City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it's 6 o'clock p.m. I'm going to call the council to order. Please rise the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Council member Troy Smith is going to have our prayer. And tonight we're going to have a special prayer um for uh Elder Joe Ray and his family who just lost their home a couple of nights ago in a house fire. So if we'll all remember him as we stand.

Bow your heads. Father God, it's another time God. We we graciously get together tonight, God. We want we first want to just thank you, Lord, that uh that one, you're in this presence, God, and we just we just thank you, God, that you are in and around our daily lives. And we just ask God that you would just watch over us through this meeting. That you would uh that you would instruct us u with with what you would have us to do each each and every step of the way as we uh as we take care of the city business, God. And we also just want to lift up Pastor Joe Ray and his family tonight, God, and the things that they are uh now dealing with, God. And uh and I I I know you know that you're with him, God, and he knows that, too. But uh in times like this, it's just uh they're just tumultuous times. And uh so I'm just asking God that you would just grant grace to him and his family and that you would uh provide protection over them as they uh as they find their way. And uh and we just ask that you would uh uh go with the community as they wrap their arms around them, God, and uh and and they give and hand out the things that that they stand in need of. And we ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And now the Texas flagged one state.

Y'all may be seated. I want to thank you all for coming tonight. It's a regular council meeting December 4, 2025. Um, again, as I just mentioned, um, we had a fire in our community this week. Uh, Pastor Joe Ray and his family, four individuals were residing in that home. Um, it's pretty well burnt to the ground as far as it's not inhabitable anymore. So, four people have been dislocated. So, I do know I saw a few minutes ago that Southwestern Adventist University has posted about a GoFundMe account that was done by one of the daughters of Pastor Joe Ray. And so, they're looking for any kind of community support to help them basically clear the lot. I understand they had no insurance on the home. It was probably an electrical fire. So, right now the critical needs is just having the lot cleared so they can decide what they want to do, whether to rebuild or whether to sell and uh and stuff. And there may be some other accounts out there that will help individual family members as they now, like I said, are displaced and finding new places to live. So, we'll do what we can as a community to support them. Okay, for my mayor announcements, agenda item number two, um we have a Christmas market this Saturday and Sunday. So, that's pretty exciting. On Saturday, it's from noon to 8 with a tree lighting at 5:45 to 6, followed by a movie in the park, Polar Express. Is that still on? Okay. On Sunday, the market will be open from noon to 5:00. Uh the parade is going to start after that at 6:30 on Sunday. Um it's going to be starting at Pegasus Landing and traveling down Old Betsy to the gymnasium and fireworks will follow and Mr. KN's going to tell us more about that during public comments. Um, also on Saturday at the Keen 7th Day Adventist Church, there will be a Keen Worship Choir musical. They will be presenting a Holy Night at

11:30 during the summit service and again at 5:30 p.m. in the evening. And this is, of course, located at the church at 114 South Fairview Street. Admission is free, so if you want to take part in that, make plans this weekend. So, we have lots of stuff going on. Um, I do want to thank the staff for our lovely Christmas decorations. Y'all did a fabulous job. Who did that? Thank you. You all did a fabulous job. I think it's the first time that we've had it decorated. So, looks great. All right. So, we are in the middle of a runoff election. Just to give you some updates on that, there's three more days left of early voting tomorrow and then Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow from 8:00 to 5:00. You can vote at the Walnut Street location in Cleburn or at the Keen City Hall in the little room to the left of the lobby. Um, so, uh, we have Caleb Bull and Samantha Gillan. They're candidates for place one. And Thomas Gwa and Charles Easley are incumbents, both running for W three. So, you can vote at either of those locations during early voting, but I believe on election day, we just vote here. Correct. Okay. On election day, which is Saturday, remember that it's a Saturday now. December 13 from 7A to 7P, you're going to vote here. I believe still in the little room off the lobby. Okay, little room off the lobby. So far to date, we have about 135 people that have voted. So, not a big number yet. Hopefully, it's going to pick up. Okay, that's all my announcements for tonight. Council, do you have anything else that you would like to add as an announcement? No. Okay, moving on to agenda item number three, public comments. Paul not if you will come give us some updates about the parade.

Okay. Good evening, mayor and councel. Thank you for this opportunity. Just uh want to remind you and those uh watching online that our 29th annual uh Keen Christmas light parade and fireworks show is this Sunday 6:30 p.m. Uh the parade starts. A couple of new things this year. First of all, there's no horse no horses because of the virus. So, we're not allowing horses. That's the first time in the history of the parade we won't have horses. So, and then also we're experimenting with a new start site and that is Pegasus Landing. Pegasus Landing of Trail, formerly known as Chism Trail Estates. This is all about safety, safety and security. It's just been we found it's just been too dark and dangerous to use Mockingbird. uh street is too narrow and some of the residents would rather go their own way there than follow the instructions of our staff. So it just puts everyone in danger. So we're going to be on Old Betsy and it's exactly one mile from the entrance to or the exit to Pegasus Landing to the parking lot at Southwestern Adventist University Lysky Polter Gymnasium parking lot. So, uh, we're looking forward to that. There'll be some new security measures, uh, that you'll see. Some will be very obvious, like the implementation this year of Kenic school buses. Thanks to Dr. Stevens for, uh, is offering those for us to use to block off some streets. And that frees up some of our police and other uh, first responder personnel to be other places. So, we already have 47 volunteers involved and I do want to thank uh Chief James Kidd and Chief Dan Warner, police and fire respectively for all their help in the uh in the

planning. So, fireworks right after the parade approximately uh 7:30. So, we have a float for you. Councilman Easley is uh is organized with the mayor has her own float and uh that'll be nice and then a float for the city council people. So very good and that's I think the second year we've done the council flow. So thank you. So we will see you Sunday night. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Kn. All right. Nellyberg.

Good evening everyone. I'm Nelly Youngberg and I'm the owner of Mountain Coffee. I just wanted to say this is the first runoff of 2025 that Keen has. And in that, I wanted to invite everybody, including the community, anybody that votes, gets a little sticker, come down to the coffee shop, get a 25% off a coffee or a hot drink and promote and encourage our community to go out and vote. Um, I know Mr. Easily already voted. Bring your little hashtag I voted and you can still weigh in. All right. Thank you, Nelly. All right. And Mr. Smith would like to speak.

All right. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from our city manager asking if I wanted to join a celebration of Thanksgiving to his staff, which is our beloved City of Keen employees. Although I was unable to go, I already had a thankful heart for their hard work and dedication. Recently, I was aboard a Disney cruise ship in Galveastston. I got to witness people coming onto the ship for the first time. There's a grand entrance where the names are called of each person in line of people and and they clap as you come through. My niece, who is on the ship, uh she said the words, "The workers are on stage." And of course, I I I knew what that meant. on stage means making every attempt to make the guests feel like they're at home or royalty or just feel good about themselves. At the end of the day, in the Disney world, it's all about the guest experience. As we have seen, our city manager, Mr. Jonathan Sites, his team is doing just that on stage for us, the citizens. As this fluid city works, fires come up. Maybe not literally, chief, but issues arise and the departments respond accordingly. This is the culture he has created. I humbly get to watch as I go to the back hallways of the city and see these things. Compassion, urgency, desire, determination, grit, toughness, boldness, and courage. You name it, these employees bring it. In fact, I walk these halls enough. I believe I have new family members because of that. We speak to each other about our lives. Sometimes I feel like

they are speaking existence into my life. And quite possibly God maybe brought me here to do the same for all of you. Either way, it is and always will be a privilege to serve not only the citizens but our staff as well. In the Bible, it speaks about the body of Christ. In the same regard, each of us up here, as well as our city staff, plays a huge role embodying what this city represents. We collectively are being watched, looked up to, possibly snarled at times, belittled, and scoffed. To the naysayers, I say it won't work on me. Last regular meeting, I had a gentleman come at me with these true feelings on the line at this very podium. I stood resilient in the midst. I didn't waver. Our employees of the city sit among us at times, and they also take the abuse. But they all hold a composure, a higher standard of excellence, which maybe wasn't what they would have implored to do, but with the great leadership comes great new leaders. I know Thanksgiving is over. But I want to say a huge thank you to the staff across the board. Notice I didn't say top to bottom because you all have a role to play. Lastly, Jonathan, I want to thank you for your leadership. We talk often and I find myself growing in ways that I never thought possible. Your experience and business have put you in a great place here at the city. The citizens will start to see very shortly the progress and drive you have grown that that you have to grow this city in a proper way. As our conversations have progressed, I know without a doubt the successes you will have here and will be remembered for them. So, thank you staff for your hard

work and please stand with me as we salute the employees that work here. [Applause]

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Okay, that was all the yellow cards that I had. Is there anybody that is present that would like to speak during public comments that did not complete a yellow card? Okay, then we're going to move on to agenda item number four. This is reports. I'm sorry. Did somebody want to Somebody wanted to speak. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see your hand. I wasn't looking at council. All right, Mr. Easley, go ahead. So, uh, in regards to Joe Ray, I've been just this evening before council started talking with his daughter Carmen. She's asked me to help out with putting together a volunteer group to help clean up some of the debris inside and maybe even find a company to take that down. So, I'm working on names and stuff right now.

Okay. So, uh I may be into being the contact person for that. I'm not sure. I'm going to try to pass it off, but we'll see. All right. Thank you, Mr. Easley.

Okay. Anyone else? I missed anybody. Okay. Agenda item number four, reports. A city manager comments. Mr. Sites. Uh well, if I had known Troy was going to do that, I would have asked me go first. So, um thank you. It was very unexpected and um it is a real pleasure and honor to serve the city and um I know I don't make everybody happy every day, but uh we do try our best and so um there are exciting things. So, let me get into the report. Um I am going to start with something that's not on the agenda only because I only because I promised uh Dr. Stevens that I would get him home in time for the Cowboys game and um and he's had a few very busy days. Um and uh the poor man is probably exhausted. Um so the last several days we've actually hosted uh the Texas Association of School Administrators and very similar to the one we did in the spring which was more smaller schools. this was all larger ISD and I had the pleasure of getting to uh speak just briefly but then also spend some time here and there when time allowed to just kind of witness um what was going on and and and what he's done is an exact um is so often you see something great and and we kind of just assume oh that was by accident and and I can promise you great things uh 99% of the time don't happen because of accidents and so um I I was kind of asking him these questions and early this afternoon because I wanted to speak to it and and then as he started getting passionate and talking about the good that's continuing to come out of this um he was like well maybe I should come and I was like that would be great because at this point I'm getting like carpal tunnel trying to write all this information down. Um, but it the same thing I shared with the superintendent. Um, and I told them on behalf of city managers everywhere, we don't give enough credit to our

educational systems that are within our cities because, um, I can tell you right now, my sister didn't move her kids here because of a city manager. She moved her kids here because she wanted her kids to go to an amazing school and and she got to witness uh, what Dr. Stevens has done for this community firsthand. So, at this point, I'll invite him to come up and and just say a little bit about what he and his team have accomplished and now it's making an impact throughout the state of Texas.

Good. Thank you for the the invitation. Uh, Councilman, Mr. Mayor, thank y'all for being here tonight. One thing I know from being on the uh the other side of the the city kind of thing with the school is none of y'all have to be here. couple of you do, but uh everybody else is here strictly voluntary and especially in the election season. Not only you voluntarily here, you also are taking the beatens that come voluntarily. So, a big thank you to all two, three, four of y'all that are in the runoff. I know a lot of times that's difficult, but we do appreciate you being willing to represent our community. Um, speaking as a citizen that lives at 608 Woodlon, right up the 150 yards up the hill, um, we have a great city. It is a super city. I know we get all tied up in all the stuff that social media puts out there and you would say newspaper back in the day, but we don't really have one. Um, thank goodness kind of sometimes. But this city is amazing. the people that that run the city, the people that just live in the city, the people you see at the Dollar General, the people that you see at the Sonic, the people that you see at the bank. I mean, it's hard to find anybody in this town that you wouldn't be glad to say, they they live where I live. And so, I just want to say as a community member and also somebody who's who runs the school here, uh, thank you for all of y'all and everything that you do. I do want to uh let you know a little bit what was happening because if you happen to drive by Wednesday or Thursday, the parking lot was full. And if you got excited early on that there was a thousand people voting in the early voting, it was good because I voted Tuesday morning at like 8:05 and there's like 10 of us in line. Uh but we actually are part of the Texas Association of School Administrators. is the superintendent group and they started about a decade ago something called the future ready school leadership network that brings superintendents together and they go throughout the state of Texas finding school districts that are doing innovative things school districts that

