City Council - Regular Meeting

I want to welcome everyone out to the Sachse City Council meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. The time is, Granger? 6.30 p.m. We are called to order at 6.30 p.m. Next item on the agenda is item two, invocation and pledges of allegiance. I've asked Mayor Procter & Franks to offer the invocation and Mr. Pressenberg to lead the pledges. If you will please rise.

Please pray with me. Dear Lord, thank you for allowing us to gather tonight as we plan and prepare our city for our future. Allow us to hear each other, listen to each other's arguments, and make the best decisions for our future as a city. I always ask you to look out for all of the employees that work to make sure our city functions on a day-to-day basis. I ask that you look out for all the military members throughout the world. And again, just be with us and give us the wisdom and strength and the guidance to make the best decisions for our future. Amen.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Texas Pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one indivisible.

Thank you. You may be seated. Next item on the agenda is item B, recognition. Item one, present a proclamation to the North Texas Food Bank recognizing September as Hunger Action Month and the city's participation in the Peanut Butter Drive. If I can have Ms. Cope come down and join us. Do I see her? No? I'm looking for her. I don't see her. Okay. Well, I'm still going to go down and read the proclamation. Okay. Well, even though I wasn't planning on doing this solo, it is for a worthy cause. So this is Hunger Action Month. And this was established in 2007 by the Feeding America group. And they work to provide or promote ways for individuals, organizations, and communities everywhere to get involved and to help the hunger crisis. And just to give you some stats that you may not be aware of, the nationwide campaign strives to mobilize the public into acting on the issue of hunger and help more than 14 million children and their families who are food insecure. Locally, one in five or 19.2% of Dallas County residents And one in eight, or 12.9% of Collin County residents struggle with food insecurity. So SACSI has partnered with the North Texas Food Bank for many years as part of Hunger Action Month. And a little bit more positive, fun note, the peanut butter drive, which we have already started. It started on September 1 and goes through September 30. And if you're not familiar with that, I believe the collection point is out there. And it's not very complicated. We just collect peanut butter for needy families. And so with that, we have a friendly competition It's competition being the emphasized word there. There she is. Come on down, Ms. Cope. I am so glad you're here. Yes, that's right. So I've known Ms. Cope for a long time. So I gave him all the stats already. And so I'm going to read the proclamation and I'm going to let you talk. How about that? Okay. And so I was just telling them about we have just started the peanut butter drive and we have a friendly competition with the city of Rowlett. If you don't know, the mayor of Rowlett, Jeff Winget, shares a name that I share, Jeff. And so if you haven't seen the great video that our communications team put together that is online, you can pretty much find it anywhere. And we had a fun little play on Jif and Jif peanut butter. However, you don't have to donate Jif peanut butter. You can donate any peanut butter you want. But with that, I am going to read the proclamation, and then I'm going to let Ms. Cope say a few words. Whereas Hunger Action Month was established in 2007 by Feeding America and works to promote ways for individuals, organizations, and communities everywhere to get involved and help fight the hunger crisis. Whereas the nationwide campaign strives to mobilize the public into acting on the issue of hunger and help the more than 47 million people, including 14 million children, who are food insecure. Locally, one in five people, or 19.2% of Dallas County residents, or one in eight people, or 12.9% of Collin County residents, struggle with food insecurity. And whereas to raise awareness and curb this trend, Sachse is joining together with all of North Texas to promote and participate in the North Texas Food Bank's annual peanut butter drive, either virtually or in person with the goal of raising 100,000 pounds of peanut butter and $400,000 to continue efforts throughout the year. And whereas the residents of the city of Sachse have always given generously with a tremendous amount of love towards effort to towards efforts to care for those in need, and the Sachse City Council calls Sachse into action to get involved in events like the peanut butter drive and more. Now, therefore, I, Jeff Bickerstaff, Mayor of the City of Sachse, do hereby proclaim the month of September as Hunger Action Month in Sachse and encourage all of our residents to join the Sachse City Council and the North Texas Food Bank to help eradicate hunger in our city, county, state, and nations. Thank you, Ms. Cope.

It is an honor to get to speak to you, um, because I want to thank you personally for participating in the peanut butter drive every year. Saxia has been an incredible partner for us and we can't do what we do without the city support as well as the residents of the city. So I just wanted to say, if we haven't talked about it already, why peanut butter? Peanut butter is a nutritious source of protein and it's shelf stable. This is very important for our over 400 food pantries. that are neighbor facing. So the North Texas Food Bank is the resource for free food for those partners to then hand it out to your neighbors that need a little help. I want to thank the mayor and city council because having this come from the city government is so important to let the city know that this is really important and that you are a partner of ours. And I'm so grateful. I also thought the Jeff, Jeff thing was hilarious. And if you haven't seen the video, you should watch it. And you're right, it doesn't have to be just peanut butter. It can be any kind of nut butter, peanut butter, just as long as it's not mixed with honey or jelly or chocolate, just because we want to get the most nutritious food we can to our neighbors and kids. Unfortunately, one in four kids in Texas is food insecure. That's up from one in five last year. We just learned that in July. So that's a very tough stat. And I am excited that you're willing to join us to help do your part in fighting that stat. So thank you so much.

And to piggyback a little bit on what Ms. Cope was saying, if you have not been out to the North Texas Food Bank's facility on the George Miss Tollway, it is quite the operation that they put together every day, really. And they depend on volunteers to get the food distributed. So if you ever want to see firsthand the operation they have, then Ms. Cope is the person you can talk to. Yes. Thank you, Ms. Cope. All right, next item on the agenda is item C, public comment. The public is invited to address council regarding any topic not already on the agenda for action or public hearing. Comments regarding the consent agenda or any discussion only items on the agenda may be addressed during this public comment section. The time limit is three minutes per speaker. A public comment card shall be presented to the city secretary prior to the meeting. According to the Texas Open Meetings Act, council is prohibited from discussing any item not posted on the agenda but will take comments under advisement. I do not have any public comment cards for tonight. Next item on the agenda is item D, council staff reports and updates. Item one, report on public comment from the August 17th, 2026 city council meeting. I do have a few comments I'd like to address from that meeting. The first comments were from Matthew Hobok. First, Mr. Hobok referenced the fact that the contract for Willerford Road had been let and asked, quote, when's that road going to be finished, end quote. The contract states that the schedule is 396 calendar days to substantial completion from the notice to proceed, plus 15 calendar days to final completion, or roughly during the fourth quarter of 2027, droughts and floods notwithstanding. Second, Mr. Holbrook asked about the Lieutenant Governor's so-called double nickel property tax proposal and said, quote, at age 55, your property taxes are going to get frozen, end quote. That proposal from the Lieutenant Governor is aimed at school district property taxes, not city property taxes. Regardless, our award-winning staff reviews all proposals from the legislature well before they would potentially impact Sachse and plan accordingly. Finally, Mr. Holbrook said, quote, still waiting to hear how many speed humps were on High Ridge Alley, end quote. And again, accused us of, quote, hiding behind lies, end quote. This issue has been addressed not once, not twice, but three times at prior city council meetings. Mr. Holbrook was present at two of those meetings. So at this point, I can only conclude Mr. Holbrook either has not been paying attention or does not like the answer. The next comments were from Robert Harris. Mr. Harris repeated concerns about a recent ruling from the Saxon municipal court, determining that there were code violations on Mr. Harris's property and addressed his attempt to secure a building permit for a pole barn. I did address these concerns at the August 3rd, 2026 council meeting. The next comment was from Tim Brooks. Mr. Brooks continued to share his concerns regarding street naming standards. To date, there have been no council interest in pursuing a street naming policy. The next comment was from Wen Dao. Mr. Dao, a resident of the station, raised concerns about water pooling on the public sidewalk in front of their home and asked whether the issue could be addressed through the station's public improvement district maintenance plan. Mr. Dowell was correct that the pit plan identifies sidewalks and drainage infrastructure among the improvements that may be maintained with pit funds. However, the plan does not address water that pools on or drains from private property, which is where the source of the water pooling originated. Staff has contacted Mr. Dowell to explain this process. The final comments were from Jane Reed. Ms. Reed asked about the curb in front of 2204 Cornwall Lane and whether future improvements would be funded through the capital improvement plan or a bond program. Cornwall Lane was included in the city's 2025 asphalt rehabilitation work, but that resurfacing did not include curb replacement. At this time, there are no plans regarding Cornwall Lane addressed in the capital improvement plan or as part of a future bond program. Ms. Reid also raised a concern with the left turn signal at Ben Davis Road onto State Highway 78. Because Highway 78 is a state highway, TxDOT is responsible for the operation and maintenance of that signal, including its vehicle detection equipment and timing. While the city cannot directly reprogram it, staff has relayed these concerns to TxDOT for evaluation. That's all the comments I had from the August 17th meeting. Would anyone on council like to address any of the public comments made at that meeting? All right, seeing none, we'll move on. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you.

Yes, sir. Yes, I also believe there was a comment last time in the same concern about the traffic signal, but it was more about the painting of the of the actual concrete? Is that something we've looked into, or is that also TxDOT's responsibility to paint the curbs there bright yellow?

It's part of the quiet zone for the railroad, and so that's what TxDOT requires. So it is within their purview to make sure that those conditions are met for the quiet zone. So you're right, the painting is part of the requirement.

Okay. In our communication with them also, yes, we want to look at the timing of the lights, but also the viewability, if that's the word, of the curbs and whatnot.

Yeah, visibility. Yeah, or viewability. I know staff can make a note of that. Mr. Millsap.

Are you ready for public announcements?

We have, well, they're next. Okay. Okay. All right, let me do this. Okay, anyone else on council would like to address the comments from August 17th? Okay. Next item on the agenda is item two, mayor and city council announcements regarding special events, current activities, and local achievements. Anyone on council would like to address the audience at this time? Ms. Buehler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to thank the Parks and Recreation team for the wonderful Mother and Son Wild West Roundup they hosted last weekend. There were games, a bounce house, a mechanical bull, a lasso performer, and so much more. This event is one of my favorite events, and I truly appreciate all the care and thought that they pour into this event. I have a couple future Parks and Recreation announcements as well. We will host a pop-up park at Firefighters Park on Wednesday, September 16th from 6 to 7.30 p.m. This come-and-go event features fun, games, and music, a great way to enjoy an evening outdoors with family and friends. Firefighter Park is located at 2837 5th Street, Sachse, Texas. This event is free and open to the public. Next up we have grandparents are invited to bring their preschool age grandchildren for a special Grandparents Day celebration on September 18th, featuring four free activities hosted across Sachse's Leisure Service Division. This is a wonderful morning out for grandparents and grandchildren to enjoy together. At 9.30 a.m. there's story time at the Sachse Public Library. 9.45 a.m. there's donuts at the Sachse Senior Activity Center. 10 a.m., there's toddler time at the Michael J. Felix Community Center Gym. And 11 a.m., a furry farewell at the Sachse Animal Shelter where families can visit with adoptable pets. All activities are free. Residents are encouraged to follow along for more details on the city's social media channel and website. Thank you.

Thank you, Speaker. Mr. LePage.

Animal shelter announcements. Deuce has finally found us forever home. Our longest tenured pup after two years has definitely found his home. His new family report said he's a ball of energy, loves to cuddle. We always knew that he had him in it. Thank you to everyone who shared a story, came out to meet him, and cheered him over the past few years. This one means a lot to everybody, anybody that's been in there and seen him. They have an amazing pup. Our featured pet is Camilla. Camilla is a special girl with a gender nature. There she is. Playful spirit, heart of gold, adult German Shepherd mixed, affectionate, loyal, also has an independent side and is happy to give you space when you need it. Camilla is smart, dignified, and full of personality. She's medium sized with a short black tan coat and already spayed and vaccinated. She would make a wonderful companion for someone looking for a loving dog who could bring both comfort, laughter into their home. Anyone interested in meeting Camilla is encouraged to contact Sachse Animal Shelter at 972-675-9662 to schedule a meet and greet. And that is a very, very kind dog. My two little girls would love playing with her. So that's going to be a good one.

