City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

regular meeting agenda for Monday, April the 27th, 2026 at 6:39 p.m. As we had a few proclamations ahead of that, so and apologize for being a little bit late. If you'll all rise, uh, uncover, gentlemen, we'll have an invitation led by Council Member Cade, followed by Council Member Shavaria on our pledges.

Thank you, Mayor. I have to write my prayer down because I'm nervous. Sorry y'all. Um if you'll bow your heads and pray with me. Thank you. Um heavenly father, we thank you for bringing all of us here today and um especially for the chance to serve our community. As we tonight we began um our early budget meetings, we ask for wisdom and clear thinking and guidance through this time. Help us make good decisions. Put the resources um we are given to always and to always keep the people that we serve the center of what we do. Please remind us always that we are here to work together for um the best of the people of Perilan. Um Lord, we ask your guidance right now during this election season. Um, help voters seek out what is true and right and look past anything misleading and focus on what is honest and steady and truly good for the future of our city. We especially lift up our first responders. Please watch over them. Keep them safe always as they serve us and serve others. They're often in difficult and dangerous situations. Please strengthen them and their families and remind them always how much they are appreciated. Heavenly Father, help this council to always listen to each other, work together, and try to do what's best even when it's not easy. Let our decisions reflect how much we care for Periland. We ask for your guidance in all we do this evening. We pray in your precious name. Be with this meeting. be with these

people and the residents that are here tonight. We love you, Lord. Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, one indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Honor the flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible.

All right. Thank you for that. Thank you for guys uh for joining us today uh here at Fairland City Hall as we watch this council work um and deliberate about the city uh business. With that, Madam Secretary, I'll move forward in the agenda. Roll call and certification of quorum. Madam Secretary, I'll certify that we have a ORUM present as all members are present with the exception of Mayor Pro Tim Byron Byron who will be absent from the chamber uh all evening. Uh I want to take a quick point of personal privilege. I would like to share with council and the citizens uh that this weekend on Saturday uh we received uh from the office of governor uh of the governor of the state of Texas the official musicfriendly Texas community uh recognition and designation. uh Tracy and her team. I remember I was with Tracy and several of us uh at Keep Perland Day a year ago, not this past month or two, but a year ago where we started this process meeting with that office about how, what, and where uh to be able to do that. But we received that designation uh here uh I guess it was a couple of weeks ago that they actually officially said we we're getting it, but this weekend we had the governor's office was in town uh and actually delivered it. So I wanted to make sure council had the opportunity to to see that. So this gives us the triple crown. Trac Tracy hopefully I get this right. So we have music friendly, film friendly as well as tourism friendly uh throughout the uh from from the state of Texas. So um pretty cool to get those types of things. I'll pass it up and down so council can see that. Uh with that we'll move to citizens comments. Uh we do have uh two that have uh open uh open comments and we have one that's here on one of our um uh consent agenda items. So uh we'll get to these two first and then we'll uh address the third one here in just a second. When I call your name,

you can go to the podium. You have three minutes to speak. Uh give us your name. No longer to give your address, but give us your name. Uh and there'll be a clock up on either screen so you can keep your keep your comments within that. First up, we have Mr. uh Kenneth Murphy. Good evening. My name is Kenneth Murphy. I'm with Switch Realtors. I'm here on behalf of my clients, uh the owners of uh Zero Hatfield. Uh good evening, Mayor and members of council. Uh, as you see in front of you, you may have a condensed version of the survey of Hatfield Row and a sketch of five acres. What we're trying to do is subdivide 5 acres into 10 halfacre lots. that you can see on the sketch. Orange Road runs starting at Hatfield and ascends to the northwest corner of uh the of the ending of the 5 acres, which if that happens, it would that land would be no of no use to us. What we what we came up with, if you take Orange Road and run it straight through, as you can see, you have on that survey. We have five acres on on the north and five acres on the south. If you can run Hatfield taking 20 foot from our land, 20 foot from the other land and run it straight through, I think that would be better used for us. But if you do it the way you what whether that's proposed here from um when I talked to the city planning

department, it's it's of no use to us at that point. Does that conclude your remarks? Yes. Yeah. We won't be able to dialogue and ask questions back and forth because it's not something that we can we can discuss. I would certainly be glad to discuss it offline with you. Okay. And rules, regulations, and what we could or couldn't do, what a developer would be required to do. Okay. Uh, and I'm sure the planning department may have had some of those discussions already, but thank you for being down here tonight. Thank you. Yeah. Have a good evening. All right. Next up, we have Mr. Lewis uh Mullikin.

