City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6.30.

I'm calling to order by Elgin City Council meeting on July the 21st. And we will do our roll call. And we'll begin with Deputy Mayor Pro Tem St. Pierre.

St. Pierre here. Mayfield here. Krim here.

Pena here. McShann here.

Gibson here. Silva here.

Love here. And Council Member Jaimes had to work a double, so she won't be here this afternoon.

I'll make a motion to approve.

And I'll second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. We'll begin with Mayor Pro Tem Love.

Love, yes.

St. Pierre, yes.

Mayfield, yes. Crimm, yes. Pena, yes.

McShann, yes.

Gibson, yes. Silva, yes.

All right, thank you all. You will bow your head for a moment, please. We come before you today with grateful hearts, giving you thanks for the many blessings you have bestowed upon the city of Elgin. Thank you for the gift of this community, for the families who call it home, for the business that helped it thrive, and for every person who worked each day to make our city a better place. Lord, we acknowledge that all wisdom, strength, and understanding come from you as we gather to conduct the business of our city. Grant us hearts that seek unity over division, service over self-interest, and solutions that benefit the entire community. Help us to listen with respect, speak with kindness, and work together with integrity, remembering that all our shared purpose is to serve the people of Elgin. We lift up our dedicated police officers and first responders, surround them with your protection as they courageously serve and safeguard our community. Give them wisdom in difficult situations, strength in times of uncertainty, and peace in their hearts as they care for the citizens of this city. As I pray for this council, grant us humble hearts, clear minds, and the courage to make decisions that honor you and serve both present and future generations. Help us to steward wisely the resources entrusted to us and to lead with compassion, fairness, and transparency. Lord, I also ask that healing where there has been hurt and for restoration where trust has been weakened. Renew the confidence of our citizens in their local government. Build bridges of understanding between community and members and their elected leaders. Help us earn that trust through openness, integrity, and faithful service so that together we may continue building a city where every resident feels heard, valued, and respected. With all these things in your honor, in your holy righteous name, amen. Amen. And the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have our public comment. Remember that you have three minutes. And the first one is Kay Queen.

Hi, I'm Kay. I live at 9th and Avenue C, and I'm here. I think you have the information. We have a speedway between 2nd and 11th, and there's no speed limit signs. There's no anything to slow the cars down. The only thing that did was that gully at the admin building, and that's kind of been fixed, so that doesn't work very well anymore. And I would like the council to address what route we can take to slow down some of these people. I was out in my yard this morning and I can't imagine how fast these people were going. And it's really, it's a busy street, very, very busy. So I'd like you, I visited with Liston before the meeting and he said maybe it would be something to visit the council, go visit with later on another agenda item. But I just wanted to get that out there and maybe see how we can address that speedway. Thank you for your time and your service to the community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kay.

Deborah Warman.

Hi, my name is Debbie Warmond, and some of you know me from working on different projects, especially my favorite cemeteries. However, I'm here today to talk about the Elga Mexican Cemetery, Before I do so, I wanted to thank the council and the people who offer us service, the employees, and I especially appreciate what you did to support the Mary Christian Burleson Preservation and the Elkin Depot. I thank you very, very much. One other thank you. This is a personal one to Officer Rangel. I reported a vandalism to the stop sign at the end of my street. And I was delighted when he came. And he actually took a picture, he took a report, and I even got a case number. And it was fixed on June 1st, the next day. Thank you. Anyway, now's my ask. Some of you, and listen, I apologize, I don't think I've sent this to you yet, but some of you have received the notice that the Elgin Mexican Cemetery received a grant from the Latinos Heritage. I wanted to let you know that we've got our first work order ready to go out for a survey. I'll come in every once in a while and give you an update. Meanwhile, I need your help. I need everyone to start communicating about bake sales because we have a grant, but we don't have a way to mow the cemetery. We depend on one descendant, and we need to spread the word. So I've got the information, and I hope I can do it in one minute or less, right? Okay, here it is. How can you help? From 7 to 11, August 10, Monday, the location will be at the First Presbyterian Lawn on Main Street. Back there. Come on by. Buy some baked goods. But more importantly, each person needs to help us by joining the association sharing an email, a phone number. There are no fees, but we ask for donations of time, money to support a monthly mowing, or spreading the word to organize our cleanup. I thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Announcements?

Good evening, Council, Mayor. The announcements today, this month, we have Splash at Thomas Memorial Park, Friday, July 24th, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Reagan Anderson. I am the Recreation Program Manager over Parks and Recreation. Community Block Party at Veterans Memorial Park, Friday, July 31st, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Then we have the library grant awards announcement. The Elgin Public Library was recently awarded three grants totaling $4,325 to support collections, technology, and programming. The Texas Book Festival grant received $2,500 to enhance the library's book collection. Rural Technology Fund grant, the library secured $1,500 to support coding and robotics initiatives for our younger patrons. The Texas Commissions on the Arts TCA grant awarded $325 to cover the cost of a performer for an upcoming children's program. Thank you.

Thank you. I have a proclamation for the National Health Center week. And I do believe Olivia is here to accept this.

You can come forth. I'm just going to start reading it.

Proclamation recognizing August 2nd through the 8th, 2026 is National Health Center Week. Whereas community health centers are federally qualified, community-based organizations governed by patient majority boards and dedicated to providing quality, affordable health care to all patients regarding of insurance status or ability to pay. And whereas in 2026, Community Health Centers of South Central Texas, a federally qualified health center proudly marks 60 years of service, having provided compassionate, patient-centered care in individuals and families since 1966. And whereas CHCSCT serves more than 20,000 patients in 2025, including more than 8,600 uninsured patients, helping ensure that essential health care services remain accessible to individuals and families throughout the communities it serves across south central Texas. And whereas CHCSCT Providers, staff, leadership, board members, volunteers, and community partners work each day to strengthen communities through innovation, service, and a commitment to improving health and well-being. And whereas National Health Center Week 2026 celebrates the theme, building innovative care where it matters most, recognizing the vital role of community health centers play in expanding access to care. health equity and improving lives across the nation. And whereas the city of Elgin proudly recognizes the lasting contributions of community health centers of South Central Texas and joins in celebrating its 60 years of service, leadership, and dedication to accessible patient-centered health care. Now, therefore, I, Theresa McShan, Mayor of the City of Elgin, Texas, do hereby claim August 2nd through the 8th, 2026, as National Health Center Week and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the dedicated 60 years of service, leadership, and lasting impact of Community Health Centers of South Central Texas. In witness whereof I have hereto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Elgin to be affixed this 21st day of July 2026.

and I am the site coordinator for our clinic. And yes, we are here to support our community. Insured, uninsured, yes. Everybody's welcome. Thank you.

