City Council - workshop

However, today we will hear from will hear from staff and we are also gonna open up the city citizens comments today. There will be no decisions, votes, or motions of direction taken during this gathering. So we're gonna first allow is there any citizens signed up or available open to make comments? Alright. Seeing none, we'll move forward to staff presentation starting with mister Cagle.

Yes, sir. Thank you, mayor. We got a couple of presentations. One, we wanted to start off and kinda go back a year where we were a year ago today and where some of our resources were placed, and we put it in context of the citizen survey that we didn't get really a chance to say this at at that meeting when it was presented, but we anticipated. I think all of you, the council staff anticipated a lot of those scores and where we knew we would do poorly and that's where our money was being put last year.

And we want to go through that and show you and then we'll talk about some financials for the upcoming year, and then we can have some discussion. I think what we would have done if we'd had a quorum, then we would have maybe gotten some motions or direction or something, but we can discuss later if we want to reconvene this and do this again. But everybody's here, and we've we've got a lot of good information for you. And so, miss Wilson will do the first one, and then I'll I'll do the financial one.

Alright. Well, thank you. Well, as mister Kegel said, we're gonna start by talking a little bit about our citizen survey. As you'll recall, the citizen survey is completed about every two years by an outside professional entity, the ETC Institute. This was the third survey that we completed, and it was conducted in July 2025, with a representative sample.

While our goal was to collect 500 surveys, five forty five were collected with about a 95% confidence level. So we did get some positive feedback in that survey. Our citizens gave us high marks on fire department services, professionalism, customer service, emergency response, and ambulance services. We also received positive feedback related to trash and water services, and scores increased from the last survey for water, police, golf, and our airport facilities. There are also a number of items where we can see some improvements.

Citizens would like to see improvements related to street maintenance, street lighting, code enforcement, police services, specifically noting an increased presence in the downtown area. And they would also like to see improvements to parks and recreation related to conveniently located parks, quality athletic fields, a variety of park amenities and quality of recreation classes and programs. Additionally, an adequate forum for public input, more entertainment options and supermarkets were requested. The survey also had a great section that specifically asked residents for their priorities related to investment. Street maintenance was listed and code enforcement prioritizing high grass and weeds, property cleanliness, illegal dumping, junk vehicles, abandoned buildings and illegally operating a business in a residential zone.

For police services, crime prevention was included as well as a focus on community policing, traffic enforcement and response time. Animal control and parks and recreation were also listed with an emphasis on city parks and recreation programming. And additionally, city youth programs, recycling and ambulance services were also mentioned. So we had a number of incredible accomplishments last year. There were a large number of big projects completed, programs that launched and huge maintenance items that were addressed last year.

You'll note some of the items on this list are bold. These items are specifically related to survey feedback. So last year, we expanded the intergovernmental services agreement with Fort Hood for Killeen Regional, giving the airport an increased revenue source while also saving the Army money. A backup generator was added at Belton Water Treatment Plant protecting area resources, and I believe this was a grant funded project. We also added a second hangar at GRK, serving as another source of revenue and expanding our operations.

And the real time crime center launched. And as you'll recall, this was financially supported, mostly by seizure funds and was a huge lift from PD and IT to keep our community and officers safe while also better utilizing our staff. And chief, if I recall, we're one of the first four cities in Texas to have something similar? Yes. That's wonderful.

And then we also completed a phase of the sanitary sewer evaluation survey, giving us an achievable work plan to improve our critical infrastructure. We also added solar covered parking at GRK, which was 90% grant funded and reducing our operational costs through electricity savings and providing an enhanced amenity for our guests. We also opened beautiful Fire Station 4 in DOC. It's a state of the art facility heavily funded through ARPA money to better serve a growing side of town and offer a centralized emergency operation center to improve our ability respond to disasters. Additionally, four variable frequency drives were replaced at Lift Station 2, which was rebuilt last year.

Continuing our critical infrastructure maintenance, we replaced three split case pumps at Pump Station 5, replaced the Long Branch Pool House on the North Side of Killeen, offering improved working conditions for staff and enhancing guest experience. We completed Phase one of our waterline rehab project, protecting our critical infrastructure, and we're excited to welcome Dave and Buster's to Anthem Park, a beautiful new entertainment option for our residents and our visitors. A brand new pump station on Chaparral was constructed, allowing us to better serve and support residential growth. And we replaced two pumps with submersible chopper pumps at Lift Station 20, which will help us better manage additional debris coming through the system, preventing added maintenance. And our first two major Parks and Recreation facility naming sponsorships were acquired at the Family Aquatic Center and Family Recreation Center, resulting in a city profit of up to $1,300,000 Since then, we've also received several outfield banner sponsorships to support that program.

Four control valves and two pumps were replaced at Pump Station 4, preserving the life of our equipment, and two motor control centers were installed at Lift Stations 22 And 23. Submersible pump was replaced at Lift Station 6, and chlorine rooms were added to two water tanks, one near the rodeo grounds and the other at Westcliffe. This is a part of a long term phased program. After a lengthy recruitment, we were finally able to hire a part time vet at Animal Services, allowing us to offer spay and neuter services, provide additional vaccines and perform minor surgeries. We also revised our temporary sign ordinance last spring, helping to improve our community aesthetics.

