City Council - Regular Meeting

Regular council meeting for the city of Copper's Cove held September 15, 2026 is called to order at 6.05 PM. Madam Secretary, please stand for the invocation by Ryan, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening, this time that we have to deliberate the business of our community. Lord, I pray that you give this body, this council, knowledge, wisdom, and discernment in all decisions that they are making. I pray that your hand of protection is upon our community, our first responders, our military, our nation, and I pray that you give us guidance and direction in all that we do. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please join me to pledge our nation's flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And to the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Please be seated. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

Mayor Yancey?

Here.

Christina Strophus? Here. Rita Hogan? Here. Howard Hawk?

Here.

John Hale?

Here.

Dale Treadway? Here. Vanya Hart? Here. Jack Smith?

Here. All right, everyone's present. We move to item D, announcements. Ms. Rokas?

None for me, Mr. Mayor. None for me, sir.

None, Mr. Mayor.

Ryan?

Yes, sir. Tomorrow at noon here in the chambers is the first TERS number two board meeting. On Friday at 9 AM at the Killeen Civic and Convention Center is the POW MIA ceremony. October 3rd, which is Saturday, there are several things going on. First in Temple at 10 AM. City Councilmember Del Treadway will be receiving the Congressional Veteran Commendation Award. Mr. Treadway, congratulations, sir. At 10 a.m. at the Ogletree Gap Preserve from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is Oscars Market. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at City Park is the fourth annual Vet Fest. And from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. downtown is the National Night Kickoff Party with the Major Leagues theme. On October 8th at 10 a.m. is the Veteran Affairs Clinic groundbreaking ceremony at the VA clinic site. October 9th from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Civic Center is Market with a Mission. And from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Ogletree Gap Preserve is the Blue Grass and Barbecue fundraising event. hosted by the Copper's Cove Historical Society. And then October 10th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Ogletree Gap Preserve is the Ogletree Gap Heritage Festival.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. I have nothing, sir.

Thank you.

Nothing, Mr. Mayor?

No announcements.

No announcements. All right. We move to item E, Citizens Forum.

At this time, citizens will be allowed to speak for a length of time not to exceed five minutes per person on any item which is listed on the agenda and items not listed on the agenda. 30 minutes total has been allotted for this section. Pursuant to section 551-042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, Any deliberation or discussion about the subject of inquiry which is not listed on the agenda shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a subsequent meeting.

All right. Is there anyone to speak during Citizens Forum?

All right. I have a friend with me tonight. All right. Good evening, mayor, council, and city manager. I want to take a few minutes tonight to speak on behalf of the employees of the... Oh, yeah.

Ashley Wilson, 1206 West Avenue B.

Okay.

Okay. Wanted to speak on behalf of the employees of the city of Copper's Cove. First, I want to sincerely thank the city council for approving the cost of living adjustment for city employees as part of this year's budget. We recognize that these decisions are not easy and we appreciate that council took the time to consider the employees who work every day to serve this community. For many of us, this is about more than just a percentage on a paycheck. It represents recognition. It tells us that the work we do matters and that the people making these decisions see the value in the employees who keep the city running every day. As city employees, we want our community to know that we are proud to serve Copper's Cove. We care about this city, we care about the people who live here, and we care about the work that we do every day. And Ryan, thank you for what you do for this organization and for the employees who work here. Leadership comes with difficult decisions. It means having to make choices that aren't always easy and sometimes aren't always popular. I know that this isn't an easy responsibility to carry. Thank you for guiding your employees professionally, taking the time to listen to us, support us, and help us better at what we do. And thank you for also caring about us beyond our job titles. Many times you have asked about my kids or even said happy Mother's Day to me. And it's small things like that, the moments that mean a lot. They remind us that we aren't just employees, you see us as people. We are living through a time where emotions are high and opinions are strong. Anyone has every right to ask questions, voice concerns, and hold their leaders accountable. But as employees, we also have a responsibility to recognize the people who stand beside us and lead us every day. Sometimes when the criticism gets loud, I think it's important to remember that there are people standing on the other side saying, we see you, we appreciate you, and we are here with you. So to our mayor, city council, Ryan, and all the rest of our city leadership, thank you. Thank you for making the difficult decisions. Thank you for supporting us. And we're proud to work for this city, and we're proud to serve the people of this community. So tonight, I just simply wanted to make sure that gratitude had a voice too. Thank you.

Is there anyone else to speak during Citizens Forum?

Dana Wall, 3054 Colorado Drive. Good evening, mayor, city manager, and council. This evening, I came up here to speak to you about Safe Central Texas, suicide awareness for everyone. Yesterday, we were able to host our monthly meeting at the Copper's Cove Police Station. And I just want to take a moment and thank Brewer, Crystal, and Lieutenant Counter for coming out that day and speaking to the community. We had a little over 20 organizations that showed up yesterday and they were able to receive a little bit more clarification on how protocols work when there's a mental health crisis in our community. Because understanding the verbiage when you call into dispatch makes a huge difference in how our first responders come out and how they respond. A lot of individuals don't know in the community that when you call and you just immediately say that someone's disgruntled, they're just gonna send out the first responders that are able to come out to that area. But if you actually are able to identify some of these behavioral markers that show that someone is in psychosis, maybe they're having a manic episode, things of that sort, you're able to identify those and they know how to send out the proper individuals to respond to those situations. In essence, it keeps the individuals that are in a crisis safe, but it also keeps our first responders safe as well. And so that is what Safe Central Texas was built around. bringing awareness once again to the organizations that are in our community and building those relationships. Yesterday they were able to talk with several of our local organizations here in Central Texas and they exchanged the information and they've started building those relationships. So that way when they do have an individual that they go out in the community and they see that they're in crisis, they now are able to contact immediately Canyon Creek and other organizations. Those relationships can literally save lives in a moment of notice. Having those numbers that you can directly call at two o'clock in the morning when those typical organizations are closed, that makes a huge difference. Next month, our meeting will be October 19th. It will be from 11 to 1, and we'll be hosting it at Canyon Creek. So if any of you would like to join, including our residents, and would like to come out and receive a full tour of the facilities, get to ask up close questions so you can understand a little bit more about how the process even works through Canyon Creek, it makes a huge difference when we have clarification on things. So if your schedules allow, I ask you to come out, including our residents, if your schedule allows, I ask you to come out and if you would like to be added to our distro list, please just get with me afterwards. Again, thank you for everything.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor, city manager, and members of city council. My name is Kevin Miller. My address is 302 East Avenue E. Before I address the reason I'm here tonight, I want to take a moment to say something I think is very important. I know that over the last month or so, members of the council have taken a lot of criticism along with the city manager and mayor. Some of the decisions that have been made, whether we agree with or not, I think we sometimes forget that each of you chose to step forward, run for office, and serve our community. So thank you. The service takes time away from your jobs, your families, and your personal lives. And often the criticism is much louder than the appreciation. So before I ask anything of you tonight, I simply want to say thank you to all of you. Your service to the city of Copperas Cove is appreciated. With that said, I'm here tonight to ask you to support increasing the city's retirement contribution from 6% to 7%. This is more than simply a 1% increase. It is an investment in the people who have chosen to serve the city of Copperas Cove and our ability to retain good employees for the future. Most cities across Texas are already at 7%, and several are moving up to 8%. When our employees can go to another city, earn comparable pay, and receive better retirement benefits, we have to ask ourselves, what are we doing to encourage them to stay here in Copper's Cove? Increasing our retirement contribution gives employees another reason to make Copper's Cove their career, not just a place where they work for a few years in the city before moving to another city. There is tremendous value in retaining an employee for 20 years. We keep their experience, their training, their knowledge of the community, and the relationships they have built with our citizens. When experienced employees leave, we don't just lose a person. We lose years of knowledge and experience. Then we spend additional resources, time, and money recruiting and training someone to replace them. This increase has been discussed and planned for years. This groundwork for reaching a 7% retirement began before many of you were elected to your current positions. This is not a new idea being brought before you tonight. It is something employees have been anticipating and something that city staff has been working toward for years. If the funding has been budgeted and the plan has been in place, then I believe the time to act is now. Our employees have made a commitment to Copper's Cove Tonight, I'm asking the city to demonstrate that same commitment to them. A vote for 7% is a vote for employee retention. It is a vote for our employees and their families. And ultimately, it is a vote for the citizens of Copper's Cove, because experienced, dedicated employees provide better and more consistent service to our community. There will always be reasons to wait. There will always be another budget year, another financial concern. But after years of planning, there comes a point where we have to follow through. I believe that time is now. I respectfully ask for your support to our city employees to vote to increase the retirement contribution from 6% to 7%. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and more importantly, your service to our community. That's all I got.

