City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Good evening everyone. I call the meeting to order. It is meeting for April the 16, 2026 and at 6 p.m. Um we will start with the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance. and peace. Heavenly Father, we thank you for all you have given us and the many blessings in our lives. We ask for guidance and strength. Show us the way and fill us with courage and wisdom. Our Father, who art in heaven, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. On the Texas flag, I also have a quorum. Miss Mayor for Marissa Himenez here, Councilman Maro Councilman J Lambert, Councilwoman Francis Forest, Councilman Felix Santo, and myself may of the city of Do I have any um Okay. At this time, any person wishing to address the council regarding any item on the agenda may do so. Speakers are requested to speak their name and not just for the record. Public comments are limited to five minutes. In accordance with the Texas convenience act, the city council may not deliberate or take action on any matter that is not posted on the agenda. However, the council may direct staff to place the item on any future agenda for discussion or action schedu. Thank you. Do I have any comments from anyone? Do I have any comments from our council?

No. Mr. Mor, Miss Francis, Mr. Phoenix, I just want to say um thank you, Mr. Mos, for all the hard work you have put into our city so far. You making a difference in in a good way. Thank you so much and I do appreciate you. Thank you. Moving on to presentation and discussion. Oh, do you have anything to say?

Okay. Consent agenda. Presentation and discussion. We will move on to uh new business consideration and possible action to approve confirmation 2026-015 autism acceptance day influenc by Miss Lisa Guerrero. We're going to go ahead and and do we wait for her or skip it and wait till the end?

Uh we um we'll move on to the next item. If she doesn't uh show up, we'll come back and read it. And um and move on with item B, consideration and possible action regarding city code section 92.16 through 92.2. 123 cons concerning the accumulation of weeds, brush, and rubbish identifying properties that do not meet existing standards for property maintenance and options to proceed with code enforcement efforts. Mr. Development, uh good evening, uh mayor, members of the council, uh I'm bringing this agenda item and development is going to help me with this. Uh, as you recall, I did a survey online asking uh our citizens uh for help and helping us with the with the budget. Several of the comments that I received were regarding uh Wedi lots and a couple of the other agenda items for public nuisance, abandoned buildings, elapitated buildings of that nature. So, I did a little research and according to our ordinance as they are written right now, um the enforcement is by the city manager and not our code enforcement division. And so, I'm working with the attorney in the next couple of weeks to revise some of those ordinance. Uh but right now, we still need to continue moving forward with that in response to the survey. And so what I've asked the development team to do is to go out there and find probably the 10 to 12 most uh have been the most complaints. It's not to say that those are the worst case scenarios. It's not to say that the list is exhaustive. Uh but the process is we need to start the process of these because enforcement hasn't happened as I understand in almost a year uh for these. And so as part as being uh charter compliant on my part, I've asked for assistance uh from

the development team. So they're going to present real quick uh hopefully a couple of the properties and we're available after that for any questions.

Good council. We're going to show you a few slides that we came up with like the city manager mentioned if you want to. So, we're going to regard nuance lots, weed lots, trash and debris, dilapidated buildings, process of the abatement, um, and just hopefully come out with a cleaner city. These are just pictures for for presentation. It's not actually real trash. Um, so this is one of the addresses that we had. There is um both trash and just more of debris that's just leading to safety and health concerns. This is another one there. This is just an accumulative bunch of just old equipment that's been sitting there for a very long time. I grew up here and been there since I was a kid. Uh just getting worse with graffiti. And I know that's not what we're trying to get into with this, but it's just you can see it from driving by u along with the weedy um lots and vegetation just overgrown. This is another uh same one, different different address but same issues with the overg vegetation. This one here will be showing here. You uh it's giving you a few pictures of the same uh property. There is a lot of old junk like I don't know like maybe they just sto issue because that is along a a flood zone. So if anything was to happen, some of that debris would get washed out. It could impact other people's homes, crash into them, and that's just stuff that we're trying to prevent. Also, it's just a nuisance because of all the overgrown um vegetation or even animals that are hiding in those uh junk areas.

Mayor, I'm sorry. Um point question. I I I'm a little confused because the information that was provided in our packet is not under this agenda item. All of the pictures that were provided in our packet are under item C. So it is there a difference between the items you are presenting now versus the items under agenda item C and are or are some of them in both items B and C. So B and C are related. B is just to show you the to tell you what we're what we're doing to try to clean up the city. C is going to show you the pictures. um along with

and mayor the reason I ask is because B references we brush rubbish C references buildings so there's a a difference mayor so I don't I don't know if you can provide further clarification or staff can what we're discussing at this time yes ma'am so for item B it would just regard the same chapter 92 um chapter 92 B would be for witty loss but also chapter 92 talks about about uh buildings as well. Okay. So can we keep it to the agenda item? So sure is for lots and rubbish. Thank you.

Sure. And I have another little something to throw there. Can you go ahead so the the audience can hear out there? Can you give the addresses for while you're showing the picture? Yes sir. Thank you.

So this is for the we can skip. Yes ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Oh, some of them are kind of blended, so we might go back to the same picture. Some have weed lots and some have abandoned buildings. This is one of the weedy lots across the street uh behind me, 1506 Fourth Street. It's been like that for a while and we just want to get that on the list so we can start seeing what we can do about the getting it cleaned up. Next slide. Go back. This is another Wedi lot. It the picture is just the front. We could have did the sides and the back, but it all looks the same. This is going to be for Weedy Law. This is 9066 Street. This is 822 Street next to restaurant. This is another one that's has a lot of weedy um areas. It might look bare in the front, but if you look around in the back, it is pretty overgrown. Next, this is another area that had his wedi lots. 1210 B Street. Um, in the front is Wedi, and it's even worse in the back. 1906 B Street on your way to middle school. It's right there in the corner of B and 11th Street. This is another area that is pretty pretty bad with vegetation, overgrown, u especially in the back. It has been cleaned up, but it's been a while since since it's been cleaned up. 1317 Sea Street. This is another overgrown uh lot with a lot of vegetation. As you can see, it looks the same way in the in front of the lot. This is the side of it. Next, 1411 G Street. So, uh this concerns all parties. Uh you see the overgrown on the on the lines. We need to contact all

parties involved in this situation. We have some of the overgrown riding in the ride ofway in the customer's property, the resident's property as well. And that is one of the main ones that we see that needs to get cleaned up, which involves everybody coming together to clean that up. Excuse me, go back to that other one. Is that is that ours or is that uh It's a little bit of everybody's. If you you can see how it's overgrown on top of the lines. I want to see that might be telephoned. Um, we need to contact them to so they can What is the street end and what is it the end? Because that one looks like it's more to the road then to the property.

