City Commission - Regular Meeting

Testing, testing.

We're fixing to start, so please silence your phones. We will begin in less than a minute. Good afternoon and welcome to the City Commission of the City of Brownsville. May we get started, Mayor? Pursuant to Chapter 551, Title 5 of the Texas Government Code, that the Texas Open Meetings Notice is hereby given that the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, in accordance with Article 5, Section 12 of the Charter of said city, will convene at a regular meeting on June 2, 2026 at 5 p.m. here in the Commission Chambers on the second floor of the Brownsville City Hall Old Federal Building, located at 1001 East Elizabeth Street, Brownsville, Texas, in Cameron County, 78520. We will proceed with the roll call, starting with Mayor John Cowan Jr. Present. Next, we'll have Tino Villarreal. Present. Noreth Galonski. Brian Martinez.

Present.

Linda Macias. Present. Gustavo De Leon. And Pedro Cardenas. We do have a quorum to proceed. Next, we will have the invocation that will be led by Miss Rosalie Fernandez. And following, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance of the Texas flags of the United States of America and the state of Texas.

Yes, good afternoon, everyone. If everyone would stand and just bow your heads and I pray that you have just peace. I know we had a long day today, so let's get started. We gather together, Heavenly Father, giving you and only you thanks and praise. In one accord, we continue to pray for all our military. as they serve and stand for the red white and blue protect them and their families we lift up president trump all in congress and in the senate that they may make the best decisions for the united states of america we ask lord for a holy ghost protection for our country protect our borders may no weapon formed against us ever prosper and as we honor the texas flag each meeting one state under god may we not take what we say lightly like the story of the rich man and the penny as he walked the streets with his friends and would stop each time he saw a penny pick it up and smile was asked why he did this his reply was because it says in god we trust let what we do reflect that of which you have asked us to do lord Bless our city and the entire RGV, along with everyone serving in public service. Let us thank a police officer this week, a fireman, or maybe an EMT paramedic for their hard work. The numerous volunteers, thank you for your time and dedication. And those that bring good to our community, keep going. You are not unseen. Remove all stumbling blocks so that Brownsville and our county can bloom with beauty. as citizens of cameron county lord continue to mold us into the individuals you designed us to be we pray for a better future for our children and grandchildren we pray that brownsville cameron county will have an overflow of abundance and never lack anything may each of us shine may each of us who have stepped up to serve in our community shine in what we are doing Let Matthew 5.14 be embedded in our minds. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. So as we continue to build with a pure heart, let our work shine and bring a smile to your face. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. May the next time you see a penny, bring a smile to your face as well. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen.

Next we have is the proclamation, starting with recognizing the responsible of fatherhood month.

Mayor? Commissioner?

I'm sorry.

Oh, no, I think.

Oh, yeah. So the proclamation will be read as there's photos being taken. So we'll start with the reading of the proclamation.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners, City of Brownsville. A proclamation of the City Commission of Brownsville, Texas, recognizing Responsible Fatherhood Month. Where as everyone deserves a chance to reach one's full potential. And we have a moral and economic duty to support our children and to promote positive outcomes for youth through early intervention, quality education and family support programs. Whereas fathers, whether biological, a father figure, a foster or adoptive, deserves our honor and gratitude And whereas the celebration of Father's Day is a time to honor fathers and thank them for their love and support and the vital potential role they play in helping their children grow and set goals for their future. And whereas good fathering and co-parenting during infancy, childhood, and adolescence contributes to emotional security and has overwhelming positive psychological and economic benefits for children, families, communities, and other sectors. And whereas, children are less likely to face poverty, infant mortality, and abuse and or negligent negligent neglect where there is an involved father in their lives. And whereas all fathers must invest in providing emotional and financial support for their Children at every juncture of their lives, supporting involved, nurturing and responsible fatherhood. And whereas strong families are the foundation of thriving communities, which are essential as we address social challenges like addiction, teen pregnancy, crime, and school dropout. And whereas throughout our state, we aim to promote positive fathering and co-parenting to showcase providers of fatherhood resources and services, and to increase public awareness of the crucial role of fathers. And now, therefore, we, the members of the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, by virtue of the authority vested by the Charter of said city, do hereby proclaim the month of June as responsible Fatherhood Month. And we encourage our community to honor, support and promote the vital role that fathers and father figures play in strengthening families and helping children reach their full potential. done on this day, the 2nd of June, 2026. Congratulations to all the father figures and fathers out there. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything you do.

Thank you for being here.

Well, thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

We love you.

Thank you.

Mayor, city commissioners and distinguished guests. Thank you for recognizing June as Father Responsibility Month. Today we celebrate the vital role fathers play in the lives of their Children, families and our community. Strong fathers help build strong families and strong families build strong communities. All those provide love, guidance, protection, discipline and encouragement that help Children thrive emotionally, spiritually and academically. Research consistently shows that children are more likely to succeed when fathers are actively involved in their lives. While we celebrate the many dedicated fathers in our city, we also recognize the importance of encouraging and equipping the next generation of fathers to embrace their God-given responsibilities. Fatherhood is not just about being present. It's about leading, serving, mentoring, and loving sacrificially. On behalf of citizens defending freedom in the faith community here in Brownsville, thank you for this proclamation and for helping shine a light on the importance of responsible fatherhood. Together, let's continue to strengthen families and invest in the future of our children. Thank you. God bless our fathers, our families, and the city of Brownsville. Thank you so much. Pastor Norman is going to come up next.

next proclamation is recognizing that i believe we have one more speaker oh i'm sorry for this

Este honor no es solamente para los pastores que aquí presentes, sino para cada padre que trabaja día a día para amar, cuidar, guiar y formar a sus hijos con dedicación y sacrificio. Ustedes son una pieza fundamental en la construcción de las familias fuertes y de una sociedad más saludable. Al recibir esta proclamación, también asumimos un compromiso. We commit ourselves to continue promoting values of responsibility, integrity, love, and leadership in our homes. We commit ourselves to support parents, to strengthen families, and to work together so that future generations have examples that inspire and transform their lives. We believe that when a father is present, a family is strengthened. Cuando una familia está fortalecida, la comunidad es próspera. Bronzeville alberga valores que son suficientes para hacer de esta ciudad una ciudad brillante. Gracias por este honor y gracias por cada padre que con esfuerzo y amor está dejando un legado que perdurará por generaciones. que Dios bendiga nuestras familias, a nuestra ciudad, a sus líderes, y a todos los padres responsables que hacen la diferencia cada día. Muchas gracias.

Thank you. My apologies on that.

Next proclamation is recognizing Marcriadas Fronteras. Marcriadas Fronteras. Y'all can come to the front to receive the proclamation.

All right.

This is a proclamation of the City Commission of Brownsville, Texas recognizing las malcriadas fronterizas. Whereas Las Malcriadas Fronterizas represents and uplifts domestic workers whose labor sustains families and communities across Brownsville, the Rio Grande Valley, the United States, and the world, and 67.1 million people globally and approximately 2.5 million in the United States who work in domestic labor, many of whom are immigrant women and women of color facing systemic barriers and limited protections. And whereas many domestic workers around the globe remain excluded from labor laws due to restrictive immigration systems, leaving an estimated 11.5 million migrant domestic workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, despite their vital contributions to global and local economies. And whereas on June 16, 2011, the International Labor Organization adopted the Domestic Workers Convention, establishing fundamental rights for domestic workers and designating June 16 as International Domestic Workers Day, a day recognizing caregivers, house cleaners, nannies, and home care providers. And whereas in Brownsville, domestic workers play an essential role in supporting the well-being of families, elders, children, and individuals with disabilities. yet they continue to be among the most undervalued and unprotected workers in the region, often facing workplace injury, limited access to health care, and lack of paid leave. And whereas Las Malkriadas Fronterizas has emerged as a leading voice in the Rio Grande Valley for domestic workers and its Circulo de Escritoras, comprised of women writers, most of whom are domestic workers, includes a broader base of more than 20 workers across three key industries, nannies, house cleaners, and home care providers, dedicated to developing leadership through narrative power and storytelling storytelling and whereas the mission and vision of las malcriadas fronterizas uplift the voices of immigrant domestic workers empowering them as writers leaders and protagonists of their own stories using spanish language storytelling to build collective power and long-term narrative change for latinx and borderland communities. And whereas the City of Brownsville acknowledges and honors Las Matriadas Fronterizas, along with other organizations such as RGV Clubs Comunitarios and the South Texas Human Rights Center for their continued advocacy and commitment to advancing justice, dignity, and equitable labor protections for domestic workers, and encourages residents to support efforts that recognize and uplift this vital workforce. Now, therefore, we, the members of the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, by virtue of the authority vested by the charter of said city, do hereby recognize and honor. Let's mark the other front that he says in Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, done on this the 2nd, day of June, 2026.

Para que salgan todas. Pues sí.

Thank you very much.

Yes, it's a pleasure to see you. It's a pleasure to see you too. Thank you very much.

It's been a long time since I last saw you.

Thank you very much. Where are you from? I'm okay. Good.

Where are you from? Where are you from?

Where are you from? We can find them a house in district. She's district two.

Yes. Quiero agradecerles en nombre de clubs comunitarios, de la coalición El Poder de las Flores, South Texas Human Rights Center, por esta gran proclamación de declarar el 16 de junio el Día Internacional de las Trabajadoras del Hogar. Muchísimas gracias a la ciudad de Broadville, al Mayor John Cohen, a Nurit, ¿verdad?, y a todos los comisionados aquí presentes que aprobaron esta proclamación. Eh, muchos trabajadores aquí domésticos en el mundo y en la ciudad de Broadville están excluidos de las protecciones de leyes laborales. Gracias por su compromiso al honrar este día el 18 de junio como el Día Internacional de las Trabajadoras del Hogar. En este día será para nosotros apoyar a estas trabajadoras en estas tres industrias de niñeras, providers, limpiadoras de casas. Este día establecerá por primera vez los derechos de los trabajadores del hogar, exigiendo las garantías a los trabajadores en cuanto a los periodos de descanso, diarios, semanales, horas de trabajo extraordinarias o reuniones, protecciones adecuadas contra la violencia hacia las mujeres. Asimismo, este día queda como el Día Internacional de las Trabajadoras del Hogar. Esta proclamación alentará mucho a los ciudadanos de Brody a apoyar los programas y proyectos que se celebrarán y concientizarán a las personas sobre el trabajo de las trabajadoras del hogar. Muchísimas gracias y gracias a todos los presentes aquí por acompañarnos y queremos justicia y protección y dignidad para todos los que estamos aquí y todas las trabajadoras presentes. Muchísimas gracias y de aquí los esperamos en la Biblioteca Salmos para celebrar.

Next, we have recognizing Sister Norma Pimentel.

Thank you. A proclamation of the City Commission of Brownsville, Texas, recognizing Sister Norma Pimentel MJ. Whereas Sister Norma Pimentel MJ has become one of the most recognized and respected humanitarian leaders in the United States, serving as president and CEO of the Catholic Charities of Rio Grande Valley and overseeing the charitable branch of the Diocese of Brownsville, one of the largest Catholic diocese in the nation. And whereas with over 20 years of dedicated service sister pimentel has provided leadership and oversight to a wide range of ministries. and social services throughout the Rio Grande Valley, including homelessness prevention disaster relief clinical counseling pregnancy care food assistance and humanitarian aid to immigrants and whereas. In 2014 in response to a significant influx of immigrants in the southern border sister pimentel with the support of the local community. established the humanitarian respite center offering a safe and compassionate environment for individuals and families to rest and receive care during their journey and whereas over the past decade the humanitarian respite center has become the largest respite center of its kind in the united states serving more than half million individuals and exemplifying a model of dignity compassion and service And whereas Sister Pimentel has been a powerful voice for immigrant families, reminding communities that every individual deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. And whereas her academic achievements include a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Pan American University, a master's degree in theology from St. Mary's University, and a master's degree in pastoral counseling from Loyola University Chicago, along with numerous honorary doctoral degrees from prestigious institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, And whereas affectionately known as the Pope's favorite nun, Sister Pimentel is also an accomplished artist whose work has inspired and touched many. Now, therefore, we, the members of the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, by virtue of the authority vested by the charter of said city, do hereby recognize Sister Norma Pimentel for her unwavering commitment to humanitarian service, her leadership in advancing compassion and dignity, and her profound impact on the Rio Grande Valley and beyond, done on the second day of June 2026, signed the Mayor and City Commission. Congratulations, sister.

Could I get you to take half a step to the right there just so I can get you centered? Thank you.

One more. One last one. Sorry.

Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias por este honor. Que en realidad da honor a los miles y miles de personas que juntos como comunidad, especialmente de aquí en Brownsville y todo el valle, hemos sabido trabajar juntos para restaurar la dignidad de tantas personas que realmente necesitan nuestra ayuda. Thank you very much, Mayor. John and all of you for recognizing that the good work that we as a community have been able to do to thousands and thousands of people that truly needed our care and attention. We are truly a blessed RGV because of the work we do. And we were blessed by so many people and continue to do so every time we have a chance to make a difference to restore the dignity of a person, a human being. Gracias.

Next we will enter into the public comment period. We did receive five that were pre registered forms. However, one will be deferred to the public hearing number five. All speakers have acknowledged that they will follow the public comment conduct rules as displayed on the screen and have agreed to address at the City Commission and not to address the entire or to address the entire Commission and not to an individual member. Speakers are not allowed to use their time to conduct any moment of silence. or any filibusters. Speakers will be allowed to speak up to three minutes and they shall state their name and their address for the records. So the first speaker that we have up is Hannah Perez. If you can come to the podium, the time will start after you state your name and your address.

