City Council - Regular Meeting

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Okay, welcome to this special called meeting of the Temple City Council to have a budget retreat. It is currently about 10 minutes after one on Thursday, May 28th. And the item is conduct the City of Temple budget review meeting including but not limited to discussion regarding the proposed fiscal year 2027 business plan and overview of the proposed 2027 annual budget. Then my next thing says adjourn.

All right, we're done.

We're going to do something in between those. Got it.

It's poor.

Whose language was that?

I need to talk to them about what a retreat is.

We're really supposed to be out in the woods or something, aren't we? Yeah, something.

presentations from your department.

I don't know.

The last group of department heads to present today. So these are the departments that are aligned with either our places and spaces and or our communication and collaboration focus area. We good? So we'll have the same format as we've had for the last couple of sessions. We'll have departments come up and give you their top priorities aligned with, if it's aligned with one of the top 50 department head leadership priorities, you'll see that icon on their screen. And we would just ask you to follow along with your portal to provide your rating of each particular request as they go along of course if you have questions please stop and ask them and as this will give staff the feedback that we need this will be the last session that we're together or at least that we have planned to be together before staff files our proposed budget at the end of next month. So June will be kind of staff's working month to take all of the feedback that we've received from these various sessions that we've had together over the last couple of months and put together a proposed preliminary budget for your consideration in the months of July and August. So if there's nothing else preliminary, then I think we're ready to welcome Kevin up to give his thoughts. give his department's priorities.

Very good.

Kevin? You're up, Kevin. mayor council good afternoon now you know I didn't realize until the senior manager said this is the last day so it is true what they say you seem the best for last right now I'm not gonna say what order today is the best the last but but I do appreciate the time to share with our top budget priorities and happy to answer any questions and I brought my big guns in the audience if you asked something i i don't know but anyway we'll get started and i think it'll be pretty pretty quick uh the first two are uh probably at uh really in my heart uh is our parks maintenance uh management program and uh this came out back i had to go back and look i think we developed a this huge spreadsheet back in 22 of uh everything we have in our park system and when did it get put in and when does it age out and an estimated replacement cost and then every year we kind of have to add inflation and stuff and uh this one really started back last time we went on a uh a bond road show man that maybe 15 maybe this is what it was and We always hear is why do you ask for new stuff, more stuff, and it doesn't look like you can keep up with what you have. And so with Erin and Brynn and your support over these years, we started putting in, you know, they've got the great places and spaces. That's one way to tackle it. And this is the other way. is trying to build up a way to keep the stuff replaced and not always have to go back to the voters and hey you just you know gave us money you know 20 years ago for that give it some then let's just build it into our normal operating budget and our goal is to uh get it up to one and a half million because if you look just in past due items there's 18 million dollars still behind that we need to replace. Some of that's going to be taken care of in places and spaces, but not even close to replacing that. It'll take a while, but we're asking for 350,000, and you'll see it on the rec slide next. And every year we're trying to grow it so we can keep replacing it. What does that cover? Everybody's just seen the new train, little playground down at the Third Street Bridge. That was not a budgeted item, but it was needed to be replaced. And you know, you have this great, wonderful downtown, and you had just that eyesore. And Chuck and staff used this maintenance fund, management program fund, to replace it. It's been hit. Crumpa soccer lighting. We actually had infrastructure where the lot pole actually fell over or about to fall over is leaning. So we're able to use that to replace it. Now we've had to build that into our budget. And then of course those places and places places and places CIPs the other way we can try to tackle it but that is to me very very important especially because we have all of our residents with the comments I've heard is like I said got to take care of what you got right and I agree with that totally and so you know just like the city does with their fleet you know you've got a mileage or by year and it doesn't always mean at a certain time frame but you know certain things age out at let's say 25 years but you might get two three four five more years and that's okay but at least you can start budgeting for things and that's i think the city is doing a great job the other side of the department on the recreation side the same type thing definitely not as expansive as the parks needs right now we have four and a half million dollars in overdue recreation items and that's in terms of that scoreboards and lifts and diving boards and So all that kind of stuff is just in there, just another way to try to get this built up. We're asking for, this year, this current fiscal year, in parks and recreation, each division has 250,000. So we're asking to bump it next year up to 350,000. So that's what we're doing in the recreation side. Kevin, may I ask you a question?

Sure. If over five years, or four years, you grew that budget to $1.5 million, on the management program side and on the first slide. Would that, is that enough money over, assuming you got to that point where you'd have about three million bucks across both programs, is that enough to avoid a bond issue later? Or is that really just keeping up with kind of the maintenance and replacement of everyday items, but later there would need to be another bond issue. Of course, I know if we're talking about, um, bringing a new park online, that's, that's different, but just to maintain what you have is $3 million a year enough.

Wow. That is a, uh, if we were caught up completely, that's a great question. Uh, I would like to really study that, uh, Cause in theory, what you're asking sounds correct. As long as you're not bringing a brand new item on, you're just talking about what you've got. Yeah.

I'd like to get back to the intent. And so we do feel like that that is the correct target for, for what we have in our inventory right now and at today's cost. So as you, and again, I think you, you know, this cause you hit on it. But it is not intended to add new amenities or to build new parks. It's simply to, on a scheduled replacement schedule, replace and maintain the amenities and the parks that are in existence today. So as we... If you, for example, had a bond election to build out the Southwest Community Park or Daniels Park or as we expand Crossroads or Wilson's Park, then that $3 million number would need to increase as you add new amenities that need to be replaced. And then, of course, as costs rise, we need to evaluate that. But on a... an ongoing basis that is the intent and we think that's a good target for what we have in our city maybe not perfect you know but a realistic budget that we can both support and that would meaningfully replace things on a on a good routine schedule okay