Like I was saying it it it all where it's at is right on the property line. It's overgrown on the rightway, overgrown on the resident side. So everyone we need to come together to get that cleaned up. All right.

And even in the there's a ditch right there. It does accumulate a lot of water. Um, it just stores there. We need to find a way to drain it. There has been I know I'm getting off topic, but there has been vigors and other um just trash that someone was living inside those woods. This is another one um just for weedy areas. This is 1601 H Street. Um mainly just overgrown uh weeds and vegetation. Next. Next. Next. And then that concludes the item B for that. It's an item. Uh so the process under ordinance is for me to draft a letter um and provide public notice uh for 10 days. After that, what we do is under the ordinance, the city secretary does a rotation list of landscaping companies and then we go based off the rotation list of wedi lots. And what that'll do is it'll kickstart the program and as we're notified or as our enforcement's out there, PD's out there, and they see a lot that qualifies, we'll go out there, we'll provide the necessary public notice and publications, and we move forward with that. And so what we do is once we've cleaned the lot, we then take a lean against the property, we file that with the county. Uh and after a while, so many years, if it's unpaid, then the city, we come back with the city to enforce the lean or we wait for the house to be sold and we get our money back at that point. Uh but leans will be assessed on all the properties that uh we do cut the grass for trim. But the legal notice is for them to come within compliance. If not, then we notify the landscaping company and they go in and they charge and they give us a copy of the invoice. We pay the invoice

and we process the lean and once the lean the property sold or they pay the lean, we get our money back plus the additional fees uh the county fees, the filing fees and if there's any attorney fees associated with that as well. So I have a question. So who's going to pay to clean this? Right now, uh we have a budget to do that. It's a small budget. Uh but this is something that is part of our responsibility as a city to do this. And so moving forward with the uh with the city, hopefully that number decreases. But we have more than likely since we've not done this in over a year, uh we're going to have to come back later this fiscal year with a budget amendment for that. But we do have a line item in our budget for

know that I had asked Cindy for some paperwork this this afternoon or this morning or whenever it was u I know we've done that in the past and I know Golia road said that the city had said the city had cleaned it up for him there on Goliath road and then there was a couple other incident that uh we talked about. My money concern is that like you said that you'll put a lean on them, but if they never sell the house, we ain't never going to get the money back. And if we're going to do all this for all the properties, I know you're going to start with something like you said, you're going to kick it off and this and that, but we don't have that kind of money to hire somebody to clean it. And and for some reason, they can't clean it because they can't afford it. But at the same time, uh my my question is I know that that that uh Jacob has said that this particular house right here at uh 1906. I know for a fact that they clean that once a month. They might not clean it every day because they're an abandoned house. They're probably set in the the house. But uh you compare this this house. Yeah, they did cut it to this house. To me, it has been raining. We have more grass in the mediums down 181 and and and higher grass on all the edges of the city where if it wasn't for our businesses and our residents of of Floresville that cut their their own easement, we'd be in a in a bad situation because my thing in here I got a whole packet which I'm going to put those on the slide too, but I guess not. Uh, I have a whole bunch of pictures here where we're going down to the cemetery.

Eastman's are terrible. Down on Brown Lane, we have an Eastman that runs from Brown Lane to Southern Spring Road. Has never been cleaned there. And we're trying to tell people to clean their properties, but we can't even clean our own. There's a street issues there on Brown. That's another thing down here on F. There's an Eastman there of the city where the trail runs where they put that trail. They put a new fence all the way down. That fence is weeded out. That fence is broken. We don't clean any of that. We put it up years ago, never maintain. I know you've been here, but at the same time, I'm just trying to to say that, you know, it's hard when when we want to tell someone what to do when we can't we can't do our own our own city right here on Golod Road, man. Ho's all broken. So the the man down on Golia road they can say it's my uncle ask you just to close that gate for him because he go throw trench back there 7:00 last night he said come see something that they don't lock that gate. Well how hard can it be to put a sign there that do not enter and maybe lock the gate? That's all he asked you. That's what he told me. At the park they also called a park that he doesn't want there either because nobody told him he's been living there forever. The park you cut it or at least we eat around the post at the park. City yard right here on first street. Look at all that trash.

The trail needs a lot of work to that trail. People can they complain always complain in here about maybe getting bit by a snake. Like I say, it's a good thing. Don't think that I don't want to beautify Floorsville. We should always clean Floorsville. But but we got to be the example to the people and the taxpayers of Floresville. You know, we they pay high taxes and they were telling them what to do with their yard. I know for the fact since 1906, maybe it was targeted. You you all say you probably say no. But maybe they were targeted because there's two campaign signs there of of people that are running for city council. I don't know because I know this this this man and he at least once a month. You can tell me that it's high meeting. That place is not high because that place is cut. And another question, how many letters have y'all sent to these all these pictures that we have here to these different res? I know y'all probably sent some, but do y'all have a record? It'd be nice to see a record of we send three notices. We send two on this packet that we have here. So that way we get a feel, but to me, like you said, you'll have to start somewhere. But to me, this is not the 10 worst houses. I can take you and if Mr. memorials. You want to click the drive with me? I'll take you for all the but I'm not out here to to to go on somebody's lot and say that that one because they pay taxes. That's their property. Sometimes I feel now they trying to tell me what to do. I trying to pay taxes and all this. It's kind of hard and there's my some of these some of these people here are elderly people. They can't even move around. Now we can give them a citation and And what I'm doing, I'm not up for, and I don't know how the rest of the council feels, but I'm not up to spending any kind of money that I know that we're not going to get

back because we've been in that position. They won't pay back. Yeah, we could put a lean on it. So, I'll go get it, but I might be dead by then. And how much how far are we going to go to spend? How much money we're going to spend? Yeah, you say we have a little bit on the budget. How much is that little bit? Do you know? 7,000. How much can we do with $7,000? depends on the size of the lot and what the assessment is of the lot. Michael, may I interject real quick? Yes, sir. Um, go ahead. Thank you. Um, yeah. So, for landscaping of $7,000, if you were to do Jesus, how many addresses did we have? Did y'all list up there? I believe I asked for 10 to 12.