All right. How y'all doing? Uh, I live at 2907 York Shower Court. I've been in Periland since 1974. One of the older oldest neighborhoods. West Minister is turned into a drag strip from stop sign to stop sign. You can't even walk your dog in the morning, the afternoon. I've been right off in the ditch just trying to walk my dogs. Some speed bumps. really be nice to cut that down because all it's all all all they're doing is cutting through to get to Periland Parkway. And I mean it's non-stop. All these other neighborhoods south of us where the old airport used to be, it's just nothing but a shortcut now. And it's really getting dangerous. You know, there's a lot of kids there getting off of school buses. And that stop sign to stop sign is is the length of two football fields and they're running every bit of 50 miles an hour and they just, you know, they don't care. It's just a big big hurry hurry hurry. So, if y'all could really take this serious, you know, because I made a couple of complaints before and it just it just fell on death ear. And and I'm here on behalf of a lot of my neighbors from on my culde-sac, you know, so I'm sure y'all are familiar with West Minister. We're right there south of Kelly's from that red light there. So, y'all could take that in consideration. You know, three speed bumps would cure that real quick. And there's not even a speed limit sign. But even if there was, you know, they disregard it,

right? It's just become a third fair first shortcut. So, thank you. Yeah. Thank you for being here. Obviously, we can't dialogue back and forth because it's not an agenda item. However, we do have a traffic calming ordinance in place through our traffic committee. I'm not sure I see Lorenzo here. Uh maybe step out and and start that process about what what we can do. And as far as speed bumps per se, there is a specific they're in the newer neighborhoods across the street. Yeah. Right across 518. They have them in the newer neighborhoods. So, uh our uh public works director will step out with you on how we start that process. All right. Okay. Thank you for being here, though. Yep.

All right. Um just a quick question. Eric Oliver, you here? Are you here just to answer questions? Okay, because we I don't think we're pulling. Is anybody pulling C? I don't see anybody pulling C. So, we we if we if we did all of a sudden, then I'd have you up to answer those questions. So, all right. With that, uh we will move to uh consent agenda. Mr. Kos, if you'll present items A through F with the exception of D. Uh I'd appreciate it. Yes, mayor. Consideration possible action consent agenda items A through F with the exception of D. So moved. Second.

We have a motion, a second. Madam Secretary, call for the vote. Member Kosa. Hi. Member Carbone. Hi. Member Chavia. Hi. Member Cade. Hi. Member Fernandez. Hi. Member Patel. I. The motion passes six to zero. All right. Back to uh matters removed from consent agenda. Mr. Co, if you present D, please. Certainly. Consideration possible action resolution number R2026-72. So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Quick staff report.

Thank you, mayor. So this is a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation and it's associated with the Shadow Creek Ranch Parkway landscaping, street lighting, and sidewalk project and the pedestrian bridges associated with those sidewalks. Um this was before you a couple of months ago and um text dot had requested some changes to the language of the actual resolution. So uh we went back and forth got that language right with uh text dot so had this back in front of you for approval uh again. Thank you mayor. All right. Uh Mr. Kosa asked for this to be uh pulled.

Thank you mayor. Um Trent, uh my curiosity is I think this is the third time that this has been before us. No, this is just the second time. Second time. Just second time. Um what is Texas got an issue with? I mean, why why can't we get whatever our issues worked out?

So, one of the issues that they it's technical minor in my opinion. Um so, what we referred to in the resolution, we referred to text dot as the state. um text dot prefers to be referred to as text dot. Um so even in the agreement that they have um our agreement that you see that was attached to the resolution actually refers to they refer to themselves as the state. Um but in our resolution they had very specific language that they wanted to modify. Um also where we um in the resolution we don't we don't mention um that the bridge was part of the um part of the project. We just listed the project name. So it was very generic and very general in the resolution. Um text dot wanted us to add that specific language back into the agree or back into the resolution itself. The agreement covered everything. It was the resolution that they wanted the language to be different on.

Okay. Because I mean this isn't the only one we've had an issue with text. I you know from my perspective I think in the future we need to say hey what do you want to see in this and we get it done right? because we had one of our lights uh that came back because they didn't like something and I don't know what that is but you know if they're going to be that particular I think we need to ask them to write it and then put it in there instead of going back and forth. Yes sir. I think yeah based on this experience we'll be sending them the language before we will ever put it on the Yeah. I mean that makes confirm it if it's their language then I mean

I was going to say that that is what we did before we brought this back to you. We made sure that we gave them the new one with their new magic words or whatever it is that they wanted and we got their blessing before we put it back on the agenda so that we don't come back a third time. Okay. Well, that's that was just going to be my suggestion. I because like I said, I didn't know what the issue was, but to me it's kind of absurd that they

and also some of the challenges also timing with text dot. So when we would send it back to them, um we won't hear back from them for a long period of time. Um but they do give us a template, right? And so we based our decision to move forward off of the template that they provided um only to have you guys approve it and send it back once it's partially executed for text out to say ah we don't quite like that language. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I get it. But what I'm saying is in the future, you know, if we say, hey, to prevent this, you know, hopefully they can get their text that they want on there. So that's all I was No false starts. Yeah, exactly. Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, Madam Secretary, call for the vote. Member Kosa, I.

