City Council - Special Meeting

I call this special meeting of the New Braunfels City Council to order. Today's date is September 8, 2026, and the time is 5 o'clock p.m. We request that all cell phones and other devices be on silent except emergency on-call personnel. Madam Secretary, could you please call roll? Yes, sir.

I'm present and we have a quorum. We will now proceed. Please join me in the invocation brought to you by Council Member Edwards, followed by the Pledges of Allegiance. Thank you.

Almighty God. We come before you with grateful hearts, asking for a voice of understanding in this council and throughout our city. Guide our words, steady our thoughts, and help us listen with humility so that every decision we make may serve the good of our neighbors. Lord, teach us patience when the work is difficult, courage when the path is unclear, and wisdom when choices carry great responsibility. Let our mission as a city be achieved with integrity, diligence, and a spirit that seeks what is right rather than what is easy. Help us make no unnecessary sacrifice, bear no unneeded expens

Thank you everyone for showing up today. We're gonna start off with a workshop and this is item A. Discuss, consider, and provide possible direction for the FY2027 Operating Budget and Plan of Municipal Services. Mr. Robert Camerino.

I was wondering if you could just explain what reoccurring costs are.

Okay. Yeah, I wanna thank everyone for doing all this work today. I had no idea it was gonna be this much. I had about 50 questions. I narrowed it down to 12. But even if you guys look at the please provide, the middle section where it says tier one all the way to three, is this after the 3.5 and three, then 2.5 projections, the tier three at 2.5, 5,346? Or is this all 3.5? No, sir, this would be at your proposed. So even if we went to all 3.5, tier one would still be at the same spot. And tier two and three would be a lot higher. I do understand where you guys are coming from. But where I com

Chairing doesn't have a lot of effect year one. But tearing, if it maintains long term, compression becomes inevitable because of certain things. That forces into what we call mandatory resets, or necessitated resets. Job averaging, when you look across the system, all of a sudden says this position is now either the lower position's higher than it because of the tearing, or you get a situation where we're out of kilter and that breaks how we do it with the COLA situation. And that's one of my concerns. The other thing, and this is just a side comment about government in general. I would never

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, you're right about the government. I'm only saying that if those numbers right there in the middle were all at 3.5, the two and three would be a lot higher. All I'm trying to do today is trying to figure out if I can make sure the tier one gets to 3.5. Now, the two and three, they're still gonna get a raise, but we need more non-discretionary spending. That's where I'm trying to scrape and find money. That's the whole mission today. That's why, and so when I see this, it makes sense to me. I still see, I still see 5,300 for, someone that's making over 110 or higher than

I personally am categorically opposed to the tiered system. To kind of boil it down, and I do agree with Council Member Edwards too, I think using the federal government as a fiscal model is probably not a great idea, but essentially what this boils down to is social equity through compensation policy, and I just do not support this in any way, shape, or form whatsoever, so.

So COLA is cost of living adjustment, right? And so that's generally across the board. I was in the military 27 years. Everybody got the same COLA, whether you're a general or private first class. There wasn't extra money for me because I was a private, right? It didn't happen. And that was a statement that you made. But essentially, if you're reducing the COLA for a higher pay, essentially what you're doing is lowering their salary, right? Their salary is designed with COLA to keep up with inflation, right? We didn't make inflation, federal government made inflation. And so this is not even k

Well, thank you, Councilman Bradley. The one thing that I want to bring up is very important. The 110 base salary is still at 3.0. That was my projection. Anybody making over 110 and above was a 2.5. Now, anyone below is the 3.5 or the 80 and below. You know what I mean? So you're still getting a 3% even if you're making 110. And in my whole purpose here, yeah. And if you put the projection, if you have a calculator, tier one and three and two, make those all 3.5, you're gonna see a big, big, big number. And so the tier one will not change. You'll still be at 1,900 while the others will be pre

Well, I'm not for the tier and I think that if you wanna propose something like this, I think that we should do more research on it before we jump into something like this because we should be approaching other cities that do it and see if it's successful for them or not. I just don't wanna do something that we've never done before. So I oppose it.

You finished? Go ahead, Councilmember Edwards.

How many positions are contract positions? Yes. In other words, they're not subject to COLA. We have a direct contract with city manager or the judge or whatever. We set the salary independent of the COLA. Just the three?