Okay, thank you. The next one is a parks maintenance manager. I should have probably put under the last bullet. This is one of the first pieces of the puzzle from this year when we sit down with city manager and staff looking at, we looked at, I didn't, but city manager looked at the whole city and how we're organizing. So specifically tying it back to our department, this is really one of the first pieces of the puzzle we need to try to fit in. I've got a parks division director that has, he has three foreman, he has a reinvestment zone inspector, and then he also is over, I had to write this one down because I could not remember, but there's five contractors that he uh, overseas that has 13 different areas that we contract out with almost $2 million worth of contracts. So when you're doing that, uh, just, uh, trying to stay up after the contractors in the areas, it's hard to get out there and inspect the parks. He's also gets pulled into, Hey, we got a complaint somewhere. Uh, and so he goes out. So we're really not being the most effective and keeping the parks up the way they're supposed to be. And the foreman don't have the level of supervision that they need. Like I said, this is just one of the pieces. When I come down to the custodians a little bit, it's even worse when I explain how many direct reports is going to this wrong form. And so this is the first step. And so this is what this person would be doing. And so that was our highest priority in terms of trying to get some relief in our Parks Department. Hillcrest maintenance two workers this came out of the Hillcrest master plan I think that was early 25 maybe March if I remember right that that was finalized came to council right now we we have a the way it's operated we have a mowing company and then we have what you call, I guess, a grave digger, but that is not an employee of the city, so they contract, people reach out, hey, we got a funeral, we got a burial, we mark the grave, and there's a person that comes out and digs it, and then we get so much for each grave that he digs. What we've talked about is bringing that service in-house with two maintenance workers for a couple of reasons. There's about approximately 80 burials a year, you know, up and down. And then we project that to be about $89,000 extra revenue for bringing that in. The other thing that we gain, to me there's some smaller stuff like 69 acres. The company that does the mowing also empties all the trash cans. That goes away. That's real small. I think what you get, the bigger... thing is I'll jump down to safety and then I'll pick up the other bullets is right now you know when we took over the cemetery the records were not in the best of shape and When you have over 18,000 plots on a spreadsheet, you have to go out, and we're still way off from being closed, but they take, okay, here's a ledger, here is Joe Brown, he's supposed to be at this plot stuff. You've gotta actually go out and verify, and sometimes, hey, that's not who's there. So they are trying to clean up records still, and that's gonna be a multi-year still to finish that off. uh when you have one person 69 acres uh typically so far the person we've hired out has been a female it may you know in the future might be a male out there but you've got one person out there trying to do that and uh it's to me it's not the safest way to operate to have one person out there on 69 acres and you don't know who comes and goes out of there So we do have a staff person that goes out occasionally, their supervisor that helps them. When we have two maintenance workers out there, that will provide people out there that can keep an eye and ear out, can also help them go around looking at to verify these headstones versus what's in the book. In the meantime, they also will, you see in the top right hand, There's a lot of trees, just like at your home. You cut a tree and in probably six months, you've already got areas that you need to trim again. So we have to contract this out or we have parks goes out occasionally and help. So they would take care of all of the easier or low-hanging fruit or vines, you would say. They would level the plots, remove the trash. The other thing is, part of our policies is you're not supposed to just dump ordination, like your flowers and vases and stuff everywhere. But with one person, you come back after one day or a weekend and like, you never knew that somebody just did it way over here so we if we have more bodies more eyes on the property it will also help to keep and enforce our our policies and so uh that was in there and then you can see the cost at the bottom the the capital is pretty much made up of a backhoe and then some uh uh gators with some uh tilt dumping beds and stuff so but that was that Communications coordinator, we, along with the host cities, just keep it expanding. You got a great communication marketing department, and the word is out everything we're doing, and we are no different. Activities are starting to pick back up, and the process right now is Heather's group sends one person over, and we have six or seven individuals trying to communicate with her. And we think now there is probably a good need to have a one point reference in our department. Let our person work with all of our staff, get all the needs. And then Heather Communication Working Group is now just working with one person, one voice. They're also able to look at the website, make sure it stays in line with the standards that the city is wanting. So we put that one in there. So here we go, two maintenance workers for Custodial Crew. This one is good, it only had two when I first got here, so that was back in 2000, so we've only grown one in the 20-something years I've been here. So we have three staff, and if you look at the number of parks, remember we have like over 60 areas that we maintain different parks and open spaces. Not all of them have restrooms, not all have pavilions. but it's spread across town and so there are certain days that we only have one person on and we try to pick the days that are we know that have less people in the parks but that is a more than a full-time job they can't get to everywhere you know we've got the Santa Fe Community Market it's going to be coming on we need to pick that up and keep that clean the last bullet improved frequency and level of cleaning when I first came on It was, and I was told, hey, be careful what you wish for. And I was like, why are we, if I have a rental out in the park, and I got a pavilion, but it may not be clean and is told, okay, that's why we were also at that time charging, let's say, $15 for four hours or something like that. You gotta take it as it is. Kevin, you got 50 pavilions, they all on the same schedule, you have two staff. You can't get around to all of them getting clean. And so that was some of the thought over the time is we gotta keep the rates lower because you gotta take it the way it is. But we can get by a little bit more often if we pick up some staff. So the frequency and level of cleaning would increase as well. Along comes that, so now if we get the two bodies, we do need a foreman, a crew leader for this one. This person also would take the five bodies. They would be responsible for the scheduling and oversight. They would fill in on vacation, holidays, sick time. Right now, without this person, currently, I was telling you, so we have three custodians that report to one foreman, and I want to say, Chuck, is it, they have, like, how many bodies report to that foreman besides these? So we have one foreman that there's three, he's got nine other people that report to him. 12 people is a lot for one person to try to manage. So another piece of the puzzle. So, you know, we're not gonna accomplish it all in one year, two year budgets, but slowly starting to put the pieces together. So that's, we know is very important if we get those bodies. ADA transition plan, you heard about this in our CIP places and spaces, because at the bottom, we started out, we thought maybe two million, and then we worked it down to a million into our places and spaces. And this is now the component of We've got to hire the company to come in and do the work and come up with their schedule and all their OPCs. So that goes hand in hand with what you saw maybe a month or so ago. So this is, once again, looking at only parks and recreation facilities. How do you get into the facility, up to the playground, up to the elements, making sure we're ADA compliant. I put CAPRA as the last one. That is in priority. That's my least important, even though it's important. That is the process we're going through right now with our accreditation of our department. And that is actually in the standard you're supposed to have. And so we got dinged in two places in the standards, because the standard could show up in several places. They expect cities to have a transition plan. Uh, we need it. That would be great for the Capra to be accredited. We need it because we need it for our citizens and to be able to everybody to get, uh, to our elements and amenities and be able to use it. So to me, that is, uh, that is the best thing to have it for. Uh, Capra is the icing on the cake. Uh, Walker pool renovations. Uh, uh, this is a great pool and, uh, You know, we have a lot of improvements with the master plan for Wilson Park, and it calls for eventually another new swim pool. So this one doesn't fall anywhere that has a plan, but it is a great pool to rest, relax, get out of the heat, cool off, but it's an aging facility also. And this was identified, we hired, a group out of, they have offices all over the country, but their main headquarters is in St. Louis. Councilman Hunsaker, they're pool designers, architects, they have engineers on board. They're the same group that designed Lines Junction Water Park. they came in and they looked at all of our swimming pools they went to our splash pads and they came up with recommendations OPC's what years to replace stuff and this this is how we devised up this cost here so it is on our list to give it some love this does not include though the bathhouse that's a separate line item but this is the more prevalent a more prevailing item that we need is to get this taken care of Recreation Program Development Manager. This here in our park strategic plan that was done in 24, I believe, or 25, throughout this whole process, that our consultant said, uh, Hey, there are a couple of cities. Uh, one is San Antonio and the other might've been Richardson. Leah might be able to help me in a little bit, but they have, uh, years ago went to, uh, uh, having one person that is in charge of all the programming to make sure that, Hey, the quality of the programs you're offering is consistent. You've got one person looking at all of it. You've got to make sure that everybody's not trying to offer, um, same class, right? So they come up with this huge smorgasbord of activities, and then people, they will sit down with the actual program managers, and they will, okay, who's gonna be taking what, and then they make sure that they are trained, they got the right staff, and we got quality recreation programs put out there. So that is what, that's how this kinda gained traction is from our strategic plan. And then this one looks like a single actual dump truck. What we needed is a dump truck, but our main focus is we have a special event stage that we bought a few years back. And it is a huge one. It's the one that you see at the 4th of July now. And the current vehicle that we have for it, when you put the trailer on there, raises the tires up a little, so it's not always touching the ground, believe it or not. So, I know. And so we have a vehicle behind it and one in front of it when we pull it out. And we do not rent this stage out. It's only for a few of our hand-selected special events, like Fourth of July and some of those. I think we may have used it down at, the Tanglefoot last year, but we really need to get a vehicle that can pull it accurately and safely. We thought about, okay, if we get just a vehicle that does that We probably don't rent it enough to justify that cost, and so we have worked with fleet, and this vehicle, we could use it to pull the stage, but also parks could use it to haul brush, dirt, or whatever you need to. I went out to the stage, because I thought I had it in my photos, but I said, what was that stage? Because it is a heavy duty stage, and I know the gross vehicle weight rating was a little over 17,000 just for that. It is a big stage. It's just a big stage, all I can say. And so it does require a Class A CDL to pull it. But that's kind of where we are. And I think this is my last slide. That's why we're asking for a dump truck to pull a trailer, which doesn't really make sense, does it? I don't know if that's the best look, a dump truck being pulling a trailer down, but also just to have a super duty vehicle that pulled it might be an overkill also. And happy to answer any questions.

Kevin, on the maintenance workers at the Hillcrest, I think one more up. Yes. So the only thing we would be subcontracting out is the mowing. We'd have to do everything else.

That is correct. We would not do the mowing.

But everything else, this would cover. And then on the walker pole renovation, if we, I'm assuming, because I know that was supposed before, if we don't do this, this is going to get worse. probably more expensive as time goes on.

I would assume everything, yeah, everything gets more expensive, yes. Now, I don't have a, I could go back and look at the report. Is there a critical that, hey, if you wait till, I'm gonna make it 2031, the pool's gonna be shut down because it's not gonna be, I'd have to look at that report.

The finance problem, that sounds like it.

Now one of your slides I think at the beginning was ADA lift, what is that?