Next, we have presentation and consideration of acceptance of the final comprehensive compensation and benefits study prepared by logic compensation group.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present the compensation study. Okay, great, great. So tonight I would like to cover the purpose of this study, the objectives that we were given, and what we heard from city leadership, as well as discuss how the study was conducted, the methodology we utilized, the comparator market. What did we find in the market data for both general employees as well as sworn police? along with our recommendations for pay structures, pay practices and benefits, and then discuss implementation costs and next steps. Before I get started, a little bit about Logic Compensation Group. We are a woman-owned firm that works exclusively with public sector entities doing classification and compensation studies. Our senior team has done over 250 studies and have a combined 125 years of experience on our team I served I'm Lori Messer I served as the project manager for the study and I'm the managing director of logic compensation group and Madeline Thomas was the consultant who really did all the heavy lifting gathering the data and helping with analysis So first wanna talk about the purpose of this study. The city wanted to assess internal and external equity of the city's total compensation system. So in other words, base pay, benefits, supplemental pays. We did a survey of 72 benchmark jobs which covered 98% of the city's employee population against a defined labor market. We looked at internal equity. How do jobs relate to one another here in the organization to make sure that there was consistency with regards to type and level of work? And then we were to deliver some actionable recommendations based on our findings. So we did all of this over four primary phases of work. Phase one was the study kickoff and strategy. that's where we met with the city's project team and leadership to gather information about you know what is the scope of the study what's the city's current pay philosophy understand the current system as well as where would the city like to position itself then we conducted the internal equity review where we took a look at all of the city's jobs and Realigned internal relationships where necessary Then we conducted the compensation and benefits study again. That's where we surveyed 70 we benchmarked 72 jobs here at the city collected market data Validated it to ensure that the data could be reliable for making our recommendations Then we presented our report to the city as well as this presentation this evening phase five It's not part of the core study, but that is where we provide the city with one year of support to ensure that the systems are working well, whether there are any unintended consequences, just to help them with the integration of the new system. The first thing that we looked at we needed to define who will the city compare itself against and we only looked at public sector organizations that were within a close proximity within 50 miles of the city. So, as you can see here, we had. A 92% response rate of the organizations surveyed, which is incredible. Surveys tend to be the thing that go to the bottom of the pile. And again, we covered 98% of the organizations. the city's jobs. One of the things we typically, standard practice is to have a minimum of five data points. We had a lot of benchmark jobs that only had four, so we did reduce that number down to four. Really doesn't hurt the integrity of the study in any manner. Then we talked to city leadership, the department directors and managers, and wanted to talk about what are your concerns with regards to compensation? And these are perceptions of leadership, that the pay was low compared to neighboring cities, and oftentimes candidates are lost to other employers within the Austin area. The police step scale. It was felt that that needed some attention. There were limited soft pay stipends and no raises beyond COLA. Dependent family benefit costs and PTO vacation accrual were perceived to be lagging the market. And the final concern was no benefits for part-timers or paid parental leave. So on the other end of the spectrum, what are the strengths and opportunities here at the city? Strong retirement system through TMRS, paid employee premiums for health insurance, generous holidays, and a promote from within culture. Good community atmosphere and flexibility. It's a high growth area. Tech manufacturing in the community college expands the applicant pool for the city, and there's an opportunity to modernize pay practices to strengthen recruitment efforts. Based on that, we went out, we collected data, and we have four areas in which we identify how we measure market alignment. How does the city compare to the market? Highly aligned, aligned, misaligned, or significantly misaligned? So within 5% of market, plus or minus, that's considered highly aligned. within five to 10% plus or minus is considered aligned. Ultimately you want all of your positions to at least be within plus or minus 10% of the market. You start to get misaligned when you're 10 to 15% off market and significantly misaligned when you're more than 15% off of market. That's considered a material gap. So what did we find with regards to the city's pay system? Actual salaries were aligned with market. When we compared Elegance actual salaries with the actual salaries of the comparator organizations aligned within 94%. We also found that range minimums, midpoints, and maximums were actually highly aligned. Now that is from an aggregate perspective, looking at all jobs collectively, while overall, it was the ranges were highly aligned, there were some jobs that fell into the misaligned or significantly misaligned category. There were actually 21 classifications that were misaligned by 10% or more. And some were below, some were above. And then there were 13 classifications that sat below the 90% mark. Those would be considered significantly misaligned. When we looked at the sworn police, because we look at them differently, they have different pay structures, we treat them a little bit differently when we look at it, but when we looked at actual salaries for police, From an aggregate perspective, from police officer to lieutenant to the highest rank before police chief, actual salaries were significantly misaligned. Now, there's a lot of things that go into that. Tenure at other organizations, all of those sorts of things. We looked at range minimums and midpoints were aligned, but range maximums were misaligned. That is simply a function of how wide are the salary ranges. What's the distance from the minimum to the maximum? Then we looked at pay practices and benefits. So we looked at 31 supplemental pay items. Out of 31, the city was lagging in eight, 26%, which was really, really quite good. Where we found that the city was lagging, or actually I should say this donut chart, the city was matching the market with 20 of those items, leading the market with, three and then lagging the market with eight. Where the city was lagging the market was in bilingual pay, vehicle allowances, peace officer certification pay, employee plus family medical contributions, life and disability insurance maximums, tuition reimbursement and vacation accrual. So those are the ones that we will focus on in this presentation. With regards to our recommendation for pay practices, and I have to put on my glasses and look down because I can't see far away and I can't see close. When it comes to the bilingual pay, most peers do offer it, and we are recommending, the city currently does not offer it, and we are recommending that the city consider providing bilingual pay. Vehicle allowance is currently not offered here at the city. However, when we looked at the market, it was offered by the majority, anywhere between $3,000 and $6,000 a year. The one thing I would like to clarify is that there are some positions here at the city where police and some public works positions and code enforcement that are allowed to have a city vehicle to drive back and forth. And then when it comes to peace officer certification pay, 89% of the peer organizations do offer certification pay to police officers for intermediate, advanced, and master. And what you're seeing here is the averages of what are paid. They're not cumulative, so it's not 730 And then if you get advanced, it's not the 1285 plus the 730. They stand alone. When it comes to water and wastewater certifications, we actually did not receive a majority of responses for that. We got three out of eight. However, based on our experience in doing these studies, particularly in the Texas market, organizations do offer, tend to offer that pay for certifications that exceed the minimum requirements for the position. So for example, if your position requires a D level wastewater certification and you have a C, that is when you would be eligible for certification pay. If you only have a D, you wouldn't be eligible because you couldn't be in the role without that D certification. These were not really high. Today, the city offers it as a 3% base pay increase. With the certification pay as a separate item, when someone goes into another role, that 3% doesn't become cumulative, that certification pay goes away because now they're in a role that requires that C for certification. Does that make sense to everybody? With regards to benefits, employee full family coverage, what we found was that employers contribute on average 61% of the medical premium 23% of the dental premium and 15% of vision premium for family level coverage. Today the city does not provide a contribution amount for outside of the employee, so we were recommending consideration of that. Group life insurance, which is the basic life insurance, what we found in the market was the average was $180,000. Today, the city's coverage is 100,000 and we were recommending that you consider going up to what the market average is. It is a very low cost benefit. The prices for that tend to be quite nominal. Long-term disability maximums ranged between $7,500 and $10,000 per month. Today the city's maximum is $6,000 per month and we recommended consideration of increasing that amount. Tuition reimbursement. Today it's not offered at the city. 75% of the peer organizations do offer tuition reimbursement. anywhere from 600 to $3,000 a year for undergraduate and graduate programs. So we were recommending consideration of that as well. Vacation accruals. If you can see, I know the font is a little small, but for every tier of vacation, so today, it's between zero and five years, the city offers 84 hours. the market average was 103 hours. For five to 10 years of service, the city offers 96 hours, the market average was 136 hours. For 10 to 15 years of service, the city offers 108 hours, and the market average was 160 hours. For 15 plus years, The city offers 120 hours and the average in the market was 168 to 172 hours So we recommended consideration of increasing the levels of paid time off Like the city when it comes to the medical coverage 67% of the comparator organizations did pay 100% of the employee only premium for medical insurance. So the city was well aligned with the market there. Now when we get into the actual pay structures, when we looked at the general structure, based on the data we collected, we have a few recommendations. The first is to set the grade 10, which is the first grade level in the pay structure, to a minimum of $18 an hour. That aligns with what the city's current hiring practice is. So instead of having false minimums that don't get used, best practice would be to set the minimum at $18 an hour. Also a uniform range width, meaning the distance between the range minimum and the maximum, setting that at 50% and 6% between each grade level. It creates uniformity and makes it a lot easier to administer. And then finally, balancing internal equity with market competitiveness. Retaining, there are some positions that during this particular study showed above market. That is a point in time. We could do the survey tomorrow and the numbers could look a little different, so rather than making major adjustments of downgrading jobs, we recommend that they hold steady and continue to keep an eye on those positions and monitor over time. With regards to the police structure, we are recommending bringing the police officer minimum to within 10% of market. and even out the step increases. Today, there's no symmetry in them. It's a certain percentage. The percentage between steps varies. So we're recommending that there be 3% differences between steps at the officer level and then at the corporal and commander level, 4% steps. They do have narrower range widths. We're also recommending there was a lot of overlap in the police pay structure. What that can do, the downside of that is there can become compression where a commander or a corporal is making less than the police officers that they're responsible for leading. So we try to minimize that so the city doesn't encounter those types of issues. So we eliminated some steps from the higher ranks at the very beginning of the range. The other thing that we wanted to make sure that we did when we were looking at the police structure is to ensure that the commander range maximum was below the police chief minimum. We didn't want to see compression there. We also were recommending that in the market we found that commanders are typically exempt level positions. They're not eligible for overtime. The scope of work that they do qualifies them to be exempt, and we are recommending that those jobs be changed from non-exempt to exempt. All right, so how does the city compare based on what you have today versus what we are proposing? So the gray bars indicate where you are today. So and that dotted line across that 100 that is the market 100 percentile where you want to be at the 50th percentile of the market. So today minimums are at 96 percent of market. What we are proposing puts the minimums at 102 percent of market exactly where the city wants to be. Midpoints are at 99 percent. today they would go to 105 and the maximums today are at 101 percent they would go to a hundred and seven percent of market I'm going to show you that's really not a major concern for the city right now based on where all employees are placed at in the existing ranges there's really No one at that range maximum, one position in the entire organization. The majority of people are falling in the first quartile of the range, which is somewhere between, it's between the minimum and the midpoint. When it comes to police, today, the range minimums are at 93%. Under the new structure, it goes to 107. The reason for that, as I mentioned, those upper ranks after police officer, we eliminated some of the first steps to avoid compression. Not that big of a concern because most of those jobs after police officer are internal promotional opportunities. Then when we look at the midpoints, right now you're at 90% of market. The midpoint under the proposed system would be at 102% of market spot on. and your maximums are just slightly under. Today they're at 88%, we're moving them up to 97%, which is within 3% of market, and that puts you in a highly aligned position as well. So every group now falls within that minimum plus or minus 10% under the new system, which is the goal. The other thing I should mention here, if there's concerns about the 102%, 107%, keep in mind that this data is collected, was collected a couple of months ago. October 1, most of the comparator organizations, that's when their fiscal year begins. These numbers would look different because they're doing the same thing you all are doing. It's gonna be more closely aligned to 100%. So what would this cost the city to go with what we're recommending? We costed out four different options. The first option, which is really not an option, that is what would it cost to bring employees to the minimum of their ranges? It's the lowest cost option. For the general population, it was 93,000. For sworn police, it was 225,000. The reason we don't consider this an option for the general population is if there are a lot of people who fall below the minimum of the range, what could happen is if you only move people to the minimum, you could have a five-year employee and a six-month employee sitting at the same rate of pay, and that would cause dissatisfaction. For police, it doesn't matter which option. We use the same methodology, and that was to place them in the step that was closest to their current rate of pay under the new structure without being less than. That's the same across all four options. So the total cost for option one was $318,500. And keep in mind this is solely base pay cost, doesn't include legally required or benefits burden or anything of that nature. Option two was to bring employees to the minimum, that's kind of the standard, and then apply a comp ratio increase under the new structure. And what that means is wherever they're situated today in their range, in their new range, they would be situated in the same location. That is fine, however, the one thing it doesn't address is any existing internal inequity with respect to pay. So it misses that mark. And that cost for the general population was $351,000. So the total on this one would be $576,800. Again, you'll notice police is the same across the board, same methodology. Option three. was to bring employees to the minimum, apply the COMPRA ratio increase, and ensure that everyone obtained at least a 3% increase. The cost for that for the general population was $413,800 for a total cost of $639,000. Option four, which is the option we were recommending, bring employees to the minimum apply a time and position increase. That helps to account for I've been in my position five years, but someone who's only been here a year is making more than me. This level sets that. Then ensure that everyone receives a minimum of a 3% increase. So everyone receives something unless they are over the max and that didn't happen. So option six is the most expensive option, but it resolves several issues. It resolves internal compression for time and position. It addresses any COLA that you might be considering for October 1. It incorporates that in here as well. So the cost for the general population was $554,000 total cost. basically 680,000. So how are those costs broken out? And I base this on option four. So the general fund is, I know police and is included in there, but we broke out police separately. So for the general population, it would be $317,246. Police, which equates for 225,494 for a total general fund amount of 528,628. The utility fund is 123,785 and then the EDC fund was 13,383. One of the key things on here as well is we were not reducing anyone's pay. As we talked about before, if the positions were over market, we want to hold and just monitor over time. So where do people fall? I mentioned this earlier. Most people, their pay is falling in the first quartile of the new salary ranges. 67 employees. Today, 69 employees fall in the first quartile, which is, you know, you break that range up into four segments. The majority of employees are in that first quartile. In the second quartile, today there's 22. That goes up to 27 employees. And as you can see here, there are only, under the new structure, only three employees that are in the third quartile and only one that is in the fourth quartile. So most of the employees, the vast majority are in the first and second quartiles. Every employee has room to grow. So, decisioning and next steps. So there are several decision points that we have presented to you. The first has to do with the pay structures, whether or not they would be approved, that would be a decisioning. The implementation option, one through four, we are recommending number four to be effective the beginning of the new fiscal year. With regards to the pay practices and benefits, what we're recommending is that focus on the base pay first. Then when it comes to the pay practices and benefits, work to improve those over the next two to three fiscal years. Most organizations like to target base pay first because that's how they recruit people. And at certain levels of jobs, if it's a difference between $0.25 or $0.50 an hour, people will make the choice to go for $0.25 or $0.50 an hour. And then finally, just next steps is our ongoing support for the city, ensuring that everything is working well and assisting with any implementation. And that concludes the study. Any questions?

