City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Bye. It's nice. Welcome everyone to our council meeting tonight. Big crowd. Good to see everyone. Uh tonight we're going to start with uh well we have a forum so we're good. We're going to start with a prayer. Kelly,

we have a staff member. Oh, come on. If we'll bow our heads. Thank you, God, for this wonderful day and this wonderful community that we serve here today and every day. and please give us guidance in everything that we do not only today but every day from here on. May we keep in mind the community that we serve, the community that we are part of and everything that we do be for the betterment of not just ourselves but everyone that we are around in Jesus name. Amen.

Now we'll do the pledge. standy.

All right, that brings us to public comments. Uh, we welcome citizens to come up and do their comments. We only allow three minutes, so keep your We're not doing open comments yet. I apologize. We're going to do number one. It's the 2026 ATOG Telecommunicator of the Year standing here as this is my third time I'm doing that here in this city. My name is Enria Allen and I am the emergency communications director for the Arctex Council of Governments. Our team supports 14 public safety answering points across the region, managing the network infrastructure behind 911 and ensuring that every call is answered quickly through the technology that we provide. Today I have the honor of recognizing one of your professionals, one of our professionals. It takes a remarkable individual to navigate the unpredictability of a work shift filled with challenges, demonstrating immense patience and skill in managing high stress situations. This role requires exceptional attention to detail, quick decision making, courtesy, and a calm demeanor, especially during what could be the darkest moment in someone's life. The actions of these extraordinary professionals can truly be the difference between life and death. We proudly call them hidden heroes. The unwavering commitment of these hidden

heroes who serve as the essential link between law enforcement and emergency response teams cannot be overstated. 911 telecommunicators represent the calm voices behind every emergency call. They are the first responder in every crisis in the true unsung champions of emergency services. This year marks the ninth annual recognition by the Architect's Council of Governments of an outstanding 911 dispatcher from our region. I am thrilled to announce Miss Kiana Stewart is this year's recipient of the Atcog Public Safety Telecommunicator of the Year Award. Miss Stewart has been chosen from a competitive pool of over 100 dedicated telecommunicators. Her selection reflects her exceptional management of emergency calls, her invaluable contributions to the emergency communication center here in Mount Pleasant, and the steadfast commitment and dedication that she has always displayed. It is worth noting that her nomination came from the Mount Pleasant Police Department senior dispatchers, Eric Hall and Arturo Ramirez. And in their absence, is it okay if the council pleases that I read their nomination letters?

Yes, that's fine.

Okay. Thank you. This first letter is from Mr. Ramirez. Kiana has been with the department for over 10 years and in that time has shown an excellent ability to establish an excellent rapport with all of her co-workers as well as the other members of the department. Kiana has a genuine desire to help people. Come on up. She is a calm voice on the phone and does an excellent job of providing assistance or resources to people in their time of need. Kiana is always ready to assist where needed, never backing down from new challenges. Kiana is a valued member of the communications team here at Mount Pleasant Police Department. Kiana was one of the dispatchers on duty during a chaotic incident that occurred at the CC's Pisa restaurant where a vehicle crashed into the building. At the time of the incident, there was a large group of Chapel Hill School students on a field trip. Several of the students were injured in the incident and Kiana was a vital part of the communications team that assisted in coordinating the quick response of multiple agencies from the area. Kiana's ability to calm callers on the line is exceptional. Kiana is also someone I have depended on over the years to help cover shifts when others are unable unable to excuse me. Kiana has never had any issues in this regard. Her work ethic is excellent over the years. She has provided guidance and counsel to new dispatchers and has helped create what I feel is an amazing team of dispatchers. Since this is your third receip person winning this award, it attests to that. Over the years, I have reviewed much positive feedback from her co-workers regarding her performance. That was a letter from Mr. Ramirez. The next letter I I'll read is from senior dispatcher Eric Hall, who is also a

former telecommunicator of the year. On April the 10th, 2025, Mount Pleasant suffered a multi- casualty incident when a vehicle entered a local restaurant where several elementary students were enjoying a field trip. Telecommunicator Kiana Stewart received the first 911 call in the dispatch center that day. Within 14 seconds of receiving the call, Kiana dispatched units to the scene. Within 3 minutes 54 seconds, a PD officer had loaded an 11-year-old student into her patrol unit and was transporting her to the ER, saving the child's life. Luckily, there weren't any fatal casualties that day. Had it not been for Kiana's clear thinking and quick action that day, this most likely would have not been the outcome. This is just one example of the dedication and skill that Kiana brings to work every single day. Kiana has been employed with the Mount Pleasant Dispatch since 2014. And in that time, she has become one of the most respected dispatchers here. When she's working, most of the officers on shift make a point to stop by and speak to her at some point during her shift because of her infectious positive attitude. Kiana wouldn't be embarrassed to know that this attention is being brought upon her, but she deserves it. As a former telecommunicator of the year recipient, I have this to say about Kiana. She is one of the dispatchers that I look up to when I work with her. She challenges me to be a better dispatcher. It is my honor to nominate Kiana Stewart for the telecommunicator of the year award. We had several entries this year and after reading these statements, it was just a clear winner. We value every telecommunicator in our region and we understand the dedication that each brings to our job, their jobs. But Kiana was a sure standout. Kiana, we thank you and we thank you for your love for the job, the example you set for your peers,

and the support you provide to your community and other responders. We appreciate your dedication and your hard work and recognize your importance to the city of Mount Pleasant and to the Artex Council of Government's region. Congratulations. Thank you. Kiana, thank you for a job well done. That brings us to public comments. City Council welcomes citizens participation and comments at all council meetings. We like to keep it to three minutes. So, if someone has something to say, come on up. Oh, much better. Good evening, council, Mayor Pro Tim, city manager. Nice to see all of you. I just wanted to say I love it when we have a big crowd like this. And I wanted to recognize two gentlemen that did a big act of kindness today. Kevin Carter and Donald Litki. I'm going to mispronounce his name, but they both saw someone that needed a seat and immediately got up and gave it to them. So, um maybe when we know it's going to be a big council meeting, we could have some seats in reserve for the lobby. But I just wanted to recognize those two gentlemen in the back. Thank you.

Anyone else? My name is Greg Hart. I know on the docket there's an issue with Tankersly Lake and there about restriction of motorized boats on that. The only thing I would like to see restricted would be the wave making boats. Wave boats I guess is what they're called for skiers and the tuber crowd because they do cause problems. But as for the erosion issues, yeah, they come along and it's natural. We get it from the top down. It's not so much the lake at our place. You know, we all choose to live on that lake and it's part of your responsibility to take care of your shorelines. Now, they've been coming and going. Some are good, some are bad. But we're all property owners. We choose to live there. Any type of restriction is going to affect property values. And you folks that are whining about it, you remember that your your heirs down the road are going to pay the price if we move down this path. I just wanted to encourage all that as we move forward this there's a fair amount of us that we want no restrictions on that lake except for those wave boats. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Anyone else? Hello, my name is Larry Neil. I also own my wife and I also own property on Lake Tankers Lake. I agree with him that it is seems to be the the boats that are doing the skiing and the pulling and some of the pleasure boats, but some of the personal watercraft that are causing most of the waves that are causing the erosion. I'd like to point out that the lake and the lake shore is owned by the city. I do not own the land where the erosion is happening. I'm watching I've watched erosion get closer and closer to killing a couple of trees that I like that are on your property. And I have invested $8,800 in putting rocks down. But I've also noticed that uh I have 152 feet of shoreline and at $250 per per linear foot to put in a seaw wall would pro would cost around $38,000. And I can't justify making that level of investment in that I don't own. Thank you for your time.

Anyone else like to come up and speak? Okay, we'll close that. We come to consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are approved through a single council motion which applies to all items listed. Consent agenda items are considered routine, not likely to require discussion or deliberation. It may be discussed prior to making a motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member requests an item removed and considered separately. Council, do we like the agenda or do you want to have anything removed? All right. So, we need a motion.

I make a motion that we approve all the consent agenda items as presented. I second. We have a motion in a second. Candace, we report a vote. Yes. I I I

We had a unanimous vote. We'll close that item. Second agenda item, consider approval of the March 17th and March 23rd, 2026 meeting minutes. Council, if you had time, can I get a motion? We're starting on six now, right?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Sorry. Number six is a presentation of the 2025 racial profiling report. Police Chief Bumman will present this item. No vote needed.

Good evening. How are you all? Um so as required by state statute each year we pull in data from traffic citations that we traffic stops citations and warnings that we issue and we are generate a report as required under state statute and I'm required to also present it to you for your information. So we we submit to the state which we've done uh fulfilling our requirements. I'll provide a few details uh regarding this racial profiling report and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them. Um this is just for your information. One of the difficulties we have here in Mount Pleasant is obviously our demographic during the day changes quite a bit. So one of the things that I always keep in mind as I review this report um I think we found numbers in 2019 that found about 58% of our traffic stops resulted in non-resident people. So demographics is like I said difficult to track but I'll just hit a couple highlights uh for you and then like I said I'm happy to answer any questions. So in 2025 we conducted 7449 traffic stops. This was a 14% decrease to 2024 and during those traffic stops we issued warnings 65% of the time. Uh so the majority of the time were um warnings. We did issue issue citations about 27% of the time and we made arrests about 2% of those traffic stop. Um, as part of the racial profiling report, it tracks obviously by race but also gender. Um, one of the things it asks is prior to the stop, how often did the officer know the race of the person they were pulling over? And it's a field they have to check on each citation or warning they fill out. Um, in 94.4% of incidents, the officer did not know the race of the person they were stopping prior to the stop. Um 62% of

the men uh or 62% of the encounters were male drivers and 38% of those were female. Um I won't make any comments about my teenage boy drivers versus my teenage daughter. But uh anyway, um the most reason the most common reason traffic stop and about 66% of those stops was due to a moving violation. Um, and there's a few other reasons why we make traffic stops. Um, traffic stops resulting in citation um, demographically um, about 50% of the time for Hispanic uh, individuals was a citation issued and with black subjects about 21% and white subjects about 28% of the time citations were issued. Um, it also ask us about using force during those traffic stops. And in those 70 7449 traffic stops, force was used in less than 1% actually.19% of those traffic stops. Did we document using force? Uh it also asks us how often we search vehicles. Um but it breaks down when we search the vehicles, what was the reason? And one thing I like to point out, um only about eight and a half% of traffic stops did we search a vehicle. So less than 10% the majority of this the time it was a consent search. Um let's see the and sorry the m the majority of the time it was for probable cause in 65% of those traffic stops. Probable cause often is identified because the officer views an on view crime. Often that's by smell or what they see in the car leading to a probable cause search of the vehicle. Um and then Usually that's contraband in plain view and that uh can be defined by plain view

can also be defi defined by scent. Um consent was granted about 20% of those searches in the time the officer uh requested concern consent and it was granted. Um and so that's kind of a rundown. Um there's lots of statistics that are tracked. I believe they're in your packet. It's about uh seven pages long. If you have any questions, I'm happy to to answer. Um, when it when we talk about contraband, find finding contraband in the car, most of the time that is drugs, but we also track uh weapons, alcohol, stolen property, and other items. Um, and like I said, uh, written warnings were issued about 65% of the time. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. But that kind of summarizes our report. one category under uh reasons to stop just wasn't clear. Says pre-existing knowledge, what is what does that mean to the layman person? So that means usually we know who the driver was. We knew that they were committing a violation or that we knew they had a warrant. Uh for example, there are some people we deal with that we just know they driving without a license all the time. And so if an officer sees them, they may say they still don't have a license, so I'll pull them over. Um, usually though it's warrants. People were looking forward with warrants. Um, that would be something.