Okay, so at all the pools, you're supposed to have, you're required to have a lift for somebody that cannot get in the pool by themselves. They're supposed to be able to wheel up to it and get in the lift by themselves and lower themselves to be fully accessible. The good thing also about over at Clark, you know, it's a zero-depth, so you actually can just walk right in or with your wheelchair or whatever. So that's the only pool, well, I guess Lyons Junction also has a zero-depth entry. but all these other pools do not, but that's why you have an ADA lift. Just like at the summit, you know you gotta lift to go up the steps, and they're supposed to be able to operate it themselves. And we have had in the past when we had issues, the staff had to go over and operate it, but really they're supposed to be able to operate it themselves to meet the full ADA regulation. already have someone on staff with a class a CDL yes we have several people and that's one of the good things we've also tried to do is try to do with with Aaron and people operations is you know career ladders and stuff and making sure we have redundancies because if you only have one and that person retires or leaves or whatever then what do you do I will tell you when we first started out we've actually had people from fleet or Public Works that have those license to help us out so Anything else for Kevin? Thank you, sir. Thank you all very much. It's always good seeing you. Thank you. You too.

I'm not that mean. And then it's on. No, thank you. I wanted to take the opportunity before I get started here to introduce Rucker Preston. He is our new Director of Housing Community Services. You all may know him. Sitting right over there, but didn't want to put him on the hot spot and present a budget that he didn't create. He's been here since May 18th, but he has hit the ground running. So I'm glad to have him on the team. So just a little bit about the mission. So the mission of this department is provide programs and services that assist with housing instability as well as neighborhood enhancement to improve the overall quality of life for residents. Here is the current team minus Rucker. So we'll have to add him in there. I wanted to take a minute. So Bryn really took a hard look at the org charts. Uh, and so it provided an opportunity for me to do that as well in coordination with her. And so what we did here is really build out the team. So previously we had neighborhood services within this department and we've shifted some things as it relates to that. So wanting to focus really on public engagement and that was primarily what this position within this department was doing. So we've moved that position, the neighborhood services navigator and reclass that to a public engagement coordinator in our marketing and destination services department. And now planning is overseeing all of the neighborhood planning as they've done the pass in coordination with the marketing team. So then kind of a refocus here. So that's going to really be focused on three program areas, housing services, homeless services, and grants. So just talking a little bit about that grants, my envision and been working with Rucker on that is to continue doing the CDBG program, our Temple community partnership program, TDHCA program, but really have a strong focus citywide in coordinating with departments, reaching out and completing the entire grants process with them. And as far as housing services, we'll continue working with our home maintenance academy, our landlord engagement program, all of the housing services, especially the HIP program that we do today. And homeless services, that has been a focus, but creating a specific program area for that where we have two case managers that are focusing on case management, but also focusing on SUD treatment and the little flock community, for example. So we have our top priorities listed here that are all over that amount, so I'll go through them. So the little flock community, that's our biggest one. It's over 6.1 million. I want to start this out by there is no budget request for that this year, but there could be a future budget impact. So I wanted to go through it because I wanted to make sure that we make sure that this remains a priority if that still comes in this direction. So as you know, we worked diligently on coming up with a plan for the campus. As you can see here on Little Flock Road, This includes where you can see in number three there, that community center, which would also serve as a homeless shelter as well for those. And then we also have the number four, which are transitional homes. Those are meant to be for those that are kind of waiting housing. That can often take up to 18 months to get housing. And then more of the long-term side of things are the tiny homes that are shown in yellow number seven there. And then adding to the campus, have some nice open space. We make sure that we have some pet boarding options for those with pets and then the restroom and kitchen facilities. So here is a breakdown of that 6.1 million that I showed you. So what we are doing right now, as you saw at your last council meeting is applying for a section 108 loan, which we are intending to pay through our CDBG allocation. So for the 20 years, we will take a portion of that and we will pay toward that loan So you can see there the total loan amount is 3.7 million. That will generally go to site improvements such as utilities, roadway, parking, lighting, landscaping, as well as our design consultant fees. Then we have the federal home loan bank. Those are what we could utilize for our structures. So that is a grant amount, a max of $2 million. So you can see here, so that could help pay for the restroom, the two restroom buildings, kitchen buildings, the community center building and the pet shelter building. So what's not included in this that you can see are the 45 tiny homes, which we're estimating to be about 1.3 million with a total gap to fund of 1.7 million. And we're hoping that we would work with our community partner that we're working diligently on this with. Um, as we look into that and look at their fundraising efforts to really help fill the gap and then have them do that. Uh, we've also looked at total operating costs. Uh, this was an estimate that Nancy had provided through her work, uh, through the homelessness and mental health strategic plan. So this number is just an estimate. We'll have to look into that more as we get a little bit further along. Um, but if we were to house 125 people in the campus, um, that could be a yearly cost as well. Again, more details coming in the future as we develop our policies, procedures, and operational guidelines.

Yes, sir. The little fold-up homes we have that we're exploring over at Lingafield, where are they at?

Those are your transitional homes. We still have those available.

Are they in that? They're the little yellow and number four. The number four?

Yes, they're number four.

But on the next page, are they in that anymore? No, because they're already purchased. But we just have them.

We have them, yes. I'm glad you brought that up. Thank you. So here is our proposed timeline. So as you saw, again, we are applying for the Section 108 loan. We would like to do that this fiscal year, next fiscal year. Around December timeframe, we would like to apply for the Federal Home Loan Bank Grant. We would hope to have those in place so we can begin construction in fiscal year 27 once the design is complete. We're hopeful then through that we would complete our site improvements in fiscal year 28 and then complete the buildings the year after that in fiscal year 29. So we're hoping to stick by this timeline and get this done. want to move on so as we talked a little bit about the structure you saw that what we're really trying to do is create more structure within the department and looking at homeless services as a program area want to make sure that we have a strong focus on that as we move forward with the little flock community as well as our other homelessness efforts and so we are recommending a homeless services manager position that would help manage the staff the whole team that we have now, which are two case managers and a homeless services manager. This would also be primarily focused on our tenant-based rental assistance program and have more of a higher level position that would be able to create or serve as a liaison between the City of Temple and Feed My Sheep in addition to Rucker and his efforts. They will also be very helpful. We feel like this position specifically as we start designing and looking at construction of the little flock campus will really have somebody need someone that will go in there and know how to do that and what the campus will need. And then also assisting with the policy development. So I want to talk a little bit about our homeowner assistance and reconstruction program. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes, sir. No, no, no.

Before you get off the, um, the homelessness piece.

Yes.

I don't typically, isn't there sort of a day in time count done for our homeless population every February or so? Something like that.

I think that's around the timeframe. Is that right? Yeah.

Do we, um,

what is that count does anybody know at the top of your head but are you asking the exact number of what the count was in temple yeah it seems like it's hovered around 400 yeah i think so you're exactly right i'm just i'm just wondering if that's what i was wondering too i don't have the exact number but that's what i was thinking was the last yeah i know one time there was maybe a miscount and Yes, yes, and then we went back out in coordination with Feed My Sheep and recounted.

So do we have that number somewhere? Yes, sir, we sure do. I think the council would be interested in knowing.

Okay, we can get that to you. Any other questions? Sorry, I'm moving quick. I apologize. Okay, so our HARP funding, so this is also known as homeowner funding. assistance and reconstruction program so we have requested funding for this this is that home replacement program that we have in place right now and what the council has provided to us through the budgeting process is twenty thousand dollars per home so i want to let you know so our our fiscal year 27 request is for 260 000 so what we try to do is five replacement homes per year so historically you have seen a request of about 100 000 20 000 per home This is significantly higher. So I want to go through that a little bit with you all. So the current budget is $155,000. Of that, we receive $135,000 from 2DHCA. So as I mentioned, that's a city match of about $20,000. So when we went out this fiscal year, fiscal year 26, we first went out for, and it was, I think I had my dates wrong. I apologize. It should be. So we first went out, and it was $245,000 for the home. It was just one home that we asked for, and it was the same home that we had done in years past, where our match was much less. It came to be $245,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath home. So we went back to the drawing board. We redesigned, and we really scaled it down to a two-bedroom, one-bath, tried to We have to keep the square footage at a certain amount in order to get that $135,000 from TDHCA. So we did the minimum that we would be allowed to do, but then scaling down the number of restrooms as well as bedrooms. And the bids still came in at $182,640. So I reached out to some contractors just to see are these numbers real or we were saying it and someone looked at it for me and said, well, you know, because of construction costs now, it's around $187,000. So this funding gap that we had before was $20,000 and now it's grown to $52,000. Talking to TDHCA at this point, they have no plan to increase their portion of it. So if we want to continue doing it, we feel like the funding gap is about $52,000 per house for that two-bedroom, one-bath. It would be smaller. And so if we wanted to move forward with that, it would be at five homes, that would be $260,000.