are reaching kids in a unique way and they ask them to host and at that time they bring in about 45 of the districts and it ends up being four people a district so you run about 140 to 150 administrators so we had the opportunity to host in March what's called the small schools network which is all the schools that are 1350 kids and below. To give you a size idea, Grand View's at about 1,400, so they were a little bit too big. We're at 1139. So, we were right at the top. So, we hosted that. And that day, it was 35 superintendents and about 95 administrators. And we were able to show them, well, we started about 10 11 years ago, and a lot of you have heard me speak at Chamber of Commerce about the Keen 22 and our house system. The Keen 22 is something that we are all in at Keen. is trying to create better humans. We're trying to do things that make our kids when they walk across the stage be better people for having gone to Keen ISD and it has caught fire across the state that we're doing that. Uh we after those people left in March, we hosted a hundred more teachers over three days that their principles and superintendents sent them back to Keen to see what we were doing with those kind of things. They then asked us for the first time ever if we would do the big school one, which was basically the same school district doing the same event twice. So we had 43 school districts and 143 administrators here in central office. Uh the I mean here in um city hall the last two days. It started out at Railroaders Park on Tuesday night. We brought them in a beautiful setting up there in the U community room. We took them down on the on the baseball field with the lights on. We threw a a big old plastic ball. They hit it with a plastic bat and the jumbotron exploded with their house. And that was the part of their initiation into you're about to experience two days of what King does. And you can't understand it unless you understand what we do with the houses. Then they came over here. We did the whole thing uh here at city

hall. Our then half of them went and toured our school and saw what we do in the classrooms, how we've innovated. We flip-flopped that. And then last night, if you happen to have driven by the the field in the last couple days, we have a huge tent out on the football field. We knew it was going to be cold, so we had a Christmas luau and our marshales population came and danced and sang. Today, superintendents from San Antonio, superintendents from from down around Austin were standing up with tears in their eyes about what happened last night, seeing how that community is involved, and it is a really cool thing. Uh, one of the things that's really kind of pertinent we try to do the KE22 is really not about a bunch of little bitty rules. It's about things that we can make those kids better humans. And today they got to experience what we call the great debate. If you've never had a chance to see that, I don't know if any of y'all have been a part of that, but it is a a year-long contest that starts that's for fifth graders that culminates in five of them being on stage in front of the schoolboard at night with a lot of their peers and families. And they actually go to war for about 30 minutes debating things like a 4-day school week, whether or not the summer should be longer with shorter breaks, whether or not standardized testing, whether or not they think that kids should be disciplined at school for bullying off campus. I mean legit things. And the reason that we do that, I think it's so pertinent even in this election season and especially in our national politics. We have a lot of problems in America now of being able to argue without anger and disagree without hate. And what we want to really do to our kids is when they walk across that stage and when y'all are in those bleachers and you see them going across, we want them to be able to disagree about with Jonathan about something and disagree with Ricky about something and disagree with Mr. Shaw about something and then after we've had it out, shake hands, go get 25% off their hot chocolate. I do need to know how I do that since I've already voted. I didn't get a sticker.

Okay. Um, but we want our kids to be able to really do that. If we can do those kind of things, then we're going to create better humans. And what it does for us, it makes our kids globally competitive because we we aren't able to ever build a multi-million dollar CTE facility like Cleber. We'll never have a natatorium like like Mansfield. We'll never have the ability to build a a plane like Granberry did a few years ago. But our kids, if they can look you in the eye and shake your hand, say, "My name's Ricky Stevens. I'd like a job. I'd like they're going to be competitive with all those kids that have done all those things." And so, we just wanted to let you know because what I also feel and how I really feel this ties into the community is there are now 90 superintendents across the state of Texas and over 250 administrators that when they hear the name Keen, they don't do what I heard forever 13 years ago. where's that? They now know where it's at. And immediately what they're saying is, man, you got to go there. That's a cool place. And they don't necessarily just mean the ISD. They mean the the city because we have unbelievable educational institutions here throughout the city. Unbelievable people, an unbelievable city. And when the public school is going good, it it it pours over to everyone. Uh the last thing I'll say, then I'll get out here because they are about to kick off, I think. And I promised Paul I'd beat him out of here, but he's here still. Um, you know, Paul normally gets out when you're not looking. Um, but our school has really become the school of choice in Johnson County in a county with a lot of really good schools. Uh, 39% of our kids pass up a bus stop. They pass up driving to their school and they come to Keen ISD as transfers because when given the choice, we heard all this stuff about from all this stuff in the state about school choice vouchers. Oh, what's it going to do to the public school? Uh we've never been afraid of that here

because we already know when kids have a choice, they seem to come toward Keen. And that's what Keen's always been about. It's always been about the city on the hill. It's always been about the university. Whenever the train used to come in, they told me when I got hired here, they used to say, "Next stop is the holy city because in a good way, right? Because that's what we want to be. We want to be the light." If you remember Ronald Reagan or was it George Bush that talks about the thousand points of light? That's what we want to be at Keen. We want to be the place that people want to go to, that they want to be there because they know that their people are going to love them. They know that their city is going to care for them. They know they're going to be there. And uh we really do appreciate I appreciate personally y'all support because it's the little things. It's the little comments at a gas station. It's the little comments after a meeting. It's the little talking that we've had at times. It's your kids coming to our school that um you know, it's the mayor coming and visiting. It's all these things. is Jonathan talking all those little things that you may not think are big things, but they're big to us because it lets us know that you support us. So anyway, that's what we were doing. Appreciate your time and I hope youall have a great meeting.

Thank Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stevens. Dr. Stevens, thank you very much. And and also one thing he didn't mention was is now they're actually looking to his school to actually send teachers here to train. And and so the other the the wild thing for me is getting to to kind of get to see this firsthand. Um you know I was asking kind of you know how many stu schools or how many students are you know you you over and of course I'm going 1,000 2,000. So finally I'm doing increments of five. And finally I had to stop and point to this one lady. I said, "How many students are you over?" And she said, "52,000."

That was the caliber of people that were in our building and in our city. And and and Ricky with, you know, his staff is is leading.

It was truly amazing. It was emotional. So, I just I I appreciate you letting me add that to the report because it really was just, you know, it's it's easy to to have pride for I mean, and and kind of what he said there at the end, too. And you you can go because I know you have you have Cowboys, but it it kind of leads into um you know, I really appreciate what Troy said, but but my staff hears it all the time, and I want the city to hear it. the the Lord's timing. He's going before us and the Lord's timing is is just amazing to me because some of these things I'm going to talk about, I'm going to speak to that. But something that he started, again, it wasn't by accident 10 years ago, is now influencing the great state of Texas here in our wonderful little city. So, [Applause] all right, now to my report. Uh, okay. Okay, so Fairview Street, um Don said they kind of did a a walkth through. There's still a few little things that we have to clean up, but for the most part, it's done. Um so, uh that's that's kind of exciting. Um you know, one street at a time. It's going to take time, but we're getting there slowly but surely. Um so that's so I appreciate the residents that lived on that street, the patience. Um, I know it was very um frustrating for a while there, especially since it took longer than we thought. But, um, being a guy that actually used to work in construction, it's kind of normal, it seems like. Um, so, uh, another thing I wanted to highlight was, um, our, uh, city um, uh, she was on November 20th, um, our city secretary served on a panel for a workshop on laser fish and records manage management. uh they invited her and she presented as someone from the archive profession as well as a small local government office. There were about 50 people in attendance that represented cities, police departments, counties, and water districts. Uh Holly was able to share her knowledge of

archival uh architecture and the practical application of the laser fish system in small government records management and public information. So, uh wanted to give a shout out again the caliber of of leadership that that we have on staff here. So, thank you Holly for [Applause] Um, let's see. Uh, staff update. So, uh, all the people that you approved, uh, new, uh, positions, um, are pretty much all full. Um, except for one. Um, we're kind of pulling back right now on the, uh, fire marshal just because, uh, uh, we we just we're not ready. We're not there yet. Um but our new marketing um guy Kevin uh Keith Burrow um he is going to take what ORNA started um doing part-time and be full-time and he's an amazing uh we are very fortunate to have him um Advent Health is a uh graduate of Southwestern Advis University and he um uh Advent Health wanted him um he's been in the mission field for the last year donating his time but uh he wanted to come back to this community fell in love with this community and so I'm excited to see him actually develop a marketing division. And if Ora can do what she did in 20 hours a week and this guy is full-time, I'm very excited for that. Um, Don also hired uh a lady that's coming to us from Arlington from the permit office and has experience um and very much seems to be a go-getter. Uh so leveling up that department as well. Uh three new fire Yeah. All three fire uh fire positions have started. Um so yeah, so we are a month kind of after the budget. We're we're tracking pretty good. Um any questions on

Do you know how many employees we have now? What number are we at? Oh man. Um 62. Yeah, I think it's 62. Okay.

I think it's 62. Um and again, just to remind people, cities our size have around 80. So, um, we're doing great things with the the small team that we have. Um, you already gave the Christmas, uh, market information, so I'll lead to the the final thing. Um, so, uh, I can now kind of officially say, um, we've been working on this for some time, uh, but there will be an offer coming from Metal Plate, um, to purchase 60 acres in our industrial park. Um it'll start with one manufacturing facility followed by a second. Initially it'll add around 80 to 100 jobs and once the second manufacturing facility is up and going it'll add an additional 80 to 100 jobs with a median income around 70 to $100,000. Um it uh um and and to just speak to it a little bit because I love that you give us credit, but again to me the glory needs to go to God because he is leading in ways. Um I thought this deal was done a couple times and Andy helped us with the initial um offer negotiations. I don't have the official offer, but it is coming which we'll present to the Aboard. Um, and I think it's going to be a wonderful partnership, not to mention jobs, rec uh increase revenue, um, sales revenue, sales tax, all the wonderful things that come along with it. Um, but this deal was done. Uh, it was just going to fall through and, um, the Lord put me on a board 20 years ago that I never really understood why because it never really did anything for for my professional career. But when the deal was falling apart because of a gas line deal, I reached out to uh a very good friend of mine that was on the petroleum club board with me and he made one phone call and resurrected that deal. And and I can honestly tell you when you pay dues to something for 20 years and you look back at the end of a rough patch in your life and you go, "Why the heck did I waste all that

money?" That phone call right there was worth every cent to me. And so, um, I'm telling you, there's other awesome conversations that we're having for our city that again, I can't I'm not at liberty to talk about. Don and I are getting phone calls and and there's other great things that we're working on, but this is a deal, um, that to me is just it's the first of many to come. And so, um, our team is excited to be in this city at this time. And, um, it's it's just it's amazing. So, um, just sit back and be patient with us because citizens, good things are coming for this community. So, um, yeah. So, hopefully by the next council, and here's the thing, too. It's a cash deal. Um, they're going to help us develop. Uh, so Bule Baptist Church um talked to u Larry Woolly, good friend of mine from the past my past years here. Um, he's already started on their side of things. it's already um they can't actually lay the asphalt until it gets warm again, but they're they're doing all the road base and things to pack it and get it ready for that point. And then with this deal coming in, um they're about to have the nicest road probably in Keen. So, um God is good to them, too. Their prayers are being answered. So, um anyway, uh just that's kind of it. I know it's a longer report than usual, but

um these reports will get longer and longer at the rate of the good things that are coming. So, anybody have any questions? Mr. Sites, question. Mayor, so you're saying 60 acres, but is still under Alfredo school district on the school taxes, correct? Okay, that's just I mean that's the way this area is. Um the good news is is the this the sales tax will come to the city of Keen. So, not to mention provide jobs for the people moving to Keane. So, that's my focus. All right. Thank you. All right. Agenda item number 4B, receive the end of fiscal year 2025 financial report.

Good evening, Mayor Council. I have two more additional um slides that didn't make it. I'm so sorry. That's just an additional two pages.

Thank you. Um, can I Okay. Well, we certainly have a lot to be thankful for. And so now we get to see what the Lord has done and richly blessed us with this past year. Um, okay, first slide. if you would follow me. You know, this thing never works on the TV. Okay, so if you look at the third column from the left, I don't know why I'm doing this because it doesn't really work anyway, but anyway, the third column from the left, that would be our current budget year. We're going to break this down. First of all, this is a revenue slide. The current budget year is um at the end of the year we were budgeted to be at $6,74,000 $74,130 and we ended the year with 6,129,5345 and that puts us um at 55,000 just a little bit over and so we are over budget by what we I guess what we budgeted for this year. So that's that's a good thing. We're over by 55,000. And if you compare it to the last year, which is the second column from the right at the bottom where it says 5,744,34527, we are over by $385,000. Good news. So after that, I think we want to look at um basically uh what drives the increase. If you look at the third column from the right, all the

negatives, good things. When you see things in parentheses, those are the good things that we're looking at. We're looking at. So, the main contributor um for our um being over budget is one is actually fire and rescue department. They are over by um almost 9% and they're over their budget by $64,000. So, thank you so much, Chief, and your team. Good job. And the second one will be the other one with a negative 215, which is actually good. So they went over their budget by 215%. And that's Mr. Don Martin and his team. Congratulations. That's that's a really good job. So they um in fact this year if you look at the second column from the left the line that says development services department you see they brought over half a million dollars all by themselves. So here good job Don good job. So I just want to say uh thank you. I want to acknowledge Don and his team for his um for his good work. And um I think by average you guys are like probably running about two weeks behind right Don kind of sort of. So we also want to say thank you for council for approving the extra person. So hopefully this will be like an additional um help for Don and we can see that number keep going up

and we also have instituted the uh software. They're going through training right now. So again focusing on the customer experience which is those people coming living in our city and elsewhere. So they have started the training to automate so where people can uh ask for permits and things online and those types of things to automate more. So that's also in the works.

