do they have special event or group space like a party room for birthdays or anything else. So it goes in talks about capacity and once again you can see in our restaurants those that have them they have tours so you can go into the main dining room look around move yourself around to see everything in there. You can click up in the guide and then you can look in the patio room or the patio outside. Take a look at their outdoor dining patio. And there is the patio semi-private dining room. So you've got a view of that and to look at the capacities. Once again, meeting and event planners who want to be doing this or sports teams, they want to know, well, what's the room like? Can I get all my people in? Is it nice? Is

it bright? What do I think? So, you've got the ability to do that with all of these. Then, if we go in to our things to do section, what we've done here in our things to do is try to put this into digestible small bits by category and um make it easy to people. So, on the things to do, we've got all sorts of things. You can go into entertainment parks, the Aveda, shopping, sports, nearby attractions. We've got the parks. You can go in, you can do your trip planning ideas here. We will eventually will have the capabilities that we're building out right now to do your own trip planning and itinerary building with maps and the places you want to go on it. So, we will have all of that be in here as well. And you can move right up here and say you want to go look at the entertainment section. So here we go into all of our now coming up to with the opening of um back nine sit golf simulation. We talked about it today at the ELC. Um we're we've got 10 entertainment venues in our city now. And you can go in here and you can do this and sort by location where they are. You can sort by amenities as well. Do you need AV? Are they ADA accessible? Do you have meeting rooms? You can cross this over in a variety of ways. We will go in. I'll show you Dave and Busters. And it works exactly the same way. So, you've got the listings, you've got the map function, amenities, meal services there for them as well, catering or not, you've got special event group space with all of their meeting rooms. And then we have the threshold 360 where you can go in and they will have full tours of their arcade, of their dining room, of the meeting rooms. All of that is

available for people to take a look at. We're also integrating capacity charts if they have those in here as well. Um, okay. I'm trying to not lose my mouse here. There we go. There we go. And then we can go back in. You've got entertainment. We've got our shopping centers where you go in. We've got all of those shopping centers just for you to be aware that are all highlighted here by their geographic locations. We have Metrop Park, Portino, San Moon, Research Forest, and Research Plaza. So you can go into Metrop Park, you can go in and see all of the businesses there that we have within it. And you've got the sortability whether or not you want to go in and hotels, entertainment, shopping, or dining. You can narrow down by that. And then you can go in and so once again, Breakthrough, um, Dave and Busters, they all have that same searchability. The stores do as well have some functionality, too. So, we've got that built in here. I'm trying to get this. Go back and I can go back up and I can click into my menu and we can go city parks. So, we have those available here as well. We've got a listing of our parks. You can go in. Here's Vision Park. Uh you can go in. We can also do embedded video here as well. So we've got an example of like when we did the park dedication. Everything is here and available. You

can actually see the video highlight all those facilities park what it has. So that's a really nice functionality. Um we can go back. Um, and then we have our sports facility. So, you can go in here. Beautiful photography of the stadium and the nuditorium. Take you into their listings. And then one of the things that I wanted to talk to, there's two other things that we really need to get to tonight before I'm done. Um, one of those that I wanted to talk to you about, and it's come up before in conversations, how do we promote things? Well, in all of our advertising and advertorial, we talk about our val city value proposition. We talk about our convenient location, how easy it is to get around, our compact footprint, and our proximity to all the attractions and cities that are neighboring us and nearby. And we know from our data and from all of the um data intelligence that we have, we know where people are interested in going. So, one of the things that we did was add our nearby attractions page. And what we've tried to do here for the most part, most part is put those kind of venues, spaces, um, parks, things that are are nearby that we know people are going to. In most cases, these are not things that are direct competitor. Some cases, they're slightly different or they may be in a similar category, but different. So, we have those incorporated in. But we've got the pavilion, Dosey-Do, the Big Barn, the George Mitchell Nature Preserve, we've got IFly, we've got K1 Speed, the Arboritum, Oldtown Spring, San Houston Visitor Center where we can go see the statue. You're trying to do those things that people would come and be interested in. Six Planes, Hurricane Harbor, Scrapyard Sports. We have

Topgolf. We got Texas Tree Adventures, the dueling piano bars. You can see all of it here. But but one thing it is to talk to people about it in advertorial copy. Another thing is to just have simple listings or maps and brochures. But something we have done that we've incorporated that we also think will be something very helpful and and useful to us. Not only for us in the tourism side, but as our city continues to grow, we continue to expand and we have new capabilities in the road and years ahead for economic development. This is our Skynav virtual 360 aerial tours. And so what I wanted to show you, this is from the north side of town looking in. And it basically we've arranged this in such a way where it pulls you south through our city. So you can be over at Methodist Hospital. We can be looking north and then we can come up and turn this around and come in and you can see we've got all of these things here. You can click on MD Anderson. You can go to their website take you there and as you see on all the hotels we've got a visit we've got or on the hospitals we have a page here about Shannondoa hotels. So, if you're going there and you're needing to stay to get care for you or your loved one, you can click in and this will take you right if I move it up just a tad. Go to the read more, it'll take you in directly to our hotels where you can book your room. [snorts] Um, and we [clears throat] have that in all of these kind of areas and sections. But I can show you as we go down. I can give you a simple to move this down just a little. So, we go down the highway. You can see going down south. Let's go to Metrop