Just to clarify, this is only the pay, not including their benefits. parental leave or anything. This is only dealing with pay.

Correct. These costs here are solely base pay costs.

And I have one more question too. So in these increased figures, is this just current employees or is this also outstanding recs that we have open to fill as well?

I believe we just cost.

It's just who we got.

There's some of them.

Yeah. And I know that staff has been obviously working on budget. It's budget season. Have they played with any of these numbers inside the budget so far? No, they cut your mic.

Yeah. So I can talk about that one. So tonight the idea for tonight was to take this presentation to understand how it was done but in no way was this time to make a decision because we were looking at this and while we been made aware of the numbers we in no way have gone through our budget to scrub it because we're waiting some information ourselves especially on the revenue side to be able to start making any sort of crafted ideas that we present to this council and so we Once we get to that point we only have right now the expense side proposals. We don't have a lot of the revenue side so we can't even make a qualified decision or a qualified recommendation. because the answer right now would be option none of them would be the recommendation. Unfortunately, the staff, I'm sorry. I appreciate our consultant. I think she did a really good job, and I would love to say option four, but the city manager right now is telling me and telling everyone that because we don't know what the future holds, there is no recommendation coming from me from our staff unfortunately until we do know better and that we can give you a recommendation from there and then you can all look at everything else that's before us as well so that's I think I hope the answer that that you're looking for

yes that is exactly the answer i was hoping to look for we needed this comp study i'm glad we got it and we have the information that we need but yes that is exactly what i was looking for making sure that tonight we were not making that type of decision without fully going through the budget so thank you

Will we be receiving this presentation and can we reach out to see more of the details of this? I'd be interested in seeing exactly what jobs that we are paying that were highly aligned versus which ones we're we're low because maybe in the event that we have to focus on maybe some of the positions and maybe not all of them i'd be interested to see what we look like versus each city the average and each actual position so was that something that we'd be able to get that is it has been provided it has been

yeah so we can work through that I mean and to grab the level of detail we we are we'll let us work through that uh so we'll work with you uh Councilmember so that we'd be able to provide as much as we can I I want to be just uh clear and also what we want to manage throughout so that we are not delving into any Personnel stuff where we start getting into the weeds of you know specifics. We do have one offs where we have Persons to where we don't want to get into that level of detail But you have an open book into everything that we do as well. So Yeah, we'll definitely sit down and provide that first. You're gonna get this presentation Hands down, but the greater detail we can definitely provide that information to you as a council. Thank you. Yes, ma'am

The contractor speaks to the system maintenance. What system is that?

Just how we went about, how did we gather the data? We can provide the spreadsheets so they can, the city can replicate what we did without having to go to the expense of a consultant.

So it's an approach more than a, not a technical system.

No, correct. You know, because those cost money and we use simple Excel spreadsheets with formulas and stuff so anybody can use them.

So it includes the spreadsheets. Yes. And that's the year support.