Okay. So next slide. Um this is a complicated slide. No it's not. Okay. the top line on the dark line on the top that is just where our budget what we budgeted we're going to be as you know property tax is our main um line I mean main contributor uh in our general revenue um we were budgeted to bring at 3 point uh 3,228 uh,130 and at the end of the year we only collected $3,86,47059 9 cents. Um, Councilman Rob Foster actually did ask me earlier um, why you think that is and that's a huge concern and I'm thinking um, this is cash. This is what we reporting and I have not had time uh, hopefully during the uh, after the audit we will have this uh, done by a cruel basis. Right now it's just cash basis and I think it will it will go up. and and there's also uh those that owe back taxes. So that sometimes that number can fluctuate as well, which is something else that once the audit's done, we'll know,

right? Okay. And then the next one, and I'm just sharing, you know, just the obvious things. I just want you to see like where our main revenues are. Um share that with the uh with the citizens of Keen. Again, it's the same is the same type of um graph. The line on the top is where uh we budgeted. We've budgeted this number for three years you guys and this is the first year we actually achieved it. So great job. Um we are just over our budget. Uh the blue represents all the monthly uh sales tax that we get. Uh the the orange is the year-to-ate number and the red is yeah the annual budget. So we actually achieved our target uh this year. I mean our budget this year. This is something that I presented last time I was here. Uh the sales tax comparison. Uh the blue represents 2024. Uh the red represents 2025. Anything in between you see the increase. And if you see year onear we've actually grown by 12 and a half%. That's really good. And I hope with um the new what is it called? Metal plate. Metal plate. It's gonna go shoot up the roof. Amazing. All right. Okay. So, I put this, not that I don't have enough slides, but I thought it would just be fun. Um, since we can't really tell and share with everybody who are the the top um taxpayers, so I would just number them. Um, but I thought it would be I thought it was interesting that number four and number five are actually remote businesses. um the higher um the um yeah, so the taxpayers. And then the number eight and number nine, they're actually um businesses that actually already pay us franchise tax. So not only getting franchise tax from these businesses, but

also their sales tax. So that's great news. There you go. There's my first my first slide with a superhero. All right. Okay. So you see how um you see this is the building permit revenue um since 2020 and 2020 uh until 2025. I thought I wanted to see how big of a difference this actually really is for just a permit. And you can see that um there's a difference of 239,000 from what we got last year just for permit and this uh this year is $41,000. Um, this actually translates to 374 permits that we processed last fiscal year. And that's anything from electrical electric permit, plumbing permit, residential fence permit, which I think Mr. Martin still you do it yourself, right? You still do the inspection yourself, don't you, for the fence?

Some the fence. Okay.

Yes, sir. See, busy guy. plumbing permit, residential, oh I already said that and uh 43 new residential building pro permit irrigation three commercial and multif family building permits just to name a few. I actually have like all the details if you want to see it and and this is a time I think like I want to acknowledge the superheroes Amber Amaya and Don Martin. So just say thank you. Thank you for doing that. You're you guys are doing a great job and thank you again for council and mayor for approving the extra position for the development services. Now we go and do serious talk. Okay, this is the expense um slide. Um first of all, if you look at the fourth column from the right where it says I can't point to it, I'm sorry. It says 9946817. That tells you that we are over our budget by almost $100,000. I know you're all going to ask me, so I thought I'll just explain it one by one if you would. Um, where you see the parentheses, that's where we each department went over the budget. I'm going to go through it one by one. Uh basically uh the the main contributor or the drivers of the um increase of the expenses uh two departments the non-EP departmental expenses and that is the property liability insurance which is more than 140,000 I think even during budget I was asked this uh Mera why are you budgeting so much and it's because uh when you compare to budget uh the budget was only like $36,000 and where the actual was already 149,000. So that's why it looks bad when you compare it to budget, but

it's been steadily like that for 140 something uh,000 just for pro for our property liability insurance. That's you on your 999 line where it says non-EP departmental. And there was another 100 no sorry there was another 40,000 for the 380 agreement for 380 right for the canyon and this also includes the expenses that we absorb from the cyber attack which came up to like almost $70,000 and the other one the biggest the other big one is actually the development services department for every four 300 374 permits uh for every homes that is um that is uh that is processed there is between how many inspections do you need Don but um Amber says like between like 11 or 17 inspections and burning house

there you go and so the majority of the expenses under that line is actually third party inspection that's why it's increased but you did you did see the revenue go up so the revenue go up the expenses went as well. The administration the 110 the first line there um is over budget due to legal fees that we paid out this year. I mean last year uh it was a total of 126,000. The finance department um is over budget um on their professional services. This was driven by the accounting and the audit services that we paid out. It was more than what we budgeted was 63,000 and the CAD that we budgeted for 35 it turned out to be more than 40 something,000. The animal control uh line um it is over budget because uh we made the employee uh a full-time employee. Um then we talked about the development services and municipal court. Uh we went over budget due to an unbudgeted item. So, every time uh Larissa process a payment, there is a merchant fee that is both court and utilities combined is about $84,000 a year that has never been recorded. I have never seen it. And so, I don't know why, but since we are now actively reconciling our banks every every month, we know what the expenses are going out. So, we are actively now recording it. And this is what happens. It looks like we're not we didn't budget for it, but uh that makes up of $15,000 just for the merchants fee for the municipal court. And there's also misallocation of salary. Uh Lissa works the community uh center a lot and I think that just needs to be adjusted and that will be that will be done during the audit.

I have a quick question for you. Yes sir. Okay. On the line item you just talked about, um, does that mean that in the 26th year we didn't budget that as well? So, are we going to need to do a budget amendment for that item or are we going to go soak that in Sorry. I believe I remember to budget because I remember it was $84,000 that I'm like, "Oh, where is it?" So, I have budgeted in both uh departments, municipal Yeah. and then in water. Okay.

Water there. and and to kind of remind council um in the past it was kind of like oh well there's leftover money here so let's put it over there and and I don't I don't like doing things that way and so at the end of this year like I said we've been working to actually put things where the money's supposed to go and then the beauty is is next year when it comes budget season you're going to see things that are over and they're under but we know that those expenses are accurate. It wasn't we didn't just put it over here because there's money left in this budget over here. No, I I want it to I if we're if we're we're going over, I want to be able to look at it and go, "Okay, we need to adjust that, not spend all this time trying to figure out why this isn't lining up and all those things." So, mayor's been doing a great job of of making it to where it's an actual reporting tool.

Thank you. Can I ask a quick question? Yes. And you said that we're $100,000 over budget on the attorney fees. Um, it was uh well, I don't know if it's over. I I said 126,000 that's how much we paid for legal fees. We are definitely over and that's why we added more for this new budget. We did this. This is last year that we're This is last year's. Yes. I just want to make sure we accounted for that for Yes, we did for the new budget. Yes. Yes, sir.

Okay. And the next few slides is going to be the cash and investment report. Uh this is our pool cache uh reporting as of September 2025 um okay the balance of the pool cash um money market as of uh September 30 we ended at $2,55124 and the year-to- date uh interest that was earned was over 123,000 and the average interest rate for the year was 3.98. You see the the up and down the blue lines is how much at the the ending balance of every month and the line graph is the interest rate. We were at one point at 430 4.39 but we ended at 407 and the average is 3.98. The next slide is the reserve, the money market reserve. Um we are uh as of September 30 is at $2,50,0007669. Uh we accumulated 78,000 almost $79,000 in interest and again it has the same interest rate at 3.98. And then I gave you two extra slides. Um I didn't realize I had to do this. So So this is all the cash and investment report that ended at um September 30, 2025. We've had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We used to have nine accounts. Um ARPA the ARPA account was fully exhausted and closed as of April 2025. Um as you can see here. So what I did was this is just for the

month of September. The beginning balance reflects this beginning balance of uh the month of September. And then additions is how much money we have coming in. Withdrawals or the expenses that we send out we that we um that we pay out. Transfers are just transfers that we do between um accounts. Uh uh and then the interest earned and then the ending balance at the end. Uh transfer in pool um pool cash is the monthly movement of reimburseed expenses from EDCA and B. I'm just narrating it with the withdrawals is also uh including the reclassing of the field rental. We receive the money in pool cash and then we move it at the end of the month to the EDCA and B. And the other transfer that we do uh from uh pool cash is to top up our FSA account. Uh the fire engine and brush truck did have 240,000 and some cents at the end of September, but we did pay our fire no brush truck in full in October. So as of today, the um the fire truck uh the fire the fire engine and brush truck account is closed and it's already um um zeroed out. The FSA here is where we keep um where uh where employees would use their FSA card. So, this is where we pull our FSA payable. And uh the street rehab at the end of this uh at the end of September, we have $79,000. That's one foster. I think council Smith also asked me about that is 79. And I did check whether we uh paid any of the fair view out of our street fund and the answer is no. We funded everything through the CDBG grant and the matching fund will come out of general fund as per

was it the what council meeting I forget December 7, 2024. So it's coming out of our general fund and not the and last but I have a question. Sorry. Yes. I have a question. Absolutely. Yeah. Regarding the uh the street rehab 0761.

So I'm seeing here you said uh Councilman Troy Smith did ask a question about it. I'm seeing 79,000. Um if I can remember November 2023 we did transfer almost $78,000 to that account. And then November 20 24 after the budget season we were supposed to transfer $100,000 to that account and we are projecting also 2025 after the approval of this budget at the end of the fiscal year we were supposed to transfer another 100 which will bring it to almost 225 but I understand we are we did approve almost 50,000 or $55,000 to go towards uh fair view. So if we were transferring it the right way, the way that street fund policy was written, we should be having approximately $125,000 at this moment.

Okay. I will certainly look into that. I have no knowledge of what you just told me. Um I know that uh usually uh the transfers are done after the audit uh because you want to see the full your your balance sheet your final u financial statements. So usually the transfers are done after the auditors present to you like the final uh final financial statements. Um I have not seen that anywhere. Hold on a second. Okay. Let me

if I also remember right and this this was a conversation I'm remembering from Brent a year ago. It was as long as there was the money left over, that's when we transfer. And so I've kind of told Meera, we need to get the audits done before, you know, the here's the thing. There's money in the bank. We'll transfer it. But I'm going to feel more comfortable transferring it when audits are done. And right now, we're working on 24. And then we can transfer the money. And then 25's done, we can transfer the money again. So it's really just it's in there. It's just not in the right account right now. and just go and look at the way it was written. I did write that policy. There's a reason why.

Um, and I did notice in our previous budget, it was tagged as 100,000, but I suspected we did not transfer it. So it was written where if you approve some money to go towards regardless of the audit, if you approve the money to go and fund the water department, you say this 200,000, do you normally wait until the audit is over and then you start spending that money or you transfer that to that account?

I just told her, let's wait until the audit's done. But I mean, I'm not too worried about it. Um, you know, the the money's there, but I'll just feel more comfortable once another set of eyes have looked at it. So, I mean, we can transfer it now if that's what you want us want to tell us to do. But when are we expecting the audit to be done? Aren't they working on it now? Yeah, they're working on 24, you know, right now. And then now that 25's done, they're going to go right into 25 in January, February of next year. So, the goal is to have everything current by March. should have in the next month then year review. Yeah. Yeah.

Um I do hear um have the fund policy. Um Holly and I Holly helped me to look for this particular um item because I wasn't sure because I have no knowledge of what was done in the past and the instruction that was given to the former financial finance director because I don't have any of those things. And I we looked through the minutes as well, didn't we? And we didn't see that. So, um we'll look again and we'll be happy to we can do the transfer like you know, but I have not seen it. So, I apologize that didn't know.

Yeah, I was thinking that we put it in the budget. We weren't going off of like the policy with a percentage at the end. We were budgeting 100,000 to go into it from the revenue. That's what I I thought we did for fiscal year 24. Yes. Yes, ma'am. But it was supposed to be transferred to that account. Yeah. So you're saying just like any other accounts was supposed to be transferred after the budget approval. And for the last few years we have always been we had some supplers and I'm suspecting then we were negative if we had transferred that amount to that account. But we did

without the audit. You can't really speak to that. You can't really say that right now because that's why I want to see the audit. You know what I mean? because there's a chance, let's say there's 125,000. Well, that means 100,000 obviously is your street fund, but that means there's still a surplus of 25,000. So, what do we want to do with it kind of thing? So, so was there, pardon my question, was there a resolution then or was there an instruction given to staff to move the the money? If you read it, it's the staff is supposed to transfer once we approve the budget. I think it was a line item. Yes, there was a line item in the budget that said put 100,000 into the street fun.

It is certainly budgeted. Um mayor, um if I just may read it, this is the policy year end general fund surplus contribution at the at the close of each fiscal year if two criteria are met. The reallocation of surplus revenue will be allowed. Two criteria that have to be met are there is general fund surplus in most recent fiscal year closed. General fund fund balance reserves are at the appropriate level per city policy. So we're not closed yet. Yeah. In my opinion it's not closed until the audit is completed. That's correct.