Park Square. And we can pull you in. Um, you're in Metro Park. You can see Sam Moon. You can see what's available here. We can be looking at north side of town. [snorts] We've got the Hyatt House Hotel right there. You can click on all these things. We've got the Even Hotel. You've got Wood Forest Bank Stadium and they're coming up right now. It's just responding a little slow, but you've got them all in where we can go in. We can move down to the stadium. You can see and for economic development, you're looking at the raw land. You're looking at what's available, what space is available. We can go over to Port Aino and we can move to the front side of it on the access road. So, here we are. You can look over to our west side of town to see our hotels and restaurants that are located over here. And then we can continue to move on down. We can go to this east at Research Forest and Tamina. You can see Memorial Herman research to the west. We can go in. We've got the woodlands. We've got um Scrapyard Sports. You can click in here and we include scrapyards. We've hosted tournaments that we brought them into play here. Our hotels are the closest. So you can see it gives them a complete overview of the fields. It's really nice. You can take them into dosey do and that area of the highway. And on all these pages, we've integrated our hotels and the booking functionality. You can go into the Cynthia Woods Metro Pavilion over in the Woodlands. And we're not trying to catfish anyone here either, folks, which is something I think is really critical and important. We do not try to pass off these attractions or the cities as being part of ours. We say who they are. It's

the Woodlands. But everywhere in our copy or in Spring or in Conra, wherever it may be, we say where it is, but you have the ability to get in here and um move around. If I can just get my mouse back. And I like that that that you link our hotels. Yes. To the to these sites that you me that are outside of the city.

Absolutely. And it's really critical that we do that. So you go down and we can go down to the west side here of research forest and you've got our research uh forest shopping center right there. We've got fieldings and goodco. You've got lifetime fitness in Mona, Madera, excuse me. And so we've given you this ability in the user to go on, see where everything is located, how easy it is, and within that plan your trip functionality. Like I said, we're working on it now to try and get it completed. Um, but that's going to give people the ability to stay where they want to stay, hit the spots that they want to go to and print off their own little maps and and itineraries for themselves. So, that will be a really nice functionality. So, anyhow, that's kind of I wanted to give you all a brief overview so you could see how we've been working to try and get this built out. We've already received um a few emails from our partners as they've been Billy's created a Google checklist sheet for us to get to them on these things like the amenities. Everything that we're trying to get sure everything's incorrect and right, have them proof their pages. Um sometimes the websites aren't updated, sometimes their corporate isn't. So, we're really trying to work through that system um as quickly as we can, but we've gotten a number of them back and people seem to be exceedingly excited and pleased

what it's looking like. So, thank you. Anyhow, we have a question from the audience. Sure. Mr. Samson. Yes, sir. I I don't have a question. I have a couple comments. Sure. The the website is Come up a little closer. So the uh so the e the website is absolutely excellent. I happen to be an expert in some of this area and I think like a user. So the website is abs excellent if you get there in the first place. Okay. And I have a couple comments and I'm just telling you know all this

u but maybe for everybody else's education. So if I'm a knowledgeable person looking for, you know, space for a event, I'm going to figure out to go look at this website, visit jennandoa.com. If I'm a casual lo user looking for a restaurant or things to do or a hotel, unless I start with Shen andoa, I'm not going to end up there. And I'm saying this based on my limited experience searching rather than looking at this wonderful website. If I say things to do or restaurants or hotels in Shannondoa, this site's going to show up.

You know, depending on if it's hotels, you're going to deal with all the booking stuff. Mhm. If I do restaurants or things to do in the Woodlands or Conroe, it doesn't show up. So if there you all you probably know this but if there's anything that can be done to elevate it because most people don't think Shannondoa they think woodlands or they think conro so you got to get them to get there in the first place for a casual user. I'm done. No no no but some of that we've already been doing and working on. So search engine optimization

and it's not just doing our website in our city. We have to do it with our competitive set already. I know you know what you're doing. I'm only speaking as a casual user. It's a wonderful website, but a casual user is not necessarily going to find it unless they put in Shimola. That's my only point. That's a that's a good point. Thank you, Mr. Simson. I think as a small city of what we where we are and what we have here, that's been since I arrived that is a huge challenge and especially I'm not saying it isn't. Yeah, just commenting. It's good feedback, John. Thank you. Thank you, John. Yeah,