Thank you, Chief.

That closes item six to item seven. Presentation by Tatis County Appraisal District regarding unused 2025 budget funds. Shirley Vickerson will present this item.

Good evening. Good to see you all again. Um I am here tonight because we have finished our 2025 audit. And as y'all all know, if we have money left over at the end of the year that we didn't use, then we give that money back to the entities in the percentages that they paid into our budget. So, for 2025, we had a little over $148,000 left. Um, y'all paid 13.95% of our budget. So, I have a check for you for $20,7701. Any questions? All right. Thank you. That closes item seven. We'll go to item eight. Discussion on requests for property tax exemptions for certain child care providers. Rob Vine will present this item. Mayor Proan, members of council, a few months ago, Mr. Cota Finny, the executive director of Little Rascals Learning Centers here in Mount Pleasant contacted me and asked to be placed on a future agenda which tonight to discuss property tax possible property tax exemptions for child care facilities. Uh she also advised she spoke with other child care facility owners or and also the titis county appraisal district and tonight is that opportunity for her to share that with the with the council. So this uh just to for preface this is just forformational purposes only and I'll come back after the presentation from Miss Finny to ask if you'd like staff to to pursue this. Hi council. Um, as Rob said, my name is Dakota Finny. I own Little Rascals Learning Center here in town. Um, this is Wendy Ramirez. She's the owner of

Tutus and Buckaroos, also here. And Shelby Derek and Ashley on behalf of AA's Treehouse. Um, so we are just kind of requesting back in 2023 there was a Proposition 2 now passed as Senate Bill 1145 that followed up from COVID um which kind of really shook child care up quite a bit as everyone knows. Um there were a lot of stabilization funds. We were able to give our staff raises and different supports that were very important um to them to continue serving the community, children and families um and really support the workforce through those efforts. Um so in this Senate bill that was passed, it was a followup from CO funds to help continue to stabilize child care. Um it's a state level proposition that was passed and then has to be approved through an ordinance of the city um for the appraisal district to honor it. Um to qualify for the funds, a center must be licensed. They must be participating in the Texas Workforce Rising Star program, which is a quality accreditation program. All three of our centers participate in that. Um, just to kind of talk a little bit about what the childcare landscape is here in town, there are five private childcare facilities, one federally funded childcare facility, and four home centers. So, of all of these centers, only three really would end up qualifying. Um to do so, as I said, you must be participating in that quality rating program serving lowincome families. There's a minimum of 20% lowincome enrollment. Um currently across our three centers, there are 79 families participating in that program. Um these are families that fall in lower income guidelines, sometimes DPS, pace children, things like that. um that just really need that quality

care that we provide, the educational setting, and just consistency. Um so, we're requesting that the tax exemption be approved for that to put just a little bit more reinvestment back into just the community service that we provide. We are a small business, but at the end of the day, we're really serving the community in the same way that the ISB and the federally funded childcares do. Um we're doing all the exact same things. but we're paying into them and not receiving anything in return. Um, overall the cost to this would be around $3,600 for the three uh centers that would qualify. Um, we don't feel like that's exuberant for the amount that we poured back into the community. There were times when the city was not hosting events and that three of us banded together and made sure that the kids still had a trunk or treat. We still did Easter egg hunts. We, you know, um, and those were things that we pulled out of our pockets out of our funds. Um, families helped to donate to where they could, things of that sort. Um, but we really really serve the community and feel like this would be an advantage to reinvest into our staff and and into the families that we serve here.

I have a question on the the screen that was just up. That's yes that's the way that the exemption can be approved anywhere from 50 to 100%. Correct question. Yes. So um you were saying right now excuse me three qualify. Yes, but there were quite a few that you mentioned that were at home and things like that. Who would be where would it go? Who would be the one that

people that maybe wanted to make application? Would they come to you? they come to. So the childcare services commission qualifies those families. So that's a state level program. Um each local workforce board area um houses and runs that. So the Northeast Texas Workforce Solutions are the ones that those families apply through to qualify for those grant programs. Rob, you said we're going to have some discussion with employees.

Well, with this just being a presentation only agenda item, uh if this and the purpose of bringing uh Dakota and and other staff, sorry, I didn't know they were going to be here as well. Otherwise, I would have mentioned their name, but the purpose of bringing them here was to let the entire council hear the topic tonight. Um should the council wish to pursue this matter further, you could direct staff at this point to not only get with Dakota and staff, but then also the appraisal to bring this information back at a later council meeting for your consideration. Me personally, I feel like the child care is very important and it's it's really hard for for families sometimes. I would love to get your guys to look into this and see what we can do. Council, what do you think?

I second that. I'd like to have make it an agenda item. I'm not against discussing it. I'd like to understand how it's implemented. Uh, obviously y'all supply service to the community. Um, how is this being enforced? You know, prevent gaming. You know, everyone had you got 20 daycarees. all of a sudden everyone's collecting money. So, um, just great proposition. Definitely get it, but I think we just a little more discussion, but I'm happy to move forward just to understand. And I have a question. Who who determines your qualification for this?

So, that exemption would be filed at the appraisal district. Um, so through that partnership with TWWC, we would request on our behalf for them to send a report over to the appraisal district verifying how many low-income families were being served. Um, so as I said, it's a requirement that you're participating in the TWWC low-inccome program. That within accepting those children, you're also quality rated. So, um, in order to achieve that quality rating, centers must have been in business for at least 12 months before they can, um, be assessed for that program. Um, as well as of the enrollment and student body that you're serving there at your center that at least 20% of them are low-income families and then those savings would be returned in training staff and you know facility upgrades and improvements for safety and quality and those sorts of things.

Once you're approved, do you get re-evaluated? So, for the Texas Rising Star program, it's um each program year is a it's a three-year contract that you participate in that and there's an initial certification period and then going forward there are annual evaluations to stay on the program as well and then a full reertification every three years. Just curious, do you know how many um other towns are taking advantage of this or is it pretty widely used in Texas?

So, it's been a little bit of a hurdle because um a lot are owners are small business owners and a lot of them came from a home center and got a little bit bigger and so it's you know as far as the business knowledge it's hard for them to advocate um it is has been implemented in Austin I believe in Tarant County as well Dallas I think has an ordinance for it and so it is being passed at different levels in different counties across the state

if I could ask Miss Shirley Dickerson to come up and add some information to this particular Thank you. Okay. Um so as she said, this is a fairly new um exemption that came in 2023. Um and Franklin County actually the county on the county level has adopted it. Um they do she went over all the qualifi qualifications for them. Those are the basic qualifications. You as an entity if you are going to adopt this you would have to also adopt how you want that 20% calculation to be proven. what what kind of reports you want them to send to you to make sure that they um still qualify for it and is that something that you would want the appraisal district to request every year to make sure that they still qualify. Um I'm assuming that I don't know how much y'all's attendance are fluctuate or any of that kind of stuff. So I don't know if it would be 20% one month and then one month it might be 10% of them. So you would kind of have to decide what you want the threshold to be. It does have to be 20%. It's very basic guideline. They do have to be part of the the rising star program which you went over that um you would also have to decide if you want to do you cannot do less than 50% of the value. So it can be anywhere from 50% all the way up to the 100%. So and her numbers were correct on the 3,000 it would be about $3,600 if you look at 2025 values. So the other thing that's very important it's on a timeline here. um they have to apply for this by April 30th. So you would have to adopt it before April 30th for them to be able to apply. Um so if it's something that you want to consider for 2026, it would have to be done pretty quickly. So that's all I have unless you have other questions.

Council, great questions. And Rob, I would like for you and the staff to get started on this, please. We will do. Thank you. Thank. Thank you, council. That closes that item.

We're going to item nine, discuss discussing regarding the request for Lake Tankerly to be a no lake. Rob Vine will present this item. Mayor Prom, members of council, again just very much like number eight, uh just different group, different topic. Mr. Cowan came to me a few months ago with some concerns regarding Lake Tankersley, uh specifically the erosion on the shoreline. After hearing his recommendations, I explained obviously, yes, the city owns the lake, but this would be a big decision whichever way uh we we chose to go and this is something that would need to go to the entire council. Uh after that he was able to he brought to me 23 signed letters from individuals identified as property lake owners uh asking the city to help protect the lake. So again at that point I reiterated we will bring this to the council. So this is a presentation only. There's no voting. Uh and then after the presentation I'll ask you very much like I did with the last topic. If you'd like staff to uh look into it you can have us you can direct Mr. to come up at this point.

I didn't ask you this before I got here, but do we have a do we have the ability with computer off a thumb drive I I hope not. I just want to make sure we're following policy. That was all.

