City Council - Regular Meeting

over. I now call this regular council meeting of the city of Santa Fe, February 26, 2026 to order. Natalie, roll call, please. Mayor Brandon Oto here. Mayor Pro Tim Mars here. Council member Shrader here. Council member Mckame here. Council member Janette here. And council member Dickerson here.

You have a quum. Thank you, Natalie. I'll now invite Pastor Greg Wacky from San F Christian Church to come up and do the invitation. We'll do the pledges together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your protection, your guidance, and your mercies. Father, we thank you for Santa Fe. We thank you that you provided a place for us to raise children, Father, and to do business. We ask, Father, that you go before us as you promised you would to your people. We ask that you would go before and everything that's decided tonight and all the actions that need to be done. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas to the Texas one state one and indivisible. Thank you, pastor.

All right. Uh before we get into the presentations, I received a thank you card and I just wanted to share it with with council and staff here. It says, "Mayor Noto, your proclamation for Earl was a wonderful way for the Santa Fe community to say goodbye. He was very much loved and this was a nice way to show it. Thank you also for meeting with Carl, Mauricio, and me and giving us a copy of the proclamation. It will be added to Earl's brag wall in my apartment. We enjoy meeting you and visiting with you. God bless Ivonne Ralph. That was for the proclamation I did for Coach Ralph. So, the only uh reason that I'm able to do proclamations is because um the citizens elected me and council allows me to do that. So, thank y'all for for allowing me to uh honor Coach Ralph. And some couple of y'all probably had him as a coach.

He was a great man. Good Christian man. Very good. It was tough. It was tough. It gets your attention. Hey, you think that Bible verse uh about spare the rod and spoil a child underlined in this Bible? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Football is bad enough. uh sophomore. We lost our coach the first of the season. Brought in coach Ralph. Man, that was that was an interesting experience. Talk about a man that can motivate. A man can he motivates you before the game. Oh yeah. He never grabbed a hold of any face masks or anything.

Presentations and staff reports. Pass it over to uh Seth for our staff reports. All right, we're going to jump right on in.

Yep. He'll jump on. All right, we're going to start um uh for with our finance department. If you can go there for me. Thank you. All right. So, um, one quick second, y'all. I'm sorry. Just bear with me one second. I just wanted to make um I'm un sure why this is on this page right here. I apologize because this is not the correct slide on here. But um I did want to update you guys for the month and I can do it um based on memory um rather than this slide right here. Um, for the month of December, our sales tax u uh decreased significantly uh from last year. We were 15 um uh% below uh where we were last year. So, we took a major dip. Um we're still uh on course from where we should be.

What's on the second page under the sales tax net payment change?

Yes, it's Yeah. And so it's just on that page. But so we did take a significant dip um this year unfortunately uh for the month of December which is our biggest year for uh because of Christmas sales. So um but we will move on to the next which they've already got it up perfect. Um so to continue on in in in that same vein um I did want to go with our new software that we have. um we are able to I feel like it's able to show our citizens a a better picture view of what um our sales tax generation looks like. So if you see at February, you still see that it's a big jump which is really December because we're two months behind which we always have a historical jump. So if you look at the February from 25 to February 26, you can see that that decrease um in sales tax. But one thing that I did want um our citizens to know is our top 10 uh sales tax um payers. So uh for each of our uh businesses in town. So number one is uh Sloan Lumber. Um two and three is Amazon. So one is for Amazon for their uh direct sales from Amazon.com and then uh the other one is for the wholesalers that are on Amazon. So they use Amazon almost like an eBay uh to to sell their their goods on there. Uh next after that is HV and then uh Tractor Supply um and then um uh Reliant Energy uh uh for our energy services then Dollar General um and then McDonald's and then uh Big Horn and then O'Hilly Auto Parts. Um this list does change from month to month, but they're the top 10 um sales tax uh getters for us uh in the city for this month. Um which is uh fantastic. Um so if we can we'll go on to the next. All right. For the library, we had 223 um circulations for the month of

January. Um we have 93 active accounts there. Um our door count um is 1639. So our per capita ratio is 11%. Um our members say $28,000 roughly this month, which is a pretty big jump from what it it usually is. But um the biggest item I'd like to uh bring to light is that our uh library, the Mayor Spruce Library received the achievement of library excellence award from the Texas Municipal Library Directors Association. This is for the in for the top 10% of libraries in the in the state of Texas can receive this award and we were one of those libraries that did so. Um and that's really uh due to um our amazing staff there. So um thank you Becky and your team for uh receiving that award. That's a huge accomplishment for us. Um, one of the uh issues that was highlighted uh for the reason that we received the award was for the use of the stribe program at the library with the students that we have from the high school that we partner with that come over to our library and it was a I think that's a big success for our community. So very proud of May Spruce Library and the team. All right, if we can go next. Okay, we're at the resiliency center now. So uh for the month of January, the number of counseling hours definitely went up since the holidays are are past us. So they went up to 347 hours um which is great. And if we can go to the next um and then the total counseling clients that number actually went up as well for the month of January from 255 to 260. So our community is definitely aware of the resiliency center and the uh great uh programs that they offer for our residents. So um that's it for my report. Do you guys have any questions? I like the uh presentation of businesses and sales tax like that.

I think it's great and I think it's really interesting to get to see and I think for our residents to kind of understand that um you know that they can actually see their sales tax dollars where they're where they're going and maybe every quarterly we we send out something you know uh that shows the difference from month the different month to month. Correct. So we're great and that's deep for y'all approving us to get that uh software. say thank you for helping out our finance department. This is a it's an awesome tool that we can, you know, show transparency to our citizens. It's easy easy to read. I mean, you can look right there and you can see I think it's a great great

Awesome. Thank you. All right, council. We'll move to item six business. A new business. We have an item on the consent agenda. Citizens comments.