You know what? They can have the spreadsheets for formulas. And the year of support is free.

Based on your cost, right? Your support is going to be at cost for whatever resource we need. Is that right? Well.

Let me clarify that. It has to do with the scope of the study, what we did, where things are. Now if you come to us and say, hey, can you benchmark this new job that we're doing? There is a cost for that. Yeah, that's outside of scope. But anything to do with this and implementation and questions, we are here to provide support for the city.

And I think to answer your question, Council Member Silla, we do have now the ownership of this and all the working documents to where we can replicate scenarios. So thankfully to this group that was part of the package to where now we are owners of this and we can work the systems ourselves now, thankfully with the way that we had this called out as a deliverable.

May I ask a question? Do we have the expertise with the formulas? Yes, ma'am.

They're spreadsheets. Yes, ma'am.

I guess they're just numbers we plug in, right?

Yeah, you plug them into one spot and everything calculates. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a deliverable, and so we can close out the contract.

Oh, we accept what we received today.

So we have to make a motion to accept. So I make a motion to accept.

I second.

It's been moved and seconded by Deputy Mayor Pro Tem St. Pierre and seconded by Council Member Silva. And we'll begin with Deputy St. Pierre.

St. Pierre, yes.

Mayfield, yes. Creme, yes.

Pena, yes. McShane, yes.

Gibson, yes. Silva, yes.

Love, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

OK, we'll move on to our quarterly finance and investment reports.

Hi, good evening. Good evening. I am Lori Lankford, and I am with Gradient Solutions Corporation, Gradient Leadership Solutions. And I have been serving as your finance advisor, or excuse me, your finance consultant for the past 18 months. So I have been with you guys, working closely with y'all. It's hard to believe that we are 75% finished with the fiscal year. We start in October, and we're reporting for operations through June. And so whenever I'm referring to different calculations, I may say 75% or 25%. It's kind of a benchmark that we look at it. If it's expense and it's over 75%, it catches our eye. We do some research. and try to figure out why would that expense be over 75% at this point in time. Or revenue, we look at it from how much is remaining to be collected. If we've only collected 3%, we go and we research it as to why have we not collected it. Sometimes the timing of revenues are variable. property tax you get within two to three months. You don't get it throughout the year. So you might hear me refer to that a couple of times. But in your packet that you've received, you have the quarterly investment report, which shows that we are PFIA compliant, Public Funds Investment Act. We have a pooled cash report in there to show where each individual fund sits with claim on cash. We have some reports to talk about budget performance on the individual level, on the line level. We have some information about sales tax collections, where we are year to date, and some of the active capital projects. So as of right now, the major operating funds are operating within the approved budget that was received for fiscal 26. The general funds are performing above the 75% mark that I referred to. and operational expenditures are within the budget that has been adopted. I'll get into more detail in that in just a second. Okay, so this first slide refers to your quarterly investment report. It has all of the banks that the city has money in and all of the individual accounts. It shows the activity for the quarter. You will see that the city has an investment portfolio of $23.9 million. And for the quarter, we earned approximately $205,000 of interest. We provide this to you on a quarterly basis to be in compliance with PFIA and also your city's adopted investment policy. And then also in your packet, you will find a budget variance report. The purpose of that report is to compare actuals with budget. It will highlight any areas that are over or under the budget. Excuse me. And it covers year to date through June 30th. And it provides just a quick high level snapshot of how each of the individual areas are doing. I'm going to focus on the general fund revenue and expenses. On target, General Fund is on target for their budget projections from a revenue perspective. We've met about 91% of our budget for revenue related to the General Fund. Like I said, property tax is the biggest driver of that revenue and we collect that between December and January, February timeframe primarily. You will also see that development services revenue is is trending higher than Because we're they're pretty active But you will also see when we get to the expense side that developed that there are expenses associated with plan recite reviews plan reviews those types of things so what could happen is At the end of the year, we may have a revenue-neutral budget amendment that comes that says, we collected this revenue, and now we have these expenses because we collected this revenue. And then municipal courts, that's one that we can't really monitor. We just show it. And then, like I said, overall, we're about 91% of revenue has been collected for the general fund. Okay, now this slide shows how much budget is remaining in each department. And what I have focused on in the bullet points to the right are any departments that have less than 25% remaining, since we have 25% of the year left. But most of the departments are within the 25% of budget remaining. I will point out the ones that are below court. We had our fees to the collection agency were higher than budgeted. It's a small department, so anything extra can throw it kind of out of whack. And so there was a successful warrant roundup that led to this development services like I spoke on with the revenues with increased revenues in these areas can cause the increased expenses related to earning the collecting those revenues. What you've all seen, even on your own pocket, fuel expenses are higher, and that affects our police department. There's also some grants that we received that were unbudgeted, so then that puts, when you're looking at budget to actuals, that puts it out of whack, and that could lead back to where we may have a revenue and an expense budget amendment that offset each other at the end of the year. Very common for those types of things. And some consulting services related to accreditation. Whenever we developed the 26 budget, we were starting, you start with the prior year and you kind of work your way through it. We had made some changes related to how different technology was being handled and that types of thing. And so in the IT department, the copier expense got cut inadvertently. It shouldn't have gotten cut as much as it did. And so we're seeing that that is why IT is higher, excuse me, is over budget because the copier expense wasn't quite accounted for correctly. We'll fix that in the 27 budget. Budgeting's not an exact science. especially when things move around from year to year, so that, point that out. And then library and recreation together, they both had some unbudgeted grant expenses as well. And then this is another thing related to correct recognition of utilities and maintenance costs. are now, we have done analysis to make sure all of the specific departments are paying their fair share of utilities or their fair share of building maintenance, that type of things, and where there wasn't a specific budget in that department that was high enough to support it, but it will be made up somewhere else where it had originally been budgeted. And and so it is an offset. But if we're looking at it as department level department wide, those are the ones that are falling within that kind of benchmark range of having 25% left for the fiscal year. This report shows your sales tax for the past three years by month. And so we're focusing on what we consider quarter three in our world. And something to remind you, sales tax is collected two months in arrears. So any December sales, anything you paid, you bought in Elgin, when you were Christmas shopping, those sales tax did not come to the city until February. And so that's kind of the lag. So year to date, we've collected approximately $2.2 million in sales tax, which is very similar to what we did last year at the same time. We're just slightly ahead of last year when you look at where we were last June compared to this June. But you'll see just for the quarter that we're 12% below the prior quarter, but the prior quarter included the Christmas sales. So that would be expected. And we watch these revenues closely. I believe we will start doing some different analysis of individual businesses. It's confidential data, so it's something that the comptroller has to provide to us, and we have to sign in blood that we won't share it with anybody by death or penalty. Penalty to death. They're very protective of sales tax data at the comptroller's office. the next slide is just a snapshot of where we are on some of the court some of the CIP projects they're making their way through them and then this last slide the auditors have talked about this before we've been noted we've received an audit finding on our funds not on the claim on cash not being in the positive we've been addressing that throughout the year and in making great slot great strides to correct it on a fund level basis. This is what's called pooled cash. This is where when we talk pooled cash and the money is at the bank and all of the funds are sharing it, this is that fund's claim on that pot of money is how you can look at this. We are noting the different funds that are in the negative currently. That means we spent something out of that fund, but we're waiting on reimbursement from a grant, or we're waiting for a developer's participation to cover it, that type of thing. We have money that we know is coming to cover those deficits. So, well, it's not really a deficit. To cover those negative cash, temporary negative cash, Until we get that reimbursement in and and this is something that we started in January Well, excuse me March was the first time you received this report and then so this is the second time you've received it on this level And this is to show that we are watching this every month. We're pulling this report analyzing it and making sure that every fund that has a funding source for the expenses that are in that fund, and we are making sure that those expenses belong in that fund as well. and that's all i have related to this quarterly report if you have any questions specific to this quarterly report i would be happy to answer them or i can always find out the answer later thank you what are we spending our utility fund on that we're almost two million short at the moment yes ma'am so as noted that fund has been in a in a negative balance for quite some time due to not keeping up with our utility rates. We're currently in a rate study to make sure our utility rates can cover the operations and the infrastructure needed to provide the utility services to the citizens.