Good evening, my name is Dwight McComb. I'm submitting a formal complaint in the Texas Public Information Act request concerning a parent preferred preferential treatment, institutional neutrality, and official conduct. The CCEDC's own website identifies Oktoberfest as an EDC housed events. The screenshots will show council candidate Dana Wall working for the rotary booth or in campaign clothing. They also show an event post tagging EDC executive director Fred Welch, EDC board member Fred Chavez, and Dana Wall. I'm not alleging these facts conclusively prove a crime. I am asking for an impartial investigation to determine whether the neutral rules exist and whether a candidate was offered equal access, whether the EDC or public resources contributed to a candidate's publicity. My concern is whether organizational or official influence was used to discourage legitimate questioning of a candidate. I ask that all related communications records be preserved and reviewed, including any communications concerning online responses or deletions of the discussion. Please identify the policy and the procedures governing the complaint, route each part through the proper reviewing authority, and notify me in writing who will conduct the review. I'm asking for the facts, equal treatment, clear political boundaries, and public accountability. Thank you.

Anyone else to speak during Citizens Forum?

No, sir, you'll need to hand it to the city secretary, please, sir. Thank you.

My name is Charles Streeter from 210 Overlook Trail. I'm very upset with you, Brian, because I came by at the last meeting Thursday morning to your office, left my name and my phone number with your secretary, trying to help you. to ask you to take something off of Curiel County website because now the guy at your old address is getting harassed because of somebody did at the last meeting. But you refused to even give me a call. So, To me, you're giving me the middle finger, and who cares about the community and everything? Because you ain't going to give us a call back. Am I correct?

And to you, Hawk, if you can't handle your job... Sir, if you want to address the council as a whole, that's fine. Okay. But not individually.

If y'all can't handle your job... There's the door. I'd be more glad to escort y'all out like y'all did to me a year ago with the fire department and the drugs. If you can't do it, you can't handle the heat and you're gonna tell us that we're toxic? I don't see y'all communicating with the public. The only two people that I see communicate with the public is Christina and especially Rita. I see Rita out there on Facebook all the time. But I don't see y'all. Never hear y'all in any way except right here. Y'all don't come up and talk. All y'all want to do is put in a information act and you could be charged 140 bucks to get five years worth of history of the golf course. But why should I have to pay 140 bucks for five years worth of golf course history of the payment when somebody on this board can just talk to you and then be more than glad to give out that information? Say, here, let me help you. Solves a lot of problems, a lot of heartaches. But when you're gonna sit there behind the mic and hide, and run with your little tail between your legs, because y'all don't want to communicate with the public? That's why we're here bitch, whining, crying, because we're curious. Because I don't want to pay $140 to get information that I should have the right of. Come on. That's all I'm asking. Be here for your community and we'll be here for you. But when you're not here for us, we're gonna stand up and fight.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council. My name is Marimer Cruz and you guys have my address. Before I begin, I want to remind this body of Texas Government Code Section 551.007 . Texas law says a governmental body may not prohibit public criticism of the governmental body, including criticisms of the acts, omissions, policies, procedures, programs, or services. Your own city rules give residents up to five minutes to speak. I am exercising that right tonight. And I'm doing something else citizens should be doing. I read the packet. There are things in tonight's packet that deserve questions. On Veterans Avenue and West Avenue D, council is considering engineering work for payment rehabilitation, but the scope excludes major drainage infrastructure, utility relocation, other work. So before we put fresh payment down, I want to know that we aren't going to come back later and tear it up because something underneath wasn't addressed first. That's not negativity. That's protecting taxpayer money. The city's investment policy also deserves attention. It requires independent annual compliance auditing of investment controls. Great. Then make those results easy for residents to find. Don't make somebody dig through hundreds of pages to determine whether the city's investment controls pass independent review. The Finance Department already published its financial investment information, put the independent results where ordinary residents can't find them. But the issue that concerns me most tonight actually leads directly into tomorrow's board direction of the TRC, the Tax Incentive Reimbursement Zone. Tomorrow we are looking at a financial structure that could involve the City of Copperas Cove, Coral County, Lampasas County, the TRSC Board, developers, and a brand new entity called the Copperas Cove Redevelopment Authority. That authority isn't just another committee. That packet says it could become the mechanism for assuming tax if sent bonds to repay the development cost. And here's the number everybody in Cove needs to hear. The TRC plan starts with approximately 68.3 million in current land value and projects approximately $11.4 billion. BILLION WOULD IT BE? AND THE CITIZEN DOCUMENT SAYS THE DEVELOPMENT VALUES FOR FOUR OF THE FIVE RESIDENTIAL PARCELS USE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS THEMSELVES. THAT'S NOT MY NUMBER. THAT'S YOUR DOCUMENT. THAT SAME PLAN CONTEMPLATES APPROXIMATELY 419 MILLION IN AGGREGATE PROJECT COSTS, DEVELOPER REIMBURSEMENT, FINANCIAL COSTS, AND POTENTIALLY BONDED DEBT. I want some very simple questions on the record. Who independently verify that 11.4 billion projection? Where is the downside analysis showing us that what happens at 75 percent, at 50 percent, or 25 percent of the projected development? Which developers could receive reimbursement? How much could each receive? Can their financing interest also be reimbursed? Who is accountable for that money? If I want to follow $1 from property tax collection into the TRSC fund through the redevelopment authority and ultimately to a developer, contractor, or bondholder, where is that ledger? So that people don't have to be digging a bunch of pages. So they tell me it's transparent. Show me. And that brings me to back to something that happened on the September 1st meeting. Council member Hawk used the words negative and toxic while discussing what has been happening in our public discourse. I also personally counted approximately two police officers at the beginning of that meeting and about five by the end of the meeting. Now, I am not accusing those officers of doing anything wrong. They were doing their jobs, but understand how this looks from this side of the podium. Residents criticize the government. Residents dig through financial records. Residents ask uncomfortable questions. The residents hear words like negative and toxic while watching the police presence in the room increase. That's not a good look. We are not your enemy. We are the people who pay the taxes, pay the utility bills, live with these decisions. And we'll still be here years from now when today's financial projections becomes tomorrow's reality. So don't be afraid of residents who read the documents. Give us more documents. Don't complain that we are asking questions. Answer them. And when hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of future tax growth are involved, bring your receipts because I'm bringing mine. Thank you.