10 to 12. I mean, anywhere. I worked for a landscaping company when I was in college. I mean, it's $50 to $100 an hour and you're talking about, you know, days and days and days worth of work. There's no way that we're going to be able to logically hire these landscaping companies to come out and this is just this is just a chat GBT search, you know, this is there's just there's just no way. Um I don't know. I mean, like Mio said, we need to be spending our city tax dollars and the taxpayer money on things that we have problems with, like roads, manholes, potholes, and being able to clean up our streets before we start going to site people um for these things. And we got in a hole once by, you know, letting getting money out, letting money out, never receiving it. You know, it took quite a while to recover. So,

Sure.

Yeah. Go ahead, buddy. But that that's just my thing and and don't get me wrong doesn't want to beautify the city for of course I do and and for we should start it's us when we come down 181 the height the grass is how you going to tell me it rain it rained right and that's why I hadn't been able to cut it because it rained or it rained on these other pictures too it rained on these people because some of them are bad but we have to be the example the first thing that the city when people drive by Forsville is you see the highway you come the grass is this high all down the highway on the eastman we're lucky like I said that the that the businesses cut their own grass but there's good sections in front of that uh uh pawn shop and and you just drive down the sides look and and we would just concentrate on just like I mean we want to concentrate on everybody's propert everybody's eman but we got to thank the the taxpayers and people that cut their own because and that's just these pictures just 30 minutes of I'm taking three picture I go down the road and the only reason I brought this up because as soon as it hit the agenda they started calling me hey man they want me to fix this and whatever in York so I had to bring it up to you I'm not trying to cut the city I'm just trying answer to the people too that that that tell me, hey, you know what's going on with just or what? And and to me, there's a lot worse. I went down uh went down a four street business, fourth street here. You look at the houses on this road, that's at least four or five that are terrible. I don't mind if if if a if a neighbor

says, "You know what? My neighbor doesn't want to do this." and you ask to me all we should do right now is just send the letters they don't answer or try to get something but if you find them that's all we have to do just a fine they they pay they don't pay we're going to put a le but if we go out there and pay with like you say $7,000 $7,000 I think we might do two houses maybe uh and my thing is it's a good idea don't get me wrong I'm not trying But people are part of me to to say what is this? And right now if we can't be the example of beautifying and making the city look good, why are we going to pressure our citizens? And I got a lot more to say, but we would m um just a question. I don't think I'm clear on this. So I know there was a mention of the $7,000 for this budget. Are you saying that for all these properties that we have pictures of that the city was going to cut those down. I I'm just not clear on the process or were you saying that we're going to start by sending out notices?

Well, under the ordinance, we are required to notify the property owners that they are out of compliance. That is in the ordinance. Okay.

Uh and it specifies exactly what we're supposed to do. If we don't want to follow the ordinance, then we need to amend the ordinance. and we need to bring that to you if we don't want to enforce the ordinance or we want to change portions of the ordinance. We have to bring that to you. But as the ordinance is right now, we have to send you or we have to send you notifications. We have to publicize it in the local paper and then that's as part of the ordinance. We have the rotation list under the city secretary's office. Our crews, we don't have enough crews to cut all the grass to do that type of work. A lot of the rideway and the easements, we've had this discussion internally. That's what we're working on for the budget is how are we going to resolve this issue plus all the other issues that we have that I've been up here before. Drainage, hydrants, water lines, sewer lines, streets, all these projects, okay? And that's what we're working on towards the budget and we're going to bring that back towards you. Right now, I can only work with the money that we currently have in the budget. This budget was in place before I got here and the only way I can resolve it and still be charter compliant is to address the issue, move forward with it as whatever pace you recommend that I move towards it and budget come back with a budget amendment or if you say you know what hold off we'll come back in May at the next meeting bring us a revised ordinance by all means I have no issue following your direction in this but as of right now we have to be ordinance compliant and This is one of the things that it falls on my shoulders uh to be enforcing

and I and and I don't mean to to say in any way that the list was exhaustive or that the list was the worst of the worst. Let me reiterate that. No,

we were just picking quickly so that we could because this was the quick turnaround for the special meeting to to put a list together to give you insight to give the the public insight of the things that we need to do and the things that we've deferred over time and and enforcing now in terms of collecting what larger cities do is after x amount of time they then sell those leans to private entities or third parties. So when they sell that, we get our money straight back 100%. And then that's on the third party whenever that property sells or they can go foreclose on that property. But that's by third party and by collection agencies to do that. You have the right after x amount of time to sell that that lean to somebody. And that's an option that we can discuss in the future. But right now, I mean, do you want me to enforce the ordinance? Do you want me to bring you revisions, amendments to the ordinance? I mean, I'm open to any guidance you want to provide us.

Go ahead.

So, mayor and council, so the way the ordinance is structured, as Mr. Munossa says, first you give notice. You get written notice and there's a lot of processes laid out there depending on whether it's a person or whether it's a corporation. So, you give written notice to them to to clean up the property, clean up whatever the issue is. If that doesn't work, or even sometimes before you've given that notice, the city can go out and clean it up. Once the city's done that, they assess a cost for that. And then they give the owner notice again of here's how much you owe us for cleaning up your property. And if it's not paid within 30 days, then a lean is placed on the property. And so, just to clarify, that's what the ordinance provides for. Once you've got the lean, the lean calls for uh Mr. Munoz is right. There's other ways to try to deal with these leans, but for the most part, what your statute provides or ordinance provides is that uh a lawsuit can be filed to enforce that lean, but you would obviously want to make sure that made a lot of sense to you. It'd have to be a large amount for that to make sense. So, usually what happens is the lean is there and then when the property is sold, the lean is paid as part of the sale proceeds.

