City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome this evening. Today is August 18th, 2026. It's 6 p.m. We'll go ahead and get our regular city council meeting in session. If everybody will please rise for the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States and the state of Texas by council member Westbrook.

Good evening, everyone. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to serve our community and for the trust placed in each person gathered here. As we enter this election season, remind us that public service is greater than any campaign, any candidate, or any political difference. Grant us wisdom in our decisions, patience in our disagreements, and humility in our words. Help us to debate ideas without diminishing people, to listen before we respond, and to conduct ourselves with civility, respect, and integrity. May we remember that even when we disagree, we remain neighbors, colleagu

Thank you, Council Member Westbrook. We're gonna go ahead and move on to city events, announcements of upcoming city events by our Deputy City Manager, Brian James.

Thank you for those announcements. Moving on to announcements and recognition by our city manager, Steve Williams.

Okay, thank you for those announcements. I have no announcements of recognition, so we're gonna go ahead and move on to hearing of residents. This time is set aside for any person who wishes to address the city council. Each person should fill out the speaker's register prior to the meeting. Presentation should be limited to no more than three minutes. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any individual member thereof. any person making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks while addressing the council may be requested to leave the meeting. All handouts and

Thank you. Next up, we have Maggie Titterington with the Church Chamber. Selma and Sybilow Chamber as well.

Thank you. Next up, we have Dana Eldridge.

Thank you. And that will end hearing of the residents. So we're gonna go ahead and move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is considered self-explanatory and will be enacted by the council with one motion. There will be no separate discussion on these items unless they are removed from the consent agenda upon the request of the mayor or council member. At this time, do I have any consent agenda items that any council member would like to have removed from the consent agenda?

Good evening, Mayor. Can we have item four, resolution 26R090, and also item five, resolution 26R091 removed?

Okay, we'll remove consent agenda item four, resolution 26-R-090, and resolution 26-R-091, which is item five from the consent agenda. Being the only items removed from the consent agenda, can I get a motion to approve items one, two, three, and six? Motion.

Okay, I have a motion made by Council Member Westbrook. I have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Motion passes. Seven yays, no nays. With that said, we'll move on to discussion and action items. And we'll go ahead and start with item four, resolution 26-R-090, approving the SSLGC fiscal year 2026-2027 annual budget and other matters in connection therewith. We'll have Director of Public Works, Larry Bush, speak on that behalf.

Yes, I've, you know, in review of the documents provided, you know, I just had some, you know, some questions and just, you know, trying to get an idea of, you know, some of the main projects that are coming up with SSLGC, if we could, as just to, not just let us, you know, just be more transparent and kind of give the, you know, residents an idea of what is projected here in the future with SSLGC, if that makes sense.

YEAH, NO, I'M SORRY, I GOT A LITTLE COLD THAT I'M FIGHTING. BUT, YEAH, I NOTICED THAT THE OPERATING COST HERE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED, AND THEN ALSO THE REVENUE DIDN'T LOOK SO COMFORTABLE IN THAT SENSE. SO I GUESS MY QUESTION IS WITH SSLGC, DO YOU GUYS FEEL CONFIDENT THAT THE REVENUE THAT YOU'LL SEE WILL CONTINUE IN REGARDS TO, LIKE, I KNOW THAT YOU GUYS ARE SELLING WATER OFF TO SALES AND SOME OTHER TIER TWO AREAS. ARE THOSE CONTRACTS, YOU KNOW, ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HEALTHY ENOUGH TO WHERE, YOU KNOW, YOU DON'T SEE ANY FUTURE DECLINES OR PROBLEMS WITH THOSE TYPE OF CONTRACTS?

Any other questions? Having none, can I get a motion to approve resolution 26-R-090? So moved. Second. Okay, I believe we have a motion made by Council Member Sheridan and second by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Oh, sorry. Correction, we have a motion made by Council Member Davis, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Seven yays, no nays, motion passes.

Now, moving on to resolution 26-R-091, approving the SSLGC fiscal year 2026, 2027 water rates, and other matters in connection therewith. Director of Public Works, Larry Bush.