Good evening, Felipe Sanchez. I promised you guys I wasn't gonna be negative today, so I'm just gonna talk to you. Yes, a lot of things have been said, a lot of things have been going on through social media and stuff like that. Like we talked before, transparency. That's all we want. We just want transparency. So a lot of these constituents that are yours have concerns. And they should be addressed. We shouldn't have to just sit here and for y'all just to look at us and maybe sometime get back to us. Maybe not. I'm not sure. Because I was promised to see you and talk about the budget. I haven't gotten involved or anything. Y'all have my number. could have been easily done and dealt with. But like I said, I'm not here to talk negative because like I said, I promise some of you people that are sitting here that I won't be negative. So here are my solutions. Number one, golf course. It's dying. About 11% of the people here in Cove go to this golf course. We lose money, we have to pull money from the general fund to keep feeding this monster that somebody in council had told me that before. My solution to this would be shut it down. Turn it into a community park. We have already the nets that we paid over $700,000. Turn it into a Topgolf. I'm pretty sure the citizens here would love to go play Topgolf in the evenings and stuff like that. Put a little mini golf on the side for the kids to play. Build a skate park. It's a perfect place to do it. The golf course is not there no more. You know, you're competing with Belton, Temple, Fort Hood, and I understand you'll want to bring people in and stuff like that to bring revenue. For the past five years, it's been not that much revenue. We're in the whole, what, 100 grand this year from what I'm recalling from all the meetings and stuff? So my suggestion for that would be that. Number two, our budget keeps going higher and higher every year. Solution to that. Put a freeze on everything. Freeze on salaries. Especially people that are, I'm not saying city employees don't deserve it. The hardworking ones, yes. The ones that get paid 15, 16, 17 dollars an hour. Yes, they should get a raise every year for their work, for everything they do, what type of employee they are. Evaluation, perfect. But since we're going through this budget and we're complaining about this budget, Water's getting raised. It's out of hand. Solution to that would be put a freeze on everything. Let's go back old school like we used to. Charity funds. Get rid of every nonprofit. Stop paying into these nonprofits. We've already dug in to some of the nonprofits. And they're paying themselves $147,000 as a salary. That's our money. That's crazy. I say we should shut everything down. Go back to volunteer, charity, make it a family community again, because what was this year? 250 years of patriotism. I served my country. What did we get? Did you guys do a fireworks show? Was it in the budget? We don't know, because it wasn't done. That's an insult to some of us who served. And some of y'all sit on the board and are military veterans. Y'all should take initiative to that too. Why are we not doing this for our veterans? There's a lot of things I can go on and on, but I really don't. I want more solutions. Like I said, we should put a freeze on everything. Let's fix our budget. That's what we need to do. We need to show our citizens that we can turn around, fix this budget, freeze a lot of stuff, worry about what the citizens have to say, and then we can get things brought back down. Because like I said, this is a lot of money. And then going back to the TRZ, it's not right. You guys put the meeting at 12 o'clock, 12 PM. I never even heard of this until somebody mentioned it to me. And I'm like, wow. And I started reading and reading and reading into it. And it's like, we are going to reimburse developers? That's crazy. Why won't the developers, ain't they making money off of this? Shouldn't they pay out of their pockets? Why are we giving them a free paycheck? That's a lot of money. From what I read, $629 million, 5,400 and something homes that want to be placed here in Cove. We don't have the infrastructure. Like let's fix the water lines first. Let's fix the streets first. Have everything 100% so then we can build these infrastructures, these homes, because what's gonna happen if we have another crisis again? Another water break? They're not gonna have water. Now you're gonna have triple the amount of people meeting at the library giving out potable water. We shouldn't get to that point. Let's get together. Like I said, I invited all y'all. I'm not talking negative. I invited all y'all so we could sit down and talk. I understand the Citizens Forum. We had a little discussion last time we were here because I felt like I was being addressed, so I responded back. I understand, I understand. Okay, so like I said, those are my solutions. Take them into consideration. One more thing. With all this budgeting, everything going on, I'm going to come up with a solution that we have to do and oversee committee. That's the number one thing we should do. We as citizens, not you guys, pick them, us, and oversee everything that goes on. And that'll bring more transparency to the citizens. Thank you.

I was really hoping you had a podium, but I guess not. So I'm going to have to probably drink a little water because my voice is not here. I wasn't even going to come tonight, but in case I have to get down, I have to drink some water. I hope you guys don't mind, okay? All right, so I wasn't going to come here, but I decided to come here to...

Did you state your name, sir?

Mario Vasquez, First Edition Bookstore, Organization of Tacos, which is a non-biased organization, but we look at all the budgets. We don't choose any candidates. We want everybody to come in and offer something to Carpets Cold. That's who I am. But I'm going to tell you who I really am, okay? Because this is what this is. Because then I'm gonna address an issue that people think that I'm being mean to down the wall. But I'm gonna tell you my experience of being a Latino, okay? So this is where it's coming. And I have never done this, but I'm gonna tell you. Because you're concerned of the words that I used.

But here it is. Did you see this political stunt they're using? Do you see how easily people believe it? How quickly people jump on board without asking a single question? Oh, he must be this. He must have done that. He must be guilty. The story grows legs before the truth even has a chance to stand. And it doesn't matter how many people have come and said, I am kind. It doesn't matter how many people say I'm a respectful man. It doesn't matter how many awards hang on my wall. It doesn't matter what I built on my time. I donated to helping others. I don't do it for fame or recognition, but it doesn't matter. My time does not matter. It doesn't matter that I receive awards for helping women, black Americans, Latinos, or people from every background and culture. It doesn't matter that countless people have spoken with me and worked alongside me and know the content of my character. It does not matter that the life's work that has been devoted to lifting others are just being torn down. None of those matter. The moment a label is placed upon me, my actions are forgotten, my service is ignored, and my accomplishments are erased. The people whose lives I have touched no longer seem to matter. The years spent helping others no longer matter. All that remains is the accusations, and I'm expected to carry it out with a voice in my own defense. It doesn't matter that I served my country of honor. It doesn't matter that the evidence supporting that I said surfaced only to disappear only as quickly as it appeared. It doesn't matter because what I spoke, I believe to be the truth. And I said this on Charlie Kirk's day, not on Oktoberfest. In my eyes of those who refuse to listen, I'm not a veteran to them, I'm not a citizen to them, I'm not a man sharing his experience and devoting his time to helping others. I'm a monster, and I am a liar. To them, my words are dismissed before they are heard, and my story is judged before it's ever told. It does not matter what sacrifices I make, it does not matter how I try to create an app for our community to help business, and I offered it for free. Because when people decide to believe a story, some never stop to ask if it's true. They don't say it there. They come out and they start screaming. We knew it. We knew him. We knew he was going to do that. But what gets me is not how easily it comes from those so-called accusers, how comfortably it comes out of their mouths. How there is no shame in attacking someone for a false narrative to watch it spread to destroy someone who does not matter to them. But you see, I've been here before. I've been in this box before many times and some listening now will struggle to endure because God forbid I use the word Latino. I've been here before. So many times through my life, I have been accused of things before, labeled before, misunderstood before, affected description before. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir. But it has to be done. Only to discover later that none of it was true. None of it comes out to correct to tell people apologize. I left in my eyes of the fate of my accusers. There has been a story in my life. Is there a matter you wish to discuss, sir? And maybe this is why I think my father so often. Because I was a young man. My father loved to ask my brother questions. One day he sat down and he said,

I'm going to give you the warning.

Okay, sir, I'm telling you right now. Son, what do you want when you grow up?

Do you have a matter to discuss with counsel?

Yes, I'm discussing my futures, which you guys tried to annihilate when you used the Rory Club against my business. Because I'm a citizen questioning. I just told you who I was. You wanted to know. I said, I'm a person who is non-biased, trying to get our election to see who's going. But hold on, sir. I'm not done. You'll give me my five minutes. I'm not after you.

Sir, you've had your five minutes. Okay, sir.