Hannah Perez?

Do not see Hannah Perez available. Diablo Velez?

I'm going to talk about Candence Tangora briefing to the commission. My name is Diablo Velez, 1254 Tyler Street. Lady Candence Tangora criticized the city for neglecting the art community. And as I mentioned before, Brownsville is not the center for art. And I'm going to explain to you how you can help it. My idea is this. to build, to construct a museum, a state-of-the-art museum, a modern museum for modern art, with all the technology to secure highly-priced pieces of art. Later, the commission, the mayor, the state representatives can lobby the national museums to borrow art, renaissance art, modern art, contemporary art, to be exhibited at this museum for five, ten years. Anybody that wants to see these pieces of art, they have to come here to Brownsville. However, before that happened, the city needs to create an environment of art. and I'm going to explain you how to do it. Please pay attention. There are economic formulas to help cities to gather resources by taking, economical resources of course, by taking 0.01% of the sale taxes. Cities can get like four to $5 million a year They use this money to attract business investors that can buy random buildings, houses, warehouses to convert it in business. Also, they receive tax credits, tax breaks, and many times they get help from improvement corporations to fix the facade of these buildings. Attached to this formula, this economical formula, there is an art initiative that demands that these investors needs to use some percent of their investment, some percent of these tax credits to buy art from the local galleries, Art studios, stores that sell art. It is a win-win situation because with this partnership between this formula and this art initiative, more qualified artists, more professional artists will come to the city and they will buy property, they will bring their families, they will be buy property, pay property taxes, school taxes. They will go to the stores and buy food, clothing. And coming along with this community of artists, there will come people that need to supply art to these artists. Take, for example, the two buildings here in downtown, residential buildings. All those walls, all these corridors, they need art, but they won't buy it in here because Brownsville don't have that large inventory of art. With this formula, with this partnership, with this art initiative, Brownsville will become, or will we have, a new initiative for economic development and more work, becoming Brownsville the center, the focus, and the country of the art community. And also, Brownsville will become, once and for all, a center for the arts.

Thank you. The next speaker, Yolanda Spies.

Good afternoon. During our last meeting, I did not appreciate you asking me for my address, so I answered by saying it was none of your business. I think you're requesting a public announcement of my personal addresses, superfluous and dangerous. I apologize for getting so defensive, which is more than the Brownsville PD has ever given me for their abusive, inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Honestly, you already have my address and my email every time I fill out my public comment form. What is the point of me mentioning my address if you already have it? The only thing that I could speculate is that it leaves me vulnerable to retaliation from someone out there who doesn't like what I have to say. Two years ago, the windshield on my Jeep Renegade got smashed after I gave one of my public comments. When I called the police, Officer Alejandro from the Brownsville PD was rude and got verbally abusive when I asked why they are not patrolling the area more. Apparently, asking went too far, and he victim shamed me. And he said that there are no night patrols, so when most crime happens in Brownsville, the police are neither protecting nor serving. that should make more people sleep soundly knowing the police can't be bothered according to the texas open meetings act no one is under any obligation to share their address publicly in midland texas a speaker challenged this requirement in the public comment the city attorney acknowledged this and determined that according to texas law a speaker is not obligated to disclose their address prior to publicly speaking during a public comment this is not my law this is state law by obligating me or any other person you are being problematic the city already has my address requiring restatement serves no purpose it raises legitimate privacy concerns and you should consider your request if it's unnecessary I don't feel safe giving you my address publicly. I am sure other people concur. I don't feel safe giving you my address publicly at all. Nobody wants to break the law, and people don't want their property damaged simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. So maybe, maybe, we should be more concerned with not breaking the laws and not having property damage. A powerful police officer has broken the law left and right, and you all circle the wagons and defend the corrupt cops. I want to point that out because by focusing on superfluous nonsense, you are enabling city employees to treat our citizens poorly and violate our rights. I have to keep coming here and speaking up until someone listens to me and actually wants to do something to correct this. I'm sure you want to keep collecting your checks and you want reelection. Please do your job and serve our community by focusing on what really matters and remove the address requirement. Thank you.

Next, we do have a group, which is the Youth Advisory Board, and the time will be five minutes since it's a group.

How's everyone doing? Hi, I'm Massimiliano Marin Mera. I'm with the Youth Advisory Board, and we've had some amazing achievements these past couple months. Thank you. One of our biggest accomplishments this year was our inaugural Youth Innovation Summit. We had, of course, a couple of amazing people here. I would like to shout out Mr. Villarreal, our city commissioner. He came out, and he's actually been very supportive and created the Youth Advisory Board. We had Mrs. Macias. She came out and was a keynote speaker for these students. just to keep give some context there was over 50 students at this event they uh we had 12 over 12 out of the 5 15 high schools represented um and we had just under 50 students it was 48 of them what we did is we went through a set of workshops we had over four workshops where they learned Public speaking skills pitching skills. They learned how to speak and prepare speeches and then they created solutions to actual problems in our community, such as the water crisis, they also solve transportation issues and much more. And at the end we actually awarded 1500 dollars to the winning team, we also did donate 10 or great what's it called. We. fundraise $10,000 for our inaugural youth innovation grants, so there will be $10,000 for youth to apply and hopefully gain some money for their innovation projects. We've also awarded over $4,000 in our One City Youth Scholarship. Just for those who don't know what the One City Youth Scholarship is, it is a scholarship awarded to all students in the city of Brownsville if they want to try and get a scholarship for a summer program or to help start a club in their school. in any way that we can relieve any of the financial burden that they face in order to make sure that all of the students in Brownsville are very, very successful. So we are very proud to announce that we've awarded over $4,000. That includes awarding $1,500 to a kid who wants to go to Greece to shadow some medical students. I was actually awarded $1,500. I will be going to Oregon for five weeks to do an astrophysics research program. so we are eternally grateful for that program and we are super excited to see what those students will be able to do with that money oh we will also be changing our application process so we will have an application process for all youth advisory board members that's still in the works but we are excited to see how that will work we do finish Soon, we're basically completely finished. We do follow the school year. So we're excited to have finished with such amazing events and having awarded so much money. And we are so grateful for all of your support. Thank you very much.

And that concludes the public comment period. Next, we'll have the city manager's update. First is to recognize the City of Brownsville Organizational Development and Human Resource Department and Chief People Officer, Ms. Perla Cepeda, for being selected as the recipient of the Human Resource Impact Award and the Human Resource Professional of the Year Award.

Thank you very much. I'm really proud. to make this announcement that our Organizational Development and HR Department, along with our Chief People Officer, Ms. Perla Cepeda, have received prestigious statewide recognition from the Texas Municipal Human Resources Association. These awards were presented at their annual conference during the TMHRA Annual Conference in Round Rock on May 6th. The ODHR Department was honored with the TMHRA Human Resources Impact Award for cities with a population of 25,000 or more. This award recognizes local government HR departments that demonstrate outstanding leadership through innovative programs and services designed to solve municipal human resource challenges and enhance organizational culture. Ms. Cepeda was also recognized individually with the TMHRA Human Resources Professional of the Year Award. the award of distinction for cities with population of 25,000 or more. This award honors an HR professional who exemplifies significant leadership skills, including the ability to lead and guide employees, develop employee talents, and successfully manage an efficient and effective unit. Over the past 18 months, with the support of this city commission, the city's ODHR department has implemented a number of major initiatives that have delivered measurable results across the organization. Among them is our one city university, the deferred compensation match program, paid parental leave, additional vacation and holidays, vision plan insurance, and the employee and clinic that we do with Frontier. So I really appreciate this group. They really do a great job for our employees day in and day out. and they are making the city of Brownsville an employer of choice. People choose to want to work here. We see it in employees that have left and are now asking to come back. We see it as the tenure of our employees becomes longer and longer. People stay now and make a career here. So thank you very much to the City Commission for your support of this, and thank you to our team, and congratulations on your recognition. I didn't get to carry the hardware, the glassware, I guess.

Yep.

Yep, National Public Works Week.

The next, or actually the next is recognizing the National Public Works Week.

National Public Works Week is recognized every year. It's typically during May, but we kind of ran out of time in May. But we want to recognize these folks that are out there in the public every day taking care of vital services that our communities sometimes take for granted. When the roads are great, you don't say, what a great job. But when there's a pothole, you sure get recognized for not getting that pothole. But I think it's important to recognize the work that they do day in and day out, making Brownsville a great place to live for all of our community. And so we wanted to make sure that they got this recognition. Thank you to Director Maribel Guerrero, who is the director of EPW. You do a fantastic job with a great team, and we really appreciate everything you do.

And before, is it okay if I can go ahead and read the proclamation, Maribel? Thank you. It is an honor to be reading a proclamation of the City Commission of Brownsville, Texas, recognizing National Public Works Week. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the City of Brownsville, Texas. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector. who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children of the city of Brownsville, Texas to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities, and whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual national public works week sponsored by the american public works association and whereas the theme for national public works week 2026 rooted in service powered by community recognizing the enduring commitment of the public works professionals and the vital role they play in building maintaining and supporting the infrastructure that connects and empowers communities and now therefore we the members of the city commission of the city of brownsville texas by virtue of the authority vested by the charter of said city do hereby recognize and proclaim the week of may 17 through the 23rd 2026 As designated as national public works week and all citizens are encouraged to join with risk risk representatives of the American public works association and local government agencies and activities and events. designed to recognize the dedicated public works professionals who contribute each day to the health, safety and quality of life in our Community done on this, the second day of June 2026.

Commissioner, thank you for reading that. I'm Maribel Guerrero. I'm the very proud, honored, and privileged director of the Might of Men and Women of Engineering and Public Works Department. And here with me is my deputy director and city engineer, Carlos Lastra, and deputy director of public works, Mr. David Vera. We just want to relay and thank you for your support of our works. Our men and women do really hard work out there every day. And I want to say they do it with great joy and with great pride as their commitment to this community and the spirit of service is really exemplified by doing quality of life projects for our community. It's a great love in their hearts to do the work that they do every day. So I wanted to say thank you for your support. It's a great honor to be in service to the city of Brownsville and thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

On the contrary, Maribel and team, thank you so much for all that you do. Muchísimas gracias por todo el labor que ustedes hacen. Han ayudado a mi distrito tanto y les agradezco de todo corazón. No nada más a mi distrito, pero a toda la ciudad. Así que juntos todos sí se puede. Muchísimas gracias por su labor.

I also wanted to, I forgot to mention, is that in honor of this proclamation, you know, it's public works week within May. We couldn't have the proclamation prior several things in the agenda, but we wanted to honor this proclamation and honor you. So we did a special project for the Brownsville Police Department shooting range. And just to really show the spirit of collaboration of our department and really the collaborative efforts between all of our departments. In your honor and in the honor of our Bronson Police Department, we did a special project where we upgraded some the areas and we did some upgrades to the Bronson Police Department shooting range. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much. Now we will move on to the presentation. Item number one is the presentation and to provide an update on the city's capital recovery fee program. We'll turn it over to staff.

Good evening, Mayor, city commissioners. I want to provide a quick update on our capital recovery fee program that was approved by this commission two years ago. And I can't believe it's been already two years. But for those, just a quick update, it is a tool that the cities use throughout Texas to how to fund new infrastructure projects. And so it is an assessed fee that is assessed to the developers. to make sure that they contribute to the city's infrastructure as the city continues to grow. And so it is in the Texas government code chapter 395, where cities are allowed to assess an impact fee or recovery fee to development. It is strictly used for the projects in the capital improvement plan that was approved by this commission. It ensures that the developers and community shares the cost and is not just a burden on the taxpayers. Again, as mentioned, the fee imposes on new development to fund roadway infrastructure like expansions and new roadways. With the land use and mobility plan that was approved, The capital improvement plan is about $565 million. So for about two years, we worked with a consultant, Friesen Nichols. They worked on a plan, a land use assumption plan. They looked at what would the city look like in the next 10 years as far as growth and land use. Based on that formula and that study, they developed several formulas that will go into, Johnny will speak to on how that fees are being calculated. This is a timeline on when we started. It was January 2022. We had a lot of public involvement, a lot of open houses, several work sessions here to this commission. We try to be transparent to the development, to the realtors, what this fee was. It was a one time fee. It's not a new tax. And so you can see there are the other meetings we had throughout the two years. Overall, we had about 120 attendees throughout the meetings. Some were focused for certain developers. Some were focused for board of directors or realtors. We did create several videos and surveys to make sure that the community and the developers were aware of what this fee, what this program is, and how it would impact them. And so I'll let Johnny speak to the process of what it is when someone submits a permit for they want to construct within the city of bronzo and how that's being assessed.