That's the definition of a county closed. Yes. And I mean in in my in my ear five fiscal year close is only done after the audit. Yes. And I don't think we took $55,000 toward Fair View either. Well, I think we only spent the money that was in the grant on Fair View. We spent 196,800 and something. Yes. On Fairview, but we did approve to come from that account. No, if I remember right, it was fun. If we needed to, we would do that. But we didn't exceed the value of what we were spending on that. If I remember right,

that's not correct. Just go and look at those minutes. We did say we'll get and we had to split it because the way we approved it. We did say $55,000 was going to come from street rehab, sorry, uh, fund. Very specific. Go and look at the minutes. and sorry if we had transferred that amount and I was suspecting that I saw it on the budget but I knew it was not transferred um and that's why I've been tracking those numbers.

Um so um Councilman Goodwa after you asked me about the 100,000 um I did speak with um Mr. Charles Williams and I asked him, hey, you know, like this was asked of me and I don't know what the I don't know what the answer is and he said he kind of said the same thing. You have to look at the at the end of the year at the close of the fiscal year and only council can tell us I mean tell me or staff to move the money and to his knowledge and my knowledge because all I all I can go is by what someone else tells me. Um there was not there was not instruction to move the money yet. That's why I have not moved it. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you for that explanation. Yes. And just for clarification, so there was no extra money spent other than the grant money on Fair View Street. That's correct. Thank you. I have a question. Thomas, can you you said you did some research. Do you know when those meeting dates are so that way they can look it up? Did you you said you went back to look at when those meetings? Is that in your notes? Which meetings? Well, we're just talking about the streets, sir. You just said that you researched when those meetings happened and when those things were discussed. Do you remember the dates of those meetings of that was discussed? So that may maybe staff can go back and look at those things.

Well, it's in the minutes. They can look when we did. You said you did the research. So I'm asking you, do you have that information with you at the moment? Yes, it's in the archive. The employees can look. Yeah, it was a public meeting. It wasn't executive. You can go and look when we had that meeting. I will say this morning we researched um at least back through 23. 23. We went back to 23. There's nothing in the minutes saying take money from the street fund. It only mentions the general fund. Yes. And it also if you have dates, we would appreciate that. Yes. It would really help us. We cannot find anything

that that states taking 50,000 from the street fund. We can't we we can't find it.

We only found three things and um it shows on uh that the street rehab fund was established on 127 2023. And the other one that uh um that pertains to Fair View that the grant was applied uh the application was sent in April 18, 2023 and there was some discussion um on March 7, 2024 of how much the grant is and how much the match the grant is total of 500 and the match is 50,000. That's all we have written all from our research this morning, sir.

Yeah. Okay. to help you out. Councilman Ro Foser was sitting right there. He proposed to pass to to get the 55,000 from street fund. He did ask the city manager how much money we have and I was the preciding officer. So, and I've had two meetings as a preciding officer. So, go and look at those minutes. 5,000. Thank you. We can look again. Okay, the next. May I go? Go ahead. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Um, this is the debt and loans obligations. Um, in total, wait. In total, we paid $700,481.18. This is $31,0082 less than what we paid last year since we no longer have the pothole filler bank loan. This is just um I think we supposed to report this. So that's the report for the debt and loan obligations. Um the next slide, this is the water sewer. Okay, this is not going to be a fun slide. All right. Okay. Um let's look from the fourth to the fourth to the from the right. budget balance remaining. If you see where it says revenue totals, we are short of our revenue by 455,000 almost 5 $456,000. And that's 10 almost yeah 10% short of our revenue. Our expenses, we're doing good. Uh we're still under our budget. So now I have to talk about why the revenue is almost $500,000 $500,000 short. Um we found that um during Oh, here it is. It's actually in the narrative. Um the shortfall of revenue for water um water sewer is due to the 431 water meters that had dead batteries. I found this out when I first came in I guess 1 April. I started uh three um March 31st and I started noticing when we started doing the financial statements that unfortunately the revenue for water sewer just kept steadily going down. So I went and asked um Alyssa and like

tracked everything and it turns out that we had 431 water meters that had dead batteries. Apparently some somewhere along the line the radio was down and uh the water sorry the water meter batteries usually would look for the um for the tower the radio tower twice a day but since the tower was down it was looking for the battery a few times a day. So like the the batteries just died over time. And at that time in back in March there were 431 water meters that were dead. So um that make us lose uh revenue for our water distribution department. That's your 205 as well as your sewer as you can see. Uh but the good news is um we fixed it. We fixed it. Uh we got and that's the that's the next slide. Uh we found it in March and we worked together and uh with uh Derek and his team uh with Dylan I just want to say thank you to Dylan and Alyssa. Dylan himself put replace 111 water meters single-handedly in one month and what it was before each month we would be getting at 100 116 115,000 just for water. Now it's gone back up. October we collected 145,000 and this November we collected 150. So you can already see so it's now

just to kind of speak to that when it became apparent to us something was going on and we started researching it was this fear of well we can't spend any money you know and this is a perfect example sometimes you have to spend money to make money and so um it didn't make sense to us because water is going down and yet we're in the middle of a growing city. It didn't make sense at all. Yes.

And so once we gave permission to the enterprise to say, "Listen, you got to replace this." So what was happening was is all these bills were being um basically filled on an average and and there's been several instances where um you know, citizens have been very fortunate, you know, and and I'm I'm glad they got to be fortunate, but I'm I'm more thankful that we're actually addressing the you know, the issue and actually figuring it out. So, you know, yeah, big thank you to public works. What are we going to do in the future to stop that from happening?

Oh, that's a good question. Well, first of all, not not let the radio be down for two months and and then find out. Um, and again, I think it's the biggest thing is is releasing the fear to run run your department, you know. Um, I think there there's been a very much a culture of we can't spend money, we can't spend money, and this is a perfect example of it was hurting our city. Uh, well, hurting our finances and our our, you know, um, our enterprise. So, but I think there was I'm sorry. Is is it normal for water bills to be on an average billing cycle? And how long do we allow that? I don't know. I know it was going on for a while before, you know, I got here.

And so, and and the other thing was is I'll be real honest.

We knew the TWWDBA grant was coming. And this is a perfect example of what you this is what this is a perfect water leakage leakage example. So rather than just pull money from, you know, general fund, knowing that there's this big amount of money coming to address this very issue, we did go a little bit slower with it because we wanted to utilize those funds so that we could kind of replace them all at one time. And also for a while there, Derek was having a hard time getting them because, as you know, there was a time when all everything was on ship containers on ships and harbors. And so that was another thing. he he wasn't able to order as many as we would have liked once we said, "Okay, let's go fix the problem." So, you've got a lot of little factors that kind of contributed to this. I don't see this being another issue in the future.

I think also, if I may, um I think like that was one of the things that I was tasked to do. I remember when um I first got this job, um Jonathan would say, our city manager would say, "M, I need my I need eyes. I don't know what's going on." And now we are actually monthly are sending our directors financial statements. They see how much their revenues are. They see how much expenses they incur that month. So I think it is more a proactive uh um I guess way of looking at it now because I think for months and I don't know for how many months um that we did not have financial statements even for the directors. Correct.

Yeah. So I think now they can monitor on a monthly basis. So I have a question. Yes sir. Uh city manager, you did bring up um is it the TBGA grant account? So have we opened that account uh through Pinnacle? Um yeah it's um it's the one I go back it's the last one. Um so to my understanding see it has like five

minus five at the end. So there is no money in it. Uh so how the grant works is that it will just be a holding place where we can pay our vendors. It's just going to always be a wash through. And in beginning that $5 was a statement paper statement fee. And I believe um our city manager worked with the bank so they have waved the fee for that. But that account will just be a zero account because we hold it in an escrow and whatever vendors we need to pay directly like from us that's where the escrow will transfer the money for for tracking purposes. For tracking purposes

and Pinnacle is very nice to wave it was actually even more than that and but because I'm not on the account they they were nice enough just to because of the relationship say okay we'll wave that we're really sorry. Um, and so that's gone. That's not there anymore, but it does show up on the books in September. So, I actually I think there's only um Councilman Goodwa and um mayor who are like in the bank. Um, right. I think so.

We are not area. I don't have access to this bank account by the way. I still don't have access, but we're going to work on it. And once we go to the business premium account for Pinnacle, then I will be able to see it on a monthly basis. Right now, when I go to my Pinnacle bank um banking, online banking, I don't see the W uh TWWDB. The only reason we found out about it was because they sent us a paper statement. Yes. So, which we're not used to looking at paper statements anymore. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Mara. Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Moving on. Agenda item number five. There are no public hearings tonight. Agenda item number six, consent agenda. Council, do you have any items that you would like to remove from consent agenda for discussion? Okay. Mayor, I'd like to remove item A. Okay, we're moving 6A. Anybody else? All right, then I need a motion to approve consent B, C, and D. Okay. I I move that the council approve the consent agenda as presented. That's item B, C, and D. Do I have a second? Second.

All right. We have a motion to approve consent agenda items B, C, and D by Gupa, second by Foster. All in favor, raise your hand. Unanimous. Motion is carried. Checkley, were you voting? I didn't see your hand. I've got Okay. All right. All right, we removed item 6A for further discussion. Consider approval of the corrected minutes of the Keen City Council special meeting held on September 25, 2025. Okay, mayor. I was just reading through it. Um, just some minor correction probably. Let me see there are some highlighted I think the changes that were made.

Yeah. Um, I'm seeing the last change with the red. I'm seeing the mayor and councilman uh member Guta did not return to the meeting. Um, even though I have a problem with that, the way it's word and I know Councilman Troy Smith requested for it, but I don't know the intent of saying I did not return to the meeting even though it was a legal uh it was a the recess was done proper. It wasn't it wasn't something that was done illegal. Um, so I don't know about that with the city attorney. Maybe can

I agree. I um I believe that to be a false statement. I would like that removed from the minutes as well. It states that the mayor and the council member Gutwood did not return to the meeting. According to even the city attorney's records, I called a recess. I stepped out as I've reported to go to the restroom. I did return to the meeting to find that all the council members were leaving. So I did not leave the building. So by this statement being in there, it implies that I left the meeting as if I went home and I did not. I was in the room in a minute. And just to correct that, you were not here when the meeting was adjourned. So how could you possibly say that you are here during the meeting?

Because I called a recess and so I was coming back to reconvene the meeting after the recess and I came in apparently right after it was the meeting was over. You guys had ended the meeting without me. But here's the thing is that the council ended the recess. We voted unanimously to end the recess. Rescended. Okay. This statement though implies that we literally walked out and didn't come back. That's not correct. That's exactly what happened. We both came back and even Mr. Chapman has stated on social media that we came back into the meeting because he saw us in the back room.

I came back. I picked up some documents. I handed them to Miss Russell. She's gonna have to testify that I did hand her meeting papers and I didn't sign them because I wasn't present when y'all took the tax vote. You just answered your own question. You weren't present. So I wasn't present when you all were doing that, but I was still present for the meeting. I'm the presiding officer. I was coming back to reconvene the meeting. I came back. You're not the presiding officer. So the way you're writing You were not the presiding officer. I was the presiding officer for meeting. Look,

during a recess I left during a recess. But here's the thing, mayor, is that you are only a presiding officer when you're in the room. You left the room. Council, four of us. A quorum voted to end the recess after we ma after we asked you to continue the meeting. Ask Gwat to continue the meeting. That's right. A quorum asked the mayor and mayor prom to continue the meeting. Y'all both left the room in defiance of the council. You understand? I came back after 10 minutes after we during a recess. Yes. I came back to reconvene the meeting as the presiding officer. I was present. You left the council.

I left the chamber and went to the restroom. That's not true. I went to the executive uh room and you were in there. I was there within one minute. You were after after y'all had done what you did out here while I was at the recess. Yes. You saw me after I went to the restroom. I went to executive session and that's where I found mayor pro Tim Gutwa and he said mayor are you ready to reconvene the meeting and I said yes and that's when you walked in. We were having that conversation. I don't think your timeline jives.

So we have never in previous meetings recorded when somebody's left and didn't come back. I know Mr. Foster has left meetings and we don't record that he left the meeting and didn't come back. We just record the time. That's because I came back. She's already recorded the time that I left. She's already said that I recessed the meeting at 6:19. And she's already said that I left the deis at 6:20. We don't need to go on and put another statement to say that I did not return because I did return. I returned at 6:29 p.m. Well, here's the thing, though. So, if you take the mayor and council member Gutwa did not return to the meeting. If you leave that out, then why am I presiding over the meeting? I really don't know. I'd like to know that, too.

Yeah, because the bylaws say that if you're not here and the pro Tim's not here, then the person with the That's if I give up my authority, which I did not. I did not give up my authority to get an attorney sitting right there beside you. Let's ask him if this if you have any authority when you're not in the room. Yeah. And let's remind the public that the city attorney is paid for by the city council, which you're a member of. you want to weigh in on this?

Sure. I think I think the issue respectfully is is whether the minutes are correct or whether they need to be changed by a motion and adopted. Not not actually the legalities of the meeting or the mayor's authority or anybody else's authority. That's really the agenda item that we're on. Okay. that I make a motion to approve uh consent item 6A.

Second. Uh we have a motion to approve 6A as presented by Foster and a second by Smith. All in favor raise your hand. Those opposed motion is carried. All right. All right. Agenda item number seven, general business. Item A, review, discuss, and take action on a resolution for casting votes on the ballot for the 2026 2029 election of board of directors of the Central Appraisal District of Johnson County. Let me get to that paper. Okay. So, we have done this the last two or three years now. Um, the city of Keen has a total of 16 votes. We had already previously nominated two people, Peter Spinson and Jason Marbette. Um, these votes are now we're now ready to allocate our votes which is going to go toward a total number of votes that each position each person has to have in order to serve on the CAD board. So, we may cast these votes for any one single candidate or we can divide them amongst two candidates. And I believe Peter Stinson is here and he would like to go ahead and speak to us about that.