You didn't have to take it home, I guess. I know.

That close. Had to check with the wife.

Yes, as we all do. Mr. Millsap.

Okay, library activities. Baby and Me Clothing Swap, Friday, September 11th. That's this coming Friday from 10 to 11 a.m. Families with babies and toddlers aged zero to 18 months are invited to a Baby and Me Clothing Swap on Friday, September 11th at the Sachse Library. Clean out your closets and bring your new and gently used baby... clothing to swap with other families during your visit the library will set up mats with toys for little ones to play on while caregivers browse and swap this is a free come as you go event also ham radio demonstrations on wednesday september the 23rd at 6 pm teenagers aged 12 to 17 are invited to learn about ham radio with a live demonstration and hands-on experience presented by the Sachse Amateur Radio Association on Wednesday, September the 23rd at 6. This is a free event, so for anybody in that age group, 12 to 17, show up. It's no cost, so if you want hands-on with ham radio, be there.

Ham radio is going to be there if everything else is not, so ham radio is very important. Thank you, Mr. Millsap. Anyone else on council have any announcements for the audience at this time? Seeing none, Ms. Nash.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of quick things. One, welcome one of our new hires, Trista Palomino. She's a part-time recreation aide over at the Michael J. Felix Community Center. A congratulations to, I'd like to congratulate Jared Potts, our Director of Economic Development. He has been accepted into the Leadership North Texas class. For any of you who know about it or don't know about it, this is a graduate-level leadership program that recruits, develops, and supports stewards of our region. These are the future leaders of our region. So it is a prestigious recognition, and we're proud to have Jared representing Sachse in this program, so congratulations to Jared. And then a core values recognition on innovation. Typically, I do a lot of recognitions up here for employees that are very public facing, but we also have a lot of employees that do internal services that don't get the shout outs all the time. So tonight, I would like to recognize Gillian Smith. She's our HR analyst. In her short tenure here, she's led a couple of huge projects for us that have really made a difference in how we operate internally. So she has developed some great workflow systems for us for electronic employee files, converting a lot of our electronic forms, and just building and securing approval workflows internally and paperless that have been so helpful to us. She's worked with our vendor of our enterprise systems to optimize how we use that platform to streamlining our processes, again, across the system. And currently, she is leading our implementation for our performance evaluation system that is aligning with our evaluations for our Shine Core values. job expectations and organization goals. It's still a work in progress. Right now we're doing a pilot program, but we know that this will have a lasting impact on how we support and develop our team. So GILI approaches each of these projects with good initiative and follow through, and we are better for it. So I just want to say thanks to GILI and all of our HR team for all the things they do behind the scenes to help everybody who the public sees do their job as best as they can every day.

Yes, behind the scenes can definitely, we definitely always want to take a moment and recognize that because without the behind the scenes work, the in front of the scenes work does not happen. So we appreciate that. I do have to ask Mr. Potts, what class number is he going to be at Leadership North Texas?

Class 18.

Okay, well, 15 was the best. 16 was... Oh, 16, okay. It was really good. So, Jared, your class is a tall hill to climb, but don't think you can do 15, but we wish you the best of luck. Seriously, congratulations. That's a great honor. I have just a few announcements. City Hall will be closing early tomorrow. And that is where Sachse High School has their homecoming parade. And if you don't know, they stage here at City Hall and go down to the high school for a community pep rally. When you stage and the parade seems to get bigger every year, and so as city employees will tell you that it is a lot of fun around here about that time getting out. So City Hall will close at 4 o'clock tomorrow to accommodate that. The public library, the community center, and the public safety building will remain open as normal. Now we'll say the senior activity center will close at their usual time, which is 4 p.m. And if you want to cheer on the Mustangs tomorrow, it's going to be a little warm. I'm on parade route, but if you want to cheer them on, the parade starts at 6.30. Next, we have the 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony that is going to be Friday, September 11th. This is coming Friday, September 11th, 9 to 9.30 a.m. This is the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Sac State Fire Rescue and the Sac State Police Department will host a ceremony to mark this event. The community is welcome to attend and join us in honoring the victims, survivors, and first responders whose courage and sacrifice we will never forget. Again, that is this coming Friday morning from 9 to 9.30 at the Public Safety Building. As I mentioned briefly during our proclamation, the Peanut Butter Bowl is on now through September 30th. We have a, I would say friendly competition, but let's just be honest, it's a competition with the city of Rowlett. And so, but more importantly is to donate peanut butter for a good cause. So we're going to be collecting peanut butter in our donation bins at City Hall, at the library, at the Michael J. Felix Community Center, and the Senior Activity Center between, and the Animal Shelter. and the Public Safety Building, pretty much everywhere. All donations must be dropped off by September 30th to count. You can always donate to the North Texas Food Bank regardless of that. You can follow our social media channels for more updates throughout the month. Every jar does truly make a difference. We have Pet Day at the Market coming up this coming Saturday, September 12th. That's gonna be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This Saturday, the Sachse Farmer's Market is going pet-friendly for Pet Day at the Market. Join us from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for pet-friendly vendors, free bandanas for your furry friends. Can't beat that. Adoptable animals from Sachse Animal Services and all your favorite farmer's market vendors. If you haven't ever been out there, I'd highly encourage you to come out there Now, as I just talked about, you can also bring a jar of peanut butter out there, and they'll be entered in to win a prize. So grab your pup and come on out Saturday morning at the Pet Day at the Market, this coming Saturday morning, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. And National Night Out is quickly approaching. That is going to be Tuesday, October 6th. National Night Out is where, of course, our neighborhoods in Sachse celebrate with block parties, cookouts, community activities. This is an annual event and a wonderful opportunity to connect with your neighbors. and visit with members of the Sachse police and fire departments. If your neighborhood is planning a block party, we encourage you to register it with the city so our officers, firefighters, and city representatives can stop by, complete the block party application on the city's website, and check the box for a national night out. And I say this every year to thank Chief personally because if it hasn't changed, the true National Night Out is in August. And nobody wants to do that around here in August. And hopefully by the time October 6th rolls around, it will not be 100 outside, so we shall see. Okay, that's all the announcements I had. Anybody else? Okay, next on the agenda is item C, consent agenda. Item one, approve the August 17th, 2026 meeting minutes. Item two, accept the monthly revenue and expenditure report for the period ending June 30th, 2026. Item three, approve a resolution approving amendment number four to the household hazardous waste interlocal agreement between Dallas County and the city of Sachse for household waste disposal services for the fiscal year 2026, 2027 and providing an effective date. So anyone on council would like to remove any item on the consent agenda.

Mr. Millsap. I'd like to remove item three.

Okay, item three is removed. Anybody else? All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for items one and two. Not all at once. Ms. Howers.

I'll make a motion to approve item one and two from the consent agenda.

I have a motion by Ms. Howard to approve item one and two from the consent agenda. I have a second. Mr. Pressenberg? Second. Second by Mr. Pressenberg. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please cast your ballot. Again, this is for items one and two.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right, going back to item three, approve a resolution approving amendment number four to the Household Hazardous Waste Interlocal Agreement between Dallas County and the City of Sachse for Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Services for the fiscal year 2026-2027 and providing an effective date. Mr. Millsap.

Okay, I just have a couple questions of clarification The dollar amount is 40,000. I was just wondering where that amount came from It looks like it's just the same as it was last year. Is that based on use or volume or just a set fee?

So it's based on volume. And so we budget that every year. And if we don't use it, it goes back into fund balance. And so we just set that because it's usually right around that number every year.

OK. And then another question. It says this agreement is with the Dallas County Chemical Collection Center. And it says it was authorized by court order, so and so. My question is, since it's Dallas County, can residents of Collin County also use this? Or is it just Dallas County residents?

Yes, they can use it as well. It's kind of like when, a similar example is when we needed to use the health authority for Garland when we were during COVID, but they covered the whole city, even though they weren't in the same county. It's the same idea. So yes, as long as you're a Sachse resident and you show your proof of ID, you can use it.

Okay, that's just two clarifications I kind of wanted to know. Okay, I'm ready to go. Favor of it.

Anyone else? If not entertain a motion, Ms. Sowers.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda item three.

I have motion by Ms. Howard to approve consent agenda item number three. Do I have a second? Mr. Pressenberg? Second. Second by Mr. Pressenberg. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please cash them out. Motion carries unanimously. Next item on the agenda is item F, action items. Item one, consider an ordinance of the City Council of Sachse, Texas authorizing certain budget and capital improvement plan amendments pertaining to the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget and capital improvement plan and providing an effective date. Ms. Nash.

Mayor and Council, tonight will be the final night in a multi-month process relative to the 26, 27 budget. But one of the first steps that we need to take in that is to do some amendments to our current budget, to be able to close that out for the year. And then David will continue on with presentations relative to the rest of the budget. So, um, we've talked a little bit about several of these, as you know, many of these budget amendments we try to do throughout the year. And, uh, some of this will just be sort of a wrap up of the final quarter. And then David will also do some reminders along the way in his presentation.

Hello, Mr. Baldwin.

Good evening, mayor council. All right. So we've been through this process previously. Uh, we adopted this 2025, 2026 budget in September, 2025. It consists of a budget appropriation in exhibit A and the capital improvement plan in exhibit B. There were amendments March 2nd, 2026, and our policy says that basically we can bring budget amendments to you. The first of three funds where we're requesting budget amendments is in the general fund. In the general fund, we're requesting expenditure authority for previously unbudgeted revenue and also for election costs exceeding budget. Those first four items there, you can see that there's no CIP number. This is really just requests for budget authority at the fund level. These are good news stories. We went to other areas, had deployments, helped out other counties. and have received, for the first two items, have received reimbursement back. So that's West Laco, Texas and Travis County for about $87,000. For the other two items in Wise County and Region 1, those are deployments that happened and we're just waiting for the paperwork and for the actual funding back, but we're anticipating funding for those. The bottom two items are for the unbudgeted portion of election costs that really just exceeded our budget. That is for general election and for the runoff election. Those items, if approved by council, those would come from the general fund balance. Total is $211,594. Next in the capital projects fund, we are requesting expenditure and capital project authority for construction cost increases. This is the one item there is for merit road realignment and widening. That is CIP number R-12-13. We're requesting that budget amendment both by fund level and in the capital improvement plan. The revenue source is the 2026 certificates of obligation. approved by council, and then those, we had the sale for those on August 3rd, previously approved by council. The last item is in the debt service fund. We're requesting expenditure authority to cover both the 2015 geo-refunding bond defeasance payment and also the regularly scheduled principal amount. We were just off a little bit in that budget, so we're requesting $65,000 to cover us for appropriation in that fund. If you add all this together, the fund budget amendments that we're requesting for exhibit A are $7,276,594. And in the CIP plan, exhibit B, we're requesting $7 million budget added to that project. And so staff requests that council approve the ordinance authorizing certain budget and capital improvement plan amendments pertaining to the fiscal year 2025-2026 and the capital improvement plan.

Thank you, Mr. Baldwin. Questions or comments from council? Mr. Prestenberg.

Yes, just a quick question on the general fund slide. Yes. So those first two you said were getting reimbursed or we've already been reimbursed for those?

That's correct.

Which one? That we've already been reimbursed or we're getting reimbursed?

Correct. For the first line there, the $40,991, that's from a March 2025 event, we have been reimbursed for that by TDEM. Along with the second item, we have been reimbursed for that.