Good evening commission. I am Johnny senior planner with multimodal transportation department and I'm gonna elaborate a little bit on how the CRF program was incorporated into the city systems. From the very beginning, we had always intended for this program to being integrated into the setup platform that that houses all the development projects for the city. And so now, when users and developers use the platform to start the projects, they will be processing some relevant questions to gather information for their particular project. Once that information is gathered, it is pushed forward into the review cycles where then city staff has the ability to QC review and ensure that the fee that is assessed to said development is fair to the type of development of whatever that project may be. Once those reviews are completed and approved, those fees are associated with that case file and it stays with that case until a building permit is pulled so the collection and payment isn't done until the building permit is pulled that's when the city will collect that that on those fees those collections will be placed into one of 19 unique accounts associated to the 19 zones spread across the city of brownsville these zones are about six miles across as dictated by chapter 395 The intent of that policy is essentially to ensure that when a developer pays the fee, those fees stay within that region to aid in that development of that section of the city. So basically, it keeps the money where development is happening. There are many factors that weigh into how the CRF fees are determined, but a real simple way to look at it is what is the development type? What are the units for said development and how much traffic is being caused by that type of land use? Basically, just to put it simply, a taqueria to a hotel to a manufacturing plant, they're all going to generate different types of traffic and that is weighed into how ultimately what the CRF looks like when it goes through our SELA profile. Two years ago, Commission approved the CRF program at a 10% rate of what the CRF is being assessed at for all new development aside from residential items. Residential items are capped at $1,000 per unit or $800 depending on the zone and if If there's not a lot of CIP projects in those particular zones, that's why it doesn't reach the $1,000 threshold, but typically it's $1,000. The intent was to have it increase annually by 5%, but due to Senate Bill 1883, there was a hold on that incremental increases, so what was approved two years ago is how it's going to stay. Of course, subject to the Commission's decisions and reviews to change that. When the CRF is collected, the intent of those collections is to basically fund new projects, new roadways, and existing roadways to make them wider. More specifically, their projects identified in the CIP. The map that is on your screen now shows the red lines, which are new roadways, blue lines, which are existing roadways that will be expanded. they were selected and identified because of projected land use growth. So basically, wherever the city was projected to grow, corridors from the existing thoroughfare plan were highlighted and then elevated to be in the CIP, and that's why those projects exist. So we have our widening maps, which you can see here. We have some Rose, Minnesota, Dockbury Road, and then we have our new roadways. These are roadways that are non-existent. and we have east loop arizona road but all important corners and like i said these are all areas that were projected to have the fast growth the next 10 years when commission looked into this program two years ago it was made very apparent that honesty and transparency be shared with the public and so all applicable information for this program the land use report the crf report q and a's We even have an interactive map where you can go and select every zone and see how much money is currently in each zone. So all that information is on our city website. Additionally, we provided a calculator tool that essentially imitates what the Acela platform is doing for any user. Anyone could go in there and use it on our website and to see exactly what their CRF is going to be. It's an excellent planning tool so that developers can come in here, pre-plan for their projects. As of May of 2026, which was last month, this is what has been collected. Just to emphasize, when this was approved two years ago, a one-year delay was added, so no funds were collected up to May 2025, and then an additional grace period was added till May 26, which was last month. Basically, no funds were collected up to May 25, and projects that were already existing and in the works basically got waived the fee until last month so now that those two that two-year grace period is over these will be assessed and collected for all new development there's not going to be much waivers on that um this is the last slide so if you have any questions feel free to ask questions or comments

Within this last slide, that's only what you've collected in one year.

Basically, it's collections in one year with waivers. So it's only for projects to really began their process, beginning from May 2025. Anything that was existing already had been added, it was in the seller portal. And once they completed, they were waiving fees, because that was part of the grace period.

I think you said that you assess the fee as soon as someone pulls a building permit.

Come again?

That the fee is assessed when someone pulls up a building?

So the assessments are done when new development is entered into a settled portal. It's part of the review cycle, like when we review fire reviews, planning reviews, there's going to be a series of section that also is reviewed and once those once those numbers are adjusted to match the development type that's when it is approved and assessed and so it's done in the review stages of all all new all new development and it's not collected and paid until the building permit is pulled so when construction will essentially begin and they come to build that pull the building permit that's when the city charges the the fees

We wait to confirm that the final project is what we're charging the fee based on in case there's any modifications or changes during the permit process. So the fee is not collected until the permit is issued.

So like in our case, would it be when you finish the subdivision or when each house or builder pulls to build a house?

It's going to depend. It will be when you're getting ready to plat. At the recording of the plat.

You collect twice when when, when it would be the fees based on the proposed development.

So for a subdivision as an example, the fee would be assessed based on the subdivision development on the site, it would be assessed based on the site development, whatever is being done for the site. So we will not be charging a subdivision developer for any building improvements, the building improvements will be charged to whoever pulls the building permit. i have a quick question i noticed on the plan coffee road was included as one of the roads that since we're already uh that's in the works well this how do you we could utilize that money to pay for the improve a portion of the improvement so it's i believe it's an eligible correct on that segment i believe it's under section eight which is like 33 000 we have we could utilize those funds for that project since it is one of our projects on the list

the questions comments do the people then um you said that on the excel exam haven't been on there lately it says the different zones so then for each zone is do you know which projects will be prioritized like your funds will go to your monies will go to pay the fees yes so when this plan was presented

Yes, when this plan was presented it showed what projects can be this funding can be utilized for and each section has either projects in red, which are expansions. and projects in blue, which are new roadways so those are this funding can only be used for those projects in those specific sections until those projects are completed, then we would come back for an update to that capital recovery fee plan.

And just to know it's opposite the red is a new roadways and the blue is the white names and he is right. Um, this was all subject to review by the commission. And so the and all these projects can be reevaluated and selected according to what's on the plan.

I will add real quick, uh, as per chapter, we're required to do an update every 5 years. And so, in fiscal year, 28, more than likely, we'll add an item to the budget. to make sure we bring back and redo the study that's as required by LOCTA.

Yeah, and I think I commented on before, but all these projects are part of the existing thoroughfare plan. They were just elevated to the CIP listing based on need.

Any other questions or comments? Thank you very much for your time.

The next presentation is item number two is the introduction and overview of the Brownsville housing master plan. Turn it over to staff.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and City Commission. My name is Daniel Leal, Director of Planning and Redevelopment Services with City of Brownsville. Thank you for the opportunity of briefing you today. Tonight we're beginning an important conversation about housing in Brownsville through our first ever Housing Master Plan, a community-centered effort designed to help us understand and prepare for our city's current and future housing needs. This plan is supported by HRNA advisors and city staff, and today's briefing marks our first step in outlining the proposed goals and direction of the work ahead. My goal is to introduce the team to you and to the Brownsville community and provide you with a clear, accessible overview of why this plan matters and how it will help guide thoughtful, data-driven decisions for Brownsville's future. What brought us here? Let me find the right I think, OK, what brought us here? As you know, Brownsville's leadership, starting by city commission and city manager's office, has recognized the need for a coordinated set of long range plans that reflect our community's aspirations across all aspects of life. Over the past few years, we began building these sort of forward looking plans, such as the Parks, Health and Recreation Master Plan, I described the park system as the lungs of the city in a metaphor for understanding cities as a living body, this is the system of places where the ground breathe breathes as opposed to impervious cover such as roads and driveways but also is where our people breathe. whether by practicing a sport, playing in a playground, or just having a quiet stroll. This is where we breathe as a community. Then we have the Downtown Renaissance Master Plan that will be finalized in summer, which will be taking good care of the heart of the city in the same metaphor. And starting this evening, the Housing Master Plan, which plays an equally vital role as providing for the shelter of the city and its citizens. later in some months we will also have the comprehensive plan that will bring everything together and envision other aspects of city life beyond these three vital needs needs of sheltering breathing and having a healthy core the primary goal of this plan is to develop policies that guide both city actions and private investment to support attainable high quality housing opportunities just as importantly this plan ensures that community voices remain at the center of the process You will see that our work is grounded in being visionary, data-driven, and community-led. This approach will help us identify meaningful priorities and create a roadmap that serves all Brownsville residents today and in the years ahead. With no further delay, I'd like to introduce you to Sam Nunez, project manager of this plan on the city side, and the consulting team, HR&A, and TechAuto.

Good evening, commissioners and members of the general public. My name is again Sam Nunez. I'm a senior planner working out of the planning and redevelopment department. I'm excited to present an overview of this plan, beginning with the key objectives. We do want to note that this plan is both reactive and proactive in the sense that we're addressing a very critical need that we're facing today not only at the national level but at the state level having to do with the housing supply we also want to be proactive right in looking towards the growth and opportunities of the city of bronzeville we're really confident in what we're seeing today coming in in industry people wanting to come live here but do we have the housing supply to support that growth and those opportunities coming in and that is something that this plan is going to be having as an objective Um, the goal behind this is basically to create a roadmap that would guide our policies that would guide a lot of different development development decisions, both for city leadership, city staff members. and developers wanting to bring in residential projects into the city. It is a very ambitious plan, but we are very confident that we have all the tools, the partners, city leadership supporting this project. So yes, ultimately this plan is to expand those housing opportunities for our local residents. I want to introduce four key objectives. Um, starting with the evaluation process, uh, then leading with the set setting of community driven goals. We also plan to activate partners and stakeholders. And finally, to integrate the findings of the housing plan into the existing city plans and ongoing strategies. As Mr. Liao mentioned, we're nearing the adoption of our downtown plan somewhere in August. Late last year, we saw an adoption of the parks plan in December. And later this year, we'll begin to put out an RFP for a comprehensive plan. That's really going to bring everything together. So this housing plan is really one of those critical elements that's going to inform the comprehensive plan that will come in later. We will be beginning with an evaluation of the current housing needs. And I want to introduce those components. So we'll have an ecosystem assessment, a housing needs assessment, and a strategy development towards the end. Uh, once the needs assessment and ecosystem assessments are completed throughout this process, we will be having community and practitioner engagement. We want to make sure that this plan, or during the planning process, we're getting the feedback from all possible stakeholders. From the Community throughout right those subject matter experts lay people members of the Community we don't want to present. A project or a plan at the end of this process that doesn't really represent the needs and the aspirations of the Community members in brownsville. So what we mean by the ecosystem ecosystem assessment is basically a review. of our current tools you know our current policies our our development code our funding sources our programs we we don't want to reinvent the wheel so we want to take a look at what we have right now that we could use or either improve with the housing needs assessment right we're going to make projections or assisted or led primarily through our consultants HR and advisors They're going to be conducting projections of future housing demand against the existing supply that we had. So it goes back to that comment that I made. Hey, we are confident that the city of Brownsville is going to grow and more people are wanting to come and live and work and play and do business here. But do we have the housing supply to meet that need both in the home ownership and also rental options, right? Finally, the strategy development, we're going to be developing targeted strategies or policies that would have high impact. So once we're done with the assessment of our current toolbox, that housing needs assessment to take a look at what we have now, we're going to be developing those strategies that are targeting those needs that we found, right? We don't want to introduce action items or implementations Uh, that don't really represent what we're needing here in bronzeville and again, uh, there will be community engagement throughout the process. And I want to get into that. Um, this is what the plan will do and will not do. Um, 1st, starting with the assessment of browsing housing market, we will do a projecting housing needs throughout 2035. We will recommend a concrete menu of strategies. We're going to engage the residents and the full community to determine priorities and we will be establishing goals and a way to track. That progress what this plant won't be doing right? Uh, we want to lead. with those things, because I know that there's very a lot of common questions or concerns. So this plant won't be building or directly funding housing projects. It won't be rezoning land. It won't be replacing housing agencies, nonprofits or developers that we currently have in the city of Brownsville. This plant won't be solving all affordability challenges overnight. We understand that this is an effort that takes could take many years. So we're going in with a very realistic approach, but with strategies that are going to be well informed at the end. And finally, this plan won't be serving a development permit as a development permit or approval. We have permitting processes in place that developers have to go through in order to get those development permits approved. And this plan won't be one of them. I also want to introduce a project timeline. We have a 10-month completion goal. So we're looking at December to bring or deliver a housing plan for adoption. Latest February, if we see a need for more community engagements or more workshops that are needed, if the commission sees it as a need that we need to involve more community, more stakeholders, schedule more workshops to kind of iron out more of the details of what we're drafting we can certainly add more time to that but our goal right now is a 10th month period so by late december we should have some of that final draft of the housing plan we have several different strategies five in total that we're going to be using to target The community, we will be hosting technical committee meetings, community open houses. We will be having a public input website. That's going to be bilingual English and Spanish. We will be hosting. We will be tabling at existing events like 1st, Friday, and we will be also conducting stakeholder interviews, mostly led by our consultants. Regarding the technical committee, we actually already had our very first back in May 26, where we saw a lot of subject matter experts come together, commercial lenders, nonprofit organizations, even economic development corporations were present. Some of the major residential developers were there and city staff. So we had a very productive first meeting. just to simply introduce the project to that technical committee we are open if this commission would like to nominate or recommend any subject matter experts over the housing to be part of that technical committee we're open to to those suggestions community open houses as a matter of fact tomorrow we will be hosting our very first public input or public kickoff event where the mayor's office will be present. We're very grateful for that. We want to see leadership back or support this kind of project. It's very important to the community. So thank you to the mayor's office, Mayor Cohen. In terms of event tabling, we're actually going to be tabling at this first Friday that's coming up and at the farmers market on Saturday. So I'm looking forward to going to where the community is already and and gathering that valuable input. Some folks don't really know what a housing plan is, what is housing policy, what is all this technical, you know, subjects that we're talking about. So we really want to build awareness and we want to introduce what we're doing. Some folks don't know, simply don't know, so we have to go to them, right? And regarding those stakeholder interviews, we actually have a total of about three or four already conducted prior to this meeting so we're already getting the ball rolling on this very important uh housing plan so yes again again this is the timeline it is a 10th month a goal and as as shown these are the different kind of uh kickoff events the open houses if this commission would like to review it in more detail i can certainly send a copy over to our city manager's office or to any of you to review

with more time.