And I understand. Yes. Uh it should be just a few video recordings. Um and I'm going to say this publicly because there's a lot of people in here that don't agree with me and I understand that. Um the video that I'm going to show is actual traffic on Lake Tankers Lake just to give you guys an idea of what goes on on a summer day out there. If somebody in this room if they're voted there or they I'm not throwing rocks. I'm just trying to demonstrate what we see on a day-to-day basis on on tankers. So council u my name is Colin Cowan. I live at 784 County Road 1123. Um I want to thank you all for the opportunity to to discuss this. I've been on Tankers Lee for over 13 years and I love the way um as I speak to you tonight. You'll see video there. And again, it's just a representation of the type of activity, the size of boats, the behavior that's going on on the lake. Um, we think of it as a sleepy little lake. We like to think of it that way, but that's not actually what has taken place over the past few years. Um, I'm not going to go into the same detail I went into last time. The last time I presented to you guys, it was November 5th of 2024. And that video is still up, and I would encourage you to go back and review it because it has a lot of scientific data in it and um information in it that I think is important when making this decision. Um I presented to you the council about the increase in usage of the wake of the wake of wake boats weight producing boats um the shorelines the damage to the dam and the spillway and the damage to private property and I also presented to you about TCQ's dam report that was dated in June of 2022. Um in this report the dam was listed in poor condition and was scheduled the inspections were to increase from a

5year to a two-year interval. Um because TCQ has identified it as being a problem dam and it is a high-risisk dam that needs repair. So this plays into city budget money all of those things. In the information that I presented last time in talking about boat and wake traffic I used wake boats as my bar. Okay. And in that re because there's more research about it but in that research a wake boat needs 20 to 30 foot to dissipate depth and 200 to,000 ft in width to dissipate the weight before it causes damage to the shoreline or your dam spillway. So, I'm not going to spend the entire evening going back through all that science. I would encourage you to watch it. In the packet that I just gave you, there are few on those maps, you will see very few areas that are over 1,000 ft and many areas that are under 600 ft. In that November meeting before that, I had also traveled around the lake and taken various depths across the lake. In the second that packet, you will see depth indicated on there. And that is about 25 yards offshore. That is not right on the shoreline. And as you can see by by its physical design and configuration, this lake is not equipped to handle wake producing crap. As you can see in the videos that I brought you tonight, y'all can just play it. It can just roll. There's no sound on it or anything. Um, as you can see in the videos I brought you tonight, there are a few examples of boats and jet skis who are doing everything they can to create big weights and big waves. And they're doing it not only on the shoreline of private property, but this is they go against the dam and the spillway and they do it at very close distances and they create a lot of of waves um due to the shallowess of this lake. Another issue that we have is when you disturb the sediment on the bottom, you

are creating potential environmental issues um for the fisheries, for wildlife in the lake and all that. Are we good? Okay. Um so protecting this leg, this dam, the spillway, and the property around it also means protecting swimmers, boers, kayakers who want access to water sports in and around the lake. Those that want to kayak, canoe, paddle board should have safe areas to enjoy those activities. Those that want speed, wakes, tubing, jet ski activity can travel six miles from Lake Hley boat ramp to Bob Sland. That's all it is is six miles. We're not asking to do away with boats. We're not asking to do away with or limit motors or length the boat or any of those things. All I'm asking is to reduce eliminate weight producing activity. That's the fairest way I can think of to help protect this lake and the shorelines around it. The idea is not mine originally. If you go back to 2020 when the annexation of the lake began, that city council and that city administration voiced um in October at a city council meeting that they had every intention of making this lake a wake because they knew that there were safety issues. It was shallow in many areas and they were worried about the liability for the city. So, this isn't something I came up with. This has been in the burner for a long time. So, from many sources, this lake actually did have a restriction on motorcycle at some point, and I've not been able to find it, and I've not been able to find when it was ever taken off the books, but at one point, supposedly that's true. Lakes around the country and in Texas are instituting weight protections and further setbacks from

shorelines, properties, and boers. This is not just a local issue. There are several factors to why this is occurring. Population is one, more people are producing or participating in water activities. And two, boats have changed. We don't have the boats, the old ski boats that we grew up with that made the glass or the water as smooth as glass. Those are gone. Everybody wants bigger waves, bigger action. In Texas, there are numerous lake restricted lakes. Many of them are multiple times the size of Lake Tankers Lake. White Rock Lake in Dallas is 1,00 to,200 acres and is limited to a 9 horsepower motor. The city of Bernie Lake, no motor, electric troll only. It's 100 acres, but it's 49 ft deep. Ladybird Johnson in Austin is a 5 horsepower motor, no gas powered, and it's 471 acres and 18 ft deep. Cypress Springs has a 200 foot rule setback from their weight or from their dam and their spillway. Why? Because they want to protect their dam and their spillway. For us locally to understand, there are codes on Bob Sandland that are bigger than Lake both in width and length and depth. So just this year, the Tarant Regional Water District implemented the 200 foot rule across all of their lakes except for marine foot lake. If you look in your packet, there's an article, newspaper article in there talking about the 200 foot setback. These lakes include Eagle Mountain Lake, Richland Chambers, Cedar Creek, and Bridgeport. So now it is illegal to create a wake within 200 foot of the shore, boatous, docks, spillways, dams, and other boats. Again, if you go back to the images of the map with the distances on there, if you deduct 200 feet from each side, the real usable portion of the lake is on page three.

That that shrunken lake in the middle of the outline, that's 200 foot setback all the way around the lake. And as you can see that there's portions that overlap if you're not going to get to it. So all of these considerations that that we've talked about weight protection or weight elimination, protecting the dam, protecting spillway, the possibility of further setbacks to protect the land around the lake. That's all well and good, but that's only if you're the an individual operator on the lake. If you put multiple boats out there, that 200 foot becomes 200 foot of each boat, each kayak, each jet, and that again further shrinks this lake down as far as usability. Why is this important? Now, I counted property owners around Lake Tank and I'm not going to tell you that I'm dead on because there's a lot of slivers in some of the codes that I don't know if they have lakefront or not. But I'm going to tell you there's roughly 106 property owners around somewhere in that ball. Out of those property owners, several of them are owned by the same individual, multiple properties, one individual, which takes that number down to approximately, let's say, 75 just per fair number. Okay. In just a few weeks or a few months, John Anderson is going to open his first wave of apartments, which technically on the lake on the shore of Lake Tankers. That initial wave is 211. So the property owners 70 and now we are literally going to have three times the number of inhabitants that have access to that lake and are open to that lake. And if we don't protect it, if just 10% of those owners decide they want a jet ski or a boat, just 10%, you're talking about 21 craft that are going to try to access this lake on a day in dayout basis. That number is the initial development. That number is going to grow to 700 doors by

the time that development is finished. So, we're talking about 70 people, 70 if we keep it at 10% wanting access to the lake. So, I'm here to ask you guys tonight to try Well, not to try. I'm here to ask you to put some rules and regulations into the lake, especially wake producing activities to try to protect not only shoreline property, but your dam and spillway, which we all know is a very major issue currently facing the city. We don't need to lose that dam or spillway, then none of us will live on the lake. So, um I realize I realize this has kind of gone viral because of some posts on Facebook. I realize that everybody has their own opinions. I think the thing I want to leave with everybody is good governance sometimes is difficult because not everybody gets their way. But the reality of good governance is protecting the majority the majority of people that are going to access that lake and be able to do it. without risk of run over. The majority of property owners that aren't going to get the city is not going to get beat up as far as their property goes. We have we're not infringing on anybody's rights. Okay? It's no different than when they go out here on Madison and they turn to go home, there's a speed. That's all we're doing is putting a speed on the lake in order to protect it for the long term. So, thank you for your time. I'll be happy to answer any questions and discuss anything with anybody wants to.

Well, you're right about one thing. It's not easy. Nothing is.

No, it's not. It's a complicated issue and I get it. And and and again, I have wrestled with this, y'all. I am a hunter. I'm a fisherman. I am a personal rights person. I I do not I do not want the government infringing upon anything that I do. And I know there are several people in here that agree with that. I just I have racked my brain on how do we protect this lake with the population increases that are coming with the exposure to this lake that has never been there. We can see I30 now from from the shore on the lake. This is a different environment than what it was 20 years ago. Boats are different than what they were. So my my impassion plea is let's find some common ground that we can do the most good and have a good are are you referring to the wake boats? That's a term I've heard today. They're they they're heavy. They do big waves so guys can jump

and flip and do all this stuff. That's that's the things you're after. Correct.

I'm I am asking for the weight that potential causing damage. The problem with boat, a true wake boat has a bladder water on sinks the boat and but the boats that we're seeing are designed even though they may not have a bladder. They're designed to go down and then an hour later come back. No, I'm not specifically saying

jet skis. Are they a problem? And again, if you watch the video, what they do is they do come back on. Even the people that have retaining walls already, there's a lot of those retaining walls, some of the older ones concrete, they've started to crumble. Some of the new ones are already starting to under It's a problem. Thank you, Colin.

So, Colin, I don't know, might be for you. And I'm looking over at John. So, um, we I received an email today from a resident and who had lived at the lake for a long time. And his memory was that back in the day that boats were at a 35 horsepower. And I don't know anything about boats. I've heard multiple times when people have discussed it and that that evidently was code. That's why I'm looking over John. Do we know?

I've never been able to find it and I've never been able to find anybody. I've had plenty of people tell me that I've just never been able to find it in writing and I've never been able to find it when it went away. So, I can't I can't tell you for sure that's but it it seems to be old history around here. I talked to a bunch of old people today and they all said that at one point they did think there were regulations out there. I don't think it ever got reported. I don't think that there was a even a dismissal of them. I think it did exist at one point. And as far as my point of view is no matter what I know it's going to be a problem. It is a problem evidently now, but we're here to do what's right for the lake. As long as we own it, I mean, we're going to have to look at this. So, I would just ask Rob to do whatever it takes to put something together for us to start doing something.

I also since we've got such a crowd here and I'm looking at faces. So, I'm I think some of the faces are related to tankers. I would like to hear from other people that could come up and I would like you know some of the faces I see here I recognize from when you spoke the last time as well. So I I would like to hear from some more people since you're here.

I got one last thing probably not necessarily for you but I I do I will say uh this was a hotter topic when I first ran for city council. Um, I think the initial city manager at the time, we were talking about some of the stuff you're talking about. We're talking about seaw walls and and all that. So, I mean, you know, we want to consider all that. I mean, I'd love to hear everyone talk tonight just to get everyone's opinion, but probably workshops or something if the council agrees. It's I mean we're going to have to carve this one a little slowly to make sure everyone's respected and and to your point we're being good stewards of the area.

And I would just add what I would anticipate and I would give my card to whoever is here tonight. Doesn't matter what side you're on. Uh if you're from Tankersley and you would like to be a part of the future discussions moving forward, staff will begin to look into this. But I think at at the very least staff and a few council members should have a town hall meeting to visit and we'll come out to the lake wherever wherever we need to go. But then we hear from everyone. We probably create a survey that way. It's documented. We have actually things metrics that we can look at. So uh I I agree with Councilman Haggman. This is not something that we'll come back on the 21st and snap our fingers and have a decision made. This is something that will be very slow in delivering. Do we have an updated quote on the repairs for the dam?

Aaron, our utilities director has that information coming.