Oh, I skipped right over it. I'm so sorry, Kyle. Uh know you have a big speech prepared for it. Item number five, citizen comments. Do we have anybody here for citizen comments? All right. Item number six, business, a new business. One, consent agenda, consideration and possible action, adoption of a resolution of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, authorizing aerial spring for the abatement of mosquitoes. Council, as you know, this is something we do every year um in partnership with the county just to help with the mosquito population. And as I mentioned in the mayor's Monday update, um citizens can uh call the county and request to be put on a notification list if you've got bees or other uh livestock or situations that might be uh sensitive to this and they will give you a notification before they come and spray. Uh but it's a program we've been doing for many many years.

I move to accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. Uh, it has been moved and seconded. Um, one thing on that. Okay. Go ahead, Seth. Did you get with Miss Haley Bill and have her change the person that they respond to? Makes sense? I can't. It's just a common thing that we got. I know. I know. But no, absolutely. Let them know. All right. Any other discussion? All right. It's been moved and seconded to adopt a resolution of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, authorizing aerial spraying for the abatement of mosquitoes. Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Shrader, yes. Council member Mckame,

yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. And council member Marks, yes.

Motion passes. Thank you. All right. On to item number two, consideration and possible action proposed fiscal year uh 2025 2026 budget preparation and development calendar. Mr. Rudy. Good evening, mayor, council. So, this item formally adopts the FY27 budget planning calendar so the council and staff and the departments can align statutory and charter deadlines. Uh, this particular fiscal year 27 includes eight workshops beginning in March leading all the way up to tax rate and budget adoption in September. So, it incorporates um required appraisals, uh tax calculations, public notices, deadlines that are all under state law currently. Um approval tonight just allows us to continue the budget process, worksheets, revenue projections, and capital planning um in an organized and transparent manner.

Thank you, Rudy. council. This um calendar follows pretty closely what we've done in the past, but talked a little bit with uh Mayor Pro Tim and and Seth and and kind of wanted to get y'all's opinion since um some things have changed for for some of us on the DAS. So, this would follow the the normal um schedule of, you know, a six o'clock special meeting before a 7 o'clock council meeting. Um and that's just the way that we've done it in the past. I know um for a couple of the council members a six o'clock meeting can be hard. It also doesn't give us a whole lot of time to really discuss because we usually only have about 45 minutes um before we have to kind of take a break and and get ready for the regular council meeting. What what we discussed would be the possibility of doing it on a Friday. Um, I know um at least three of y'all are I think or four of y'all um now are off on Fridays and it would just leave me and Ryan, the working the working folks on council, but uh my my schedule's pretty flexible on Fridays, but just wanted to throw that idea out there. Maybe we wouldn't have to have as many. Maybe if we did a twohour or threeh hour fourh hour budget meeting on Friday, then maybe we would only have to have, you know, two or three or four meetings instead of a bunch of them an hour before regular council. So, open it up for discussion, but that's just something we've discussed.

Fridays would be okay with just sometimes channel Friday. I'm good with that. I've got a good supervisor that allows me to leave a little make. So, okay, I'm good with that. Okay. I know you got a tough boss. Let me do that. So the Fridays be difficult for me. Okay. Okay. Well, then we'll keep it this way. The on the Thursdays I think we have um on here I guess we just have one Friday on here.

We do the the first one March 13th is a is a Friday and that's the only Friday that we have on the current schedule right now. Could y'all make this one Friday work? It is Friday the 13th, but I'm not one of those

that's going to be morning. Yes, I can't miss that. That's 6 o' in the morning. Okay. Move to approve the 2027 budget calendar as presented. It has been moved and seconded to approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 2026 budget preparation and development. 26 27 27 26 27. Yes, it's 2627. That was a typo. Type one. Motion to approve the 27. Now I've approved it now that I can read.

All right. Um to approve the 2627 uh budget development calendar. Any further discussion? Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Shreder, yes. And council member Mckame, yes. Motion passes. Uh number three, consideration and possible action adoption of resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, authorizing the finance director to open two separate bank accounts for the federal uh federal equitable sharing program and providing an effective date. Mr. Rudy,

mayor, council. Uh so this resolution authorizes the opening of two separate bank accounts at Texas First Bank and it's required for participation in the equitable sharing program and we probably wouldn't need that but the PD is is doing a great job and they're expanding their their reach and they're uh trying to collect some more money and in so doing the the federal program uh requires us to have two separate bank accounts, one for the FBI and justice, the other for secret service and um and since they require us to put down exactly how much interest we have in those funds that that we have to keep them separate and have to have their own bank account. So, um that's all this really is is just uh paperwork on our end to keep track of all the cash.

All right, council. Any questions for Rudy?

If not, I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the city manager to allow the opening of two bank accounts. Second. It's been moved and seconded to authorize the city manager to allow the opening of two bank accounts for the federal equitable program. Council, is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Shrader, yes. Council member Mckame, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. And council member Marks, yes.

Motion passes. Thank you. Item number four, consideration possible action authorizing the city manager to procure and install a replacement monument sign at city hall utilizing insurance proceeds and an amount not to exceed 65,000. Mayor Council, so as you are probably aware, the sign outside was damaged on New Year's Eve and uh we got some earlier estimates on how we can go about repairing that. Um and we do have insurance proceeds and the insurance I've spoken with TML U they said that they would uh completely fund the replacement of that sign since early analysis uh from an estimate that we received from one vendor um indicated that it would cost too much to try to repair and replace the 20-year-old system that we currently have. So, um the amount is well within the replacement budget in the uh our insurance and it's under the 100,000. So, all we would need is just competitive quotes. Uh and we haven't gotten all of them yet. We've just gotten an early estimate. But this motion would allow us to go ahead and proceed with using those funds to find qualified uh appropriate sign replacement and have the city manager execute that rather than having you come back again since it's a it's an increase in funding but it's also an expense an increased expense which is why we're coming to council

question we're going to the signs they're going to be like we were doing somebody do same do that same way correct the standard that's right yeah and I'll I'll show you design I mean I I'll send it to you guys before we, you know, pull the trigger on it. But this is allowing us to use those insurance the funds that we'll get from insurance to to cover it so we don't have to pay a dime for it. Yeah. And it's above my $50,000 threshold. Just to say this is where we're going to be. This is our might have a little bit of that. Might have what? A little bit. Oh, that's true. For that sign

up to 65,000. That's what insurance will cover for us to pay for that. What do you think of Seth? A fixed sign, no electronics.