Member Carbone. I. Member Tavia. Hi. Member Cade. Hi. Member Fernandez. I. Member Patel. I. The motion passes six to zero. All right. With that, we'll move to public hearing number one. Uh public hearing, the first of two required public hearings on the city of Perland's fiscal year 2027 US Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant allocation in the amount of $541,571. With that, Joel, are you presenting tonight? Yes, I am, mayor.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, tonight we are uh kicking off our planning process for our 20th annual action plan uh effort uh with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Uh we receive community development block grant funds each year as part of our entitlement uh jurisdiction program status with the federal government and uh again this will be our 20th action plan. So, I think that's worthy of celebrating um that uh uh annual allocation of funds that comes to the community uh each year. And I apologize in advance. Many of you have seen these slides before. They're very standard. Uh but more to come as we proceed through the planning process. Tonight is really just to initiate that and invite opportunities for discussion and questions. But the primary um information that's going to come out of this is the amount of funding that we'll receive from US Department of Housing and Urban Development and how we can allocate those funds. All right. So, um again, CDBG provides uh communities like Perland with annual allocations of the community development block grant funds based on population threshold. uh when uh Perland uh reached that 50,000 population uh regulatory statutory uh requirement, we became an entitlement. Prior to that, we were one of Brazoria Countyy's subreient uh entities. Um so the the transition allowed us to take control over how we would spend our allocation and begin to plan for uh the housing community development and other attributes of our uh plending spending plans that would come uh over the next uh several years. Uh it's actually a very flexible spending program. Uh despite the voluminous regulations, uh we can do just about anything housing and community development uh that we'd like with these funds. And there are about 24

spending categories that we have the capability of uh utilizing the funds for primary program purpose of course uh in HUD's national objectives there are three uh one is to remove slum and blight. Uh the other would be to use funds to meet a local urgent need in the form of a hurricane or other disaster that might come about and affect the uh community. And the last is to uh use the funds to s to serve low to moderate income uh populations either individuals and or households that are below 80% of the metropolitan statistical area income in our area. Um traditionally HUD has a rule that you should be spending your money uh in areas that are made up of 51% or more low to moderate income households. We get a little bit of a break there because we uh have a a pretty decent uh median household income in Parland. So the recalculation of that for parland is 42.5%. And it's fluctuated from as low as 37% to as high as 45% over the last 20 years. Uh but the 42.5 is where we're at right now. HUD gives its money out through the CDBG program through two methods of distribution. Uh the formula A is the program that uh provides us with our allocation amount and that's largely because we don't have as much pre-1940s housing as your larger metropolitan city communities do. Um so the other uh method of distribution is used which uh uh doesn't take into account that aged housing component. Each year we put an action plan together that's uh based on several characteristics. Um the things that primarily go into that is our assessment of existing local housing and the economy. We uh do an analysis of certain local conditions, our public infrastructure, neighborhood services. Uh we look to try to impact uh the

communities with aged infrastructure that are in the target area that uh we can improve. Um and of course housing and economic development, uh nonprofit organizational development. We provide funds to a number of local subreient nonprofit agencies and uh we can also spend funds to help them along in their development as an organization if they're not quite ready to receive these funds. And an example of that of course uh very timely with tonight's proclamation uh counseling connections for change. We spent funds along those lines I believe back in 2017 to kind of help them acclimate to the rules and regulations that go along with um with receiving these funds. Um and uh again the plan overall is designed to address unmet needs in the community and our survey and assessment takes into account those medium and high priorities that come about through our assessment process. So another thing we have to take into account is the uh income limits in the community that allow households and individuals to be eligible to receive uh services. Uh this is a 2025 income limit table. We have not received the table for 2026. It's forthcoming. Uh I can't predict what it's going to look like, but I'm sure it'll hover around where things are now. So for a family of four, uh the household income be can be as high as $92,900 and that household can still receive CDBG support. So for area benefit projects, meaning projects that uh might take place in a neighborhood or a census block group um or census tract in some communities, um these are for parland where our eligibility areas lie. So, if we were to do a sidewalk project or some other uh infrastructure improvement that involves a line of service or something along those lines, we would look to this map to tell us where our best bet is for

eligibility for placing that project in the in the community. It's changed over the years. Uh honestly, it's becoming smaller and smaller as our allocation uh oddly grows. So, it's it's definitely become a little bit tougher to spend the dollars. Um, we do have some areas of refinement that are needed when it comes to the target area map because as you can see, some of the block groups and target area indications exist outside the city limits. So, we have to do some special math to make sure that we're not doing anything in those areas that would be uh considered ineligible by HUD. But, we'll do that calculation and and come back with a project that fits in the right area. Um our uh we're right now in our fourth uh consolidated plan. So we've had four iterations of five-year planning since the inception of our uh program. And we're actually in the last year of our fourth consolidated plan year. We'll also in 2027 begin to plan for that fifth consolidated plan year. So that'll give us another five years uh based on an assessment of community conditions of how we need to spend money in order to meet HUD national objectives and meet the high priority concerns in the community. So um uh for the second time just acknowledging that HUD is going to prepare to provide us with $541,571 in 2027. And I think this is the last slide. I think one of the things we always talk about is how we're going to spend these funds. Um, this uh table just provides kind of the statutory limitations that go along with how we can use the allocation. Um, for those that don't know, we're limited to 15% of our allocation for social services work, which for next program year amounts to $81,235. Uh, program administration, which is the

uh resources needed to oversee and manage the program. uh that's uh capped at 108,000 and some change and then uh the uh facilities, infrastructure, housing, the other funds, they can be used uh based on the allocation total. So there's actually no limit uh other than the allocation amount we receive uh as to how we spend those funds and again all those total 541 571. And that concludes my presentation for tonight. I'll pass back balance of council.