Again, a timeline of the next steps. As mentioned, tomorrow we'll be having a public kickoff event at the Conventions and Visitors Bureau at 1312 East Adams starting at 12 p.m. and it will officially end somewhere around 1.30 p.m. Again, the mayor will be speaking, our consultants will be introducing uh their part or their role behind this plan in june 5th we'll be tabling at the first friday and june 6th we'll be tabling at the farmers market located at linear park around 9 00 a.m to 12. we've also are in the works of setting up some kind of summer community events in july and august so there'll be plenty of opportunity for the community to provide that important feedback And with nothing more, I would like to give this the opportunity for our consultants to come up and introduce themselves to this Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be presenting to the Commission. My name is Philip Cash. I'm a partner at HRNA. I will serve as the partner in charge for the development of the housing plan. This means, ultimately, I'm responsible for the quality of the housing plan and the strength of the recommendations put before you. I'm joined today by Jasmine Harper, project manager, and Tess Kett-Thesbitt, our senior analyst. I'm also joined by Tekalo, who will introduce themselves in just a moment, our community engagement partner. Quite the order, I was hoping. All right, we'll go the other way. So HRNA's housing practice works nationwide. So we work in large cities. Right now, we're doing work in Houston and Harris County, smaller states, Maine, and little towns, Cary, North Carolina. We've worked extensively in Texas. So San Antonio, El Paso, Dallas, Houston are all cities we've worked in. So we know the market quite well. We work on a wide range of issues. We work on housing plans and strategies, which is what you all hired us to do. So meeting with the community, hearing the community's priorities, looking at what's actually happening in that housing market. You have a pretty exciting housing market right now, a lot of activity. Understanding when the community says housing, homes, affordable housing, what their priorities actually are. Is this about addressing homelessness? Is this about making sure there's still access to home ownership? Is this about strengthening neighborhoods? And then looking at the tools that are in place and building the right set of recommendations to actually move on that. That's one core part of what we do. We also design and implement all the recommendations that might be in a housing plan. So disposing of public land, setting up down payment assistance programs, redevelopment of vacant and blighted properties, gap financing. We design those programs, make sure they actually work in the dynamics of the local market, and then hand them back over to a local government partner or a nonprofit. Generally having consultants run your programs is not a good practice. And the last area of work we do, we do transactions. So we actually underwrite for local governments, mission-driven organizations when they're investing in housing. So we negotiate to make sure they get the most public good for the public dollar. So we look at loan agreements. Over the last four years, we've invested over a billion dollars across the country. This makes us relatively unique. There are not a lot of organizations that do community meetings and planning, but also understand the economics of transactions. And that's part of what we're going to try to bring into this work is understanding what the priorities are and then figuring out what are the real estate economics actually allow. So we put forward recommendations to you all that actually work in practice that actually can advance your community's needs. It's easy to say everyone should have housing. Homeownership should be available. It's much harder to build a market that actually works, especially in the current market conditions. Costs are up. Interest rates are up. Incomes are mostly flat. And that leaves a real disparity. And that's going to ultimately end up being the focus of what we're doing. I'm going to hand things over to Jose Eduardo to speak about Techload. JOSE EDUARDO.

Hi. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. My name is Jose. And I am one of the co-founders and also lead the planning work with the Colote. I'm joined here tonight by my colleague, Jada Flores, and also our other team member, Lilia Ortiz, who was not able to join today, but she's actually a resident based here in Brownsville. And Tecolote was actually formed out of the need in our own communities by our own family members, neighbors, other community members to be able to fully participate and engage in the ways that their communities are being changed and shaped. and so a lot of the work we do really centers on using language using culture and other ways that communities can show up be their full selves and share their lived experiences to help shape the things that are the communities the neighborhoods the changes that are going on around them one of the ways that we're one of the reasons we're extremely excited to be working here in brownsville is because there is such a specific use of language and culture and the way that people communicate people are able to create the communities that they're already living in which is why we're excited to again implement a strategy that is rooted at showing up where people already are with the open houses we're looking forward to identifying places where community can come can enjoy other parts of an event but also at the same time be able to learn about the per the project be able to give feedback and be able to also feel more connected to the work itself we're looking forward to meeting a lot of folks already this friday we're going to be first fridays as sam mentioned also the farmers market and identifying other events in which we can continue to have these conversations For us, we do see ourselves as facilitators in this process between both the city, other consultants, but also the community itself so that we're not siloing technical work with here and then engagement here, but rather creating a feedback loop to where the communication is going in both ways. And lastly, we know that this is a 10 month plan, but we our hope is and we believe that the working engagement is not just about talking to people but also building up the capacity and the leadership So that after we're gone, after the plan is approved and it's implemented, folks feel more, they know more about, as Sam was saying, how housing works, housing policies, that they are also more connected to the plan itself and have a higher trust and connection to the city so that the implementation work and future iterations of this will continue. So again, thank you so much for the opportunity. We look forward to being out there in Brownsville, the different events with the different communities. And I'll pass it back to Sam to close this off.

We did want to end with a few discussions, right? Some preliminary comments that this commission would like to make on the plan. And we had two basic questions to make. What would success look like to you all for this housing plan? And what do you want to see for the constituents in terms of housing?

First of all, I want to thank you guys for being here. This is a really important plan. Like you said, it's the first time ever the cities come together and really made housing a priority in this way, right? And I think, you know, for me, it's about being as inclusive as possible. You know, there are a lot of people that need to have a voice in this. Obviously, we have a lot of economic development, but obviously not everyone rises at the same rate. And so we need to be very aware of that and making sure people have options in Brownsville. So I know we're projected to have 25,000 new jobs over the next 10 years, right? And what does that mean for housing? And it's a good problem to have, but at the same time, it creates a lot of challenges for us and for infrastructure and everything above, right? Public safety, but without housing, we can't take advantage of these opportunities either. So I think making sure we're aware of all the tools in our toolbox and how to help address this, because we're not the ones, like you said, building the housing, but we create the environment for them to be successful. And I think that's really important to understand.

Thank you.

be i just um i like to listen to the radio and read and so i hear about all the problems that bigger cities are having whether it's um you know having smaller lots like um in la i remember in in austin you see that where you're um making allowing for smaller lots so that you can fit into smaller housing so that people can afford it um millennials not being able to afford housing and so they live longer and longer with their um extended family. Homelessness is not a big problem yet here, but it could be. And it'd be nice if we got a handle on it. Pricing people out. I remember during the pandemic walking at the parks and people would tell me like, it's getting really expensive. Are we going to be priced out of being unable to live in Brownsville? People, families who have lived here for many generations, are worried that they might not be able to afford living here longer. So as we attract more industry, I would like to have options for everyone. I'm really happy that the Housing Authority is doing projects to target certain groups that might have difficulty finding housing. So that's cool. if if maybe even private developers would would go into that. You know, so I'm curious to see what you all find out about what our makeup is and what the needs are, and what kind of solutions you think that that we can provide us as a city to try to address that give something for everyone to everyone.

Thank you.

I think just bouncing off of Commissioner Galanski's comments, affordability is a big deal. I think there was even an article recently that showcased how Brownsville has increased on the housing market and how expensive it has become. It is a huge area of concern. Data tells a story. I think it's very important for us to have that quantitative data. And then for us as leaders and city commissioners to decide how do we plan on moving forward based off of this data, be able to represent our constituency base and some of these housing issues are a problem and so it is an area of concern i'm glad that we as a commission are looking into it wanting to see that data that problem and then providing forth some solutions and working together so i really love the collaborative and cohesive approach when it comes down to the housing authority i see miss manchester thank you so much for being here putting forth that committee and as well as being able to hear out the constituents, and that's very important for us because it takes all of us to come together to understand what is going on and to help us solve what is going on as well. So thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your efforts and all that you do.

Thank you. I thank you, by the way, and thank you gentlemen for being here and the team. I think one of the most important things for me would be to get a coordinated uh vision instead of taking things project by project I think it's important to get the public side the private side the non-profit side uh really coordinating efforts together um echoing everything that that the mayor and the commissioners are saying about affordability I think that that's very important um but we do have a very young demographic here in Brownsville too So being very creative in the housing approach to, you know, young professionals, first responders, teachers, you know, that have a vibrant place to live in. But I do believe that public-private nonprofit collaborations, it's very important to me to see them not just being tackled project by project.

Thank you, sir.

And here's one thing that I think about, it used to be the American dream to own a house. And that was like a really good investment. And when you started getting your job, that was like one of your top goals in the beginning. I'm not sure that that's the case anymore. And if that's so tell us like, what, what is it that we need to do? Um, because I myself kind of actually just, um, not convinced, but dissuade young people from buying a house right away because it's quite a big expense, and I'm not sure that that's a good investment. So those are kinds of questions that I'll be looking to answer from the information that you provide.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Thank you very much, and we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you, sir.

that concludes the presentation portion next we will enter into the consent agenda items to consider items one through nine i believe we're going to um pull number nine out and ask to table it i believe it's um number five and nine

okay number five right move to approve one through four and six through eight second all right we have a motion in a second any further discussion if not all those in favor please say aye aye aye all those opposed say nay i just have it motion carries

So consent number five is the action to approve the resolution 2026-90 to authorize the purchase of the property described as 0.506 acre track of land out of the Civic Center track out of a large 47.75 acre track of land in Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas for a price not to exceed $250,000 plus the closing expense. We'll turn it over to staff.

Honorable Mayors, Commissioners, good evening. uh originally when uh this resolution 2026-90 included a approximately about 800 square feet for a bus stop where the the youth the students would would stop the package that you have here does not reflect that small parcel of 800 square feet so my request is that this be voted on to include that uh that request that had been part of the original conversation all along thank you That said, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move to approve as amended.

Motion to second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. I just have a motion to carry. Thank you so much.

The consent item number nine to table it. Is there a motion to table to the next meeting June 16th?

Move to table. We have a motion and a second to table. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. I have it. Motion carries.

Now we will enter into the public hearing portion of the meeting, which is public hearing and action to approve the resolution number 2026-089, supporting the application of BHMCVDC, the Tropical Gardens LP, for the housing tax credits in connection with the proposed rehabilitation of tropical gardens at Boca Chica and providing an effective date. We'll turn it over to staff.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Commissioners. My name is Carla Mancha and I'm the CEO for the Housing Authority of the City of Brownsville. I am also the Secretary and the Employee Director for the Brownsville Housing Management Corporation, which is the legal instrumentality of the Housing Authority. The purpose of this public hearing is to provide you and the community of proposed project to rehabilitate the tropical gardens apartments located on two fifty ash street off of Mac david boulevard. Initially, the property was awarded a nine percent housing tax credit allocation and was built in two thousand seven. It is comprised of a hundred and fifty eight affordable housing units of which fifty eight are public housing. In late 2023, BHMC purchased the investor interest and became 100% owner. Due to the property's age, it is in need of a substantial rehab that will require a re-syndication of the site by leveraging the 4% housing tax credit bond program. BHMC has partnered with Versa Development Corporation for the submission of the application and execution of said project. The Brownsville Housing Finance Corporation, also a legal instrumentality of the Housing Authority, was awarded a bond reservation by the Texas Bond Review Board in late 2023, and the deadline to close on a project is December of this year. The BHFC Board has approved a resolution of inducement to support the 4% housing tax credit application for Tropical Gardens Rehabilitation. This proposed project will preserve critical affordable housing inventory, support neighborhood revitalization, create significant investment into the property, which in turn will increase the quality of life for the families residing at Tropical Gardens. It will be an approximate construction investment of $12 million. The goal is to begin construction by the end of this year. This public hearing is required by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs multi family program. The next action is for the city commission to approve the resolution of no objection, which is similar to the resolutions of support provided to nine percent housing tax credit applications. Contingent City Commission approval this evening, BHMC and BHFC will submit the required forms to the Texas Bond Reservation Board by the end of this month and then proceed to submit the 4% housing tax grid application to TTHCA in early July. This process will also require a Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act public hearing, which will take place in the summer. After the hearing, BHMC will provide an update to the Mayor and City Commission. This proposed project will not create a financial obligation for the City of Brownsville. I thank you for your support to our proposed project to rehabilitate the Tropical Gardens Apartments. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

All right. Any questions or comments from the Commission? This is a public hearing, so if there's anyone here that wishes to address this item, please step forward and say your name. I move to close public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second to close public hearing. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carried.

Move to approve. Second.

We have a motion and second to approve. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carla.

Moving on to the second public hearing. There's a public hearing in action on the first reading on ordinance number 235-2026-008 to rezone from the residential single family R1 to the residential suburban R2 to allow a duplex in our and an alternative a dwelling unit of a 0.501 acre track of land comprised out of tracks one and two each being at a 0.167 acre out of land out of a 6.50 acre track out of a 15 0.00 acre track in a track three being a 0.167 acre out of a land out of a 1.00 acre track all out of block four L Harding as subdivision Cameron County, Texas located at 4464 Waco Road, Brownsville, Texas 78521 as shown in exhibit A in district one. We'll turn it over to staff. Thank you.

As mentioned, this is a rezoning request to change the zoning from the current R1 single family district designation to the R2 district residential suburban. This is to bring in a project for a duplex construction that would have an ADU as well. This property is currently fronting Waco Road, which is considered a local street with 50 feet of right-of-way. We did put out a notice to the public advising them of this public hearing, both for the PNZ Commission where this item was heard and also for today. We put out a physical sign at the property to let adjacent property owners know. Uh, this is a 200 foot buffer map showing the, uh, proposed location for that rezoning. Uh, 21 mail outs were sent to adjacent property owners as per state law minimum requirements and 0 written opposition letters were returned to city staff. This is a zoning map showing the existing designations in this location. As we could see, it's mostly our one district north of the property. East and West are also designated for our one. There is a TNC district, which stands for traditional neighborhood corridor. It is a type of form district that allows for commercial and even some residential developments at this time. that property south of this is a legal nonconforming use or a grandfathered use for an RV park.

This is a map showing. So does that mean that when it stops being a mobile home park, it'll go back to single family?