Y'all have any questions on that? Well, the funding that we had prior, we still have that. We haven't used it.

Correct, yes.

How long can we hold on to that?

It's your budget. It's our money. It's your money, your match, yeah. And then we work through TDHCA on the other portion. They have money available yearly, and they still do now.

So the TDHCA money that we had, we still have. We still have opportunity to use that.

Of course, most definitely. We would just have to up our match.

Is it use it or lose it, Erin, or is it roll over each year?

the tdhca money um trying to figure out i don't think it rolls over there's a there's a certain amount of time and i can't recall what the time period is that you're essentially a certified entity so you can request to qualify a home through the program and as long as there's fun as long as you are a certified entity and there's funding available at the state level you can request that once you have a And when you get to the point where that expires, you can re-up it, which we've done one time. So the access to the state's program funding is pretty simple. And there's usually funding available. And in part, it's because a local community has to bring so much to the table. So so many are not. willing or able to do that so there's usually that state funding is available but because they have that hard cap on how much you can spend and you can't actually build a house for that they've they've got a um it's it's kind of a problem so you know maybe something that we consider um advocating for as we develop our session, but unless we're willing to go up to $52,000 a house, then this is really not a practical program for us to participate in at this time.

So you use the term qualifying house or something like that. Does that mean that every project, like a few years ago we did five, so does that mean we had to make application to the program five separate times? I mean, is it per house?

Yes. Okay.

So we could take the $100,000 budget and do two houses a year. That could be the choice.

Yes, sir.

Right. This probably deserves a separate workshop conversation. This is probably not the venue for us to have this, but staff will need some direction on the money that we have budgeted this year. Do you want to do just that, do two houses? Are you willing to contribute $52,000 per house, or do we need to release that money, reprioritize it for other non-recurring capital needs, and advocate to have the state increase their guidelines so this program can be effective again? That's a tough one. so comfortable that this was so far outside the original parameters of the, if you'll recall, this has been several years, so originally we were budgeting a $10,000 match per house. And at that point, wonderful program to participate in, you're getting much needed new housing stock for people who are really needing that, you're getting $100,000 from the state of the budget needs that we have on the table here. It's really something that I would hope that the state would consider changing their guidelines because I think it's gonna become harder and harder for local communities to access any of this money because it's just, It's just very difficult, I think, for us here locally to commit that level to access the state funds.

But then you think that if communities aren't accessing the funds, then the state does away with the program, right? I mean, they could.

Well, this is not general revenue of the state. of communities that are not participating jurisdictions. So if you'll remember, if you've heard the term entitlement community under the Community Development Block Grant Program, once you reach 50,000 in population, you're an entitlement community under CDBG, The home program, there's a different, first of all they call it a participating jurisdiction instead of an entitlement community. Why there's two separate terminologies, well, maybe Rucker knows. But there's a different criteria and so communities like us don't qualify as a participating jurisdiction. So we then go to the state who gets a general pot of money from HUD to administer on behalf of all of the cities that aren't participating jurisdiction so they couldn't for example take this money and spend it on something that doesn't overall qualify. It's restricted for the state. They could do something different that qualifies but it's not just general revenue for them.

Got it. I don't recall any of that.

Negative.

I think the council may recall.

I'm sorry, go ahead. So we're also have received a request from Central County Services, who's completing a supportive housing project. They are asking for us to help in those efforts. This is proposed to be a they would like for us to help them in the amount of $132,318. So what they are building is a 15 unit. Um, effectively it's an apartment complex, but it is only available. It's permanent supportive housing. So it's only, available to individuals with serious mental illness and frequent crisis system utilization and so there aren't any counseling services that are provided here however MHMR is right by them and so those counseling services are nearby they would have two property managers that are on site to just help with them but they feel like this would be a significant benefit it's very nice design they are complying with our love where you build standards and In situating the building to the front and having the parking in the rear as well as alley access But really expect this to be a strong community impact by providing this housing type to provide a 50% reduction in hospitalizations for increased housing stability for those vulnerable residents and we're proving Improving health outcomes and reduce public system burden and that is all I have for you today We have it answer any questions you have

That is 22nd and Avenue D?

I can't remember exactly. It is in Ferguson Park. I remember in Ferguson. I don't think I have a map. Oh, yes, let's see. 22nd and D, yes. Okay, thank you.

The CCS have their own, I mean, obviously, they're going to, $132,000 doesn't do it.

no they've already applied for grants so I believe they have a grant already for a couple million dollars that they've already been brought to and then they've also had community support that thing and so they're asking us for a portion of that support yes that's what they're left with I think is my understanding out of all the fundraising as well as the grant

Anything else for Erin?

I think I'm staying up here for a while with y'all.

So you're next again?

I think so, right? Yeah. I have two more.

I think they said they missed the count. That was an issue a few years ago. so I don't think the number is correct.

Also, like two years running, it's low. Is that what you're saying?

I think that's pretty accurate, or we think we missed some?

still just to think that there's 300 out there you know that's difficult yes all right so this is the uh budget priorities for the planning and development services department so again i want to go over the org chart so when i first started managing this department it looked very different the building inspection side we made a few changes over there where we created, so we took a position and we reclassed several positions to create more structure within the department. So we created a chief permit technician position and a chief plans examiner position. We also took that position as well and existing planning positions in creating a planning manager under long range planning and a planning manager under development review. Those are two program areas within the planning that did not exist before. So development review is focused mainly on your plots, your zoning change requests, your variances, your case management side of things. And then the long-range planning side, we're focusing on neighborhood planning efforts, master planning, corridor planning, and overlays like the Love Where You Build initiative that we just completed, so a lot of things like that. So here's some additional structure that I'd love to see in there. And while some of these aren't going to be exactly the titles, I just wanted you to see kind of what we were thinking about. So under the long range planning manager, we'd like to add two positions, a neighborhood planner and a planner that could be focused on our real estate, as well as the temple revitalization corporation. Um, we're working through that right now, but somebody that can directly manage that would be very helpful. Also on the building permits and inspection side of the house. So right now we have a chief building inspector and six inspectors under that. So we'd like to make sure that we have a little bit more hierarchy there. And so creating an additional chief building inspector physician and adding two more combination building inspectors to make a total of eight. And then also adding a permit technician and a plans examiner. So I'll go through those a little bit. But first, I want to start with something that is my highest priority is a unified development code. So when I came into this, it was in the middle of it. And since we're kind of waiting until we hire a planning director to get going again. But I did a lot of review as to where we currently are. So I wasn't a part of that previous process. So in 2022, you all approved an agreement for a little under $250,000, and then three years later approved a contract amendment for $18,700. That revised that contract value to $268,538. So I've reviewed several of the documents, looking at where we are. As you know, we really haven't started our public engagement process, and a lot of work is needing to be done. But And we do have a total remaining, unfortunately of just over $37,000 with that. So I really want to take this and work on it in house with the planners and the team and, um, get this through, um, it would be useful to us. Um, and, and this will also require a lot of public engagement, as you know, as we change the zoning, that will be a notification that goes out to every citizen within the city of temple. And so I'd like to take that total remaining and use that toward public engagement, and then I have a request in for $150,000 to finish out this planning document so we get you all an updated code.

I think this might be worthy of a workshop topic. We've been working on that a long time.

Yes, sir.

I'm not real sure where we stand.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it kind of started and stopped for, you know, I think council would probably appreciate an update.

Okay.

On, you know, of the $231,000, what did that get us?

So I will say I've done a lot of research on that as well. Our consultants have sent us what they consider to be final drafts of each area within the UDC, but I really need to go in there and review that, and I think we need to make some, changes to those documents as they are now no we we started with the the signage process with our local builders but that's as far as we went

I think that what I was getting at is I think it's worth a review to find out where we stand now before we bring someone in to finish it off.

It does. But Erin's got time. She can do it. Erin does not have time.

I think I'm talking about something different. To me, this is a project that's important to the community and it's not been managed well. I would like to know why.

We just need a planning director to manage it.

I understand. Just get us up to speed. Doesn't have to be a big thing. Just get us up to speed.