YEAH, I PULLED THAT ONE OUT BECAUSE IT WAS PREDICTED ON THE PREVIOUS ONE. SO I'M GOOD. SO I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO FOR RESOLUTION 26R091. SECOND.

Okay, I got a motion by Council Member Sheridan, seconded by Council Member Westbrook to approve resolution 26-R-091. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes. Thank you all very much. Moving on to discussion and action items. Resolution 26-R-076, establishing a legislative platform and priorities for the 90th legislative session in Texas. We have Director of Public Affairs, Crystal Haynes.

All right, thank you. Any other questions by any council member? You have a question?

Go ahead, Councilman Guerrero. You mentioned a lot of information, but what are the top two vital projects that we are targeting for additional state resources?

Also, how closely does this agenda align with the TML core priorities?

Any other questions? If we don't have any other questions, can I get a motion?

I motion to approve resolution 26R076. Second.

Okay, I have a motion by Council Member Dietz, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes. All right, moving on to item eight, ordinance 26-M-025, amend the city of church code of ordinance and certain other ordinances by amending and establishing fees for certain license permits and other services. We have our finance director, Mr. James Walters.

Any council member have any questions? Having none, can I get a motion?

Okay, we have a motion made by Councilmember Davis, second by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 10. Accepting the City of Church Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan, we have our Interim Director of Economic Development, Amy Madison.

Yes. Okay, take that back, hang on. Resolution, so item nine, resolution 26-R-098, a resolution accepting the state defined tax rates and setting the preliminary 2026 tax rate. We have our finance director, Mr. James Walters. Sorry about that. Of course.

Can you put slide 24 back up, please? There you go. Thank you. So as you're looking to set the tax rate, this is kind of what we're looking at. So if we set the tax rate at the current rate, know that we will bring in less money than what we brought in this fiscal year. And so if we're looking to try and maintain what we have and then we need to look at the no new revenue proposed rate, which is 0.5296, just to bring in the same money. And so the voter approval rate is 0.5593. If we set it at that, it does not mean that we have to adopt that. When we go to adopt the rate, we can set it much lo

Yes, just to clarify, I think... the no new revenue would be on existing properties. It wouldn't be on anything new. So if we were to set it at that, it wouldn't necessarily be the same amount of revenue. I think we'd still have higher revenue because we have new properties. Set accepting the no new revenue rate, that doesn't prevent us from going below that potentially, correct?

Yeah, that was, I just wanted to make sure, cuz I know we were discussing the maximum and just understanding what the new revenue rate is. But I think that's one thing, it's a little bit of linguistics that the state uses cuz they make you think that there's no increase, but for some people there is, some others there might not be. ultimately on the same properties, it's the same revenue that we had on the books, but it does not include anything new that we've had added. So I just wanted to clarify that.

Any other questions? Having no questions, do I have a motion to adopt the tax rate? I mean, not adopt, I'm sorry, I think set the tax rate.

I'll make a motion to set the maximum tax rate.

Well, since it's early in the process, and again, we can certainly come down, and I think we do have a need to come down, I'll go ahead and second the motion.

Okay. Having a motion made by Councilmember Paul McAloosa and seconded by Councilmember Mark Davis, can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having six yeas, one nay, motion passes.

Okay, now moving on to item 10, accepting the city of Shores comprehensive economic development strategic plan. We have our interim director of economic development, Amy Madison.

Is this the right presentation on the screen right now?

Any questions from any council members on the comprehensive economic development strategic plan? Councilman Guerrero?

What is the estimated cost to execute through your plan like this?

And what about how would this plan affect our current businesses and industry parks?

So it's more of a capitalizing, assisting, going forward with the current businesses?

Yes, sir. So your SWOT analysis, do you have that in front of you? I don't think you showed it on your slides.