So, I got a uh update uh a couple weeks ago. It's getting finalized and I was going to present it uh probably either next council or the time after that. Yes, ma'am. Come up. I'm just short. Okay. Hi, my name is Nicole Gadboy. Um, and I live at 373 County Road 11:30 on Tanker Lake. Um, thank you, Mayor council members and staff for the opportunity to speak. My name is Nicole Gadboys and my family and I are homeowners on Tankersley Lake. We chose to invest in our home specifically because of the ability to responsibly enjoy and access the lake by boat. For us and many others here, the lake is not just a view, but it's a way of life. Boating is a core part of how residents experience the lake. It supports our quality of life, contributes to property values, and fosters a strong sense of community. Restricting motorized boating would fundamentally change the character of the lake and directly impact both the enjoyment and value of surrounding homes. We absolutely understand and respect concerns about shoreline erosion. It's a valid issue. However, banning motors is a broad solution that affects everyone rather than addressing the root of the problem. Erosion is influenced by multiple factors including rainwater runoff, fluctuating water levels, and natural soil conditions. There are also practical solutions such as seaw walls, shoreline reinforcement that address the issue directly without restricting the entire community. I also understand that the dam may need repairs, but with as little boat traffic as we have, maintenance would still be necessary regardless, especially due to weather. Limiting boats is simply a

temporary fix that doesn't solve the underlying problem. um it will negatively impact both homeowners and the community. There has to be a more thoughtful long-term solution, one that includes a plan to fund necessary repairs. Many of us purchased our homes with the understanding that it was a motorized lake. Changing that now would be like moving next to an airport and then asking for flights to be restricted. It alters a known and expected use after the fact. Additionally, restricting motorized voting create unintended financial consequences for the city. Property values may decline and homeowners who relied on that access when purchasing could raise concerns about their investment. This is not just a lifestyle issue. It's also a financial and community impact. Our family left California after my husband completed his service in the Marine Corps, seeking the freedom and lifestyle that brought us to Texas. Now, with the risk of losing access to the lake we bought a home on, it feels like we're facing those same kinds of restrictions again. The phrase don't California my Texas reflects exactly what this change represents to us. Thank you for your time. Is this on? Okay. My name is Vernon Jackson. I live at 501 County Road 1035. I don't have a planned speech or anything like that. U I grew up on Lake Tankers. My family's been on Lake Tanker for over 70 years. My wife's family longer than me on the south side. When we moved at Lake Tankersley, we

were the third home on the whole west side of Lake Tankersley. When my parents passed away, they left the home to me. And I've been out there remodeling, rebuilding, and one of the main reasons was our dream of coming back to Mount Pleasant. We've been gone for 50 years. Coming back and making our forever home here. Uh, and that was with the understanding that we did not have restrictions on the slate. Uh, I have a pontoon boat. My kids come up during the 4th of July, which I'm a veteran, so it's a big day for us. We shoot fireworks out there. We have jet skis, we have boats, whatever. Uh, one time out of the year. That said, I'm in my yard every day. I do not see these boats that I've been hearing about. I see fishermen come in and out two or three times a day and having a great time enjoying it with their children, their young boys or girls. Uh there's jet skis, there's families out there that have jet skis and they're enjoying their time on the lake. taking that away from homeowners after all this time is just I'm I'm in 100% opposition to it. Um quite frankly, I was the gentleman brought this uh document to my home for me to sign. I told him in good conscience I couldn't sign something that would interfere with everyone's rights on this lake for whatever reason they moved here. I have my own. I grew up here. Lake Tank has been this Mount Pleasant's been my home and is my home and my wife's home and we we are just uh completely opposed to any restrictions on the lake. That said, from what I can gather and the way this was presented to me, I'm not the kind of person likes to

put the cart before the horse. We're talking about speculation of what could come. That said, I I just think it's way too early to be talking about restrictions on a lake when we have no idea what that may be presented six months or year down the road. I'm I'm like most people, if it got to the point where it was unsafe to the the homeowners or voters or whatever, then I would think that it would probably need to be readressed at that time. But right now, I just think it's way way too soon. So, I appreciate your time. Thank you. I'll make it quick because there's a lot of people where probably I want to talk, but Mike Peterson, I'm down 1125 County Road. Uh just opposite of it. I uh I agree with what's been said here that you just can't take their eyes away from people like this. There are other options than a knee-jerk reaction just to make it completely wake. I agree. Let's protect the dam make a wakeless zone by the dam but part of living on the lake. I have a seaw wall that is eroding but I have the expectation of living on a lake. I know it comes with it a problem. So I just think that it's a knee-jerk reaction to make it completely wakeless. There's other solutions. So I just take that in consideration.

I'm a newbie. My name is Joe Roland. We moved here from Nashville, Tennessee to retire in this fine city. I had a business in Waco, Texas. Sold it, bought it in Nashville. Sold it, and we came here to retire. We've got 15 grandkids and including greats. We have a good time on the lake all the time during the summer only. usually in July, maybe in June, and we take a mini vacation elsewhere, but we don't tear the lake up. I've watched, and I'm very familiar with erosion. Very familiar. I watched after this drought session we kind of went through and then all of a sudden we get three and a quarter inches of rain. Where did all that go? Along with the dirt, there's a lot of erosion that happens naturally. Period. We can't control mother nature. But if you are living on the lake and you don't have a seaw wall or if you haven't made any provisions to prevent erosion, I'm, you know, you're kind of asking for it. You need to make preparations for yourself, not for everybody else. I thank you for your time. While while he's coming up here, I will I will just let everyone know I will leave my cards up here. My email is on there. Please pick that up. Thank you.

I'm John Roach. I believe um 3657 FM 1734 at the end of the lake, opposite end of the boat lot. Um there's not that many boats on that lake. The only thing I'm I want to say is the city does a real good job maintaining the boat launch, but they don't maintain anything else. You got a big growth where I live that needs to be looked at. If we're going to put all these rule and regulations, the city needs to do some maintaining. I had to mow five acres of the city's property. Had to buy a tractor to do that. So, if we have rules and regulation, city needs to do some maintaining. Also, um I looked for a boat for two years and you cannot find a boat motor less than 50 horse. They don't make 25 horse motors anymore. Thank you. Come on up. So, I'm new to the lake. I'm a resident of the lake. Um, and I really feel like you guys are not taking this lightly. It doesn't sound like you're ready to jump in and and make a regulation, which I really appreciate. Um, that's kind of important. Um the only thing I would ask is uh if you do decide to make a statute regulation or code or whatever you want to do um leave a lot of discretion the officers enforcing

that's really important. Um we trust them let's trust them. Um if they see somebody being stupid let them enforce it. if they see somebody out there being respectful with a boat that's got a really big engine on it or a boat that, you know, everybody's like, "Ah, it's really not made for this lake. It's made for a bigger bigger lake." Really, like how they're using it is what's important. So please leave the ver the verbiage the language of that statute so that uh the officers enforcing it can use their discretion appropriately. That's all I got.

Sir, what was your name?

One more time. Thank you. really wasn't going to say anything. My name is Josh Herren. I live at 287 County Road 1040. I have uh my family has been on Lake Anchorage Lee since 1992. I personally bought a piece of property in 2013 and have been living on the lakeside. Uh my first concern is obviously the future of Lake Tankersley. I am a jet ski owner. I have children. I take them out on the lake. But at the same time, I know I am a responsible rider. There are many out there who are not responsible. Um can't tell you what to do with that. I don't know. Uh I will say in the last two years there has been an increase in traffic on Lake Tank. I used to be able to go out there and I I pro I know everybody says I live on the they live on the lake. I promise you I've been on that lake in the last 10 years more than uh traffic has increased in there. We do need to do something with that spillway if it is in the shape that it is in. I don't know what the answer is, but there does there does need to be something done if the quality of the spillway is going to fail and create more havoc with the lake. If there's not a lake there, we don't have anything. So, first first thing need be.

Anybody else want to come speak? I'm Kristen Davenport, born and raised Mount Pleasant. I am not a resident of the lake. Um, but I have family that live out there. And a couple of things that kind of come to mind as I'm listening to people is, um, you know, there's got to be a solution somewhere in there, a compromise. And one of the things that came to mind as a former educator is grants. We always look for grants. So, um, easy to search back there and start looking what kind of grants could there be for dam repair, erosion repair. It looks like they're probably out there. So, um, could be a compromise for for that. Um, the other thing I was going to say is I know White Rock Lake was brought as an example. It's not developed though. There aren't where there weren't already existing homes where people bought thinking they had that lifestyle and and then it be taken away. So, that's something to consider as well. kind of looking at how do you balance that? Um, and then I'll just put it out there because most people and here a lot of you may know me. I am a realtor. So, I am hearing when they talk about property values. I see what people come to for water. Seriously. I mean, even on properties that aren't lakefront, they want water on their property. So, I do think that that would, you know, severely impact as you're considering moving forward. And I know you plan to have workshops. So, those are just kind of some of the thoughts I had in my mind, but thank you for your time. Great discussion tonight. I wish folks would come more often on other items and have this kind of discussion. So, good job. Anybody else want to speak before we close this item?

Okay, about wraps it up. Rob, we got some work to do.

And I will say that uh keep keep your eye out on our Facebook page and our website for dates that will be coming up. We we are coming up on the budget so this will not be on the front burner and again we are not going to be in a big hurry but future dates when we have opportunities to uh to come visit and talk. I will add that I used to fish Lake Tankley an awful lot. Taught my wife how to worm fish out there. In fact, she caught a 5B bass off of I believe your property. Very very very much uh love Lake Tankers and we want to take care of it. And the reason we brought this topic here tonight not to be skewed on any side was just to to breach the topic, approach the topic um and talk about it and then we'll go on to the next step and gather all the information, bring that back to the council and then let them make the decision. So, I appreciate everyone coming out. Thank you. We'll close out item nine. We'll go to 10 presentation on mosquito control program. Uh, public works director Garrett Houston will present this item.

All right. Good evening, council. Mayor Pro Tim, city manager fine. Uh, tonight I'm going to give a brief presentation of Mount Pleasant control program and uh, open that up to discussion. It's been a popular subject. Sometimes people uh, say they don't know a lot about it. So, let me give you some information. Uh so an overview mosquitoes are more than just a nuisance. Uh they can transmit diseases like West Nile virus, Zika virus and malaria. A comprehensive mosquito control program aims to reduce the populations and minimize the risk of disease transmission. You can see there uh that very similar truck what we use here in Mount Pleasant ulv picture what we operate here. And I just mentioned that already, but uh the city of Mount Pleasant operates the pro program using a Clark Cougar UV sprayer. Uh we use a uh UV readym mixed uh hot droid that uh is a 4x4 side. Um so that's what's going to attack uh not attack, but it's going to affect the flying mosquitoes. So what we're targeting mosquito program is your flying mosquito. Uh it's not going to get your day biters, so they're a whole different uh breed of mosquito. Uh there's other options like larvicides. Uh those are going to be your dunk. You may have seen the dunk boots. Uh you throw them in standing water. Those are what is going to attack those day biters thatffect that. Uh kind of went through the equipment uh operations. We operate through May through October. Those are the uh months where the temperatures are appropriate for the most effective mosquito control program.