sure. And the other thing I did want y'all to know too on the technological side here, not only Ron, this is really for you. Not only do we have metagging in each page, each partner page and everything has its own individual page,

every part. So, our space, our size of a website has grown exponentially. But we have that as well as all structured data with um the schema that we are doing as well schema markup. So it's not only just enhanced SEO but it's also going to be AI helpful and proficient as we move into this first wave. So we've gone through that and all of this will be and working in tandem with the other traditional things that we're doing and the partners we have. Um those will be things to enhance its searchability. Previously, we weren't able to have that kind of page in detail to grow our rankings higher like that. And now we should be able with this to be able to significantly increase those search opportunities and our rankings for the website. So,

thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hey, John. The only problem I have with it was the pictures of the food look so good. I'm hungry. [laughter] [clears throat]

All right. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to item number nine, discussion on possible action to approve additional entrance planting. Mayor and council, every year we plan for uh in budget for plantings and enhancements throughout the city. Um it's usually $15,000 every year that we plan. Um but um as you all know, um we're playing catchup right now. I wanted to play catchup this year. Um so I asked um other landscapers in the area to give me some numbers on what it will take to do enhancements in the main entrances for the city and also the main parks. So I got prices from um our landscaping company which is Ambassador Services. They do a great job throughout uh but also I want to reach to a few others. So it was Brandon Landscaping, Rodriguez Lawn Services and Yellowstone Landscape. Um they all gave me bits uh what it would take. Basically was the same scope of work that you see on the agenda. Um and ambassador did not disappoint. They were the lowest bidder. Um I'm asking $50,000. Uh so $35,000 in addition to what was already um budgeted for. Um and um yeah, that's pretty much all I have. I don't know if you have any questions. Will this include the uh the front of city hall? Is this part of that?

That's including there. Yes. No, that's a separate project. So that that $50,000 is a separate project, but on this project, I'm also adding some plantings in here. Okay. Yeah. All right. And I will note there is about 30 uh 22,000 unalloc um unused in the park vacation fund that we could use for this. How much? About 33 thou? 33 or 32? It's about about 33, give or take. Well, I I'll entertain a motion on this item. Take a motion to approve as submitted. Second.

Have a motion to approve as submitted by Councilman Pollock, seconded by Councilman Robinson. Discussion. Uh Ro, I just want to ask how many locations does this represent that we got bids for? It's on the Let me see. Let me count it real quick. One, two, three,

14. 14. Uh, and I'm when I I think we've had this conversation. I'm the least knowledgeable as far as landscaping goes. I don't know the difference between a perennial or an annual. Uh, if it survives in my yard, I let it grow and I'll put more of those in my yard. Mhm. Uh my question is uh in doing this and this amount u my biggest concern was is what's our expectation year after year? Yeah.

Uh you know as far as bud as budgeting something for this and can you set my uh nerves at ease that this isn't going to be a you know extra 50,000 every year that we're

No. Fair question. uh I would have the same question I was sitting there. Um so it's not going to be $50,000 every year. Right now we're playing catchup from um all the every year that has only been $15,000. We actually needed more but it's not. So the plan things that we we picked are specifically designed to last. And the good thing that Ambassador why ambassador is doing this they're here every day. So they will be taking care of all the drip lines and any any uh anything that goes back to those plants. They're right here every day so they can take care of them. So if I mean plant some plants will die eventually,

but they're going to be right here to uh replant them if if needed. How do I square this with my neighbor at happy hour? Why she won't be having any improvements in her neighborhood? Well, we can we can definitely uh check that out. She asks me every year. Every year she asks. We we I I we can add it. I mean to um as much as possible. Um their quote was only for So Lori, I was thinking about you. So

the quote was only like for $42,000. I added some cushion cuz I mean there's going to be some drip lines that will need to be uh fixed. So I I want to have some cushion. So we can add some additional planning somewhere else. Uh but that can be discussed later. Good plan. So Raul the what you've presented um adds up to 40 $40,738 which leaves you 9,000 plus left over. But you said you need another 35,000. No. So, uh, we budget

I'm just trying to put it all together. No. Yeah, you got it. So, um, we budget every year for this past year, we budgeted for $15,000. So, that's what we've had in the budget. So, this is the budget amendment for an additional $35,000, right? For the 50 because it was mayor's idea to landscape the front.