Well, you know, um we're going to look at it. I mean, I I I think that um that for me, I think personally that would be uh would have preference, but we have kind of set a precedent with having the um the message board up there. So, maybe looking at a um a message board and then a fixed, you know, um city of Santa Fe city hall sign. So, um, but really, uh, to me, it will set the standard for the rest of our signage throughout the city. I want it to be, you know, everything to be uniform. Um, so I know that it's in your packet. See, these are some of the um, not that it's going to look like this. This is from one provider, but I'll pass this down if you want to look if you want to look specifically at the city of Oyster Creek, what they did for their sign. So, they kind of have a message board and they have it, but I would like to have a um

there's not a picture. Oh, okay. I thought that there I thought that there was. I apologize. Um but, uh you know, with maybe some brick fascia or stone fascia around it. Um I think that uh for me, I like the white hillstone brick fascia. Uh it looks you know, very Texas to me and it it looks a lot of it's a lot of places in our community. So, I think that would be a a great addition up here. I went down and just checked the signs like the the junior high intermediate school, correct? You know, they're kind of a mod. They're tall. I don't think something so tall, but uh you know.

Yeah, we we definitely I wanted you know, correct. It's what matches the buildings for sure. Yeah, but it's a you know, side comes up. The bottom one, guys. Yeah. But this is the one you were talking about. Okay. That that will that that kind of sign will go out more in the community. But this is um it's really to do more more so like that, but with a a brick or stone kind of like like that. Yeah. The brick go up. That's right.

Correct. Correct. So again, this just authorizes the city manager to evaluate quotes and select the lowest responsible vendor and proceed with the installation once all the compliance uh documents are covered and he's conferred with council.

All right, council. Any other questions for Rudy or Seth? If not, I'll entertain a motion. move to author as a city manager to evaluate submitted quotations, document compliance with the city's purchasing policy and Texas local government code chapter 252, including 252.0215 hub outreach requirements. Select the lowest responsible and responsive vendor. Execute necessary documents and proceed with purchase and installation of the replacement city hall sign utilizing insurance proceeds in an amount not to exceed $65,000. Second.

It has been moved and seconded to authorize the city manager to evaluate submitted quotations, document compliance with the city's purchasing policy in Texas local government code chapter 252 including 252.0215 HUB outreach requirements. Select the lowest responsible responsive vendor. Execute necessary documents and proceed with purchase and installation of the replacement hall city hall sign utilizing entrance proceeds in amount not to exceed $65,000. Council, is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Natalie roll. auction man. Um, so with this hub stuff and the lowest bidder and stuff, sometimes the lowest bid is always the most like you have ways to get around that.

Correct. Correct. We'll go with most qualified. If a vendor sends in a packet, I would ask maybe there was something that they look at the quality of their work. Absolutely. No, I think it's just direction. We'll we'll go with the most qualified bidder qualified. Let's say that recreation center used to be

it. I'm just saying no. Yeah, but that's great. Great information. Correct. Correct. All right. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion? Council not Natalie. Roll call, please. Council member Marks. Yes. Council member Shrader. Yes. Council member Mckame. Yes. Council member Janette. Yes. And council member Dickerson. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number five, consideration possible action authorizing the sale of city-owned property. Mr. Krep.

Yes, sir. This is just housekeeping of some of the old equipment that we're replacing with the new equipment. U there's one uh tractor on there that we're going to pull back. Uh it has a slope more on it. It's 100 horse tractor. We're actually going to take the slope more off of it. The tractor's in excellent shape and we're going to use that at Rugie Park to pull a hair for the arenas, right? So we don't have to purchase another tractor. Do we have a hair dry? No, sir. So, we're gonna have to get one of those, too. No, sir. We're out looking for one. Okay. Which one is that, Bill? Is that the Queen John Deere? Yes, sir. The John Deere.

So, is the mower deck worth putting in auction or is it just No, it's that's that's where the problem is. The mower deck's pretty wore out. It's got a lot of hours on the deck and stuff. We just going to scrap it. Yes, sir. A lot of maintenance. You said all this stuff would give us money. Yeah, I hope we get some good money for the dump truck and stuff, but you know, we're to a point like the dump truck, first gears out on the dump truck and we're talking $5,000 for a transmission and things like that. And we're not going to spend no more money on things like that with the with the new trucks we have now.

And and the thing is from our past auctions, we've been doing very well uh with auctions. I've been very surprised at the amounts that we've been getting for some of these um pieces of equipment that we put out. We'll shift all that to the refer. There you go. Speaking of our last dump truck, I saw the work down there on Can you get a bigger or we are we at our max for weight and Yes, sir. Um, well, we don't want to step over the threshold. What I call it? We could buy a tandem dump truck. No, no. I mean, is that a is that a what is that? 8 yard. Yes, it's there six to eight yard trucks.

Okay, that's what I see. And we can stuff most of them new Macs. We can stuff close to 10 yards in them. And uh they do great for the city for our small roads for weight wise and mobility and the price. Nobody else cares about what he was. Yeah, I I care about that. That's one of my my main concerns. I decided it's sharp looking, you know, it's such a sharp looking truck, you know, and then you're like, man, that bed's almost the exact same as the, you know, it just doesn't look very big. No, it's it's 68 yard bed. Okay. That's what that's what I thought it was.