Look, I'm going to end it here then.

Sir, I'm going to ask you to sit down.

I'm going to end it here real quick. One day, one day.

I'm going to ask you to sit down. That's the third time.

Okay.

That's it.

I'm going to leave.

But let me finish my lesson.

Okay, so you guys see that, right? So my accusers, my accusers, sir.

Sir. All right, that concludes all the time for citizens forum. We move to item F, consent agenda.

All matters listed under this item are considered to be routine by city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from consent agenda and considered separately. F1, consideration and action on approval of city council workshop meeting minutes for September 1st, 2026, Ashley Osborne, deputy city secretary. F2, consideration and action on approval of city council regular meeting minutes for September 1st, 2026, Ashley Osborne, deputy city secretary. F3, consideration and action on authorizing the city manager to execute a professional service agreement with Hoff Associates Inc. for the design, bidding, and construction phase services for Veterans Avenue and West Avenue D roadway improvement project. Scott Osburn, assistant city manager, director of public works. F4, consideration and action on resolution number 2026-26, adopting the strategies and investment policy of the City of Copper's Cove. Valya Key, Director of Financial Services. F5, consideration and action on authorizing the city manager to execute an interlocal government agreement with Copper's Cove Independent School District for Policing Services. Brian Wires, Deputy Chief of Police. All right.

Council, you have five items on the consent agenda. Is there any item you wish to pull and consider separately? All right. If not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Mary Ancy? Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we approve consent agenda. consent agenda items F1 through F5. Second.

DAVID BURRAGE.

Motion made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Ms. Hogan. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. We move to item G, public hearings in action.

A governmental body shall allow each member of the public who desires to address the body regarding an item on an agenda for an open meeting of the body to address the body regarding the item at the meeting before or during the body's consideration of the item. G1, public hearing and action to approve ordinance number 2026-30 for a Conditional Use Permit by May Lee CUNNINGTON FOR COOPER CORPORATE HOUSING TO ALLOW A SHORT-TERM RENTAL ON PROPERTY ZONED HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT FOR CORRIEL COUNTY PROPERTY ID 156723 CONSISTING OF A 0.20 ACRE PARTIAL LOCATED AT 1242 LUNCINGTON DRIVE COPPERS COVE TEXAS BOBBY LEWIS DEVELOPMENT SERVICE DIRECTOR

All right, the time is 9, excuse me, 6.45. We'll open the public hearing.

On July 28, 2026, staff received an application for a conditional use permit to allow a short-term rental on property located at 1242 Lexican Drive. On April, or excuse me, on August 4th, 2026, staff held a development review committee meeting to discuss the CEP request. On August 18th, 2026, staff received one comment letter in opposition. There were a total of 18 notices mailed to the surrounding property owners. On August 24th, 2026, the Planning and Zoning Commission, after opening the public hearing, receiving public testimony for and against the request, closing the public hearing, the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of city council to allow a short-term rental on property located at 1242 Lexican Drive. Staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission has reviewed the request for a short-term rental and find that the proposed use is compatible with the existing two-family residential neighborhood. With that, staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval of ordinance number 2026-30 subject to the four conditions of approval.

All right. Council, you have any questions specifically for Bobby? Is the applicant here? Yes. Would you like to speak? I would.

OK. Mr. Keller, can you bring the microphone to the front, please?

A lot more people in the room than the last two meetings.

I'm going to shake it out.

Good evening, mayor, city manager, council members, residents. My name is Maylee Coddington, and I own the property at 1242 Lexington Drive. And I did want to clear up any questions that may have come up in the past for opposition with my one neighbor. And that primarily is to make sure that everybody does understand that this is not a Airbnb party house, two, three day type of thing. I don't think spring breakers come to party here in Cove. So what I'm looking forward to do is really cater to our transitional military housing our government contractors on Fort Hood all of our traveling nurses that I'm real passionate about because my dad actually before he passed away helped me buy this property and we went through a lot of Nursings and people that were traveling that type of thing what I'm trying to do with this property. It's called Cooper's corporate housing It's not going to be on an Airbnb platform what I'm looking for is a for longer stays of three and four weeks. And so I won't be listing this for two, three days. I'm planning on running this myself with my husband. There's not gonna be a property manager. I'm not gonna try to pay a cleaning service and a maid in there every two or three days. This is for a longer term. This investment was for my 10-year-old daughter. I finally got some money to put in. I currently live at 8450 County Road. PIDCO, Gatesville. However, I do all of my business in the Cove. We actually are closer 10 miles into Cove than 13 miles into Gatesville. So everything we do and all the money we spend is right here in Cove. And what I'm looking for with this property, again, is to cater to professional travelers. The concern before was the element crime. of just being a party house. I just really wanted to clear up that that's not where I'm going with this and I am definitely happy to answer any questions that anybody may have.

Thank you. Council, you have any questions?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone from the public that wishes to speak for or against this item? All right, the time is 6.49. We will close the public hearing. Council, what is your pleasure?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I make a motion to approve ordinance number 2026-30, subject to the four conditions of the approval.

Second. Motion made by Ms. Hart. I tried so hard to get you guys separated. Seconded by Mr. Treadway. We'll give him all the glory. All right. Council, any other questions, discussion?

Mr. Mayor, I would like just to make a comment if I could, I just want to say thank you so much for, um, offering this, giving us more detailed information in regards to what you're doing there. Um, I come from a family of traveling nurses and all of that. And so, um, I like your vision. So I just want to say thank you for providing that additional information.

All right. Anybody else? All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We move on to action items. Action item number one.

H1, consideration and action on Ordinance 2026-31, approving the Texas Municipal Retirement System Contribution Rate Level for the City of Copper's Cove. Jeff Davis, Director of Human Resources.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and City Manager. The Texas Municipal Retirement System was established in 1947. Its primary goal is to provide secure and sustainable retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for approximately 940 Texas city municipalities. Under TMRS, each city chooses the retirement provisions to provide affordable sound benefits for their employees. One thing I wanted to make clear about TMRS is that it's a defined benefit retirement system, which means that at retirement, the employee receives a lifetime monthly benefit from the employee's accumulated account plus the city's matching fund. It is not a 401 plan like many of us are familiar with. Our city adopted this retirement plan in March of 1978, and it continues to be a significant employee benefit and recruiting and retention tool. The percentage increase serves as more than just an employee benefit, however. Employees frequently receive significant city-funded training, certifications, professional development, equipment, and specialized education. The longer an employer remains with the city, the greater the return on these investments are, creating stability and succession planning within the departments. Retirement incentive that prevents even a modest amount of turnover can offset additional costs indirectly through reduced recruiting, training, overtime vacancy, and onboarding costs. Our city competes with all the cities in Central Texas along the I-35 and I-14 corridors. And currently of these Texas municipalities, about 51 of them are in the TMRS system. I'm sorry, 56 of these are in the TMRS system. And five of those have either R rate or lower out of those 56 cities. It's difficult to be an employer of choice when our benefits are not competitive with the vast majority. I included a chart on here that's got some of the majority of the cities on it. One of the questions that was brought to me is, we're not at 32,522 citizens. We're a little bit above that. These numbers come directly off the TMRS website. It's off their census data, which I don't know exactly when it dates from. And Mr. Anthony Mills is with us tonight to talk about not only the ordinance that this will take, but also the documents that I have given you. City staff has been working with TMRS officials on an ordinance which would align the employee contribution rate with the City of Copper's Cove with the majority of the municipalities in the Central Texas area for a contribution rate of 7%. I would like to introduce TMRS Director of Education Services Anthony Mills who is here tonight and he can answer questions for you before we move to a staff recommendation. Mr. Mills.