Thank you, mayor and city council. I appreciate standing before you. First of all, thank you for your nomination previously. I appreciate it. Everyone in life has accountability. We're not always appreciated. It's a tough go sometimes, but my heart has been dedicated as a Christian man to do and represent you in Johnson County. Since I've been on the board, we reduced the budget by a half million dollars. We have to help your citizens. We've frozen the property values for three years to relieve the burden because you all know that the property taxes have been so high. And now, and I don't know if it's happened to you, but my insurance doubled on my home. And I went from a 1% deductible to a 3%. So, you might want to check your policies because it's not friendly to homeowners right now. And as you know, interest rates are still pretty high. So, I'm doing everything I can to help the average person. I'm not an average person. None of you in here are average people. You're leaders. You probably have good jobs, but you've got a lot of people in this community that you serve. You're here to serve them, not yourself. And I'm not here to serve myself. I'm here to help the people of the citizens of Johnson County. We have also done an audit which will have all the information on it come January. We have appointed a new chief appraiser. His name is Mitch Fast. He started on December 1 and I think he's a fabulous candidate. Uh Chris Saunders who's one of the board members is here with me tonight and I want to tell you you will be happy with who we selected. So we've gone from 40 years of another appraisal to finding a new appraisal. We've lowered the budget. We're helping your citizens with keeping the values the same. And I know that you're aware of

someone like myself. We received a 200,000 deductible for people that are over 65. So that'll apply to their home. So whatever you mortgaged it at, you can it'll be a deduction. So you need to budget that in city council uh to your budget because I don't know what percentage of people over 65 you have in Keen, but it will affect you because 200,000 is is quite a hit. And the other thing I'd like to say is we have totally blown up the ARB. I've gone to the ARB. I don't know if any of you have been, but it hasn't been satisfactory to me as a Christian man. When I have people call me and say they were rude to me, they didn't really listen to me. That hurts me as a person because I'm standing before you and I hope that I get respect. do you treat me nicely? And there's other people that stand up here. People have concerns and fears. And when they walk into the tax office, it's a matter of, will I have to sell my home and rent? Will I lose my home? Will it be foreclosed? Will I be I walked into the basement of the city hall in Cleburn? And for November and December, I saw 50 properties under foreclosure. That's sad. That breaks my heart. I'll be honest because these are people that are hardworking people. I worked hard my whole life. When I came to Clebrron, Texas, I'd lost my job. My wife had lupus. I had a two and a half yearear-old son and I had to live with my father and mother-in-law. That's humbling. But they were wonderful people. For four months, I worked two jobs and I worked and continue to see be successful because I don't give up. An interesting thing I love Keen. I used to

come over, you know, Jerry and Linda Becker, wonderful people. They used to invite me, Linda, over to her class to talk because I spent 42 years in the music business. And there was one young lady that I became very good friends with. I'm not going to name her, but I got to take her to Billy Bob's one night and meet the Osman's. I'm telling you my age, but that was like the the the thing, you know, like if I took you to see who right now, Laney Wilson possibly. But then also, I love Anna and Greg Patterson. We my wife and I came to her inauguration or I don't know the correct word to call it, but they're wonderful people. when I started Christmas in Action and I want to suggest to you mayor and councel this family that lost their home reach out to Christmas in action because I'm no longer involved Mr. Saunders has been involved, but I gave it quite a few years of my life as president. I started it from the ground, raised money and worked at it. And if you know what Christmas in action is, it helps the homeless, the low-income veterans, and people that need the help. And let me tell you, Keen has helped us over the years, the Patterson family, David Patterson, and so many of them. And I'm real proud that Anna Patterson, she used to have a entrepreneur class on the third floor of that building there. And for six years, I came and talked to those students because I'm the groundup success story and I lived my dream. I loved what I did and I helped people fulfill their dreams. But I was voted every year, do you want this guy back? And I'm proud to say for six years I was invited back until she became president. But let me tell you when I talk to these students the number one key point of success is having faith in Jesus Christ and using his principles and all the things you

do. So I would appreciate your vote. Uh Jason Abbott does not need any more votes. He has enough. But again, thank you for the nomination and if you'd like to give me the votes, I would certainly appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Peter. So, council, everybody gets a certain number of votes and then they get on the board. So, Jason doesn't need any more votes. I recommend that we just give all 16 of our votes to Peter Spencson. Before we uh I was able to watch a council meeting from the city of Burgles. I don't even know how I came across it, but it was all about uh Peter asking for the nominations there and of course some of the other gentlemen. And they had some very unsaavory things to say about you that night if I remember. And uh and you are the presiding officer currently for that for that board.

Yes, sir. I was nominated on it and within a month I was made chairman because nobody else wanted to be. And let me tell you something. I if you watched it, how did I handle myself? I said to the lady, you're right. I accept your criticism and I'm going to do better. And if you want to go look at the last four meetings I've conducted, they're better, better, and better. Now, one of the gentlemen on there, you know why he got all over me? Because his wife was best friends with the TLO that we had to let go because she kept lying to us and didn't do what we asked her to do. Now, if you have employees that work for this city that are lying to you and not doing their job like you've asked them to do, in fact, one of the letters of criticism toward the TLO came from a citizen here, David Sinclair. Well, she didn't return his calls. She didn't take time to visit with him and hear what his problem was. So, we had a problem with that. Yep. If I got to take the heat on that, I'll take it. But I'll tell you what, I talked to that gentleman and I said, "I appreciate what you said and things will get better." But the night at that meeting, let me explain to you what happened. Ginger Allen got reprimmended by her own ARB board that had not trained them properly. Now, is that my fault? No. And then the next thing that happened, people didn't like the audit company that we had hired and some unkind things and people were saying things. Yeah. And if that makes me a bad leader, I'm sorry, but if you go back and look at the rest, and you know what's interesting, the same gentleman that critiqued me in Berles has called a gentleman Craig Hundley three times and said, "Peter's doing a great job." So, I appreciate you bringing it up and giving me a chance to say something about it

and and I So, I'll just I'll if I can speak freely for a minute. So, I brought it up because I wanted to at least bring light to the fact that some of the other cities weren't as favorable, right? But, but I know the God I serve is a God of second chances every day of my life. And so with that, I just want you to know that if we do give you if you if we do give you these votes, it's it's a chance for you to redeem yourself, right? And absolutely. And I know I remember that you said you're correct and I want to try to correct the wrongs, right? I do remember you you saying that. And so did I raise my voice or sounded different? No.

Nope. Nope. And I'm not and I didn't mention that and I'm not saying that. um they just said some unsavory things about you and I just wanted to at least I wanted to have a one-on-one with you so that way you understood that I'm at least trying to do some homework. I may not have been diligent to go to those meetings and I I would like to just so I can see the process a little bit more. Um but

but I I am a guy who does give second chances but but I do want to on the same token, you know, it's kind of like you're on notice, right? like I and I don't mean that in a threatening way at all, but but I'm going to be watching and and I'm going to be paying more attention because, you know, I know we've we've heard about this other gentleman uh uh Jason Marba and I've heard good things about him, right? And so when you hear something unsavory, it's like, hold on, break pedals. Sure.

Right. But you did you did respond in a kind manner and I appreciate that. So I just wanted to at least acknowledge that part of of that for you. So, I thank you for that, Mr. Smith, and I welcome you. Uh, next week on Thursday the 11th, you're welcome to come to our meeting at the Civic Center at 11. We'd welcome you or any one of you that would like to come. And like I said, I was new. I'm learning. I asked questions of the attorney. I asked questions of our new chief appraiser. And we were blessed to have a a chief appraiser named Jeff Law come in and help us through this transition period. Because you got to remember something. when you had one appraiser for 40 years, these people were not trained. There was so much I mean, I I can't even imagine what the report is going to be like, but we're going to try to make it, like I said, I reported to you about things that we've done to make it better. Now, you'll know our new TLLLO. Have you ever heard the name Amy Lingo? That's who we picked as our new TLO. And I think she's outstanding. Will do a marvelous job. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you,

Peter.

Do we know anything about this other gentleman, Hern? I don't know anything about him. Oh, the other guy. Do we have a recommendation or any kind of he he does not have enough votes, but the way it'll run is that Mr. Marbett will be on. I'm getting enough votes, probably close to it, to get reelected and uh will have a vacancy filled that uh we'll be able to nominate him as a board to put him on. Okay.

We had to remove a certain lady off of our board and I worked very hard because a lot of people gave us black and that lady that was put on the board, I was not present. I was medication when they voted her on, so I had nothing to do with it. But you know what? There's a mess on aisle six. I cleaned it up.

You want to make a motion? com. I'll make a motion that we give uh 16 votes to uh Peter Vincson. Second. We have a motion on the floor for council to cast 16 votes for Peter Spinson on the board of directors 2026-2029 election ballot for the central appraisal district of Johnson County by Foster, second by Easley. Any further discussion on this motion? All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous. Motion is carried. Thank you, Peter. Thank you.

All right. Agenda item number 7B. Review, discuss, and consider the applications of Stephanie Flannry and Carter Schwarz for possible appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission to fill two vacancies for terms expiring March 15, 2026.

Yes. Good evening, council. Um, we have two applications before you. I've already done the check. they meet all of the requirements. They don't owe the city money or anything like that. So, uh, PNZ has already reviewed their applications and recommended them for two vacancies um that are ending soon. There is actually three vacancies on PNZ. Um, and we're still we've received a few more applications for that as well. But at this time, both um Mrs. uh Flannry and Mr. Schwarz are both here if you have questions for them. Um Mr. Shore's resume was handed to you this evening. It was not in the packet. So if you would like to know a little bit little bit more about him as well. Um he has a financial background whereas Mrs. Flenry has been working in the permits office I believe for the city of Cleburn. So if if both of you would like to step forward um to take any questions.

Okay. Hold on. Would you like to come up? No. Let's let the Phillip Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, as chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, I just wanted to let you know that we reviewed both applications as presented to us. Neither individual was present, however, but we did um based on the strength of their uh resume or applications, we did recommend that they uh approve them to be considered, okay,

for the board. um we knew if we waited um you know another month uh to have them actually you know possibly show up at a Yeah. You've only got three on the board right now, right? So that's what you have to have for a quorum. Right. So you definitely have to get some members on there right away. We would have we met on the 21st. We met on the 21st. We don't want to impede business. Yeah. Could didn't couldn't get a quorum for the second Monday of the month. Oh, and we knew that if we waited until the 10th or the 8th of December to talk to them, it might be January, maybe now even February.

Yeah. Before y'all have a chance to consider their applications and then it's only for through through March of 2026. So, while we didn't interview either of them personally, we did uh consider the strength of their applications. I want to thank them both for being here. Thank you guys for being here and your willingness to serve. We appreciate you coming and standing because we kind of went long here in the beginning of our meeting, so you had to wait a while to speak. So, council, do you have any questions for these two applicants or are you ready to just make a motion?

I have one I have two questions. So, and either one of you guys can take the mic. Um, one, I just want to ask you guys what what brought you to want to serve on the board? Well, for me, I had it was one of those flute things. I was scrolling through Facebook. I saw that y'all were looking for people and I have been very curious already within my department within Cleburn and everything. And I currently live in Keen and I've used to live in Keen back in my teens and early 20s and I love it. So, I figured what better than to be a part of the community and, you know, just be more involved.

Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, I do apologize. I'm losing my voice, so there's something going around. I don't know what it is. Um, so I grew up in Berles, Texas. Um, I'm a new resident to Keen, but I've been in the area like my whole life. Um, if you've ever driven through Berles, it takes like 30 minutes to drive through it. It's terrible. And, you know, honestly, I boil it down to just poor city planning.

Um, when I saw there was the vacancies, I uh I felt compelled to apply because it was something that affected me personally and is the reason I moved out of Burles. So, I figured if there was a difference I could make in this city as freshly moving here and actually this is my first year being a father. I just had a newborn. Congratulations. Um, this this was the opportunity that I wanted to take. Thank you. Thank you.

Last question I have for both of you guys and do you think that the planning and zoning board is a circus? No.

Um, I don't honestly I don't know a whole lot about y'all's planning and zoning. I look forward to learning about it, but I don't think any thing is an actual circus. I I mean, I know everyone's going to have a disagreement here and there and stuff like that, but it's nothing that no one could ever work through and figure it out. All right. Thank you guys. All right, Troy, you want to make a motion? Yeah, I'll make a motion that uh that we approve the two appointments, uh, Mrs. Flannry and Mr. Schwarz. I second and say thank you for serving. Yes. Thank you.

Uh, we have a M motion on the floor to appoint Stephanie Flannry and Carter Schwarz to the Planning and Zoning Commission to fill the two vacancies for terms ending March 15, 2026 by Smith and a second by Easley. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous. Motion is carried. Thank you guys. Congratulations. Thank you.