No. So, that $50,000 capital project is for it's this is different than that. This is just for updating the plans that are operational every year. It's to beef it up to get it up to a par that it needs to be because it we've only budgeted 15,000 each year. So, they're just trying to make them better down pay catchup. The $50,000 that's included on the capital project for the city hall front entrance rehabilitation is different from this. This it unfortunately the 50,000's confusing everyone because it's the same amount and it's kind of the same idea a little bit

but this is taken so basically there's $15,000 in the operating budget for plins every year in order to enhance them more they're asking for another $35,000 in addition to the 15,000 within the budget and because it's over the $20,000 purchasing policy limit for the city administrator. That's why council would have to approve that. There is about 33,000 in the park beautifification fund which is funded by the rentals at the park and you know so that money can be used and then whatever excess we have we can use out of uh available cash. So bottom line you're looking for an amendment to the budget

basically. Well, you don't necessarily need to do it if we use park education. It's more for because it's over Joseph's limit as a city administrator because it's an unbudgeted increase to that line item. So the fund me it won't be technically an amendment. It'll just come out of that beautifification fund the difference and we've got that in there support that. Yes. So the funds are there. It's just over my it's over the purchasing authority question. Any additional discussion? Yeah. I have to stay consistent with my own values, which is like on the heels of our first tax increase in 20 years. I can't I can't vote for it myself. You all can vote your own conscience.

And there's also the possibility of asking MDD for helping on this. U so yes, MDD can cover parks and entrances and commercial um enhancements as well. Um they're just anything that's tied to city hall would have to be come out of the which would come just out of that general 15,000 budget line item anyway. All right, let's go for a vote then. All in favor say I. I.

No. Motion passes 4 to one. Item number 10, final report and public hearing regarding a variance to allow a residential structure to encroach within aside building line located at 28818 Holly Hill Drive, Shannondoa, Texas.

Uh yes, mayor and councel, the property owner at the address listed on the agenda pack um is seeking a variance for reconstruction of that uh property. It currently is a vacant lot right at Holly Hill and Shannidoa Drive. The um property has a platted building line back from its original subdivision of a 10-ft line. The IDC since its passing in 2011 has increased that side set back to 20 foot budding because it abuts a joining street. So the um uh the new owner has asked for a variance to construct up to the platted 10-ft building line. Um what you'll see in the agenda pack, there was a a rendering that showed there was a very small section of like the garage area that was impeding. Um PNZ looked at this in depth um as far as what the area impact would be to neighboring properties, ensuring there was proper depth on the driveway um with the reduced um building line and then also uh trying to maybe understand why the 2011 IDC called for that increased uh property adjacent to the roadways. After long discussion, the planning and zoning commission does recommend approval of this variance application to allow construction up to that 10- foot platted building line.

All right. Do I have a motion on motion to approve? Second public hearing or public hearing. Oh, it's a public hearing, I'm sorry.

All right. Uh we're going to open up the public hearing at uh 6:46 p.m. Uh is anyone here to speak on this matter? Having no one here to speak on this matter, we're going to close the public hearing at 6:47 p.m. All right, we'll move on to the item 11, discussion and possible action to adopt the following ordinance. An ordinance of the city of Shannidora, Texas, amending the code of ordinances chapter 102 to approve a variance to the city of Shannondoa zoning ordinance providing for encroachment of a residential structure into a site building setback setback line for 28818 Holly Hill Drive, Shannondor, Texas. Providing for a penalty in in the amount of $2,000 for violations thereof, providing severability, and providing for an effective date. Now I'll entertain.

Motion to approve. A motion to approve by Councilman Ray Maker. Second. Seconded by Councilman Summerland. Any discussion? Yes. I've been I've been waiting for a project like this to happen in Shannondoa where to to revitalize and redevelop some things. And thank you for having the courage to build something new here. And uh thank you so much for doing that. And hopefully that will set a tone for future home builders as well here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Exactly. Yeah, I got to say that is a very unique uh design. I got to agree. I I I love the architecture of it. It's great.

All right. Any other comments? Now, all in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Congratulations. Motion carries. Congratulations. [laughter] Thank you for [clears throat] again. I Is it Is it done yet? [laughter] Are we there yet? I know you have to jump through some hoops with the variances and stuff from personal experience. So, thank you uh for for dealing with that as well. All right. Item number 12, discussion and possible action to cast a vote for the directors of the Montgomery Central Appraisal District Board of Directors. This is a routine

housekeeping process housekeeping thing. Uh, as have you all had a chance to to look at the candidates and do we have a a a unanimous um decision on on who the the two candidates are? Anyone of you? Does anyone know any of them? I do know uh uh one of them. Well, I would I would I would actually relate to you because you know better than I Well, I I know one of them. I don't know the

I don't know the the rest of them, but uh [clears throat] what exactly is the action that we need that we're required to take? We we just vote on uh if you've got you don't have to vote for two, but you can say we're casting our votes for one candidate, Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones, or just one. So, we have two votes then, right? Or you can do all to one. All to one. Yeah. Well, I I recommend Arthur Preda Hoff the only candidate that I that I know on this list.