And we replaced our HVAC system at KCCC and hosted our first inaugural Junetoberfest at the Special Event Center. We're certainly looking forward to our next one. We completed year one of a five year program to repaint and enhance the maintenance of 10 water tanks, two of which were completed in 2025. Two storage tank mixers were added to the water tanks to ensure water continues to circulate throughout the system. We also completed implementation of our new financial management software, a project requiring a heavy lift from finance, IT and much of the organization, and this system will drastically improve our operational efficiency.

An evaluation of the city's water impact fees was completed to ensure we're coming closer to recovering some of our costs when new development comes in. And four trails were added to Stewart, Philip, Long Branch And Condor Parks entirely funded by ARPA money. Four pickleball courts were added to Long Branch Park through a Texas Parks and Wildlife grant, and they have been heavily used and appreciated by that pickleball community. And then to ensure we're preserving existing amenities, three slides at the Zener Family Aquatic Complex were refurbished, lengthening their usable life span. And we also completed a human resources software for all city employees, making our required internal functions and processes more efficient.

A turn lane was added at Feather Line and Chaparral in response to community feedback, and 62.12 centerline miles of street treatment was completed. And I know today, 62.12 just looks like a number on a page, but 62 is certainly a lot of miles. As you know, we've been replacing our existing water meters with automated meters, providing more accurate and timely data for our customers and our staff while improving efficiency. And Phase two of this project was completed last year. This next one is a really big one.

We reached full staffing last year in both Fire and PD. And while this will always be a moving target as people retire and move in and out of the organization, this is truly a tremendous achievement that is a result of council's commitment to competitive pay, dedicated recruitment by our HR team and is a testament to the culture and environment created by both our chiefs. Not many cities can claim this achievement in recent years, and we should be incredibly proud that we're one of the few. Green Avenue Pavilion was an underutilized amenity for several years. And this year, we were able to reignite the space into a safe gathering place for the unhoused, taking them off of 10th Street while Friends in Crisis is closed during the day.

And then during the budget process this year, we were able to add and hire a second ACM, an item that was requested in the budget the last several years, and this add, allowed us to get a little closer to the staffing level of our comparable cities. We also added a PD crime scene unit as well as an additional downtown unit. In addition to a 5% cost of living adjustments for our employees, we implemented market adjustments to help provide our staff with comparable pay to our benchmark cities. We made huge compensation strides over the last few years to help bring us from a position where we're substantially behind market and now we're actually able to keep up with our neighbors. We're in a great position today and I hope we can continue to do what's needed to stay competitive.

We also added and hired a Deputy Chief over support services and training in the Fire Department as well as an IT Security manager under Mr. Resto. Purchase was approved for replacement of a self contained breathing apparatus mask and cardiac monitors. Those cardiac monitors are already heavily in use, and the SCBAs will arrive next month. And as you'll recall, we had a wonderful ribbon cutting at our brand new Skylark terminal last fall.

We're extremely proud of the new facility and received some incredible feedback already. The next one is another really big one. Last year, our rodeo, as it continues to grow, was named the 2025 Medium Rodeo of the Year by the Women's Professional Rodeo Association. And then, of course, we completed yet another citizen survey. Roof replacements were also completed at Stone Tree, the CAT, the cemetery, rodeo buildings, PDHQ, and the special events center.

Again, we gotta maintain what we already have. We're excited to welcome Southern Roots Brewery and Vita Roxy to Downtown Killeen, and we're eager for some additional space to open this year as well, which several are currently in progress. Another huge milestone is that our city earned the Main Street designation. Of over 1,200 cities in Texas, only 81 cities can claim this that they've earned this designation. And this is years of hard work, commitment, public and private investment and a lot of city departments coming together.

We'll continue to celebrate this year as the Texas Historical Commission has some exciting plans in the works for us. You'll recall we signed a contract with the Veterans Land Board and General Land Office to help manage the personnel operations at the Texas State Veterans Cemetery. And if you remember, we received some criticism initially that the city wasn't going to be able to do this well. Well, I'm extremely proud that for the second year in a row, we've increased their already high customer satisfaction score. We have an incredible team out there who work really, really hard to continue to earn this rating.

We finished a few major road projects, including the reconstruction Trail in the which we did our ribbon cutting this morning. And then the Gilmer reconstruction is substantially complete and scheduled to be fully complete later this spring. There's just some additional rail work and some landscaping to do. We also substantially increased our attendance at the pet vaccine event, the fall festival event, and our tree lighting event. And not only is that a testament to the work of animal services, parks and Rec downtown offices and our communications team this year, but in years prior as well because of the quality events, people keep coming back.

And then our incredible finance team sitting behind me earned the well deserved Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for their FY 'twenty four ACFR. This is extremely competitive award that was well earned, thanks to the care, level of detail and commitment to transparency to our finance folks. So our revised junk vehicle ordinance is now improving safety and aesthetics in our community. And through our promotions and outreach, we're actually getting a lot of feedback for residents who were ready to see this in action as they wanted those junk vehicles gone from their neighborhoods. And we've since kicked off 2026 and are deep into several projects.

We completed a roof replacement at City Hall in January, revised the special event ordinance through some community feedback and implemented it in January as well. We are well underway with Fire Station five. We've already acquired the property, and that project is moving along. We upgraded our parking system at Killeen Regional, transitioning from a gated system to one that offers several options to pay through your phone. We completed the bunker reconstruction project at the golf course earlier this month as well as the reuse tank, allowing us to water the course with recycled water.

We completed the rehabilitation of Pump Station 2, again investing in our critical infrastructure. And we're moving forward sorry, I hit it too fast. Moving forward on the demolition of the former Skylark terminal, making space available for an additional hangar that will bring And then our crematorium is currently under construction and near completion. It will be used both by Animal Services and PD, saving both departments time of making additional trips off-site. And then we're currently replacing the original irrigation system at Stonetree, a project that was long overdue.