Okay. Next item, agenda item number 7 C. Receive information on an option for adding street lighting to Lewis Lane and Lynen Street, North Hill Terrace Subdivision, Oakhill Drive, and Honeysuckle Drive and Valverie Circle and give direction to staff. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, this is something that Mr. Gutro had been asking about and so I did a a little bit of digging into I wasn't able to get to all of the areas. Is there no Oh, okay then. I thought we had slides. Um, so basically, you know, Mr. Guttow had gone over and he had talked about, you know, residents wanted uh street lights over in the North Hill Terrace Estates and then a couple of other areas as well. So, my question was why why do they want street lights? Um, it's a beautiful neighborhood, twoacre lots, it's quiet, it's peaceful, you can see the stars at night. So, I did a little research, went on Google, and this is what they came up with. Street lights are important because they improve safety uh to drivers, pedestrians by increasing visibility and reducing accidents. They also enhance public security by deterring crime and making people more feel more comfortable walking or driving at night. Well, there's no sidewalks over there, so it's kind of difficult to walk at night unless you're walking the street. Additionally, street life support community life by enabling outdoor activities and commercial activities. Yeah, I think I have that as well, but

yes, but thank you. I just thought we had it on the slides. Um, so anyways, there was that. And then if you go back in a little bit of history as far as North Hill Terrace Estates, this was brought up in 2017, 2018, 2019. And I found some emails, and we did add some street lightss over in that area. Um, you should have a little map like this in your Those are the ones that we proposed, I believe originally to have street lights in all those areas or those are actually the ones that we got put up. The problem over there was when we went door todo, myself and some of our city staff and Phil Silva from United Co-op, that's who service that areas. Um, some of the people didn't want them in their yards. They liked it like that. Um, the other issue was most of the power poles run behind the homes. They don't run along the street. So they would have to whenever they wanted a light they had to add an extra pole, add extra wire. It had to be within a 100 feet of a transformer. Otherwise, they had to add another transformer. And they usually I can't remember what it was. It was like 1,500 per light they would give you credit back for. So if they had to put a pole and a light and 100 feet of wire, that usually covered it. And then all we had was the $11 a month expense. Well, again, people didn't want them in their yards. Some of the people um didn't want they said, "Okay, you can put a pole in my yard, but I don't want the wire overhead." So, then you're adding a $6,500 to $10,000 cost per light. So, at the time, council in 2018, I believe, or 2019, agreed to just put those five or six lights in, which are

there now, but again, they sit so far back Because there is no curb and gutter and sidewalk, the bar ditches, they don't really light up the streets. Plus, those type of lights, the poles are ugly and they they shine out more than they do down like newer lights, the newer LED type lights. So, that's why there's a lot of issues. And I know the the big one is coming down 3048 and then turning on to like Dorothy Drive or North Hill Terrace or even County Road 805B according to that map. But Texot has such a large rideway. They don't want poles right on the street because you got a 60 foot bar ditch there. That's where the power poles are and that's where the lights are. So it doesn't really light up the intersection at all. So, I reached out to a company, don't ask me how to pronounce it, it's FRO, I believe, um, which does solar. That should be in your packet as well. So, just some of the like a financial impact there. says, "In some instances, our electrical providers can put all the necessary hardware and lighting up at no cost to the city, and we just have an $11 a month per street light that we have to pay, which comes out to $132 a year. Um, if you take that, say, times 9 years, that comes out to about $1,100 of an expense per light." Well, with going with the solar option, yes, it's expensive to put in, but we have no electricity bill for 8 to 12 years, depending on the battery life. And then after that 12 years, the battery may go bad depending on how strong the solar is. It's $800. So, just something to think about.

So, Yeah. And you don't have to worry about trees falling on the power lines. You don't have to worry about power lines falling down on top of people and electrocuting them during instances or storms. You don't have to worry about the power not going out because somebody ran into a power pole. So, you ask for options. That's kind of what I'm giving you here. There are some over there in Gardenale. I did go look at um you had one of them Let's see. Lewis Lane. There's several power poles over there, but it's it's in an area where there aren't any transformers close by. There's already power lines going in both directions. Some of it is Encore. Some of it is United Co-op. They're on opposite sides of the street. Um there is a light down at the end of the street. I don't I don't really understand why there needs to be a light right there at Lewis Lane and Lynon Lane. There's a stop sign there. I don't I don't understand why there needs to be a street light there. So, the same thing with Valverie Circle. If you look at the map, I think I included one of those maps that shows where all of our current lights are. I think it's in there. Sorry, there's a lot of paperwork here. Did we get that one in there? Give me that one.

It's in mine. Keep going. Keep going. Probably one of the last pages, right? Close. Probably in my other pile. Ah, here we go.

Yeah. See the issue of the one on Honeysuckle and Oakill is those those two lights that are the yellow ones. Those are actual street lights. The blue ones are guard lights. Again, the power poles run behind those homes. So, it's almost 200 feet from either one of those to get power. So, that would be expensive to do it that way. So, again, I'm just giving you options and kind of what's it? It's like a street light, but it's in their yard. They put it in their driveway and they pay the $8 a month or whatever it is.

So, it's like a street light, a little bit smaller, but it's So, it's for the customer themselves. They wanted it in their driveway. Oh, so these these customers that are wanting street lights that Mr. Goodwill talks about, they could request them directly. They could. Yes. And asked for a guard light to be put in their yard. I I talked to a few residents myself and they gave me the same answer you got. They don't want them, right?

But it was only one or two. Maybe Mr. Good will talk to more. But maybe they can request them themselves and save the taxpayers money. And then you know just before we get into that uh you know again these these solar lights are more what they call they protect the night sky whereas some of the ones like United Co-op they put in it shines the light out a lot with the university having the observatory here um that ruins their night sky for looking at stars. Also, there's I don't remember the the the law that that was passed recently or in the last few years that every year we have to show that we decrease our energy consumption overall for a city by 5% every year. It's by going solar or modern technology, LED lights, things like that. So, again, just something to think about. And I don't know if you've driven over by like the canyons down Fourth Street and Eastern, there are so many power poles over there and there's so many overhead lights and you always see uh these contractors that have to come twice a year, trim all the trees to keep them out of the power lines. They leave them in the yards. They make a mess. They they're just they're dangerous and it's ugly. If you go through the new subdivisions, everything's underground. It's awesome. you don't have all that overhead stuff. Um, solar is is a good answer to that. And solar technology has changed over the years. It's gotten better. It's not great, but individual lights are are actually pretty good. This company came out and they actually did a whole project. They went through there and if you look through your packet, it shows you where they they put the lights. It kind of gave you an idea of what it looks like from at night. So you don't

have that, you know, glowing glare that you can see from outer space. So those are some pluses. They're they are expensive, like $15,000 per light to put up. We don't need to look like DFW. What's that? We don't need to look like DFW. No. From 30,000 ft.

We don't. Yes. And and again, especially in that North Hill Terrace Division, those are all two and a halfacre lot lights. people bought those lots because they like the country feel, but they're close to the city. So, again, just my thoughts. So, I don't know if I got off track or it's kind of rambles on. So, but Valverie Circle was the other one, the other map over there. Again, there's there's no reason. You can see that there's already several street lights in that area. And to put another one, you just said Valbertie Circle. Well, there's a north and there's a south and there's a west. I wasn't sure what Valverie Circle you were talking about, but I drove over there and the only one that didn't have a light was South Valverie Circle, but if you can see, there's one 50t away right there on Third Street. And there's another one 50 feet away to the other side. And then there's one about 50 feet away. You want another light there.

Yes, sir. I'm asking you on that one. The mayor as requested for that specific section. Yeah. I had people that told me that they walked around Valverie Circle and that dogs were coming out. They couldn't see the dogs and that's what they wanted the lights for was safety to make sure there was no dead areas where they they couldn't see where they were walking and see what hazards might be in their path. Part of it is as you can see there's one two three four five six I don't know where they were needed. I just know there's a lot of old older trees. They told me it was that area blocking some of that light and that's that's the issue. So, okay. How much did you say they are per light? solar.

Um, it's in the I believe there's a quote in there. I think again in all this paperwork I there are a lot of different numbers. Trying to find the right one. I think it's this one here. There was one that I think he sent me. I know I got a lot for the park, too. So, hopefully I didn't get them all messed up. It looks like around $3,600 per 3500 to 4,000.

131,000 total bid. Yeah. And that's for all the lights. So per per unit 3500 to 4,000 which is still cheaper than the 10 grand just to bury the line. So

21 lights we did just so you know we did Don did present this to the type B as well um you know as an as an option. And we would like to light the park eventually so that people that walk, especially when it gets winter, it gets dark early. We would eventually like to do small light um little light towers, not the big overhead necessarily, maybe a couple in the parking lot, but eventually like to get it to where that walking path is lit up at night. So, so it's an option. I mean, you know, for discussion, you want to look into it further. I mean, with a price like this, um, for that many lights, you know, do we want them? And again, some of the people don't want them in their yards. So,

well, couldn't the citizens contact this company themselves? They wanted a guard light if they wanted a guard light, yes, in their driveway. But to put it like on the intersection where it actually shows the intersection, you know, then it's in the rightway and it that's problematic if we're 60 feet from the intersection. You know, I mean,

it it does make it tough on those those those roads that eventually are probably going to be a four-lane road, you know, might be 10 years down the road, but it will be at some time. So, if you're saying the the lighting that comes from the uh power company, the $8 or $11, whatever that whatever that number was, um essentially like let's say somebody says, "Oh, I want one in my yard in in the in the place across the street over here." And then but the neighbor says, "Oh, I now I got to look at some eyesore every night." So, I mean, do we need to revisit a consensus with those people and say, "Hey, you know, who wants one, who don't?" I mean, when did you guys do this study? You're saying that was back in 2018 that you

2019 is when we kind of made the final decision. We worked on it for a while and part of it was going doortodoor and making sure that people were okay with it. One guy was like, "Sure, but I don't want overhead, you know, or I want a pretty metal pole. I don't want that ugly wooden pole. Right. So,

okay. Council, um, and thank you for looking into that. Uh, I know councilman easily has said that you have talked to a few people, which is good. And I know it's not the first time I brought this before the council. Um, I did raw for did try to ask me about this. I brought it when we had Mayor Gary Henrik here just two months after I got elected. It wasn't like I brought it because I was running for office. I brought it because they kept asking me.

So there is a there is a need and they have had these excuses for many years. We always say, "Do they really need it?" and all that stuff. And they did tell me, the city did reach out and the city wanted just to give them the cheap polls and just say good luck. And they were like, "Okay, work with us. This neighborhood was designed in a certain way. We want to have that kind of uh neighborhood feel, the design, the way it was designed." And one of the residents say, "I can you can put it by the exit on his property, but he wanted a I know former mayor Gary Henry call it on Meno Paul and the cost back then was approximately maybe 4,000 $5,000 and there are some other lights. I don't mean like you have to plant all these street lights. every streets and that's I know everybody understands that that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about the exits around the exit area and they have been asking about this regardless of what I'm hearing or they don't want them what they don't want the cheap PS that the city want just to throw there and forget about that the problem.

Well, that's why I came to you with options.

Yes. And thank you. And from what I've heard, there are some good option for underground because you don't see overhead lines. They are for that option. Whether solar will work for them, that's another discussion for another day. But we should treat this thing with agency because like in Lewis line here, it's causing um most of those residents normally run into problems. People drive from the other side of the street and it's dark sometimes they always and there's a fire hydrant just in front of it. So, and when you're driving from Keen going to their homes, people just drive their own stop. There's no light there. So, they have asked me for the last six years and I'm like, okay, I'll bring it before the council and see if they can fix it. And the story I've heard every year, we don't have money for it. We don't have money for it. We don't have money for it. For Hills Estate, North Hills Estate, I can tell you since we annexed them 20 years ago, those homes on average they pay $6,000 taxes and that's almost for one year

city on average to the city.

Okay, may I finish? So on average they pay almost $6,000 and that's for one year it's almost 5,888. For 20 years that's 11.7 million they are paid and they're asking when is it going to be enough for the city to put something that is reasonable not just a cheap. The argument has been there's no money there's no money. So unless we take this thing with a some seriousness and we keep using excuses or maybe we have this cheap one or we have this they want the lights. The council might not be aware of it because uh we might talk to two or three or four people there. I've talked to 98 homes almost.

Can you give me a list? I'd like to see a list. So 98 homes for the last six year the same issue. So, we should look 11.7 million. We I think we should find some money somewhere, but let's come with a good plan. I don't I don't remember seeing 11 point something million dollars here. I'm I'm just telling you for the last 20 years. I brought you options. It's for you guys to decide, not me. Yes, but I'm just saying you're you're lecturing me. I'm just saying I'm talking to the council everybody. I'm not lecturing you.

Okay. I'm just telling the C because I'm facing that way. Okay. So, what I'm saying is we should get over this thing about we don't have money. I know we don't have money in the budget. So, it's will be convenient to kick it down and say maybe another day and that's another 21 years. They will be waiting for those lights. So, we should look for a way. I know 10,000 for one pole and then you'll be paying 17 thou uh $17 for that light whatever it's there. It won't make the city broke. They have given you 11.7 million. So if I if I jump in here respectfully.