Okay. I'm just confused that we're totaling these up when we've received money back to replace where the other ones are actually where you're requesting for us to spend the money, right? Or approval to increase the budget for it, right?

RICK MACLENNAN I'm requesting expenditure authority on all of them. How does that balance for these? We've received funding for the first two and the remaining the other two. We know that funding is on the way.

All right. I'm not really following right there. I'm a little confused on there.

Yeah. If I may, our 2026, 2027 budget, we haven't received any of that funding either. And yet we, um, you know, we set aside an expenditure request and a revenue request. So this in a similar way, um, on a couple of these items, even though the funding hasn't, um, hasn't arrived, we're requesting authority for that.

So when we spent the 41,000 for West Laco in 2025, as you mentioned, We didn't approve that last year, or is that what you're saying?

Correct. So this is expenses for salary, for travel, all within an agreement with TDEM where it would be reimbursed. We did not anticipate these disaster events, so we didn't budget these amounts.

Right. So the other two, the Wise County and Region 1, are we just getting ahead of the game? The fact that we haven't been reimbursed for them, but we're asking for approval to...

Yes, basically.

Okay, so we were behind the game on the first two, but ahead of the game on the next. Okay, that's right. It didn't make sense to me while we were... No, and I think...

And I understand what you're saying because the first four categories are going to be reimbursed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The first two we already got. Right. The second two we'll get. And then, of course, the last two are fund balance that we'd have to reconcile anyway. So I guess if you wrapped all that together, they're just being reconciled, whether we have the money now or whether we're going to get the money.

Okay. I feel like we're early on some and late on others. Yeah. That's fine. But because we're at the end of the budget year, we got to. Okay. Thanks. Okay.

Other questions or comments from staff? Mr. Millsap.

On your summary of charges or changes, budget amendment Exhibit A you're asking for $7,276,000 and a CPI you're asking for $7 million. So does that mean you're asking for a total of $14 million?

No. In one ordinance, it takes two actions. One is just appropriation increase. That's Exhibit A. In one case, that's redundant. So we're requesting $7 million to the Capital Projects Fund The capital projects fund is a revenue source for a specific capital project and so we want to reflect the capital project in exhibit B. Those should not be summed in that sense to say it's $14 million worth of changes. So it's the same $7 million in two different aspects of the budget.

So, Mr. Baldwin, is it fair to say that we appropriated this money previously that went into the budget, and now, if I understand what you're saying, we're moving that money we already appropriated into the CIP where it's going to be spent out of the CIP. Is that fair to say?

the capital project was budgeted this specific seven million dollars was not so it needs to appear in the capital improvement plan and it needs to appear in the fund budget so that incremental change is what we're requesting gotcha okay so this i'm sorry go ahead so this really just makes merit road go up another seven million dollars in cost the project cost does reflect that yes that's that sounds pretty logical which again we approved the seven million earlier yeah

Mr. LePage.

I think we've already got it.

I think we've already, uh, there we go.

Um, the 7 million, was that just, uh, estimated going in there? Was that an exact, and do we have more going into that?

I can defer to Corey on that unless.

Yeah. Ms. Ms. Nash.

This is just in addition to the project. So we had to sell more debt to be able to pay for the rest of the project. So this is $7 million on top of what we already had. Yes, yes. And so I think one of the challenges here, like on the, David, if you just go back real quick for me to help clarify for the public. For us non-accounting types, if you go back another slide. So we have to have the authority to spend money. And in the case of the Weslaco, Travis County, Wise County, Region 1, we have agreements that we can deploy resources and use our overtime in which to do so. But what we have to do is get spending authority on the backend when we get that money back and you all have to approve that for us. And so that's what you're doing on those.

I understand those, but the 7 million, just a flat 7 million fee that just kind of.

So on that particular one, Council had already approved for us to sell the certificates of obligation, but then we have to, you have to approve where it gets placed and to do a formal budget amendment and a CIP amendment. So it's a multi-step accounting process that we have to do and our financial policies and procedures say, you all can approve that dollar amount. But then we also have to come back to you for you to approve an amendment to say, yes, we're going to increase that amount by $7 million. It's not just enough for you to sell it. We have to have a line item that says you've amended the budget to have the authority to spend that $7 million. So again, it's a multi-step process. Plus amend your capital improvement plan to show the $7 million in there as well. Is that clear as mud?

No, definitely.

Okay.

Well, you said it much better than I tried to say it earlier.

Not an accounting major, but I'm trying to, trying to say it in a non-accounting way. And it's the same with the election costs. We had to spend that money to do those elections, but we have to show in here where that money is coming from, which is fund balance, and we have to have a budget amendment to allow us to have spent the money on our books as we move toward the audit here in a few months. Hopefully I haven't thoroughly made this worse. No, you've made it fine.

You've cleared up what I was trying to say. Does that answer your question? Okay. And since Ms. Nash brought it up, Ms. Granger, I know we did have the issue last year, which is BEYOND OUR CONTROL, REALLY, AS FAR AS EXTRA ELECTION COST. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDS THAT DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN THAT WE'RE BUDGETING THAT MUCH FOR THIS COMING YEAR.

NO. WE TAKE KIND OF A CUMULATIVE AVERAGE AND TRY AS BEST WE CAN TO FIGURE WHAT IT'S GOING TO COST.

AT THE MERCY OF THE COUNTY, AS THEY SAY. THANK YOU, MS. GRANGER. OTHER QUESTIONS FOR STAFF? MS. HOWARTH. I gotta ask for. Oh, okay. Uh, thank you, Mr. Baldwin. Uh, anyone in the audience like to address this item? Okay. Now, Ms. Howard. All right.

No further questions. I'll make a motion to approve item F one as presented.

Have a motion by Ms. Howarth to approve item F one as presented. Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor Pro Tem Franks.

Second.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Franks. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please cast your ballot. Motion carries unanimously. Isn't accounting fun?

Okay.

Next item on the agenda is item F2, consider an ordinance of the city of Sachse, Texas, adopting the budget for fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026, and ending September 30th, 2027, providing that expenditures for said fiscal year shall be made in accordance with a said budget, appropriating and setting aside the necessary funds out of the general and other revenues for said fiscal year for the maintenance and operation of the various departments and and for various activities and improvements of the city, providing a repealing clause, providing a severability clause, providing an effective date. Ms. Nash.

So, Mayor and Council, this is the next step in our final budget approval process for tonight. So this actually is the step for you to adopt the budget for fiscal year, October 1st, 2026, ending in September 30th, 2027. And there isn't a specific presentation as you all have seen it many times, but just as a reminder, this item does require a record vote and that's pretty much all I have to share on that mayor.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Nash. Anything to add, Mr. Baldwin?

Sure, Mayor. I'll just add that we were here on June 1st requesting early citizen input on the budget. On June 25th, there was a budget in Berger's public engagement event. On August 17th, there was a budget public hearing. included in this. So there was some administrative cleanup of the budget since the date it was proposed. There are some items that were included in the CIP, but excluded from the budget appropriation. There's also a generator purchase that we've realized now will not take place in this fiscal year, and so we've carried forward that budget to the next year. So a few technical changes, nothing to the general fund, nothing that changes any need for tax rates.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Baldwin. Questions or comments? Mr. Prestenburg.

Real quick, one question. On the one entry that talks about Merritt Road realignment, is that $43.5 million? Does that already include the $7 million that we just approved? Yes, it does. Okay. May I know real quick? Yes. That's good. Thanks.

Mayor Procter & Franks.

How's it going? We missed you. Welcome back. I missed the last meeting, last two meetings actually, and they were heavy budget. So I wanted to read a couple of comments I had before we did this as the next three items are pertaining to the budget and the tax rate. So I came across this document by Dr. William Brooks. He's a former city manager, adjunct professor, author, keynote speaker, and I think now he's a consultant. Okay. I believe he was in Waco, City Manager Waco, is that accurate? No, I'm totally wrong. All right, disregard that last statement. So one of his things he had on his information was just a statement about taxes and how we think about taxes. So I want to read that. You open your tax bill and it's higher than last year and you think, here we go again, same trash pickup, same roads, same water, same police cars, same parks, same walking trails, same complaints. Everything feels the same except what you are paying and it doesn't add up. But it does. Just not in the way we've taught people to see it. We've stopped connecting the price of government to the price of everything else. We act like public agencies are immune to inflation and exempt from reality. As if fuel, concrete, salaries, insurance, trucks, chemicals, equipment, steel, asphalt, and labor costs all freeze at the moment the budget is adopted. They don't. Government has to buy the same things from the same world at the same rising prices as everyone else does. We want government to run like a business, but no business can charge the same price for the same product forever when the cost of everything else goes up. And that's where the real problem lives, not in the tax bill, in the expectation. We think paying something means that we're entitled to everything. We confuse being taxed with being covered. We believe proximity equals entitlement and that wanting a service means it should exist. Fully funded, always available, and free at the point of use. We want smoother roads, faster responses, better parks, stricter enforcement, But we also want fewer houses, fewer taxes, fewer rules, and fewer responsibilities. And when someone explains the boundary, the statute, the funding formula, or the reality of the trade-off, we call them dismissive or liars, out of touch, or arrogant. But cities do not run on emotion or illusion. They run on math. Thank you for doing the math. They run on cost. They run on limits. They run on what is and not what we wish. We don't have to want to pay more, I certainly don't, that's fair, but you can't refuse to fund something and still expect to keep it. You can't cut what you depend on and account, or excuse me, and act surprised when it can't deliver. You can say not this, but you have to be willing to say instead that. That's adulthood, that's what every family, every household, every organization already knows. If you say no to cost, you say yes to consequence. And the hardest part about local government today isn't providing the service, it's explaining the reality to people who've grown used to ignoring it. It's pointing to the budget and being told it's just an excuse. It's saying you don't pay for city services, so you don't get the benefit, even if our services are closer to you. And being treated like the problem. It's being honest and being punished for it. This isn't about wanting more taxes. You can want more, you can want less that you're right. But either way you have to live inside the math cities crumble living between what people demand and what they refuse to accept. Uh, I did want to give credit to Lauren. I did find that on her LinkedIn page as she reposted it. So, uh, you can blame her as well, but I found this very interesting as I was reading it as a taxpayer and like, yeah, I don't want to pay more. I certainly want all these things, but don't want to pay anymore. So. I just thought that was a great way to explain it rather than a private business who their answer typically is just raise prices and we don't sell widgets. We can't really do that. So I just thought that was a great explanation of how the government city government works.

That's fine. Other comments, questions on this side. Thank you, Mr. Baldwin. Anyone in the audience like to address this side? Come on down, sir. And if you would just state your name and city of residence.

My name is Scott Everett. I live in 52 or five miles road. Um, I agree with everything that Brett Franks was sitting here talking about. It was a great, great response there, but, um, there's a lot of things in this city that have happened over the years. I was on the planning is only board for years here. And, um, you know, we've, we, whenever I was on the board, you know, we try to get people to. except the fact that things were changing around here. If we get alcohol sales, taxes will come down. If we get more retail, taxes will come down. If we get more commercial, taxes will come down. Well, taxes have not come down at all, any significant amount. We're the highest rate around, and we need to fix that as a city. I don't know what we're going to do to fix it, I looked at the budget, and I found a lot of things I could stick a shotgun to and get rid of them. So it's too late probably for this year, but for next year when you're planning stuff, you need to take a hard look at that budget. We've got more houses. We've got more revenue coming in. We've got more retail. We've got more revenue, sales tax revenue coming in. It's time we see a tax break in this city. from all of y'all. And I'm really surprised that I did not see anybody that voted no on this year's taxes. I'm surprised by that because I know, uh, councilman, Hey, you kind of ran on that, that you were going to see some tax relief. And I was expecting maybe to see you at least vote no on it. I mean, it wasn't going to make much of a difference if everybody else did, but would like to see you guys really next year take a serious look at our budget and see what can be cut out I know there's a lot of citizens in this town just based off of the Facebook things I've seen people talking about they're tired of this and we need some tax relief we also need some water rate relief I paid $600 for my water bill two months ago and my yard is dead There's no reason why I should have to pay a $600 water bill and my yard still be dead. We need some real relief on the tax rates and the water bills. I don't know what kind of, I know, I see what kind of rates are being charged by the water district, but there's got to be a lot of overhead built into that for my water bill to be $600. So y'all should look at that, take a serious look at all of that this coming year.