You'll see some come out when we have warm days like this. That's we have a little rain and we get 80 degrees and up and there starts to be some population, but we calibrate our machine at a certain time of year, which is usually in April. So, we start in May. Those operations are from 12:00 a.m. midnight till about 6:00 a.m. in the morning. So, you don't see anybody out operating unless you're out in the mid hours of the night. Uh you will not uh so budgetary impact city has a $2 fee uh that's attached to the water bill for resident. This covers all the the uh covers our larides the vehicle lease payment. It covers the salary. It covers the equipment upkeep u annual equipment calibrations and and keeping up with all the CU training licensing that's required for us here at the city of Mount Pleasant. Another thing to keep in mind here is we have a very robust program. So probably until you get down near the Houston area, we probably have the strongest program. So cities don't spray as much as we do uh anymore. They've kind of gotten away with it because of the expense. So that's something that the council would like to discuss. Uh that is one of the things that a lot of people are not doing as much as we do anymore. So we do have one of the more robust programs probably the top and we also have the most licensed applicators that I think of. We have six of them at any given time. So everyone who was spraying is a licensed applicator with the Texas Department and we keep a log book of every single

event and every time we spray. So we keep log of the temperature, weather, conditions. It's it's every single step. uh estimated budget effect of 50 to $75,000 a year is what you can look at what the program cost that consideration want to look at reducing the uh the program or that would be a savo program uh as you can see May through October 12 a.m. 5 a.m. We put the town in two and we spray uh east side of Jefferson on Thursday, west side of Jefferson Friday night morning having look at it. They work two days a week every day every week during the summer which unless there's inclement weather that would be uh too much rain or any wind that's above 10 mile.

It starts in May. Yeah. May first. Okay, we've gone through two PSA slides. Just those folks that leave their pets outside at night and stuff like that, what we're spraying, any any caution there for folks or no big deal, leave them out? Yeah. No, there it doesn't affect the humans. Just want to make sure folks know. Yeah, it's not a restricted uh it's not a restricted test,

which I do have that information if anybody wants uh to reach out to the city. We we keep the uh labels and everything on everything we use. So that that information is available reach me or reach out to the city and we'll get you that information. Uh and if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. Garrett, you mentioned two kinds of mosquitoes, I think. The day biters and the flyers.

So we target all all mosquitoes. Is that true? So we target um so when you have standing water and things like that you have to go out and physically u treat that area with dunk booth or we use a product called natural uh natural something I should know exactly but but we do do that process. We do we do that when called. So those those are treated when we're aware of the situation. Thank you.

Yeah. So if you have that situation reach out. I keep that stuff in stock. Uh that would be your daytime kind of mosquitoes, your nighttime mosquitoes. They're going to be flying and that's what we're that's what we're going after u in the evenings. Hey, you mentioned um that we have a very robust more than others other cities. Why? I'm just curious.

It's the cost. So So 250 gallons of of readym made mix is about $8,000. So we'll go through probably 750 gallons max in the summer. So that adds up quick. So some cities have gone away just on expense. Uh a lot of people can't get license applicators. They can't get the test pass. They can't keep them employed. Sometimes get those jump. So that's probably one of the big things. Everyone has mosquitoes, but a lot of cities and even more bigger cities have dropped it. last time I talked with my reps.

Well, I'm glad to see we have a good program. Thank you, Garrett. Yes, sir. And I'm I'm available anytime. Call up to city hall and they'll get you my information. We can talk mosquitoes. Thank you, Garrett. And the reason I'd ask Garrett to come present this is there has been some question over one, what do we do? Two, how often do we do it? Why do we do it? how do we do it? So, I think you will see council, you will see more kind of moments like this when staff comes up and explains again transparency and accountability. Here's what we're doing. Here's why we're doing it. Here's here's how effective it is. Here's how much it's cost. But it is a service for the uh for the citizens. So, we want to want to highlight that. Thank you and your group.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Have a good evening.

All right. We'll close that item out. On to item 11, presentation and discussion of the compensation study presented by engaged solution group. Shane Howard will present a workshop format. So, um, I can get this condensed a bit, but what tonight is going to be about, first we're going to look at, we talked about last time the restructuring of the actual plan, some of the challenges with the plan. Then we're going to go and look at what does that restructuring do? How does that affect your current grade structure? And then number two, we're going to go into very deep detail on fire department and on police department. Those were some of the higher urgency things. a little bit easier to get the final matches done with the market. Um, and talk about the restructuring there as well as market impacts. And then finally, what does that impact look like financially overall and what we're and what your worst case scenario on the remaining on the civilian grades might be and what that kind of budget impact might look like. So, what we're going to look at first is the civilian compensation restructure. If you remember, The problem that we had is that adjacent grades when you go from one lower grade to the next, 80% of that was overlapping into the next grade. And what that caused to do is to place somebody that might have some tenure in a lower grade when they got promoted, they would necessarily have to already

be halfway or further through the only 10 steps that you have. And so as a result, you had close to 40% of your civilian employees are at or near the ceiling. The average only has three less than three steps remaining before they are maxed out. And also there's just no meaningful impact on promotion. And as we discussed, regardless of whether pay is just right, too high, too low, whatever it is, we could throw hundreds of millions of dollars at it. And the fundamental problem that still remains. The architecture of it doesn't work. It doesn't work for promotion and it crowds everybody ultimately to the top too much with where they are right now. also needed to restart. 33 of our 85 civilian employees at nearing today um with a change um and we've got 2.9 to six average steps remaining 2.9 steps remaining and your current where we're going to go to will give you about six. So, it's going to buy you that head space. Um, it's going to move everybody back in their steps and buy head space for them to continue to grow without forcing you into maxing everybody out. So, what we propose and this is what we have discussed about going to job families and classes within those pay ranges within those. And you've got two major families here. You have an office family and you have a trades family. Administrative support paraprofessional and program management and then professional level. What you some of these are fairly intuitive here. Your professional this is typically typically going to be your licensed professional. It's going to be your higher your upper

management you know non non-EP department director. Department directors remain in kind of their own their own separate world. Pair of professionals are that in between your clerical and On the trade side, we have service and maintenance, skilled craftsman, and then tech um technician. And that's typically for your license folks. This is performing and supervisors. And then this is kind of our apprentice, you know, coming up. So right now we've got an 80 almost 80% overlap from one grade to the next. grade E for ENF, for example, which are your telecommunicators and telecommunication um supervisors, as well as um one or two other um job positions. Grade E goes from 42 to 55,000 whereas grade F only goes from 44 to 57. There's no meaningful difference. And what ends up happening is if you've got somebody with some tenure, they land pretty far down the road already and then they max out very very quickly even as a supervisor under under the proposed structure that same um what you might have here is where you've got a controlled overlap. So in SM1 which is a service maintenance you might have 376 to 52 whereas the next level 46 to 65. So you don't get the same type of overlap. It's only a 30% overlap. So we go we would go from 80% overlap to less than 30%. You would be looking at going from just 2.9 steps remaining for the average employee before maxing out

and your nearest employees go down to zero. Okay. administrative support. This is the ad. There's 12 employees. Everything is based off of 10 steps. Looked at a million different ways to do this. We talked about this last time. You can do some hybrid and there is hybrid in this. But there's got to be predictable pathways for your lower level employees that some things are just the way they are. And so this is just what's being suggested. You you'll get these slides and then we're going to be talking again. But what we did here um this level should not have level one through level 10. These are the steps. So the 81 has grades A B C D E F and G are captured within the proposed new step plan. So grade A right now goes 347 to 45 all the way up to grade B which is 46 to 60. All of these get captured either 81 or 82 for the paraprofessional similar situation. You got some grade D and some E some grade people that more in the par professional side but they get captured within one of these grades as well. G H I N L and then professional and then service maintenance ski. What that does right now just for the employees that would be affected by this, you've got currently 4.6 million in payroll with this. This is before

market There would be about 92,000 call it 93,000 in net adjustments for people to go to the new restructure. Some of this is driven by what we call green turf which is employees that are already under the new under a new structure would be below the minimum of the step that they should be at because we're not just looking at we've got to look at them relative to each other because that matters. And so that's what the civilian impact budget would be the police and that is a one time cost from there it goes what we've got between steps is 3.75% each year and what I'm going to suggest to you if the if a restructure is attractive to you one of the things that y'all have said it's been painful is not only having step but having pole stack on top of it Okay. And I've already talked with with man with the city manager and with with um other senior leadership, but we're going to suggest a policy that says you're not going to have the city manager coming to you asking for COLA increases unless the CPI and it will be defined what that's going to be exceeds 4.1 to 4.5% something like that. So you're not going to have worry about that. Your employees get something that matches inflation and a little bit of performance, but is fixed and is enough to take take care of where we've been with inflation, but you're not going to have to risk because you're going to potentially adopt it in policy. Having city management coming to you saying we need to add cola on top of this and it's like, well, why? Well, because you know, we've got people that

are maxed out, etc., We're fixing the max out problem and going to suggest a a cola thresh or an inflation threshold at which you don't even contemplate unless you want to overrule yourself but where staff is not coming to you asking to exceed what's already built into a question. Originally when the step program was initiated, I believe it was 2.5 years ago when it was first thought about and then it went to 3.0. You're saying now you're going to set it at a 3.75.

That would be my suggestion. So inflation over the last 10 years, if you look at the last 10 years, the average has been around 4%. Prior to CO, we were looking at 2% inflation. COVID and beyond it's been for the first couple of for 2020 through 2023 it was in the sevens. You know the seven sometimes push an eight and you can look at a couple of different measures as well but since then it's dropped back down u to around 4% on average. So this or actually a little right in the mid3 I'm sorry but that average the average since co has been poor but It's been coming down the last and so we should be out of that inflation spike. And if you ever experience a spike again, that's an emergency and you can actually already have a policy in place. But this puts you in a position to make sure that inflation is being taken care of because it wasn't and the 3% wasn't enough to take care of it. So you would having to take these col as well which is extremely painful on top of step. So we want to make sure that there is a true inflation emergency that triggers city management coming to you and asking for a full increase and that it's a measurable thing that we all have visibility to that we see it coming that it's not guesswork that it's not based on just billings and everything else. But at the same time, you want to take care of your needs. And so trying to find that happy balance when you've got some about budget and that you're not going to get pushed into taking really hard to do so. But at the same time, your employees get some peace of

mind that they're going to at least be able to beat inflation because inflation beat up everybody, you know, from 2020. Does that answer your question? Okay. So, in summary, what we're trying to do with the restructure, it's solve the overlap and solve the crowding. Okay? When you go from one grade to a higher grade when you get promoted, you ought to be able to fill it. And number two, you shouldn't land so far deep into the range of the next one already that you run out of space. We're trying to create space and create incentive for for promotion to actually not only feel good but also people that are in supervisory positions or in higher position actually feel the effect of you know being in a relatively you've got to have some incentive there because this is not just a this isn't as much a recruiting thing as it is a retention and a morale thing and that is vitally important so much I feel like that will take care of you. Any questions on this? Okay, going to go into very deep detail on fire and police. So, we're going to start with fire.