I think it's towards the back, page 20 of 23. Does this look right? Yes. So I know you put an emphasis on marketing. But upon the weaknesses, and if so, strengths and weaknesses are internal. And if my memory serves me correct, opportunities and threats are external. But the internal, it says lacking a brand story. But you emphasized marketing. How do you market if internally we don't have a brand? You know what I'm saying? So what are we marketing? I-35, what are we, from your standpoint, how would you summarize, if you had to market a city of shirts, you have to give an elevator pitch. How w

That was a good answer. It was, yeah. It's a good answer. But in the report, it was, I think we have a higher unemployment rate for everybody except for like, I guess, one other person in our region. And I don't know if that's due to the veterans we have or not. I couldn't understand that. Is that why? But if you have higher unemployment, then you have a reliance on retail, and then we have an economic downturn sometime in the future, you can sort of see how I don't think that's going to produce a pretty good result if you have already higher unemployment and a reliance on warehousing and reta

Yes, but your report said we shouldn't be relying on professional services. This is not, actually spoke against professional services in the CEO shirts. It was referring to, it was after page 13, engagement process. No, no, no. Anyway, I don't think it was, you know, very complimentary.

Yes, sir. No problem at all. But I thought it was good. I thought it was a good report. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it because I know I've had the discussion about how do we describe shirts? What is shirts? You know, what's our brand? And I've gotten different answers from, if I asked 10 people, I probably got 12 answers. So I do appreciate it.

No, no, I do appreciate it. The one slide that you had talking about defense industry, EV tolls, I know Port SA is building a vertiport there, and I guess they're going to have a flight, a route, a flight route all the way to Austin. I don't know if it's, if we're in there, but I do appreciate the creativity and consideration, at least for EV tolls and defense industry. So thank you. I appreciate it.

Okay, council member Sheridan, you have something?

I DID, BUT COUNCIL MEMBER WAS BROKEN. GOT MY QUESTION. SO I'M GOOD.

COUNCIL MEMBER GUERRERO. I HAVE ONE MORE QUESTION. FROM THE FEEDBACK THAT YOU RECEIVED, WAS THERE ANY CONCERNS THAT CAME UP?

Two questions. I noticed when you listed some of the industries and some of the bigger employers, do you see Tesla having an impact on our area? I didn't see it listed as one of the larger employers, but I would think that some of their suppliers might be looking in this vicinity. Is that something?

My other question was, in your opinion, does it appear that we're properly leveraging the education community to provide the employees for the employers in our area?

What about from the community college level?

Any other questions? If there are no other questions, do I have a motion to accept the City of Church Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan?

I'll make a motion to accept the Schertz Economic Development Strategic Plan. I'll second.

Okay, I believe I got a motion by Councilmember Westbrook, seconded by Councilmember Sheridan. So can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes. Thank you, sir. All right, moving on to item 11, Council Layers on Assignment for Capital Improvement Advisory Committee. We have Deputy City Secretary Cherie Kearney.

You volunteer for it? Mm-hm. Do we have anybody else wanna volunteer for it? We have Councilmember McAloosa that's willing to volunteer to be assigned for the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee.

Yes, I will volunteer as well as an alternate.

Do you need an alternate or do you just need a primary?

Council Member Westbrook. YES, MAYOR. IF IT'S UP TO COUNCIL, I RECOMMEND WE GO AHEAD WITH THE PRIMARY AND ALTERNATE, THE PRIMARY BEING COUNCILMEMBER PAUL MACALUSO AND THE ALTERNATE BEING COUNCILMEMBER WATSON. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW THIS WILL EFFECT IN DECEMBER.

Okay. Well, it looks like we have a motion made by Council Member Westbrook and seconded by Council Member Guerrero. Can I get everybody to cast their votes for... One second, please.

Go ahead. Michelle would really like to have that liaison, so I'll bypass and let her take it.

So we'll just do a primary, not an alternate? Okay. So can I get you to rescind your motion and recast it?

I rescind my previous motion. I make a motion to have a primary only from the city council and that person being council member Michelle Watson.

Okay, we have a motion made by Council Member Westbrook, and we have a second by Council Member Guerrero. Can I get everybody to cast their votes for Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Watson, stand corrected, Mayor Pro Tem Watson to be the liaison for the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee. Can I get the votes published, please? Okay, having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes.