Mayor, if ahead, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the clarification on what we're doing with this item. Um, a few things have come up and um I I thank Councilwoman for their comments as well. Um, I do have some concerns. Um, so a letter in 10 days to the public doesn't give you right to come on to my property, right? It's just a letter. What I'm concerned about is we're in Texas and can, you know, castle doctrine can be invoked. I do not want to go onto anybody's property if they're saying get off my property or I'm going to shoot you. Right? So that's also a concern. I feel like um you do not have clarification on what that could look like, what that process needs to be. So, you giving me a letter doesn't give me my due process, right? I'm going to need some sort of administrative warrant where I go to court and have due process and not just someone come onto my property because they feel like this is what they're supposed to do. is trying to follow some rules because I had 10 days. I also had some concerns on um how it was presented with the foreclosure of homes. I would like to check with Lime Barger just to be sure, but it's only on taxes where we're doing foreclosures. I don't think and I'm not I'm not an attorney, but I don't think you can foreclose on the lean in that manner. So, I would like some clarification on that as well. Also, when you mention third party, that raises eyebrows because our constituents are very um honest when it comes to the changes that are occurring in our town. If they know that the city is selling a residential property to a third party who could reszone it, turn it into

something else that they don't want in their neighborhood, they're not going to be very happy about that either. So, that's also something to consider. I do believe we need to update this ordinance and refine it. It came into play, I believe it says 1996, so it has been quite some time. Um, I'm also a little concerned for the um individuals whose properties are named only because this is being presented in a meeting. It's being broadcasted and some people are very person, you know, they're very private, right? They don't want to be targeted. they don't want people knowing that they're being, you know, at the topic of some sort of change to an ordinance. So, I, you know, I re I have concerns for those who were listed on here, and I I do know that they would not have been appreciative knowing that their information, a picture of their property was displayed for everyone to see. Another thing is, um, you know, we talked about not being able to do the work. I think we mentioned you know some of our population is elderly. We do have a growing elderly population. Some of them do not have families, friends or anyone here. They are alone and so they may not be able to get the work done. They are in fixed incomes. They cannot pay someone to do it. So my recommendation would be why doesn't and um Jacob you mentioned earlier we're going to have to come together on this one property but you meant the city you meant the the light company you meant the telephone company we as a city also need to come together for those constituents that are having difficulties with these kinds of things. Why don't we reach out to volunteer groups? Why don't we reach out to our churches, our local um high school groups that volunteer for hours?

They can come help. Maybe there will be a landscaping company that would donate time for these individuals who are not able to meet the needs of this ordinance. So, that is something that needs to come forward first before we start putting the hammer down on everyone. And that's my opinion. I give you the floor, mayor. And one last question here.

Okay. My thing too is I don't even said that the manpower. We probably don't have manpower or whatever, but the thing is we uh just uh voted to get a couple of new positions that we probably we probably do need. And uh but the thing is too, just like you're looking for positions to to better the city of Florida, it's the same thing. we can say, "Okay, we can budget." And when the budget comes in three labors, then all they're going to do is maybe do the the what do you call it? The

easements. And that's just a simple thing. I mean, we owe it to the taxpayers to pay taxes and we do nothing in return for them. So that is all and I'm not trying to to be the bad person, but they always say I'm the bad person. But I'm here like my like my little sign says, other people other people. Thank you question. Go ahead. You know, um, Mr. Andrew, um, you speak a lot about FEMA and all of these grants. Is there grant opportunities that could potentially come into place with with this

for landscaping? No. Okay. Um, one thing that we are working on, uh, we did put it on social media, uh, going to the mayor pro tenn's comments as we're going to create a page on our website for local resources. Uh, one thing that we're also working on is doing what we call a clean sweep and we're talk in talks with Republic. Uh, and what we're going to do is we're going to quadrant the city and we're going to look for volunteers to help us go. We're going to put containers out on a Saturday morning from about 8 to 12 and help residents clean their yards, clean their lots, and do all of that. And that's in the works. It's just it takes a lot of time to plan that out. Uh right now, we are building that site for different resources for our community. Uh we're working both with state officials, local officials, city official, I mean city agencies, county agencies. So, we are building that. Uh it just takes a little bit of time to do that. So, we are looking at different alternatives and resources. In terms of grants, there's nothing like that. Although, you do bring up a great point in our floodways, our creeks, and and the San Antonio River. There is a lot of vegetation, overgrowth of vegetation, which impacts flooding when and if it happens. And so, we're working with text dot right now. I have a meeting with them, I believe, in two weeks to discuss their portions of their rightway and their responsibilities. We're working with the San Antonio River Authority. We're working with um Tedum who is the local agency for FEMA to look at that vegetation growth but a lot of times what we get a lot of push back from and I would say agencies is it impacts the ecosystem. It impacts uh the river the live the the animals the vegetation all that and so we get a little bit of push back from that but at some point we do have to clean the areas up and that's all our attempt is to do. We're not saying we're not work we're not going to work with people. We're not saying on the 11th day we're going to

invade your property and take over and do all this work. No, we're we're going to work. But the idea is we've got to take that first step into being ordinance compliant and moving and working with our individuals to do this and we're going to address a lot of stuff infrastructure and everything in the budget. Uh I've had conversations individually. Uh some of you have asked some questions. Uh some of you have brought some great ideas in terms of the budget for us to consider. All of that's getting compiled. We just barely kicked off the the budget internally on Monday. And so I know you guys have a lot of questions about that. It is coming. It will be revealed in future meetings and public meetings. And so all we're asking for right now is for us to begin the process as per ordinance to notify property owners citywide that you have a weedy lot. If you can fix it, great. If you can't, great. We have no problem working with local churches, high school kids. We can look at the budget right now to hire two to three guys just to work on this. We're open for ideas. But tonight, the only idea and the only concept of bringing this to you is we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing and we need to take that first step. And so I'm here to present that first step to you

because in the end it reflects on me as your city manager ask for ordinance. Thank you. Yeah. Joe, just one more thing, you know, and it just kind of caught my attention and Mayor Prom brought this up. You know, the last thing we need to do is is sell our city out to a third party on these different that's the last thing we need to do and it concerns me that it was even an idea. Um, that's not something we need to do. So, if there's any way that we we can stay away from that.

