City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. So bear with me and buckle up.

All right, from our communications and community engagement group, the city of Rowlett is inviting residents to help shape our community's future as we begin the process of developing the city's next strategic plan. Two community conversations will be held at the Rowlett Community Center, Wednesday, September 2nd at 7 p.m. and Thursday, September 3rd at 8.30 a.m. These conversations are an opportunity for residents to share what they believe Rowlett should focus on in the years ahead. COMMUNITY INPUT WILL HELP INFORM THE PRIORITIES THAT GUIDE THE CITY'S FUTURE DECISIONS, INVESTMENTS AND SERVIC

I know. Isn't that a cute one? All right, I want to go ahead and introduce you to Tommy Pickles. Five to six year old, came to the shelter severely emaciated and looking for someone to love him. Even though the beginning of his life hasn't been the easiest, he still shows love to those he meets. Everyone who meets him says the same thing. He is the sweetest, gentlest, and the most loving dog, deserves a safe and loving home. Tommy needs a rescue, a foster, or an adopter who will give him the love, care, and nutrition he needs to get healthy and finally know what it feels like to be loved. He s

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I move that these be approved as read.

Yeah, I asked to pull it. And first of all, outstanding presentation. I always enjoy listening to your presentations. I asked to pull this. Mayor, you said the other day, and I find myself thinking about all the time, I know more about wastewater than I ever thought I would know since I came on council and there's more to learn. The reason I wanted it pulled is I really wanted the citizens to really hear what I call the behind the curtain work that goes on. The amount of infrastructure work that goes on, I did not understand it, and I'm still amazed by the work that you do. And items like this

I will go ahead and make a motion to approve this as written and as stated.

But yeah, just a really cool kind of piece of history.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. I move that we appoint the following individuals to the 75th Anniversary Task Force. Daniel Cabrera, Shelby Coleman, Michelle Watson, Michael Gallops, Stephen Pruitt Jr., Larry Glick, Becky Sebastian, Betsy Chapman-White, Zoya Tanvir, Lonnie Blades, Andrea Tagliaferro.

All right, let's go ahead and call the vote please. Mr. Fasten.

Mayor, I'll make a motion that we consider to adopt this resolution accepting voluntary annexation petition as written.

I don't know if it's not much a question, but some comments to it. I don't think it was unfair to put us in this position. I think this has been an amazing opportunity. I'm being serious. From day one of this council, thrown two lines then, and it has allowed us to have some very candid discussions, and I think we all have learned a lot from it. I don't know that it's a bad position. Good governance comes from having discussions like this. And frankly, good governance comes from disagreements. I've always said a 7-0 vote's not always a good thing. Disagreement is a good thing. That being said,

WHEN WE SAY THAT, IT IMPLIES IN MY MIND AS A READER that harm was done. The process was not equitable. But I don't think anywhere, I think we all can agree, there was no error. Equity was there. So I think that statement is not an accurate statement. It implies that, not only does it imply that error occurred, but I think it It takes away the vote by utilizing this from council members, and I think it disenfranchises the citizens. That's just my take and my opinion on it. So I do have a challenge in that. But I will keep it brief because, again, I think everybody's done, including yourself, Ma

And I think your point is very well taken. I've heard some comments tonight on that. And I used to say at my job, then if we don't like the rules and the laws, we change the laws, but we can't change them in the moment. to because then it looks like because it's no longer equitable at that time. It does look like favoritism is being produced. But if we should look at if they are outdated, then we should have a look at it. And we had we actually have a charter thing coming up that where we can actually have that hard look. So I agree. We think we got agreement.

Well, first and foremost, you know, I was on the side that did not prevail. And I was very disappointed because, you know, during my lifetime, I was against tattoos until I began to see the different side of how it is when, you know, we got over probably 80% of our police officers have tattoos. Probably about 80% of our firefighters have tattoos. You know, my son who survivor of cancer got a tattoo for that, you know, and many folks have children that have passed that they get tattoos and remembrance. I mean, tattoos go for many things and many reasons to memorialize, you name it. And I was ok

Yeah, I'll weigh in. Yeah, you know, just like Marvin said, I was one of three that voted to affirm that. I thought it was the right thing to do. Not that I have a tattoo. In fact, I'm probably one of very few Marines who would go through 20 years and not come out without a tattoo, but that's just personal choice. But when I looked at it, I looked at where it was at. I looked at her presentation, and I thought, Yeah, I can support this. I'll probably never go in there and get a tattoo, but I didn't have a problem with it. But also, like Marvin, it's a tall order for me to come and approve resc

No, Mayor. Please make yourself comfortable. First of all, I can't thank this council enough for your integrity on this matter. I really think that we as a city always get ourselves in tremendous trouble when we don't follow a process. And I won't quote the times and the events that have recently been held where we didn't follow a process. And so I think good governance dictates that we always follow the process. And as Council Member Fassett pointed out, there was no errors made. There was nothing that would cause this action to occur in my opinion. And I think it's a slippery slope if we ope