Thank you, Mr. Everett. Anyone else like to address the council on this side? Come on down, Ms. Reid. And if you would, state your name and city of residence.

Jane Reid, Sachse, Texas. I'm not sure. I just had a couple questions and comments about the budget. And on this Facebook post, it's amazing. It is, is the modest staff pay increase going to be 3% or what is the modest staff pay increase that was, it was on a slide on Facebook. I was just curious what that will be. I know Gina had mentioned 3%. a few months ago, is it still 3%? I would honestly, in my opinion, a 3% pay increase is very generous. And healthcare also has gone, I'm trying to figure out, healthcare is going to be discussed next month, but y'all are doing the budget. now when one of the biggest costs for the city is healthcare. So how, what kind of percentage was put in the budget for healthcare? Has healthcare already been decided? I mean, I'm just trying just to, on like page 142 on the budget, let's just say police, For 2025-2026, it was 595,000. The proposed is 813,000. That's quite a huge jump. But then you have city managers, 88,000, but then it's going to go up to 106,000. Fire, 574,000. $843, and then it's going to $664. I don't know how y'all are coming up with these numbers. But y'all are voting on it, but then the presentation for the insurance is not coming out until next month. So I'm just trying to figure out how y'all work that out. And also I'm trying streetlights, page 154. $154,000 under the general fund. I mean, what kind of streetlights are we looking at? I mean, are these special streetlights? Are they for the ballpark? Are they for like Heritage Park, the station? Or, I mean, what streetlights are we talking about? And also, there's $100,000 crime prevention supplies. What kind of supplies does that, what does that include in a hundred thousand dollars in the budget? Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Reid. Anyone else like to address the council on this side? All right. Seeing none. Yeah. Ms. Nash would address some of those comments. Ms. Nash.

Sure. On the employee pay increases, it's 3% for our non-sworn staff. And then it's one step for police and fire. And that can vary slightly depending on where they are in the pay plan. But it averages out between probably 3% and 4.5%. It just depends on where they are in their step plan. Some steps are a little more compressed than others. But the idea is that 3% on the non-sworn side and then a step Uh, for police and fire. And then the question about health insurance, Marin council, as you all know, every year we put in a placeholder for health insurance, health insurance is in its own fund. So depending on what you all decide on through the, the request for proposal process that we get from the different companies that bid on our work. Um, our, our book of business, then, um, we have the money in the budget for that as a placeholder. And then there is fund balance. If we have to dip into that, which we have from time to time, some years we haven't, and we've just let that money accumulate in the health insurance fund. Uh, the goal there is, um, council set a policy years ago. Um, you know, as I came to the city, one of the frustrations that the city council had for the employees, is that their health insurance kept going. It was very volatile and some years they would have a huge increase and some years they'd have a decrease and they never could count on what they would be paying. And so the idea by setting up this health insurance fund was to help normalize some of those changes so employees wouldn't have to see such extremes in their health insurance changes. And so that's what we've tried to do in that is to kind of keep that consistency for employees so they don't know if they're getting a pay raise or a pay cut. every year, so we try to keep that consistent. As for her specific questions about streetlights and crime prevention supplies, I can get staff to answer those questions specifically from the page number she requested.

Okay, thank you. And again, just a corollary on the health insurance versus when we adopt the budget, obviously by statute we have to adopt the budget before September 30th, and by charter as well. Okay, so that's why you have a little disconnect there. And then real quickly on Mr. Everett's comments, uh, he did mention North Texas municipal water district rates. Uh, my understanding is those are pure pass through, um, rates. There are no overhead involved.

We do have pass through rates, but there is a portion of administration, obviously for the staff that we have, um, that do all of the, the maintenance and, and the administrative staff. And so there is a portion of that, that is our cost. And that was in one of the budget presentations where we kind of show a pie of the utility fund. of the direct pass-through costs from the Water District versus the costs that we have internally to run the operation. And as you know, it's run, it is truly run as an enterprise. It's run as a business and it's separate from any of the general fund because it's fee-for-service.

Gotcha. And I know it's tough to say, but from a overhead versus rate pass-through breakdown percentage-wise, what would that be?

Um, David, I hate to speak out of school, but it was at about 30%. That's administrative roughly. It's about 30%. And then 70% is the cost that we get from, um, the water district actually buying the water.

Right. I just want to give Mr. Everett some context on that. Uh, and then I will say too, that, um, The tax rate, we haven't quite, actually, we haven't adopted tax rate yet. We'll do that at the next item. I know last year, based on tax rate, only tax rate, is that for Dallas County, Sac State had the 11th highest tax rate. Now, that may change this year when everybody adopts their taxes. So we were the 11th highest in Dallas County. Ms. Buehler.

Ms. Nash, I just want to make the clarification. So 70% is pass-through costs from the Water Municipal District, but 30% also includes not just staff time, but repairs, infrastructure, all that kind of stuff that we have to deal with.

So we have a separate Water Capital Improvement Project Fund where we do all of those different projects. So yes, the day-to-day repairs, the maintenance, all of those sorts of things, those are built into that budget, but those bigger projects, those are built into our capital improvement fund, which are funded from water revenues.

Mayor Pro Tem Franks.

Yeah, a couple of comments. When I became, when I came on council a few years ago, we had a 75 cent tax rate. So we've, I've, since I've been on council, we've lowered the tax rate 10 cents. The assumption is we don't take a hard look at the budget. We've spent two months at least talking about the budget and lines. And the question is, okay, you wanna cut the tax rate? What services do you wanna cut? And that was my question to council when they said, yeah, we wanna lower the tax rate. Okay, what do you wanna cut? And that's the bottom line. You have to cut services or programs. We did a survey recently and they said that one of the big questions was offering services and programming And a big part of that is would you be willing to pay for it? Is being in the top five, top 10 cities in Texas, safest cities, is it that important? Do you want to continue paying for that? Is providing more programs in our parks more important enough? Are you willing to pay for it? So that's the deal. I mean, I've gone over this budget many times with staff. I know other council members have, but I want to speak for them. And then when they say, yeah, let's cut the budget, I'm like, OK, let's cut it. What do you want to cut? Because it's not cutting cents, it's cutting programs, jobs, dollars, events, safety. I hate to always pick on police and fire, but that's half of our budget, police and fire. And people aren't willing to cheap out on those, I'm not. I've used police and fire, I had to call 911 once in my 26 years here. But if I have to call them again, I don't want one guy showing up, I want everybody showing up.

The comments are finished. Mr. Prestenburg.

Yes. First off, I want to say thank you for putting the budget together. Every one of these pages has gone through about 1,000 times by staff. I don't know how many times we've read it, but we've gone through it at multiple meetings for the last few months. I just warn people when they're on social media, you don't know who is and where they're from, so try not to take verbiage from other folks. Take what your realization is from your own experiences and understand, do I like what the city of Sachse provides? Am I getting a good value for that money? Um, if you aren't getting a good value for this money, then I suggest you come here every two weeks on a Monday and tell us why. Then that's on us to do a better job. But all the staff that's here, all the, all the folks that are up here, I mean, I, I've never seen a better staff. Uh, and I think the value we provide for the dollars that we spend on a tax, you know, day-to-day basis is, uh, is, you know, amazing. So I also say, you know, a comment was made earlier about an average pay raise of 3% is I think it was generous or very generous or something along those lines. Being on the corporate side, pay raises were 2% to 4% this last year. 4% was if you were very low in your bracket. 2% was, hey, you did OK. And we looked at it like, great. So 3% is not, you're not going to run home and go, yay, I'm getting 3%. But it is something to help keep up with inflation. We all know things are not getting cheaper right now. So as Mayor Pro Tem Franks read that article earlier, you know, a lot of people wanna draw the line of what city is, is allowed or should, you know, earn or, or deserve. And I think, um, when we do that, we really put ourselves in, in a bad situation. Um, we want our parks to look nice. Uh, we want our fire and our police to show up when called and we want services to, to run and water to flow. So, um, I will back our staff a thousand percent. And I think the budget we have here, and I'll tell you what, This is my fourth iteration of this. The first one or two, there was a lot of the supplementals, not a lot, but there was more supplemental things that people would, on the city staff would say, hey, I really could use this, I really could use that. The message has been sent by leadership that we don't necessarily have the appetite to do some of these external, extra type things, okay? We want to, but we know that right now, the eye is on the tax rate, the tax rates, you know, the, the values of the homes are going up and it's, it's causing folks to look at their pocketbook. So if, if y'all are having to cut, then city staff needs to cut as well. And so those supplemental things have, have kind of gone by the wayside unless it's like almost a necessity. So, um, highly encourage you if, if, if not the next meeting or the meeting after that next April, I think is when we started this, uh, the first read of this, April of 2027, please look at this, go to burgers or fajitas or whatever we're gonna do next year and talk about it, ask the questions and please look through this and see, I don't think you need X, Y, Z. Well then let's chat about it. That's what we're here for. So we're here to, we pay the same taxes y'all do. So if we can agree to get our taxes lower, then I'll line up behind it. So that's all I got. Thank you.

Mr. LePage.

Yeah, I just want to jump on what he said. Looking at the budget, 0.65 is what it was last year.

Sorry, that's right. Sometime we're going to get in there.

There you go. Jump on what Councilman Prestenburg was saying, 0.65. To drop it down to a 0.60, we have to eliminate $2.5 million. $2.5 million to get that drop. That's... you know, looking at it, there's incremental changes, but, um, it has to be as a whole to find the two and a half million dollars. Cause you know, 50% of it is fire in police. And, uh, you know, I, I like being the safest city. Um, I like to know that, that if I, I call the, the fire department is gonna be there. Um, but finding that, So that's where, yes, we have to be extremely tight and we do need to to, you know, increase our sales tax revenue because all those things are going to help. But as far as this budget right now and the one looking at to get those changes, because that's that is something that I looked at and I'm like, wow, that is a lot of money to bring down. So, you know, in the future, we go into there, but yeah, two and a half million dollars to bring it down to 0.6, so.

Mr. Millsap.

Okay, I'm the senior guy here, so I have a little different approach to it. I think that what I would like to hear is from each of the residents, have a bigger crowd. We have a great crowd here tonight. I'd like to see this each night. And I'd like to start hearing what you think we can do without and how we can do without it. And there's lots of little things we can cut money off of. It's not big projects, but let me just give you a little bitty example. firetrucks two plus million dollars two years wait but do we need gold leaf lettering on that fire truck or does just a little bit of paint to say sexy texas on it do a little bit that may save just a few hundred dollars but every time you save a hundred dollars a few of them they add up to lots of money So there are some ways that we can cut without doing without services. Also, I'm in favor of saying we don't need to follow the leader and be the biggest and the best and have the most. We're a smaller city. We can do less services and less affluent services. There's a lots of ways I won't start naming some of them because it'll steps on some toes that don't want to be stepped on, but I would like to hear the citizens on weekly basis not wait until we start budget again next year. Say the things that we could do a little bit less on or a little different, less expensive way of doing the same thing. There's a lots of areas that we have to tighten our belt and I believe that. Whenever you get my age and you're living on Social Security, that is where you learn how to tighten your belt. It's not just talk about it, but you learn how to tighten your belt until we've gone through those living experiences. A lot of it is rhetoric, and we need to start having more of it. Actual action on some of these things that I would love for you to come and talk to us in general If you come and talk to the City Council here at the podium, we all hear it We can't say we didn't hear if you put it on Facebook We didn't read it. We didn't see that so we don't know anything about it So show up and say what you would like to say and I will take note and I will start Making some efforts to try to get some of that implemented. Thank you Miss Buehler

I don't think it's a fair statement to say that we have gold leaf painting on our fire trucks. I think we're keeping up with industry standards and want to provide our staff with the equipment they need to keep our community safe. We all have read through the 300, 400 page budget for three months now. And there was a time to suggest if you think that there is surplus line items in there, we've had ample opportunity, but I think the evaluation for one cent reduction in the budget is around $400,000 this year, is that correct?