No, no. And let me provide clarification. We're not acquiring property through court or any measure. All we're doing as a future conversation. It's the same thing if you have an age receivable that's uncollectible. You can sell that debt off. This right here, all you would sell is the lean. You're not selling the property. You're not doing anything else. You're just selling the lean. You're getting your money back from a from another party. We're not taking the property. We're not doing imminent domain or anything of that nature to anybody's property. All we would do is if it cost us $1,000 to go and remediate the property, the lean's eventually pressed against the property after 365 days, the council says, "Hey, you know what? Put it out there for auction for to sell the lean." We can do that as an option, but we'll bring that option when we have all those details to you. What I'm saying is we're not going to hold this lean and spend this money and hold on it to it for 5 10 years and never collect on it while properties just sit there empty and vacant. You guys have options and we'll bring those options to you so that you're able to collect that money upfront or a lot faster.

Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Munoz. And I also want to remind the council that you have an open door if there's any issues on the agenda. You're there all week to answer questions. Your door is open and you're very transparent. So, just a reminder. Just let me throw something else, Mary too, in there. We're supposed to be getting weekly reports. It's been about eight, nine weeks. We And you probably got one, but I we haven't got one. No, I didn't. I didn't get one.

It's nice and No, no, it's nice what he's saying that what he's working on, but it would be nice to say they're working on both, right? And like you say, it's an open door policy. I'm fine with that. But I have nothing for you. He's the one coming up with the ideas and it'll be nice. Hey, you know what? Last week I talked to so and so. I just want to throw it and show up on an email. It'd be nice and and it's been eight week. I ain't seen one report yet. It's been three weeks or three four weeks. Uh it has been brought to my attention. I did apologize to Councilwoman Flores as well as the mayor pro Tim. Mayor Pro Tim actually gave me great ideas on how to record these meetings and how to pass those notes on to you. Um, Evelyn is helping me acquire that ability to do. So, that is my error and not being able to produce that information to you fast enough, but it is going to be corrected. Um, so we're working on that and that's on me and I'll take full responsibility for that and moving forward.

Mr. Mo, I know that you are you have a lot of different plates that you're juggling right now. So, I just want to say thank you for being proactive. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Thank you for wanting to follow the ordinance that we have, you know, kind of let go by the wayside. Now, I understand that this came about because of your survey. So, you put that survey out there and you're listening to the constituents out there, our citizens, our residents. So, while I understand that it's difficult for some people with these properties, but I also understand other taxpayers as well, right, that live, you know, next door or what have you and they've been dealing with this for a long time. So, again, just thank you. I applaud you for bringing this forward and um, you know, thank you. Yeah, go ahead.

That's also Mayor Council. Good evening. I just want to just There's also, you know, a lot of different citizens. We're not targeting anybody. Um the girls up front, myself, we get tons of calls as well. So this is something that there's other citizens that do call and want to remain anonymous on, you know, buildings or houses that are next door. So it's just, you know, we don't we're not targeting, we're not picking, we're bullying. There are other citizens that call constantly and get after us for not doing anything. So it's just something that we've all been working together on. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Madame Mayor Council. Just a quick comments. Um, I just want to let it be known that uh I have none of my departments sitting idle. Every single department is working at 100% capacity right now. Um, going just judging off some of the pictures that I saw that you're showing Mr. uh sir Mr. Merlin it's uh those are eas like I said those those issues are easily handled and will be handled but uh when it comes down to it it's just like you said earlier is manpower. Uh, by the time I'm done, I have my guys, I have eight guys that are trying to clean the whole city, get everything cut, all the parks, dog parks, skate park, econ along with the hiking bike, trash, and all the other assignments that I give them. It It comes back down to the manpower. Like I said, I wish I can get in there and knock everything out. I I understand your frustration. I hear it from residents as well. But like I said, any issues like that, I'm always hoping to do w with you or the or the employees. Y'all do a great job. But it's what I'm saying. we need to come up with an idea to say we need more labors or something. They don't make as much whatever, but this is what this is your job. I said, I know what y'all can y'all can just do so much. I understand that. So, don't don't don't uh think that I'm thinking that the workers ain't doing the best y can, but we're out here, you know, breaking these big positions when we can do four or five small positions and do more work. I don't know. Eventually, we're growing. I'm going to need everything this this city manager is bringing to the table and I give you credit that you're working on some good things but when the the citizens call me or whatever I have to ask the question to you to the council to whoever that's my job

and I appreciate I'm not picking on any city city employee

and and we understand that and we hope that that that is not the I mean that's not the case. Um, and you're and you're right there there is a lot going on. Uh, and we're doing a lot. We're doing the best that we can. And right now, um, the finance director can attest. I'm in her office every 5 minutes, 10 minutes saying, "We've got to address this. How are we going to fix it? How are we going to pay for it? What do we have available?" And the first thing that we did when we kicked off was looking at the CIP. And David provided several sheets of things that he's currently working on for this calendar year, plus the debt issuance, things that he's working on. and moving forward. And it he's right, it does come down to to manpower. And so right now, what we're doing is we're evaluating which is best to use our re our inhouse resources to address a lot of these issues and what we're going to have to outsource in terms of bigger projects and a lot of these projects are bigger projects are going to take a lot of time. So rather than focus on the big projects and allocate all of our staff resources there and everything else goes by the wayside, we're going to put together a financial plan for you to have outsource a lot of those bigger activities that will allow us to refocus in-house resources to a lot of these smaller things that we can work on and adjust. Right now we're working on those plans and we're happy to share those with everybody uh moving forward. And you know, my idea is eventually to put all this on the website. But right now, it's a lot of information gathering. We have to get the amount of quotes. We have to work with all the benefits if we're going to do that with retirement. Is it full-time versus part-time? How much work is there? How many manh hours is it going to take? There's a lot that goes into that equation uh into what we're going to bring to you. Uh and and that's what we're working on. And to to say that, you know, these guys are overworked is an understatement. Uh but we do have a lot and I said this the last time I was here before all of you. We have a lot of things that previous