That one's expected to complete '6. Design is well underway for three long awaited projects: maintenance barn, PD evidence building, and the fleet maintenance building. Construction will begin this year starting with the parks maintenance barn. Council also reallocated some CO bond funding last year to several parks projects. Design will be complete this year for West Killeen Regional Park and the Bunny Trail Natural Area as well as Goodnight Ranch Park.

We also have a pocket park coming to the Saddle Ridge neighborhood. Construction is scheduled to be complete this year. And council also recently approved the design contract for Perser Heritage Oaks Park expansion, which will include a playground, splash pad, and restroom. The design for the overpass painting at Rosewood And I-fourteen has been completed, and the project will commence later this spring. The implementation of our ticket writing system is near completion, and this sends tickets our officers enter directly to court.

So if you get a ticket and wanna take care of it right away, you can head straight to court to resolve it. All right. And then we've got several road projects currently in progress. Stagecoach construction is moving right along and scheduled for completion at the end of the summer. Watercrest construction has picked up the pace.

And after a few contractor delays, they're scheduled to finish at the end of the summer. The design and right of way acquisition is underway for Phase one of the Chaparral Road widening project, and design is in progress for Mohawk, Willow Springs, Ranzier and Feather Line Roads. CSI headquarters is currently under construction at GRK and scheduled to be complete later this year. And we have both the waste and wastewater master plan and the drainage master plans in progress. And then as you've noticed right down the street a couple of ways, the Bell County Annex construction downtown is moving right along.

So as an overview, you'll notice a heavy investment on the street on street maintenance. But remember, street maintenance is an ongoing project that will need continuous attention. Project implementations, careful balance between construction fatigue and traffic flow. The survey also indicated a desire for additional code enforcement. An increased code enforcement requires increased staffing.

We must also try and balance strict enforcement with trying to work with people who aren't making the effort to comply. In terms of police, while we'll always be aiming to maintain staffing levels, we're also focusing on implementation of technology to make us more efficient and improve safety and accountability. Related to parks, we're excited to have four new parks under design along with one major expansion. And as we continue to add acreage, amenities and programs, we'll need to ask staff to go along with it. And the last piece of this that's really key is communication.

So our communications team does an incredible job putting information out there, but it's imperative that we continue telling our story, ensuring the public is aware of all the work going on at the city. We have to continue showcasing the value that we're providing to our residents. And as you've seen, we've accomplished quite a lot this year that it's a lot to be proud of, and we have a lot of great projects ahead. So with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Kagle to talk more about our financial position.

Mr. Kagle, I want see if counsel won't have any questions. Anybody have any questions so far for Ms. Wilson? Mr. Solomon? No? Okay. Thank you.

Yes, sir. While they're loading the next one, it may already be. Let me see. Yes, sir. There was a lot of especially water and sewer stuff on there that seemed technical, but we put it all on there because one, it was expensive, but two, it was very important.

And if you if you saw sixty minutes last night about the town in West Virginia whose water was brown, or if you see what's going on in Washington DC, or Jackson, Mississippi, what happened in Jackson or Flint, Michigan, those are really local issues. And if you were able to work it backwards to figure out what happened, there was lack of maintenance and investment long before those problems hit. And And so while those may not be flashy headline grabbing stuff, we wanted to put it in there because it's important that everybody knows. We take that responsibility seriously and main everything, but especially the water system. Now I'll get into some numbers.

And just like we did last year, we give some projections based on certain assumptions. And it comes out showing us a small negative for general fund. And we're just laying it out there. All it really does is tell you that things are very tight because it's a small percentage, but given the assumptions we put in on revenue and expenditures, that's where we end up. As always, we never adopt a negative budget and we won't this year.

These are just projections. So kicking off the 2027 budget, we're in February and this is where we talk about priorities. And then January to March, staff is going to be working on putting the budget together and with all the departments. And then those budgets will be submitted to the city manager's office April to May. And then June, we'll put everything together and submit it to the council in July.

And so that's when we will get our final tax roll in July. But we'll have a pretty good idea before that. We'll get preliminary estimates that we even when we get the first one, we generally have a pretty good idea of where we're going to end up. And then August, September is when we adopt. So we're at the beginning of this cycle now. And same thing, you'll be seeing this all through the year with as the check marks go up as we move through the process.

Then just to give you some numbers to keep in mind, if in the upper left, this is just for the general fund, but if we give a 1% cost of living, that's $860,000 and roughly $01 on the tax rate generates just a little over $1,000,000 So four percent which is what we're recommending at this early point cost $3,400,000 Moving down below that we've had some really good experience the past several years in health insurance but this year we know our claims have been we've had some really high pressure seeing And And a done. The

we'll we'll

a onetime expense, done. But not once forever, but you know, the car will last a few years. The total cost for the first year of a new officer, 219,000. And then if you recall, we had, I believe, 18 steps in our civil service pay plan. So it took a police officer eighteen years to max out.

We have been slowly reducing that with a goal to get to 10. And we started with the higher end first and those were the less expensive ones. And now we are the compression recommendation is to go from 16 to 15 and there are the costs costs in police and fire to continue that. Now just to look, this is the projection I was talking about. Our property tax, the assumptions we made were no change in the tax rate.