So So I'll move we I would defer to you on that. Yeah. Me too. Okay. So So moved. Second. Okay. So you So the motion is to uh approve Mr. Broadhoff. Uh both votes to Mr. uh Broadoff. Correct. by Councilman Brat and seconded by Frank. Councilman Robinson. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Item 13, discussion and possible action to approve police department purchases from the equipment [clears throat] replacement fund.

Mayor and council, you'll see your agenda pack. There is a list of items to be approved out of the equipment replacement fund. Uh just a little background, this is a restricted fund that uh we contribute um funding in each year to to replace certain capital assets and some equipment. Um the all of these are our PD this time. So the first one's the tasers. This is just the year two of that 5-year subscription base that Exxon is now requiring for tasers. Um we it's the same exact invoice as last year. Um number two is going to be the Taho. we did have a little bit of a budget difference. Um so for all three vehicles there's about a $27,000 difference. However, we do have um two vehicles um on gov deals right now and we anticipate they will probably uh cover the difference and that money the proceeds from any vehicle purchase for the police department does go back into a placement um for future funding. Um there are two detective trucks. Uh these two trucks will replace the two current Dodge Rams. Um there is a differential in that as well. Obviously um things have gone up since we originally had anticipated these uh schedules. Um so luckily though the asset forfeiture um does have the avail ability to fund the difference which you'll see on that second the next agenda. And then the fourth item is the mobile radios. Those are for the three new Tahoe purchases. Um and I do want to just clarify there was some confusion among several um about the chart. Um the reason why that last column does not decrease is because nothing's been approved. These are just items that are up for approval. So typically I'll I might have public works on here. I might have community development. So I keep the balance of what's in the equipment

placement fund. But because it's all PD, it just kind of carries through the same number. And if there's any questions about the purchases, Troy is can answer any of those specifics for you. I've just got a question for counselor on in the past, city council declared vehicles as surplus before they traded them in, and we don't do that anymore. Is there a reason that this has no longer that's more an accounting issue than legal and I don't know the answer.

So we we had talked uh Kathy Bill we talked a couple years about it. Um there is no statute that requires you to declare surplus for sale. Um there's a lot more rules about how to buy something in the local code than there is to declare it as surplus. um just to avoid um overload in the agenda, we decided just to not bring all those because also we didn't know what is the threshold, right? Um if Chris is selling a server is do I need to bring that compared to a vehicle? Um it kind of kept kept it open and we were bringing everything and it was we I think at one point we had an agenda like desks. Do do we really need to approve the surplus sale of desks and bookshelves, you know? So that's kind of why we just were like, you know, we replace things as we need them and then we will sell those. Whatever's the best if it's a tradein that's worth more or a sale is worth more, we'll go with that option to yield more revenue back to the city for those assets.

And I'll just add real quickly to that. Um these items we we listen for public auction. Um and basically the idea behind that is there is a difference. there is statutory law about selling real property real you know and so and that's done by by bid so we just follow that same practice with the the non-statuto which are you know vehicles or other equipment you know a JLG lift or generators or whatever it may be and that's listed on you know gov deals typically because that's a public auction I I understand, but I basically disagree. But that's okay.

No problem. All right. Do we have a motion on this? I have a motion to approve. A motion to approve by Councilman Pard. A second. I'll second. Second by Councilman Bro. Discussion. We see that we're using uh HGAC buy on on these vehicles. Are we is have we used them before in the past? We have. We've used tips. We've used by board. We've used several of them. Using them and tips. But yeah, whatever's the cheapest usually. Yeah. Whoever has the best contract, that's what we're going to go with. [laughter]

That's what I'm I was happy to see that that that we're getting a better deal from the HAC uh my uh option. And we're part of the Texas co-op one, too. So, They're happy as well. Oh, yeah. I'm sure. [laughter] Yeah. Right. All right. If there's no additional discussion, we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Item number 14. I understand that we we don't this does not require a vote.

That's correct. Uh item 14 is strictly the police chief's option. And so it's a report to city council about what's being spent, but no vote is required.

Okay. And that's uh item 14, discussion and possible action to approve an unbudgeted police department purchase over $20,000 from the asset forfeite funds. So the reason this agenda so as Bill clarified chapter 59 code of criminal procedure states that asset forfeiture funds are um to be spent under the um sole discretion of the police chief. Um there is sometimes an issue that it's over our purchase and limit of $20,000 for under budgeted items by the city administrator or interim interim city administrator. So this is just um the approval to spend those funds because it is over it conflicts with purchasing policy the limit but yeah so what you'll see on here is there are two things the um the uh police Tahoe that we had purchased um last year for the lieutenant's position um that will go into the actual patrol fleet because Lieutenant Pullin is remaining with her um Durango um so there's the upfit cost to put that back into patrol fleet and put a newer vehicle back in there. And then the diff the funding difference from the previous agenda for the two detective trucks.

Okay. Is there any more information provided on this item? Thank you. Thank you, J. Item 15, discussion and possible action to approve the 180day reserve amount for fiscal year 2025 2026.