All right, council. If you want to approve this with Billy's recommendation, you would just need to uh modify the suggested motion by removing unit 0238 from the motion. I move to authorize the sale by public auction of unit 0634, unit 9375, unit 4378, unit 2711, and the off office office furniture as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded to authorize the sale by public auction of unit 0634, unit 9375, unit 4378, unit 2711, and the office furniture as presented. Council, is there any further discussion?

Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Shrader, yes. And council member Mckame, yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Billy. Item number six, consideration of possible action. adoption of a resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, approving the submission of a grant application to the office of the governor for the fiscal year 2027 body armor grant program.

Captain, good evening, council. Uh what you have uh in front of you is a grant proposal for uh body armor that the police officers wear. It is through the office of the governor's office here in Texas. Um so a little bit of background in 2022 we're offered uh funds from the alumni association to purchase body armor external body armor like the marshall is wearing right now. Uh it is pistol resistant and it is rifle resistant. So every uh every year since then we've uh put funds in the budget to uh replace the body armor that needs to be replaced. The normal time frame is five years. That's what they suggest that the body armor is obsolete that wear, tear, sweat, whatever it may be after 5 years, we need to replace it. Uh the officers of the governor is offering a grant in fiscal year 27. Uh it is a 100% reimburseable. So whatever we get approved for, we go and purchase the body armor for the police officers. We have to jump through a little hoops and then we get all the all the money back for the for what we spend on the armor. Uh couple things. Says we're already slotted to purchase body armor moving forward. This is just an easy way to get the money back.

Is that guaranteed return on your investment? Yes, sir. Or first come, first serve. When I run out here, no. Well, it's we already completed the grant. We submitted the grant in uh October 1st when the fiscal year 27 starts the we get told whether we get the grant or not. Uh once we get the grant, it is 100% reimburseable. Whatever we spent, as long as we keep up with the reports uh that we have to inform the office of the governor, we get all the money back. Cool. All right, council. Any other uh questions for the captain? Yeah, what you said is pistol resistant and rocking up.

Uh the ones we have right now are 3A. Um, the ones we're looking at getting are is a higher tier. Uh, the the soft armor is pistol and then they have rifle plates that we insert into the vests. Those are the rifle resistant uh body armor plates. So, right now it's 3A, but they're they're going to be a higher tier uh if we get this grant. Once again, it's if it's 100% reimburseable, why not get something better for the officers?

I move to approve this resolution for the fiscal year 27 body armor grant through the office of the governor. Second. It's been moved and seconded um to um recommend we move forward and approve the resolution for the fiscal year 27 body from the office of the governor council. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Dickerson, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Shider, yes. Council member Mckame, yes. and House member Janette. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Captain. Thank you.

All right. Item number seven, consideration, possible action, appointment or reappointment of three members and one alternate member to the park and recck board to serve a two-year term to expire in February of 2028. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening, Georgia.

We have three positions that are needing to be filled. Um, two of the positions are or two of the applicants are reapplying. That's Miss Cara Campbell and Miss Nina Cedarberg. They were appointed during the previous appointments that we had done um three years ago and they have been very very active. Uh, and then we've got an alternate position that is open. the alternate that was appointed in that position did not choose to reapply and he did not come to any of the meetings. So, whoever is appointed to the next alternate position, I I would hope that that person would show up and actually participate. Um, unfortunately, the other person that was on the board in that third active position is not able to commit the time this goound. So, we do have that open position as well.

Who is it? Uh, it was Hunter Stolings. She's got two very, very young children. So, she was the new one we just gone with. She was already Yes, she was Texas City teacher. That's very cute little baby and then she just had a brand new baby. So, I do want to state that Kira and Nina have done a fantastic job for us um on there. I know that they were instrumental at um the Christmas tree lighting and um at our Christmas market. They're very active and um it's it's a pleasure getting to uh work with them u on the porch board. Yes.

I don't want to take the place of a resident as a board member, but I will go for an applicant council once that way. Did uh Jordan, did you verify that all of the applicants um live within the city limits? Yes. I'm sorry. I was talking to Ry. What did you say? I was just verifying with Georgia that she did confirm that all the applicants do live within the city limits.

Jamie, she you got the time now. She wants to be an arrest. This lady here been trying it hardest get involved with the city. Did didn't we? Yes. She was appointed to the zoning board of adjustments and she attended training in one board meeting and then resigned. Oh, gotcha. Thank you.

She did reach out, you know, want to I don't know if that was a bad time when her employment was, but she did reach out wanting to be, you know, back in the city. And I see that she put like three places. I move to appoint Cara Campbell, Nina Cedarberg, and Vicky Smith as board members and Rusty Sher Shrader as alternate two to the parks and recreation board to serve to each serve a two-year term to expire in February 2028. Second All right. Um, it has been moved and seconded to appoint Cara Campbell, Nina Cedarberg, and Vicky Smith as board members, and did you say Rusty? Yeah. Rusty Schrader as alternate two to the Parks and Recreation Board to each serve a two-year term to expire in February 2028. Um, is there any further discussion?

Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Shrader, yes. Council member Mckame, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. And Council Member Marks, yes.

Motion passes. All right. Item number eight, discussion and direction, replacement of the playground equipment at Joe A. Tambrella Park. Mayor and Council, I know this has been a heavy topic of discussion. So, we Rudy and I did a little bit of digging and we were finally able to establish when that piece of park equipment at Joe Tambrella Park was purchased, which was in 2007. Um, there was a a partial grant given to the city and then the city also contributed some money. So it was installed in 2007 and once I started putting the numbers together I realized that that was 19 years ago. So after doing a bit of research um most park equipment is slated to last around 8 to 15 years in a commercial setting. A metal piece of park equipment is at max with the best upkeep that you can give it 20 years is going to be its lifespan. So, we are at the end of the lifespan for the park equipment that we've got there and we have doctorred it about as far as we can go. Uh, so my guidance that I'm looking for from council is if we can take to the parks and recreation board to look at some more inclusive park equipment and look at getting that installed over at Joe Tamber Park. It is our most heavily utilized park that we've got and there is just so much room for improvement that we can do over there. Um, that would involve us using the parks funds that we have set aside for the collections, the 90,000 that we've got. And I do have some additional funds in the parks board unless we are able to get some donations from another source