The only increase comes from new construction and value increase. And so we said maybe a 3%. Sales tax has been somewhat flat lately, projecting a 1% and then you can see everything else through there when you go to the bottom right corner, only about a 2% increase in overall revenues. Then expenditures based the biggest driver through all of this would be personnel and a 4% cost of living increase, but everything else inflationary increase, we're looking at around a 3% increase. So when you look at those two things, that's a small negative.

And so the forecast shows $1,900,000 negative. But remember, that's on a base of 137,000,000 $138,000,000 As we go through that budget calendar, when we bring you the budget in July, we won't have that negative. There may be a number of recommendations either on the revenue side or the expenditure side to eliminate that, but we'll bring you one without a deficit. And then we don't see a whole lot of difference in the long range forecast as well as we go from year to year. Now those the net changes in fund balance in the middle of the page, they get big out the further right you go, but those are cumulative.

And as I said, that 1.9 would not roll over to '28 because whenever we adopt it, that number is going to be zero. Then once again, at our taxable value and the tax rate, this just gives you a history from 2012 through a projection of or through 2026 through the current. Then the thing that we always have to talk about, and I think I'll just make it a habit of every time I I I bring up the veterans exemption that I have to say no one here is opposed to that. All we're saying is the state gave a benefit, the state ought to reimburse us for that, they reimburse school districts 100%, and they should do the same thing for cities, at least after some value. Many cities, the veterans exemption is like one of these, indigent housing, solar, pollution, because it's so small, you can you can rarely you can barely tell how much it is.

And that was the expectation at the time. And and I will also continue to say that the state's fiscal note, the city of Killeen by itself exceeded that fiscal note for the entire state. What what the state of Texas projected, the loss was going to be for all the cities and counties in the state, city Of Killeen by itself has exceeded that. And and we exceeded that number a long time ago. So it is a very large number.

We have to talk about it in here. We do bring the state into this issue. When we look to the next to the last column on state reimbursement, we know all this story. I don't have to go into it. But it's virtually, the reimbursement has virtually gone away while the revenue loss, the tax base loss has continued to increase by double digits.

And I think the the other thing to look at, if you look at the revenue loss, it's not just one year. We're always budgeting one year at a time, but there's a cumulative loss. It's just like some of those cities we were talking about not doing the maintenance, not doing the investment in their in their water system year after year after year, and then suddenly there's a a huge problem that's incredibly expensive to fix. That's what's happening to us on the general fund side is we're making things work year after year, but it gets harder and harder and the decisions get more difficult. And while we'll I believe we'll always continue to be financially balanced, the deficit ends up rolling over into a service level deficit that we can't afford to provide the services that we need to provide.

And the other we we collapsed this into a new chart just showing that for eight out of the nine last years that the increase in the DV exemption has exceeded all the new construction in the city, residential, commercial, everything. And that difference is getting larger. Another way to look at it is the blue lines, the new taxable value and then the red is the annual increase in DB exemption. So you can see back in we lost in 2019, broke even in 2020, but from 2021 on, the gap has been getting worse. But we've done we do a lot of things every year to, try and make up for that loss.

Now just giving you the amount of grant money we have received across the board, unfortunately, most of this falls into funds that aren't impacted by the DV exemption. We need it most in the general fund. Most of this is is going to be especially the federal money is is aviation related, but more power to them for getting all this money. Then the other fund that we'll look at, just today, we're just looking at its two major funds, at the general fund and at water and sewer. And we're very close in water and sewer.

We're projecting about a 3% increase in revenue and on the expenditure side, about a 4% increase. So there is a small gap as we sit here today. But once again, we will this will be zero when we bring you the budget in July. And then all of that to say things are pretty tight or no, they're extremely tight. And we have over the past few years, we've done so many things to try to make up for that, that we're running out.

And I feel certain even if we turn to the tax rate for some additional revenue, we're going to be really limited on how far we can go with that, due to the state tax cap. And the other thing is knowing that the legislature will meet again starting in January and expect, a lot more focus on local government in that session. It's gonna be, a lot more difficult on local government. So I don't know how we can we will always try and it will be our number one objective is to receive greater reimbursement for the DV exemption. But, in a session that's going to be very anti local, I I don't know what our chances of success will be.

Yes,

sir. Can you go back to, that shows the year out, we built it out.

You want to go to general fund?

Yes.

That's the bottom line.

There it is. Going from '27 whatever decisions made in '27, like it almost doubles the net change in the fund balance.

Well, remember, so when we adopt this budget in 'twenty seven, that $1,900,000 will be a zero. So you've got to take $1,900,000 out of that 3,600,000.0 in twenty eight million. You got one point that's about a 1,700,000.0 at If that you didn't do anything or if we adopted a budget like that, then it would roll over and increase.

Yes, so what it looks like is that we may have even for coming years we're going to end up with a deficit.

We're going struggle every year, absolutely.

Absolutely. And I know that number, if you look at the history of the DV exemption, covers the DV exemption would actually cover that and then we can do other things without going to CO?

It would more than cover it. So let's look at the revenue loss for '26 was $16,900,000 That's $0.17 on the tax rate. And you can if I go back to where we had the tax rate, you can see before things really took off, we were decreasing the tax rate. The tax base was really expanding. We were decreasing the tax rate and then no longer able to do that.

When you there's x number of taxpayers in the city and when 20% don't pay taxes, the cost for government is the cost for government, so the other 80% have have to bear that cost. One way or another, either financially or it's going to be a service level deficit.

Any of you guys have any questions? Ms. Gonzalez?

