City Council - Regular Meeting

Do we have anybody here for a prayer or a pledge? Well, let's all rise. Who wants to do the prayer? If it's not, can we go ahead and open with a prayer anyway? I still want to start with a prayer.

All right, everybody, please close your eyes. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the ability to come here today. We thank you for the grace of God that what you have provided us as we live here. We thank you for the people, the policy. We thank you for our servants that are throughout the world who help us on a global... pattern, we look at what we do as a nation, and we hope that goes forward, and we looked at, you know, as a region, then we come down to San Angelo, and we sit there, and we look at it, and we go to scripture, and we say, who's going to lead, and we go to Isaiah 6, 8,

That concludes public comment. We'll move into the consent agenda. We'll start with you down there, Tommy.

Nothing. Nobody's going to pull an item. I'll look for a motion. I have a first from Patrick, and I have a second from Harry Thomas. Any public comment on item A? Jamal Schoenberg. Jamal. Patrick's good. We'll take a vote. Excuse me. Jamal's good. those in favor say aye any opposed consent agenda item a passes 7-0 we'll move into the regular agenda comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above to participate please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting speakers will be called in order they sign

Absolutely. We'll include item B. First reading of public hearing of an ordinance approving and adopting the budget for the first fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026 and ending September 30th, 2027. This budget will raise more total property taxes than last year's budget by $962,035, which is a 1.64% increase. Of that amount, $773,890 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll. Presentation made by Finance Director Jonathan Flores.

I think we'll have lots of questions. It's Mason, correct?

Okay. This is a, I mean, it's a very significant decision for us. I mean, it's, it's $15 and then there's a commercial part of it, but it's, it's $180 a year. And trust me, if, if you provided, um, or sent me an email and public comment, whatever it was, trust me, I've got them. I read them all, worked them over the weekend. Um, There are things that we look at in this situation. So we look at $15, and the residential part is what I am, so there will be some things on the commercial side, too, that I wonder how you do the calculation. But I want to start with Shane. What have we spent on, you

So including the construction of new streets, we spent $20 million every other year.

So that includes new construction too, correct?

$22 million. Martin Luther King, Chadburn.

There's a cost to the services people expect us to provide. And the number one thing, I'd say the number two thing, everybody's public safety is number one. Number two is infrastructure and streets. And I hear more complaints about our streets than anything else that comes across email is, please fix our streets. So we sit down as a municipality and we try to figure out a way to get us past that headwind or benchmark or bump in the road, whatever that is. We discussed this for many years. This is, you know, street and bridge, and when do we bring this thing forward? Is it a time for it? And wh

So once you hit a 65-year-old claim, I mean 65 years of age, and you've got that on your deed, from that point on, you are no new revenue for the city of San Angelo.

I emailed with several people this weekend and didn't understand that their city taxes, once they hit 65, are locked in at that dollar amount.

Right. So it amazed me how many people weren't aware of that. And I was like, well, in the heat of our argument and discussion over email, maybe we found you some golden light here that's worth thousands instead of $1,580 a month. And we did on several of those. I just want to encourage the population. They need to look at that also as we move forward. So with that, I'm going to open it up to the dais with questions. And Ms. Mary, we'll start with you if you've got any questions.

Well, there's two towns that are in litigation right now for this very fee. So what's going to separate that? Even the defense, being able to defend yourself is going to cost a lot of money. But how is that? illegal and ours legal.

One is Austin, the other is El Paso. Okay.

Well, it still costs a lot of money to defend yourself on it. Now, we're looking for $10.5 million, and this would take over our shortfall in our budget. And I know that municipalities can't pass a deficit budget. Could we accomplish the same goals of paying for that shortfall at half this? And the other question would be, if we're short, say, 4, 4.5, make it an even 5 million is what we're short. So does that mean we're going to get $5 million ahead and then not have to do it the next year? Or is this, I mean, that's a lot of money. And especially when you look at, it's unproportional or disp

So it's just a coincidence that that happened.

I am just reflecting and asking the questions that we have been asked. It makes sense. The citizens don't really care. What it is called is $15. That is it. And we can dance it up all we want with use and all of that. And I see their point. So can all these streets and everything, $10.5 million, will that get them all taken care of? Or how long, I guess, because of that, how many years are we going to have to endure the fee?

So this is a result of kicking the can down the road? for many years, and I'm not assigning blame. I'm just the vessel that the citizens are flowing through with the questions.

Well, and it's another... Looking at it from many different angles, they're basing it on, you know, why am I at a 1,000-square-foot house? Why am I paying this amount and everybody else is paying the same, but they can afford it, I can't kind of thing. And so it's based on the street usage. Now, I have a warehouse. It's in the city limits, but it's vacant for the most part. So... Even though, I mean, it's a one-way street really in there. So I'm going to be hit with that, with that fee, even though it's vacant, there's really nobody on that road.