Sure. So as I talked to you a little bit about the org chart, we'd like to add some positions to long-range planning. So we've really had a significant focus on our neighborhood planning efforts, but we want to add a lot to it with the UDC update. I would fully expect this division to work very closely with our director to take this on but continuing efforts with our neighborhood plans but and corridor planning and adding on some more significant overlay development transportation planning as well as master planning so we are proposing two positions to specifically help out this division within the planning department in 28 and 29 then that would be four planners under each manager in both long range and case management As far as the building inspection side of the house, as I mentioned earlier, we have six inspectors. Those six inspectors are averaging 24.85 inspections per day. The industry standard is 8 to 15 per day. So you run a lot of risks when you're doing that many inspections per day on quality, some liability, also coming in and working several hours to make sure that the inspections get done in a timely manner for our community. And so it also limits the ability for those inspectors to go and get additional training because staffing is necessary to get those completed. We would really like to achieve a target of 12 to 15 inspections per day. So with that, we are recommending adding a combination building inspector in 28, and then that chief building inspector, as I mentioned, to create a little bit more structure within that division in 29, and then another combination building inspector in 30, which would be a total of eight combination building inspectors and two chief building inspectors. plans examiner so planning we've historically had a plans examiner and and we've moved that around a little bit and so that is primarily focused in building permits and inspections and so they look through all of the plans that are submitted within the city of you know we have a lot of large industrial projects that have been coming and so that creates a lot more complex reviews and So it takes a little bit longer to do that, but we also know that we want to maintain our quick review time and get back, but make sure that we highly focus on our code and making sure all that's done. Also, a strong coordination right now is what I've been encouraging between planning as well as building permits and inspections. So as permits come in, those plan reviews come in, you often have zoning that sometimes it's very specific about what can be done through a plan development. So that coordination is key. and that requires a lot of coordination between the two divisions within that department. So we're recommending bringing on another plans examiner in fiscal year 30, which would create a structure of a chief plans examiner and two plans examiners under them.

I have a question on that.

Yes.

In the building department, where are we trending right now with building permits? compared to 22, 23, 24, 25?

Yes.

Are we slowing down?

We are slowing down, yes.

Currently? Mm-hmm. How significant is it? I have that.

It's hard to gauge until the end of the year because summer's typically the uptick, and I have those numbers. I'll have to send them to you. I apologize I didn't have them in this presentation, but it is less than we've seen in years past, particularly residential building permits.

Is that still being updated? I believe so.

Well, it's not just the update, but also the trending over the years.

Yeah, I have a whole – actually, we built out a bar chart that shows you since 2020, which was a significant year, as you know, but 2020 to current. And it is trending downward. But I will say, with that being said, the complexity of the – Well, it's going back to normal. Right. It's going to normal as far as residential goes. But the industrial permits and things like that are increasing.

I think at the last – the second quarter financials, and I'm pulling it up, I think we were down 22% compared to last year.

That sounds about right.

That's just single-family, though.

Yeah, that's just single family. Okay.

That's not permits in total.

Right, yeah, commercial and build out some different things, yeah.

It has shown a sharp decline since the peak that we've had in, I think, 23 was our peak year. And it's had a downward trend since then to a more stabilized level of what we saw. level that the permits have because the jobs that we're seeing are those more complex industrial jobs that require, you know, you may have a single, well, wouldn't be a single permit, but a handful of permits, but hundreds and hundreds of inspections. So if you're looking at overall workload for the inspectors, that has not necessarily leveled off with is certainly that that is certainly the trend line is uh right now it's it's it's coming back down and leveling off to where it was more similar to where it was pre 21 22 23. gotcha okay thank you so i mentioned long-range planning you know we've we've really been focused on neighborhood planning and so we've um

We're shifting a little bit. We're broadening our horizon. So right now we are underway with the I-35 corridor plan. We put a hold on it just to see what the TxDOT I-35 expansion plans would look like from our southern city limits to Loop 363. But now we're underway with that again. We're also underway with the State Highway 317 zoning. I'm sorry, corridor plan. which I am really happy to report. I have done a lot of planning in the city of temples for me and my career actually. And, and, um, we submit, we had a survey out for about a month on the three 17 corridor plan, and we received 2,298 responses, which is by for the most survey responses I've ever seen. So I'm really excited. And it was really great to see what the community had to say. I mean, very encouraging. So. This is a significant corridor. It's largely undeveloped. We want to start getting ahead of things instead of getting, being behind things. So this is an opportunity for us, um, to get ahead of that by finishing this quarter plan and then bringing a zoning overlay forward to you all that would bring forward. Um, S you would look at site design components as far as parking, driveway placement, building placement, sign height. Um, and so that's what we're hoping to do. Uh, we do have the I 35 zoning overlay right now. Um, but that, uh, that does exist, but likely with this plan, we'll, we'll wanna update that. So, uh, going in as I, I feel like I've talked about this so much before I got to this slide. So we are requesting $50,000. Um, as I mentioned, the it's currently underway with the corridor plan. I'd say we're probably about 30% complete. with that, but we just have a really unique opportunity here to establish some development standards and really make sure that we get ahead of the development and make sure that this corridor has that high quality intentional development. And one thing that we've seen in other corridors and other communities that I'd love to see with this corridor in particular is that sometimes when you have a corridor plan, when you have those unified development standards in place, even if development happens incrementally, it looks very consistent and attractive along the way and almost looks like it was all done at the exact same time, which is exciting. We also have in here, the South Kegley master plan. Um, we'd like to do that. I'm not calling this one, a neighborhood plan, although we did identify this area through our neighborhood planning efforts, but this is another opportunity. So while you do have some existing residential in this area, it's largely undeveloped. It's also a really key part of our community. It's surrounded by several major corridors. As you can see, I 35 or Waco road Adams. and stayed, sorry, Dodge and Loop. And so we would love to go in here with some, and look at this as a master plan to guide future development within this area. It will also provide an opportunity for us to engage with existing residences as well as other stakeholders in the area planning efforts.

So does that encompass over to a Waco area or just that little darker colored area up there?

the, for, I'm sorry, what was the question one more time? Oh, I'm so sorry. So it would, so what we've done is we have identified, um, corridors, um, within, so we would like to do a corridor plan for old Waco road, but this basically would still come out to old Waco road, this master plan effort. So effectively it would touch, um, those corridor boundaries of Dodge and loop Adams Avenue, old Waco road and, um, I 35. That. Yeah, that's just kind of an overlay there that shows you when we get, yeah, that's, that's the, um, corridor overlay that we have put in there that is showing you where we're gonna do some significant planning efforts. Well, we would like to do some significant planning efforts on those corridors themselves, but this will still be a master plan of this entire area that would encompass a portion of that.

The South Cately master plan would be, or is that just a little.

yeah so those aren't all like it wouldn't just go up to the where the corridor boundary is it would go all the way up to the roadway and then when we get into the corridor plans those are going to look a lot different because we're going to be looking more at site design along that corridor driveway spacing things like that where this is going to be more about zoning Uh, yeah, future development roadway networks. We'll look, we'll look at thoroughfare plan updates to it. Maybe some parkland if it's needed in this area, similar to a neighborhood plan, but different in the sense that you have a lot of undeveloped areas. So, but as you're right, council member Emmons, I think this could translate to maybe a, a city initiated rezoning in the future, perhaps. Um, if so, be it, or, um, another thing that we often will do is when we get a closer look at these master plans is that we update our future land use plan, um, and ask you all for your consideration based on the recommendations here.

But my answer to your question, it is the area that you, you, you drew with your hand just there. So it's an, it's essentially the area plan or that area that you highlighted.

The corridor plans are different later on. There are a lot more specific stuff.

That was way better said than I said it. Thank you. Yes.

So it covers both the existing development there, but also predominantly looking at the undeveloped area that surrounds Wildflower and some of those smaller existing household tracts. So just making sure that we have a good plan for how that develops both in a way that complements and is cohesive with the existing development in that area.

Is that taking into account the proposed new route of the outer loop along Albuquerque Road there? Is that where that curve is?

Yes.

So just the idea would be to look at it comprehensively. and that looks at connectivity and land use patterns.

I have had a lot of people talking to me about the, particularly the Hogan. Traffic alleviation, I guess.

Would this study do anything about drainage?