Can you tell us what it used to be?

Um, it, well, I'm not sure I understand the question.

Right, I mean, we're tracking it down and bringing it down for the last couple of years.

I have, whenever I looked at the history, I have seen it all negative up to three to four million. Don't quote me on that, please, because I'm going off of memory from several months ago. So it has gotten better. It has gotten better.

Oh, without a doubt.

Yes, ma'am.

Or that negative has gotten better.

Yes, yes, and part of it was, An application of an accounting principle that was being done incorrectly, years, like several, that we have corrected in the 24 and the 25 audit. Because once I started, we finished the 24 and the 25 audit in the 18 months. So we've corrected that issue as well. So that's why it is looking better.

But it doesn't correct the fact that the rates don't reflect. That's correct.

We're moving forward with the correct accounting application of capital assets, but it does not make up for the fund not being able to support operations.

And so being that that is a fund that works as a business... you would have shut down that business long ago and so that rate study should be coming back to us um mr gonzalez and so that will describe how we will be getting back on track with this and i'm not saying it's going to pull out two million dollars but it'll show us the path on how we would get towards the path to clean that up in the correct way and the most balanced way because I don't think our rate payers can sustain that in one year, to be honest. But we'll have to hear the consultants that we hired to do the rate study to give us all that great information to get us on track. Because again, you all are taking these big lifts on some very big problems. And so this is the next one of them is gonna be the rate study because this is really a tough one. And it's gonna be borne by everybody who turns on the water, flushes the toilet. I mean, we just gotta get real, we haven't been charging the right rate. And so that explains that, but thankfully we'll have the full complete report August 11th.

Well, these reports generally would give us a, I see a claim on cash. Yes, sir. At the end of the day, would we get a fund balance or...

We're specifically focused on cash in this report. Fund balance can be, from an accounting perspective, we take the fund balance when we start the budget. We tell you what your beginning usable fund balance is because in a utility fund, you can't spend land and equipment, your capital assets. So typically in a utility fund, a governmental fund which would be like the 190s and above on that list. You do, it does have a fund balance that would be current revenues over current expenses. Excuse me, I said that all backwards. Current assets. less current liabilities because then that gives you an accurate accounting of how much is actually spendable because a balance sheet and a fund balance has unspendable type things in it.

I guess I didn't remember from the last one I guess what I expected was more of a status update on our finances in terms of where we stood if we were above water, below water, or you know what I'm saying. In other words, if our fund balance or our reserves were negative versus

Right. Well, at the end of the year when we did the audit, we were in positive fund balance. Yeah. And we report on fund balance typically whenever you complete an audit because.

So we don't do it quarterly. No, sir.

Okay. No, not in my experience. I'm not saying.

Yeah.

not ever you know but in my experience it's not a quarterly thing because it is so very it's volatile because not not all expenses are spread over 12 months you know just like i was i was saying the revenue not all revenue is spread over 12 months so whenever you get your budget reports you will see a 9 30 twenty twenty five fund balance up at the top that will show you kind of what you're starting the year with what I consider the year because you're starting the twenty seven year you kind of looking at the twenty five and working your way through but we'll talk about that in a few weeks thank you for your time any other questions on this

Maybe I'm still learning it. Your verbiage just kind of overwhelms me and I don't really understand it until after I go home and kind of research some things. But I guess I'm still kind of... Or I guess maybe I can ask, can we see what our reserves actually are? Can you report on that quarterly so we can see what that is? Because I see that we get reports that like, hey, we've added to it, we've increased it, but it's not on this?

And I'm not exactly certain of what you're talking about on the reserves. We do have a specific bank account right now that had that has been labeled general fund reserves that has a little bit over $2 million in it. But it will be a council decision. The council is not does not have a reserve policy currently. Sure. You do not have a policy to be within 90 days of operating expenses. That is a best practice. So that is something the council will have to make a decision on is how do we ratchet up those reserves to get to 90%, excuse me, 90 days, which would be 25% of operating expenses. And so.

Because we kind of set a benchmark a year ago that said we wanted to try to keep a little over $2 million in reserves.

I don't remember, I'm sorry.

No, no, I'm just saying. When Isaac was here, I think we decided that.

And that's possible, and that led to, that is still in the bank account, if you want me to show you the bank account that it's in?

Well, if you go to the,

22.

Well, no, I was going to say in the financial institutions within the larger account.

Yeah, this report right here. Let me reverse it a little bit.

It's in your packet.

And so if you see right now in that bank account, it's kind of in the middle. I don't have a pointer. But it says general fund reserves. It's in the middle of the last set of numbers. It says 2.9, I think, 2.9 million. Yes, ma'am. So that is what had been designated in the past as general fund reserves. That is also another interesting topic on that. But it came up with all of our unwinding. But that is how it has shaken out. But it is in that specific bank account, and it is council decision if that is truly reserves whenever you start doing the budget.

Yeah. And that was a spreadsheet that Bill talked about. I kind of sent it out again where it shakes all the way out.

roughly just what percentage does that put us with how many days that we have it was like 30 days okay i guess what i'm asking is that in the future like maybe on the end we can put like how many days that would cover just so we can see if we're edging toward that actual goal yeah um you know like that detail i guess i understand okay thank you

And listen, did you say that goal was 90 days? It was.

Yeah, it's a standard that most cities have. And you should try to reach and be around. And most cities have a policy. So some have 20%. Some have a 25%.

And do we have a policy?

No we don't.

Are we planning on implementing a policy?

Yes I mean I would hope we will I mean that really is a that would be a strong policy for for us at this time it's aspirational but I would also once our finance director lands see what's maybe it's on scale all right to be year one that we get to ten percent fifteen percent I wouldn't be smart enough to be able to craft that for sure. But I told the council back in March, I believe, when we talked about this, that that is not something I'm comfortable

No, it makes sense. You're waiting for the new director. Yes.

Right now we're at 33%, right? No. If it's 30 days and we're going to 90. Right.

But what I'm saying is just even on a personal basis, they tell you even your home budget, you should carry more than a month's worth, right? So same thing with the city, right? So there you go. Why wouldn't you do that for your city? All right.

All right. City Manager's report.

All right.

So the other thing I have is, and I mentioned this during the actual process, and we do have individuals that joined us.

So we had this day and a half of strategic planning with Serena Breland who joined us. there will be a full report and a report out that should be coming relatively soon we want to do it right we've already started some groundwork on it staff has she has i've seen some of the work that she's provided and some of the key points i think were talked by some of the council members and one thing that i'll be willing to tell the public for sure is that we're already working on um a day ago or two days ago uh sat down with staff and we are working on our We're calling it the Financial Facts, F-A-C-T-S slash F-A-Q-S Facts page, which is going to be a bulleted list of items that we brought up probably that would make sense to just itemize information about our finances to include all the relevant issues that are out there, questions that may be out there. And then, you know, FAQs, you know, did you know type things about our finances as well so that, you know, speak to, you know, the common citizen's question about Texas Rangers, about our audits, about our finances, about this and that that we provide. factual information irrefutable information and stuff that we point to with council approved items with auditor provided information with council times and dates that there were passed all of those information with ordinances that are available with audits that are ready available in facts like simple things like for the first time ever last year's audit was the first time ever that the city of Elgin and its history provided the audit and it was a and it was provided on time for the first time in our history I would hope somebody hears that message and provides that in a posting and it just catches fire. So. Stuff like that. But we'll put that out ourselves. We'll make that a bullet form amongst a whole lot of other stuff. We're gonna QR code it, we're gonna put it out there, and we're gonna put it on the trail systems. We're gonna put it on our parks flyers, our library flyers, everywhere that we can provide and update it frequently. And so those are little things that we're gonna do already, not wait for Serena, not wait for six months, not wait for anything. There's gonna be some bigger lifts that we're gonna do, sure, when our finance director gets here. but we also think that there's more information that we could give our public and so we're excited about that as well so I think I'll definitely do that that's all I want to provide because you all I told you that's about all I can give and for now and Serena Breland

well since you whispered in my ear but so there's gonna be some great announcements coming uh basically on the finance side and yeah relatively soon

I cannot mention it yet. There's some dealings of notification of next to Kim on that person's part. And we'll just move on from there. So we're excited about that too. So there's gonna be great news for our great city and God bless our finances.