Mayor and council senior agenda pack. This is kind of a routine item that we do every year. It is a little bit later than usual because budget did go later than usual. So it took me a little bit of time to get everything um situated. Um [snorts] so typic I mean um the city had adopted um I believe in I can't remember but we adopted a threshold limit for the um general fund reserves which is um 180 days in our policy. Um these funds are restricted. It requires council action to tap into those if we need those for any reason. Um there's a list of reasons why we could go into those, but it does require a plan to replenish it. Um so this year to uh transfer the amount needed to transfer into that reserve um to meet the 180day operating would be about $276,222. Um, [snorts]

isn't isn't our the amount of the reserve much higher than most cities do? Yes. I'm just I'm just thinking that do we really need 180 days? Are we overt taxing people by keeping that much in reserve? So,

where we could lower to be something a little closer in line with other cities, maybe 120 days or something like that. So cash reserves usually only fund capital infrastructure um capital projects um and the equipment placement funding um it's not used for recurring operational items. That's how you'll get yourself into a financial trouble real quick. If you're, you know, taking from cash to fund your operational, you should always have your revenues exceed your expenditures for operational the those current period revenues which are your revenues that your collected property tax, sales tax, mixed beverage for that year. Um we do have above um most the uh government financial officers um require their best is a lot lower than that. robust policy. I think it's either 60 or 90 days. I can't recall. Um but it is at least half of what we have. Maybe a little bit.

I believe it's 90 days. Yeah. So is there a recommendation? Yes. And the reason why we went with 180 um that was um I know Mike wanted it back in the day, but yeah, it was it was it was kind of one of those things that we I talked to him about it the other day, too, and I was like, "Yeah, it is high." And obviously like most of the reason that we would go into this fund is if there was a you know a revenue shortfall um like co you know was a good example we had but we were thankful enough we didn't have to touch that um [clears throat] you know it's for things like that or if there's a large capital project that we want to fund with cash instead of a a finance.

I'm just saying for the amount that we're putting in there we could have paid for something else. Lisa, do you do you do you recall if if this 180 days was based on a a risk analysis that that caused us to feel like not that I recall set aside. It was recommended by a council member um at the time. I can tell you the thought process was that if we had a hurricane or tornado and we lost Home Depot for the Portoino or part of Portoino, the rebuild time of about two years and we could lose half of our sales tax revenue for a couple of years.

I understand that. It's just a risk usually a a risk analysis uh would would help you understand because that's what you're trying to do is manage risk here. So, uh, when you have professional organizations like the GFOA setting a threshold of say 90,

well, why are they saying 90 is a good number? Why are we saying 180 is better? I I don't understand. I wonder I recall the discussion was focused on that and that we're so sales tax, you know, reliant. That was a part of that discussion as well. um you know, we're ne we're unique in that situation. And so that was I recall that was a part of that discussion for pushing it up to the 180 days. It seems to me that that this is a this is a good a good time for us to kind of re-evaluate the need for that because I can see council uh Ray Maker's point about the we if we had uh let's say if we put 120 days in reserve then we have that extra money we would have that extra money to use for necessities like we just had to raise the property tax for

to for the for the police parity there operation that that would not affect that the the cash reserves you can't you shouldn't use cash to fund your but that's a matter of policy that's a matter of council we will be lowering the the the amount that's going to be cash on hand the 100 instead of 180 days it'll be 120 days I understand but we wouldn't fund recurrent operational from cash you want to do I against your revenue per your period revenues no for the fiscal year at least I think we wouldn't put the money into

into it into it so we won't have to worry about justifying justifying keep in mind the policy requires that we replenish what we take out but that's based on what the policy's established number is so if you lower it down to 90 days then all we have to do is replenish it up to 90 days now 90 days I'm not comfortable if we are comfortable with that or 12 days. 120 to me seems like 120 would be good. More worthwhile. I'll tell you what, why don't we why don't we put this on agenda item? Why don't we table this item for us right now? Yeah. Second that. Yes. Schedule it for as an item uh on the agenda to discuss this further because I like this idea. This is this will free us up. Yeah. Two years.

Next year we're going to have to worry about the police absolutely salaries parody. So this could open this up for us. So two years ago, GFOA did have a, you know, I was involved in kind of a think tank for it. Um to kind of re revisit how that how these numbers are driving and how they're, you know, reserves are looked at. Um and so I kind of have a basis of what I could bring back um based on kind of what other cities are doing. Um, so I could bring something back. Let's let's just just to just for the record, can I get a motion to table?