Um, no, we, we, well, we can look at that, um, through the master planning efforts and kind of look at the top free and maybe identify there's been cases where we can see those low spine spots and we identify them. We won't do specific calculations, but we do.

I mean, just saying is the, the, the more density you get there, the more problems we'll identify that through is that I forget the name of the Creek that basically follows Kegley down there, goes through the golf course and all that.

You'll often see with our neighborhood plans, we try to make it a nice feature. So often we'll take advantage of those areas that are existing and expand on them to serve future development, but then also create some park-like elements by them.

It does include, the scope would include utility needs, including water, wastewater. Oh, yes, thank you. I know it's not engineered calculations.

It's more about an overall impact. Yes, sir. Yeah, okay.

Lastly, neighborhood enhancement grants. So relatively new program. I think just a little over a year old right now. So we are requesting an annual funding allocation of $100,000. As you recall, the council approved us taking this on about a year and a half ago, which provides residential and non-residential grants for properties that are located within our neighborhood planning districts in our corridor areas. What we have right now with this policy and what was presented to council just on an update on your recent agenda is to provide a 20% city match for any infill or new development that's proposed for rehabilitation of existing structures or adaptive reuse where you can burn existing residential structure into a commercial type use. Um, we offer a 50% city match, um, with a maximum grant award of $10,000. So, uh, we do try to encourage this as not just, um, for people to completely rehab, as you can kind of see in some of the images here, but if you need to do some things to make sure your home doesn't get into disrepair, whether that's window replacement, um, just maybe some, some renovations that are necessary to prevent your home from becoming in decline and eventually demolition. we can offer this grant. So you don't have to take advantage of the full $10,000. You can take advantage of a portion. So we'd like to continue doing that. And here are some examples of those efforts and how this grant has been utilized. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

We don't really hold our questions till the end. I know.

I love that. I think I have one more. There we go. And then you won't have to hear from me. So Heather's not gone. She's just on vacation. So I told her I would take over for her. because it's a much needed and deserved vacation. So there are two items that fall within her priority areas. The first one being a graphic designer. So right now it's kind of a team of two. You have a creative services manager right now, but there's just been, with many departments and services and programs that we're providing, we have quite a few requests. And I think to just this fiscal year, since October, It's been 250 requests to these graphic designers. So the manager has not had really an opportunity to work on things that would be more of an executive level or managerial level to provide some support and make sure that we look at streamlined processes as well as, um, other prioritizations for that division. Um, because they are really focused right now on, um, responding to the several departments that need these services. So a graphic designer adding on staff would help alleviate that. Uh, oh, did y'all have any questions before I move on? Okay. Then the chair replacement plan. This is for the Mayborn convention center. So right now the Mayborn convention center has about 900 chairs that are over 21 years old. Several of them, um, are just in, in torn, um, not working properly. I think there are about 400 chairs right now that are fine. Um, they're operable. You don't see signs of wear and tear. So often for large events, what they need to do is kind of come in and they will have to change out other chairs and put in some plastic chairs instead of using the others because they're in such disrepair and then cover them. So that's an additional cost to cover them. So what they're requesting to do is replace those chairs. they feel like this will really be helpful for accommodating larger events also just the overall customer experience for those who book the mayborn will look more professional for events will remain more of a competitive venue in that also will really help with operational efficiencies a faster event set up right now what the staff has to do is go through and see what shares are good enough basically and more acceptable enough to be put there so and then less time for them to kind of manage those mismatching of chairs that we exist today so as I mentioned you know they're over 20 years old and our inventory is doing you can see the plastic chairs that I referenced earlier those are the ones that often will have to be utilized as opposed to you know it's kind of the nicer comfier chairs there with the cushioning and then we cover them and just And that is just strongly needed because we have to provide so much seating, especially for those larger events. So we are strongly recommending we have a replacement plan for the Mayborn Convention Center chairs. And that is it. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

What is the cost for the chairs? I didn't think I saw.

What did we have in here? Oh, she did not put that in there. Do you remember?

Sorry.

157,000, okay.

And that would be something similar to the fold-out ones with the cushion?

But even better, where you can stack them more efficiently. Sure.

Yeah, that's embarrassing to see those. It's not great.

That's replacing all the plastic and all the folding.

Mm-hmm. What they're proposing is even to increase their inventories of 1,000 chairs to 1,300.

And get rid of everything in that picture.

That would be nice, yes.

OK. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for letting me talk about our budget priority. A lot of them didn't just rise to the $50,000 level. But I wanted to give you just a quick overview of our combined department of library, archives, and museums. You know a lot about it, but I wanted to give you some details and up-to-date numbers. As you know, we have the 72,000 square foot building, which takes a lot of our money, and my one ask today is to replace a generator. for that building to keep it operational. We have the Santa Fe Depot, which is the Railroad Museum, and then of course the Springer Archives. The office is now located on the second floor of the library. In addition to that, we have outreach services that continue to grow. Across all three program areas, we have 45 employees, 27 full-time and 18 part-time. Altogether, we're open 3,000 hours for library and archives and 1,500 for museums, so about 4,500 hours. And last year, we had 143 service points. So it's high impact, high use. A lot of people enjoying the library. We had 200,000 annual visits last year and more than 800 programs. So that was across outreach, museum, and library. So we reached a lot of people. We had 29,000 program visits and 350,000 circulations, physical, audio books, everything is included in that number. seven exhibitions and then 153 archives research requests plus we had a lot of community engagement with volunteers about 1,600 Hours were donated and that's probably under reported. So that was last year Obviously, you know our work areas early literacy Workforce development we play a role in tourism and cultural identity with the museum and then education support and So my one ask is for, over $50,000 at least, is for a replacement generator for the library. This is replacing one that is currently not working at all, and it would allow us to make sure that if we had any flooding in the basement, which has occurred in the past, that this would kick on. Right now we don't have any backup, so basically if the power goes out, If there's a storm, if there's something like that and we can't get to the building, we could have flooding in the basement and other areas. And we do currently have some archival and museum storage in the basement. So it seems like a critical and definitely facilities says this is a critical need for us. So this is the one item over 50,000. We have other items, obviously, in future fiscal years and things that just didn't rise to this number. But this is the big one. Do you have any questions about that? Okay, thank you very much.