Thank you. All right, moving on to public hearings. Item 12, we have resolution 26-R-093, conduct a public hearing and consider resolution accepting a petition for voluntary annexation of approximately 10.7 acres of land, located approximately 900 feet northwest of intersection of FM 482 and Schwab Road. More specifically known as Comal County Property Identification Number 56613, Comal County, Texas. We have Senior Planner Daisy Marquez.

Okay, so at this time I will open up the public hearing of residents on item 12 at 7.51. Do we have anybody wishing to come up to speak on item 12, resolution 26-R-093? Going once, going twice. Close at 7.51. Nobody speaking on that item. Can I get a motion to pass resolution 26-R-093? Oh, you have a question? Go ahead.

I had a question, David. What specific zoning classification will staff be recommending for this property?

Thank you. Any other questions? Do I have a motion?

All right. We have a motion made by council member Paul McAloosa, council member Mark Davis, and seconded by council member Sheridan. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, out and passes. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 13 in the public hearings. Resolution 26-R-094, conduct a public hearing and consider a resolution accepting a petition for voluntary annexation of approximately 0.19 acres of land known as 12235 Aztec Way, more specifically known as a portion of Bexar County, property identification number 308309, Be

Okay, at this time, I'll go ahead and open it up to hearing of residents at 7.54. Anybody wishing to come up to speak on resolution 26-R-094? Going once, twice. We'll go ahead and close hearing of residents, 7.54. At this time, I'll go ahead and open it up to questions by council.

Council Member Guerrero. I have a motion to approve resolution 26-R-094. Second. Second.

Okay, I have a motion by Councilman Guerrero to approve Resolution 26-R-094, seconded by Councilmember Paul Micheluso. Can I get a right to cast the votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Okay, having seven yays, no nays, motion passes. Thank you. All right, moving on to our workshop, item 14, presentation of the 2026 employee engagement survey results. We have our director of human resource, Jessica Kurtz.

Sir, how long does it take to do one of these surveys?

Is that what you said? The survey is 10 to 12 weeks, is that what you said?

Yeah, when you conduct a survey, is this an online survey for the employees, or is this a hard copy survey that they take?

Just real quick, just a couple of them. I saw the linear graph that you had there and showing the score going up consistently, so I think that's something to say about the leadership that we have. So good job for doing that. A little bit surprised by that statistic that you had there about the employees that are close to retirement. That was a pretty high number. So hopefully that's being looked at and being planned for.

Any other questions? Okay. Item 14 was for informational purposes only. So thank you all very much for your report.

Okay. Moving on to item 15 workshop regarding current impact fees. We have city engineer Catherine Woodley.

Thank you for bringing it to us. Now, what prevented you from having roadway comparison impact fees between cities in this presentation?

No, I know I wanted all impact fees because I mean, it's everything that a business or somebody is considering. With that being said, I don't think our roadway impact fees are very high, especially for commercial from what I can understand. But I do think that's a concern to me that we go to two inch meter and all of a sudden we're the highest that there is. I mean, I don't know. It's a question that maybe some other people can answer, but how many businesses have we potentially lost because of that? And, um, For us to be at the high end of that, I think, is concerning. If all things being equ

And I would believe that if someone's made that dedication to being here, but if they are having a comparison, especially in a warehouse, if it doesn't matter where they're located, that to me, I think would be a consideration to someone.

So I kind of share the same thing with Council Member Paul Micheluso, especially as it pertains to fast food restaurants, but I see that we have, Our comparisons are based on 2025 figures and some of the other ones still are 2023, 2024. So I understand that those numbers may be higher today. So I don't know, but I definitely wouldn't want to do anything that would like detract any businesses or fast food restaurants from coming in just because our impact fees are so high.

Before I go to Dr. Sheridan on his question, my other question is, do some of these businesses, commercial businesses, do they have water meters? Because I know a lot of times you have to have a water meter for consumption, you have to have another water meter for fire suppression, and then another water meter for irrigation.