First thing we tried to do was look at your structure just like we did with the civilian plan. Currently it's got four gra and we look at equity in the market% um not asking you to make any decisions on anything. This is this is a factbased here is what I found based on data and context and we've talked about this before not just what does the data say on its own what is the context so cost of living what is the context you know so fire has particular interesting things in that for example cost of living from a competitive standpoint isn't going to be as impactful as it because the firefighters don't necessarily have to live where they work. So we have to take that into account. So what was our challenge with current fire plan? So for the purposes of conversation today, I've combined firefighter one and two which was um grade A and firefighter 3 which was BB. If you recall in your current step plan there's truncated number of steps. like six and four for BB. It's really just a continuation of tenure. And so I combined them for purposes of analysis, especially within the market. Currently there's 10 steps 29% minimum minimum

your driver engine operator 9.3% about 12.6% to notice. So you've got people You've got only.9% no meaningful financial incentive. somebody that wants to advance people and their attitude of service. They want to advance but then other people that's going to happen but you don't want that And then finally, we got suggested every

so whether it's a full recommendation I can make it sharing with you in every single grade 3.75% incremental step. So you would go from a promotional % and it could be more than that if you place them in a different driver. space to provide people not just develop themselves only. Quick question and this may be premature and you may need to run through both but based on these recommendations historically right when people have heated that uh I'm really looking at attrition rate because of the comment you made earlier right cities that have taken your recommendations you know what's the typical attrition rate baseline on average

it depends on where you go I don't know well I know but you brought it up so I'm just you raised a question right so I'm just curious ious if we made these changes. Obviously, everyone's an individual and they're going to make the choice that's best for them and not trying to lock into a loaded answer. Yeah. But at the same time, you know, for this typical size of community on average, what's a typical attrition rate, you know, if we try to fix that? I don't know. On the attrition side, what I do know or retention, would you lose the what you lose in people? And and I've not looked at retention. That's fair.

Yeah. What I do know is that it is a fierce market. In particular, on the public safety side, it is fierce. And some of these suburbs in BFW are just they're it's crazy some of the things they're doing. You can't compete headtohead with that. You you just don't have the tax base or anything else. And we're not trying to. The first goal is to create a structure that doesn't eat itself up. That's the first Then we start to look at the competitive aspects. And the competitive aspect kind of comes into play with structure. And that well, if I if I go this far at this grade and I'm going to go and put in the work to move to the next level, what am I getting in return for that regardless of what the rest of the market says? You know,

I understand all. Yeah. You don't have to rego through it. I get it all. I just you made a point and and I'm really asking for the rest of the council and folks right if we make this decision whatever it is how do we measure success outside of people leaving or not leaving it it's going to be of people or not I think you'd have to you'd have to look at what have you lost in the past and are we stopping the bleeding and it's where are you losing there's a recruiting side but then are we losing mid-career professional just as they develop into level and that's when they get

and I know that number here. If I asked either chief, they would tell me. And so that's I was kind of hoping you would have a a rounder number that that had a larger sample size. Unfortunately, I don't. I do know that similar situated communities like you like yours. Paris is one. Um really most of y'all um that are on the lower end are being savaged by what's going on. I just don't have enough. No, that that's fair and I appreciate that. No, absolutely. It's a great great question. I just don't have to. But but it is Fierce is putting it lightly. It's mercenary to a point. I know everyone's got their eye on Texas and it's it's it's it's sprawling the waters as a whole. So, I understand that. That's kind of why I'm asking

those DFW suburbs. Um I mean, they're beating each other to death as well. It's hilarious. I mean not hilarious but to watch it from afar but it's really having a negative impact on the rural urban community sector you ought to see on the EMS side. Fortunately y'all don't have that issue to deal with the city that is a brutal environment. Um okay cost of living looked at 11 other communities. Okay. And there's additional data that I can get, but I already know some of the preliminaries and they fall within this. And it is 11 or direct competitors. 48 people the opportunity for the affordability. What you're going to see when I apply that dollar to dollar comparison not only is there the standard what we get from um from the American community

But there's housing both on rent basis and on home ownership basis index for that as well. And all of these are blended in order to seeing $150,000 of block is about the same as this. So when we look at why are we comparing it for at least But we're on the same page. Okay. When we look the market. going for dollar for dollars including housed that housing is what drives I'm about to count for the difference right now.

Under your current test market as far as half the people are lower. Half the people are higher than 75. Obviously, right in the middle So 66

It's a market. Not happy. that Here it is. with the restructure. It would cost

about $4,000 to make this year 2.2 Fix the structure. Shane, could I interrupt just for a second? Would you mind going back one to that last screen, please? Thank you. Yes, sir. And just to reiterate, this is just the fire department and I'm only picking that department because that happens to be the slide that's up. But as Shane pointed out, we have the ability or option to let's say we have we're current. We that's option one. We do nothing. We continue to do what we are what we're doing. Uh, I think we all agree that that needs to be fixed and that's not possibly the best option for us. We could move to the new structure and then our goal could be and I think I've asked everyone up here what we're creating this compensation study. What

is our goal? Is it to be the highest paid in Northeast Texas be the second highest? Is it to be do we want to be in the middle? Do we want to be known as mediocre? Uh, do we want to be second from the bottom? As a council, you decide what that is. That sets the goal. We don't have to do this. And I would urge us not to think that we have to do this in one year. That's impossible. We need restructure alone would help tremendously.

It puts you in the same position where you got to decide what you want to do. But there a lot of people would get a little but it fixes a structure at the very least. And then you can All right, we're going to strive to get to X percentile within the market within three years or four years. You've got choices. I've just there's only so many different ways to model things, right? Or well, there's a ton of ways, but at some point, I've got to bring you something that you can actually begin to sink your teeth into and see a range and begin to play with some choices in between, if that makes sense.

Thank you, Shane. Just wanted to point that out. There there are options. We our goal is not to do this in one year. I got to follow up on that though. I mean how good is this plan? Save interest rates go to 50%. You know, you know what I mean? Like just being dramatic. Yeah.

So if we if we take a stepped approach is and I'm not saying we shouldn't because obviously we can't just pull the trigger and throw the grenade, but um it's also right. you know, we just need to think about how we do that because at some point it's going to be this conversation and another study and why do we do the first one? You know, I that I think Debbie's probably thinking that a little bit, but I don't put words in her mouth, but um that's where setting some policy on cola adjustments would be very advisable. It would also be advisable and and I can put these recommendations together, but before that happens, we got to kind of see where y'all want to go with this. How far within a given step can an employee move when they make when they get promoted? So to give managers some flexibility, but it's like you have to promote to the next if they go to a grade, it's the step that is closest to their current pay. and within 5% more of whatever you set at the policy. So, you've got some limits. And then for for directors, you give the city manager some latitude on how far he or she can go with negotiating salary, but you put some limits in place. It's the the stacking of collet in step that's been very very unpredictability of where people place that has also been challenging as well. Um you've promoted a lot from within as well. So, you know, frankly, there's some it it can it can be hard for people to envision an employee in one position that when they they make a jump to a higher level, especially if they become a a department director, we see the big

jump in pay that they got, but we still see them in that whole role. And it's like, well, they should be good to go for. That's not how that works. It's just not how that works. And we have to separate and almost pretend that we don't know some of these folks. I mean, that's the challenge, right? You know who you know. You've got the relationships you do, but at the same time, that can buy us thinking one direction or the other. So, you have to look at what is the job worth relative to what the city cares about? What is the job worth relative to other jobs within the city? And then what is it worth within the marketplace? And that's not It's just not easy at all. So, you kind of have to find a place to land that makes sense, that's got some sustainability. You've got questions. I can tell. I don't care who you are or where you are. There there is when you take someone from the position who is not trained for what they have and you give that huge salary that's going to be a red flag every time. Not that you're not going to learn and that you're going to earn, but when you go from a one salary with a 30 or $40,000 jump, we're going to notice it and we're going to ask the same questions. You know, are they're qualified? Were they qualified when they get it? You know, so so don't don't don't

don't don't act like it's light to be concerned about that or to try to put them in their past position. Yeah. Because I don't think that's where any of us have ever had question.

I think and and that goes fundamentally to so the position is worth something. And that's what I'm getting at. The position itself, the role has to be worth what it is then when we start to look at placing people into those positions absolutely what are the qualifications do they meet that etc etc but that's a whole separate conversation and so that's why that's why I'm saying that sometimes we have to separate what we know because we're we're envisioning the person that we know individual rather than the position and isolation that can be diff And councilwoman, I would say that that that particular issue that you're discussing right now is not a compensation set or scale issue. It's a management issue.

Right. So that's where we're I would be Yes. I would be asking for policy moving forward that things like that there's some flexibility, but there's more structure and rigidity that says you cannot do. So we're asking for that to be implemented as well. It has been the wild wild west right where it's not just the fact that it's 30,000 they might be placed in a step that so those are two separate questions all I'm getting at the compensation for the role is what I'm focused on and encouraging y'all

and and if I've got an engineering position and I've got an engineer in there then I understand the salary and the compensation if I have a council person that just wants a job and you put them in as an engineer. I have a real problem with that. So, right.

And that's not a problem with the compensation plan. That's a problem lot of other and I'm aware that there's legacy issues that you're all working through. This I think will help with something just the restructuring you space and It makes position relatively distinctly different. Okay. Um on the police side, we had 30% spread on PD1 just like your regular 10 minimum of 567. police charge with 12%. But over a shorter period of time was actually inverted. What we mean by that is that the lieutenant was substantially minimum. We've got the nature of step program. A lot of this is just simply because chief and trying to solve a problem. Nobody did anything.

How do I make how do I make what we about 39% for And then we're setting goot about 3.8 3.5% effectively about 87% right now under restruct once Glad to have you men and just current go 563 would take it from 56 to 78th percentile right in the middle of the marketing police officer said 566

Your sergeants right now go from 76 to 86 over a very short period of time. The restructuring would go from 76 to 88. midpoint, but then we've added these to get them out. If you match it up to the market, you get your start from 85 to a midpoint of 98. So, we're talking about 9,000 kind of difference for your right in the middle of the body. again. Right now we've got about 11,000 $11,000 spread a little bit less restructuring makes it about 14,000 only 93 would be a new Shane.

Yes, sir. If you'd speak into the microphone. Folks at home are not hearing you right now. Oh, I'm sorry.