and potential grants as well um that that are out there. But um we you know bringing this forward it park equipment is very expensive. Um it is not um a cheap venture uh but as Georgia eloquently stated it is at its end of life. I think the the best thing about our park equipment right now that it has is that tree coverage out there that provides you know some some shade um and some potential blockage from the elements. Um but the park equipment uh is definitely in in need of repair. Uh and much more than repair it's in need of replacement. Um, and so Georgia, thank you for stating it is our most highly utilized park. Anytime I have been out there, almost any time of day, there's somebody out there using it. Um, I know that u my kids and y'all's kids and grandkids uh on this board uh they utilize that equipment as well. So, um I think it'd be a good move for us in our community. But tonight, we just want to see if we can use that $90,000 that we have slated um for uh Behringer uh Park to utilize towards this. I think that it's um in my recommendation that we need to uh keep up with our our current parks before building out um a new park. And so, uh this is a uh that but the bad thing is 90,000 may not go as far as we'd like it to. Um so, we've we've looked at some options. I think George's put some in here for you guys to to see. Um, and it, you know, the it has some pricing on here, but this price is not inclusive of installation, and installation is quite expensive uh for this equipment, but

it's not inclusive of um coverage of coverage either. No. Uh, so it has that that's with no shade coverage. And I I'll tell you from the last park that I did in Georgia before coming here, um shade coverage is um almost as much as uh the playground equipment itself. It's very expensive. Um the good thing we do have a lot of shade coverage naturally from the trees um which is which I think is is a is a bonus for us. But um it's not much.

It's not much and we can we can shape the equipment that we look at. A lot of the playground equipment you can add on some shade features to it. um it just drives up the price uh of that equipment. But I do think it's a it's an important investment. Um it's one of the most utilized spaces in the city. So, I recently had a a constituent reach out to me about this and I happen to share a house with her. And uh you know, she uh uh her our kids go out there and uh once a week they go to the the wonderful homeschooling program that the library does. And it's become a tradition. And she's invited other homeschool moms actually from our co-op in League City. And now they have a date every Tuesday,

Wednesday, every Wednesday. Um, and so they go to the the homeschool programming and then after that they go and they spend the rest of the afternoon. It was 4:00 before they left the playground the other day. Um, and five mommy groups that come on Wednesdays,

it's become a big tradition. And so, um, enough of the other moms have put two and two together on who she is. And so she's gotten to be the uh she's gotten to be the sounding board for the other moms on on the improvements that they would like to see out there. And so then guess who gets to hear it, you know, uh whenever I get home. So I'm making a little bit light of the situation, but it is a very very utilized park. And um you've got the main piece there that is what we're really talking about, but the smaller one is not far behind. It's not far behind it at all. Um, I think that it definitely needs to be replaced at the same time and then that way we can um have it color coordinated as well.

And he's saying that there is some coverage out there, but there's really not on that big piece. I mean, in the middle of the day, it gets so hot that the kids can't play on it because the metal's so hot. And um, so it's uh, whatever we do, we are going to need to put some type of shade up there. And there are some sun shade grants and I had shared them with the little league and it is a little bit labor intensive as far as getting the letters from the dermatologist on why you need sun shade coverage but it's not unheard of to be able to get those documents together. We would need a little bit of a match for it but it is a possibility of something to add. I just need to know that we're going to have grant funds to match it.

Right. Yeah. And what this is going to require us to do is to rob from Behringer. I mean, we don't have a choice. We really don't. I mean, um, and so at that point, you know, whenever I started whenever I I realized that that's what we was that we were going to have to do, what came to my mind again is really the the feasibility of building out Behringer into a park. And what I asked myself is, are we going to be able to build Behringer out in the next five years? Probably not. I mean, not unless we come a bunch of across a bunch of money. Are we going to be able to build it out 10 years from now?

I mean, that's a minimum a million dollars that we'd have to invest uh at Behringer with, you know, parking lot, restrooms, um a playground facility, um you know, pickle ball courts. I mean, they're they're just not cheap items, unfortunately. And so, you know, I mean, really just to cut to the chase, what I would like for council to to discuss is um the feasibility of of Behringer and if it would not be in in the best interest um to scrap our plans with Behringer um and uh possibly uh go ahead and just sell that sell that property and use the proceeds of that property to u do what we need to do at Tambrella if there's anything left over. Get Runy Park we're going to run out of money at Runi Park really close and I know that Behringer is very sentimental to this community. I know it's sentimental to some of the people on council. Um, and what I what I thought about what we could do at Tambrella is purchase playground equipment that is baseball themed and we could even put a a monument up there that, you know, this um this playground was renovated in part due to the proceeds of Behinger. We could put a we could put a sign out there and we could rename it the Behringer Tully playground um and give honor to Behringer Tully to those uh gentlemen into that park. But um I know it's not an easy u I know it's not an easy decision and there's a lot of feelings involved, but I think it's worth the conversation.

That's a tough one for me. Park equipment going into life though could cause injury. I mean it could There could be a lot of things that could go wrong. So, I mean, definitely replacing the equipment is priority. What the question today is, can we use that 90 that we've got set aside? Right. I don't I I at this point, we're going to have to use the budget money we have. Uh even even if we could somebody matches that, it's not going to be enough to get half the playground equipment we need. No.

Uh and Why Seth said the big hit here is not what you see in these pretty pictures and all. It's the installation. It's the foundation and installation is every bit the equal and you just can't go out there and get somebody that's never done one of these. You have to be certified or you're liable for Yeah. Be like half the people at Christmas time, you know, giving gifts with half the parts on it. Uh

we got to have you got to have the right people for your insurance. Uh, as far as parent, you know, and y'all know how I feel about the school cut us a good deal on it. We have we have to I think for to to be right we should talk with uh the school board just get their blessing tell them what it's going to go to you know and we're still going to keep that name and we're going to keep the tradition and all that but make sure it's okay with the school if we sell that and then what how we use the above profit.