Yes,

respectfully. Um I didn't this didn't even I mean you may have talked about in the past but it didn't come up until the budget was kind of already done. And so at that point, it's kind of like now here we are presenting options, but yet our hands are tied because I can tell you right now, if id have known that we want at $3,500 a pop and if it's important, we could have started putting four or five of these things around the city. So what I can tell you is is I've already started my list for next year's budget of things to factor in and and I'm happy to to factor that in. But again, I would encourage council like he mentioned, you know, you have an observatory here, you have do, you know, is this really something we want to do? Like if we add 21 lights all over the city, you know, that is going to go up. So, it's just again, there's a lot of things to think about and and um if you did talk to residents and this is important to them, but but I just wish that we would have had this conversation back in July when we were starting to work on the budget versus, you know, now we're Monday morning quarterbacking and and it's we're the bad guys because we didn't put lights in, but we didn't know. So, um, you know, at this point, Don's come up with a really, I think, a great solution. Um, that again, um, you know, these lights are cheaper than just what it would cost to bury the line. So, I applaud him for for for bringing this. And so, at this point, we talk about it and if we want to put it on next year's budget, then I'm happy to add it to my list of of things to try to work on for the city.

Okay. Council. So the best way I can tell you as this the city staff I know we have turnover every year maybe every two years or three years we change city managers that's part of politics why why do you bring that up this are an open meeting I'm just saying it's a fact we have a turnover any government any bring up other facts

okay so the the thing is you're saying we might have a good idea the cheap poll was a very good idea. But I'm just telling you, unless we work with those residents, they they they have a certain way they want the city to work with them. But using excuse we don't have money, maybe next year, maybe next year might not be the best option. So if we can get and what I'm trying to tell you as a council and the city staff is we might say we have a very good option with solar for for for the city type AIB. We can put it at the park there. It's our personal property. No, nobody cares. You can put whatever you want. That's that's okay. But when you are dealing with homeowners, they might say we don't want solar. Then you go back to square one. So I'm bringing this so that you can be able to work with those residents as a city manager.

Which residents? Which the ones these items that I I brought in here? Did they sign a petition? We have the names. If he was going to talk if he's going to work with the residents, he needs the names of those residents so he can work with them. Can you can you provide a list to the city manager? I'd like to make a motion if we could. I'm trying to I'm trying to share with you. I'm saying we have worked on this issue, but I'm bringing before you based on the request have made through me as a somebody that's representing them. Get us some names so we can work with something. Right now, we have you telling the city manager to go find these individuals, but who who is it? How many

who are the resident? Yeah. Which which residents would like street lights where? I think what he's asking is you may talk to five residents, but two out of the five don't want a light. Three do. So he's asking for the names of those people that want lights, but we can talk to them. So no, it's it's the old neighborhood that wants light. It's what? Those 98 homems. Not all of them. No, they don't want them in front of their yard, but they want light. They use that road every day. exit. They just want an entrance light. You talk about an entrance light off. We have been very Yes. And we have been very clear. Entrance to their street. I I understand because it's dark and you can't see the turn. Well, the first thing

I'd like to make a motion. Sorry. I'd like to make a motion that we form a committee and have an open hearing on this where people residents come and talk to us in this building that on where they want lights specifically. because we've got a lot of stuff in this book. They're in front yards. They're on corners. It's all over the place. And unless we have a list of residents that want stuff at certain positions. I know I talked to Mr. Miosi. He doesn't want it anywhere near his house. I've visited with Miosi. So that's not where they just want it at the exits. And they are very

That's not what he told me. So no, Miosi is not living by the exit. Well, he said he didn't want it at all. Yes.

Just Thank you. That's Tex Road. 3048 is Tex Road. We need to check with them and see how close to the actual intersection we could even get a light even if we went solar. So, that that's something that we can look into. Um because like I said on a couple of those streets there is a light at the closest pole but it's you know 50 feet once you turn the corner because there's such a big rideway there that Tex dot owns. They don't want a pole out there that somebody's going to be driving down the night fall asleep swerve hit it. It's a hazard. So, let us check with text dot and see how close we could even get a light to that intersection,

which we do have a semionthly meeting scheduled now. So, I can add that to the list. There we go.

One thing that I um that I noticed is that there's nobody here from from that subdivision. So, if you had talked to people and you knew this agenda item was going to be presented tonight, you would have said, "This is your chance to come to the meeting to voice your opinion." So, and unfortunately, we've heard we've heard one too many times from you, you know, that that you don't live in San Antonio, that you, you know, that you reside here and and so, uh, there's been a lot of things that have been questionable from you. So to so so to believe that and when you say you've talked to citizens, we all know that that's the mayor and possibly your your wife. So when you say those things, it doesn't give us a good feeling that that the information is coming back accurate. Uh and so so with no citizens being present to be speaking in that light, um

yeah, exactly. um then it doesn't give me much much courage to want to do those things yet. Right. And then the other flip side is I know you mentioned you don't want the ugly poles uh nor the overhead uh wires, but if we spend $130,000, we we only have $100,000 left between our budget and and what we're supposed to be spending this year. So again, we need to be fiscally responsible to not blow up our budget or have some extenduating, you know, going into reserves or things like that. That that would be that would be totally irresponsible of us to make a decision like that. So to present this as urgent um doesn't sound like a fiscally responsible thing to do e either.

Mr. B would like to speak. You may step forward. Caleb Bull 202 Shady Oak Road. Um, so you said about citizens coming in agenda item. Sorry.

You said about citizens coming in for to speak about an agenda item because it's on for this meeting. They don't want to come in here because of your guys's attitudes. That is the resounding word I get out of this town. Now, this is Obviously, we're going to run off. I've walked this town three times already, okay? And this is the thing I get out of every single person that will actually have a conversation with me. They're sick of y'all's attitudes up here acting like a bunch of high school dropouts up there. Seriously, they won't come up here because you guys don't listen. Okay, he's a representative. They told him, listen to him. They can't be up here every single time. Look at other city councils from across the state, across the country. Their chairs are not empty. Ours are. Unless, you know, certain people call in their goons to come in here to berade Thomas or the mayor. That's the only time these chairs will be filled. It's ridiculous. You complain about social media, you just have to watch the camera and the entire world sees literally the entire world. Not just people that are focusing on Keem. We had Dr. Stevens in here talking about the good things going on. You guys are the bad things. Seriously, you want to turn this town around? Take another close look at your heart because this is what's going to prevent this town from growing to be what it could be. And this is the second time I've said it. Coming to you as a citizen, not as a politician. I don't again I don't care if I win or lose on this one. Okay? I do not. If there enough citizens want me here, I'm going to represent them to the best of my ability. You talk about a circus, it was the attitudes from the people before and

after that meeting on the PNZ board. It was utterly ridiculous. That's why it was a circus. We're there to conduct business. That's it. What they were doing was not just business. Okay? What's going on in here is a circus and it needs to stop. That's why citizens will not come into this building because of you guys. Thank you, Mr. B. All right. All right. So, council, we had two discussion items that we had discussed easily was making a motion to have a public hearing so citizens could come forward to discuss the need for street lighting. I haven't called for a second on that or gotten one yet. So, at this moment,

it fails. We'll let that motion die. Okay, that motion's going to die on the floor. And the other discussion we were talking about is giving direction to staff to contact Texot about how close we can get to the lighting on there because that is I think one of the most crucial issues right now that's pressing is when you're trying to turn you can't see the entrance to that development and stuff because of the poor lighting and yeah people are going to run off in the ditch and stuff and it's a hazard. So I think I'll ask if there is a consensus to give him direction to uh contact tech stop about the lighting at those entrances at North Estates in that side area off 348. I have a question. Yeah. Sorry. I have a question though. Okay. Maybe Chief Kid can answer this, but

obviously we know safety is a huge part of why lighting is put in, but do we have accidents at those corners? Do we have do we have incidents to that magnitude that would require us to to want to be pressing to do this? You might need to research that

council members mayor. Thank you. I had to research it, but it's nothing that has brought enough to my attention saying we need this done immediately. But I'm not saying that it's not necessary. So, I can't give you a good good answer until I do the research on it. Are there more instructions?

So, with that, um, I'd like to make a motion that we do some more research and and get get better prepared. Um, talk to residents, things of that nature. Whatever whatever needs to happen before we proceed. X dot. Yeah, I think we need to talk to X dot because that's their property. That's their right away. Oh, yeah. Just give directions. So, yeah. So, there you go. So, you want to do further research on this topic and have it brought back to council when staff is available. Staff has the update. Okay. Can we put a date to that? Should we put a date to that? With staff available could be open-ended till next year or 10 years. It will be next year.

So, we really should put we really should put some kind of a date to it so they have a timeline of when they need to complete this project of further research. city manager, when is a considerable 180 days timeline? Well, like I said, I've got a semionthly um so every other month I'm I've got a standing meeting uh with the lead engineer and the assistant over there and I've got one this month of December. So, so I may even have something by January. So, we could put Okay, with the future agenda item till yet to be discussed tonight, we may or may not have one in January.

Okay. What about uh how about we just say 180 days because Chief Kid's probably going to want to do his research on that and it gives everybody a little time to figure out what's what's a possibility and obviously that gives us six months to kind of prepare allow for budget talks to to be added into that discussion as well. What about if we go first meeting in March? That plenty of time? Maybe do it before the budget March. Yeah, do it by March. March. That way that's a little under 180B meeting of text dot. So that give you that give them time to go back. We all good with discussing this further and bring it back in March. Yeah. During the March agenda March.

Okay. March agenda. All right. Staff. Okay. I got a consensus. Okay. Mayor on top of that remember we have text dot and then we have also 805. There's there's a street behind there. We are talking about the CC cooks. That's for sure. Yeah. Text dot of which I know if you look at your emails, former city managers have been in contact with text dot regarding that street in the past. 805 no CC Cooks the street that runs across.

So if you look back go to your emails you I know there's a discussion when they used to bring them up you know and then when Gary Henrik was looking at it and all that stuff when he was the mayor. So then look into also those as a request. As I told you every year we have turnover council both council and also the employees. But look at those areas 805 back there and also for the Louis line that one the city can work with those homeowners around there. But on top of that, I would recommend the council to be able to allow the city to be able to work with the the citizens there because it's a request even though we want to bring the whole neighborhood here which some of them are not comfortable because of the current issues. Um to work with them if we have options solar the cheap pole of course they don't want that. they have told me repeatedly uh there are other better options. So if you can work with them and see what they might you know maybe recommend so that you can bring it before the council and see if the council can work with that. I don't know if that's hard to ask uh through the city manager.

So is that four four street lights you're talking about? Those exits mostly both on the CC cooks on the front. That's not CC Cook. It's 3048. Yeah, it's But they call it CC Cooks, too. Yeah, those are the ones we'll have to get with text on them. But on 805B, which is on the back side or the north side, have you driven over there at night? Yes. Did you see the light there? Some of them are the Is there a light there? There are few. Yeah, I put it on my notes, but work with them so that at least I'd like to identify the the locations they are on. I sent it to the city secretary. I don't. Yes. And there are lights there is what I'm telling you.

Do you want more lights or you want a different light? They made a request. I'm just saying work with where those lights are, those neighbor, you know, those residents. Work with them. I'm a messenger. I'm just telling what they have told me. I understand this correctly if I may. I want to rob one second. Okay. It's it's the two entrances to North Hills Estates. Okay. 805B, Lynen, and and Lewis Lane. Those are the the three the four positions you're looking at. Yeah. The three. Yeah. Actually, the people he needs to talk to are the are the houses that live by the stoplight or the entire street? No, actually that exit is affecting those 98 homes. They use that.

I can't tell you for sure. Like this house, this but I've spoken for the last 6 years I speak. That's the number one thing is like when are you going to put the lights on? Okay. I come here almost go into a ditch. I'm like, "Okay, I'll take it to the council." So, but they don't want cheap poles, that's for sure. So, the light on the intersection is not something that concerns the residences at all. They've asked for we need to figure out a way to get it done. Okay. There's no reason to communicate to the residents that we're going to put one on Lynen Lane and Lewis Lane. That's we're going to be talking to Booger Putnham. Okay. Across the street. What what you're not getting right here is this. The city has in the past tried to give an option of cheap balls just to get it off their back as a city. Yeah. And and that's what

they don't want that. That's what we have the budget to do. No, I'm you want to lower taxes in this town, but you want to spend money. You got to pick one. I've told you they paid 11.7 million. They're just saying, "No, you you read 20,000 to off a number of $6,000 per household. Was that city taxes or combined taxes?" Because if you're taking the $6,000 of combined taxes and then adding all that up to $11 million, the county gets money, hill college gets money. You understand? City, how much is the city get of that? So the council, does the city has the will to work with the residents to fix the street, you know, the street lights? That's the question.

If we just keep using excuses to kick it down the road, that's another problem. We're giving instruction right now. I'm trying to get the four addresses and we got the four addresses. The city secretary has the the intersections. I don't We don't have that. Yeah. He emailed it to her so they can do the research. I don't have it. I don't have it. We can have her forward it to you. That'd be great. Been nice if we'd had it before this meeting. Yeah. Because I've got a map with 300 with 21 or more lights to be put in and my residents don't want 21 lights. I represent W three. Oh.