Sounds good. Um that we'll get to that in just a second, council member. Uh so uh this is a public hearing, so we'll open it up to the public uh for those wishing to offer testimony uh during this u docked public hearing. So we'll open it up for the u public. You can go to the podium, give us your name, the record, and three minutes to speak. Second attempt, those wishing to offer testimony in this public hearing. third and final attempt. Those wishing to offer testimony. Seeing no one moving in that direction, we'll open it up for questions, comments, concerns from council members. Uh, Miss Shavaria.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Joel. Can we allocate money um for roads if they meet the black group map infrastructure? We can. Okay. Thank you. Road maintenance is probably not as popular, but uh an an improvement would be. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I know we've used it in years past for uh sidewalks. We have used it for sidewalks. A little easier to get that approval. Any other questions, comments? Mr. Carbone.

Thank you, Mayor. Um Joel, I think we talk about homelessness uh almost every time you bring it up. It seems like there's more more and more of that. um work working the polls here this last week. I I believe there's a a resident that's using the library facilities on a daily basis to get out of the heat. I think she's been living in her car for a couple years now. So, we all chipped in and and got her some clothes and some gas money. Is is there any any way to leverage these CDBG funds to to help with that?

Um, of course there is. And uh I think uh considering the windshield observations that the community is expressing concern over and just what we're seeing statistically when we look at the point in time counts and other data that we get to access. Uh and I myself personally, you know, do that when I'm out in the community. Uh it may be time for us to consider even a small allocation of funds to something that can help. We just need to figure out strategically what that really is and how we make it work. and uh eligibility wise just make sure we're doing something that HUD will uh reimburse those costs for. So um we will definitely be considering how we formulate a a plan to put some dollars into the program this year that purpose just don't know what it would be. We would have to

it's actually a question that gets asked all over the county and Freeport used to have a a unit a house or building something and it's it's no longer there. So, um, it it's a struggle all over the county. I

mean, I just wanted to when I saw the homelessness on there, uh, you know, along I guess the 35 corridor, you know, we had an influx for a while, then it's dissipated, then it came back a little bit. Now it seems to be gone. I know member Patel has, uh, made some comments on on the west end of town. There's there's some homelessness. I don't know if it's, you know, on the Wayne or not or if it's still out there. But, you know, it seems to kind of eb and flow at least on the 35 corridor. So, I don't know on the west end if it's subsided at all, but uh it's it's one of those deals that you know, I don't know how or what, but uh you know if there's something we can try and figure out to help the process.

Yes, sir. I think that is something we've observed and the challenge is just being able to pinpoint it to the extent that we can actually extend our hand to to to assist in that regard and for it to you know yeah it's a go into effect. So yeah, we'll we'll definitely keep that uh in mind as we plan and you'll see something at the next public hearing that proposes. All right. Thank you. project if you will, Mr. Patel.

Thank you. Uh thank you, mayor. Um Joel, um I I will echo the homelessness. Um, one of the ideas, you know, at least what we heard or I heard was they are brought in from Houston to the hospital and then the hospitals treat them and release them and the security of the hospital tells them to move on and they end up at the Kroger shopping center. And so maybe if there is a way to work with the two hospitals to maybe get some data on how we can help these guys, I think it would be beneficial. If you could go to slide number seven. Um if you could I don't know how old I know you said this was a little bit maybe dated. No, it's current. It just um every year when we draw down the census block group data uh we've got to do some additional work at the during the planning process to refine the actual boundaries of the block group territories so that we don't have what's called a split block group where something goes in it's inside and outside our jurisdiction. Got it.

We can't use these funds outside the city limits. So, how often do you uh update these blocks where you know I'm assuming the blue is the low meets the qualifications? Correct. Okay. Uh how is this every year you do this? We will definitely look at the data every year. There's some years it doesn't change and some years that it does. So, how far back do you have this data? I'm just curious. I believe this is 2025. So, this is very recent. No. How far back can you go back and look at compare these slides just to kind of show the progress?

I can probably go back as far back as I mean I have every uh area benefit target area map we've ever utilized in planning. So we could look at that in a continuum and see what how that's changed. Would you would you mind sharing that? Certainly. Please. And then on page number nine um this is a little bit of a heartburn for me. um 20% is that what we actually are spending or is that what's allowed?

That's what's allowed and I would say that we try to be as conservative as possible with that. It's traditionally gone strictly to personnel cost. We do have some years where we do need to obtain professional development, training, and things like that to make sure that we're up to speed on all the new regulations that might come about. But in large part, we uh we're very conservative. Um, I will say that that's the uh portion of costs that allow us to work closely with our subreients to make sure that they're compliant with the rules. And we do offer a lot of nonprofit organizational development support throughout the course of the program year to make sure we stay out of trouble and that helps them a great deal as well. So, alternatively, we could be removing ourselves from that equation and putting it all on the subreients and saying, "Hey, it's up to y'all to manage your compliance and all this other stuff." Um, but that doesn't tend to farewell. And it's important for us to be able to document the time and effort that we actually put forth towards helping the community and helping the organizations that receive the funds. But I I guarantee you we don't we don't spend all that money. So, if you if you don't mind, Joel, um if you could just kind of give us in the last three years, what what did we allocate towards the actual cost your admin and I'm assuming the remaining we're spending towards the facility and uh housing or infrastructure?