I talked to a couple of the school board members. They certainly understood the position that we were in because they're in the same position, right? You know, I told them that I'm I was pretty sure that I could get council's blessing to to offer them the first right of refusal to purchase. Yeah, I don't think that's they're not going to purchase it back. Uh, one thing that that one of them did mention to me that I hadn't thought about is uh there is a and and Becky can testify to this. There is a significant number of school children that get out of school there at those campuses and go to the park and play on the parking equip parents come I pick a young man up out of the park. Yeah. They play basketball and stuff.

I think uh I think the school board understands the position that we're in. Um, and I think that if we if we were to offer that park in parcels that um are the size of what we've talked about, big lots, 70 foot lots, u there's not a whole lot of of profit to be made off of those above and and beyond what we paid the school district. I mean, we we paid 250,000 for it. They didn't give it to us, but for that lane, that's half price. Yeah. uh they had to justify that it was fair market value in order to sell it to us.

Well, yeah. But but I mean anyways, I I think they understand uh where we're coming from. Um but again, I just I I understand I understand the difficulty of it. I do. But if all we're holding on to is a vacant piece of land, then is that really is that really honoring the the spirit of the park? I want to explore options. So, I thought we were going to talk about this in executive session, but um well, let's get back to this agenda item before

if we can get back to this agenda item. So, we just want the go-ahhead to um look at the playground equipment for uh Tim Barrella Park. If if and it sounds like I've got complete unison from you guys. We all understand where the equipment is. Um we will look at funding sources um uh you know going forward and then hopefully um uh in the ne in the next few weeks we will bring a proposal to you guys and we'll come up with a um with a plan on how to fund that 90,000 is 90,000 is not going to get us it's it's not and so piece of light but we'll we'll come up with a plan but I think we've got the direction we need Georgia I appreciate you

but have we got a true number something we have right So what would So a a true number I'm going to give a round number would be $200,000. I was like a quarter at least. Yeah. Two to 250. That's install. That's with install. And that's not if we don't do the equipment as it is.

Yeah. And that's Well, that's without shade. So that's if we don't if we don't do the equipment as it is right now. So we're 250 300,000 if we do the equipment as in its current placement um as it is right now. I think we can look at some maybe some cost effective um solutions with uh swing sets. They can tend to be a little bit cheaper than the um is it jungle gym? Is that what you call the the area that kind of goes up? And so just depending on on the the layout that we do um we'll definitely do the most conservative cost-effective layout uh that we can come up with. And then also um we're going to look at some of the options uh that are more um the ADA are inclusive uh for for the children that need it. Um and that way um they can utilize the park and also giving them a um a p a path of lease resistance per se from the sidewalk to um the portion of the park that they can utilize. Yeah, I was

me and you did that morning deal out there and we know how that was and then correct I think a couple days later I did the Wednesday bake sale with the friends of the library and I saw the group of moms and stuff and uh you know they come out of the inside the little whatever they're doing inside the library and then they go to their I mean it's a lot of kids and and when with what we're having through the state and all there's probably going to be more homeschoolers there's not going to be less homeschool. No. Uh and I think we all the attention our library keeps getting, they're just recruiting more and more kids. I've got to put a second story on

Yeah. Put a second story on the library. You heard him. You heard it right there. Might be might be open there. Um, the other thing I wanted to I wanted to recommend to Georgia, if council's okay with it, is u Amber brought up to me the idea of of putting up a cyclone fence or some kind of barrier in between the park and the parking lot because there's not very much there's not uh distance between the playground and that parking lot. And when you got toddlers in the blink of an eye, they're in that parking lot. And so if we could put a cyclone fence or some type of barrier, you know, um

actually nice plants over there, something that I were just discussing. But I mean, I think it's a pretty big safety concern. Yes. To have a fence up. I mean, it'd be nice even if we had a gate on the on the walking trail where it came in where people could go in and out. All right. Thank you, Georgia. Thank you. All right. Uh, item number nine, consideration of possible action adoption of a resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, amending the city of Santa Fe personnel policy to add section 20.06 business hours.

All right. So, council, we are looking to modify the hours of operation for city hall, our police department, administrative staff, municipal court, um, and the park department's hours of operations from our current schedule of Monday through Thursday of 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday of 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to a 4-day schedule of Monday through Thursday, uh, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and closed on Fridays. Um, we are looking to do this for a variety of reasons. Um but for one uh to increase our operational efficiency, you know, eliminating the half day on Fridays will reduce um our administrative startup and shutdown time associated uh with those Fridays. Um it'll be a cost savings for the city because it'll lower our utility cost here. Um it will improve our employee uh recruitment and retention here by improving um our morale and enhancing a work life balance for our employees. Um, also it will expand our public service hours to our citizens. Um, being open, you know, um, till 6 pm on Monday through Thursday gives greater access for our working residents. I can tell y'all most days at 5:15 our lobby's pretty packed. And actually, usually here at 7:30 in the morning, those are our busiest times. People on their way to work, they're coming in uh to city hall, you know, not um, everybody uh, has the luxury of of not working. So, um it it definitely helps expand those hours for uh for them. That was not a slight at anybody. I see y'all laughing. That was not a a slight at anybody. Um it's just, you know, a fact of life. Um also, it puts us in alignment um with our other entities in the city um with drainage district number one uh and WCID or the water district um as well. And you know, hopefully the studies have proven that going to um a four uh day work week enhances uh productivity and it allows you to block off more time to

work on uh key projects or task at hand. Um I think the big reason for us up here that we kind of thought through as a staff is um on Fridays we have extremely uh low turnout if you will uh in our offices. So, we did account um we had less than 15 people come in um every Friday since the beginning of this new year. So, we've only had 15 people walk come through the door. Uh so, it's a a pretty low turnout of combined. Uh so, it's a pretty low turnout of residents that come in. So, permitting would really be the the biggest, you know, department affected up here at city hall. Um, but we I definitely uh view it as a a a big plus for us uh here at the city. Um that we can be in alignment with our our other entities. I know the school district does it in the summertime. They do 410s as well. Um but uh I view this as as a um a big win for our residents as well, giving them that extra time to come in in the mornings before they're heading to Clear Lake or Galveston or or Texas City uh to go to work. So, it's with uh my recommendation that we move to the the 410s here at the city.