No, I just want to kind of piggyback off what you said, Mayor, and Council Member McAloosa. You know, looking at page 12, slide 12 there, it seems that we're really... out of touch with the local or in our surrounding cities are providing in regards to these impact fees that we're charging. So it kind of contradicts what we had earlier in regards to we want to make sure businesses are looking at shirts. And to me, that could possibly scare them away in a sense, but we don't want to do that. So again, the revenue that we're collecting on this, I don't think it's really significant enough to you

Okay, so there's no point that we reimburse them for meeting certain target points, et cetera, in their development of their business?

So the takeaway from this is that we're gonna reevaluate and then hopefully we can be somewhat competitive to our neighboring cities in a sense.

Yeah, and that could even be a possibility that maybe we have to raise the impact fee for the roadway for commercial because it's too low. Yeah. I just think it all needs to be looked at because yes, you're right. You know, what is that total bill going to be? And we don't want to be here and everybody's here.

Well, because you did state that the roadway impact fee is relatively new. And so that's something that people are just now starting to do?

And then my question is just to be clear in regards to the discussion when it happens to, like, say the restaurants, the businesses, the discussion in regards to the impact fees, because obviously some of the businesses think it's like a surprise attack at the end and then business is delayed or the project is delayed. So that is 100% discussed at the time in the beginning, initial.

Council Member Guerrero, did you have a question?

No, I was just gonna say that I like what you're doing. You're saying if they do something for us, they build a pipeline or something, they get credit, correct?

Yeah, and I love all the comparisons that are here. I would like to see a little bit more of some of the local cities around us, like Live Oak, University City, Converse, because I know those, when it comes to businesses, those are some of the cities that we're also competing with. So I'd like to get a good look to see what they're doing.

Well, I appreciate all the work that the staff put into this because it's definitely a lot of work. Do you have another question? Yes, ma'am.

A couple of months. I know you have three months. That seems like a lot. But in the meantime, while you're working on it, doing your due diligence, Can I get the, or can you send us the ordinance that you were just referencing? And I'm more interested in not in the impact fees, whatever, but the whole process. From beginning to end, from the time a business is interested in coming to the City of Church all the way to the time they open up, what's the framework? I don't need it super detailed, but what's the framework? What are they... They go to neighborhood services, you'll have a pre-constru

If I was a new business owner, just tell me what I need to do. I don't want to say the hurdles, but the things I need to do in order to become a local business owner here. That's what I'm trying to understand, the process that a new business owner, an entrepreneur, needs to do in order to come to the City of Shirts. That's what I'm trying to understand. Their process, not from my process outward, but... I guess from customer service, sort of looking from a business owner perspective.

Yes, sir. That's all. Just help me understand what they go through.

Go ahead. So I definitely don't want to rush because I definitely want you all to do good work and not feel like you were rushed just to be able to provide something. So do you feel that you could have something within 30 days?

Is there a way to get more current data on some of these cities around us? Because like, you know, San Marcos is 2018, Cibolo is 2021. So I don't know how that compares to us in 2025.

Any other questions? Have none, thank you. Great, thanks. All right, item 16 and 17, we're gonna be going to closed session. Item 16, called in accordance with section 551-087 of the Texas Government Code deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. Closed meeting, the governmental body is not required to conduct an open meeting to discuss or deliberate regarding commercial or financial information that the governmental body has received from a business prospect that a governmental body seeks to locate. stay or expand in or near the territory of the governmental body and with whic

I intended NEP and then the chamber luncheon today.

I attended the ribbon cutting this afternoon down in Old Sharks for the celebration of their new water and sewer lines and new streets.

I attended the hog wild event and also the H7 ribbon cutting.

I attended the Rampage Law hog wild event. I attended the Cibolo Town Hall yesterday concerning the data center, and I attended the chamber luncheon today.

I attended the NEP lunch last week, the chamber lunch today, and the ribbon cutting and old shirts this afternoon.

I attended the Northeast Partnership luncheon, the chamber luncheon, and also today's event with this street historic preservation sign.

Okay, and I attended the chamber luncheon today. I also attended the San Antonio Metro Chamber Mayor's Breakfast. And I also attended the Child Advocacy Center over the weekend. This will conclude tonight's City Council meeting at 3 o'clock.