Yes, any new development that would be introduced here would have to comply with whatever the TNC district would allow or prohibit. Yes, ma'am. But our attorney will is here just to explain more on the legal challenges or, you know, requirements. This is an aerial map showing the location north of the property is mostly developed for single family district or single family uses. And again, south of this is that RV park that's grandfathered at this time. again another map showing waco road that's adjacent to the property and then east of this central avenue staff did have some concerns regarding this case it is technically considered a spot zone since it would be it's uh the only of its kind here there isn't another r2 district located north east west or south of the property Um, we, our concerns were mainly due to, I guess, the character of the established neighborhood, which was mostly either single family district, or the RV park South. There isn't many, I guess, multi family developments, like a duplex construction or an located in this vicinity. There is non-compatibility also with the comprehensive plan or future land use plan. So the proposed multifamily use does not match the suggested use, which is for residential single family. It also exceeds the density that the current district would allow there. Yes, sir. The R3, yes. Just to, I guess, provide a little bit more context there. The reason why we raise those concerns is to provide, I guess, kind of the history behind it. Originally, this came in as an R3 district. We presented those concerns with PNZ. We then tabled the item and discussed it with the applicant, and he agreed to change his request to R2. Reason being because the R2 residential suburban district is more compatible with R1 single family construction. So a duplex with an ADU would not be at odds with a single family district or construction. Most of the development review that we would require them to provide at the site plan review stage, sorry, Uh, most of those what we would refer to as residential adjacency requirements wouldn't apply to an R2 construction since we pretty much consider them at the same intensity as we would an R1 single family development. So, again, this request is found not consistent the original request for for our three. So we do recommend denial for that original request from our one to our three staff recommends limiting the zoning change from our one to instead of a proven our two district to maintain that residential character. their neighborhood the applicant has agreed to this change uh pnz also recommended approval of this our alternative recommendation for an r2 district sam just to clarify yes sir are we denying an r3 request today or approving an r2 we do have a we officially have to go on record as we already made that recommendation for denial for the r3 and instead recommending r2 but yeah Mr. Wilk, clarify that.

Yeah, so it's a little convoluted, but because the original request was for R3, you can accept a lower designation. My recommendation would be to motion to approve ordinance number 008, if that's what you're all intending to do, and then include in that motion the nine, the original request.

that makes sense because you don't want to deny number two that is rezoning it to an r2 right so we're denying the original request and approving the new resolution with an r2 correct yes sir thank you i had an additional uh question uh the property west of this property that we are considering isn't that a duplex as well

It is a duplex. However, we can take it as part of our analysis because it exists within an district, meaning that it's also grandfathered use or legal nonconforming use. We would have to do a little bit more research to see how that was permitted. Um, if it was in existence prior to the R1 designation, and therefore it's a, it's a legal nonconforming structure, or if it was done without any permit. So if if it was done without any permit or even if it is a legal non conforming use, we can take it as part of our analysis to to prove that duplex to my knowledge that has that that.

House has been there for awhile. I had relatives live on that and I recall seeing the duplex there. That's why I yes.

Any further questions or comments from the Commission? All right. This is a public hearing. So if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward.

Move to close public hearing. All right. We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

i live near here and waco road doesn't even seem like a real street i would walk it and it's more like an alley that got paved um so i'm kind of surprised i'm just wondering because you said it's going to be a duplex with adu so is it two adus one for each unit or just one for the duplex

no so um depending on how they plot because i i did forget to mention that they are still subject to subdivision requirements it is not officially plotted at this time so during the plotting process we'll determine how many lots they will be introducing here so if this is a one lot subdivision or a two lot subdivision as per our current code we could only allow one adu per lot

okay so they could even put two duplexes if if the lot is big enough if that is what we approved during the the planning process and if i make commissioner just to add a question to that the action item reads to allow a duplex an alternative dwelling unit an adu

So that's his original proposal, depending on how he plots that property. He wants to bring in a type of duplex construction. If it is, again, a one-lot subdivision, it will be just one duplex with an ADU there. Mr. Martin also has a little bit more detail. Yes, so I just confirmed that it is indeed a one-lot subdivision, so there will be just one duplex construction and one ADU.

Might seem unrelated, but it used to be that the house on the corner of Waco and Central, I believe, was a party house that you could rent out for parties. Is that still the case?

We wouldn't know, but we could look into that, ma'am. We would have to send some work to enforcement officers out or buildings.

Just because that impacts the traffic on Waco. Yes. And it's really like an alley that was paved.

You're right. We could do some work to send someone out if that's what the commission would want. Yes.

I'll make a motion to deny the original request of R3 and approve Resolution 235-2026-008 for R2. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Sorry, just to clarify, was there the public hearing? We did do the motion second and voted to close the public hearing, right?

Yes.

We already closed the public hearing. We do have a motion on the second and a second on the table. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to the public hearing number three. Public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number 2026-235.127 to amend the City of Brownsville Unified Development Code Article 3 of the Subdivision Regulations Section 3.4 of the Subdivision Design Standards Article 4 of the Zoning Regulations Section 4.2 of the Zoning Procedures Section 4.3 which is the zoning districts Section 4.4, the land uses Section 4.5, the building types. Article 6, the definitions to establish the state regulations adopted at the 89th legislative session for the purpose of creating the housing diversity and dealing with related matters as shown in Exhibit 8. Turn it over to staff.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Commissioners. Just to give you additional context, this item and the one following this particular item are also related to housing needs throughout the state. So the two text amendments that we'll be presenting are meant to comply with state law, but also to create flexibility for the housing market. So starting with this item related to Senate Bill 15, also affected by Senate Bill 840. Cities with populations of 150,000 and within counties of 300,000 or more were affected by this bill. Basically what the bill states is that tractors owned single family or multifamily Uh, with 5 acres or more that are not already plotted will be subject to the requirements of the bill. The square foot and lot size minimums shall not exceed 3,000 square feet, widths of 30 feet or depths of 75 feet. However, the bill does provide developers the flexibility to provide proposals to the municipality to create a density equivalent with variations to those dimensions. Also, setbacks are now limited. Municipalities cannot ask for setbacks that are more than 15 feet. Parking requirements have also been limited down to one, rather than the typical two that we ask for for residences. Open space requirements are also affected. Height restrictions are affected. HOA restrictions have not been affected, so if there's an HOA within a subdivision, those provisions still apply. Also, shared drives, because this bill is intended to increase or permit the density or a larger density within the development, shared drive will be permitted municipalities will have the ability to ask developers to create common access points, either shared drives or, let's say, a common alley to be able to park or create parking to the lots that are being proposed within a new subdivision of this type. So, The direction that the municipality took or that the department Uh, took in collaboration with the consultant who helped us draft this text amendment. Compared to other cities throughout the state, we decided not to consolidate the residential zoning districts. The way that our code is structured made it more. It was easier to eliminate the density requirements and basically just. create the density for it to be controlled by the bulk standards of each district. So mixed-use residential and multifamily must be allowed within a zoning that permits. I'm sorry. We Must allow the reduction of parking again to 1 parking space from setbacks were reduced to 15 feet. It establishes. Now, the code will establish a parking garage setback to ensure that vehicles fit entirely within the property because the front setback was reduced to 15 feet, but we don't want or what we want to prevent. uh or setbacks to i'm sorry for vehicles to encroach into the right-of-way or onto pedestrian facilities along streets also we're adjusting the height definition as per state law state law references the high definition of structures as per stories not as per feet our code references feet We will also be increasing lot coverage to 70% as per state law requirements. So the residential districts are E or one in our two will increase from 50% law coverage to 70%. This means that there will be more impervious surface. Therefore, uh, stormwater management shall be, uh, tied to the, to each residential district to ensure that, uh, during heavy flood events, or heavy rainfall events, the runoff has a place to go or that excess water. We will also preserve the predictability of existing residential neighborhoods. Again, this is matching or mimicking the language of the state statute, creating alternative standards tied to the five acre unplatted rule. So these provisions will only apply to acre or parcels that have never been plotted that are five acres or more in size. Now, as I mentioned, the Senate Bill 840 also affects this text amendment similar to Senate Bill 15. The bill affects cities of populations that are greater than 150,000 and that are in counties that have populations greater than 300,000. The multi-use residential and multifamily uses must be allowed in zoning that permits office commercial use, warehouse, or mixed-use development. Without requiring zoning changes or additional discretionary approvals. The municipality can not require less sensitive than the highest allowed in the city or 36 units per acre, whichever is greater. Building height restrictions also cannot. be required by the city to where it's limited to the highest elevation that's allowed as per the zoning districts already established. Parking, again, will be limited to one parking space for multifamily and multi-use uses. Multi-level parking structures will not or cannot be petitioned by the municipality to cover parking needs municipalities cannot prohibit conversions of existing non-residential buildings to multi-family or multi-use we cannot require traffic impact analysis or require the improvements to utilities beyond what's required for minimum capacity and finally impact fees cannot be applied to any conversions related to multi-family or multi-use projects so as part of our amended summary amendment summary section 3.45 street design standards uh we adjusted the right-of-way widths and pavement widths to accommodate on-street parking needs while supporting fire access this was a modified to 20 feet we added Perspective prescriptive traffic common requirements affected street neighborhood and queuing streets and neighborhood street limited parking. So, in situations where there's going to be narrow streets that would prohibit parking so that emergency vehicles could transit through these roadways in the event of an emergency. For Section 3.47G, traffic impact analysis, that requirement had to be removed based on the state's requirement. For Section 4.2.11a4, administrative adjustments for small lot residential, new provisions are changing the lot area requirement to 3,000 square feet, again, as per state law. And limiting the law with and the lot depth to 30 and 75 feet. And again, this only applies to residential districts or one or two or parcels that are 5 acres or larger and they have never been. Section 4.31 residential zoning districts eliminate eliminated density calculations. Uh, now we rely on dimensional and bulk standards combined with permitted use. So this simplifies the calculation or improvise the flexibility to maximize the amount of. The construction area for these developments. Cross reference, uh, we will also be cross referencing the policies with stormwater management compliance again, because the, the lot coverage was increased to 70%. Uh, now, because the height has been elevated. The, the, the high requirement is now a premise. It's not permissible to have 3 stories. From separate reductions were modified to 15 feet, 10 feet on the secondary street. And there's 25 foot setbacks for garages and carports. Or functionality again, the, the structure of the. The structure or the home that's going to be on the property has a garage. That structure will be set back 25 feet to ensure that the vehicle fits completely within the property. The site setback was reduced to 10 to 5 feet. Section 4.32 non residential zoning districts. These eliminated density calculation to instead regulate. Uh, by dimensional book standards again, very similar to the residential districts. Brownsville already follows innovative mixed used approach to non residential districts section 4.33 traditional neighborhood informed districts. Those are the TN districts that are located close to the downtown of the city also eliminated the density calculations and the high was adjusted up to 45 feet or the elevation threshold. Section 4.43 B permitted use chart for residential uses. On the permitted use chart, it states that 2 parking spaces are required for residential structures. now it has been reduced to one parking space as per state law section 4.5.4 building types established building height altered for all to reference zoning district to simplify compliance with state law we're mimicking again the language that the state law is telling us to follow instead of measuring elevation with with feet we have to measure with stories And also we added some eligible building materials. This particular portion or change in the code is not part of the text amendment, but it was a housekeeping item that we had to fix. Section 4.43 permitted use chart again reduced the parking ratio to one article six definitions. That's again where we added the language as per state law to reference stories rather than feet and we duplicated some housing land use definitions from the land use chart for clarity because these particular building types were not in the definition section so for this particular text amendment staff and pnz both recommend the approval to Comply and mimic state law.

Thank you, Martin. Any questions or comments from the commission? This is a public hearing. So if there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward.

Fair move to close public hearing.

We have a motion to close. We have a second. second the motion the second close public hearing any further discussion if not all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed say nay i just have a motion carries both to approve motion to approve we have a second second we have a motion and second any further discussion not all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed say nay i just have a motion carries

The next public hearing is item number four, which is the public hearing in action on the first reading on ordinance number 2026-235.128 to amend the City of Brownsville Unified Development Code Article 4 Zoning Regulations Section 4.2, the zoning procedures to establish the state regulations adopted at the 89th legislative session for the purpose of updating the protest petition threshold and dealing with related matters as shown in Exhibit A. Turn it over to Zach.

So this text amendment also is meant to comply with state law. This is after the adoption of housing of House Bill 24 protest petitions. So a little about a little bit about the bill. This bill increases protest petition threshold or adjacent property owners from 20% to 60%. Historically, the city has always used the 20% threshold as established by state law. Whenever a protest comes in or against the zoning case, if sufficient neighbors protest against the case, If the area within the protested area exceeds 20%, it becomes an officially protested case and therefore requires a supermajority vote to be able to be approved or passed to the next phase of approval. In this case, the bill requires or changes that threshold from 20% to 60%. So, the bill also addresses comprehensive zoning changes, which basically are text amendments for adoption of new map or new code that result in more residential units. These don't require notifications anymore. It also adds notice notice posting to city website requirements. It adds signposting requirements, which we have already been complying with. for almost a year. It has the legislative intent to reduce barriers to discretionary approvals that increase housing supply. And the direction that the city took with this particular text amendment is to update the again the notice posting requirements to the website and signposting requirements consistent with state law. Section 2.1.7 summary of approval authorities. We added signposting and website posting to the legend for required. Noticing we added signposting and website posting requirements. To zoning text and map amendments. And map them application types. section 2.42 public notice types we updated the mail notice to reference the texas local government code specifically section 211.006 and .007 basically we now have to announce the creation of non-conformities so just to give you an example if someone is Up zoning from residential single family to commercial, and there's an existing single family home on the property that single family home is not permitted within a commercial zoning district. Now, we have to notify that because that. Existing residential structure is on the property. The change in zoning will create a nonconforming use. Um, we also have to add a 15 day website notice and, uh, we have to add a sign posted notice, which again we have been doing. Those are the 24 by 48 signs that we've been placing on properties. Section 2.43 public notice requirements for development applications. Uh, it adds signposting and website posting or zoning applications. So. The notices and all related material to any zoning change has to be posted on the website. Section 421, noticing and hearing action. Updates to include time posting and website posting added to cross reference sections 2.17 and 2.42 for content and specification of notices. And overall, uh to give you an overall summary uh the changes that were made were not only to the the text sections of the code but also to the the charts that depict the entire process of both rezoning and specific use permits and the two figures on The right wall to the center and to the right just are meant to depict how the boundary is measured when sending out mailing out mail out notices. Now, what used to be the area or the polygon in red. that was that's what represented the 20 threshold is now or has now increased to 60 which is this the striped area and we added a real life example that we had a couple of years back in 2023 the item or the the image in the middle it all these images are the same case the image in the middle is is what actually resulted for this particular case at that time there was a protest of 51 percent So 51% of property owners within the buffer area protested. Therefore, this case required a supermajority vote. Six votes in favor would be required to move it forward. Now with this new change, 60% would have been required to trigger that supermajority vote. At the time, when this item was presented, because it qualified for the. Super majority vote because it was a protest case. It did not move forward with city commission. It was denied it. And the developer had to rethink his project for this particular property. If this role had been in place at that time, it would, it might have passed. And staff and both staff and PNV recommend the approval for ordinance 2026-235.128.