And as Kevin started out with last but not least, I'm closing us out today. I appreciate this opportunity, Mayor and Council, to present my 2027 budget priorities, but before I get into my requests, I do want to take this opportunity to remind you about what strategy and innovation does. We have three program areas. Continuous improvement. This is where we strengthen the systems that are behind the services that we provide so that employees can do their best work. Our next program area is strategy and data analytics. And through data analytics, this is where we provide insight to leaders to help them to make decisions. And then through our strategic plan, we implement council's vision for the community and make big projects actionable. And then finally, through our policy program, this is where we give the city a voice at the capital so that the city's priorities are heard. So I have four requests for 2027. They're all new position requests. You'll see I have two continuous improvement coordinator requests, a policy analyst, and a data analyst. And so digging into the details of each one of those, the continuous improvement coordinator, I'm asking to fund that position to deliver process improvement work with the city departments. You know, I want to be realistic about where this request falls out in all of the requests that you've seen. You've just sat here that you're finishing up your third half day of listening to the requests, the needs of the departments. And the needs are great, and the resources are very limited. And that really, I think, presents a challenge for a department like mine, because we are not a public-facing, service-providing department. So we don't keep people safe, we don't ensure that the water coming out of the taps is safe to drink, and we don't pick up your garbage to keep Temple beautiful. So we don't provide any of those kinds of services. And so I can understand how when you get to a request like this for a non-service providing department, how it could seem like it is less critical maybe than some of the others, but I wanna make the opposite case. Um, you know, it is exactly a budget year like this one where, um, you know, we, you know, really need to do more with the resources that we have. Right. Um, we can't just. add a new position to solve a problem. We have to find other ways to do that. And that's where I think we really need to dig deep into our services and look at where in our processes and see where we can eliminate the steps that don't provide value or reduce the waste that creates delays and errors. And that's exactly what process continuous improvement does. And so a few benefits about this position are part of it, we already have a manager's position that is unfilled right now. So I've worked on the infrastructure for the program. Really, the program is ready to go. I need the staff to launch it out there. This program can pay for itself. So the use of continuous improvement by cities is not theory, it's something that's out there. Not every city obviously has continuous improvement programs, but there are a number of established programs. Here in Texas there is Irving and Houston and San Antonio and El Paso and also Sugar Land. They all have established continuous improvement programs. There are a number across the nation. My favorite and the one that I have really modeled the program that we'll deliver from is the city of Tacoma, Washington. And so I've talked to a lot of these cities over the last number of months, really trying to develop our program. In talking with the director of Tacoma's program, I asked him several questions about, like, how do you measure return on investment for this? And their program started out in 2016, I think, with two people. And now they have a staff of 18 people, not all doing continuous improvement because they have other things, just as all departments do. but they have four dedicated staff members for continuous improvement and manager and three what they call continuous improvement consultants and in 2025 he shared that those two two of the continuous improvement consultants Well, first of all, let me back up. The entire continuous improvement team cost the city of Tacoma about $931,000. And those two continuous improvement coordinators were able to affect $1.2 million in hard dollar savings. And now, obviously, I'm not promising, you know, in our first year of operations we can do something like that. But I am absolutely confident that a program like this could eventually pay for itself. So I think it's a great one to consider. So the next one is our policy analyst position. And as council is really familiar with, since 2024, we've really expanded our legislative engagement program with the addition of a legislative task force and more targeted engagement with our elected delegation. We hope to continue that into this next legislative session. And so just a few highlights from the 89th session. There were, I think, close to 9,500 bills that were filed of those. Just under 2,500 impacted cities in some way. And so we were tracking and following all of those. You know, we had three priority bills, um, that were really important to the city in this last legislation legislative session. We had a bill related to our ASR. We had the, um, railroad annexation bill, and then we had a bill related to, um, the, uh, veterans, uh, tax exemption, all three of those, you know, passed. And so I feel like that we've had some good results. on the increased work that we've done, enhanced programming that we've done with our legislative task force and our legislative program. So this policy analyst position really would come on board to help me with triaging bills, watching the hearings and getting ready for any testimony those kinds of things and you know really it really is one session start it starts it really is like you know drinking from a fire hose there's a lot that goes on so adding this policy analyst I think would allow me to be more focused on really that continued engagement with our elected delegation being more present in Austin and those kinds of things so that's the second request and then I'm requesting a second continuous improvement coordinator and this would really scale up that program I think with the addition of the first continuous improvement coordinator that's going to be great we'll be able to get out there and start doing some of the projects but really servicing I think close to 25 departments now I think having one would mean that there's gonna be a lot of project work, but there'll be a long queue for those. Two would really allow me to implement sort of a two-tier delivery model where we have one of those coordinators that would be working on those Maybe more like eight week cycle projects. So they'd be doing more frequent projects, shorter, maybe less involved, shorter term kind of projects. And then having the other coordinator working on more in-depth, longer term projects. And then finally a data analyst position and I'll highlight that that was a leadership priority. I have a data analyst on staff now. One of the things I think you've heard me talk about a little bit is the star program, which is the strategic tracking and reporting program that we are implementing. We've been developing it all year. we're implementing and rolling out in the new fiscal year. And really what that program is is to provide project management standards and practices for our departments to help us to implement our strategic initiatives in a more standardized and regular way. It's got a lot of reporting and tracking and all of that kind of stuff. I think which will provide a lot more visibility and for the city manager and the leadership team and council into the status and and Where the projects are as they're going through the process of being implemented. So I think it'll be really great I think it'll be great support to departments everything will have a you know, define steps and phases to go through, so there's some standardization there that I think helps departments that, you know, we have some departments that work very frequently on a project basis, but other departments, you know, running projects isn't sort of their daily bread and butter, and so I think they maybe need a little bit more guidance and help, and this program will do that. So bringing on that data analyst is really to support the implementation of the star program. But in addition to that, we have curriculum built out for an analytics academy. And but we don't have really a staff to be able to start hosting that for city staff. And really, that's intended to really just improve our data literacy throughout the organization so that as leaders we all understand how to use data and how to report out on data and make decisions based on data which is really I think really critical and important And that's my last way to sell it.

I hope I hope for itself.

Well, you know, maybe not in year one, but I do feel like that's definitely a strong possibility with that program.

You know, last year, that's the service mapping plan that we talked about last year. Last year, that was the, that was the one thing that I really, really hope we could get into the budget. That was kind of the last thing to end up on the cutting room floor. And I think that program, just to coordinate all those different things that all the different departments are doing, I mean, I think the efficiencies that could be found with just bringing on one continuous improvement coordinator, I mean, you're going to deliver services better, but you're also going to be more efficient, right? You're going to have less miles on trucks, less fuel burned, et cetera, et cetera. to me that i'll say this that uh the continuous improvement coordinator i think that is the only thing that in this whole process i've i've checked as being critical i have many many things that are high but um i think that just the the delivery to the customer right to the resident of temple um the taxpayer can be so much uh could could be delivered when coordinated well, could be delivered so much more efficiently. And I think something like that will easily pay for itself. So that's my pitch to council. To me, that's one that we could really use. So I appreciate that. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anything else?

We have, though there wasn't any dedicated resources that we were able to allocate to that program, we have already begun working on the foundations of it. And we have had a workshop with all of our department heads where we spent a long time together going through. And the first step in all of that is even to had an actual definition and list of the services that are provided under each department. As you know, we went through a really intense process, and we're not quite done with it yet. organized everything from a department division and program level so our next step was to identify what services are delivered under each program and so we're well under our you know what i what i told stacy and the team is that you know though we didn't have any dedicated resources i would be a very happy person if we ended the year with at least having those services defined so that we could start mapping them um you know

of course we'll continue to work on it additional resources or not but additional resources would just help us do it more effectively and quicker well you and i talked about that last year and that's one thing i do remember if you you um saying mayor just because we didn't fund it doesn't mean we're not going to start working toward it right and i think you maybe even made a promise to stacy that even though those rats up there on the dais didn't fund it.

I thought that was your promise. I thought you promised me.

I may recall she said that.

I thought you promised me that, Mayor. Do I? The rats.

Yeah, the rats. You said that. So I appreciate that effort. I think you knew that was important to us. We just couldn't fund it. And so y'all move forward. Other duties as assigned.

I think Stacy did a good job of highlighting it, but just in a more systemic and a way that provides both good direction, correct resources, and then helps us hold the project manager accountable for delivering that project to schedule and to budget. That process, our team, our city manager's office team and Stacy, and her team have been working on extensively over the last year. We just introduced it to the broader department head team a few weeks ago and we'll be having some training and it'll go live in October fully. We're doing some beta projects right now, but we'll be getting together as a department head team in July after we have some direction on what's gonna be in the budget, we'll select the projects for next year. But I think that that system, for example, something like the Unified Development Code project, if that had been managed through this system, where there's upfront direction and accountability, it would have been a much more successful program to date. So that's been a lot of work, especially for Stacey and the assistant city manager but I think that's gonna be a really important component that we've really lacked here. And I think it's become evident as we've grown and grown in both volume and complexity of the work that we do, we've just outgrown the more informal systems of ways we get things done and hallway conversations just doesn't work when you're a thousand plus person organization with some very complex projects. and high expectations from both our internal teams and you as our leadership and the community as a whole.

And being housed in different buildings. That slows things down quite a bit.

Even the people that I'm in the same building with,

We used to get reports. I know that we changed your department name to Strategy and Innovation. What was it previously?

Performance Excellence.

That's what I was looking for. We used to get reports quarterly, maybe twice a year, maybe through the Smart Sheets program that y'all were using on different projects and where they were sort of along the pathway toward completion. Of course, some of them were always ongoing.

but it would be, um, that's, that's what I was, that's what I was getting. That's why you've had a break in that reporting as we, as we've worked to develop a new system that I think is more realistic and accountable. Um, and so you'll see those as the system kicks off here in a couple of months. That's great. Now, Stacy has continued the annual reporting, which I think she's ready to present. We just got to get it on the workshop schedule. So we still maintain that system while we've been transitioning, and you'll still have your annual report. But I think that this new system will provide even more meaningful information. Two people.

So you're starting to get geared up for legislative session coming up?

Yeah. Actually, Brennan and I have a standing meeting tomorrow. I've got to get some things moving because we've got events starting in July for the task force and the expert workshop. And yeah, it's going to be a busy summer.

Very good.

Yeah, I'm excited to get started.