387.

387,000. 387. $387,000 is not office supplies. We're not talking about paper clips. We're talking about people. We're talking about departments. That is a big amount of money to find in this budget. And it's lean. We didn't approve anything crazy. We only took care of the staff. So, I just, I want to encourage everyone to get involved in this. We've been asking for feedback for months and haven't really gotten any. We, we want to hear what people want to cut. But we need specific examples so we can represent you. Thank you.

Yeah, I don't have a whole lot to add other than to piggyback on what Ms. Buehler said is that the discussion is always good. And if there's an idea that's thrown out there that you think that it is, hey, why don't we cut this? I just want to make sure that the dialogue is, well, if we do cut this, this is what it means. And because that's that's the other part of it is that Mr. LePage said really well is that we could literally cut, you know, not just five cents off the tax rate, probably 15. But then you'll have Dallas County doing your police services and that city is actually. And so that's just it's just a extreme example, I know. But that is something that I think we all have to keep in perspective on costs versus what it really means to cut. My favorite saying, as I've always said since I've been in public service, is that what kind of city do you want to live in? And I think that's a very fair question because everybody's going to have a little bit different take on that. But in general, as you've heard council say up here already, is that I don't think there's any doubt that we want to live in the safest city that we can be, which I think we're right up there. And that costs money. And it's what the value you get for your money is what it really comes down to. Because you can definitely compare cities' tax rates to each other and all that, but it's not apples to apples. I always argue it's apples to light bulbs. What one city's tax rate does not mean that that rate would work here. Just like if someone that's higher than us were to take our tax rate, it probably wouldn't work for them either. We are very blessed, and Mr. Pressenberg said this very well, is that we have the best staff around, and I'll put them against anybody. And this is the most challenging thing that not only staff does, but also that council has to deal with. Because what I feel like our number one goal is is to be good stewards of the city's money. And it's not just our money, it's our money. And so that is one of the tasks we have. I think it's our most challenging task we deal with. And it is not easy to sit here and say, okay, well, this is easy, cut this, cut that. Because it has ripple effects, not just for personnel, but also for the events we hold and things like that. Again, what kind of community do you wanna have? So this is always the most challenging thing. I would echo what my colleagues said. The more involvement you give us, the more ideas we can take back to staff and say, hey, will this work or will this not work? And staff will always tell you that it'll work, but this is what it means if we do this. And that's what they are here for. They are experts in their field, and we would not have the city we have right now, our quality of living, without our staff. So thank you, staff, for everything you've done. Okay, any other comments on this item? Well, we had the moment for speaking, yeah. Actions, questions, comments for staff? Or motions? Ms. Howard?

We're on item two, right?

Item two, and it will require a record vote, but if you want to approve the budget, you'll need to make that in your motion. Okay.

I will make a motion to approve item two as presented.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Howard, uh, motion by Ms. Howard to approve item two as presented to have a second. Mayor Pro Tem Franks? Second. Second by Mayor Pro Tem Franks. Okay. As Ms. Granger said earlier, this will require a record vote. And with that, I will ask Ms. Granger to call the roll.

Okay. Thank you. Mayor Baker Staff, your vote please.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Franks?

Yes.

Council Member Howarth?

Yes.

Council Member Millsap?

Yes.

Council Member LaPage?

Yes.

Council Member Bueller? Yes. Council Member Prestenburg? Yes. Thank you. That's a seven to zero. It passes.

Motion passes unanimously. Next item on the agenda is item F3, consider ratifying the property tax increase in the budget for fiscal year 2026, 2027. Ms. Nash.

Mayor and council, this is the next step in the budget approval process. First, you have to approve the budget and then you will set your tax rate based on that. And so that is the next step in this. And that looks like David's got a couple of slides to that point.

Hello, Mr. Baldwin.

Hello, Mayor, Council, local government code tells us that when adopting the budget, raising more revenue from property taxes than previous year requires a separate vote from the governing body to ratify the property tax increase reflected in the budget. The Our budget cover page shows that the budget will raise $176,000 more revenue from property taxes. That is calculated at 100% collection rate per state law. That calculation also includes new construction revenue, TERS revenue, debt service revenue, and general fund revenue. Staff asks that council ratify the property tax increase in the budget for fiscal year 2026, 2027. And this item does require a record vote.

Thank you, Mr. Baldwin. Questions or comments from council on this item? Anyone from the audience like to address this item? All right. Seeing none, Mr. Millsap.

OK, when you say I think we just need to clarify something. You say tax rate increase that is. That is actually tax only tax income, right? Not tax rate.

The rate staying the same as the tax revenue, so the budget will raise more revenue, and that's because of increasing value, not increase the rate per dollar $100.

the rate is staying the same correct it is not due to the rate yeah because i think it's a lot of people misinterpreted when you say that so i think we need to clarify that well i will say it's not on him because that's what the state legislature requires us to do uh but yes you're right mr milstap it does it is miss it can be misleading and again uh mr baldwin correct me if i'm wrong uh the reason we do have to have this separate vote is because our revenue has increased, um, our tax revenue has increased slightly. That's why we have to do the record.

Correct. For the city as a whole. Correct. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.

Again, um, this while that's how we have to do it per state law. So, but again, uh, the tax rate is staying the same. Other questions or comments from council with hearing none, I'll entertain motions. Mary potent Franks.

Make a motion that we approve F3 as presented.

I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Franks to approve item F3 as presented. Do I have a second? Mr. Prestenburg?

Second.

Second by Mr. Prestenburg. Any further discussion? Again, this will require a record vote. Ms. Granger, will you call the roll?

Yes, sir. Mayor Baker-Stuff?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Franks? Yes. Council Member Howarth? Yes. Council Member Millsap?

Yes.

Council Member LaPage?

Yes.

Council Member Bueller? Yes. Council Member Prestenburg? Yes. It is a 7-0 that passes.

Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Granger. Next item on the agenda is item 4, consider an ordinance of the City of Sachse, Texas leveling and ad valorem taxes for the fiscal year 2026-2027 at a maintenance and operations rate of .456209 and a debt service rate of 0.194207 for a total rate of 0.650416 per $100 assessed evaluation on all taxable property within the corporate limits of the city of Sachse as of January 1st, 2026 to provide revenue for the payment of current expenses, providing for an interest and sinking fund for all outstanding debt of the city of Sachse, providing for due and delinquent dates together with penalties and interest, providing a severability clause, providing a repealing clause, and providing an effective date. Ms. Nash.

Mayor and Council, this is the final step in the approval for the 2026-2027 budget. So in the last step, you had to ratify the property tax rate because it was an increase. This step is actually setting the tax rate for the next year and the breakdown of that rate between maintenance and operations and debt service.

Thank you, Ms. Nash. Anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? All right, seeing none, we, oh, oh, I'm sorry.

I couldn't see it.

Mr. Baldwin's kind of taller. Uh, if you'll state your name and city of residence.

Sure. SACCY, Texas, 5408 Lacey circle. Uh, so my question with this tax rate here, is this going to be included in this 7 million budget that's been outlined, or is this going to be additional? That's going to need to be approved or really not additional. But is this more in line with extra that's going to be just kind of funding? I want to know what the extra taxes are going towards. Is it towards the $7 million or a specific project that's going on? Is it more in line with where is the increase going to be going for the budget outside of maintenance and operations of what? So that's really just a question, needing for clarification.

Okay, thank you. Ms. Nash.

So this sets our annual tax rate for the city. The 7 million that you're referring to earlier would be a part of that total budget. So that's already included in this number as a part of the two parts of the tax rate, the interest in sinking fund, the INS, that 7 million is included in that part of the tax rate. So that's all encompassed in this total tax rate for the year.

Thank you, Ms. Nash. Anyone else? Anyone else like to speak on this item? All right, hearing none, I'll entertain discussion or motions from the council. Mr. Prestenburg.

There's no further discussion. I'd like to make a motion to approve item F4 as presented.

I have a motion by Mr. Prestenburg to approve item F4 as presented. Do I have a second? Ms. Buehler?

Second.

Second by Ms. Buehler. Any further discussion? Hearing that, again, this is a record vote. So Ms. Granger, if you will call the roll.

Yes, sir. Last one for the night. Mayor Bickerstaff?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Franks?

Yes.

Council Member Howarth?

Yes.

Council Member Millsap?

Yes.

Council Member LePage?

Yes.

Council Member Bueller? Yes. Council Member Prestenburg? Yes. Thank you. That is a 7-0. Passes again.

Motion carries unanimously. Ms. Granger, would you like to do record votes on all our future, no? Getting the sense you're not wanting to do it, okay. We'll talk about that later. Again, thank you, Ms. Granger, appreciate it. Next item on the agenda is item five, consider making appointments to the bond 2027 committee. Ms. Nash.

Logan's gonna come up here and flip the slides. Or how about Mr. Thatcher? Or both.

He's gonna be my trusty assistant.

So, Mayor and Council, this is an item that was presented at your last meeting and you all discussed and unanimously approved to determine that you would make those appointments at this particular meeting and you would choose from your members of your existing boards and commissions. And so, just as a reminder for the public, go to the next slide. We talked about a potential bond discussion back in early 2027 at your strategic planning retreat and that this would be good timing for you all to consider capital projects moving forward, potentially for a 2027 bond in May. Next slide. This would be the timeline. As I said, we discussed it at the last meeting. You all will be able to do those appointments this time. The bond committee would have a pretty aggressive schedule this fall to be able to meet and discuss potential projects and be able to come back to a recommendation. You can see on the next slide, probably December, January to come back to you all. And if you all decide to move forward, which mayor, as you pointed out in the last meeting, you don't necessarily have to, but if you decide to move forward with a formal recommendation for calling a bond election, you will have to do that at a regular meeting if, The last regular meeting you could do that would be February 1st, 2027, because the last day to call in a bond election for may of 27 would be February 12th. And so at that time, if you did determine to call a bond election, the committee would make efforts to be able to, uh, educate the public on those projects, to be able to have a general election on may 1st of 2027. So this would be the opportunity for you all to appoint those members tonight and as soon as you do that, we would arrange for those members to be contacted and we would start a schedule for those meetings and then we would brief council periodically regarding the progress of the group intermittently throughout that and then they would do a presentation to you end of this calendar year or beginning of next year with their recommendations.

Thank you, Ms. Nash. And again, as you pointed out, if the council does appoint a bond committee tonight, it does not obligate us to necessarily have an election. No, sir. And the money appropriate for that would be determined through that process.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you. And as I also mentioned last meeting, the council did agree to appoint one person from one of our board and commissions at their choosing. We can do that now. We can have a discussion before that, whatever the pleasure of the council is. Mr. Millsap.

Am I hearing you right that you said last meeting we voted to approve members to the board only from existing?

Yes, sir, that's correct.

I don't remember that at all.

Well, you did vote for it. That's what the minutes say. I don't remember that at all. Okay. Yes, but that's what we voted on, and it was a 7-0 vote.