Okay, and a lot of times when we start to look at tiering, I'm not saying this is the case, I don't know the whole story, but a lot of times we want to talk about tiering or offset because we're looking at the very upper echelon and going, wow, that distance is getting there, and so there's a public perceptive of it. that we got the bulk of the people are here and then we got a few. You see it in the school district, some school districts have a clause in there that the superintendent has to make 20,000 more than the athletic director because they want a winning season, a winning team. So I th

Thank you. Anyone else? Councilwoman Carter?

Sure, I'll go ahead and comment on this. First of all, thank you all for all the work that you did today. I understand that these questions came in late from the mayor. I saw them yesterday, I think, as well. But I will tell you that this is a part of the budget process. Budget is two-way. We didn't see it in its totality, I believe, until what, mid-August? I don't know what all the spear throwing has been, and some of you have seen the email that I'm talking about, but the mayor has a right to ask a question. And I appreciate that you are unfettered, y'all are answering these questions. but i

I mean, the good news is, is we have time. I mean, budgets are not arrived at in major corporations. I worked for one GE. I didn't just work for the feds. And I can tell you, we were there burning the midnight oil when it had to go to the board of directors. So this is not unusual. I know it doesn't feel great. So I do appreciate the questions. I thought they were actually very good questions. The other thing is on these COLAs, they are indeed a cost of living increase, but COLAs are not mandatory. COLAs are certainly elective. Raises are not mandatory, right? So I appreciate that the mayor ac

Well, thank you for this presentation here. Yeah, I know. I guess you can go on to the next question. I do believe this was just to show everyone that we could do something like this. And it seems like this table is not really wanting to do it. It's just an idea to get some more money for non-discretionary items.

So those are the things that I wanted to add. I think that's it for this question, thanks.

Chair, how do we handle overlap? So we put the posting in, but we still have somebody in position. So then we have transitional time. How's that factored in the budget?

No, I just had a question on that. Yeah. The three to four months Is that money for the empty three or four months? Is that in the 2027 budget? Or is that excluded from that?

What do we do in the case of a market reset? So we're sitting here, everything's static and normal. But we had a situation here a few years ago with the planning department in certain areas where we weren't competitive anymore because the market shifted on us. Not just the free market, but even our neighboring sister cities We're having a hard time finding quality people. So how do you factor that in the budget to protect what you're going? Or is it something you just have to come back to us to break the budget?

For Public Works, what exactly is that? Is that MBU? Is that...

In that regard, I think in conversation with the chief, rallies, special events, and others that require greater presence not only in fire, safety, paramedics, and police. Are we looking at new fees and charges in there to offset and at least pay for some of this over time and things?

I have one question on that, sir. Yes, sir. So what if it wasn't 10 to 20%, maybe just 5%? Sure. Would that be something that you can work on? And that number at 5%, would that be close to $100,000? Yes.

So that 10% to 20%, is that 22,244? Right, so 20% of what's left

If you push the need to another fiscal year, would the cost of that also increase with inflation?

What would be the consequence of not funding it at all? Just push it to fiscal year 28?

And we've already pulled off, I think it was, about a quarter million bucks, roughly? I think it was a half a million.

And that was just to get scenario one to get. Correct. To balance out to where we could get, have enough in our reserve and satisfy all the things that we were trying to get for. Correct.

basically in the budgeting cycle. These types of funds and so on are part of our protection period, and also if we come out a little ahead, we have some going toward the future with things that we have put off. Or during the year, if our revenue stream is better because of sales tax and fees, that we now open up the door to what we had unfunded so we can reset the category. Is that not right?

School districts at one time looked at technology at some sources for leasing some of their tech because the obsolescence issues was getting ahead of their acquisition amortization. Do we do any leasing on some of our technology and is there any savings? I'm not sure there is.

I got a question there, Jared. Yes, sir. So useful life, is that five years? Yes, sir. And most of all our equipment, $375,000 is over five years old?

Yeah, I'm seeing that. So we don't have laptops that work past five years?

Yeah, I see a recurring 200,000, and that's every year is what I'm looking at. Yes. That's a lot of computers every year. And I'm just wondering... Are we, do we have that many computers that's worth over $200,000 a year to replace? Yes.

Okay, I'm just curious to... Seems like a lot to me, but all right.

So are we replacing all of them straight across, or are we replacing them every year, different departments or sections of the city get replaced?