You you'll eliminate a lot of callins, too, because you have the whole day of Friday to do doctor's appointments. I work 410 and I love it. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's horrible this time of year because you get up and go to work. It's get off. It is. But you have the you have the option. You have Fridays to do all your other stuff. And and the biggest for is the morale. Correct. It's a huge morale booster.

Huge morale booster. And then, you know, on the financial portion, um it should cut down on our overtime expenses as well. Um just typically by the time we get to Friday, um most of our staff have worked already 40 hours um in in that week before even getting to Friday. So, um thank you for for pointing that out on the morale. I think that it'll really help having those people on on Friday that they you like I said doctor's appointments to go, you know, to the grocery store, whatever, whatever it is to help them get through. Go to HB before school. That's right. That's a big one. The library would maintain the same hour.

The library would be the That's correct. They would maintain the same hour. Since we just changed their hours, they would still be working 10 through six Monday through Friday. Fridays are still a big day at the library. We wouldn't want to change that. you know on Saturday we changed that at the beginning of the year just because the usage went there but the usage is there on Friday so recommendation to change the library just our other uh departments so library staying the same that's correct okay no budget okay and the road department's already on they're already on it and so I want to give you

public works so public works is still on there um we actually just took in an employee from another entity because they moved from four days to five days a week um and he took a pay cut to come here because 4 day work week uh here. Uh that that definitely is a big bonus for us um and in acquiring uh new employees and um being one of the entities with with with the lower pay. Um it that anything that can give us an edge is a is a good thing to to put us you know in the market. All right. What would be the hours?

Uh it would be 7 to 6. So 7 a.m. to 6 pm. I move to approve the resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, amending the city of Santa Fe personnel policy to add section 20.06 business hours as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded twice to approve the resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, amending the city of Santa Fe personnel policy to add section 20.06 business hours as presented. Council, is there any further discussion? I'm just surprised it took this long for somebody to bring that up. There's a new sheriff in town. It's been brought up. New hatchet in town. Oh, Lord.

All right. Now, have a roll call, please. Council member Strader, yes. Council member Mckame, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. And Council Member Marks, yes.

Motion passes. All right. Um, and then, uh, if this was Austin or Washington and I was able to, um, to name ordinances, I would call this the council member Janette ordinance. But, uh, number 10 is consideration and possible action first reading of an ordinance of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, repealing and replacing ordinance number 3-96 regarding regular city council meetings to conform to section 3.12, meeting of council of the city charter. Mr. Collins.

Yes. So, um I've had a couple members bring this forward um to me. Um the big reason for this change is you guys approved my uh $50,000 threshold at the last meeting for me to be able to spend up to within the budget. So, going from 5 to 50,000 will cut out a lot of agenda items. So, our meetings are already um fairly um short right now. And so it is my recommendation that we move from having two meetings a month to one regular call meeting a month. We can go to a uh have a special call meeting any time that we need to do so. But it would be my recommendation um instead of meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month uh that we go to meeting on once once a month on the third Thursday of the month. Um, so we've looked uh at the calendar for the next two years and it doesn't interfere with um any holiday or any conferences that you guys would have to attend. Um, but it's our recommendation in order to um consolidate some of the meetings that we're having to go down to that once a month. We just um not that it it's not great to have meetings, but I think just the the time um and just the the um the business load that we're able to work through um internally now doesn't require to have to come to city hall. But I'll leave that up the floor up to you guys.

Still, it could possibly extend that one meeting a month a little bit longer, but it could. So, it could it could be longer. And if we, you know, if we need to have a special call meeting, whether that's um to discuss an item that has to be an executive session or we have um an emergency or disaster come up or if there's a a major item that I feel that uh would require you guys to come in and meet, I know that um all of you guys are are ready to really just jump and and hit the ground running to to have that special called meeting. So, um I just wanted to feel the temperature uh for the council uh to see if you would be open to go to that one meeting a month. We do second and fourth right now, right? That's correct.

Why don't we just stay with the second instead of going to third? So, it we're going into some holidays. Um uh and that's the reason we would have to change the meeting anyway. So, going to the third and plus with a couple of the conferences that you guys go to, it misses every day. It works out perfect. and then it actually works out perfect that you don't have to meet with the um uh the budget uh calendar as well. So that's really the reason we just tried to you know finagle that and it was the the only way to do it because you know my preference would be to keep it the second or the fourth is what we do right now but the third is just the one that worked out best.

I don't want anybody waiting on us to get their whatever they need from us. Absolutely. So if that comes up, I will reach out to you guys and we can get a meeting scheduled really quick. Um I think that there'll be very few and far between, maybe once a year, twice a year at most if we have to have that. But um I feel that, you know, with great confidence that with with having a meeting once a month, we'll be able to get our jobs done effectively here.

Cool. I'm in support of it, council. I am. I think I move to approve. Go ahead. I move to approve the first reading of an ordinance reviewing and replacing ordinance number 3-96 regular city council meetings to confirm to to com to conform to section 3.12 meeting of council of the city charter to allow for one regular council meeting per month to be held on the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.