Any questions or comments from the commission? All right. This is a public hearing. If there's anyone here that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. a motion may i move to close public hearing we have a motion in a second any further discussion if not all those in favor please say aye aye aye all those opposed say nay i just have a motion carries move to approve all right we have a motion and a second any further discussion if not all those all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed say nay i just have a motion carries

next public hearing is item number five i'm as a public hearing and action on the first reading on ordinance number two zero two six dash two three five point one three zero to amend the city of brownsville at the unified development code udc article four of the zoning regulations section 4.6 at the zoning development standards subsection 4.6.3 at the landscaping article 5 for the supplemental regulations section 5.1 of the tree preservation subsection 5.1.2 The applicability in the exemption subsection 5.1.3, the categories of preserved trees subsection 5.1.4, the tree mitigation subsection 5.1.8, which is the removal of the protected tree without a tree removal permit to adopt the updated landscaping and the tree preservation regulations in dealing with related matters as shown in Exhibit A. Turn it over to staff.

So this is our third and final text amendment for this evening. However, this one is not related to state law. It's one that we've been wanting to do for quite some time. It's related to our landscape and tree preservation ordinance. The main purpose of this ordinance is, first of all, to update the landscape plan requirements, modernize landscape standards, promote native and drought resistant plants, increase shade and canopy coverage, And finally, and probably the most important strength, tree preservation policy. So one of the main concerns related to this ordinance that came from the development community was the requirement that exists in the UDC and that's associated with having a landscape architect or a licensed irrigator having to create the landscape plan or the irrigation plan for development, no matter how small the development. And so this amendment is meant to create an exemption threshold. So now anything under one acre or 43,564 feet will be exempt. So the exemption applies to single family, residential, duplex, multifamily, mixed use, and commercial development. So professional design will be required where the development scale warrants it. So it's still going to be required for larger scale developments. And so the effect of this amendment will result in maintaining professional review for larger, higher impact projects while reducing the design burden for smaller development. This text amendment also changes a little bit the approved plant materials. It updates standards for what gets planted and maintained. First, for tree and shrub minimums, Trees require a minimum caliper size of 3 inches, measured at a distance of 6 inches above ground. For single family residential developments, the minimum caliper size requirements has now been reduced to 2 inches, measured at a distance of 6 inches above ground. For plant diversity, no single plant may exceed 50% of total required plants within this category. For alternative plants, the City of Forrester may approve alternative plant types on a case-by-case basis. Alternatives are capped at 20% of the total plants in the same category. And finally, turf replacement. Existing turf may be restored. Damage or replacement over 50% of the lawn area must be replaced with an approved species or variety from Table 4.67, approved ground covers. And for reference, we have included those tables, which have also been updated with species that are native and have better growth within our area. would be the final one also the section related to parking lodge parking lot shade standards was updated we created provisions that provide clear tree placement standards aimed at canopy coverage the new standard changed from requiring all parking space That all parking spaces must be within 80 feet of a tree to down to 35. so that just creates more shade within the parking lot area. Tree placement is measured by proximity to every parking space and not only by total tree count. This encourages more even more shade distribution across parking areas. And just to provide a design note that does exist within the code. So for certain oak species in the parking lot shade tree list require at least 100 square feet of landscape area around the tree. So just to give you an example, as you see in that image on this particular slide, the island where the tree is placed would have to have 100 square feet of landscape. So tree preservation framework was also updated. This is an amendment to species exempt from tree preservation provisions, updating measurement methodology, and outlining tree species that require mitigation. From the list of tree species that fell under the exemption list, there were two species that were removed, hagberry trees and mesquite trees. Even though these species are very common within the city, they still provide or they're significant to the environment and to the local ecosystem. So just to give you a little bit of reference, the existing list is on the left and the updated list is on the right. So again, we're just showing the removal of the hackberry and the mesquite. the measurement method methodology that was also updated to dbh which stands for diameter at breast height this standardizes a measurement method in accordance with the best professional practice based on national standards established by the american forest and the usda forest service there are two types of protected trees within the city and perhaps you may recall the terms from an item that we brought to City Commission a couple of weeks ago for the removal of a protected tree. So, again, there's two types. The protected tree is a tree that has a diameter at breast height between 12 to 24 inches. A heritage tree has 24 inches or greater. Within these two categories, the hackberry and mesquite trees were now included. Now they will also be protected species. The hackberry and mesquite trees will be included within the preserved tree categories of protected trees and heritage trees. For mitigation purposes, any hackberry or mesquite tree classified as a protected tree must be mitigated at a one-to-one ratio, meaning one replacement tree is required for each tree removed. Any hackberry or mesquite tree classified as a heritage tree must be mitigated at a 1-2-3 ratio, meaning three replacement trees are required for each tree removal. We also updated the regulations for the illegal removal of protected trees. This establishes a standardized penalty fee for the illegal removal of protected trees. The definition of a protected tree is any protected tree, signature tree, or heritage tree as defined by UDC Section 5.1 in Tree Preservation subject to preservation guidelines. The illegal removal of protected tree as defined above without. Approved to a tree removal permit, including those damage during construction, or within 2 years following the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. Shall be subject to penalties in the form of fees. But this amendment establishes a penalty of seventy five dollars per inch diameter at breast height. Or protected signature or heritage trees damaged or removed without a permit. Including construction damage or damage within two years after the certificate of occupancy insurance. So the main changes, again, plant materials, design thresholds, parking lot shade, preserve tree categories, mitigation, permits and enforcement. And the goal or what remains as a goal is to have attractive development that protects public health, safety, welfare and Brownsville's natural landscape. And so both staff and P&Z do recommend the approval of this ordinance. Any questions?

I have a question on your previous slide. What happens if someone removes a tree after two years that's protected?

They would have to go through the process that, similar to what we presented a couple of weeks ago, where a development wanting

To build a gas station or central, but it, but it says, you know, the penalty applies if you remove it within 2 years of a CEO. What happens after 2 years of the CEO?

Well, on that, I would defer, I don't know if our. Is here.

My understanding is that you still require a permit for the removal of the tree.

So penalties don't apply if they remove a protected tree after two years of a CO?

I don't have the language right in front of me.

Look at the bottom.

We would have to look into it with legal to see what. Penalty we could assess after the 2 years. If we can, I understand your question, but I don't have an answer at this time.

I just think if that's if we're serious about protecting. Trees in our community, I think that's it could be identified at any time.

I don't know if there's a limitation or that would be the only.

No, I don't think there's a limitation.

Maybe that's something you can look at in terms of what's best practice.

How does this find compared to other municipalities?

Um, I, I really can't answer that question. We just, uh, assisted with the drafting of the ordinance based on provisions, uh, from, uh, or city forester's office. Um, however. The regulations that are being created. At least for the tree removal process, um, again is primarily targeted to, um. Improve or the preservation of of the protected trees. And again, I referenced back to the example that we did a couple of weeks ago that. Even for the development of a property, they have to go through the proper channels in order to remove that tree or in some way mitigate the removal or the relocation of that.

Of that tree. I would just concur that about 60 to 70% of the changes are related to tree preservation. The 1 of the ordinance changes is to reduce the requirements of when a landscape architect or a landscape. Irrigator is needed. 1 of the things that I've asked legal that we should add is to include in there if the state makes any changes to those requirements that we adopt those requirements. So we don't need to come back for a change or the ordinance, but that was really just due to the sentiment of the developers. the the other item for the changes in the species of shrubs trees it's more to be in alignment with what is being found in our area now and i believe that covers most of the changes that are being proposed it's in line with what we discussed uh back about uh six seven months ago that we were going to be proposing to the change

how do you keep it from happening before they throw before they clear the land like um perhaps you're talking about a in in the scenario of a subdivision or even like existing trees in in in homes or like i'll say there's um a mexican olive tree in a rv in district 2 off of um what's the name of that street um it's named after um an armed person who i mean there's a mexican olive tree that has a plaque if for some reason they were to knock it down but i mean you have a community going on in there you might not find out so so how would you even prevent it from happening um when When they don't, they won't be applying for any permits and stuff. Not that they're going to do it, but I'm just going to say, like, in that kind of situation, how do you prevent it happening?

Well, as part of our enforcement division, we also go out there or our staff goes out there to address similar situations. Um, just a couple of weeks ago, we actually had, um. A complaint or a concerned citizen bring about the. A situation where there was a tree within the residence of their neighbor. It seemed to be a heritage tree due to its size. And so we sent code enforcement out there and the city foresters office also went out there to assess the situation. In this case, it would be more reactive approach. It will basically as complaints come in, or if, let's say, court enforcement is driving around the city in this to see a situation that is going on. they would stop and enforce at that time.

I also think enforcement and upholding of our penalties plays a big role in buying from the community to protect our trees.

It hasn't worked in historical buildings.

I think it's the upholding of the penalties. I think the more we enforce the penalties, the more response that we'll get from our citizens right now. You know, when we offer flexibility to those penalties that we set, it makes it challenging for us to continue enforcing when people see over there just gonna wave the penalty. I think the enforcement is probably our big role or a big driver to make sure that that we enforce these fines.

So we're asking our or Our neighbors are the ones that are turning in our neighbors, right? Yes, to an extent. Is that correct? So how many code enforcement officers do we have for the City of Brownsville to cover such a great area and probably the biggest city in the Valley? How many officers do we have? We currently have three. Three. That's a problem.

Not enough is the answer. The what? Not enough is the answer.

So I guess we're going to have to be policing ourselves because I know a lot of these areas, our natural habitat is being displaced. So I have, I don't know if it's a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or I don't know what it is, but we have two javelinas running down Palm Boulevard and Rio Viejo. And it's funny, it's nice to see that they've become the neighborhood mascots. So, you know, something's happening. These javelinas are lost because their natural habitat is going away. But, I mean, we need to do something. I would hate for neighbors to start fighting with each other, saying, hey, you know what? They're taking down a tree or whatever. I think we need to beef up our code enforcement in our departments so that we don't have neighbors fighting each other.

Thank you, Commissioner. I know in looking at the budget request that that is a request from this department, and so we will definitely be considering that. Um, right now we do just about all of our code enforcement on a complaint basis and we do not extensively control. Um, typically where this type of ordinance is much more helpful to us is development of new, uh, you know, undeveloped property is typically not used for something that's already developed that has, you know, has a tree in the yard or whatever. But that is where we would find out would be through a complaint from a neighbor. Uh, but I'll definitely be giving a lot of consideration to additional positions related to code enforcement, not just here, but in the public health department where we deal with tall grass and environmental issues as well. So those are, I understand that as a priority of the commission, and I will definitely be coming back to you with recommendations that have consideration of that. Thank you, sir.

Uh, also. You know, I've been getting complaints from residents, and, of course, I forward all my complaints to the other departments that I need to go to, and, of course, I send emails out. With that being said, you know, I don't blame the departments for only having three officers. I know sometimes it's hard to, you know, with budgets and stuff like that, But then again, we cannot be MacGyver and make a bomb out of a piece of gum in a cigarette box. We have to work with what we have and what we have is very little. So I guess we have to do what we have. But thank you for everything you do. I know you guys are strained, but we'll get through this together.

Definitely. I will have one more thing on the UDC changes that we've presented to you tonight. This will be followed up by a lot of education and outreach to our community. We understand that there's a lot of changes that impact our residents, and we'll make sure that we have town hall meetings to distribute all these changes in the UDC that were proposed before y'all tonight as well. I think that will also help with communication, education, and awareness for our citizens.

And this may very well be a good topic for a telephone town hall as well. I mean, we have 1500 people on the call that we did last time. This is a great topic for that.

As long as it works, Mr Guard, I think it's a great idea. We need to get the citizens involved so we could take at least a little bit of stress off of our department and our staff. But Like I said, we're going to work this. We're going to get through this together, and that's the only way we can do it. Thank you very much for all you do.

This is a public hearing, so if there's anyone that wishes to address the commission on this item, please step forward. State your name.

Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Hunter Locey Right now there is a loophole in the UDC which allows developers that clear without a permit to pay less fines or less money than someone who is doing it the right way. So right now, if you were to chop down a 24 inch tree, the fine for that would be $2,400. But if someone wanted to mitigate that with let's say $250 trees, the right way according to our code, excuse me um that would be six thousand dollars so the person who is doing it the right way is paying two and a half times more at the current price which is a hundred dollars for uh heritage trees which now they're trying to reduce to 75. there's no point in calc classifying uh trees in one section or the other if the price to uh remove them is the same heritage trees provide way more ecosystem benefits they're they're longer they mean They're probably approaching 50 or more years. And we have a very young canopy. We are the most biodiverse area in the whole United States. And we have such a young canopy because we cleared all of it for livestock at the turn of the century. And so we still all the trees that we see here are very young trees. and we're not really giving a lot of the the providing the resources to get those trees you know established and grown so that we can have shade because that's the number one request that comes to you know uh any sort of public forum about what you guys want to see we want to see more shade um right now if you do um if you reduce it to 75 dollars uh the same tree a 24 inch heritage tree again it would be um It would be $1800 to remove and $6000 to mitigate properly. So that's three times more to do it the right way than the wrong way. And I would hope that they would come back and amend this so that it is proper adjusted. I also gave you guys out a handout of what the mitigation fee is for different cities across the state of Texas. Also, you'll notice that there's mitigation and a fee. So if they're talking about, okay, is it 75 dollars? You know, per caliper inch is that a fee and then you mitigate, but that's never been, um. specified in our code which is where that loophole exists and so i um thank you for your time i um i'm really excited to see these changes come to brownsville and happy pride month thank you very much so it sounds like this still has um a few gaps and i'm not saying that we should delay um approving it but it still needs a lot of work that's all i'm saying at least three things that i've heard tonight right

I concur with Commissioner Gulanski. I think we need to go back and reevaluate the proposal.

I would like staff to comment on Mr. Losey's comments on the disparity between doing the penalty versus the mitigation, if that's accurate.

okay and just to clarify we did the language that is in the within the code or in the amendment it was provided by the city's forester's office um in the in the planning department we we put it together and we assisted them with drafting and codifying it as per uh what the udc uh states um i I'm familiar with the actual fee that goes into the removal of.

I can circle back with staff to evaluate the fee at this time. I would recommend that we approve it with the fees that are stated and we can come back to you at the following meeting to change the fees and give you a proper study with what we have versus what other cities have.

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Is this a time sensitive item? Just out of curiosity.

It is not, however, we've been trying to bring this for you for several months now so that's part of the reason why i'm recommending what I did that we approve it and then we can evaluate the fees. And by the following meeting will have it ready, so we can start implementing all these changes and communicating them together with the other udc changes that we have all at one time.

But then I also ask that they correct that thing about where you can, you'll only be fined if it's within two years of getting your occupancy.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. We will. Yep. And mitigation, like that there should be two separate things, the mitigation fee, and then just like a fee for knocking it down. But anyway, I hope more people appreciate the fauna flora that we have here.

um um i'll move to approve subject to those changes the public hearing is still open oh sorry um i moved to close public hearing unless there is is there anyone else that wishes to address the commission so we have a motion to close public hearing second second we have a motion in a second any further discussion i have this question i just i'm out of curiosity um when it comes back for the second reading counselor we can still make changes right just to confirm

Yes, and we'll put it back on the individual consideration agenda. Thank you.

All right. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

I'll move to approve and subject to the three changes that we discussed tonight, the one about the two years, not sunset at two years. And then we should have two separate fees for one for mitigation, and just for clearing it. And then, oh, there's a third one. What was the third one? Oh, the discrepancy, because then people get away with knocking them down because it's less expensive for them than if they follow through the rules. So we need to make it more prohibitive for people who don't follow the rules.

We will make sure we provide a table and show that comparison so that we don't have that happening.

Thank you. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Perfect. That concludes the public hearing portion of the meeting. Now we'll move into the individual consideration item is number one, which is the consideration in action to approve an amendment to the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, BCIC, for the fiscal year 2026. There was a scrivener's error on it, so I do want to make a note. for the record that the consideration for the budget is the fiscal year 2026. We'll turn it over to you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Corey Pena, President and CEO of the Brunswick Community Improvement Corporation, BCIC. So thank you for the opportunity to present the 2026 budget amendment, which was approved by our BCIC Board of Directors on April 20th. Before I begin, I'd like to highlight one key point that you'll hear throughout this presentation. This amendment does not involve any new taxes, any new revenue, or any new debt. It simply allocates funds that have already been received and accumulated through the normal budget process. To understand this amendment, I think it's important to understand how the BCIC budget works. BCIC is funded through sales tax revenue. Each year we develop a budget using revenue projections. Because those projections are estimates, actual collections rarely match exactly. Sometimes collections are lower than projected, and sometimes they exceed projections. So the $2.3 million rollover available today reflects two routine occurrences. sales tax collections that came in above projections during fiscal year 2025, and program funds that were projected but not fully utilized during the last fiscal year.

Both are common in the public sector funding.

This amendment simply puts these existing funds to work by funding previous approved commitments and directing the remaining balance towards economic community development initiatives.

This amendment accomplishes four primary objectives.

First, it formally approves programs. This includes the $500,000 for the Small Business Enhancement Program, which is now known as the Big Lift that we just initiated yesterday, which was previously approved by the BCIC Board and the City Commission during our budget presentation last year. Today, we're simply identifying the rollover funds that will help support that program. second it aligns the quality of life grant commitments this amendment increases it by 424 000 to reflect previous approved quality of life community grants that we've been doing bringing a total budget commitment of over 1 million dollars these projects have already been approved this amendment ensures the budget accurately reflects those commitments third it's investing in our people This includes target compensation adjustments based on an independent study that we conducted, new positions that are being hired because of all of our program growth that we've been doing, and implementation of another retirement plan that the city recently approved last year. So we're following suit on that. And enhanced HR services that we are doing with the city of Brownsville. And fourth is just budgeting existing grant receipts. So we received 125,000 from Texas A&M that we weren't previously put into last year's or this present year budget. So now we're just formally incorporating into it. Again, none of these are involving new revenues. This is just simply utilizing funds that we've already been available to their organization. The total rollover is 2.3 million. This amounts to almost 1.4 million, approximately 61%, for its already required adjustments that we are needed. And then an additional 900,000, or approximately 39%, and allocated towards our strategic initiatives. Additionally, we are incorporating the 500,000 that we received from GBEC MOU funds that we received last year. And we are restricted for eligible entrepreneurship and innovation programs. So from a budget perspective, revenue remains unchanged at $8.49 million. The original expenditure budget was $8.99 million. And so we've increased it with a budget amendment of $10.79 million. So that's a net increase of $1.9 million with the rollover funds. The first category consists of required adjustments, again, of the $1.4 million. $500,000 goes to the Big Lift program. Again, as mentioned earlier, this program has already been approved by both the BCIC Board and the City Commission. This simply allocates the funds sourced through the rollover funds. Operations over almost close to $320,000, and that supports our organizational capacity. Our quality life grant at $424,000. Again, those are ones that we've already approved at $1 million in amount. Our entrepreneurship for $125,000 for the TEAS, the Texas A&M grants, and then our extended services with HR for $29,000. So out of that remaining, we have $900,000 remaining from that allocation. And so we are putting $576,000 into our strategic initiatives and projects. This will help provide BCIC flexibility to address emerging opportunities that are coming within this fiscal year. Additional $300,000 in our big grants because we do have 10 projects in the queue. And that, you know, again, big is for downtown and that helps with bringing in new businesses for downtown, expanding the existing businesses and job creation. And then we'll put additional 25,000, which is only 3% into our sponsorship. And that helps with cultural events and marketing campaigns that help contribute to the community development here. So closing first no new revenue, the man is funded entirely through our 2025 rollover funds which are is the natural result of projected base budgeting. Second is existing commitments are being fulfilled third, you know compensation adjustments are data driven and forth every dollar is being accounted for so the full 2.3 million rollover balance has been counted at counted excuse me allocated. leaving no assigned funds. This ensures transparency, allows for resources to begin generating more economic and community impact immediately. So the BCIC Board of Directors and I and staff respectfully recommend the approval of the amendment for our budget for 2026. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I have a quick clarification. Presentation reflects approval of fiscal year 2026 budget amendment, but the item reads to amend the 2025 budget.

Yes, that was an error in the agenda. As the city secretary mentioned, it's supposed to be for the 2026. Should we approve the 2026?

Yes, you can approve it. I had a second question, Corey. Thank you for the information. Just out of curiosity, since this was a rollover of 25 into 26, do you forecast for that to happen again for this fiscal year?

Yes. Yes. What we're trying to do differently starting this this past this budget year is in the past we've already, we already knew what our rollover funds were or estimated. But we never waited to when we had the audit go through. So this year we wanted to do differently and wait for the actual audit come in adjustments to make sure we knew the exact amount and knew what we were really wanting to amend for that, you know, the rollover funds. And I think, I believe we should continue doing that because that brings transparency not only for the BCIC board and city commission, but also for the community.

Thank you for the clarification.

I just wanted to thank you so much for the cohesive ness of working together, I will share that in my district we've been able to accomplish a lot and close gaps. because of your help. And so we have now 21 new bus shelters because of BCIC. And we have an amazing playground at the airport and our collaboration with GBIC. We have a business lounge at our airport. Our parks are looking amazing with the new improvements of lighting and a second playground at Charlie Kabler and the fitness courts that we've been having. So there's a lot of movement that we've seen across our city. And it's because of organizations such as yourself. I know the COVID grant that we had through BCIC helped out a lot of small businesses throughout that time. And they're very appreciative. And I look forward to this new grant and I'm ready to start knocking on our small businesses and let them know about it. So all I ask from you is that we can have some printed folders like I did the last time. Yeah. And I'm going to go knocking on some of our small businesses and have that conversation with them.

Yeah. We're really excited about the big lift. We've listened to the community. We listened to the city commissioners. and about how can we extend the big from downtown to other areas. So we're real excited about this pilot program to really help with our small businesses that have been existing to help give them a refresh and build more customer base. At the end of the day, that's what it really ends up being is helping them attract more customers, consumers for their location.

Can you, on this big lift, program or grant. Uh, can you explain how are they going to choose who the recipients or how many recipients are they going to get for this grant?

The recipients are that's unknown. We do have that 500,000. We have allocated 125,000 per district. And again, this is only a pilot program, so this helps us identify additional gaps after we initiate it. Um, we're taking this one step at a time, so we're doing it by district and we're starting with District one and opening it for six weeks. Have, you know, two months of evaluation to evaluate the applications is going to be on a metrics. We're gonna look at, you know, will it provide what their request is? Is it reasonable? Is it, uh, is it gonna help with their expansion of consumers, their customers? Is it going to transform that start a transformer for that corridor? So we're going to look at benchmarks on that. And then of course we take it to the BCIC board for, for their approval on that. So it's up to $30,000 with a 20% match. So out of that 30, you know, they have to put in 60,000. So we could do four grants or we could do 10 grants. It just varies between what their request is. And so we'll also look at what they're leveraging. If they're leveraging more than 20%, then that is actually something that scores them higher because they're putting more of their funds into, you know, doing something different to their business exterior.

Okay. I've gotten numerous calls, and I wanted to ask, how much has BCI invested in some businesses in District 3? Other than people telling me, hey, District 3 is being forgotten. Everything is going downtown. And I got to know what I need to answer these concerned constituents.

Yeah, I understand. And Commissioner, I want to intervene and say something to that. That was a message conveyed across the city. Like a lot of people felt that way. And so early on, I had a conversation with Mark Horowitz and Rose Gowen, and I pitched forth this. So like that, people have that same opportunity that's happening in District 4 and District 3. and District 2 and District 1. And if they were to be able to meet those qualifications, which some of those qualifications they adopt from federal guidelines and state guidelines, and if they were to meet that, then the businesses in District 3, like let's say there's some clubs or some bars or a boutique in District 3 that needs improvements to their building, now they don't have to fork that out of their own monies. They can qualify for this grant and get the renovations that they need off of sales tax. Yeah.

Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate that.

But to answer your question, the majority of the sales tax comes out from District three. The city, I would not be able to tell that because of our that's just the majority of the cell tax that goes throughout the city comes from the District three. I understand what the commissioner says, and I respect it. I want to do is I want everybody to be treated fairly. That's all I ask, and that's what I will always ask for. Now, that going forward, what has BCIC done to attract any commercial retail here in Brownsville? And I'll finish with that.

In our strategic plan for retail recruitment, we look at what is local. We look at our local businesses, our local entrepreneurs and our small business. We are not in the business to attract the bigger big box stores here in Brownsville. So through our entrepreneurship programs, through eBridge, that's how we attract local businesses and make them established and help them scale. And just to answer your question that you asked about how many businesses we have funded in District 3. Unfortunately, we haven't in our metrics tracked what district you are. But I can tell you with our eBridge fund, which is our revolving loan fund, with our small business recovery fund that we received from a grant from the city, which we utilized over a million dollars of that. We also had a bridge fund during COVID. Many of them came through District 3, and so we are still compiling the list. And then all the ones that are going through our Kauffman, as well as our startup in the past three years that Ebridge has been going, those are all through the districts.

And I'm glad you're telling me that now, because I, if I remind you, I had written you an email requesting this information, and with all due respect, I never got an answer. So just one second. I think I'm a very fair person. All I ask is once. I'm not going to beg or anything like that. But I'm glad you were able to answer me now, and I respect you for that, and I thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

And I do like the idea of this pilot study. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe in my district, it'll be only that instead of 125, only half of that is utilized.

Regards to that, though, we would still save that for the district if after we're done, and we find that we have allocated all the funds for each district, we are strictly staying 125 for each district. So we want to spend it in each district. So one district will not get more or less than the other. Okay.