councils have just deferred and kicked down the road. And so what I tell everyone, especially staff, is I yeah, you know what? Right now it's a hefty price tag. But if we continue to move it and kick it down the road, it's only going to get more expensive and the problems are only going to continue to grow. At some point we have to address the issues. And my job is to bring those issues to you. But not only that, I have to bring ideas and solutions and give you the best recommendations I can. Not for constituents because I'm not a politician. My job is to represent every individual that resides in this city. So I don't take note of who supports who, who doesn't, whoever. But to me, that's irrelevant. To me, it's what's best for this community. And so I have to make those those suggestions and recommendations to you. And that's all my effort is to ever do. And so right now we did the survey. We're bringing this to you. As the city secretary says, we receive calls about this all the time. And so this is not just a small isolated issue. It's not Yes. It's not in terms of total dollars of what water and sewer lift stations and wells and generators and towers and all that cost. But there is a cost and it does have an impact to the community and it's something that we have to address because your predecessors, my predecessors put this in ordinance to address and that's what we're doing. We're trying to get everybody back on track and moving it forward. And so right now all we're doing is presenting that first step to you. Do we have all the answers tonight? No, we don't. You guys brought up a lot of great points. We're going to address those points and we're going to come right back to you. But right now, all we want to do is that first step.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to pass this or to move forward with this table? Mayor I make a motion that the ordinance be updated prior to council deciding on any further action. We have the information that was provided. I do agree, Mr. Rios, that there are some things that make you a decision maker or responsible for things that may be out of your wheelhouse. Um, so I believe that we do need to update this ordinance so that the city is able to conduct business properly, but also make sure that we are considering all of the options that are available to our residents. And I mayor, it would be the whole ordinance of 9201 or actually it's just 92

92 no 92 nuisances the whole ordinance because that's going to also go into buildings and all of the other um items. So you're doing B and C together? I'm doing the motion for B for nuisances because this is considered nuisance. We brush and rubbish. No, a C is considered nuisance that buildings identified by the city man. Correct, mayor. But under the chapter, the entire chapter is the entire So you want to do the entire

entire chapter because it will include So we're doing them together B and C that is my question attorney. So uh this is two separate items and um the way that it's set up on the agenda is dealing with section 92.16 through 23. Uh, as I understand Mayor Pro Tim's motion, she would like us to undertake a review of the entire chapter, chapter 92, which we can do. I don't think that resolves your next item. I think u but

how do we change it? Because it's it's uh presented to us as 92.16. Well, I think you I think you can provide uh you can direct me to review the entire chapter and come back with you and you're not going to pass anything tonight, right? You're just directing me to make a review and propose something. We can take no action on the item. We we understand where you're coming from and we can move forward from there. So, no action is necessary on items B or C. Okay. So, we will um I'll have a motion to take no action on B and C. I'll make a motion to take no action on items B and C. Do I have a second?

A second. Motion made by Miss, seconded by Mr. Lambert. All in favor? Motion passes. 540 against Before we move on, Mr. Can you uh would you be able to share information about your plans with Republic? You mentioned briefly that you're in talks of doing another um cleanup, so to speak. When would that information be available to share with the public?

Right now, we do have pricing on what the containers will call uh cost us and the tipping fees associated with that. I believe we have so many containers uh given to us as well as per the agreement with Republic. Right now, we're kind of looking just at general areas. We don't want to do one container for a large area because it'll fill real fast. And so, we're kind of looking at the areas to determine the number of containers. And so, hopefully in the next 30 days, we'll make the announcement of and we will start doing our clean sweeps. And can you remind me of the bulk pickup? When when is that due to have it out on your curb for right now?

That uh sorry. Do you know the date the budget? April 27th. So residents will need to have items out on the curve by April 27th. So hopefully maybe that can help alleviate um some of these issues, but also it'll get them thinking about the next pickup and start, you know, asking for help or maybe we'll start to see some volunteers pop up. Yes. and we're working actually helping me reach out to a lot of the nonprofits and other agencies to to coordinate that event. Thank you.

Sure. Moving on to item D, consideration and possible action on the selection of a qualified respondent for professional on call engineering and related services pursuant to the city's request for qualifications issued on March 25th, 2026 and authorize the city manager to negotiate a contract for such services.

Good evening, mayor and council uh members. We went out um 30 days ago to I'm sorry that was 14 days ago uh to do a request for qualifications for engineering services for own engineering services. Uh this is to help essentially act as our engineering department as we've had considerable growth uh in our city and we're working with our subdivision ordinance. We need to update our park plan, our comprehensive plan, our utility plan. We need to work on our citywide drainage plan as we move forward with a lot of these major grants that we're trying to get from the Texas Water Development Board, TCQ. Uh, and we're also trying to meet the state requirement uh for the water conservation plan. And so we're we're doing this and a lot of this is very technical, requires engineers to do this for us. So we put out the request for qualifications. Uh we had an overwhelming response. Uh we had 22 firms uh that responded. We had one firm that uh responded after the deadline. So it was not considered for review. Uh we did present it as a group of staff, the finance director, public works director and I participated. We reviewed all of the uh submissions uh based on a lot of the work and deadlines that we have. What we're requesting tonight is to qualify two firms. uh one firm which would be half uh will do a lot of our bigger uh infrastructure projects like drainage uh water sewer a lot of those big bigger projects that require coordination with text FEMA uh TDM and those those items um we recommend half for that and it I'm sorry