Not so much question, but a statement as it relates to this. Because we've fought, and I appreciate you constantly ringing the alarm on this, and then of course clearly stating that we're not anti veteran. But there's just a real implication that's affecting us. That's why I think think it's extremely important. And to your point, people are also not taking advantage of that or into consideration that it's going to be a local heavy legislative session this time around.

So it's important that we not only look at we've done a great job of increasing our look at grant opportunities, but looking at grant opportunities, but then also pushing to hold our legislators responsible for funding these mandates and then working on legislation that also protects our interest as a city. There's other things that are coming down the pike, which I'm sure we'll get into a little bit later hopefully, regarding mandates on data centers and things like that. And so there's things that we want to make sure that we do legislatively to protect ourselves down the road. So it's going be extremely important that we utilize grant opportunities and then federal grant opportunities as well. We're going to have to rely on that.

So having us being prepared for shovel ready projects and whatever those requirements are, knowing them in advance to take advantage of them is going to be extremely important this time around so that we're not hurt as bad.

Mr. Kendrick?

Yes. Given the news thank you for this presentation, missus Wilson and mister Kegel. Giving given the the report and where we're at on the reality of it, in terms of, we we don't have we don't have a lot of space. So are we thinking about how we can, in advance I know we're gonna balance the budget looking at different things that we can we may have to cut not cut, but maybe not be so spending like we did previous years. Some things that we're gonna have you all considered that?

Yes, You you always wanna try to find cuts where you don't reduce the level of service. Those are the best kind.

No.

Don't I guess you can call that fat if you want to. Right. But yes, yes sir, in every budget that's the number one priority. I don't think there's enough of that. It depends on your point of view. I don't think there's enough of that fat to solve this problem 100%. And as I said, it depends on who you ask. What's fat to one person is bone and muscle to another person. That's the political environment we're in. Some people don't care about parks. Some people want far more parks.

Right. So are we seriously looking at even with this with the next budget cycle trimming some things?

Yes, sir. But every year for the past few years, we've been doing one form of trimming, it's that we're not keeping up with the growth of the city. So that's the simplest cut is don't add. And and when the city is growing and you're not adding, you're falling behind in service level unless you unless you're making the argument that we have too many people now, and we've looked at that in so many ways when you can compare us to many cities. Our number of employees per capita were very low.

Our expenditures per capita on a comparative basis were very low. So just in the big picture that tells you that there's not a tremendous amount of opportunity for that because to make any real meaningful cuts in a budget that's primarily people, you gotta start talking about eliminating positions. That's the difficult part.

Finish, Ms. Zaubman? Yes, thank you. Ms. Zaubman?

I'm actually thankful that we're able to have a conversation this time around versus a formal setting. Because that's a very good question that he asked. I think it's important that people understand that we get blamed a lot for the state of our union right now. But there's been some imbalances that have happened, I'll say safely, over the last thirty, forty, fifty years, right, that we're kind of dealing with now. It's culminating and coming to a head.

So to that point, that's why I'm saying that at this point, we really have to get proactive as a city and rely on our experts that are on this other side to help us identify shovel ready projects, to identify these SEO grants, to work with our block grants to figure out not only how we've been utilizing them in the past, but I'm following others. Remember this is my politics, love this stuff. But I'm following other counties right now. They're getting really creative with their block grants. I have questions, so many questions about how we can start to reappropriate some of the funds that we're actually getting now, but then tapping into the ones that are coming.

We absolutely have to be first in line for that. So that's where I'm going to really be challenging our staff to help us be able to identify grant opportunities and funding, federal funding that we can tap into, shovel ready projects that we can get on the ground and help us get moving. Because we can't stop the plane. We have to keep flying and then figure out how to fuel as we go, right? Like that's the nature of this business that we're in.

We may find ourselves having to make a the council at the time makes some hard decisions based off of administrative the administration's rule making which should include do we sign certain agreements that we may or may not like. I know San Antonio have gone through the process and Dallas, I believe also, and I think they refused, but that's a discussion too. And as you remember in the last year, discretionary grants decreased. So we have to be a little more creative. And I like the statement when you say, you gotta continue flying the plane. And if you were to at the same time, He was gonna say something, mister Kagle. I

can give you one example. Our fire department is a very busy fire department, and it it as with all fire departments, it's on the EMS side. We've been going out into the county for years. On the East side of the county, the county pays for a contract for ambulance service outside the city. So we've been meeting with judge Blackburn, telling him something or, you know asking for a change and, either pay us to do this like you do on the East Side or staff may be coming back to you saying, hey, we need to stop going out into the county if we're not gonna get paid to do it.

Now obviously, when we make an ambulance run-in the county, there's a charge to the person that may or may not be paid depending on their insurance, but the cost of fire and EMS can't be borne just by, charges. It's a tax funded service and the real cost the real benefit of of fire and EMS is being staffed, trained, equipped and ready to go twenty four hours a day at a moment's notice. That's the real cost. It's not how much, the tires get worn on a 10 mile run out in the county. That's not the real cost.

It's being ready to go at a moment's notice and and trained and equipped to do the right thing. That's where the real cost is and that's what we're asking of the county. We'll see where we go with that.

Yes. You pay for being prepared for an emergency as opposed to paying for the emergency itself. Mister Solomon?

Yes, sir. I I just think we, given the forecast, it's not dooming. I mean, not doomed or it's not, we we just need to prepare ourselves and and be transparent about, you know, where we're going. And well in advance letting everybody know where we're at and not give us some full warning of what we have to do. I would like see it wherever we can trim, and I'm not talking about services.