Second. has been moved and seconded to approve the first reading of an ordinance repealing and replacing ordinance number 3-96 regular city council meetings to conform to section 3.12 meeting of council of the city charter to allow for one regular council meeting per month to be held on the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. Council, is there any further discussion? And when is this going into effect? Exactly. That's my point. So this will go into effect. We do have to have a second reading. Um and so my recommendation would be um to um cancel the regular scheduled meeting for the uh second week of uh March and and then have a special called meeting on the third week of March to confirm the the second reading of this

and means it's closer to the fourth meeting that the in the fourth meeting that one would go away closer to the second meeting of the month. So everything's counted. That's correct. What is it going to be? be I mean council there's no standard dress code. I mean there's not anything codified but if we have one meeting a month it would be my recommendation that we work I was just joking. So but uh there is no tie ties are for pictures only. That's what Rusty said. That's right. Yeah. He's not he's he's boycotting a tie till we take a new We'll be taking one hopefully next next month. Yeah. Okay. trying to wait to I was trying to push it a little bit to see if I can get rid of some hardware before

we we'll do we'll make sure we can do that. We can accommodate. They're dragging it out. So, we'll see. All right. Um, did we vote on this? No, not yet. Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Janette. Yes. Council member Dickerson. Yes. Yes. Okay. Council member Marks. Yes. Council member Shrader. Yes. And Council Member Mckame. Yes. What was your question? question. What do you What's What are we waiting on this for a group picture? What's the picture yet? Oh, I was I was trying to get rid of some hardware prices. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Item number 11, executive session closed to the public pursuit to chapter 551.072, Texas Government Code. deliberation regarding purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property, city- owned property. Uh, we're going to go into executive session. It is 8:04 p.m. Announce announcements. Oh, yeah. We can do announcements. I've got a question for Georgia. The donation boxes, where are we at?

Oh, that's a great question. I'm glad you asked. I throw some stuff in there. Look at that smile on her face. Manny and I sent out all of the letters and we have been getting active responses because we had our ne caveat down at the bottom that everyone was going to start getting fined if they didn't get the boxes picked up by March 6th. So, they've got until March 6 to get them picked up. If they're not picked up by March 6, they will be getting fined $2,000 a day and we will be disposing of them.

That's our part. But in the meantime and anytime that we see anything out there, then Billy and his crew and the parks crew have been going over and picking the stuff up and they have been trashing it because frankly we're all tired of looking at it. So yeah, the uh they've been getting rid of it. Did the donut did the people at first the bank and the shopping center, did they respond back or did they get a letter? They did get a letter. Was that one that you've gotten back? Receive any. So that's why we trash. Watched about as much as I can. I watched twice. A person pulls up, takes the stuff out of the box

and it's sitting there going through it, going through clothes and stuff and then drives off. Yeah. See, I thought people were dumping it, but it's people pulling it out and going through it and I've said some people are, you know, and I understand that, but you know, that's what his is for. The only announcement that I have u that I can think of off the top of my head is that we are still in the middle of early voting. If you haven't gotten out and vote, please do. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, I guess, is the last day.

And then uh Tuesday will be election day, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. You can visit galveaststonvotes.com to access your sample ballot and polling locations. The last time that I checked, only about two and a half% of Galveston County had voted. And u that's unfortunate um because if you have a a close race, then that means about a one and a quarter% of the people elected um who's representing you. So get out and vote. I know last election was November lines too. Yeah. A lot of people voted

in in the city of Santa Fe. the uh election uh locations will be the the old school museum and the West County building like it has in early voting. Plus uh Daypring Church is going to be an election day location. So if there's long lines at the museum or at the West County building, you can head down to U Dayring Church on 646 and vote there as well. All right, council. Any other announcements? Lots of Columbus fish fries at every Friday. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, we've got the lint fish fries at the KC Hall. They're amazing. You better get that 4:00 sell out by 5. One of the cookers, but they're good. They're they had to raise prices a little, but I'll tell you up front. The $15 a plate.

Oh, man. Gosh. It's worth every bit of it. Oh, yeah. It's good food and it's even better company. Good crowd. Good crowd there on Friday nights. Get out and and come to the KC. And as Mark always reminds us at the coffee talk, they will take Protestant money, too. You don't have to be a Catholic to go there. Don't take Protestant money. That's right. All that money that we raise goes to good causes. Yeah. It goes to the nuns. I know a big portion of it does, doesn't it? Our St. Joseph's. Oh, that's the St. Joseph's altar that goes to them. We we uh treat them ladies right. That's right. All right. Well, it is now 8:08.

Got one announcement as well. So, we're going to be having a permitting seminar uh coming up on April 22nd. I know that we um uh uh we have a lot of questions about permitting at the city. So, we're going to open it up to our residents to come in to to ask questions and to give um basically a training on what uh permitting looks like at the city uh and what the process is. So, that way that there's no question in anybody's minds um of of what that looks like. So, we want to open that up to the community. We'll put that information out as uh as it comes available. But um on April 22nd, Wednesday, April 22nd is the date that we're uh looking at pushing that forward. Also, we want to remind our citizens of the Touch a Truck event on March uh 7th uh at Ranki Park. So, we hope that you you and your families will come out uh and come touch a truck and uh see that uh great event come to light. So

Seth in that portion George I mean there's a lot of people ask me that they're complaining about the pricing of permits how well can we explain that and how cities that's right we can explain that and the reason we we the reason so ours are you know maybe higher than a couple of the other entities we're definitely not the highest um we don't have impact fees like most other communities to around us I believe at Alvin theirs is 11,000 for their impact fees or somewhere right in that range.

Okay. Not in your department, but I believe it's right in that range right around 11,000. So, um because of not having that that that's sometimes we have to be able to recoup those funds uh to fund our department here. Um but we'll definitely bring that up and um and more information at that time. Right. Any other announcements? All right. 810. I'll

Green. All right. 8:54. Um, call this uh regular city council meeting back to order. Council, is there any action from executive session? Make a motion to journ and seconded. Thank you, gentlemen.