TRC is the second firm at Sigin and what they'll do is they'll do more of the day-to-day working with staff with in terms of traffic studies, additional studies, GIS, RGIs, uh subdivision reviews, things of that nature. They'll also work on traffic patterns, traffic studies. They'll coordinate with text dot on a lot of our infrastructure uh coordination that we have planned for 181 later this this summer. And so what we would like to do is we'd like to qualify both of those firms. We did receive the master service agreements uh from both firms. We have presented those to legal for review. uh we obviously will come back uh and uh once we have those negotiated uh we can come back to you for final authorization to either the mayor or myself to execute those. Um but one thing is we did this uh for 14 days because we are pressed for deadlines on a lot of these projects uh that we are eligible for uh for significant amounts of money uh from the Texas Water Development Board and so we're trying to meet those requirements. We're also trying to push ahead through the subdivision ordinance. We have some subdivisions that uh developers that are being very kind to us and holding off on a lot of these developments uh because we haven't really assessed what our road requirements are going to be, what our utility requirements are going to be and things of that nature. So, they're going to help us coordinate that and really answer a lot more technical questions uh as we move forward. So, we would like to qualify half and uh TRC.

Thank you. They're I'm sorry. Uh they're both here in case you have any direct questions for those firms. Yes, mayor. Thank you. Um I do have a question only because you're asking us to take action on approving these two firms. Um if you negotiate the contract, we don't have a contract to look at in our packet. So, we're going to quote unquote blindly agree to you negotiating. What if the firms will not come to an agreement with the city. You negotiate and negotiate and they're not meeting the terms that will meet the city. Then what?

Sure. That's an excellent question. Right now, what we presented to the attorneys was the master service agreement. So based off of that and based on the project that we do, we negotiate the price the price based on that project. And so if firm one depending on the project isn't uh and within our price range or negotiable, we always have a secondary we can go to to also get additional pricing uh and work both of them in terms of pricing. Uh right now we want to be able to split the work because the case load is significant of what we need for engineering. Uh but no, if both firms are not able to meet based on the task order or the scope of work we present to them, we do also have additional firms that we can always come back to you and qualify as additional firms.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And the reason I asked is because they were sitting here listening to us talk about money for other issues. Sure. And so I do want to, you know, and you can say anything you'd like at this time, you know, addressing my my concern is, you know, I I agree we have to give we have to um take action, but I also don't want that to put us in a situation where our hands get tied because this is the agreement we because we agree to this item and and so we have to go with a certain contract or negotiation.

Sure. And a lot of the projects that we have already are funded projects already uh through your debt issuance and uh that was done prior and so they're pending. So you do have money for those projects. The other projects moving forward we can always recapture a lot of that uh with future grant monies and we can write fees and future fees into those grants for recovery purposes. Um it's just uh getting them to that point and having somebody on board to address that. But right now, the vast majority of your projects that need attention to move forward, we do have money already for that budgeted. Okay. Thank you.

Do I have a motion on this item? Mayor, I will make a motion to approve the selection of qualified respondent for professional on call engineering and related services pursuant to the city's request for qualifications issued on March 25th, 2026 and authorize the city manager to negotiate a contract for for such services. Do I have a second? Before Before we second, can I ask a question? Okay. Was did this go out for a bid? Did you We did request for qualifications. We have to qualify the firms before we can negotiate a proposal. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead,

Mayor. I I uh I would recommend that um Councilman Flores uh clarify the which two are being um authorized. And uh I make a motion to approve the selection of HAP and TRC for professional on call engineering and related services pursuant pursuant to the city's request for qualifications issued on March 25th, 2026 and authorized the city manager to negotiate a contract for such services.

Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Lmber. All in favor? 5 Z. Motion passes. 540. Thank you. Item D, consideration and possible action to issue a request for proposal to um establish a rotation list for landscaping services. Uh good evening, mayor, council members. Uh we're going to ask for no action. This was related to items B and C. uh for the ordinance that required us to do a rotation list for uh landscaping services, but since we're going to redo the ordinance at this time, we're going to request no action, please.

So, we will take no action on this item. Um item F, consideration and possible action to call for the election of charter view commission of 15 citizens of the city of Louisville pursuant to section 13.12 of the city charter. you want to

Yes. I brought this up because uh it's always been concerning for the citizens of of Florida. They've been asking when I'm going to revise the charter and I don't know how long it's been around. So, it's been a while and there's a lot of concerns of the language in there and we just want to clarify some language and maybe possibly with these members if we uh I don't know how we can do the the member, but I want at least want to get it get the ball rolling and then uh come back maybe the next meeting or or two to to pick the 15 members.

Mayor, so um the charter provisions on this are really uh charter provision 13.11 and 13.12. So 13.12 calls for the actual election of a charter commission and this derives from a general law city provision that is really not relevant here but but section 13.11 provides you a little bit more flexibility and so that so in in in 13.12 says may so the council's not required to use that provision 1311 gives you the option to and there are many options. So the council could appoint its own charter commission. Uh the the that commission would ultimately come back to the city council with its recommendations and then you would decide the council would decide what to include on the ballot to go before the voters. So some cities actually have their council, you know, serve in that role as well. And so you have some different options that are available to you. Um, one of them is using this election, but this is literally like going to extend the process. You would you would be electing, you know, going to the voters to ask for an elect whether or not to elect those uh commissioners for that for that process. So if that makes sense.

Okay. I'm sorry. Uh mayor if I may just for clarification um if there is an election can you provide a time frame of when we could or could not hold an election.