This was something to where can the city actually do it itself, rather than hiring outside people to do any contracted items, especially technology. So that was the basis of that question. Are we always hiring outside help? Do we not have people in here to do the job? That's primarily what it was.

I think part of our issue when we start talking about these outside consultants becomes a situation of what we use them for. So council drives some of that. Fire or police want to substantiate, well, what's our call time? What's our response? What are we getting done? Where are we going? So we have to hire an outside consultant because we don't, I'm not saying we don't trust our leadership, but we want an independent party saying that we look good because the public wants us to look good so there's a cost that we add to our budget and then when we start to look i will just use the civic center

Oh yeah, so the main reason I did this is because our IT department spends a lot of money. And I wanted a breakdown of exactly what the heck are we spending on when it comes to software and our subscriptions. And this does a lot of, this looks like a lot of detail, and it's stuff you need. So I was just really curious to see why we spend so much in IT. Yes, sir. But when you break down stuff like this, it makes a lot of sense. And I would like to see a little more go into bandwidth when it comes to sending emails, when it comes to videos dropping when you're on something like this. We do have

No, sir. But this looks pretty good. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Now this looks good. If the year was 2020 for the 2015, I'd look at that, but... something over that old. My car's getting old, and that's used all the time. I understand this list. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I appreciate you running all those numbers. It was brought to my attention by at least two retirees out of those eight. I didn't know there was just that few. And I know it's from the time they retired to the time of 62 or 65. Okay, so there's a gap. And that's tough. I mean, it's tough to cover that, but it's also from a retiree standpoint, they're on a fixed income, no different than my grandma, grandpa type of thing, being on Social Security on a fixed income. So that $100 a month, I think, is really threatening to folks. So I appreciate you running that down for us.

Yes, ma'am. Yeah, that was my thought as well. That $100, too, for the silver, it's actually pretty... Pretty steep, and it's just a few handful of people. And I think maybe the city can cover that. You know what I mean? That's just what I'm thinking.

Are you saying there's a trend in the public side that people are staying on the company retirement insurance longer and avoiding Medicare, Medicaid or Medicare because the premiums less? than it is if they get A and B and Plan G. I know several people that says, I made a mistake taking my Medicare and going to that. I should have stayed in the company plan, which has an effect on us long term. Are you seeing that?

I've seen numbers where it's $200 or $300 a month difference by staying into the system instead of getting off of it, taking into the Fed system because the plan G is what gets them kicked because of whatever they're getting in a retirement check plus their Medicare and their Social Security benefit. So it'll be something we have to look at. I know several corporations we deal with on their retirement plans totally different now than what their regular staff deal is and that it's reduced services or so on. So it shifts into something that says, we want you to take your Medicare and we'll make

So I think we should probably be careful deferring because we'll set a new expectation. And when you talk about next year's budget being different or tighter or whatever, we don't know what the future's gonna be. If we start deferring those costs now, is that gonna be the new expectation and standard? And then I think it'd also be helpful to run the comparison if you went to just private compensation for your... just to see what that difference is. Because I think sometimes when people see them side by side, it is a little bit enlightening. But I think we need to be careful with starting the p

I would agree with Council Member Shaw on that too. I think it's something we should be careful with and think about before we start to set that precedent.

Jared, was this... The scenario, was there a different one for 3.5% on COLA?

Yeah. Yeah, I thought we were hitting 3.5. So is this actually the last slide of your presentation?

Okay, so the main reason why, and I really appreciate everyone working all day on this. And don't think I don't appreciate that. I really, really do. And I knew that this budget thing, it's almost over. And I didn't want to ask all these questions on Thursday. But you've probably answered every one of them. And I took about, I took away about 40 different questions. The purpose of this was to scrounge money to find more non-discretionary money for items on that 200 list. And the one thing I could add up to, and I'll just email you the different questions that maybe I could ask in an email to s

No, no, so I'm looking at 3.5%. Okay. And I thought that's what it was, but it's at three now. If you were to take away the 2.5%, Bring it down to 2.0 and 2.5, or 2.0 the lowest. The one thing I was looking at, wouldn't that leave more money than everyone just getting that 3.5? And so you have at least 30 to 40 people in the tier three and the tier two. So I was looking at how much money would we have extra to put onto something else? That calculated close to 65,000 in my brain. But if that doesn't work, then it doesn't work. That was just a question. Where can I find money? And one of these w