Thank you very much, Jeff. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council, City Manager, Anthony Mills, Director of Education Services at the Texas Municipal Retirement System. And it's a pleasure to be here this evening to address you with the staff recommendation that is coming to you later this evening concerning the employee contribution rate. That that you're considering this evening is one of the components that makes up the core benefit for the city of Copperas Cove's retirement plan. As Jeff pointed out, when the city joined TMRS 48 years ago, you decided here locally what your retirement plan should look like. And that continues to this day. Each of the 947 cities villages, towns across Texas, has decided for themselves what plan makes sense for its community. That's been the case here at Copper's Cove. And when you joined in March of 1978, you decided to come in to the system with a 5% employee contribution rate, and that rate stayed 5% until 2001. At 2001, you increased to the 6%, and that's where it's been since. When you joined TMRS in 1978, you came into the system with a 200% match. That's a two-to-one match. You set the standard for Coryell County for a city your size that came in at that time with 134 active employees. Today, you've more than doubled the size of your workforce. The community has grown significantly since you joined, and to meet the demands of the community, you've grown your workforce to do just that. It is not out of the ordinary for a city like Copperas Cove to decide, to deliberate, to determine what course you should take in improving your retirement plan. I can say that I have actually worked with staff almost a decade in looking at how to improve the city's employee contribution rate. And to be a bit more specific, I know that it's been at least since 2022 that there have been serious conversations in looking at, researching, figuring out how the city would afford to get to the 7% employee contribution rate. Now, since those discussions began back in 2022, and even earlier than that, as I pointed out, it's been close to a decade that I can recall that we've had some of these conversations, but a lot more serious conversations over the last five years or so. In those last five years, there has been a session of the state legislature that adopted the 8 percent employee contribution rate. And I heard it mentioned from one of the citizens and employees here who addressed you earlier that some cities are adopting 8 percent. Just so that you are aware, we have had about 64 cities that have adopted the eight percent employee contribution rate since it became an option september of twenty twenty five as i said earlier every city in tmrs decides for itself what makes sense for that community i want to point out to you that most of the cities that i would think i'm certain that uh... staff has giving you here uh... comparisons as you've looked at in general here, but I would suspect that your peer cities, most of them that are 7% employee contribution rates, when I look at your actual city contribution rate, that is the amount that the city contributes to TMRS to appropriately fund your plan, That contribution rate actually is less than, it's less than our system average, and it's less than the rate that those comparable cities have with a comparable plan to the one that is under consideration this evening. And if you have those peer cities, I'd be happy to get back to you to give you the actual data if that is something that we would need beyond this meeting this evening. in the packet that i gave you this evening and some of the information may also be in the information that jeff uh... gave to you this evening uh... i included for you some of the information that we've sent to staff of course there's a simple cover letter that explains what is being considered and that is the seven percent employee contribution rate and the date that it would take effect uh... it could be adopted by this governing body this evening, and if it were to be adopted, you decide as soon as the first of the following month whether it would take effect. It is my understanding that if staff moves forward with this recommendation, that would be to have it take effect January of 2027. and included in this packet is the actuarial cost analysis of what would affect the city's finances in tmrs on the right side of that packet you'll find in the landscape document a comparison of the current plan that you have and what that plan would look like and the plan financials for 2027 compared to making the adoption for the 7% employee contribution rate. In some of the conversations that we've had with staff over the years, there has been conversation that has been had among the employees here at the city on the 7% itself and whether that is something that the workforce would be interested in doing. And that is what has continued to lead staff to come back to TMRS and continue to gather more information. And the packet that you have and the item that you're looking at right now shows that if you were to adopt the 7%, what it would mean to the employees would be a 1% additional contribution that would be paid into TMRS. And as I mentioned earlier, the employee contribution rate is one of the core components that builds the actual retirement benefit for the employees here at Copperas Cove. Along with that, of course, is the matching ratio, the two-to-one matching ratio. That is not on the table. You'd continue to match the additional contributions that would come in if you move forward with the recommendation to increase the employee contribution rate. In this cost analysis, you'll notice that the total contribution rate would increase from the 13.15% to 16.71%. What that would mean in additional liability to the plan would be about $5.3 million. And when I speak to any governing body, there are a few things I'd like for you to know about TMRS and what distinguishes TMRS from many plans that you may hear about that are broken. especially those in the government or public sector. In TMRS, there is no plan design that any council or board could adopt that the actuarial funding policy doesn't ensure that that plan will be fully funded over a fixed amortization schedule. The additional $5.3 million that I just introduced to you that would be added to the liabilities in the plan, if you were to adopt the 7%, that would be added to a 20-year amortization schedule. When you look at your plan currently being 89.3% funded, the 10.7% is on a fixed amortization schedule. The difference between the 89.3 and that that has not yet been fully funded, that that has not yet been fully funded under the current plan is a little over $10 million. if you were to adopt the seven percent that would go to the fifteen point four million dollars and again the difference the added liability would be funded and fully funded by the end of that twenty-year amortization schedule That is something that I think it's important for every governing body to know, is that the actuarial funding policy ensures that we're going to get you there, just as we have under your current plan design, just as we have with every one of the 947 cities that have joined TMRS and participate in our system. We have more than a third of our cities that are already 100% funded, and the city of Copper's Cove whether you continue with your current plan or if you go with staff recommendation you're going to get to that one hundred percent fully funded status When we look at the difference in the actual contribution in dollars, what does that mean for the City of Copperas Cove? I'm certain that your staff has provided the numbers for you and could be a bit more detailed than I can be. But when I look at what TMRS projects that to mean, it's about a $678,000 difference in the actual contributions that you would make into TMRS. for the difference between that six percent plan verses the seven percent as has been stated to you already and it's more than an anecdote when we see cities better in a highly populated area with competing cities nearby one of the items that we find especially among public safety is we have cities that do all the credentialing, all the investment to get the employees up to speed and ready to serve the community, only to have a neighboring city that's got a slightly better salary offer But importantly, for those employees that are mid-career and who have the most experience, it becomes the retirement benefit that more often than not is the one that is asked about. What does the retirement look like? And when I look at the cities that you would call your peer cities, that's the one place, if you were to ask me, where would retirement Copperas Cove benefit the most if we're trying to be competitive, it would be to get on par with those cities that are 7% cities, and most of them would be your peer cities. And with that, Mayor, Council, I'd like to open it up for any discussion in a bit more detail that you'd like.

Council, any questions?

Mr. Mayor, I just got three questions. First of all, thank you for the presentation. Appreciate it. So the 7%, if it's approved tonight or start again, you said 1st of January? Yes, sir. Okay, and there's no backdating on previous employees or anything?

No, there's no back date, but I would like to explain that you do have an option in your plan called updated service credit. And the updated service credit, it is something that would grant employees in January, they would see an improvement in their retirement benefit because the updated service credit is always running in the background and making sure that it's keeping the employee's benefit up to pace with where the plan stands today.

Okay, thank you. The second question is, sir, when they get ready to retire, it's still the same process. They can pick which type of retirement plan they want, correct?

That is correct. That does not change.

Okay, now here's the big question because I've been asking this for several years when I work for another city. Have y'all thought about or looking at the future, not what the city invests, but what the employee, you know, comes out of their paycheck. Is there any future plans that they could put more into this retirement and draw the interest off of it? where they currently draw on what's going on there.