I can I can provide that. Okay. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Seeing no one, we'll close this public hearing. All right. With that, we'll move to new business. Mr. Carbone, would you place uh new business item number one on the table, please? Thank you, mayor. Consideration of possible action resolution R 2026-71. So moved. Second. We have a motion, a second. Staff report.

Thank you, mayor. This item is for the purchase of 12 unmarked PD vehicles. And I'm going to kind of walk a little bit through uh how we got here, what's recommended tonight, and a little bit on moving forward. So uh previously we had sought to purchase using a cooperative and or had sought cooperative purchasing cost uh for buying on the lot vehicles because we were trying to minimize the delivery time to get them here. Uh the council feedback uh was to solicit uh as an invitation to bid or go through a hard bidding process. So we've gone through that process um and we received three different bids. Um, two of the vendors only bid the Ford vehicles and the other bid uh vendor bid all the vehicles and all but one of the vehicles being recommended are factory ordered which takes about 90 to 120 days for delivery. Uh, by factory ordering we are able to order with specific OP options uh versus whatever the options were on those on the lot vehicles we previously priced. basically have to take the options that are available if you're trying to get them delivered quicker um and the associated costs with those. So with the factory ordering uh this solicitation uh versus the previous one we're actually saving approximately $66,000. Um so uh since there's no upfitting on these vehicles required uh we're also recommending to award this to three different vendors. Um so they we acquire each vehicle at the lowest bid price. So that is with McCree Ford for the transit van, Big Star Ford for the Escape and Caldwell Country for the other 10 vehicles. So after we went through the bidding process, uh we did do a back check on those bids to just compare those to walk to cooperative pricing as we looked at previously. And uh basically the Caldwell Country's bid was at the cooperative pricing. They participate in the co-ops. So, uh, two

out of the 12 vehicles received bids below the co-op pricing. The other 10 are actually at the co-op pricing. Um, so based on the invitation to bids results, uh, we're recommending, um, our next solicitation, which is planned for 30 white fleet vehicles, and those vehicles require various levels of upfitting. Uh, we're recommending that we factory order vehicles to make sure we get the minimum options that we need. um utilizing the co-ops to negotiate the best price um and then include all the upfitting for turnkey key delivery and warranty issues um and then utilize one vendor so that we eliminate coordinating upfitting, delivery and warranty with multiple vendors. So that's that's what we're recommending, but we're also soliciting input. Just wanted to see what direction council wants to take moving forward. Um, and so then just one other note, um, on the escape unit price, the originally submitted PDF was off on the unit price by $5. So we had punched that into our final spreadsheet. So the the total price to Bigar actually should be $5 higher per their total submitted bid and that's backed up by their backup documents. And then additionally uh in the um the uh resolution uh we have it as Caldwell County, not Caldwell Country. Um so we do need to amend the reszo to correct those two things. And I think uh Lawrence can help us out with the exact language when we get to that point. But at this point, turn it back to you, mayor, for questions.

We'll open up for questions, comments. I know Mr. Kosa, you have a submitted some stuff on this.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, first off, I'd like to tell you thank you for the time to to get this. Um, I I understand uh you're you're wanting to go to uh co-op for the next purchase. Um, but I myself am against that. Um, and for purposes of this is $66,143.32 less than what we had previous. Now, they're not apples to apples because it is different vehicles. we were able to buy our vehicle the way we needed it instead of what's available on the lot. Um, and with that being said, um, uh, you're you're very familiar with, uh, within the last year, we bought 55 Panasonic Tough Books with one phone call uh, that I made and in, uh, a postponement to a second meeting, we're able to save somewhere between 13 and $14,000. Um what was really interesting to me as uh part of my supplement that I entered um on our February 23rd meeting um AIR uh 26-003 for some uh traffic signal uh purchases that we did. Um, when I asked the question to to come up with what the what the savings and why we had a savings through uh through co-op pricing, gentleman that was sitting out in the audience stepped up. At first I thought it was a city employee and it actually happened to be the vendor. Um, and his comments was uh basically with the volume that uh units that the city was purchasing, he felt that we need to get a discount. Um and he went on to say that it's not always easy to do that with by board and you could change any one of these co-ops. Um because when given better

pricing these co-ops expect that across the board um because the terminology better pricing is misleading, highly misleading. It's the price that they want to sell to everyone for whatever given reason. Um but with a competitive bid, you can get better prices. Um all of us up here are are tasked with saving money. We'll be going through a budget uh exercise over the next several months here. Um you find a hundred of these type deals and that's anywhere between$2 million and $6 million that we could save. Um, and in my opinion, purchasing department, professional buyers, uh, that's their job is to get the best price, not to take a co-op price. I I understand it as a tool, but it's not something to sit there and say, "Hey, this is an easy way to do it because we can just get a price." because right here, these are several uh experiences that we've experienced within the last year where it's serious money if you get enough of it. And so with that being said, I am definitely in favor for competitive pricing and using co-ops as a tool to to guide it, but to strictly use co-op pricing, uh you're you're not saving the taxpayers money. That's my comments.