Okay. I just have a side comment on the retail question, right? The city is working on a retail strategy. So we are, you know, that's something that is important. And we'll be, you know, hopefully by the next fiscal year, that'll be something that'll be more fleshed out and ready to go.

absolutely and and each of our partners both the greater brownsville edc and bcic we understand they have very varying roles and so we'll coordinate all that the city will have a role and we want we want the pie to be bigger for everybody so that'll be the goal and thank you mayor for bringing that up uh i had a good conversation with uh mr guard yesterday and mr uh garcia uh and

I'm a big believer. We need to come and work together with both EDCs. They need to come together and the only way we're going to play ball is if we go to the game. If not, if we don't go to the game, we're not going to be able to play. And I just thank you Miss Pena for For everything you do, all I ask is that we come together and work together because I love Brownsville. There's no better place than my hometown. And I will fight to the end to make sure that my Brownsville gets ahead. That's how passionate I am. That's what I want. And I've traveled a lot of places and all over the world. And there's nowhere better than my, my hometown.

I definitely agree. And I think it's benefit if the three of us, the three organizations work together and we do, but there's always room for more. And I think we're all, all three organizations are on the same page as whatever the city deems that we need to do. We're up to it to step up and do it.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

I'm going to move to approve the amendment because that's really what we're here for. Second.

We have a motion. Got a little side checked on that.

Thank you. And can the motion be included to amend the fiscal year 2026 just to be transparent for the record?

Okay. And so I'll say that this fiscal year or the year I'll amend my motion to say specifically that the amendment is to approve

for the amendment to the to the bcic fiscal year 2026 budget right for the end of the second we do have a motion a second any further discussion this question commissioner did you have something to say i will when i visit with you all next week okay thank you we're let's approve this i just had comments but we got sidetracked but my comments i'll i'll talk to you when i visit with you thank you so much

All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. I just have a motion.

Thank you all. Have a good evening.

Thank you. The motion passes. Moving on to item number two, which is the consideration and action to acknowledge the financial statements and cash investment report for the city of Brownsville for the second quarter ended March 31st, 2026. Turn it over to staff.

Good evening, Madam Commissioners. My name is Stephen Eliseo-Mews. I'll be presenting the second quarterly report for the City of Brownsville. That's October through March. Starting with the highlights, we have general fund revenues and transfers from other funds coming in at $91.2 million. The expenditures for general fund and transfers out came in at $72.3 million. Sales tax revenues through March totaled 25 million, which is 5.8% higher than what we received last year at second quarter. Property tax collections are currently at 67.5 million, which is about almost 91% of our total levy for the year. The cash transfer from PUV totaled 5.8 million through March, and the landfill generated 8.9 million of revenues. And the veterans bridge payments are up as well compared to last year at 2.2 million. So taking a look at our revenues, here you can see in by category, we have the prior year in blue, current year in red, and then the total annual budget in green. As you can see, our current year revenues are exceeding everything from prior year. The PUB utility services is a little lower. That offsets an expense. It means their expenses are lower as well. Overall total total budget revenues is 138.6 million for the year and we are at 91.2 million in revenues, which is approximately 66% of our total revenues. And that is 10.7 more than at this point last year. I didn't want to point out miscellaneous revenues. That one looks higher than considerably higher than last year, and that's because we do have the reimbursements related to the text for Texas workforce building acquisition. in that location and we also do have our operating transfers this year we're doing them on a quarterly basis so you'll see you know we have a red bar but no blue bar last year we just waited to until the fourth quarter to do those transfers so looking more closely at the sales tax as I mentioned 5.8 percent increase over last year's business period you can notice that we've had an upward trend since 2022 and the last three years we've had an average growth rate of 4.7%. On the right side, you can see our rolling 12 month city sales tax. And you can still see that December continues to be our highest month. We exceeded last year's. And then we continue to exceed every month afterwards. In February, we had double digit growth. We almost had double digit growth in March as we entered spring break and the spring surge for construction activity. brought those revenues up in March. Here's a breakdown of our property taxes. We have 39, almost $40 million in general fund, which goes to fund our maintenance and operations. And then the $27.7 million in our debt service goes to fund our capital improvement projects. Here's another look at our PUB revenues, our utility services. It's down compared to last year, 9% lower, $2 million Versus 2.3M, which is good means our expenses are down and then our cash transfer is up 9%, which is. Good as well, we're receiving more cash instead of, uh. Less cash compared to last year switching gears to our expenditures. Uh, here we show them by function. See, again, the prior year in blue, current year in red and then the total annual budget for this year. Public safety continues to be our largest expense at about 53% of our total budget in line with last year. Our general government is a little bit higher compared to last year at this time, and that's also due to the Texas workforce building acquisition being reflected under that category. All the other ones are in line with where they should be. The total budget at this point was $138.6 million. the total expenditures were 72.3 million at this time and here's a look at our general fund balance we started the year with 47.6 and then we added in our revenues subtracted our expenditures and that leaves us with the total fund balance of 62.1 million of that the unassigned fund balance is 39.6 million which is coincidentally tied to our Fund balance policy statement, the minimum fund balance being 70 days. So this translates to about 100 operating days or 11.9 million. And this is as of March. And in April, we did do the mid-year budget amendment where we allocated about $7 million. So we actually have about 14 days or about 3 million fund balance at this time. So I just wanted to point that out. Our other fund summary shows our special revenue, our debt, and our enterprise funds. Again, it shows the beginning balance revenues minus the expenditures, and we get our ending fund balance. Everything's in line. I do want to point out that the bridge fund, we do have a policy to maintain at least $3.1 million. We currently have about two and a half years worth of that $3.1 million. So we're meeting and exceeding our fund balance policy there. Our employee benefits fund, as of March 31st, we do have a fund balance of 2.3. We've received 9.3 million in fund contributions, 8.2 million of that coming from the city, 1.1 coming from the employee and retiree portion. And then the medical claims through March have been $6.3 million. And of that, the medical and dental continues to be the highest portion of the claims at 3.4 million. Admin fees at 1.5. Then we have specific and aggregate loss at $459,000. Prescription drug claims at $784,000. And a small miscellaneous amount at $26,000. Healthcare consultant being $93,000. Here's a look at our Veterans Bridge revenues and crossings. As you can see on the chart on the left, we're starting to tick up on revenues. compared to last quarter we were at 1.88 million and we're at 2.2 this year and on the right side you can see the actual numbers of vehicle crossings where we've ticked up from 460,000 last year to 505,000 with the increases being mostly about 45,000 in the auto and motorcycle about a thousand in the miscellaneous, which is pedestrians and bicycle crossings.

If the crossings are up, why is the revenue down for 26?

Fiscal year 26, the total blue bar is just through March, right? So compared to last year, we are going up a little bit. The yellow line shows the quarterly comparison. So 1.88. Does that make sense, sir? Okay. Got it. Any other questions on this slide? So here we have our building permits doing really well here on the left. You can see the categories, the breakdown of the permit value on the quantities. And in total we're about 6% quantity wise increase, but permit value is 61% higher than last year at this time. So and that's being led by primarily the new commercial 99 million higher than previous year. Then we also have new residents and apartments contributing to that number as well. And then on the right side you can see that again, it's similar to the previous chart where the the total bar is the full year and the line is comparing the quarter. The fiscal year 26. The full year is currently through March, so the line in the bar match, right? So we're at 382 million, which is exceeding the full year for fiscal year 24 and 23, so really good growth there compared to those two years and If the trend continues, we'll probably have the highest year in the last few years. Lastly, we have our investment report. We have $351 million in EIDL funds. 68% of that is being invested in the public fund investment pools, 19% in the money market, and then 6% we have in treasury notes and T-bills, and then about 7% we maintain in our depository accounts. On the table on the top right that shows our policies limits on how much we can invest in these type of investments and we are currently in compliance. And then below that we have our performance metrics we're showing. Last year, and this year at this point in time, and the weighted average dates of maturity was 48 last year this year. It's a little bit longer at 75, but. Uh, still well under 365 days, and we're extending that out using the US Treasury bills and notes to lock in higher tax. I'm sorry, tax rates, um. Interest rates, and then, uh, on the weighted average yield, uh, if you exclude our depository accounts and look at just the investments this year, we're at, uh. On average earning 3.71%, which is exceeding our target rate of, uh, the 3 month Treasury bill. Of 3.69 last year, uh. We were lagging behind our targeted rates, so we're doing better on meeting that metric. That concludes our second quarter update. Any other questions on the side?

Questions, comments? Motion and a second to acknowledge. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

Perfect. So now we will move into the board appointments. I do want to say for the record, just as a reminder that we did implement the new staggering of the structure as as that it was adopted by resolution in April or earlier this year. So starting moving forward, you're going to be seeing These offices come in starting currently at this meeting June and then you're going to see it again in December and then starting in 2027 you're going to see the other Commission offices for their appointments. So for the first item to consider. is the consideration in action on my resolution number uh two uh two zero two six dash uh zero six one to appoint or reappoint members to the animal uh regulation and care advisory committee these appointments belong to uh commissioner galansky de leon and commissioner cardenas so for the appointments for commissioner cardenas we will table to the next meeting on june 16. i'll appoint lourdes volado again second for animal shelter

Did it change names? Because I noticed it was listed differently. It's the shelter, right?

So, two members have a request to be reappointed, which would be Ms. Bolado and Ms. Marcella Morris.

I'll reappoint Lourdes Bolado. Second. All right.

A motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Your mic's off, Commissioner.

Laura Garcia. Laura Garcia. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Perfect. All right. yeah so so that concludes for the animal arc uh the next one is is the consideration and action on my resolution number 2026-68 to appoint to reappoint members to the bicycle and the pedestrian advisory committee bpac these appointments belong to the same commissioners oh sorry just commissioner de leon my apologies uh i'm going to pass on that one i don't have anybody yet okay we'll bring it back on june 16th The next one is for Commissioner Cardenas, which is the consideration of resolution number 2026-076. Since he's not here, we'll bring it back June 16th. The next item is the Film Commission, which is approval of action on the resolution number 2026-076 for Commissioner Galowski and Commissioner De Leon. I'll appoint Jason Fry.

Right. Second, we have a motion in the second any further discussion. If not all those in favor, please say aye. All those opposed say nay. I just have a motion carries.

Thank you.

We also have an appointment for District three. Yes, I'm gonna reappoint just Molina. Second, we have a motion in the second any further discussion. If not all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. I just have a motion carries.

The next consideration of appointment is for resolution number 2026-77 to appoint members to the Brownsville Convention and the Visitors Bureau. These appointments go to the same members, Commissioner Galanski and De Leon.

I'll reappoint Cynthia Carvan.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carried.

On that one, I'm going to do Charlie Abreu.

Reappoint him.

Reappoint him.

We have a motion. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

The next consideration is action on my resolution number 2026-079 to appoint or reappoint members to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board BPUB. This appointment goes to Commissioner Villarreal.

Move to reappoint Joseph Holman.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

The next consideration is action on resolution number 2026-081 to appoint or reappoint members to the Ethics Advisory Commission. This appointment goes to Commissioner Galanski and De Leon and Commissioner Cardenas.

I had appointed originally David Willis and I message him, but I haven't heard back from him. So, um, does anyone know if he's still?

Yes, he is active.

We've been I would excuse me. I would gather he would want to serve again, and I'll reappoint him.

I'll appoint David Wallace.

All right. We have a motion. It was like a second emotion in the second any further discussion? If not all those in favor, please say aye. All those opposed say nay. I have a motion here.

I'm gonna reappoint issues. Remy Ramirez second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

The next consideration is action on my resolution number 2026-082 to appoint or reappoint members to the park and the Recreation Advisory Committee. This appointment goes to the same commissioners.

I'll appoint Skanda Galicia. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Commissioner De Leon.

Another appoint, Gilbert Rodriguez. Second. A motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

And the last consideration is action to approve on resolution number 2026-083 to appoint members to the Paseo de la Rezaca Lighting and Landscaping Maintenance District Service Plan Board. This appointment goes to the same commission members. I'll appoint Alberto Robledo.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carried.

I'm going to confirm it with someone for the next following meeting.

So we'll table it to June 16th. We'll bring it back. That concludes the board appointments. Thank you. Now, may we enter into executive session? I'll move to go into executive session.

All right. We have a motion and second. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Perfect. So we will enter into executive session on the following items. Item number one is the closed session pursuant to the Texas government code section 551.071 and .074 to deliberate the appointment and employment or duties of a public officer or employee pertaining to the city manager. Item 2 is a closed session pursuant to the Texas Government Code Section 551.074 related to the City Attorney Performance Evaluation. Item number 3 is closed session pursuant to the Texas Government Code Sections 551.071 and .087 related to Project Field of Dreams. And the fourth executive session is closed a session pursuant to the Texas government code section 551.071 and .087 related to the Neil Palmer development subdivision. The city commissioners will enter into executive session at 822. Thank you.

One, two, three, four.

The other two are talking. Oh, for notes, yeah, we got to add it.

Yeah, if you take your own notes.

Yeah.

May we reconvene back into open session?

Yes, please.

Thank you. The time is 915.

We are reconvening into open session. Is there any possible actions to consider from executive session? The first item on the agenda is action item number one is in related to the appointment or employment of the city manager in authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute a contract with the appointed individual.

There is action. I move to table to the June 16th meeting in lieu of Commissioner Cardenas' request to be present for the vote.

Second.

I second. I'm sorry.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

If not, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

It carries. Moving on to the next possible action, which is action related to the city attorney's performance evaluation.

Move to proceed as discussed. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion carries.

And next is adjournment. entertain a motion second moved to close that motion in a second all those in favor please say aye i just have it motion carries thank you everyone we are adjourned at 9 16 p.m have a good night