Well, the way that TMRS is designed right now, we call ourselves a hybrid. You heard Jeff mention to you that we are technically a defined benefit plan, but we do look like a defined contribution plan in a lot of ways. A defined contribution plan, for any of you who have been in the private sector, 401K type plans, they build and accumulate a cash balance. And when the employee gets to the end of the line and retires, that cash balance is what you've got to work with. Now, in those plans, you get daily compounding interest. In TMRS, you get annual compounding interest. And the city, along with the member, is helping to build the total reserves that will ultimately be converted to a lifetime retirement benefit. So the employees' share in the growth on their monies and the monies that the employer, the city, is setting aside, and that's where the real benefit comes in for the employee. There's been no discussion that I'm aware of that would go outside the parameters of what we do. As a matter of fact, if I might, and of course I have a bias, TMRS in many ways has become the standard for government plans. It was in 2022 that the state's employees retirement system put a plan in place that mimics a lot of what you see in TMRS. The Texas County and District Retirement System, their statute was based on the TMRS statute. We're starting to see cash balance plans like ours start to show themselves even in the private sector where they have 401 s, but when employees get to the end of the line in those 401 s and cannot see that those cash balances are going to last a lifetime, a plan like ours that ensures that they can convert it to a lifetime retirement benefit is where they're headed. And when you get a plan that's got an actuarial funding policy that ensures that regardless of the plan design, you're going to be 100% funded, that's why we've become the standard for public and more and more private sector retirement plans.

Thank you. Appreciate it, Mr. Mills.

Anyone else? All right.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to thank Anthony for coming. He has a very busy schedule. He was at another city this morning doing basically the same thing. We've been working with TMRS officials to craft the ordinance and get us in line with the vast majority of the Central Texas area folks at a 7% contribution rate. And city staff recommends adopting Ordinance 2026-31, approving the City of Copperas Cove Texas Minutes for Retirement System Employees Contribution Rate of 7%.

Any questions for Jeff? All right. Is there action to be taken on this item?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I make a motion that we approve item H1, Ordinance 2026-31, approving the Texas Municipal Retirement System contribution rate level for the City of Coppice Cove, Jeff David, Director of Human Resources.

Second.

Motion by Mr. Hawk, second by Mr. Treadway. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Nay.

Roll call.

Christina Strophus? Aye. Rita Hogan? Aye. Howard Hawk?

Aye.

John Hale?

Nay.

Dale Treadway?

Aye.

Vanya Hart? Aye. Jack Smith? Aye.

6-1. 6-1. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you, city council, mayor, and city mayor.

All right. Let's move to action item H2.

Consideration in action to approve an interlocal agreement with Copper's Cove Independent School District for emergency medical service training. Douglas Mathejitz, Fire Chief.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. The Copper's Cove High School this year established a emergency medical technician training program for the 2026-27 school year. This gives high school students the opportunity to become EMTs. and take the state test. Essential component of the EMT education is providing students with supervised real world experience in emergency medical services environment. This supplements the classroom and clinical instruction. The students that are enrolled in the Copper's Cove high school EMT program may participate in supervised ambulance ride alongs with the fire department EMS and other agencies in the area. These opportunities allow the students to observe and when appropriately authorized and supervised participate in actual emergency medical calls for service. Participation in the field experiences will provide the students with valuable exposure to the emergency medical operations and allow them to develop and refine their patient care skills in a real-world setting while working alongside licensed EMS professionals. The Copper's Cove Fire Department currently has interlocal agreements with Central Texas College and Lampasas ISD for the same type of training for their students. The provided agreement has also been reviewed and approved in its current form by the fire chief, medical director, city attorney, and also the CCISD board. Stand by for any further questions.

DAVID BURRAGE. Counsel, any questions for the fire chief? OK. Is there action to be taken on the site?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to authorize City Manager to execute an interlocal agreement with Copper's Cove Independent School District for emergency medical service training. Second.

Motion made by Mr. Treadway, seconded by Ms. Strophus. Yes. All right. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We move to item H3.

Consideration and action on awarding a bid and authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Seneca Construction Management LLC for award of bid number 2026-05-54 Athletic Storage Building Project. Jeff Stoddard, Director of Parks and Recreation.

Thank you, Ashley. Uh, Navy mayor council city manager. The athletic storage building was approved as part of the 2025 capital improvement plan as recommended by the quality of life advisory board. The project was advertised for construction bids on July 17th, 2026 was the closing date of August 12th, 2026. The city received four bids. One from Seneca construction management, G CGF management, LLC synergy, commercial construction, and HCS commercial. Commercial General Contract Incorporated. Seneca was the low bid on the project at $454,000. City staff recommends City Council award bid number 20260554 Athletic Storage Building Project in the amount of $454,000 to Seneca Construction Management LLC and authorize the city manager to execute the contract for the construction of the same.

All right. Council, any questions for Jeff?

How many total bids did we receive on this?

Four.

Just four. Are you a little concerned that it's a 4,000 square foot shell and it's almost a half a million dollars?

No. That's from the ground up. So you're talking about the pad, everything, the electrical, the HVAC. So it's just not a shell. It's a full building. We will staff it or we'll manage it with, I guess if you know anything about a military supply room, that's what it will more than likely look like inside. But the building itself is a turnkey building with a fenced-in yard as well. So there's a lot of concrete work, fencing, metal building, electrical, no plumbing at all.

Do you have any comments? All right. Anything else? All right. Council, is there action to be taken on this item?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I would like to make a motion that we reject all bids and put it out for another bid. Second.

I'll second that.

Motion made to reject all bids and re-bid the project.

All right. Second. And there was a second by Ms. Oh.

Me. This time. Well, I think Rita was in there, too.

I was in there, but he beat me.

OK. All right.

So we're voting on a motion to reject all the bids and re-bid this project.

Yeah, and is it open for discussion now?

Sure.

Okay. And I'm not sure what the process is, and I know that they work hard gathering these bids. This one seems high to me again, and it's the second one in the last month. And I think that the process or whatever we're doing to gather these bids, we may need the city building department to send out an email to all the builders that are registered in Copper's Cove or all the contractors that are registered and get more bids. Because I think this is on the high side for a 50 by 80 metal building with 200 amp service to it. I know there's concrete work and fence and all that but Just in my opinion. It's it's still on the high side and we could I Wish we could use the extra money when we get it done cheaper to put it in the roadie part But I know we can't do that, but the money money saved now will go a long way later. I

Is there a process to procure local contractors for bids or is it done by the architect?

It's done advertisement. We reach out to contractors all the time. I do have Gwen from Seneca here that can answer questions if it's regarding price. She could probably explain it better than I could if you wanted to entertain that.

You might want to hear that. We've got a motion.

I'd be willing to hear it, Mr. Mayor. Good.

Go ahead.

Hi, good evening. I'm Gwen Moffin with Seneca Construction. I'm the owner of the company. I'm a sole woman-owned company, small business. And I live in Kempner, but my grandkids go to the city park all the time. And we spend a lot of time in Copper's Cove. So this project is kind of near and dear to my heart. When we seen the solicitation for this project, it's not a huge project. It's not. It's on the small side, but where this building is going, there's a ton of trees, dirt work, and the foundation that goes under this is what's really driving the price. If there was a different location, the price could come in a lot less expensive, but because of the amount of concrete the amount of dirt work, where it's located, and there's a sizable fence, a metal fence, going all the way around the project. And all of those things drive up pricing. The thing to keep in mind, I get it that it's expensive, but we were the low bidder, and we did cut our profit in order to win this project. Because we wanted to do this for the Parks and Rec organization because, like I said, my grandkids spend a lot of time in that park. The thing is, things aren't getting cheaper. Things are only getting more and more expensive. So to wait is only going to increase the price. And there's nothing we can do about that. Unless possibly we change the location and find an easier site to build on. But with those things in mind, I would kind of ask you to reconsider.

TODD BANDUCCI- All right. Any questions specifically?

TODD BANDUCCI- Mr. Mayor, I have one question, but I guess basically for Jeff. Could we consider looking at a different location, or does it specifically need to be in that location?