All right, thank you. Okay, next on our consent agenda and it is the May 19th meeting notes.

I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second.

All right, beginning with Deputy Mayor Pro Tem. St. Pierre, yes. Mayfield, yes.

Creme, yes.

Rainier, yes. McShane, yes.

Gibson, yes. Silva, yes.

Love, yes. All right, motion carries. Moving on to our new business discussion and possible action regarding the transfer of property received by the Trinity Ranch Mud to the Bastrop County Emergency Service District number one.

Mr. Bo Perry.

So as I'll remember with a lot of the ETJ muds one of the negotiations that the city has kind of stood fast on is the dedication of a certain amount of real property to the city and to be used for public services. Each of the ETJ muds has properties ranging anywhere from two to three acres. So it has a real value. Basically those muds will dedicate that property to the city with the hopes and the ideas that the city would use that as a public services or safety public services within the city. So if it was PD, and or try to negotiate and work with some of the ESD jurisdictions to see if they wanted real property, obviously to build facilities or satellite facilities that would then better represent the residents here in Elgin. So we're happy to announce this actually came before you guys with Isaac when he was there, that there was a memorandum of understanding that the city would transfer the Trinity Ranch public safety site to ESD number one. And that time has come just here recently. We actually received the deed from the mud. It had been filed with the plot. And so they officially deeded the property over to the city. And then tonight before you would be taking action to officially go through the process paperwork between city staff, city attorney to then transfer said property over to number one. That said, the one remaining stipulation that you see in y'all's packet is essentially they have to have an operational facility within five years. If that is not done or is not renegotiated with the MUD, that property would then revert back to the MUD and the developer could develop it into homes or sites as they see fit at that point in time. This is very similar to the property that's been before council that you own and the Harvest Ridge ETJ mud that you currently have that two plus acres there. That one we have not had a partner that has been willing to take on that particular property, but this one has been happy to say that ESD1 does want it. This is a property that's immediately across the street from the elementary school. So those who are familiar have been out to Trinity Ranch, where the elementary school is, the property immediately across Grist Mill. It is that acreage that would go to them. So staff has worked with this. Again, this is one of, I think, about half a dozen that will come in time to the city.

And just one question, but when does that five-year countdown start?

It essentially started a few weeks ago when they officially deeded the property. So it's not from the time of the agreement, so basically five years from a couple of weeks ago. Okay, thank you.

The ESD board has... has suggested that they're moving along quite rapidly with their plans to do so. They've actually, this will be one of four to five planned stations in their district. So I think they'll move along pretty quick on it, yeah. They won't have to worry about five years, yeah.

Okay, any questions?

I make a motion that we go ahead and formalize the transfer of the property. And I'll second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. And we'll begin with Council Member Krim.

Krim, yes.

Pena, yes. McShann, yes.

Gibson, yes.

Zila, yes.

Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes. Mayfield, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Elgin, Texas, ordering a special municipal election to be held on November 3rd, 2026, for the purpose of electing a council member to represent Ward 1 to fill voters to fill an expired term of office and two submitting to the qualified voters of the city of this question of legal sale of all alcoholic beverages including mixed beverages providing for the conduct of the election authorizing joint election agreements and election service contracts

Good evening, Peyton Stanford, city secretary for . OK, so this is an ordinance to call an election. This is for two different things. So first, we're going to talk about the Ward 1 vacancy. That is currently Councilmember Jaimes is our appointed representative, but we do have to have a special election to fill that vacancy for the unexpired term, meaning that that term will still expire in May of 2028. So, let's see, we will be accepting applications after the election is called, so beginning now, if you approve this and call the election. The deadline will be August 20th, and you can pick up applications if you are interested in running for Ward 1. None of you are eligible. You can find those at City Hall. We have printed copies available for you. and it's also on the website. So any questions about Ward 1 before we move on?

No.

Okay. All right, so now we're gonna be talking about a mixed beverage local option liquor election. We also have Adina Lewis with us from the Bastrop County EDC. So I'm gonna review a little bit of the history specific to Elgin, and then she will take over. So in 1995, we ordered a local option liquor election to consider whether or not to permit the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages, within the city limits of Elgin. So currently on the screen, and I'm sorry it's not in front of you, but it's impossible to print. That highlighted purple section that you see, those are the original city limits from 1995 when this first election went through. The outlined purple, those are the current city limits. So, what this means is that the city limits A mixed beverage, well, let me define mixed beverage first. So a mixed beverage means one or more servings of a beverage composed in whole or in part of an alcoholic beverage for consumption on the premise where sold or served. So, i.e., a margarita, okay? We're talking about margaritas, we're talking about things like that. You cannot currently buy or you cannot have a mixed beverage permit if you are not in that original city limits from 1995. All right. Now, this is just calling the election so that this goes to the voters so they can decide whether or not we will expand these mixed beverage alcohol boundaries. The sale. The sale of mixed beverages, yes. You, right now, can still buy beer and wine. Even if this doesn't pass, you can still buy beer and wine in those boundaries. People will still have to go through the regular process, even if this passes. So they're still going to have to go to TABC. They're still not going to be able to sell within 300 feet of a school, church, public, private, or a hospital. Yeah. Any questions on that before I hand it over to Adina?

And the highlighted part is exactly where?

That is Old Elgin. That's right where we are right now.

OK.

I just wanted to clarify that.

So your business is downtown. I forget what the, El Maguey? Oh, yeah, El Maguey. Yeah, El Maguey. You can buy a margarita at El Maguey.

That's as far as you can go? That's as far as you can go.

You would have to ask somebody smarter than I am, like Beau, where that exactly ends. Beau, where do you buy your drinks?

Beau, where do you get them? 290 from Highway 95 to... Yeah, pretty much.

Most of y'all's establishments today would not be affected. It would still be based on the original map. But as the city expands, you guys... and some of the other ones those would not technically be able to sell the mixed drinks if it stood today with the same boundaries currently like the aviators wouldn't be able to sell mixed drinks and they're going to have like a bigger center and right now they wouldn't be able to be right one of those that would not be included right as we said we got a whole commercial district and right they can't utilize Everything by Saratoga Farms, so on and so forth, that entire area.

You have a very competent staff, by the way. I really enjoy working with them. My name is Adina Lewis. I'm the Director of Tourism and Economic Development for Bastrop County. So I work for you. I have been working on trying to figure out how to unify the policy for mixed beverage for probably 10 years. The way the law is written, in order to put it on the ballot, a petition would have to be brought to you, signed by the number of 35% of the voters that voted in the last gubernatorial election. So in trying to make everything equal in Bastrop County, that would take 10,240 signatures. We tried a couple of times to do that, it's impossible. So what we did is we went to our state rep, Stan Gerties, and we asked him if he could do a carve-out bill for Bastrop County. And that passed, and it was signed by the governor. It was not signed before September 1st, so we have to have an election in order to put it in place. So if it's okay, Mayor, I'll pass that system.

Thank you.

And if you need additional copies, just let me know. So Peyton did a good job of explaining where your election status is now. You guys were actually ahead of the curve. You voted for mixed beverage before anybody else did. But if you'll look, you voted against I mean, it's pretty funny when you read the history of what we've done.

Prohibition.