First, I want to say thank you for your patience. I know I was the cause of some of the heartburn because I asked the same questions and took a lot of your time. And I'm really grateful and appreciative of your time. I'm a favor of the tiered. way of doing the COLA, but I'm also not one to do knee-jerk jump into something without the research. So I really think we should look at other cities that may have done that and look at their lessons learned and if it was successful and what the pros and cons of that approach was so that we don't make those same mistakes. I'm also a believer that just b

Yes. I want to say the same thing on what Councilmember Schall said was thank you for all the hard work that y'all put into this. And I mean, I can only imagine. But one of the key things that I wanted to bring up was because Mayor French, you asked where can we save money and keep it local? And I was trying to remember, okay, what was that thing that they were bringing in? And it's the crack sealer, correct? That's the one that y'all used to, is that the one that you used to give to a different company or was it the street marker?

And I appreciate that y'all are trying to do that and I wanted to bring that up because of the fact that it just shows that you are looking at keeping money within the city and trying to focus on that. So I wanted to bring that up again. Thank you so much for putting that effort into that.

Anyone, go ahead Larry. Sorry, Councilman Spadley.

I'm gonna join my colleagues and thank y'all very much. You asked some pretty good questions. But you know, the city is the city. It's not a corporation. It's not the federal government. And the budget comes from within up to these three city managers here. And so when it gets to our level, it has already been, nickel and dimed out almost as much as possible, right? This is my fifth budget and you're right. The first one is it is 100% taking water from a fire hose is very complex, very complicated. And not only do I suggest that we start earlier, I suggest all y'all spend hours with these folk

First of all, thank you again. All of you. I mean, all of you sitting out there, too. We see every one of you, and we know that you've been here late with us. It is a huge responsibility, but we have a responsibility, too. We were elected. And I am not going to... beg for forgiveness when I cast my vote on anything. I've weighed everything that you tell me, everything that you give me. But it is my responsibility to do my due diligence for the people that put me here. Because they put me here for a reason. So whether you like the lines of questioning or not, whether my peers do or not, I'm her

I appreciate that because, you know, it's, we just have to look where money is that, may or may not be better served to be in one pot or the other. And that's the reason for an evaluation. So that's all I'm asking for. I don't have my eyes set on anyone. Some of them I don't even know what they're for, because I wasn't here when they were put in place. I just know they exist. So, you know, I think it's a worthy exercise.

Just a couple of things. What breaks do you have in for the infamous federal fourth quarter flush? Meaning just before the end of the year, the last quarter, if they haven't spent their budget, they start spending rapidly and not necessarily in tune with what's going on. We see it in a lot of government contracts in certain areas. and what do we do to make sure our budgets don't all of a sudden spend because we didn't need it, but now we're gonna spend it so we don't hurt our budget for next year?

Last question from me is, have we identified departments that are having the hardest time filling positions because our scale may be on the brink of being out of sync?

That's why it's so important for us to retain the reserves because if we have to make adjustments on it, we don't break our back with it because of it. And I know it gets competitive or we have a loss in a department. Now we're trying to fill against the free market and it just creates havoc for us. And so I want to thank you for all you did. Everything you did, there were no bad questions tonight. The presentation from the mayor, all of those were things that are reasonable, logical, straight down the line, timing. I've always felt that the budget process is very compressed. It's not on your

Anyone else? Go ahead, Councilwoman Shah.

We're not taking a vote tonight, right? It's not a vote. I think we have a general consensus and direction for the staff to move forward before we do the first read. That's kind of the way forward with scenario one.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Camerino. This whole main objective today, guys, was try to find money for your non-discretionary that we have on that list that we could not get money for. And again, thank you for everything, for all the numbers you guys put up and answering my questions very, very fast. And that's about it for me. Anyone else? I'm gonna open it up to the floor, to the citizens' comment time. If you can, just state your name. If you live in the city, if you don't live in the city, if you live in the ETJ, thank you.

Thank you, is there anyone else like to come up to the microphone?

Thank you. Thank you for that. All right. They're seeing none. No more comments from the public. There be no further business to come before New Braunfels City Council. This meeting is adjourned. Hey, Mayor. Mayor, sorry. If you could read the one last time for us. Oh, sorry. Okay. Thank you. The public hearing for the tax rate and proposed budget will be held at a meeting beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 550 Landa Street. That's here in the council chambers. The FY 2027 proposed budget along with the 2026 tax rate will be adopted on Monday, September 14, 2026 at a meeting b