I'm talking about just a little things as you mentioned just now that we can where we can trim that and really be responsible with our finances. That's that's my concern.

The next part of this was gonna be the if you had any budget priorities. If you you can bring them up now. We're not gonna vote or do a consensus right now, but I would also ask councilor, if you have any, to also email them to staff so that they have them, they can because then we're gonna have to figure out I would like for us to come back and then have that consensus discussion on those priorities. My staff, that way they can still work them if you email them to them this week after if you have any.

I think this will be a good time for the to go over the complexities of some of them and see if they're even, you know, feasible. Because some of these might not necessarily be legislative initiatives, it could be something else. So I'm very thankful we get to have this conversation. Thank you.

You can go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.

So I sent in my questions and some of the outlooks that I wanted us to discuss. And so I'm thankful again for this opportunity. One of them being the continued focus on DV exemptions. I don't think we need to belabor that point. I think we do understand that.

But I do think we need to keep pushing and lobbying for full reimbursement, ensuring this includes all taxing entities that we can get that reimbursement on the DV. Something else that I had that I'm not really certain about, but it was brought to my attention. So maybe we can, if we can't answer it now, maybe look into it later. But was to seek adjustments or amendments to Senate Bill 10 or what they're calling the companion bill that allows for a higher automatic tax growth cap for cities where 20% plus of their total tax base is exempted by state mandates or the state reimburses less than 75% of tax loss due to those exemptions. I I don't know if it's feasible but it was presented to me as a good question to ask if that's an option for us.

Mr. Kagle you do have all these in email so if you would share it with them. I

think it's feasible and it might be more likely that the legislature would approve that rather than them actually reimbursing us. So we'll definitely work with the Sleeter group on that. And remember, we've come so close so many times, we've often had bills pass the house with huge margins of support, almost unanimous in some cases, and then, can't even get a hearing in the senate. So, that's where the issue has been. It's been in the senate finance Committee and that's where we need to continue to work.

But obviously we want the state to reimburse us, but if they're absolutely not gonna do that, that is a good backup plan.

Okay. And I think that start today with call to actions. You know I like to do that for our community. You've done a great job. Again, you guys staff did a wonderful job going down along with our legislative lobbyists to talk during this last legislative session on issues that were important to us. Just as much as we want people to continue to show up for city council meetings which is extremely important. My hope is that they will also help and tag along to add voice to our staff and to us when we go down to Austin to make sure that we are lobbying for ourselves as a community. It is extremely important. And again, thank you for saying that and sounding the alarm. We've been ringing it for a minute.

And again, not being afraid, but being prepared, right? To be prepared for what's coming. And so we need our community to rally together to figure these things out and to help us. So thank you again for that, Mr. Cagle. Also, securing state funding for infrastructure in military impact zones. There's a lot of opportunity that I'm understanding that might be available as it relates to the military impact zones. So, defense economic adjustment assistant grants, that's something that we might be able to tap into. Creating a municipal set aside for cities like ours. My question is have we ever and can we even ask for matching infrastructure grants tied to Fort Hood support, housing, and veteran services?

Yes, we can. And it would have to be closely tied. So that's gonna be the difficult thing. And in general fund services, the main thing we'd probably be talking about would be some sort of transportation. And then it's got to be tied to Fort Hood. And then I think the most that we're eligible for that currently is 5,000,000. And that's you're right. And it's gonna be for infrastructure.

Mhmm. Okay.

On that same note, I know that a couple of my committee meetings with NOC, there are a number of cities that are reaching out and asking about the same thing. There will be an opportunity for the three of us when we're at the congressional conference to actually have a discussion with the Department of Defense. They will have an expo or office hours for us. And that way we can ask those direct questions.

Okay, thank you. I also sorry guys, got a lot of time. I hope that we can also talk to the Schluter Group about introducing or backing legislation that might already be out there that I'm not familiar with about allowing for local revenue flexibility. I'm not really familiar with this area to be honest, but I do know that there are some things out there that again may be available for us. So I'd like to know if there are pros and cons of implementing a limited public safety user fee.

There's probably a more appropriate term for this, but with the cuts we're projecting this could be an offset to ensure that we continue to support police and fire when property tax recovery is low. So there's some things that they've been talking about in the sphere. So I just want to keep an eye on that. I'm not sure what's out there again regarding legislation that allows for local revenue flexibility. Also I'm not sure what the benefit is for us but one of my questions was also tapping into and requesting a special as a military impacted municipality from the state.

It recognizes our role as a support city and qualifies us though for additional infrastructure grants and exemption from certain property tax caps, priority in state housing, and workforce funds is my understanding. Again, I'm still learning that, but I think that also is an area for the military impacted municipality category that might also be a help to us legislatively. I do have a few more I'm gonna just tap in and I'll let the guys go, But after and I just want to say also speaking with a few veterans group, questions were asked about leveraging our veterans demographic as it relates to economic development incentives and push for amendments to the state instead of programs like Texas Enterprise Fund or the Capital Fund. So there are several other opportunities. Again we've talked about that but really focusing on tapping into some of those grant programs and funding programs that already exist.

There's a lot. Regarding street lighting, it's definitely a complex we know right. We've already been down that road with street lighting as it related to Encore and us trying to take control of that. But then there's also utility tariffs and there's also emergency off grid technologies that are out there. Since Encore is a legal monopoly.