So we're we're by virtue of voting people that are already supportive of the actions that are going on. We're not allowing any new concepts into the bond program by taxpayers other than people that's already on boards.

That's what the council decided last last meeting. Yes.

I think the city taxpayers here need to be aware of the fact that you're being shut out by this process.

They would be aware if they watched the last meeting, what we decided. Ms. Howarth.

I was just going to remind Council Member Millsap that he was here and he did vote yes on that item. Just for clarification.

Yes. Hold on. Let me turn your mic on.

I remember you saying that you would like to suggest that we do this. I don't remember being voted on because I would not have voted on it from that concept if I was there. The way it was presented. But you said you could suggest that we do this to keep the motion going that we were going. new concept or different concept to have any input in it because we've already predetermined the direction that we're going if by this is a bond issue and i think it's wrong i understand what you're saying uh it was discussed last meeting and that's what the council did vote on so but i understand your difference of the thing mr prestonberg yes uh i wholeheartedly disagree with

Sitting here at the council meeting and saying, I just want to let the citizens know they're being locked out of this process. I mean, everyone in the city has the opportunity to become a board or a commission member. We actually will start talking about some of the appointments that are needed. Highly encourage every one of y'all to say yes and contact Ms. Granger. Say, I would like to be part of the animal shelter or planning and zoning or EDC or parks and rec. There's a plethora of opportunities out there, right? Come join. Get involved. That's what gets you interested, gets you some knowledge of how the city works and understand what those different areas are. The folks that we're choosing from or that we agreed to last time, are in front of you from your board. All these folks have volunteered. None of them are on board. We have no idea what's going to be presented in this from a bond perspective. And they're going to come forward and say, you know what, we think these five projects are great, or these three are horrible, and they're gonna present it to us, and everyone else, the city included, are gonna be here and they can talk and discuss about it and say, man, that bond committee did a fantastic job, or man, they're smoking you know what, and I don't think we should do any of that. So, at that time, we'll take everyone's feedback into consideration and vote on it. The last bond committee, I was not part of it, but they did a fantastic job. I mean, you can see the animal shelters there, the public utilities building is starting to happen. We had some movement after the last bond committee. I just think this is a fantastic idea and we're setting ourselves up for success the way we voted on it last time. That's all I got.

My only corollary is all the bond committee meetings will be open to the public. They encourage you to come and give discussions. It's a very open process. Okay, with that, unless there's no one to discuss that a little bit more, we would entertain nominees from each council member to appoint to this board.

Ms. Howard.

Just a question on how are we going to just make recommendations and do them all as one motion? Are we going to vote on them one at a time, or how do we want to do this?

It's a desire of the council. We can take them one at a time, or we can take them all at once. It's really a pleasure to counsel.

Well, then I'll start, and I would appoint Chinelo Nwanze to the...

Okay, we'll take them one at a time. Let's do that. Must have missed Granger's chagrin, brother. Okay, I have a motion by... Yeah, I want to clarify that it is a motion. Okay. I have a motion by Ms. Howard to nominate Cinello. I'm sorry. Well, we don't have to. Yeah. Okay. So if Ms. Howard will withdraw her motion. Okay. And we will go Mr. Mary Procter and Frank's way. Hold on, let me turn you on. Okay, there you go. Mary Procter and Frank's.

Firstly, I want to say, again, I was not here last meeting, so I had to go back and watch the meeting. It did very clearly state that it was existing board members. So I had to pivot as well. And I would like to nominate Jermaine McDaniel.

Okay. I know Ms. Granger is taking copious notes. Okay. Mayor Proctor and Franks wants to nominate Jermaine McDaniel. Okay. I'm just going to go down the list to make it easier, Mr. Prestenburg. Ms. Howarth, if you would restate your nominee.

Chinelo Nwanze.

Mr. LePage. My apologies. Mr. Millsap.

Okay, if that's a process we're going to use, I'd like to nominate Raffaele Sheik on the library board.

Okay, say it one more time. Raffaele. Oh, Raffaele, okay. You got that, Mr. Granger? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Millsap.

I'd like to nominate Chris Lee Horman.

Okay. Ms. Buehler.

I would like to nominate Danielle Parker.

Okay. Thank you. Mr. Pressenberg.

Yes, I'd like to nominate Travis Mondock.

Thank you. And if you're ready for me, I would nominate Scott McMurray. OK, I want to make sure Ms. Granger has the names. Is that correct?

Yes, would you like for me to read them back?

Yes, please.

I have from Mayor Bickerstaff, Scott McMurdy, from Mayor Pro Tem Franks, Jermaine McDaniel, from Council Member Howards, Chanello Nwanzay, from Council Member Millsap, Raffaele Sheik, from Council Member LePage, Chris Lee Herman, from Council Member Bueller, Danielle Parker, and from Council Member Prestenburg, Travis Mondock.

Thank you, Ms. Granger. With that, I would entertain a motion. from a council member to approve that list. Now, Ms. Sauer.

I'll make a motion to approve the list as presented.

Okay, as presented, as stated, will work. Thank you, Ms. Sauer. Ms. Buehler?

Second.

Second by Ms. Buehler. Yes, much simpler that way. Any further discussion? And before we do that, anyone in the audience like to address this item? Okay. Now we will... Hearing no other discussion, please sketch about.

Motion carries unanimously.

Ms. Granger, I know you will contact our nominees.

Yes, sir, I will let them know.

Okay, thank you. Next item on the agenda is item G, discussion items. Item one, discuss and provide direction related to the design of industrial drive. Ms. Nash.

Mayor and council, typically we do not bring details of a design of a, a drive project such as this, but, um, this project, uh, is, is a little more complicated than most. Um, there's a lot to it. And I specifically asked that, uh, Ms. Rose, our assistant city manager do this presentation tonight, uh, because it isn't just about a road. It, it encompasses. code enforcement and development services, fire code. There's so many aspects of this and so many staff members that have been involved in this project. And she's kind of been leading that charge with the various disciplines basically over the last year to try to come to some conclusions. And so this is a discussion only item tonight. We really just want to give you all kind of the background on this as you all saw in your packets so you have the information available. But this way, she could walk through it with you all tonight and get any questions you have answered and give staff direction to move forward on next steps for the project.

Hello, Ms. Rose.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. As Ms. Nash mentioned, I am here representing a multidisciplinary approach to this project, which many of our projects are. But I will be leading the presentation. And if we have some specific questions that I can't answer, I have a fleet of people behind me who are ready to answer those detailed questions. So a quick overview of what we'll discuss tonight. We'll talk about that project location and description. We'll give you a little bit of background and timeline Then we'll get into the design options. And this is where staff is seeking council's policy direction. As Ms. Nash alluded, we don't typically come to you all at the 30% design phase, but we felt that given the length of time that some of these businesses have operated out in the industrial area, and just some of the complexities with this case, that it's really best for policy discussion to occur. So for those who aren't familiar, this is the location of the industrial park here in Sachse. We've got industrial drive there with park lane leading off of State Highway 78. The project limits are from State Highway 70 across Park Lane to the extent of industrial drive. And it's not illuminated on this image, but we will also be addressing some of the turn radii as that drive approach as well. Mr. Millsap, we discussed that earlier as a part of our conversation. But we're looking at a pretty significant project here. And for those of you who are interested, we have a variety of pacer ratings out here. And the reason this looks like confetti is because this is what happens when you do patch repairs and replacements over time. This is what happens when you don't do systemic replacement and you go in at bits of pieces. So we've got portions of the roadway that are in great condition, and then we've got portion of the roadway that are failing. and I'll show you an illustration here in just a moment. The project will replace 1,100 linear feet of concrete pavement on Industrial Drive and then another 325 linear feet on Park Lane, also looking at that drive approach. If you've ever wondered what a PACER rating five score looks like, it is in that image right there. I believe we have some property owners or business owners in the audience tonight. attest to some of the conditions out there. This is a failing road. This has to be addressed. We have acknowledged this. The industrial park was originally plotted back in the 1980s and it has been expanded, patched and reworked as recently as August 20th of this year. It was included, recommended to be included as part of the neighborhood package from that bond 2021 program because of the severity of issues out there. So Public Works, just a little background, began prepping the roadway improvements for staff to get an idea of what a reconfigured roadway would look like out there. We needed to really understand the site conditions before we could move forward in the design process. So some of our preliminary observations flagged some concerns relative to outside storage, illegal parking, inoperable vehicles, et cetera. A change in zoning for the area removed the SUP, the special use permit requirement for auto repair. Tenants were added beyond original parking capacity. And parking was not verified at the certificate of occupancy stage. So there's a number of issues going on out here that kind of creates a perfect storm for us as we're understanding what the road reconstruction could look like. And just an overview of that timeline, we have been talking about this project really more than a year. But as reflected on this timeline, starting back in February, we talked about doing a joint inspection plan. And that includes the disciplines of fire, building inspection, neighborhood services, planning and zoning, and the city manager's office. In March, we commenced phase one, which is when we sent letters to the property owners to let them know, hey, we're going to be out here. We're going to be looking at some things. Please feel free to come talk to us if you see us out there. just to kind of introduce ourselves out in the area. And that included our building official, the fire department, and neighborhood services, as mentioned. April, we started phase two, and that's when we started communications about the issues that were observed during some of those initial observation phases, and then some parking lot restriping requirements were also identified. In June, we commenced phase three, and that's the long-term compliance, 16 of the 26 lots now have approved parking plans. So we wanted to get out way ahead of this and let those property owners know, those business owners know, we've got some issues going on out here. We want to work with you guys to come into compliance. Our standard notice period for many violations in neighborhood services is about seven days. But in many cases, we scale that to the scope of the problem. And we try to work with the property owners, the business owners. It's very important to us that we obtain compliance. We prefer compliance, voluntary compliance, over anything else. So September 2026 is where we are at now. We've got the right of way cleared ahead of construction and, of course, our conversation here tonight. Depending on what goes on tonight, we will provide written notice to the affected property owners and tenants regarding the upcoming construction and then remind them to keep that public right of way clear. If needed, approximately 72 hours before construction begins, we will coordinate with PD to remove any remaining vehicles, but we don't anticipate that that will be a problem. So we're going to look at two options tonight. The first option I'm going to show you is in conformance with the city's engineered design manual. So this is our typical road section for this type of project. And that requires the removal of non-conforming pavement. If you have been out to the industrial drive area, there's roll down curve. curbs and there's a lot of parking going on on that roll-down curb and a lot of those businesses are utilizing that space for their operations. If we were to go with design option one, which is our standard option, it would require the removal of a lot of that excess pavement as illustrated in this graphic and I think it's a little clearer to see it in actually the next graphic. And it would remove on street parking And it would provide dumpster path locations Option two this is where that roll-down curb exists if this does not does conform with our engineering design manual But it does allow that continued use of non-conforming pavement and on street parking while also providing for the dumpster path locations so The reason we're bringing these two options to you all tonight is we recognize that a lot of these businesses have been in place for a long time and have operated out in the industrial area for a long time, and we want to be cognizant of the fact that some of these design options could change the way that they operate or change some of their parking relative to their business, and we want to be sensitive to that, and we felt that As Ms. Nash mentioned, it really rose to the level of policy discussion with the city council, which is why we're here tonight. So as far as next steps, city staff is seeking direction from the city council on which option to pursue to move forward with the design for Industrial Drive. Currently we're at 30% design, so we are not way down the road with this, but this would be a perfect time for your input and direction so we can understand how best to move forward. And then again, based on the direction received, the design will recommence and staff will present to council with the recommendation for the construction award. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions and take your feedback.

Thank you, Ms. Rose. Questions or comments from council? Ms. Sowers.

I did not see any price difference between one or two. I'm assuming there's a price difference.

There is. We're pretty early on in the design process, so our preliminary estimate is that I believe option one is $200,000 cheaper than option two. I'm looking for a head nod.