Right. So now for this if you went through the process for uh 13.12 uh I mean maybe you could call a special election but I would say you would wait until November to do that election. that you could move that process up much more quickly by deciding to use 13.11 and just appointing a commission and then that process would um take us it could be it depends on what you have in if you're looking at a overview of the entire charter that that process should take a while right and I would say you're looking at at least a year but then you would put it in either the May uh ballot or you would put it on the November ballot. Uh, but it could take longer than a year as well. I mean, but if you just had a few things that you wanted to address, that's something that you could put together probably by November if that's really what you wanted to do. But you have to have the ballot ready couple months basically before that election time. And you also need to be cognizant that if you amend your charter that uh you can't then do any more amendments for two more years. So, Yeah, my thing is probably the the best is probably to work slowly to make sure that we have a it's up to the council. I'm just this is just my opinion, but we probably would like to see it in the next May election, but I don't know how the feel, but that'll give us time to to overlook it and at the same time get some of these attorneys and maybe you can help us or or I don't know, we hire another I know we had another firm a while back, but the thing is compare from other charters the good things and the bad things. take out the bad things and put some good things and and then just some clarification there like when uh I think when supermajority what does it mean it said 41 is not the language is not there I mean uh there's just different things and and they've been asking out there that's why I kind of

put it out there I said well uh let's see how how we could start and so I kind of just want to take out with it and maybe I don't know how the suggestion is of picking the 15 members we could do that But I mean my my my thing is unless the council wants to do something else is probably set it for the next May next year because it's like to keep city bus with city business and that way everybody comes out the same time for the election but if somebody feels different well I'm fine with that

and you don't actually have to say like if you decide that you're going to appoint a commission you don't have to say and you shall be done by this date because sometimes it can take longer than you expected. And so, um, you might that might be your goal is a year and it might take longer. So, um, just depending on what's involved,

may I have a comment?

Thank you, Councilman Mon, for putting this on the agenda. And yes, there have there has been a lot of talk about our charter for a few years now. And I I do think it's important to have a commission of our community members come together and offer their ideas and insights on what these provisions could look like. Um I do want to say that I I would like to have the goal of having it completed. Um so the the community can vote on it the next May election in 27. Um that would be um the goal to shoot for. Um I do think it's possible to do that and there are quite a few things um that can be reviewed with the commission as well on different changes. So that is my opinion and if anybody if nobody else has any comments or questions I I can give you a motion there.

Go ahead.

I have a comment. Um I I agree. I I believe also um thank you Councilman Mones for bringing this forward. I believe that it's it's outdated. It needs to be updated. The only thing that I ask is, you know, I don't know what the process is. An appointment sounds like we just come pick three people. I would really like to see it in line with what we do for some of our boards when we request the constituents or residents to apply. Therefore, that we get new folks in here, um, you know, people that may be silent on the outside but are interested. Um, that is just my feedback. That's a true um you know it's a true picture of of our community members and not just you know we're recycling same people from different boards and that kind of thing. Although I'm very thankful for their service and I know it means a lot and people are passionate about this, but I'd really like to see a little bit more of our community involved if we could. And also um a survey or volunteers who you know information from outside what they're looking at. Uh and you can also arrange like town hall meetings or whatever you'd like so that you can or public hearings whatever you know to get even further citizen input for clarification and that could be with the commission as well.

Absolutely right. So u do we table it? Do we um I'm ready for a motion. Mayor, you want to make a motion? Okay. Go ahead with it.

Yeah. I make a motion to um appoint a charter revision commission of 15 citizens of the city of Floresville pursuant to chapter 13.11 of the city charter. And I would have a preference to have the commission um voted on and approved by the council by the May 28th council meeting. Is that enough time to um

I don't know the answer to that. What we can do uh is tomorrow we can make a posting and on our website as well as our social media asking for volunteers uh they can use the regular application that we do for our other servicing boards. We just had it particularly for this commission. We'll present that to you as part of your packet in advance and you have a whole list of who you would like to who is willing to participate and then of course I mean if you there's anybody else you want to add to that list we can definitely uh put that together for you.

I have one more question here second. Um this question is for the city attorney because it sounds like there's 15 in the commission, right? And so there's five of us council members and then the mayor. So, I'm just curious, uh, does the mayor get a selection as well or do we just stick to how do we split that? Your charter does not specify. It's really up to you.

Well, the last time they, um, checked it on and we paid a lawyer to go ahead and and, you know, I was included because I am an elected official. So, I mean, I I have uh the five the 15 obviously just works out well if you're only doing five, but I mean you're not limited to 15, although I think the motion is 15. So, we're looking at 18,

right? Exactly. I guess it's your call you want to do your charter just because you're not using that 13.12 provision. You're not uh you don't have that limitation. My motion is for 15 to have an odd number because the commission will be voting. Um, so it is safer to have an odd number. So I will be include the mayor will be included. That that's just yeah the volunteer numbers 15.

Okay. Good. Okay. I I don't think you're deciding how you're going to go about picking the 15 out of the selection of people that you receive. So I think that would be decided uh at a subsequent meeting. Okay. So I have a motion by Miss Himenez. Do I have a second? Second.

Seconded by Mr. uh Lambert. All in favor? 5 Z motion passes. 540 against we will go back to item A. Um Miss Evelyn is uh do you want to move uh go ahead and do it? Go back to the item.

Yes, we need I know that, but I'm asking. Okay, we're going to go back to item um consideration and possible action to approve proclamation 2026-015 autism acceptance day in Floresville. Um the city of Floresville recognizes that individuals with autism are valued members of our community and contribute unique strengths and perspectives. We are committed to fostering a community built on acceptance, inclusion, and respect where everyone feels supported and valued. Community efforts such as the Floresville Autism Acceptance 5K bring people together to celebrate diversity and reinforce that everyone belongs. Now therefore, I, Gloria Morales Canu, mayor of the city of Thorsville, Texas, proclaim May 2nd, 2026 as autism acception day and encourage all residents to support inclusion and celebrate individuals with autism. In witness whereof, I have here on to set my hand and cause the official seal of the city of Florida to be affixed the 16th day of April, 2026. Mayor, I make a motion to approve proclamation 2026-015, autism acceptance day in Florida. Do I have a second? I'll second. Motion made by Miss Flores, second by Miss Himenez. All in favor? Motion passes. Four four and zero. Thank you. reading a journal at uh 6 7:15. Thank you for being here.