My question is are there legislatively like for example Behar County or Bexar County used their block grants to install solar lights and worked with the state energy conservation office. So I don't know about the state conservation energy office, but I'm told that there are grant fundings available that we can tap into for that. Is that something that we've explored before in the past?

Well, CECO, State Energy Conservation Office, generally their loans, you pay them back out of savings on an energy conservation project. So just putting in I'm not for sure how if you're not replacing existing streetlights with solar, if you're just adding new streetlights with solar, I'd have to check into that because I don't know you're just adding. But to that point, at our second meeting in March when we bring the annual audit and then the savings and the excess fund balance, one of our suggestions is to use some of that money for solar street lights in the downtown area, especially along the parade route where we talked about. And that if that's something that the council wants to do at that time, we could probably have them installed in just a matter of months. Sure.

So but that's only a first step in what's a citywide issue.

Right, right. We've definitely got our work cut out for us. I know the question we'd asked early on when I first got on the council was do we have grant writer on staff? And I know that we don't. But there are organizations out there that are designed to write multiple grants under this circumstance. So that's also an option. So I don't know how that works, but I know that other cities and their economic development corporations do utilize them to maximize efficiency. So that's something we want to also consider when we go through this process. The big one that there's still have a couple more but the big next one is the rapid growth of data centers as we're all aware. There's been a federal mandate but also state mandate regarding data centers.

Texas is definitely leading the way in production and so there's a number of questions that are going to be raised or probably being raised right now as it relates to them. I just wanna make sure that the city of Killeen is thinking forward. Again, this is not something that's gonna impact us today, but, again, down the road, we need to be having this conversation now for the future. And so I'm finding that a lot of company counties and cities, I'm sorry, are actually being very proactive and a little aggressive just to make sure that they're protecting their interest for their communities. So we understand benefits.

Right? There's lots of benefits, pros, taxes, jobs, things like that. So that's a given. But the reality is there's a resource drag, lag, infrastructure, sustainability. There's sound issues that some of these are presenting. I'm not anti data center, but I just want make sure that we're protecting the city of Killeen's interest as it relates to them. So College Station, for example, they're requiring their developers to secure their own external water and power sources if they exceed allocated limits. So again, there's just restrictions on when they're coming in and if they go over the limits, how is that managed and maintained? We start talking about budgeting and things like that. Just in the future, this is a conversation that we really need to have as well.

Our water usage mandates, I know we track that very, very closely. Most of this, you'll hear they say that they use closed loop systems, but there's a lot of research that are saying that these reclaimed purple pipes are better. We sat down and talked with some people that have a data center that are exploring several areas around us. But using the purple pipe water versus potable water, there's some drastic difference, cost savings, environmental things that I would like for us to put on our radar to make sure that we're watching this because again it might not sound like it's definitely a budget issue but it really is ultimately could create a lot of problems for us down the road if we're not prepared. Also the Senate Bill six, they have a this is that large load organizations like these data centers must contribute cost of the electricity that they use to protect taxpayers basically from subsidizing the grid.

So I'm gonna look more into this and I'll make sure I'm prepared a little bit better, but this is a conversation that we've just recently had with some organizations that run data centers. But Senate Bill six as it relates to their requirements for their contribution to protect our taxpayers from subsidizing their data centers is going to be an extreme conversation we need to have as well. Okay.

That's all?

No sir. I'll let you guys go though. That's fine. You can come back to me.

Okay. Mister Kendrick, did you have anything now?

We've talked about the data centers already. Okay.

He was in

the meetings, so it's pretty much hit the the concerns on the on the head that we're worried about, the water, the electricity, the strain that it may put on the grid here in Killeen, and the locations. So those are the bigger concerns, the locations, the water, and the electricity.

Mister Sodom? Yeah. Mister Sodom. Remember, you can all still email.

Mhmm.

Thank you, sir. Mister mayor, I just wanna bring back up Zephyrh Road. Mhmm. I wanted to see what I wanted back to pick up in terms of Zephyrh Road. We talked about it. I think it's on the list. So could we revisit that?

Yes, sir. It's number one. Right now we're in phase one of stagecoach and then we need to do the western part of Stagecoach, Willow Springs and then Andrew can come and answer, but the design is underway. Yes. So you have to have the construction design done first before you're so it's in the process.

I don't know that there's anything additional we need to do. As the money comes in to the street rehab fund, the way it's set right now, we finish stagecoach in Willow Springs and then it's Zephyr, so we don't have another project after Zephyr on the rehab side that's construction. I mean, under design. Yeah. So it is it's number one.

Great. Great. And then by the way, stagecoach is looking really good. Just just really good with that. But the I wanna talk about the the homeless program.

Yes, sir.

The transitional Mhmm. And and where we at with that. I would like to see us I know we're talking about it. I know it's already there, but I would like for that to be a kind of a

priority of getting that done. Yes, sir. Miss McNair is here, and I can't tell you exactly the next council agenda, but we're working with ARC right now to bring a contract back to you. I can't tell you I don't think we have an exact timeline yet, but

Thank you. Afternoon. Just with what we presented in the last few weeks, we are going to, myself and my staff in community development, have ongoing regular meetings with Syntex ARC and Families in crisis along with our homeless outreach team. And as has been stated, our goal is to build a network. Council member Kendrick sent me some information regarding use of our federal grants, which is what we were already tracking for with the Home ARB, the Home, the CDBG, being able to utilize that and make it active for this transitional housing and permanently housing people so that we can reduce our numbers.

Great. Thank you, ma'am.