Any other questions, comments? Shabria. Thank you, Mayor. I mean, I do like the competitive bidding process. I mean, if that's something that we can continue to do, I would be in favor of that, but it also gives option for local vendors to participate. So, I would really like to take a look at that some more. Thank you, Mr. Car. Yep. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I agree with what Councilman Kos is saying. I guess a question I would ask um any ballpark on staff time involved on going out on a on an invitation to bid versus straight to a co-op. Do I think we've got Jose, our purchasing manager here. Did you put some numbers together on that?

Yes, we did. So there's a there's a range and we did look at a a national survey that was conducted so that we can get a better census, but on average you're looking at 45 hours for a for a simple project up to 140 hours of staff time. Every project is unique and I think that's one of the things I love about procurement, right? That it is so fluid and it's so organic that it gives you an opportunity to test the market. So like you've mentioned, I think you're absolutely right. There's a there's a great value in both paths. I think sometimes we just have to find the best balance for the community which could be we can get something tomorrow or we can get something in six months. Uh I think there is risk involved in both of those and sometimes those risks are not my decision to make but nevertheless I think we're conscious of that hey if we get a PD vehicle today or at least in 30 days versus six months it can provide additional value. that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the case. It's just an example for staff time because when you look at the projects, it's difficult to ascertain total time because every project is unique. But on on average, you are looking at about 40 hours for what we would consider more of a straightforward bid versus something more complex like an RFP solicitation.

Okay. Thank you. And Trent, what was the timing on this next round? I think we're ready to move forward with it as soon as we have some clarity on which direction to move in um as far as the next 30 vehicles. Right. Yeah, we're ready to start moving on that.

And I and I would add, you know, um you know, we and and and we'll move in the direction that that uh um that we decide on tonight. Um I do want to just say that you we've got a fairly small purchasing team and group. Um, so with the, you know, their ability to bid out imitation for bids, everything that we do would be would be very difficult. We need to look at and consider whether or not the there's cost savings there to to add additional staff to to process that many. Um, but I think we we're very cognizant now of, you know, the co-ops and and how you can negotiate some of those prices and checking other avenues to make sure that what we're getting there are are good prices. Um, you know, and part of that's also looking, you know, we can also look with other cities we use, uh, uh, interlocals with and what they bid things for as well. But

just wanted to make sure, you know, if we were to bid everything, we would we would we would really slow down a lot of things or we would uh we would need some additional staff to bid everything. Yeah. For this next round, I'd be a fan of of bidding it out. And if u the hours Yeah. track the hours and if you can prove to us that that co-op is is good for a few more times then then then maybe we go that route. Um but I mean if we can squeeze 50 60k then we need to have that discussion around budget time. What does it take to uh absolutely supplement that department? Thank you Hernandez.

Thank you mayor. Um I would echo a little bit of what member Carbone just said. Um, I think staff said 45 to 120 hours of additional um time that it that it takes. I'd like to see what that equates to dollar-wise. Um, you know, because when I see hours, I don't know what the dollar amount is that. And so, I think that would be a good thing to actually see so we can see the difference between the extra hours and the dollar amounts that go to that versus um the co-op and by board comparison. Patel.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, trying, if you're looking for guidance, I would say um with member Kosa and Tony and the rest of the council here. Um, and I I guess I'm kind of wondering, you said that you're short staff. Is it that we have open positions or we just don't have enough in the department?

So, I think right now we do have one open position, but I I don't mean we're short staffed. we're short staffed if we go to a bidding out a significant majority of the things we've traditionally used cooperative pricing for. Um, so I think one well right now we're down one staff member, but you know, I would say generally the number of people we have in purchasing does not support bidding out all the services that we've we've gone to co-ops for in the past.

Yeah. And I guess maybe we got too uh complacent um with just going that easy route and not actually worrying about where we can save. And so I agree that maybe we do need to keep a track and see what the cost benefit is. Um so I guess when you go through these next 30 vehicles, you're going to go through a co-op and get a bid and then go do a competitive bid. Also, I think what we'll do is we'll put it out for competitive bids and after we receive the bids, we will then back check those like we did this time um to see uh where the cooperative pricing is uh uh compared to that

and then we'll track all of our time so we can turn those hours into the dollars, the cost to to go through the process versus the time it would take to go the other route. Um, so the other thing the other recommendations in here since these next group of vehicles include a lot of upfitting when we do that we like to go to one vendor so that we have one vendor responsible for the group of vehicles um for the upfitting and the delivery and the warranty versus trying to deal with multiple vendors on upfitting. Um, I mean, if we see a clear price break or cost savings somewhere, um, you we could still always have the option to split that up, but I think if and we would intend to try to go with one vendor, um, moving forward with this next group with all the the upfitting that's also part of the cost.

And, uh, one last question. Uh, sorry, mayor. Um, uh, I I guess you said there's an inter local agreement with other cities. Are have we considered that? I mean, I'm sure we're not the only ones buying vehicles this year or maybe there is a pool you can jump in and has that been considered or is that even a idea?