I'll back up this most certainly. May um your assistant police chiefs right now the 83 836 to 109. At the mid at the midpoint or at the 50th percentile, we'd be 1039 to 144. Okay, that's accounting for restructure and trying to hit the middle of the marketplace. So, what is the financial impact? Just a restructure, you would be talking about 58,000 or so just to restructure about a 2.6% change. It would be a 4.1% one-year change to get to the middle of the marketplace for your police to make it much more competitive. from an entry standpoint and from importantly importantly the retention of your mid-career professionals while also making sure that there's a meaningful reason for people to want to get promotions not just structurally but also from a competitive standpoint. So combined impact of fire and police current payroll is just over 4.5 or under 4.5 million. The equity or the restructure for them combined would be just under $99,000 a net of 2.2%. At the 50th percentile, you would be talking about a net change of about 250, just under $259,000 to get to the market in a one-year hit. And then things settle down and it gives you back your competitiveness. It gives you back your structure. It gives you back space. It takes pressure off of trying to use band-aids and cola to account for maxed out people, etc., etc. Okay. Remember

the equity plan when you get these that is your structural floor. Okay, that's just a structure that we put into place to try to fix the architecture. And then your 50th percentile is what it takes to just be right in the middle of the marketplace. So full comparison your total payroll right now this is just salaries okay it's not stipens it's not fringe benefit just looking at at salaries it's about 11.149 million a year right now your fire payroll is 2.22 of that police payroll is about 2.24 All other payroll is about 6.669 69 just the restructure the total increase and what I did here because we and it this is a worst case scenario on all of the payroll. I took what the percentage increase on fire and police combined was and then added 25% to that to calculate what the hit would be on the civilian because we're still getting all the market matching done. But total to the entire organization just the restructure is about a 2.6% increase in salary under 28 just over $284,000. To get to the 50th percentile, you would be talking just under $744,000. About a 6.7% one-year hit. After that, you smooth out and it gets easier. But this and this is on a worst case basis and not all of this has to be supported by the general fund. Your utility fund will come into play on some of this as well, etc., etc.

The 74 740,000 that's total or is that just fire police?

That's total. That's total for everybody to go to 50th percentile. And that is a worst case basis as well because not all of your positions are as out of whack as some of the others, but in order to to be able to get a good number, I took what the fire and police was, which was some of your more out of whack. And I added 25% to that just to make sure that we've got as bad of a picture as we possibly could. You do need to account for HR loading, which is about 50% of salaries. So if we're talking $744,000, there's whatever $374 that would or 372 that would go on top of that in your fringe benefit impact. Okay. I think the HR lo Okay, fair enough. But that that would be what you would be looking at when you account for all your benefit impact. So do you have space? Looked at this just strictly from a property tax con um context, not utility, you know, your utilities, not your sales tax, but just to see what does where do you sit? 31 pier cities within 100 mile radius of at least 9,000 people or more. 12 of these are what you call East Texas peers. They're actually rural urban communities, not the DFW suburbs. Out of all 31, you're the 25th lowest tax rate out of those 31 cities. And total tax rate, you're the lowest maintenance and operation and total rate out of all of your East dozen East Texas peers. Okay.

The pure average for maintenance and operations. Yeah. M rate, debt rate, total rate, and then your taxable value per property. Okay. Because or per dollar of property, I'm sorry, per property. Your peer average is 39 over 39 cents on your M rate. Y'all are the median is 35. You're at 288. You're 23rd out of 31. Very, very low compared to your peers. On the debt side, 21st out of 31 at an 8 cent rate where the average is 13. The median is about 9 cents. Your total rate is the 25th lowest rate out of all the peer cities at 36.6 cents. The average is 52, median's 54. You collect 109. You collect 111,000 per person in property tax. Okay. per property in property tax. Whereas your peers 190 and 13 on a per person basis just looking at East Texas rural urban communities such as Walk Springs, Terrell, Commerce, Dennis, Athens, Bonum, Texas Arcana, Long View, Paris, Greenville. East Texas average on the M rate is 47. plus yall are at 28.28 out of 12. You're the lowest property tax rate.

You're actually not the lowest amount of values though. You're you've got good industrial values. So, you're actually about number five out of the bunch on that 8 cent debt rate compared to 14 cents on average. total tax rate you're the lowest by 25 cents almost from your peer group in east tech rally m taxes collected per person when we look at when we control for population y'all collect about $316 per person everybody else collects about $483 per person in property tax you're the lowest out of everyone on average total tax property taxes They're collecting $629. They're collecting $49. What does this mean? Between utilities, between sales tax, between property tax, there is financial space within the tax base. But that's a question that you have to ask is whether or not your population and you have the political and the I'm just laying out where you sit relative and we wanted to look at comparing to other communities. What are they paying? But then what are they charging their citizens to actually make that pay? They're charging a lot more and then in many cases paying a lot more. And what's interesting is that it's the East Texas rural urban communities that actually have the higher rates. We know that the DFW suburbs, they've got massive value increases and so they're able to pad a lot of that. They can go with some lower rates. But even even with them, y'all are 25th out of 31.

Okay. So, there's some space there to potentially do some things if you needed to. Um, yeah, you've got a $1.79 billion tax base. Every cent on the property tax side is about $179,000. Okay, that you would raise additional and even a six cent difference, you would still be the lowest tax rate in out of your 12 cities in rural East Texas by 5 cents. I'm not encouraging it. What I'm trying to do is lay out the facts of what does a market say, what does your structure say, where are your opportunities, where's your capacity, but those are hard decisions. My job is to lay the facts to you and try to create some structure and then I'll help y'all navigate the rest of it as you can. Are there any questions? And thank you for your patience and going through this because it's not easy to condense. My question is simple. I have a hard time viewing this my eyes. And are we going to get

Yes, I'm going to send you the PDFs of both of these. You will ultimately be getting a very detailed technical report as well. But but the report will follow after you make some decisions because I don't want to throw 60 pages at you that you don't want. And one more question. I know that I've been looking uh well two years really for the list of cities that we're comparing to in comparison with their salaries. Still hadn't gotten it. So I saw that you listed some. Do you did you were you able to get that data?

That will be in the report as well. All all of that database that I built from this and of course it's in chunks like in a Star Wars Droid Factory, but all of those will be in there. I've got min bid and max matching positions as well, but some of those everybody uses different titles on some things. So, there's some that are just weird and look weird. There's certain positions other cities don't even have. There are certain positions you don't have that other cities do. Um, so it's the matches there. And so all of those will be there and you'll be able to see them. And then my cost of living calculator that actually built, you'll have all of that as well as well as what sources were used for it and the methodology behind it.

Absolutely. Mel, you may not be special, but you're okay. I appreciate that. I appreciate the work, the time, the effort, all the information. It's a lot to absorb, but uh I really appreciate it. Absolutely. And thank you. Y'all have been wonderful. And we'll still be interacting because there'll be some more specific things. And I'd really like if y'all want to look at draft policy to put some of the controls in place that answers some of the the concerns that you had, I can make that part of this as well and work with staff to get those tuned tuned in that.

Yes, please. Okay, council. Any more questions?

Shane, thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Thank you all and thanks to staff as well. They were very, very helpful through this. But I'm not going anywhere yet. So that closes item 11. We'll move to 12. Consider approval and resolution 2026-11 for the sale of block 67 and 8 Block 2 A.6. Six 8 acres of land known as North Ellis Avenue in the city of Mount Pleasant. Ce Wanzo and Dravian Rockwell. Candace Webster will present this item.

Sorry, they have me blocked in over here. So, u I spoke with um Purdue Brandon and um this they received several bids on this lot. they did turn away um some because they were too low. So, this was the highest bid that came in for this lot. And you'll see in your packet on number 12 where they have like how much they listed it for. Um she did tell me it would be up to the appraisal district how the money's divvied up in the end. Um but it gives you the area of where it's at and everything located in your packet which which is between 504 North Ellis and 406 North Ellis. Candace, do we demolish this one?

No, sir. This was on the struck off list. It didn't sell at the sheriff sale and so this was um a property that was on the stroke off list.

Yeah. Yeah, I read that. Okay. Thank you. Candace, we we uh had discussion about something over here. I missed every bit of that. Would you repeat that for me, please? So, they received several property um bids. They were a lot lower than this bid that they turned away. Um this property is on between 504 and 406 North Ellis. It's for $6,000. It was on the struck off list. Um it didn't sell at the courthouse at the sheriff sale. So, this was one of our properties that we had listed on the struck off list that these two gentlemen um submitted a bid to purchase.

So, how long was it listed for sale before their offer?

If I remember correctly, I believe she told me that this was in 23 or 24 it was went up for sale and it's just been on the list since then. Thank you. How many bids have you received, Candace? total that I don't know. They don't come to us. They come to Purdue Brandon, which is the people who manage our um all of our property that's on the struggle list.

Council, looks like we have a bid, the highest bid, and they want to buy it. What do y'all say? I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-11 for the sale of lot 67 and 8B block 2 the 6888 acre of land known as north Ellis AB city mount pleasant for Lee Wanzo and the ton the tran tvian thank you Rockwell I Second. We have a motion in the second. Candace, please record the vote.

Yes. I I I

approved. All right. Well, lucky owners of some land. We'll close out 12 to 13. Discuss and consider Ordinance 2026-10 amending chapter 15 section 15.169 of the city code of ordinances relating to non-fixures in the historic district providing a severability clause providing an effective date and providing for publication. Once again, city Candace will present this item.

Good evening again. So, um, the Main Street Board has been coming back with updates that they're wanting to do. So, this is, um, to correct an issue with trash cans, um, also, but it's also so they can have their sandwich signs out and take them in at night, but it's just a way to, um, help with the trash cans. If you look on the the first page of the ordinance, it addresses um B, C, and D is what they have come up with to um update. They have met several months on this discussion. And so it's they are allowing like banners for sale and for rent banners downtown. You can't just have regular banners out there. Um they also include sidewalk signs. Um sandwich signs, movable signs are permitted, but they must be brought in. They can't be left out um overnight when the business is closed. And it can't be in any way to impede um foot traffic um in the downtown area. Um they also because we had reached out to the public um a lot of them are hand pickups. So, um, after speaking with our rep at Republic, they suggested, you know, that they could get polycarts. It's easier on the driver. It helps with the rodent issue down there. And so, they can now, certain businesses can get polycarts and put them out for the trash so it's not just sitting on the sidewalk overnight. Candace, how would that work like in my situation where I have alley. There's quite a few of us on Third Street. We have no alley. We have no place for trash cans.

Um so we're still looking into a way to put out something for those type of but like if you think of the ones going down Madison on the sides. Um several of those businesses were setting them out. There was a bunch of boxes. Um so this allows them to get that up so it's not in view of the traffic. It doesn't people from walking because it's sitting out there. We did have um a few incidents where trash was not picked up. So, this is just another alternative to not only help with the trash, but it also helps that driver who's out early in the morning and trying to pick up traffic trash and then go to dump it in his truck. This it's much easier on them if they have the poly carts that they can put it to the truck and easier to get that downtown area cleaned up a lot faster.

So, we have carts. Where do they every night they throw their trash out and push a cart somewhere? Is that the idea?