Okay. Well, I appreciate that. I didn't expect to go into that deep into the weeds. Thank you, though, for helping me. With this going through the utilities and on the water bill, aren't the citizens, if they can't pay that, is that going to cut their water off? I mean, we've got a lot of older citizens here that may be I know that we require a special line at my home for medical reasons. The nursing homes and what have you, if they're not able to pay this, or let's say they don't pay it, that's their retaliation for it. Wouldn't that signal a disconnect notice?

Okay, but you're not going to cut somebody off?

So we are in a place, we're prepared to address that. That's the thing, too. You know, a lot of these questions come up, and it's like, well, I guess we'll figure it out and handle it. And... People are getting better at asking the questions, and they can nail you to the wall on that. Yes, ma'am.

Shane, thank you. I think for right now that's all the questions that... in District 6 have brought forward to me. So thank you for a very detailed, but a very thorough and easy to understand method. So I thank you for that.

I get that, and we've all had that same question, but municipal government rules, if that becomes into a tax litigation legal process, answer that one, Brandon. That almost is something that you, any type of question regarded, if anybody was going to sue and we were going to discuss that, would almost have to be in an executive session.

And it was a good question. We've had that one.

Patrick? Good morning, gentlemen. I'll try to ask kind of my questions for y'all. I have others, but I'd like to let them answer theirs and let everybody else have a chance to ask them. Going back to the kind of master meter scenario y'all talked about, how are y'all going to classify those when it's a big organization, they have multiple meters, and you kind of said you're going to put it under one. Are you going to take all the different classifications and just put it on one meter, or are you going to classify it differently as a multi-use type facility?

So it's going to take all those land uses or is it going to be a different?

Gotcha. I'll clarify that. Okay. On the manual, so the only one I found online was a ninth edition. Is that a manual that we can find online so businesses can start to look at what tier they would fit in?

On that, we talked about the other cities. Did you all model any of it off of other cities, or was it based off of here's what Senator Zill needs, now let's see how we can spread it out equitably, correctly?

Gotcha. And on that proportional, and I understand the overgeneralization of a house creates this kind of trip factor. But a 1,000 square foot house and a 3,000 square foot house, 99% of the time are going to be a vastly different trip factor. So why was that not considered in some way?

No, and I understand that. Yeah, it's too tough to find out because you could have six college kids living in a 1,000-square-foot house that are using a lot, right, versus an elderly woman that uses it once a week. So I get that.

Yeah, to your credit, I couldn't find one that split up that way. But that was just my question originally. I kind of asked Patrick, you know, it was like, why don't we look at it that way? But yeah, like I say, I couldn't find any others that did have it split up. So that is a question I wanted to ask, though. And then this is kind of a mix, so if y'all can answer it, great. If not, we can move on and then come back to it with somebody else later. When we were looking at that fee and when y'all were working on it, did we look at the general fund supplementing it instead of trying to put all t

We're asking you a question that we should answer.

Do you think that's part of it because we weren't going to start this until January, so we have that three-month gap?

Perfect. Guys, thank you all. I'll let them ask you all questions.

Get the mic on. Any additional questions that weren't asked? So Patrick, as we look at this, as we wrap up this one, I want to thank the people from Kimberly Horne for coming here and discussing and give us a little bit of the framework of how they picked it. This brings into the map participation by all. Correct. You know, not only do we have residential, you know, participation, we've got commercial participation. We even have it as expected from city. So, you know, Tom Green County, city of San Angeles, city actually pays in this. Goodfellow, Shannon, ASU, churches, this thing is everybody

Go with that. Phillip, you got a couple words you want to throw in?

How much are you still short this 10 1⁄2? How much are you still short for this one year? How much did Tina bring in?

So at this point, I'll open it. Does the dais have any more questions for Patrick?

If we were to adopt the $16.5 million, because it's going to take us $10 million just to get back to zero, is what it sounds like. So if we did the $16 million, will that then get us over the hump? How much more money would we need the next year if we were to get all caught up and everything's

We're still just putting a Band-Aid on it at 10 million.

And then the next year, wouldn't that $10 million come back into play? Because if that's what's going to get us to the baseline, once we fix it at $16 million.

So the $10 million is just good money after bad?

That gets me. I'm sure there's more questions as we go, but I won't hog the mic this time.

Going back to the $80 million slug of money from 2015, where is that a recurring debt? Where does that come from? Is there a way to raise that to get it to where we're back on an eight-year cycle?

So that $80 million, we can't go back to that will.

With the assistance program, basically, and maybe this may have to happen next year. There may not be enough time this year. Is it where we could... So Abilene was brought up. Abilene has a low-income... So basically, they apply for it like we would have them apply through CVCA, and then they can just automatically set their rate at that. Is there something that we can do with that so, A, they're not having to apply all the time, and, B, when we do find those people that need it, we can just go ahead and set it so they don't have that continual hardship?