Okay. Now, if they want one or two, great. But I I talked to them. They said, "You want 21 lights in your neighborhood?" They go, "No." So, we're talking apples and oranges. We want to get it fixed. We just gave direction to get it fixed. Okay. Don, didn't you say of those four entrances, two of them already have lights at them? Yes. Okay. Okay. And and it's in my email. I did mention those have two those two have lights but there's a request in the email even though it's not on our agenda discussion here. So you might work with the city secretary to give you that

be nice if we saw that stuff Thomas can you send it to us? I mean can can you not send stuff to us that you send to the city secretary? You can request following in the last meeting when he was requesting for the item to be on the agenda to request something that I don't know about. He requested it during a meeting. She came back and said, "Can you send me the addresses?" And then he emailed her the addresses. That's why they went just to her. He said it during the meeting at the at the end of a meeting for future items on the agenda. And she wanted a list. We tried to we tried to condense the addresses into subdivisions rather than listing because the agenda item was extremely long. So, in I can imagine

it's my fault for trying to make things concise, but I'll be happy to send the list that he gave me to all council. There you go. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item number 7D.

Review, discuss, and consider action on an update to Keen Code of ordinance section 72.10 parking certain vehicles, trailers, and mobile homes within zoning districts and on city-owned property. Council members, mayor, I believe a couple months ago, the council wanted to discuss this ordinance, specifically 72.10 letter C, which relates to trailers being parked on the roadway. Currently, this ordinance allows a trailer to be on the roadway up to 72 hours before it must be moved. So, what would you like to discuss? Um my I know we've talked about this and we we both kind of agree that there's kind of a loophole in the system that as long as it's removed within 24 within a 24-hour period or gone for 24 hours that process can start right back over again which I mean essentially that just means that you I just move my trailer from my house to Rob's house back to my house you know I take it over to Easley's house I bring it to GA's house back to my house. You and so I'm just trying

Don't move it to my house. I didn't mention that, Mayor. Thank you.

So, I'm just trying to I want to try to minimize the unsightliness, I guess. And of course, yes, it did happen. You know, I got a notice because I had my boat on the side of my street or on the on the street. And when the notice came, you know, I had 10 days to move it. But even that didn't really qualify with what the ordinance said. So they were the city gave me more time to move it than what was technically allowed, which I appreciated that. And I'm sure they just did it as a courtesy. But um but now I'm just trying to like I feel like we need to squash this thing and make it a little bit stronger. So then that way it it is more of a deterrent to leave leave those things on the on the street for for safety purposes because you we've talked and you said well the reasons for this is because you know cars being able to see around a a larger trailer of some sort um would would be you know could be a safety hazard. And so I'm just trying to make this a little more aggressive so that way it's a little more strict um so that way it's a little more powerful.

So I'm hearing is basically the enforcement aspect of it. And you have bring a valid reason because a lot of these cities struggle with this because they find loopholes. What you're discussing is a 24-hour resetting period. So you can keep a trailer on the roadway for 72 hours. Then you take it off for a full 24 hours, put it back on the roadway to reset it. Some cities keep track of it yearly, which is I'm sure extremely difficult. Some cities put in legal verbiage to be able to do this like continuous violation verbiage they put in there. So you would you do you all like the 72 hours? Of course, the citizens we want to be compassionate, but there's also a danger and a risk when a roadway is not used for storage. It increases accidents, the unsightly clutter, all kinds of stuff. So there's always going to be people pushing the issue whatever with loopholes, but they're going to reset it. So is there any suggestion or you just going to ask us to see if there's any verbiage we can put in there to try to strengthen it? Mr. Foster,

why not just take out the 24-hour reset to say you can be there for 72 hours and then you get a citation? There is. Why not just make it 24 hours? And that's all within Yel's privilege. You can make it 24. You can make it prohibited period. But I do want to be compassionate to our citizens because sometimes they need to unload and load and it's temporary when you bring somebody that's urgent like that. Well, I say that because I've got a trailer and I can't leave mine on the street for more than 24 hours. I make it every time. I don't I don't need 72. Yeah.

Is that something for y'all to discuss? 72 hours is what y'all want, what the citizens want in the enforcement part of it. We can remove the 24-hour reset fee. Go ahead. And chief, I think when we were reviewing this, something that was kind of interesting to me, too, is that you're not allowed to park your trailer in front of somebody else's house, right? It needs to be in front of your own. Need to be in front of your own property. And so, that's, you know, there's there's some violations there, too, going on.

And that verbiage is actually in here as well, what what you just mentioned. And I understand the 24-hour thing because the HOA and, you know, pristine communities. Um um I do want to give the the citizens a little bit more grace. You know, if you come back from a trip a trip on a Sunday night, last thing you want to do is stay up all night trying to unload everything. So you you need a Monday and maybe Tuesday because you're going back to work. Um but I think 72 hours should be very sufficient to get people to remove that trailer and put it back in storage or or back over at their grandma's house, whatever. You know,

I'd say we just get rid of the 24-hour turnaround and just leave it at 72 hours and it has to be moved. Okay, that's something we can research then, but we'll have to have the legal verbiage and make sure doesn't contradict anything else in our ordinance and that's where our city attorney will come.

A quick follow-up question in regards to that. If we remove the 24hour thing, um, how does that I mean, I know code code compliance is going to be the one to to want to review that, right? So, if they if the if a trailer let's say a trailer there is Monday. Well, code enforcement doesn't go there until Tuesday. So, now they have technically until Thursday night to get to to remove that. And then if they don't, then what does that do for you guys? Does that does that ultimately impact you guys as far as enforcement wise or is that still a city city will respond and send a violation notice? Is that going to impact you guys serving our community?

No, it doesn't. The police unless it's parked illegally, then we'll take action on it. If it's just a code violation, then it's when it's first noticed. So, a trailer can be out there for like three days, but until somebody complains, we notice it then it doesn't start until code enforcement go ahead and starts that process. Okay. Mr. B, would you like to speak

just real quick regarding the trailers? Okay. Um, because I I've towed trailers many many years now on and off for construction as well as other businesses as well. Think about how you you get this code set up. Not saying it's not needed, but you will absolutely be affecting many small business owners. I know you have a trailer that you have quite frequently which is say you have a job where you don't need that for two or three days and you're not able to get that back up or you want to go on vacation and you park it that out front of your home. So remember we have a lot of small business owners in this town that they travel outside of Keen with their trailers and there are going to be times especially around holiday times where they are going to be there longer than 72 hours. So just keep that in mind when you're making that code. Okay. Whatever you guys discuss.

Thank you. Thank I I actually I have four trailers and I live in a subdivision. Uh I have them parked at my mother's house construction sites. Uh I actually changed my back fence so I could get in the backyard. I have a question about item four. A combination of connected vehicles including trailers. Is that a truck pulling a trailer? Has any Okay. U so like Mr. Smith and myself, we both own trailers. both on small businesses. Overnight's not a problem. We're looking at 72 consecutive hours. Am I correct, guys? Okay. So, yeah, good point, Caleb.

So, we need a consensus on this. Mayor, go ahead. What? I'm sorry. I I just asked if you wanted a consensus to give staff direction. Yeah. Yeah, the um we just have direction to staff on this. Yeah, consider action on an update. So, yeah. Do you have a suggestion? Yeah, I say we just leave it at 72 hours, but take out the 24hour loophole. Yeah, we need to add a cousin Eddie loophole. All right, everybody else agree with that? Leave it at 72 hours and take out the seven the 24-hour loophole. Yeah. and then go ahead and direct staff to change this ordinance and bring it back to us maybe under consent. Sure.

And then we'll discuss it if needed. Okay, we're all good. Okay, we're going to give direction to staff. Do you all understand? Okay. And Mr. Easley, um, real quick, just maybe this would give us some peace of mind for what we do. But in section A, it does say uh with a rated capacity in excess of one and a half tons. So, if it's less than that, then it's allowed based on what I'm reading here. If it's in excess of that, then then that would apply. So, if you'd have left a vehicle hooked up to your boat, you'd have been okay.

Not to a boat because it's not talking about boats, but it's talking about box trucks, trailers, trucker, semi-trail, boats on a trailer. Mr. Bull, you want to come back up and say something about that? doesn't say boat trailer, but it does say boat trailer in section B.

Yeah, but people argue that the boat's sitting on a trailer and and that's what's tagged as the trailer sitting on the ground. Okay, so here's another idea for you with this. Okay, it's obviously for legal business owners. Okay, having a permit set up with the city where those people can have a permit and they just have to notify through an email or whatever that, hey, this trailer is going to be here for this long or whatever. Again, just with a permit for legal business owners. That rules out people like me who have a small trailer, but I can park mine on my on my own drive. But that would protect the small business owners a lot more than just that straight 72 hours. I know Ray doesn't for three or four days sometimes. So,

yeah, it uses the uh cemetery for parking. Would anybody look like to like to look into that possibly doing a permit for legal business owners? Well, and with the software that we're looking at to try to better the customer experience, you know, that is online permitting and stuff, like I wouldn't want to do that the way we're currently set up because Amber's got her plate full just trying to get this keep this community growing. But if it's something we can automate um and streamline like we're working on, then I could see that as being a good option, too. So, thank you.

Yeah. In fact, actually, we can if if we wanted to, we could make those, and I know we're kind of getting a little off topic, but we can uh make it like a 90-day permit, 30-day permit, or a yearly permit. So then that way it's a little more feasible instead of like it's $15 a day to leave that thing in front of your house, you know? Yeah. But the whole point of this is a safety factor, you know? Yeah, that would get it get convoluted. Okay. May

Yeah, I I know as a city we are growing and there's a growth pain and all things that comes with that. Uh I'm sorry to repeat it again. I know Councilman Troy Smith doesn't like to hear this, but I'm I've been talking to some most of the residents actually. Um, and some of them do get affected by this policy. I'll agree with our chief, the police chief that we need to take some time and look into it and don't fall into this trap. We have done that for some time. uh copy paste from other cities and just call it good. And then we find out that it doesn't work with the residents here because some of the cities they have come from those who are the things were that were making them actually leave. Some of the things that you know we want to make every city the same but sometimes they don't they are not the same. Even though we don't want to reinvent the wheel, but we want to make it so it can work for the city. Uh as uh Caleb B has said that we need to actually make sure that we are working with the small business owners. And when we talk about permit, that's tax. It's a fancy name of tax. Oh, you have to pay $15, $10 because that's an overhead for the staff. So yeah, I think we need to look at how other cities are doing it, but also bring in these ideas that we have shared in this room to see if it can be able to work for Keen. So it doesn't cause more friction because I'm seeing some other ordinances we have that most of the residents here are not happy with because we either copied and pasted and it doesn't work. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to agenda item number 7E. Review, discuss, and consider action on cancelling or rescheduling the regular city council meeting that falls on January 1st, 2026. I'd say we just cancel it. I mean, we can either cancel it or we can book it for the third Thursday of the month or give the city manager the option to call one if there's business that needs to be taken care of or schedule one for the third Thursday and if we don't need it or we can just skip it. Yeah, that's what we have. That's what we put it in place for. Yeah, you have a um

planning and zoning meeting where they are going to be approving a plat. So, for a timely manner sake, it is going to have to come to us for approval as well. Plat and an offer. And I know that um case in point with metal plate um their goal is to have this the first uh their manufacturing facility up by the end of next year. So, you know, he he would love to see this p get passed through sooner than later, and I have no doubt it'll for sure be ready by the 18th. Well, I'll make a motion to that we move reschedule the January 15th. 15th 15th. 15th. Sorry. Can we do the I'm sorry. I was speaking, m Mr. City Man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry.

I'm out of town. The eighth. Okay. You said the fifth. Go ahead. Thank you. Sorry. Was trying to sneak that in there before he did it. All right. We have a motion on the floor to reschedule the January 1st, 2026 regular council meeting to January 15, 2026 at 6 p.m. by Foster. Do I have a second? Second. Is that going to work in the timeline for getting the things done? Okay. Okay. We have a second on the floor by Shaw. All in favor, raise your hand.

Unanimous. Motion is carried. All right. Agenda item number eight, executive session. We are going into executive session to discuss just one item. Okay. Consultation with attorney 551.071 and 551.074 personnel matters. Uh review of the city manager contract. All right. It is 8:39 p.m. We are convening into executive session. 8:39

All right. I'm going to reconvene in the meeting at 9:51 p.m. All right. We have action to take from our executive session item. So, I'm going to call for a motion. Do I have a motion, council, to approve the city manager's contract with one change to add a 3% retroactive cola raise beginning November 1st, 2025. I make a motion that we accept it. Okay. Second.

All right. We have a motion by Shaw and a second by Smith. All in favor, raise your hand. Those opposed? Motion is carried. God bless it. Thank you, council. Okay. Item number agenda 10, requests for future agenda items. Just a reminder, our next meeting will be January 6, January 18. 15. 15. I already forgot. January 15.

Okay. Request for future agenda items for January 15. So, I was talking to some most some residents out at North Hills Estates and they had requested looking at putting a speed bump out there on whatever street it is that goes from 3048 up to what is it 804B? 805B. Yeah. Well, the one that goes straight through Okay, pick one.

Study it. All right. Anything else, council? All right. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? All right. Meeting is adjourned at 9:53