Well, I think we got Okay. I'm making the motion. Frank made the motion. And you seconded it. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I'm didn't hear it. That's okay. That's all right. Okay. All right. Well, at least I at least I took it to say you were making [laughter] the motion. Absolutely. And I recorded it that way. So, all right. Yeah. Okay. So let's let's put this on on future agenda for uh a deeper discussion into this. Good. Everybody agreed? Absolutely. Absolutely. Need a vote. Vote. Vote. You need a vote. All say I. I. I. There it is. Thank you. [laughter] Thank you.

All right. Item 16. discussion and possible action to approve a resolution to authorize representatives to the Shannidor Land Trust account at Wood Forest Bank.

Mayor and Council, um the land the Shando Land Trust um uh board was a board um that existed several um before my time. Uh so basically [snorts] there is about $3,500 sitting within a Wood Forest account that has its own taxpayer ID number. It's not tied to the city's tax ID number, but it was for the land trust. Um because of banking laws and regulations, it's very hard for me to get um items I need for our audit from this because I am not a representative on the account like I am all of our other accounts. So this is just to update that I talked to Wood Forest. They told me what to put in the resolution to get it. Um and because we don't do anything with this account, I only put me and the mayor on there. So it was less paperwork. Um, but if there's there's two representatives at least. Um, I I do have a call with the land uh with the land office to see if this account needs to remain open or what we need to do with it. But for the time being so I can get the documentation and be able to get that information for our audit. I just need this resolution pass.

Before before jumping that, I had I had a brief conversation with the last known surviving uh Shannidoa land trust representative Ken Smith. So, what about the land trust per se? Pardon? Do we have to do something to kill off the land trust? That's what I'm I'm waiting for confirmation back from the entity that issued the the uh original. So, this is just to do the this is just so I can get the confirmation done for the audit. I think Ken was kind of expecting to be spoken with, but the last surviving member of the It's just a clerical thing. It has nothing with anything. Yeah, I promised him I would bring it up. So,

all right. Motion to approve. We have a motion to approve the the new signators you and Lisa by Councilman Broad. Second. Seconded by Councilman Robinson. Any additional discussion? If none, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 17, discussion and possible action to adopt the minutes of the October 22nd, 2025 regular meeting. Motion they be approved as read. Motion to approve as read by Councilman Broad. Second. Second.

Seconded by Councilman Summerland. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Item 18, discussion and possible actions to ratify the accounts payable for November 2025. Have a motion. So move. Second. Motion to approve by Council Robinson, seconded by Councilman Pard. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Opposed? Motion carries. City administrator updates. Yes, mayor and council. I just have a couple here and then a uh a fun video summarizing our lighting of the angels event to to do at the end of my updates. Uh the first is about the main park. I'm sure you've been getting a lot of questions about when is it going to be done and the answer is very soon. Hopefully, we're going to have our final walkthrough this week. Um we needed to give time for the concrete to cure. Um, and then we were supposed to stripe last week and it rained all week. So, that kind of pushed us back uh one additional week, but that's okay. It gave that concrete another week to cure completely. So, we're hoping to have that final walkthrough and get that open early next week. Uh, the second was at the lighting of the angels. Uh, we tried something new which was a city information table which was manned by R and Joe. Thank you. uh because we are getting input um about the traffic calming devices in Shannidoa Valley for the traffic committee and then also disseminating city information, new developments coming up and and we're always there and Joe to answer any questions as uh residents came by to check out what information we had for them. So, it was a it was really well received. Ro is going to be summarizing uh the responses that he he gathered there, talking with residents about the traffic calming and get that over the the traffic committee as they continue to gather more information and discuss solutions. And as promised, we have a fun video to show. And I've got to give kudos to Kirby on this one. She worked fast on this and well, it's amazing. Check it out. Heat [music]

[music] up here. [music]

[music] Heat up here. [music]

[music] Well done. Nice. Great job. Good job. Good job. So, she'll be posting that uh on social media. So, if people are maybe on the line about attending, maybe that can uh convince them to come and have a good time with us. Um other than that, you know, merry Christmas and and have a happy new year. Question question on the uh beverage tax down significantly. Do you have any do you have any rationale for that? Let me take a So yeah. So take a look at it.

There were some um businesses that reduced their uh license. So I think Mia doesn't sell alcohol anymore. I think they're just beer and wine. So you won't see that in mixed beverage report. This is only for spirit sales or anyone express. So, and then also, um, mixed beverage was down overall the whole state, I believe, the mixed beverage tax. Um, so when we think about priorities, mixed beverage probably isn't the priority for most people right now. Um, restaurants aren't doing they're they're seeing a little bit more falter in [snorts] um some revenue as well. Um, it's just the economy can be driving that. the the feder the today this afternoon they did vote to reduce um I think 25 basis points on interest. Um so hopefully that starts to stimulate the economy a little bit more. Um but mixed beverage typically is one that will falter um in economic conditions like

it's been trending down for months. Uh it's we've been hurting a lot there uh all year. Uh also that kind of trends along with uh the people that are visiting the market there. We don't have as many people here um in our hotels uh is uh down. Uh people are just not spending like they were. It's it's it's pretty tough out there frankly and I think that's been reflecting in this and that's that's why we're doing a lot of things to kind of beef up revenue in our city. And it may go a little hand inand there's been a decrease in hotel stays just related to all this and maybe people who are staying here aren't you and they're not if they're not here they're not going out to get drinks and make it back.