I think that was the intent of the co-ops when they were originally put together was that um there's a lot of entities whether it be school districts or or cities that buy a lot of fleet vehicles. So, uh, the state allowed for these cooperative, uh, purchasing arrangements to be put in place that go out and bid those, uh, those vehicles and and provide pricing that then the all the members of the co-op can can take advantage of. So, um, I, you know, I I don't because of those I don't think there's a whole lot of entities that bid out vehicles separately. Um, that doesn't mean I mean, we're obviously going to do it here. Um, but I think part of, you know, to speak about co-ops and specific to vehicles, I think part of what we saw here is, um, though we sent it out to a lot of different vendors to bid on these, we got, uh, two other, uh, dealerships that aren't really, uh, I I don't believe either of them participate in the co-ops um, to bid on the the Ford vehicles. No one else chose to bid on the Chevrolet vehicles. And then um the vendor that did bid all the vehicles and was low on 10 out of the 12, they are a co-op participant. And so they did not provide any pricing lower than their cooperative pricing. And I'm assuming that's because when they go into those arrangements, um part of that is that that's what they provide um for governmental entities as their pricing. So, you know, that's a little bit of the way this system's kind of set up for us to deal with, but I think we go through the invitation to bid process and we'll push it out to as many dealerships as we can and and see what we get. And

yeah, I guess ISDS are paraline ISD or Elvin ISD. I don't know if they're going through co-ops. I would guess they're probably using co-ops for vehicle purchases. I don't know if they're we can confirm with them that that's what they do.

Okay. Thank you. Back to you, Mr. Kosa. Thank you, mayor. Um the one comment was made that you know the the time that it takes um we know that we're going to be buying cars every year. Since I've been elected last four years, we've had one purchase a year. Um it's been a different amount. We know in September when we approve the budget at the end of September how many cars we're going to be buying next year. What we need to do is plan our time and say that if we're going to have cars, you can sit there and say we want to buy it. We want delivery at this time period. Sit there and say that it takes 90 to 120 days. Yeah, that's right. Um any any dealership I've spoken to, when you order it, that's roughly where it's at now. It can go a little shorter, it can go a little longer. Um but that doesn't excuse poor planning. And at the end of the day, we know when we're going to buy these vehicles to order them is the best way to do it. To take somebody's cooperative pricing and say that's it.

Um I I I've got a problem with that. Um because here again, moving forward, we're going to wait. We're going to order factory. We're going to wait. If somebody's got the exact same thing on the lot, we would take it. But I get that's that's definitely what we're doing.

And and that makes sense. But to to sit there, I can tell you um AR 25381 on January 12th, you pulled that item when I spent about 10 hours of my time and I was about 20,000 19 $20,000 on my personal time that I called three different dealerships and said, "Here's the vehicles I'm looking at, and what will you sell it to me for?" Um, I sent my spreadsheet. part of that 10 hours was taking my time to put the spreadsheet together to get the 12 vehicles and to turn around and do it. So to take 40 45 hours, uh, you know, I'll I'll I'll take it. But to me, uh, if we have people in our purchasing department that that know what we're doing, um, and and whether it's vehicles, whether it's chemicals, whatever it is, whatever item we're buying, um, we need to we need to sharpen it up and there is a learning curve. Uh, for four years, uh, I'm going to say it, Trent, you might not like it, our finance department's been a dumpster fire. And and you know, our our issues that we've had. Um, and with that being said, yeah, there's a learning curve to to buy stuff, but if we if we get people in the the space and do the job, um, we'll be better off as a city.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a follow-up question, Trent, or maybe this is Chief Dunham. Um, since we're talking about vehicles purchasing and processes and stuff like that, um, what was the outcome? What was the process? I, you know, as we're talking about all this, the first thing that kind of hit my head was recently we purchased x amount of patrol units through SU and it went through their own outfitting process and uh what I heard is it went pretty smoothly. They they came in on time like they said. Can you know what was that process like? How did because we went through a uh I I believe it was a co-board or co-op process, but how did that overall pan out with SU?

I might lean on Lorenzo or Eric to maybe update us on the delivery of those vehicles and Chief Dunham if he's got anything to add as well. Correct. Thank you, sir. Great question. Uh that was done through a cooperative as well. And so we found we partnered with the cooperative vendor who had the right purchasing power and the right upfit capabilities to provide that one-stop shop. And so we partnered with SU. And to your point, yes, sir, they did turn the vehicles around swiftly. And um seems as though that they've done a very good job with their upfit services, sir.

And as far as the the workmanship now that we've had the vehicles, they're on everything performed, you know, like we want it to be. No problems with their performance. I'll defer to uh Chief Dunham for just a moment to see how the user groups on patrol are enjoying those vehicles, sir. Yes, sir. No, I'm not aware of any issues that we've had using that outfielder. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Cousin,

so back on that the purchase prior to that, um we bought 39 vehicles and they sat in the city of Parland's possession for 18 months, 24 months. Um, so just because we have one purchase that went well doesn't mean cooperative purchasing goes well. And to sit there and pay that discount on SU was 3 and a half to 4%. You're paying way too much for vehicle. You're saying 3 to 4% more is what we paid.