Let's see here. You've kind of already talked about it. You have, so we, you know, you talk about anything with my budget at home, if I have another expense and I got to find somewhere to take it from, right, if I don't make more money. So you have already done that as far as the streets department. Y'all have already had to you have no more money, so you're like, well, this needs done. We have to find a different way to do it. Right. We've talked about some of the, Phillip talked about in his meeting, some of the robotics that y'all have implemented, stuff like that, to be able to do more, mo So there's really nowhere else y'all can cut.

In your estimation, do you think the number one gripe you get from us is streets and signs and along those lines?

I think you've answered most of my questions. Some of it's going to have to be reviewed over next year's budget. This program, so kind of from what I'm hearing is, it is an annual basis. So this is not, we're putting it in now and it is set in stone for the next 10 years. It's going to be reviewed every year and council has the ability to look at it and say, yes, it worked great or no, it caused undue hardship.

Do you have a breakdown on your estimated costs or percentage-wise of that $10 million and where it goes?

Patrick, thank you. I know this has been a lot on your staff, so thank you all for doing what you can.

Tina, I've got a question. If we were, and this has come up several times, I was waiting to hear the end of it. If we were to pursue this in a tax increase, what percentage would we have to increase our rate to recoup this?

Right, and if we increase that as a tax, that would instantly let a lot of the people that we are going to participate escape, correct? So like all the nonprofits, the people that don't pay taxes, that do have a water meter and use infrastructure, would not be able or wouldn't be in on the taxes, correct? That's correct. Right, so with that, I just want to say, None of us want to be here. We've kicked this can down the road a while. If there was a fair and equitable way to get everybody, I mean, if you had a toll tag, there's things that would help us recuperate our funds. But at this point, I

So Tina, going to our expenses just in general, if this were to be voted down, That falls back on the general budget. He would probably have to cut it. What else would we have to cut if this program was not implemented?

Thank you very much. All right, with that, if there's no more questions from the dais, as always on an item like this, I will be the first one to make the motion to approve the adoption of the ordinance infrastructure. I'll make a first on that. I have a second from Harry Thomas. So they have to have this to roll into the budget to assume that the numbers are going to show as they counted on this as an approval. So you'll actually get two, is that correct, Brandon?

Yeah, we're going to, but I think Patrick was going, if you wanted to hear the next present, the budget presentation.

Does it depend, is it dependent upon the approval of this?

And so if this doesn't go through, that budget presentation is?

All right, so let's go to public comment on the right-of-way fee.

Mr. Gates, thank you so much for your words.

Mr. Ledbetter. Let's go to the next one.

Mr. Payne. Okay, let's go to number eight.

Mr. Wardlaw, I know he's here. Thank you. Go to number nine.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Thank you very much. Very good words, Dennis. Next.

All right. So that's going to conclude public comment on the right-of-way fee. So do we have to take this vote as one or individually? How do we do it? Okay. So we've got a first. I made a first, Harry Thomas made a second. We'll take a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Item passes 4-3. Now we'll move into B. Do I need to reread that or we just go straight into B since I've already read it once? All right. It's all up to you, Jonathan.

Jonathan, let me hold you right there. What do we usually budget sales tax at?

Right, but that's also a shortage of headcount, correct? And so we take that burden and put it on other employees?

And maybe Tina and Shane. How many are we short on head count? Do we have a, do you have a number?

Okay, we'll open it up to the diocese. Kimberly, you can show hands. I'd like to make you make the trip. Getting your steps in?

So if you had to add an extra fire and PD?

All right. Thank you, Kimberly. We'll start down the dais if there's any questions for Jonathan. Mary?

Patrick? Jonathan, on that payment deferral, so is that going to have to be added to our next year's budget?

Is it a one-time fee or is it going to be 2.4 next year?

So will it be that times two for next year?

Real quick, Mayor, if you don't mind. On the unfunded, do you happen to know what maybe the largest unfunded request was?

Public safety officers, same as school resource officers? Okay. In the current budget, do we have... the grant rider in there.

Okay, so at this point, how do we proceed at this one? Are we going to do this, take a motion and then go for the vote? Okay. As this is the budget, I will make the first motion to approve item B under the regular agenda. I have a second from Harry Thomas. Public comment?

I just wanted to address a couple of topics.

All right, we have concluded public comment on that, so we'll take this one individually across the board.

We'll do that one. Okay, we'll do this one as a normal motion. All right, we've got a first from Tom, a second from Harry Thomas. We'll take a vote. All those in favor of passing the budget today say aye. Aye. Opposed? None opposed. Budget passes 7-0. With that, this meeting comes to a close at 1055 p.m. I'll take a motion.