Prohibition, yeah. It's kind of, we haven't had a lot of elections considering how much time has passed. So we do have this new bill. The second page shows you the steps that we no longer have to take. And so we skip all the way down to five where we come to you and ask you to order an election so that your voters can vote yes or no. The next page kind of shows you the situation in the whole county. only the purple part is eligible for mixed beverage. If somebody goes to the TABC and says I want to open up a Longhorn Steakhouse and I want to serve mixed beverage, if it's not in that purple area or in an area in a city that is currently covered, that would be denied. So trying to make it really from an economic development standpoint, even around the county, so that the property rights at one property are exactly the same as the property rights at another. In the county, you can be on one side of 304 and be eligible, and on the other side of 304, not be eligible. So what we're trying to do so that everything is smooth is hold the precinct elections in all four of the precincts in the county. Smithville, Bastrop, and Elgin, if you guys approve, would then also simultaneously have an election. So when somebody came and wanted to do a business like Aviator in an area where it was not eligible, As soon as you canvass the election, and it's a positive, then that would be freed up for the whole city. So because we're doing it simultaneously with the county, then that means wherever they went, and even if you added to your city in the future, those people would already be grandfathered as being eligible. So this is kind of a one time, fix it all kind of opportunity. And you can see the other cities also have issues with it, but guess who wins the prize for having the largest uncovered city area? That would be you guys. And again, that was because you were early in your election and you've been great in your growth. So if you have any questions, let me know. There will be a cost to the election. It's handled through the elections department at the county, just like all of your other elections. It's prorated so that Elgin pays exactly for the amount of precincts. It's based on precincts. You have a question? No, ma'am. Well, you just like the microphone.

So my question is, and I'm going back to the ESD vote, if one city doesn't vote it in, does that affect the other city?

It does not affect. Everybody else can go ahead, and it would be up to the voters in that political subdivision. One's not contingent on the other. But if you don't vote for it, you don't solve your problem.

We have a whole commercial issue that's coming. it would be very beneficial to probably for council to go ahead and say, you know, do our votes and then leave it to the voters.

It's not that we're trying to encourage more alcohol. We're trying to encourage more business.

Yes, it's about the businesses.

And if you look at the 290 corridor, there is a ton of really good commercial property that wouldn't qualify. Right.

Yeah. So we'll be looked over. So you're correct.

So maybe I do have a question. Mayor, may I? Yes. Great. So because we're running already our own election, honorable, that's my nickname for our city secretary. Don't ask me why, just I do. Would there be any extra costs incurred by this separate ballot option?

Very minimal. This is kind of the best time for us to do it because we're already having an election We already have to pay for an election and I'm sorry We can and since The other cities and the other entities in Bastrop County, by the way I would like to mention that this is for the Bastrop County and Travis County portions of Elgin Just so that wouldn't clear

I was going to say, there's already a place that sells mixed drinks.

I suggest you not tell anybody.

I just assumed because they were in Travis County, it was different.

If that's a question you have, we can... Yeah, we'll check that.

We got a liquor license from somebody.

Well, they got it from the Travis County side.

Okay. I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is.

Back to the question I had. I'm sorry. Ms. Lewis actually did bring us the final estimate for our cost, and it's going to be about $4,500. So as far as our elections go, not bad.

All right, then.

That is subject to change. If somebody doesn't hold an election, these are the anticipated elections that the election office has been in contact with. It could also go down if somebody decides to add an election to the roster.

Have the other cities jumped on board as well?

Yes, Smithville's already voted to order the election. I've made a presentation to the city of Bastrop and it will be on their agenda for the next city council meeting. The slowest is gonna be the county because we're gonna be the last to do it, but I really appreciate the cooperation of everybody. all about making it even and economic development. You can buy a bottle, but you can't buy an ounce. Where's the logic in that?

Well, if there's nothing else, I'll make a motion to approve. And I'll second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. And we'll begin with Mayor Pro Tem Love.

Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes.

Mayfield, yes. Creme, yes. Pena, yes. McShane, yes.

Gibson, yes.

Silva, yes.

Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next one is the discussion and possible action regarding a newly elected council onboarding outline. And so let me say some things about this. I don't remember, it's been two or three meetings ago when it was brought to our attention of the of a new council member and I had to agree because I've never had an orientation for a council member or the mayor and I've done both. We recognize that when Jennifer, our previous secretary was here, she started doing an orientation and the Elgin 101. So I felt like there was a need to talk to the newbies and find out what they felt like they didn't get to know or should know or the whole bit. And so Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, I'm sorry, St. Pierre led the charge and I do believe her and Council Member Silva worked on this. And so this was never the intent of replacing what staff has already done. This was a simple enhancement and trying to target areas of where we didn't have it to get it documented on paper so that if anybody leaves or whatever happens, there's always that document there that people can go back to and follow through. We know that it was a quick thing this time simply because of the election and we did the canvassing and then, bop, they were there. So having this all documented and on paper should be a help for the new ones coming in and being able to know what's happening and where to go in that whole bit. My goal for, and we talked about this some in our strategic planning, is to make sure that we start looking at those who might want to serve and start, that's what the Elgin 101 was all about. So to get that back in play so that we can start reaching out to citizens of Elgin who want to serve in this capacity, we can provide them with info. and where they could go and what they could do. So that was the whole reasoning behind this. So you do have, And this is what we have. And I'm going to say that we can have discussion, but what my intent was is to turn this over to staff, let staff go over it and look for what they have and mesh it together when we have one document. And this is just the outline to provide the direction of what the newbies thought we needed. I think that's all I needed to say. So any discussion or thoughts?

yeah um some of my thoughts is yeah i do agree with having staff um as we found out in the strategic planning that staff has a procedure already well a process already and so i think it's very imperative that we start going to them first to figure out what actual process they have or policy regarding this another thing listed on these i don't think that we should me again one vote should go with the projected thing that's listed, for one. As council members, we can't really teach other council members how to be council members. We can't coach other council members to be a council member because everybody is independent. Everybody's supposed to have their own free thought. And then we do that, we're not coaching. Another reason behind that is just because we have been on council for a year or more does not mean that we are effective council members. So we shouldn't be doing that. Another thing, also legal, I stated too, That's not for us. That's for the attorney. And then also you have to think about this. I mean, yes, give it to staff. But some of these things on here, I mean, staff I'm pretty sure is gonna start drawing some lines. I would mock council meetings. We can't do mock council meetings. Again, that's coaching. So that goes all back to some of the stuff that's listed on here isn't for council members. if everybody read what was in here. That's my two cents on it.

Okay, any other comments?

So we're just having a discussion on this, right? It's just a discussion. It's just a discussion, it's gonna go to staff.

I've been out. I'm not familiar with it.

This is the first time we're discussing it.

Oh yeah, yes, yes, this is the first time.

Okay. You guys, you have it, right? Yeah, yeah, this is the first time we're talking about it.

okay so I think my first question was asked because my question was gonna be was staff input put into the making of this document I think we've gotten that is it was it was it not no okay and then just some other things just for discussion sake the timing so i just want to know like the thought process and like what like saturday morning or like saturday yeah following the swearing in where that came from like i'm just i'm just i'm just asking the question before their first official meeting so after they're officially sworn in but yet the first before that first official meeting just to give them a little bit

of less of an age of coming to sit up here.

Yeah, no. And I get that. And I'm just I'm just looking at the timing of Saturday morning just because most of the time council meetings are held on Tuesday evenings and there is a gap most of the time, not all the time. There is a gap between the swearing in and then their next official meeting, right? Like there's about A WHOLE TWO WEEKS BEFORE THEY COME.

NO, IT'S USUALLY THE WEEK AFTER. THERE'S OUR FIRST MEETING OF THE MONTH IN MAY. THERE'S THAT ELECTION. THEY GET SWORN IN. AND THEN THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY, THEY'RE SITTING HERE.

WE'RE SITTING HERE.

BUT THERE'S NOT A... THERE IS NO GAP.

YEAH, IT WAS A WEEK LITERALLY.

I was sworn in on the same day I had to start a council meeting, so I get that. I'm just asking the questions, just because Saturday morning, I'm just thinking about staff too.

where they're working Monday through Friday.

My intent isn't to have staff there. The intent was that it's just kind of an informal thing just to have council members there. You don't have to show up if you don't want to. If you choose not to be there and help people out, that's your choice. You don't have to show up. I don't want to force people to do anything that they don't want to do. But if they want to ensure the success of new council members, then they're welcome to show up.

Okay, so then that's good. So that opens up another question. So we're talking about introductions and reference material, so who's gonna deliver that? Is it us as council people?

Yeah, and by volunteer. Again, if you don't wanna participate, you don't have to.