Would it be possible to chart this out month over month for the last 12 months or so just so that we can see what was it what was it a year ago and just have a graphical representation of that. So, if you look on the first u on my monthly report, there is um I was going to say I thought there used to be Yeah, there's the 5-year historical before it. Which page is that? It's going to uh like PDF page 140 out of 165. Is that what right? So, there's a 5-year historical and it's done by quarter. Um,

I was just scrolling through and I go like, "Wait, I thought we used to have more than that."

Right. Yeah. It's already reported. It's on page 140. It does it by quarter as you'll see. Um, so yes, we've had three trend. Last year, um, we were trending up, now we're trending down. So, it's it's based on economy most likely. Um, just because it's not going to be a high priority thing when you're going out to eat, a $10 cocktail might not be a priority for you. Sure. Um, so,

and keeping with what Lisa and Joseph both have said, I can let you know a lot of what we've done and I put in our reports over the last few months is that there's a bifurcation taking place. So, it's a case split. So the luxury segment, if you think about it from an economic sense, those with plenty of disposable income and stuff, they're spending and on luxury and luxury items, luxury hotels. Um, that's the only category. I saw a news article this morning that $1,000 room night plus hotels were up 6% year-over-year. Um, everything else is down.

It's economy based. So, and then that goes with Lisa's point of people who are watching their dollars and their budgets and trying to prioritize living needs, children, everything else are tamping down. There are some articles I've been reading as well is that alcohol consumption is down the lowest it's been for the new entry drinkers. Um, so your younger demographics are not drinking as much. So, that could be another um factor in this as well. All right. All right. Was that your your council inquiry? No, that was just because it was a report in there. No. [laughter]

Well, as we segue into this council inquiry, no, I have nothing other than merry Christmas to everybody. I have to echo the merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Have two things. Number one, uh Charlie Balmer's not here, but he and the civic club did an outstanding job, truly outstanding job on putting together Lighting of the Angels. Uh and also, uh the people at the city have the employees really worked their tech uh their behinds off to make everything work. And the angels now, if you drive around our market, they're the most beautiful angels you've ever seen. And uh it really makes Shannondoa looks good. Look good. So, thank you very much, Joseph, for making that happen and your team. Great job.

Um, second, uh, I think it it would be one of the best employees that we've ever had for the city of of Shannondoa. Uh, is in the room today. Um, the man has been working here for for 29 years uh, on the service of the city of Shannondoa. And I'd like to recognize and everybody really realize what a great job and and the longevity that that uh Chief Troy Dunlap has put into this city. 29 years as of December 15th and we're proud to have you. Thank you very much, Chief. Oh, Chief. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That's that's that's truly that's Mr. Mary. I don't have an inquiry, but I want to say that I attended the uh um historical marker opening over in Tamina and it was very uh well put together. Um I enjoyed it very much. But the important part is that that is absolutely huge for the Tampa community. If you drive over there, go to their park and look at their historical marker. It's a Texas state of Texas markets and the county and the Tamina community both put on a great show.

Yeah. And I wanted council to know that. So, thank you. Well, I just want to echo uh your comments about the Angels. They're they're just fantastic. It's wonderful job. Your whole team did a outstanding job. And I do want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, very safe holiday season for all of you. And I echo that and going into the new year. Please be uh be careful, but have fun and and we'll see you on the other side in 2026. The other side.

Yeah. I I want to express all my appreciation to all the employees at city hall, especially the police department and public works who have worked uh 365 days uh to keep our city not only safe but clean and up to date. We don't we haven't had any major issues and uh and uh I want to thank every single one of those employees under this under this roof here. Uh also uh uh early on when we took on the uh the Tamina water and sewage uh project and we and we met with the uh with the Tamina community leadership uh we we assured them that our intentions was to provide not only uh not only water and sewage to the community but also the recognition that it so that it deserved for for a long time. And I spoke to them and uh and I I recall telling them that we would uh seek to recognition from both the county and the state as a historical uh uh uh community uh which and I'm happy to see that the Montgomery County Historical Society has has come through with that with those uh with those markers and and one of the leaders of the community is is here uh uh Minister Price, thank you for being here and uh uh I hope that this goes a long way to our mutual interests with the Tamina community and and and hopefully by the end of uh next year we're going to have that whole system knocked out and ready to go. Uh, also to everyone who's here and everyone who's listening, have a very happy uh, merry Christmas and be safe and we'll see you at the next council meeting in January.