She may disinvite me. Probably. That might not be helping.

You may not should take her to Austin so often. Yeah. All right, very good. So I'm showing Public Works Administration as the last one that's left.

That's on your?

We're showing that's the only one of these items that's still blank. I thought I just didn't do it or something. I'm not saying.

I'm sorry, but that probably should have been in our first session. What items are on there?

Equipment operator for material staging yard, fleet yard wash bay equipment, communications coordinator, admin vehicle, APWA accreditation, fleet coordinator, strategic programs coordinator, public address system.

I mark stuff based on what I know because I thought I must have missed it or something.

I just put them all critical.

Perfect. Oh, there it is. I did them all low.

It'll come right down the middle. I hate to do a disservice to them, but let me...

Let me go over those. You'll have to tell me what they are.

First one was the equipment operator for material staging yard. Is that something Kelly would have? I'm looking to see if I have a presentation.

so uh that that first item um there is a a material storage yard or staging area at our east service center right now it is so avenue h service center right now it's completely unmanned yard so we have some significant issues both with the accountability of who's taking things back there. We're having some illegal dumping issues back there. But honestly, even our own teams, because nobody is organizing or overseeing that area, we don't necessarily get people staging their materials, even if they're authorized to stage them there in the most, the correct places. So the idea behind that request is to assign an equipment operator that would essentially be, I think Don would call it the yard dog. So having somebody that is managing that area to prevent both unauthorized access and dumping, but also to help organize and direct staff on where they need to stage materials and collect materials from. So just someone essentially to oversee material storage yard that is used by both our transportation and our utility services teams on a regular basis it's it's at that campus but it's not behind the fence right we do have we've implemented some technology to do what technology can do, but there's limits to the, and if memory serves correctly, there's been some, like we have historically allowed maybe some brush contractors, it may have been a staging area for some brush drop off So there can be some blurred lines between whether you're bringing something that you're allowed to bring or you're bringing something that is, you just need to go across the street and dump it at the landfill. So that's the idea behind that request is to have a dedicated person managing that area of our service center. Can you remind me what the next one is?

The fleet yard wash bay equipment.

Okay, so again, at our East Service Center, we do have a wash area for our heavy equipment, and right now it really, I do a picture's worth a thousand words. I don't even know where to tell you to go get one, though, Kelly, but. It essentially looks like a power washer, like a handheld power washer that you might have in your garage. And that is what we're using to be able to wash and maintain our equipment. So this would install, this request would install some proper equipment at that wash bay for our public works teams to use to maintain their equipment.

Maintain meaning clean. That's over 50,000?

It is, yes. Would it be really just putting in a wash bay, like commercial type?

Yeah, I think it's a – I'm looking at this car wash guy. He may help me out, but – uh the bay is there so it's just the equipment inside it we already have oil or grease traps there yes yes so it's just the just the pressure washing part yes something that goes higher so because those trucks are are um some of them are tall i'm sorry i'm not doing this a great service and i'm going off a memory but it also includes wash the tops off. The next request was so that's very similar to the presentation that you heard today from Kevin in the parks department. The idea here is that for our our larger four departments, there would be a dedicated person in those departments to coordinate back to our main internal service department. So you've also heard similar requests related to things like fleet coordinator. So in departments that have many, many assets, we're trying to have a point of contact to manage on the department side and then liaison back with the centralized internal service department. So you'll have that in communications with with Parks and Recreation Department. Um, with the, instead of for each department in, you know, so instead of transportation, having one and solid waste, having one, this person would, would serve through the umbrella of the public works departments. Um, the police and fire departments already have a, um, uh, PIO, um, or communications person embedded in their department. So this would expand that same concept out to the other two of our large departments or department umbrellas.

Admin vehicle.

OK. Do we know if that was? I don't recall that that was a replacement or a new. It was probably less than 50. I would skip it. If you will, just skip that one.

I'm sorry. APWA reaccreditation.

I'm almost certain that that's also under 50, but essentially, as you know. You won't recall, you just know, um, public works, uh, received, uh, achieved accreditations a few years ago. And so this is just a cycle where, um, they, they have a responsibility. If we want to maintain that, that we get, that we re up that process. So Don was just asking for, um, the funding and his budget to accommodate that. But I do believe that's well under 50,000 coordinator. And fleet coordinator, again, very similar with the communications coordinator. The intention there is for in our largest four departments, or the departments that have a large fleet, for there to be a dedicated resource to be the go between the department's needs and the fleet operations shop. So you've seen that request. land he talked about the request in in the battalion chief when he was here last week there is a there is a quartermaster or fleet coordinator in the police department already actually both of those resources and so this would be that person for our public works teams and again it would It would be embedded within the Public Works Administration so that it would cover all of those departments, including transportation, solid waste, and engineering has a small fleet, but so primarily solid waste and transportation.

Strategic Program Coordinator.

That position is also one that we seek to eventually build out in each of the four large departments to help coordinate back with, for example, Stacy's team and program, or accreditation would be under that person's umbrella. any any strategic program that we're rolling out it would be a single point of contact for the department to work with the management team to implement those programs within the department my understanding is that is a to be installed at the service center so that there can be a I don't know if mass communication is the right way, but to speak to the folks in their offices and throughout the facility kind of at one time. So if there's announcements that need to be made, that's just another way to share that data and information with folks. A lot of, as y'all might imagine, a lot of the folks that work in our public works teams are not dedicated computer users. So sometimes getting information out to a broad set of folks, the best way to do it is just By voice, yeah. So it's just another option for communication because a lot of those staff members aren't going to be getting city emails.

And we skipped the admin vehicle, but that's pretty self-explanatory.

If you'll just leave that one off. I think we need to remove that request. I'm sorry it got left on. Oh, okay. Or you could rate it critical.

Or low.

Whatever.

Okay.

I apologize for that. That's my fault.

Counsel, any questions or comments for Ms. Myers on that? I don't see any more things that haven't been rated. So I think that's it.

We got them all.

Yeah.

So again, mayor and council, um, what, what, uh, staff is, uh, tasked with now is to take the various feedback that we've received through, um, these series of workshops and work to put together a proposed, uh, preliminary budget for your consideration. We plan to file that on June 22nd, 26. I'm trying to move it up. June 26th, June 25th. We'll split the difference June 25th. Um, so that's when you'll see staff's recommended budget. And then we will, um, you'll get a full presentation on that from me at your July 2nd workshop. And then we'll spend the next six weeks together working through that. As council knows, we don't get our certified tax roll, which is obviously a really critical piece of this puzzle until late in July. So the preliminary budget will be filed with assumptions made by Tracy and team. And so we'll work through that together as we get that and we are scheduled to adopt or ask you to adopt the budget the second meeting in august so this next month we have a lot to work to do and then the next six weeks we'll work hard together to get that final budget across the finish line at the end of august so That is all staff had unless you all have have other things We appreciate your attention. I know they Presentations can drag on sometimes but these are all important and critical items for our departments to be able to deliver the important services that they do for our residents and we appreciate your your willingness to to consider them and we'll We'll take your feedback and hope to put together a good budget that you can support or tweak.

I just want to take the opportunity, since we're finished with all this, to say thank you. I know it's a lot of time for us, and I know it's a whole lot of time for all of the staff dealing with this. But I've done this several different years, and I've never felt as much involved and like I understand our budgeting process as much as I do after this. Thank you. And Sherry, where'd she go?

She's hiding back here.

Being able to do it on the software that she created is really helpful. It's pretty amazing.

The process keeps refining. And as a council member, it's been... easier to get my arms around it this year. And I thought last year was good, too. It was a lot, but it was good. So again, I've done these a few times, and it's getting better and better every year. We feel more informed. I think I've said before, it's a little intimidating sometimes to be the five volunteers up here that talk about, okay, we're going to spend X hundreds of millions of dollars and we do this part-time. So thank you all for working hard to make it easier for us to digest.

It's made it a lot easier for me to answer questions when people come to me and ask them about what we're going to put in the budget and what we have in the budget. It's made it easier for me to... not feel stupid about it.

The only thing that would be more fun if we had some money. That would be so much more fun.

It would have been fun to have this process. Yeah, very good. Council, anything else? Staff, anything else? We're done.

Thank you.

All right, very good. It's 3 o'clock. Thank you all for attending.