To add on, we do expect when we come before the body in July to get a vote for the allocation and award of those numbers, that we will have an exact number and a more detailed proposal at that time so it can be set aside and we can move forward towards construction.

Great. Thank you, Ms. McNair. Thank you. Other thing, two other things actually. On parks and recreations in terms of the the accommodations for the special needs. I know we're looking at that. I know we yeah. I was there, and I just really would like that to be highlighted. Yes, sir.

Just to provide you a brief overview, we are working on a plan to address it in a phased approach, starting with low hanging fruit, things that we can get kind of up off the ground in the next six to eighteen months and where we see things going, with an ultimate goal that as we bring facilities online, they have a true inclusive element where we can include everybody and have opportunity to increase their quality of life.

Good, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Good.

One other thing. I just wanted well, that's it. That's it. Okay. The other ones I'll email.

Again, counsel, this is because this is not a, a formal meeting, we're gonna continue this discussion and potentially have another workshop to discuss. What you do have now, you could send this so staff can already start come back with us with what we have. I wanted to let you guys go first because you probably covered it. But I do agree that we leverage the amount of grants that we can get ready from the state and the federal government so we don't that 80% is not affected by the disabled. And whatever I support whatever way we can do that, whether it's we hire a grant writer or put on a contract if we have the funds, or use an organization.

I know there are several out there. Mean some of the stuff I know you probably factored into that number is the public safety. We can't go away from that. And we've already started on the past with innovation with decisions that we voted in the past couple of years that are over a period of time. And so it's kind of as you presented in the I don't want to still see those projects that we started.

The priority is also finishing those, and then we have the plan to continue on with what the council members mentioned. And then, you know, try not to use that bad word, but I like the approach that we've been doing where we budget based off of not having it and then later we end up having it. Yes. I think that budget approach is best because it looks like if we think we're only gonna get $5 but then we end up with $20 That's always a plus and that helps us with I think that keeps us realistic and keeps actually keeps us under control when we look. So it's when you present that we may have assured that you already found the way to cover the 1 but point 9,000,000 we got to be cautious.

We don't want to out of our budget to build a new facility facility or whatever else or hire 100 more people. We are already aligning our budget to strategic goals. I would like to see where we are impact wise as it relates to the comprehensive plan. I know we haven't had that discussion in a minute, but I think it kind of helps transparency when we can show the public that budget decisions we made, this is the impact. And some of it may not be measurable, but I think Mr.

Grady kind of covers some of that, too, when he does his audit. And then I think council members have brought it up. I know Ms. Gonzales definitely did. But somewhere in the budget where we are investing more in our economic development, but I didn't think that for me, it's not a higher priority than the public safety, but I think it's interconnected because that economic development investment will also, I think, will trigger funds.

And there may be some opportunities where either from the sales tax or whatever that will actually bring revenue in. And then may be a discussion the audit committee may have to have with the auditor, even the counsel, that when we look at more efficiencies, because that's always a way to raise money excuse me, free up funds, as Mr. Solomon was addressing, if it can be done in how we do our processes. We've done that somewhat with the billing and everything else, but if we can do a I'm not going say top down, bottom up review of all of them, but it's something that tells you, hey, if we did it this way, this will save us more money. So I think attacking those low hanging fruits is important.

And I'll send mine again. I'm not sure Mr. Alvarez as well. Does council have any other questions for staff? Okay. Is there any actually.

Yes. It's alright. You know, there's been conversation about and this a is good, like said, I have chance to have everybody in the room once, like this, and ask questions. So they've been talking for a while now about you should know being on K Tempo about that bullet train stop in Kuwait. Again, know this is a future item, but again, I want us to continue to think forward. Is there a financial impact, like a positive financial impact to us if we were to start advocating for something along those lines, having a rail stop in Killeen? Because that conversation is happening on multiple levels.

I think your revenue impact there is going to be development, property tax around that's almost all of it. But it could be significant if there was depending on where the train started, where it went, all of that. That's an incredible expense if you're building a railroad, passenger rail, through areas where you don't have right of way.

That's a big undertaking they're trying to take on.

It's a massive

I was just wondering if that was something that future wise would be a benefit for us. But okay, thank you.

We would end up being a test location first because the Federal Railway Administration has to approve it, and that was the benefit. And the vendor that Kate Temple was talking to said that if FRA did not approve it, they were at their all of it will be at their cost initially, and then it will transfer to being a light rail. But the center place would be but the question is, does the region want to expand it even if it's a light rail? So those are discussions that had kind of paused in the last few months because it is a Canadian company, they have to get permission to come into The U. S.

To even do testing. And K Temple supports it being the center of the testing here. So I will say from my meetings it's kind of paused a little bit right now. Mr. Nelson has said that it may Ryan has said it may be coming open again. So it's not a dead issue.

It's just like with anything else, you know, we're dealing with our city, we have alternative options of our our the way in which the city is run is on property taxes and sales tax, and we're not getting those. We've been having these conversations for years. We're not getting them or they're decreasing. Then we really have to start also thinking about other ways as legislators that we can help drive along with our economic development to drive industry or drive revenue generators to our area. Again, I think that should also be a priority ours. So it's something we should definitely 100 be keeping in the forefront. All

right. Anything else? Is there I'll open it back up. Any citizens that wanted to know? Alright, Ms. Kate, you have anything else?

No, sir.

We're not going to adjourn this meeting, but we'll see later at our next gathering. It will be announced in the public domain. Our next council meeting is March 3. I hope to see you there. Thanks.