Yes, sir. So, we um spoke with I believe I just lost her name. Um Charlotte. And so on Second Street, um, a lot of those in that little alleyway on Second Street, a lot of the like where Ruby and Beonia are, they're going to have theirs in the back. That's where the driver goes. Um, Diamond Tea, they already have theirs. But it's just to give those businesses that um, since they did expand, there's not as many boxes out there. There's it's not such an eyesore with all the trash just being left out there. And this was a recommendation from the board as a way to help get that cleaned up until they can come up with a solution for like uh meals an option that that we're still looking at and working on uh just to get it cleaned up. So in real quick, um, so just to make sure I understand, are business owners buying their own polycards or is the public providing them?

No. So they are hand pickup. So they hand pickup means they set trash bags out there. So these business owners I know I'm I'm asking based on this based on what the ordinance reads, right? So it's talking about polycarts and they're black. So I'm I've never seen a black one that Republicans provided. That's what I'm trying to understand. No, they are providing them theirelves. Yes. Okay. That that was it. Okay. Got you. And the reason for that is so that they're not on the Tuesday, Thursday schedule or the Well, I think it's like Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Friday schedule. I

I know it's unique down there. I just was making sure that like if Republic's I've never seen a black one from Republic. So I was like, how's that happening? That was all. Good deal. Council, any more questions or discussion? I need a motion. I make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-10 amending chapters 150 and 151 of the code of ordinances. I second. Madam Secretary, would you record the vote? I I

I Yes.

motion passes. We can polycarts. Close that item. We'll go to 14. consider awarding a bid for the Lake Bob Salmon water treatment plant generator improvements. Utility director Marshall will present this item.

Good evening. So, this is just to consider the awarding the bid for the Lake Bob Sandland uh water treatment plant. To give you just a small summary of it is this is actually a grant. Uh this is a 9010 grant. So, The numbers that on it are the the bid amount total. I I don't know if y'all have what was sent to y'all, but uh today I got a a uh a new uh number. It was just a misprint or miss key on the on the actual tab sheet, but it's a 465,000 instead of the 64,000. So, um, but it's an I10 grant. So, we only have to do the 10% of that, which is 46,000 on that. But that is this is to put a brand new generator at our LBS plant and make our other ones the backups. And I don't know if y'all remember our winter storm. We had that one issue with our one generator. So, this is that generator has been fixed, but we'll make that now a backup with a new one in it spot. But um March 10th went out for bids. We had eight total bids. And the um lowest bid, which is the motion for is for Casey Sloan construction of Marshall, Texas from Marshall, Texas for the amount of $465,420. Have they ever bid for us before? They might have bid. I just don't uh I mean that doesn't mean they all they've won. But yeah, like you know the classic how long they've been in business, all that stuff. And they're only local. They're the most local on the sheets. That but curious.

I mean they they have bid before. Okay. But I don't I without looking at other projects. I'm not not asking for a look. Yeah, you're good. I'm just curious. How many bids did you receive? Eight. How how long was the window open for the bids? They're always open for 30 days. They're posted on our website and newspaper and everything like that. Thank you. Other question. Um probably well for both city manager and you both I guess uh when we approved the budget, I know I'm assuming this is part of that kind of money we were trying to retain and the slush fund for the utility side or is this a new thing? It's because we got a grant. This is bond money.

Oh, okay. Council, any more discussion, questions? Well, we need to get a motion. I'll make a motion uh to consider the a or to vote on awarding the bid for Lake Bob Sandler water treatment plant generator improvement to HMGPDR448501 80. I second.

Actually, let me take that back because I said that completely wrong. Maybe make a motion to award the bid to Casey Sloan Construction of Marshall, Texas. is in the amount of $450.50 $465,000. Hold on. Yeah. Give me the $465,420. Second. We have a motion and a second. Candace, record the vote. I I

I Yes.

Motion passes. It's always good to get a bid in a an award like that. It's been a long night. We're to the city manage report. Thank goodness. Go Rob here. Pro Tim. Uh members of council make this quick tonight. Even though the countywide burn ban has been expired, it was did yesterday. The city burn ban is still in effect and we would encourage all citizens to exercise caution, safety precautions when they're burning. Uh fire department did respond even though Saturday we got quite a bit of rain, they did respond to a grass fire yesterday outside the city limits that started with a control burn and ended up burning five acres. So even though it's wet, uh it's the burn conditions are still very favorable. We have one current project that is out for bid. Uh it's a small sewer line behind John Deere. It's about a $300,000 project. Our water line project to the I30 east corridor which is a bond project approximately $3 million is in the uh the design phase. The next phase will be the well we'll go out for bid again bond project will go out for bid for that and then we'll go out for construction. Um, and I've asked very quickly. I know we're it's been long, but I I really would like to focus on um some videos that our development services director, Lynn Barrett, put together. I've asked her to go around as as you drive through town and around the city. There's a lot of construction going on. Uh, one one of the things I'd like to do at least once a month at council and then we'll share these videos on our social media page, but uh just have her go to some of these different shoot the video. Um, this is it pretty much in a in a raw stage, but we'll share this and we'll get a we'll get a little more more polished, but we want to share so our citizens and the developers that also want to come here as someone says, "Hey, what's going on

at 16th in Washington?" Well, we're going to have a video that explains that. Um, so if you if you don't mind, we'll just play through those.

This is the soon to be completed seven bruise. It should open in the next several weeks as they finalize the construction. The project did not take a very long time because the building came in on a truck. This is the new niblett warehouse that is an infill on Ninth Street. is a good example of fitting in um industrial uses within industrial areas for additional functionality in the city. This is the site of the new academy store which will be coming in next Atwoods. This is the entrance the roadway in which will be the all good lane. It goes further into Anderson Town crossing academy will be approximately there with another anchor store next to it. This entire site will be in multiple pad sites or retail restaurants nestled in along 271. Academyy's building permit is almost ready to issue pending their contractor finalization. So begin to see vertical construction on this site very soon. This is the site of the new country cafe at 16th and Washington.

As you can see, it's on a pretty large site. It has access from Washington with um the addition later of a new uh phase for retail or strip center in addition to the restaurant. which is going vertical.

And just to add a little color to that, that area, correct me if I'm wrong, Lynn, that area is zoned light industrial. So, the setbacks for that particular property is different than it is in residential or commercial. So, they do look different because they are different, but they are according to the zoning. This is the site of the new Shell station that is at the intersection of Ferguson and 67. It will be a combination store, convenience store with a Wendy's inside in the building that you see along with a truck stop with truck parking. parking lot is already paved and in. The trucks will enter on the uh 16 street side and the cars for the convenience store and the restaurant will be coming in on the Ferguson side. It's a massive site. It will be quite visible here up on the hill when complete. This is the Anderson Town Crossing phase one multifamily site. As you can see, 180 plus units have gone vertical on the site. Streets are in In the distance is the beginnings of the clubhouse which is on the lake. Additional apartment buildings

are on either side of it. The balance of this site will be for retail and hospitality uses with a hotel chain looking at the property just on the other side of this parking lot that is earmarked for the apartment. This is the site of the new Pilgrims wastewater treatment center for all of their waste water that is currently being treated in their facility that is inside the city limits. This expansion is right across the creek from the existing one. Um, but is in the county. It will not replace what they have, but it will augment it and it is a much bigger expansion as you can see. This is the site of the Pilgrim Lagoon project that is inside the city next to their plant that will hold waste water. There are two lagoons very large expansion to uh wastewater treatment facility that will connect to the county project that was just shown in an accompanying video right across the roadway and then we'll connect to that.

This development map uh is also on our website and we will update that periodically and again those videos as we get I think Lyn did a great job on those but we want to share that with the community so everyone's aware of what's coming in and again just driving around you see an awful lot of dirt being moved a lot of lumber being put up a lot of so report I have a question maybe Rob or chief can We took the burn ban down in the county, but not in the city. The city is in the county. Why wouldn't the one burn ban cover everybody? Why would we need two?

Chief, would you mind coming up and addressing that, please?

I had a lot of people ask me that and I I didn't know. Basically, it's because we're two different jurisdictions and that's what the state law has set up. The the mayor can, as y'all know when we started, they can issue a disaster declaration for the city limit, which is their perview. It can be uh for seven days. If y'all council or a commissioner's court for the county side do not extend it, then it would it would end. But we put ours on for 90 days, which we will probably unless something changes uh in our next council meeting, we'll probably submit an ordinance to resend it since the county has already rescended there. Thank you, Chief. Now, people in the city, if they responsibly burn, would they be ticketed now or since it's been lifted in the county, are we going to give some grace there or or not?

The possibility is they could receive a second We're hoping for and I meant I said responsible burning. Yes. Well, but burning is burning. So, Herman and I just had a conversation about some brush pile. Thank you for doing that because I mean people are really asking lots of questions about it and I didn't know. My admin's ear is swelling up about this size because she's answering probably 20 or 30 calls a day about the burn ban in place. Still is in the city. It's not First, do you live in the city or you live in the county? Live in the city. Fill in. Have we put that on our Facebook page?

We can do that. Absolutely. Thank you, sir.

Pursuant to open meetings act, chapter 551, Texas Government Code. The city council will recess into executive session close meeting. Discuss the following. 551-087 economic development negotiations. 551087 economic in consultation with attorney and consultation with attorney on municipal solid waste and the city of Mount Pleasant's contractual obligations. We will now go to executive session. Hallelujah.

We are reconvening into regular session. Item 16, discuss and consider adoption of ordinance 2026-1 amending chapter 95, health and sanitation of the city's code of ordinance to require the use of the company contracted by the city for all commercial trash garage and refuse collection and removal, including rolloff dumpsters and providing for penalties for violations, including denial of building building and other permits. Um, Miss Webster is going to speak on this a minute. I will just interject that council just remind you this has been tabled a few times. So, this is we're bringing this back. So, we're I've asked John Anchor to do a brief introduction again for us.

Okay. We'll go with John, not Candace.

Yeah. So the uh last council meeting we had a few members that were absent and so for a more thorough and complete discussion they tabled it till this meeting and so essentially this ordinance just goes in line with the contract that we have already signed with republic and gives staff the ability to actually enforce the contract. Well, I want to say something. It's a contract. We're going to abide by it because we're legally obligated to. I don't like it. I think it takes away people's choices. U that's something we can look at down the road maybe, but currently we have to do what we have to do to take care of Mount Flip. So, need a motion. Council,

I make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-1 enforcing the trash and dumpster agreement in the contract between Republic East Texas and the city of Mount Pleasant. I'll second that motion. Just just follow what uh Carl said. Um you know, whether we're here or not, we did sign an agreement and we need to honor that. Um it's the city's word. So, with that, I do second. And even though I'm not seconding, I agree because I believe that the city of Mount Pleasant needs to be a city that keeps their word and this is part of us keeping our word.

I have a motion in a second. Candace, record the vote, please. Yes. I I I I motion passes. Um, I think that's the end of our meeting tonight. Thanks for everybody coming out. We are ajourned.