And is this gonna be like hints and tips on how

my goal is not to try to coach anything my goal is just to try to give you some education about some of the formal processes some of the things that could potentially put you in legal trouble if you did that you weren't aware that you were supposed to do some of these things we read we have an idea but sometimes seeing in an example or hearing it from somebody's mouth an example might get you to understand and as far as the mark council sessions My idea is, again, not to coach anybody on anything, but you may not know what an SUP is. And so maybe we go through an agenda and just say, hey, this is what the term is. It's a short-term usage permit. It's for Airbnbs. That's it. This is a variance on this property because they wanna build this and their easement was too small.

Okay, so I think when I hear that, and I'm not trying to poke holes or anything, I'm just trying to, I'm seeking to understand. So to me, when I hear something like that, that's more of a counseled mixer and like talking about things that you may not know or like stuff like that. But when we're talking about an actual onboarding process, I think if we're going to adopt it as a policy, there has to be strict guidelines on what's going to be presented, who's going to present it, where are we going to present it, why we're presenting it. And there also needs to be a follow up on, is this an effective thing? Are we going to have a test afterwards? You know what I'm saying, like I know we'll be tested in the real world, right, and we'll be held accountable by our voters, but I just, you know, a tracking metric and like how do we know this is being useful. Yeah, understood. But I think it is, like, because I like, to Mayor's point, yeah, to Mayor's point, none of us, you know, really got like indoctrinated until we were up here back by fire.

but that's kind of what we do now as our new council members come on we're just a phone call away I think having like again whatever staff policy whatever type of policies that has if it needs to be enhanced that's a different thing but this creating a policy for council members to basically attend a council mock session day is something totally different. And that's not saying that we're not trying to help the new council members out. That's not what I'm saying at all, because I'm always a phone call away. But this, what is presented is coaching. That's exactly what that is.

Let me throw an example in here. The first time I sat here, we went through and we did something like will somebody make a motion i didn't even know what the person that you were asking to make the motion should say so i don't know i'm not necessarily asking for you guys to sit up here and say this is how things should work and this is what you should do What would help me, and I think be beneficial to other people, is if we just understood the steps that you could potentially go through or the steps that happen as you're sitting up here for your first time. So we're not talking about you talking to me about mud. That's not what I'm talking about. You talking to me about, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the first day we walk in here, we sit up here, what is the process for discussion? What are we seeing on the TV? When are we saying allegiance? how before, after all, the very basics of coming up here and doing our job and learning it successfully. If we're struggling at the beginning, we're not gonna be successful. We're too busy struggling just to understand what y'all are doing.

So with that, I understand that is a policy enhancement that whoever does the training, state secretary, state manager, that needs to be put in like as however they're going through it this is after you get your swearing in when you're sitting on council seat this is how you make a motion this is what it means that like that that that's different however i don't know that we have to be

married to any one direction or another right now I think what we need to do right now is say this is something that will help and in my opinion this is something that will help we'll work out the logistics and we'll figure out the best way to implement and I think this isn't going to hurt anybody if this can do anything it will help

And that's the intent, is that we make sure everybody is successful.

I see it more as a workshop. It's like a workshop. A workshop versus an actual meeting or anything else.

You could call it any number of things, right?

Terminology. Am I going to wear a purple shirt this meeting or a black shirt?

yeah i'm glad you did wear your purple shirt um i mean i agree with a workshop i just don't agree with this and so i i agree with the enhancements but i i that's the stuff that's on here that's what we're discussing today the stuff that's listed on here right we're not discussing like oh maybe take this off and replace it we're discussing exactly what's on here so even if we were to give this to staff i mean i can say like i'm not agreeing to what's on here if y'all want to agree to go ahead and give what's on here to staff that's different and that's what the intent is okay

I just want to point out just some basic things and only because I've got a couple of departments telling me to do so. But just anything, remember too that there's some posting requirements and possible quorums that could be said. So that's going to be also a thing to deal with. So I think with that idea behind it and the intentions behind it, I think it could be as simple also that when we have this sort of conversation when we sit down with you and have the one-on-one, right? So maybe we do the breakaway to say, hey, okay, so now we're going to step to the council chamber for 15 minutes.

I'd be fine with that. Yup. Solve the problem. Come on. Solve the problem. Let's sit down.

We'll turn everything on for you and we'll do a little role playing for about 15 minutes.

Works.

Right. We'll go through a simple agenda. It might be as simple as that. I'm not saying that's the end all for everything because that might not answer what Council Member St. Pierre needs.

But want to work through all these things Thumbs up I'm fine with it being basic and small I just you know I just wanted to get something started in writing a discussion to try to make what happens when you first swear in Easier, so we're more successful Council member that my intent is not to make anything small or anything like that.

That's why I said I'm only trying to progress the conversation because it may remain big robust and even better and bigger who knows but I just wanted to offer that up as there may be for that point for that that may be one piece that we that could be included with some other things that we throw in the mix say yeah but also include this but also bring that and that's not my intent either to minimize any of this

It is just to make sure that I agree with if we need to add some parameters and extend it, yes.

It's just... Yeah, because looking at kind of the outline, I feel like it might take more than three or four hours to really dive into some of that. But if it's just... I don't know.

Yeah, I'm not trying to dive into that. This is going to be very basic, very quick. We put three to four hours just in case if, you know, we talk or there's more of us or there's less of us or maybe we're... In a situation like right now, we have four new people. So we have to do this with four new people. And so it took a little longer than the one person, right? But I'm not expecting this to be a lot of detail. Just major highlight basic stuff. You know, like when it says reference material, I'm not going to sit there and go over everything and be like, hey, listen, this is probably the order you should maybe read it in. Here. That's it.

And food.

So one other question, one other question that I'll ask too is are you aware of any other cities that have the type of thing in place that you want to see? Just as a case study, I'm just asking.

No, I genuinely didn't think to, like I haven't looked at that. We're our own unique communities. No, a thousand percent.

But sometimes instead of... Oh, of course, but sometimes we'll have to reinvent the wheel.

I definitely will, just to see if I can find anything.

It'd be real quick to look it up. I was going to say, I can tell you the surrounding cities around us, it's not.

Like I said, we didn't do any of this until Jennifer was here. And so, well, they don't have to mock me.

Oh, well, yeah. But they have onboarding. They do have onboarding. But what is their onboarding? Their onboarding, it's a little, they got an in-depth onboarding, but it's not dealing with the entire council. It is the city secretary, city manager, and the mayor. Right. And that's what I was thinking. But they do get a walkthrough and a draft of, like how you were stating, how to make a motion. What is the meaning of a motion? Okay. What is the meaning of a second? Can somebody third it? I don't know. Just all that. That's true. Probably can't.

How do you make motion?

How is it not a motion?

And how do you second it? Does somebody step over on it?

So YouTube has a lot of information out there. on city council and such.

Wow.

It's a matter of . I went out there and said, okay, how is the motion made? Okay, so we read this. What's the discussion? How long is the discussion? Okay, motion's made. We've discussed it. Well, we've discussed it, then a motion is made, second it, you vote, it's done.

Okay, do you hear that? Pull up YouTube and just sit them right here. Okay?

Okay, so back to the agenda item at hand. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem St. Pierre, thank you, and Roland, thank you for your work and due diligence on to make us better. That's what this is for. And so... My suggestion is that we hand it over to staff and let them go forth and do good as for they got the info to know what to work on. I did not make a motion. Somebody needs to.

I'll make a motion to go ahead and let staff.

I'll second. All right. Now I'll stop.

The motion was made.

Oh, wait. Oh, huh?

Exactly, that was like the motion, so we're practicing.

Right, we're practicing, there we go, there we go. Well, my motion is to... Give this document to staff to review it and make their decisions and determinations based on what is. Incorporate it maybe.

Provide feedback.

Yeah, provide recommendations and feedback.

Are they making a joint motion?

And everything else that you probably have in your head that you know we're trying to say.

And bring it back.

And bring it back to council.

And I second that.

And she saw it on YouTube.

And Peyton, you know we're available if you have any questions. You know, you got our number.

Okay, it has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Love and second by Council Member Pena. And we will begin with Love.

Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes.

Mayfield, yes.

Creme, yes.

Pena, yes. McShann, yes.

Gibson, yes. Silva, yes.

All righty, that motion carries. There is no executive session tonight. We just added.

Okay.

And it is 824 and we are adjourned.