TODD BANDUCCI- So this would be, the majority would be for the athletic equipment. It would take a heavy lift to move it to a different location. Because you're talking about there will be soccer goals stored in there, all the equipment for the coaches when they come in. We would have to make that or transport that from some other location to the Civic Center where it would just be stacked up in the lobby until the coaches. So this is the ideal location for its purpose. But if council wants something else, I mean, that's... Up to them.

I appreciate it. I was just asking. Thank you, Jeff.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. Also, can you give me a reminder how long is the bidding process?

Bidding process was from July 17th through August 12th.

So about a month.

And just so you know, in order to get our price where we were able to get it, because we were significantly lower, right? We got multiple bids from many, many local subcontractors. These are local people that live here in the community. It's not people from all over the state. It's local people that's going to benefit from this as well. And like I said, we got multiple bids from multiple subcontractors to get the price where we did get it. And like I said, we did reduce our normal profit to be able to get this job.

So Mr. Mayor, I do have one other question. So this is going to be a complete turnkey where you're overseeing it and just got the local subcontractors coming to perform the work.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, ma'am.

DAVID BURRAGE.

Mayor, yes, sir. Thank you. Mayor and Council, this is the second building that we brought to Council. Definitely understand Council's concern with price. And I've shared these comments with you when we've gone over agenda items in the past as well. The process for procuring a building such as this is not just less than a month. And I know that Jeff answered the specific question of how long was a bid out, but that's not the bidding process. That is how long it was advertised. to receive bids. The bidding process begins with the point when City Council actually appointed members to the Quality of Life Committee. They made a recommendation, make a recommendation to City Council through the Capital Improvement Plan, and we go through all of this planning process to eventually get to a point where we have taken a great amount of time for city council to review what the projects are. And I understand it comes down to the, a point where city council ends up having to make a final decision at some point. And that final decision could have been during the CIP process. Regardless of when that point is, city council does have to make a decision. And if you make the decision and you do vote to reject these bids and to re-bid it, that's exactly what we're going to do. Here's what I would like you to understand, is the bidding process is not a short process. It's taken time to design this building and What I'd like to remind you of is we've gone through a couple of really big projects. Animal control facility was a very large project. The senior center project, while the footprint of it was not tremendously large, it was a very public and highly utilized building as long as it stays open. And those projects, even from your own comments and your own questioning, took a lot longer than you expected. It's a lot longer than I expected. A lot longer than any of the other team members responsible for those projects took. And the reason why it took that long to do those projects is because those were projects that we ended up having to value engineer, which means once we got the bids, we started cutting stuff out, and we've cut things out of the animal control facility. It's a great facility, and it's serving our community Much better than our old facility. The senior center project, all of you, every single one of you asked me, why is it not done? The reason that project took as long as it did is we changed the style and we actually did the general contracting ourself on that project. And so we're not in the business to do general contracting and that's why it took us longer. But you do have a general contractor here who's provided you an explanation of why there's a cost for this project. The explanations, to me, they make sense. And Ms. Hogan, you asked, do we have a concern about the price? And Mr. Stoddard answered, no. Of course, I have a concern, but my concern is overshadowed by City Council's priority of, hey, let's do the project. So if city council wants to move forward and reject the bids and then re-bid it, we're gonna do it. I just don't want you to be overly upset when the bids come back and it's either the same price or different in terms of possibly higher. And that's the only thing I can say is unless we make scope changes to the project itself, we're really not going to get a different result. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Any other questions, comments?

I would like to make a comment.

I'm sorry.

I would like to make one comment. Sure. Thank you. for coming up and speaking. And I thank you for also pointing out that the cost of things are increasing. I know you are also incurring increasing costs. Therefore, it is spread about. When people want a job done, it costs more. So thank you for coming up here.

KEN HOWARD JR.: All right, council. Anyone else? Do you have something, Jack? No. OK. All right. So the motion is to reject the bids and re-bid the project, basically. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. All right. Roll call.

Kristina Strophus? Nay. Rita Hogan? Aye. Howard Hawk?

Nay.

John Hale?

Nay. What are we going on? I reject. Aye.

Dale Treadway? Nay. Vanya Hart? Nay. Jack Smith?

Aye.

3 to 4. OK.

So the motion was defeated, correct?

May I add something?

Yes, sir.

May I add something?

Yes, the motion failed.

We are more than willing to talk about value engineering as well. we can give you suggestions on where we can cut it to get it to where you think it should be and work together as a team to make this come to fruition. It's up to y'all.

Mayor and council, in terms of value engineering, we'd need to make sure that we're in compliance with state law on any of the bidding processes before we could actually move forward with that.

So we... Is that an option?

You are the council. You have options to approve, deny, table.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to award bid 2026-05-54, the athletic storage building project amount of $454,000 to Seneca Construction Management, LLC, an authorized city manager to execute a contract for the construction of the same.

Second.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. Treadway, seconded by Ms. Strophus. OK. All right. Any other discussion? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. All right, roll call.

Christina Strophis? Aye. Rita Hogan? Nay. Howard Hawk?

Aye.

John Hale?

Nay.

Dale Treadway?

Aye.

Vanya Hart? Aye. Jack Smith?

Nay.

3-4.

4-3. 4-3, the motion carried.

Yes.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, we move on to item H-4.

Consideration and action on appointments to the Copper's Cove Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors. Fred Welch, Executive Director of the Copper's Cove Economic Development Corporation.

Thank you, Ashley. Good evening, Council, Mayor, City Manager. Shawn Stevens, Assistant Executive Director for the Copper's Cove Economic Development Corporation. The bylaws of the Copper Scope Economic Development Corporation state that directors should serve a term of three years and be reviewed annually by the city council for eligibility for reappointment. JC Stubbs is appointed to position two, and Anthony Martinez is appointed to position five. Both terms will expire on September 30th, 2026. Both are eligible for reappointment. Staff in the city have received four applications, four positions on the board. which will include members whose term will expire at the end of the month. The city has received applicant applications interested in the CCEDC board from the following individuals, Ashley Lyons, Anthony Martinez, Michael Houghton, and Jafretta Jarrett. The selected, uh, Board members will be required to board training of the Texas Open Meetings Act and training in proper use of economic development sales tax paid for by the CCEDC. The CCEDC board of directors and staff recommend the city council appoint individuals to positions two and positions five to serve as directors for the Copper's Cove EDC for a three-year term beginning October 1, 2026.

All right. Counsel, any questions for John? All right. There are four applicants. One of them is with Mr. Martinez, who's already on the board and, if I'm not mistaken, has already completed the Open Meetings Act training. He has, yes. OK. All right. So you have four applicants. take nominations for name and specific position. Yes.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I would like to nominate Anthony Martinez to position five to serve as a director for the Copper's Cove EDC.

Mr. Mayor? Oh, I second. Excuse me. All right.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to appoint Ashley Lyons as the director of EDC for a three-year term beginning 1 October 2026. I second.

OK. Motion and second. Any other nominations? All right. We'll close the nominations. First one, Anthony Martinez for position five. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. And position two is Ashley Lyons. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? OK. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. Thank you, Mr. Martinez and Ms. Lyons for volunteering. All right, that concludes all the action items for tonight. We do have reports from staff outside entities and advisory committees and boards.

I1, quarterly activity report for the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance. Keith Sled, executive director of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance.