Thumbs up. Okay. $200,000 less for option one. Yes. And so then option two is more expensive.

Mm-hmm. and that would reflect all the additional pavement.

Okay. Um, have we, have we heard this is new to everybody out there or this has anybody, any of the property owners out there seen any of either of these plans or is this all new tonight?

My understanding is that they've been made a, Made aware of the plans, but we've been in conversation with them for quite a while to let them know about what's going on out there.

Is there a strong preference from property owners one way or the other? I mean, I'm assuming there is, and I can probably guess which one it is.

I think the consensus from property owners out there, and I don't want to speak for them, but the consensus, as I understand, is that they would like the road fixed. I think that's the highest priority for them. relative to their operations. I think that's dependent upon the different property and business owners out there.

So maybe not as much consensus on that other than...

I wouldn't feel confident speaking to that. Thank you.

Mr. Prestenburg.

I have a question on the cost as well, but we'll wait on that. You talked about restriping the different lots or 13 or whatever the number was. Did that change... the parking utilization or their flow of business?

Yes. My understanding is, and I'll have to have Matt Robinson come up and speak to that specifically, but my understanding is some businesses were utilizing some of their parking spots for storage, and there were some other variations of that. they all, those 16 have the approved parking plans in place to ensure that they have the appropriate parking spots for their businesses.

Well, this is one of those things where, I mean, from my perspective, I'm a clean slate. I want what they want out there, right? What's the easiest way to maneuver some of their vehicles in and out of there? My concern is the far right of the yeah it doesn't matter which one but yeah the circle there i can i've been in places where that's where people are going to park right and so as long as we can keep that clean and clear uh i think that'd be great from a turnaround type standpoint but uh yes i mean we can't have the stage five you know parking we are driveways we understand that but i highly encourage if folks are going to watch this later on or here in the audience to give your opinion. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Thank you.

I like the car pun with the auto body. I see what you did there.

Mr. Millsap.

And I think everybody there would refer to option two. Now also you mentioned SUPs, special use permits. And this is called industrial park. And last week I asked the definition of industrial and I think the mayor mentioned that industrial would typically mean that something is being produced. So does this mean that some of the current residents there can no longer be there?

I don't believe that's the case. I think our goal would be to work with them to get compliance where they're out of compliance But we respect the fact that a lot of those businesses have been in place for a long time.

Yeah, because I think we have some very unique businesses there that if we can dress this place up to where it's decent to drive in, and like I mentioned and you mentioned, we're going to address Park Lane between the railroad track and the 78, so we get off with some safety problems that are very, very serious.

Absolutely.

That hasn't been considered, but we need to be aware of things that we've done in the past that... make it compatible to actually good community neighbors. When we passed CBD oil law in Lawrence a few while back, and I wasn't in favor of it, but we passed it anyway before the state even made it legal, so we violated our own oath of office by voting on it. because we passed a law that allowed something to be sold in Sachse that wasn't legal at the time, even though it became legal within two or three weeks and we knew it was doing it. But we limited it to the industrial park. At the same time, we have a dance studio there that's been there for 25 years. So we said, okay, we're going to sell CBD oil next door to a little girl's dance studio. I think we would start needing to be careful of what we're allowing to be in these areas and is that what we want? But Being an industrial, most of it's automotive oriented. If a car's there to be fixed, it takes a footprint. Somebody has to come and pick it up and deliver it. So that takes a footprint. So parking space ordinance is almost out of order to even consider this. So I think the option two would be to buy definitely the best station. And I would definitely think we need to make a personal canvas to all the residents there to make sure that we meet them or we're going to have some people beginning to leave. They're going to have to leave because they can't operate under any other conditions.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Ms. Buehler.

There you go.

Okay. I hope we get a chance to hear what some of the business owners would like in this, but I imagine design option two is definitely better for business. Parking and getting people in and out of their business is the lifeline of how they make money. So I don't, this isn't a standard street. I don't want to take away parking and away for people to make their livelihood. We need to support the customers and the employees in this area. Okay. Um, yeah, that's all I have option two.

Okay. And I wouldn't know it is a discussion item only tonight. However, I know staff could be in contact with them. Mr. Uh, excuse me, mayor protein Franks.

So if I missed it on the slide you have up there, what are the green boxes? Those are the dumpster pads that was my concern is if we were moved off street parking if you will How are they going to get through the parking lots to the dumpsters, but you've addressed that's great I assumed but I didn't want to assume Over the years, and I don't see in the night, one business owner in there specifically has complained many, many times about the street, and we've band-aided that thing to death.

It looks like confetti now.

The band-aids don't do anything. Band-aid it over a bullet hole, that's what I like to say.

Is that a Taylor Swift?

No. Okay.

I think it is.

Not my reference. Not tonight. Other times I'm a closet Swifty. Um, the big other biggest concern is the way the property in general looks and it's all of this non-conforming. So we didn't allow non-conforming construction on Bailey. We didn't allow non-conforming construction on my Kuna. We didn't allow non-conforming construction on Irvine. I don't understand why we're talking about this. Why are we discussing non-conforming construction? If we don't allow it, why are we allowing it? Everybody that has talked to me wants the street fixed. The other business owners who've talked to me want that place cleaned up. I think that's all the notes I have.

I registered that as option one. Okay.

Mr. The page. Okay. So you had a 16 of the 26 lots. So 61% of the people are approved for parking. The other ones have we contacted them or they just.

We're working on it.

Those are the ones. And then I've been down that street. I've had my truck fixed. I actually blew out two tires on that exact hole as I was going to get it fixed. I'm sorry about that. But it was still put into the insurance as the flats. So, yes, it does need to be fixed, but it's a hot mess back there trying to back up and trying to get it. So whatever enforcement that we have, I think there's a lot of the businesses that are back there that are – that are conforming and then there's probably the eight, the, is that right? Uh, 10, 10 of them that are not, that are the, the problem child that are there. Um, yeah, that it's a mess. It needs to be fixed. I'm on board with two, cuz that would eliminate that, that side parking. So yeah. Okay.

Let me pass two. Okay, a couple things. I think that option two is ideally would be best for the businesses out there. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, our design manual, as a piggyback on what Mayor Pro Tem Frank said, does not allow option two. Is that correct?

That is not in conformance with our design manual, correct.

Okay. So we have our illustrious city attorney here. I don't know legally how we could do option two. Anything you want to add, Ms. Morris? I just want to make sure I'm on the right page here. There you go.

So if I understand correctly, you're saying that option two does not conform to our own design standards?

Correct. It replaces existing conditions like for like.

So if the city is bound by its own design standards, so it would need to conform to our our street design manual so the short answer is no if it doesn't conform we have to conform if we expect everybody else to conform correct so so again just for clarification option two from a from a legal standpoint from an exception standpoint uh we we really don't have a choice

from a legal standpoint, there is no option two, unless we change the ordinance.

Unless you change the ordinance, yes. Okay.

Thank you, Ms. Marsh. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I wanted to just kind of clarify is because, again, I think option two is by far the best option for the businesses out there. However, I don't know how we can do that. Ms. Howard.

I was just going to ask, do we have money in the neighborhood package bond to pay the difference? I believe so. Okay. That doesn't solve the non-conforming issue, but at least that I don't wanna have to dip into general fund to come up with extra money for a non-conforming use. So make sure we have the money.

I understand. Ms. Buehler.

I'm certainly not qualified for this, but is there not a designation between an industrial area and a residential? Mayor Pro Tem Frank's examples were residential roads. This is our one industrial area in our entire city.

If staff can clarify, I don't believe our design manual distinguishes between the two. I think Mr. Nesbitt can answer that.

Yeah, that's correct. We don't distinguish between residential or industrial. It's a collector, residential, arterial street type classification.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Nesbitt. Did I answer your question? Okay.

Mr. Millsap.

He's much taller than me.

Okay, we don't conform to your design manual. All right. What's the purpose of a term SUP, special use permit? Does that not mean and imply that it doesn't meet the exact standards that are listed and it has a special permission? If that be, wouldn't that not solve that problem? Those that don't conform to issue them a special use permit because if you go back to the pure definition of industrial, you're going to do something hardscape or hard concept. A dance studio wouldn't even be qualified to fit in here. So I think if we need to rethink this, there are ways to do it. And so I think SUP just reclassify all the businesses, have a special SUP for each one of them.

Yes, so we've got a couple of things going on. We've got the engineering design manual, which talks about our typical sections and how things are constructed. And then we've also got zoning going on here. And I'm going to let Matt Robinson speak to the zoning. But this is exactly why we have come to you all tonight for your direction. Because right now, the options ahead of us are conformed with our existing standards, or maybe, as the policy body, you all consider amending those if that's what you desire. But we cannot make that determination on our own. Matt, do you want to speak to the SUP process?

Good evening, Council. With regards to the special use permit, that's related specifically to the use itself. And then as far as the development of that property with that SUP, that is still required to meet all city standards. Now the council during the SUP process can add additional deviations as far as they want additional screening to mitigate the specific use itself, but they cannot deviate from the actual standards itself. That would be through a planned development zoning district, but that would not speak to the engineering design manual, which is a subdivision, a part of the subdivision standards.

So engineering design manual, it refers to the streets. Correct. Not the use of the property adjacent to the streets. That's correct. Okay, so then the SUP would solve the problem to me.

Well, I think what Mr. Robson is saying is that the SUP is related just to zoning. It is not, the engineering design manual is a construction standard, not a zoning standard.

So there are two different things. The SUP applies specifically to an individual property and the development of that specific property. It does not

apply to the street itself right you didn't need to why again correct me if i'm wrong mr robinson uh any and as mr nesbit said uh as far as the engineering design manual as the construction of streets uh the zoning is irrelevant in the sense of whether the is an sgp for whatever industrial residential what have you uh and whether this is a a street that mainly serves industrial customers if you will versus a street that has retail homeowners the engineering design manual governs that that's correct okay so just just want to clarify that miss buehler there we go we have on street parking on fifth street what's the difference between this on street parking and fifth street the the zoning um and the problem here is we've got roll down curbs

And I'm see if we can get a picture Yeah that Matt just reminded me this this street also has designated on street parking But you can see in this image here Those are roll-down curbs and those are intent I mean they're exactly as described people are parking on them and they're staging Vehicles for repairs on those roll-down curbs that just not as part of their intended use So that's a little bit of the variation that we're seeing out there

Is the reason 10 people have not had approved parking plans because they just simply don't have room to run their business because of this design requirement?

I think it's a function of working through the individual site plans for each one of those and the specific users that are in there and making sure they have enough parking. There were some users there that were doing storage of auto repair vehicles, which is not permitted via the ordinance. So there's a variety of issues going on out there, and we are working our best to try to solve those. Okay, thank you.

And Ms. Rose, if I missed it, I apologize. Ms. Buehler had brought up the difference between Industrial Drive and 5th Street. The reason we have on-street parking there is we do have more right-of-way for 5th Street to allow. Is that correct? Yes. Is that fair? Okay, yeah. So that's how we can allow on-street parking? Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, so again, this is just a discussion item. So there's no action that will be taken tonight. So if I understand Ms. Morris correctly, legally, we don't really have an option to. So that, to me, certainly open for interpretation. That means, obviously, option one can be done regardless because that's what our standards allow now. If the council decides that they're not comfortable doing option one, if, for example, they felt like it was detrimental to the businesses out there, then we would, correct me if I'm wrong, we would, to do an option two, if you will, we would have to change our engineering design standards.

That's correct. You could do an amendment to the engineering design manual.

Which obviously we would go through a process through that, time involved with that. And ultimately, like with any proposal, you could bring us something and we can say, no, we don't like that.

Yes, sir.