Oh, you're paying normally when you buy vehicles, it's a fool's argument to buy from MSRP down. I've never in my life had anyone say I take MSRP and move down. You take invoice and you start getting into holdback. You can get into advertising allowments. You can get into delivery fees. Everything is negotiable. It's how good you are in negotiating. Um, and when we've spent $1.9 million, we probably spent somewhere in the neighborhood of$100 to $150,000 too much. And to to go through it, we bought trucks that had four-wheel drive. That's $1,500 $2,000 everyone. We don't need it. And it's because in today's world, if we don't have it right now, because we're not planning our way, we're just saying, "I need it right now." We are not helping the taxpayer. Yeah, I agree. I think we have to be respectful. If

you have if you have the gentleman that sat there for the traffic lights saved us $36,000. That's what the man told us. He felt that it was wrong because we were buying so much from. And he had to work it through so that he didn't get stuck at that price for every other job that he sold. And it it's one of those deals. We're we're taxed with saving money for the taxpayers. And yes, you can make it. Like I said, when we have vehicles being bought once a year, this one got split up because it started off with multiple vehicles and it's been split up and that's why we have two in front of us this year. But for three years, it's been one purchase every year. And we know at in September when we certify our budget what we're going to be buying. And it's all about planning. I mean, do you run your business? I got to buy something today because I need it today. That's not a very successful way of doing it. And and that's that's where I have major heartburn because like I said, you find a hundred of these and it's three to $6 million. Yeah, I agree that we have to be responsible and I think we're given good direction to the city to staff to um to document, you know, look at one way, look at the other way, compare the differences and then present it to us and then we can make that decision as far as, you know, looking like member Carbone and yourself said, let's look at the options, let's look at the savings, let's see, you know, what can be done. So, I agree that, you know, we do need to look at all of it. I was just curious since we were talking about methods and since we were talking about you know procedures and then of course outfitting and so forth how did they perform because that's just an example a small example but an example of did they come in timewise and and you know the efficiency and the workmanship you know

how did it how did it turn out I I hadn't heard the outcome of using them so thank you staff

u and I I'll I'll end with A couple comments. It it it seems as though we're looking deeper and deeper into these by boards and the co-ops. Um I'm not sure how we can engage the co-ops to see if there's go back to the original reasons for these co-ops. It makes me wonder if the original reasons have been moved away from um and and so maybe maybe we need to engage the co-ops to uh light the fire there to to really do the work that they were designed to do. There's there's what about five of them? Something like that.

Probably more than that, but there's probably five we've used in the past. Yeah. Yeah. Half a dozenish somewhere in that ballpark. And so, um, and I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if they have not strayed from the law, but maybe they interpret the law a certain way. No, I'm I'm I'm not saying that they have. I'm just saying they're they're What I think's happened is it's been easy to say, "Okay, I can buy this and get it quick

and and the vendors have said, "Okay, let's jack our prices up." But I can tell you if the legislature is going to continue to compress and compress and compress and compress, every line item and facet of the city's business is going to be looked at. And that's not just ours. There's,200 cities across the state that every single one of them are going to be looking closer and closer and closer at everything because they're going to be forced to. and whether it's the buy boards or co-ops or going direct or whatever that that conversation is going to be more and more and more throughout. So, we need to engage the co-ops and say you've got to do a better job. Maybe we can be a leader in that.

When when uh member Tumman and I testified in Austin um by board by board themselves said they made $32 million year before, it's a big business one. It is. If if if you add it up across five, seven, you're talking quarter of a billion dollars. So there's a lot of money left on the table for convenience.

Yeah. So we we have to I think that needs to be part of the equation. It's not just us saying we're going to pull back, but I think we need to tell these by boards what we're seeing. Um especially like your gentleman says, I'm going through the byboard. I've already got a predetermined price. I can't negotiate with you, but if I go direct with you, I can negotiate. We need to figure that out. But the by boards need to know that maybe if there's a certain quantity, there's a different negotiation, all those kind of things. Anyway, I just wanted to put that on the table. It's something that we need to have a discussion with the different co-ops with. Uh with that, last call for questions, comments, staff. No question or comment, just a recommended amendment. When y'all are ready for that, I'm ready for it.

If somebody would be so kind as to say so moved, I'd recommend a amendment. Changing Caldwell C County to Caldwell Country Chevrolet. Changing the 20 $27,490 to Big Star Ford to $27,495. And changing the total purchase price to $447,77968. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second to uh amend uh the existing motion that was on the board. So we're voting on the motion to amend. Madam Secretary, call for the vote.

Member Cade. I. Member Fernandez. Hi. Member Patel. Hi. Member Kosa. Hi. Member Carbone. Hi. Member Chavia. Hi. The motion passes six to zero. So we now have an amended motion on the table. Last call for questions. Staff, any followup? La last. No sir. Thank you. See any? Madam Secretary, call for the vote. Member Carbone. I. Member Chavadia. Hi. Member Cade. Hi. Member Fernandez. I. Member Patel. Hi. Member Kosa. Hi. The motion passes six to zero.

All right. Good deal. Good work, guys. Um, moving forward in our agenda. Other business, there is none. Mayor council issues for city council discussion. Uh, there is none. We do have an executive session under Texas Government Code section 551.071. 071 consultation with city attorney deliberations regarding potential and/or pending litigation and section uh 551.087 deliberations regarding e economic develop uh development uh negotiations. We do have two uh potential action items coming out of exec session. So with that we'll adjourn at 7:38 into exact session.

uh has returned from executive session at 9:40. Uh we'll moving to new business continued. There are no action items to be taken. So we will move to adjournment at 9:40.