Good evening, mayor, city council, city manager, and staff. Hope y'all got a little bit of rain this past week. We need a lot more, but we haven't gotten it. This is a list of the topics we're working on. The DA grant, I will talk to you in more detail in just a second. It's FY27 DA grant that will go in for submission by no later than 6 November. We'll expect to hear whether we were awarded the grant or not sometime in January, February time frame from the Texas Military Preparedness Commission. I'm not gonna talk about all those topics, but if you have questions, I'll be glad to talk about them after we go through this. Back in July, these comptroller released the biennial economic impact military installations in Texas. You can see the total down there is 148 billion for all the installations in Texas. It did go down 2.4 billion. And that's primarily because of the Dodge act over the previous year, which downsized a lot of the personnel. You'll see the personnel went down overall quite a bit and they, they figure into the economic calculations. There was some contracting that went away with it as well. For Fort Hood, we are still a significant part of that total bill, $37 billion, almost $38 billion economic impact in Texas. We're still the largest single-site employer in the state of Texas with about 54,000 employees. now, a little under 54,000 direct employees and 157,000 indirect total employment. So still a good economic driver for the region. What was interesting is the GDP went up a little bit, strangely enough, when you consider that all the others went down. Subject to your question, that's just an update. Comptroller does this every two years. They do it for all the installations in Texas. It is still one of the largest industries in Texas. This is the F-127D Ag Project. It is facility improvements to support the restationing of the 116th Military Intelligence Brigade. If you'll remember, back in middle of July, the Army announced the brigade was gonna relocate to Fort Hood. One battalion was already stationed here. It's gonna bring the other battalions in the brigade headquarters here. And then on 17 July, the brigade commander actually flew here, did a change of command with a new guy who is stationed here already. And so that will continue. Over the next year plus, they will continue to modify aircraft. This brigade is one of a kind in the Army. Right now there's a contract out for nine of these aircraft you see in the bottom, which is a Bombardier 6500 airframe, and then it has a huge intelligence suite on it. It replaces the turboprop aircraft that are currently here that are almost over 40 years old Long-term, there's a goal to have 16 of the aircraft, depending on where the Army goes down the future. The brigade itself consists of three battalions in the brigade headquarters, I'm sorry, four battalions in the brigade headquarters. One is a processing, analysis, and dissemination battalion. Two are flight battalions, and then one is a drone battalion. So they will begin their relocation efforts over the next year, year and a half. The grant will install a fiber optic network, an improved fiber optic network, to support the relocation. West Fort Hood, you can see the map up there, kind of the current track and where the new lines will go. Simultaneously, we'll expand network access for 25 other facilities on West Fort Hood, including the ammunition supply point, which will save some manpower because they'll be able to do some digital actions that they couldn't do now, especially security-wise. The total cost of the project is $14.5 million. We're asking for DAG to cough up $5 million for that. And then Fort Hood is primarily paying for the rest of that contract. So we do have letters of support already for some elected officials. The others are going to start sending theirs in. We've already graded the grant. I brought in a group of eight individuals who went over the grant, not affiliated with the project. So they have to understand, is it clear? Is it written well? Are there nuances in there that we didn't think about or acronyms that we didn't explain? And we're now modifying that grant with their feedback. So if there's any questions you have, I'll go forward. You probably remember last month, end of last month, the Army announced the JANIS program, which is place microreactors at installations across the US. Originally, there were nine installations that were considered. The five in green were the ones that were selected, with one of those being Fort Hood. General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems is the contractor that will work on the one for Fort Hood. You'll see Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, Fort Drum, and Fort Campbell were also selected. All those have a different contractor. So there are five companies that were selected to put these in. And it is a competition. The first one they want to have in by 2028 And so then the others, we'll see who gets there first. The 29 companies, I believe it was, actually competed to get these contracts. If one of these companies does not perform, the Army will replace them with one of the others. They'll go to number six then and move him up to come in and compete. These are micro-reactors, so these are not the large-scale nuclear reactors everybody is used to. The one for Fort Hood will be less than five megawatts. Reactors are classified in three different ways. Micro-reactors are 20 megawatts or less in electrical power. Small modulators are 300 megawatts or less, and everything else is considered a large plant. So this is a five-megawatt reactor. All these are unique designs. They don't use a lot of water, and most of them don't produce nuclear material or nuclear waste. It's also the size of a semi-truck, essentially. And depending on what technology they use, some of them consume the fuel, then you haul it away and a new one comes in and gets replaced. It's just that simple. The footprint's fairly small, less than 10 acres for the one we're talking about for Fort Hood. The site's been selected and they're working with General Atomics now to go ahead and continue development. There will be public engagement sessions going forward with Fort Hood once General Atomics is prepared and on the ground. to talk about how they're gonna do this and what they will do. And so that will come out from Fort Hood at some point down the road. But it's a good thing for the area. It actually is new technology. These are small. Ideally, once you build it and prove the concept, then you can enlarge it to make some other ones. Data centers down the road could potentially use one of these designs. Instead of relying on power from the power grid, they could put one of these in to provide their power. But this one is not tied to anything other than backup power for Fort Hood. Fort Hood burns about 65 megawatts a day on average. And this is less than five megawatts. So you can see it's really just a backup power for some of the places on Fort Hood. The National Defense Authorization and Budget, there is no news. I'm sorry, no new news. There is a continuing resolution that funds the government through after the election. And then they'll have to go back into the budget. The NDAA hasn't changed. It hasn't gone to conference committee either. The Senate comes into session this week, the House will too, and then they will go on vacation shortly after that for the election and campaign through the rest of this time. The NDA and budget are directly affected, but also leadership is affected. You may know General Admiral was nominated to become the commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa. His nomination hasn't gone through the Senate yet. It's at the Senate, but it has not been confirmed by the Senate. He will not have a potential date to move until that happens. We'll see if that happens this week or not. The new commander for 1st Cavalry Division is in the same boat. The replacement for General Admiral is also in that boat. So we will see if the Senate is able to take some action this week, and we'll find out what actually, and the families will be able to find out what's going to happen with their soldiers as well. The fast facts, I will appreciate Ashley got this in today because I sent this to her about 3.30 this afternoon because I got the data from Fort Hood after I got back from the Texas Military Preparedness Commission this morning. You'll see the deployment numbers went down a little bit. That will increase because 3CR is now in the process of moving to Korea for their nine-month deployment. So it will go up next month as we go through this. The other numbers, I will say that the ridership on the Cavazos connector increased. It's almost 600, just a hair under. Otherwise it would be 600 people per day. So that's still a widely successful project on Fort Hood. If you've not been there, I would tell you at some point you ought to go to Bistro 42 and eat at that new defect. It's campus style dining like you see at a college dorm. It is not a traditional Army dining facility and it's open most of the day. So if there's any questions you have, that's all I have for you this evening.

Do you have any questions?

Yes, ma'am. Oh, I thought you.

Did you have a comment? You're not missing. Okay. All right. Thank you, Keith. Thank you all very much. Y'all have a good evening. Thank you. All right, we move to item J, items for future agendas. Strokas?

Nothing for me, Mr. Mayor.

Hogan?

Nothing for me, sir.

Strachan? Nothing, Mr. Mayor. Not at the moment, sir. Nothing, Mr. Mayor.

I don't have anything.

No.

OK. All right, we do have one executive session item.

K-1, pursuant to Section 551-072 of the Texas Government Code, City Council will meet an executive session to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property related to Narrow Business and Technology Park.

All right, the time is 7.45. We adjourn an executive session. Thank you. All right, the time is 7.59. We reconvene into open session for possible action resulting from any item posted and legally discuss an executive session. Council, is there any action to be taken?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I have a motion. I recommend the City Council approve the real estate sale contract repurchase of 447 Robert Griffin III, subject to the City Manager finalizing with the City Attorney's approval. Second. Second.

Motion made by Mr. Hales, seconded by Mr. Treadway. Any other discussion? All right, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. All right, the time is 8 o'clock. We stand adjourned.