Could be, back to square one, could be. That's again from a from a legal standpoint. That's where I see it. I don't we don't have a legal option to option two we can certainly As the council desires we can certainly ask staff to look at Potentially modifying the engineering design standards to account for something like this Or the council can say option one it is so and again don't know actions tonight. It's just trying to give staff some direction mr. LePage

All right, so on the design one, it's got that six-inch curb, so it's going to be a flat curve, and then those heavy-duty trucks are going to basically just be going over that and busting that curb up. So we'll be in the same boat as what we were there.

They're both so tall, and I can't see.

It's a flat curb, right, whereas the other one is a... It's a standard curb, yes. Yeah, standard curb. So if they were using that... going into their parking spot with a little spot going into their thing, or just driving off the side of it going back and forth.

So with this, with option one, we would, we would provide them with a fire lane or driveway access to use for their truck access. But again, that doesn't encourage parking and driving over that standard curb.

Yeah. So I'm just saying on, on the, The pink, that's basically their driveway. No, that's option two. Option one, that's their driveway. So rather than I'm looking at the ones that have like 50 cars out there that they would be driving off the side because they wouldn't be able to make it off that curb.

Well, we would remove the existing parking in the right off of there.

Yeah. Okay. Just trying trying to clarify one. It's a flat curb. The other one's a slanted curb because I've seen them in there. I've seen the big trucks that have went in there. They just kind of drive. where they at, at will. So that's gonna either, they're gonna continue doing that and breaking up a curb and tearing up that concrete that we just paid however much on.

And again, a couple of minor points. Vertical curve versus a lay-down curve, number one. And number two, the pink, there are driveway approaches that are connected to the right-of-way.

Yes.

Which obviously, as when I redid my driveway, you had to have a permit to connect to the right-of-way. Now, I know it's our project, so it's probably a little different, but those are driveway approaches.

Yes, sir. Okay, just wanted to make sure. Okay.

Okay, so what staff is looking for is they're looking for some direction. Again, I think Ms. Morris laid it out pretty well. We can give staff the direction to proceed with option one, or we can ask staff to take a look at what it would take to modify the design manual. Ms. Buehler.

Next time we discuss this, can we have it to where we can get resident and business owner input, please?

Sure.

Thank you.

Other comments or questions.

Mary, if I may, I believe prior to the conversation about the amendment to the engineering design manual, there was a consensus to explore option two. If that's still the same sentiment, we could go explore what an amendment. to the engineering design manual could look like and bring that back for council's information.

Yeah, as I mentioned before, OPTITUDE is definitely, in the way I see it, is definitely more favorable to the businesses out there. And ideally, in my opinion, ideally that's what we would like to shoot for is to have a solution that works for both parties. Right now, again, the way our witnesses have been composed, if you will, is like there's not much flexibility, well, really no flexibility. So with what Ms. Rose stated, is that a fair assessment for staff to go forward? If I hear objections, If I don't hear objections, I should say, then we will go with what Ms. Rose said. Well, let me turn your mic on.

Yeah, I object to changing an ordinance. You don't need to bring an ordinance change to something that's not allowed. That's my opinion. Thank you, Mr. Franks. Excuse me, Mayor Pro Tempore.

Mr. Millsap, go ahead. We seem to have no problem changing ordinances for what we want. We changed the ordinance to have elite evolved biologics come in. That was not part of it. We had the hospital come in. That was not part of it. We changed the design concept when we allowed the station to come in. They didn't meet our codes. The streets are too narrow. The corners are too sharp. All those kinds of things. Housing we're not on space. So I don't see that this changing design is a major problem except we just don't want to have industrial parts of concept part of city. We're trying to do, I think we're looking at, we're showing our attitude to say we really don't want industrial types of businesses here, but we all know that businesses in a smaller city is the lifeblood of a business. We have some people here that have businesses. I'm the only one that has the guts to have my own business in town. So we all moved out because it's more friendly to do business other places. But I'm still here and I'm going to stay here. And I think we need to continue to allow these people to be here and encourage them to be here. We have one company in this place that I can just name it out that left because they were asked to take an EDC grant to beautification. And when they did, that opened the door for them to come in and say, well, you don't meet code, so you've got to do this, this, and this. And the code updates cost them more than the grant for beautification. So what'd they do? They just sold out and moved. And that's going to be happening to some other people if that's what we want. We have lots of good businesses down there. We have something we want to bring attention to the city of Sachse, the piano repair company down there. That's one of the tops in the country. And people want to come to do that. They have to drive through this mess. And we're worried about design code. And there should be a different design code, if that be the case, for businesses in industrial areas as opposed to residential and home areas. And we just seem to think we need to have one, and I think we're going down the wrong direction.

I think your comment brings up some really interesting points, but one of which is that there are different zones and characters throughout the city, and that we do have flexibility to match those zones and characteristics according to the use, which is what zoning is really. And so that's why at this point we brought it forward as a discussion item because we have not had this conversation with you all and we needed some policy direction because we felt it was inappropriate for staff to move forward at this juncture without policy direction from the policy body.

Mayor Peralta and Franks.

Yeah, that was a lot of opinion, not a lot of fact. Those were not changing ordinances. Those were PDs. Totally different thing. Totally different thing. You are talking about changing an ordinance for the whole city, for every street in the city. That's totally different. Not even close to being the same.

Mr. Pressenberg.

Yes. If I'm reading this correctly, 16 and 26 have now come into compliance, right? We're on the right track.

Yes, sir.

And I feel like this might be the land that time forgot a little bit, right? And Wild West a little bit out there. And I don't want this council to be able to misconceive that we are not business friendly. We want what's best for these folks. But I mean, just look at the sky view here of option one or option two. It doesn't matter. you've got 50 cars in a parking lot there. That's not even a parking lot. It's just, it's 10 parking spaces or something like that. So there, there has to be a happy medium. And I think the business owners understand that, Hey, we're about to get a nice, great road out here and we wanna maintain it. Well, part of the maintaining is coming to code on some of these things. So, um, I think there is a little push and pull here that we can work together and, and to be honest, I, I did not get when I was saying, Hey, I'm open slate or whatever. I, I wanna follow, our guidelines that have been set aside by our ancestors along the way. I know it's being silly, but I also know that I want what's best for businesses too. So there's a happy medium. There's some. kind of like Mayor Pro Tem Frank says, I don't necessarily need you to come and say, well, we could do option two if we change this, this, and this, and this. Maybe option one with, you know, maybe there's something else out there. You know, hey, we got those other 10 lots restriped. They came with some other options. I'd imagine the stripes are just kind of a, initial thing, you know, because they're going to be re-striped again, I would think, or maybe not. I don't know. But you're going to come in there, change everything from a concrete standpoint and then paint again or whatnot. So Yeah, be creative, but be creative within the guidelines. So I'm open for that, thank you. Ms. Howarth.

I just wanted to make the point that I too appreciate having businesses in Sachse, but every business, just like every resident, is required to comply with code, and that we shouldn't be singling out one business over another because we like them. They need to put their cars where they're supposed to car, they're supposed to mow their grass when they're supposed to mow their grass, they're supposed to park where they're supposed to park, just like what we apply the law evenly across the city. And that's my only expectation for business is that that we all follow the rules that we've all agreed to. And I don't think that's anti-business or anti-resident to expect that minimum standard and zoning and code to all be complied with. And I don't particularly, it's never fair to apply it one place and not somewhere else. That's not how it should work. It applies to everyone equally or we shouldn't do it at all.

Mr. Millson. Well, I think we're in a no-end debate here because I don't agree with any of this garbage that I just said. If you apply here and not there, it's not fair. Okay, just throw this out. What about the giraffe on part of town, but the casket in another part of town? First of all, we were told that the casket was legal. Then all of a sudden, we went back and put pressure on the lawyers. Rethink his opinion is that it was a nuisance. Well, if we can do one part of why can't we do it? The other fair is fair. I have no problem with either one of them. But what we're doing is saying to double sets the standards and adjust about the building code. design manual there should be you know we all know that there's a difference between an industrial area and a heavy use business area and a regular retail business area and a residential area you can't use the same design criteria on all of them as an example why do we not allow big trucks down residential streets because the streets aren't designed to handle that weight on a continued day-to-day basis and industrial area you're going to have to design that and as i mentioned to a couple of people already tonight whether we like it or not or whether we realize it or not the state of taxes and the federal government is looking at allowing heavy industrial trucks to get bigger So you can't use the same design code to build the same street and be expected anybody to Have a life of it. So some of these questions are saying just the example. It's a personal preference I don't want this because and you can't have it because I don't want you to have it I think that's wrong and I think we need to start thinking about businesses as businesses and industrial areas as industrial areas and not expect them to live by the same thing. We're putting pansies in our front yard and we're having to mow our grass and we have to have more grass and all these things. That's not what an industrial area is. If you want to think about looks and things, why don't we just simply drive down the access road between specs and miles road and down towards you bob and look at the trash that's there and we have not done anything to clean it up because but we look at and as an example not very long ago i got a code enforcement back on my property i need to mow grass and it says within 150 feet and you go down and look even though the grass is mold what you get well trapped I'm damned if I'm getting off track. You're saying you want to set standards for everybody? I'm saying that other people have some input in it also, and we're not. And we're throwing what we want preference on industrial area as opposed to having an industrial part of town. If we don't want an industrial part of town, why don't we just step up and say we don't want it, and let's lock it up.

Okay, a couple things. You know, It's a uniform design manual for a reason. And it's uniform. So it's the same everywhere. And so as a recovery planner myself, Mr. Robinson would also probably recognize that zoning is a lot more subjective than construction design standards. Mr. Nesbitt, I would guess, would also consider uniform design standards as best practices within the industry. That is what we have in Sachse. We have a uniform design standard for a reason. It's best practices and whether it's an industrial area, whether it's retail area, what have you, we need to apply our rules the same. From what I gather, is that if staff were to consider an option two, if you will, in the sense of modifying the engineering design standards or uniform design standards, it's not, hey, just for this area. It would have to be, again, back to the name of the ordinance, it had to be uniform. I concur with Mayor Fulton Franks that there's no way else to slice it, is that if you decide you want to change it, you have to change it for everybody. The unique nature of this area is because it is an area by staff's admission, has not been taken care of over the years, and I mean many, many years, and it is come time to rectify that. And because not only should it be rectified just because, it's also too, we should treat an area that needs improved know differently than any area in the city that needs approved and so by in my opinion by modifying uniform design manual for one neighborhood which you really can't do but just for argument's sake so you did it uh that that is we could have we would have a very hard time saying no to everybody else to ask for a variation in the future and again i'll go back to uniform design and uh and and The other thing that you run into rhetorically is if you did some kind of option two, what does that do for ADA access? What does that do for drainage? There's so many other things I can go down. The rhetorical, I don't expect you to answer all those. But the point is it goes back to what our uniform design manual says. And I'm pretty doggone sure that that uniform design manual does address things like drainage, does address things like ADA access. and what have you. So it's been contemplated. My recollection also says that over the years since I've been on council, we have modified our uniform design standards for various reasons. However, it is modified for everybody. Is that fair, Mr. Nesbitt? Okay. So having said all that, it is While option two obviously is more advantageous for those businesses out there in the short term, in the long term, in my opinion, it would cause way more problems if we decided to do something like that. So I am for option one.

Thank you.

I know it's only a discussion item. And as Mr. Millsap rightly pointed out, we do have difference of opinion on this. My thought is that, again, someone on council, I know Mr. Millsap's objection, anyone else on council would object to following our uniform design. They might object to that. What I mean following it. Yeah. Okay, I think the staff have an understanding.

Yes, sir.

Okay. All right, this is a discussion item and no action necessary on this item. Next item on the agenda is item H, adjournment. The time is, Granger?

847 p.m. We adjourn to 847 p.m.