City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 5.04 Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. Welcome to the city council meeting. We're going to call it to order. We do have a quorum, and I believe Garrett's going to come up and say a prayer for us. Thank you, Garrett.

Dear Lord, thank you for bringing us all here tonight safely. Thank you for everything that you do for us throughout the week. Be with our decision makers and community leaders as we go through these important discussions on budget and council matters. In your name, amen. Amen.

All right, so for the first part of this, we'll go ahead and we're going to go ahead and go into open session. And item number one is the workshop. And that's our presentation, the discussion of property taxes, budget, and strategic planning.

Mayor and members of council, thank you for making this special council workshop this evening. We are going to spend time on strategic planning. I believe the first thing we'll do is ask our local tax assessor to come up and she has a presentation. You requested information about property taxes over the past, I think, five years, and she's got some information. We thank her for being here this evening to help us with this presentation. Thanks, ma'am.

Good evening.

Good evening. Okay, so what I just handed you is just a little bit of information, historical. Y'all wanted some five-year figures. So if you look at that first little chart that I have at the top, that's going to be your tax rate history. And I broke it down, went back to 2021, so the last five years, and put your no new revenue rate, what that was, and then what your voter approval rate was, and then what your adopted rate was. So... and I'll go over the rates and then we'll go over them again in a minute. As you know, the no new revenue rate is the rate that you can adopt to get about the same amount of money that you did the year before. The voter approval rate is the rate that you can go up to this rate without having an election. So you can increase taxes to that rate without having an election. And then your adopted rate is the rate that you decided to go with. The second chart is the value history, kind of where our values were over the last five years, kind of where they've been going. And as you know, up until probably this past year, 2026, we had some pretty significant increases. So we did see it decrease a little bit or flatten out on most properties in 2026. But the years prior to that, we had some pretty good increases. And then the third little chart is going to be your tax that was collected timely. So this is everybody that had paid their taxes before the February 1 deadline where the penalties and interest kick in. So that's your percentage, and that's how much that was collected. And then the current collection rate. Obviously, we continue to collect taxes all throughout the year. You're going to have your people that just don't pay on time because they're waiting for tax returns or something like that. You're going to have your quarter payments, your over 65 people that can pay quarterly. And then you have your people that have deferrals. And then you have your people that just need a little bit more time. So we're collecting taxes all the time. So these rates on the bottom are the current rates when I pulled these yesterday.

Okay.

And I'll go through this, and if y'all have questions, just stop me or we'll go back through it. The next page is just a little better definition or more the legal definition of these rates. No new revenue rate. The rate that enables the public to evaluate the relationship between taxes from the prior year and the current year based on the tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same property that were taxed in both years. We'll get to that in a minute because it's confusing. The formula assumes that when values increase, the tax rate should decrease to create the same amount of revenue. Voter approval rate, that's the amount of additional revenue over the preceding year that the taxing unit may collect without voter approval. So Senate Bill 2 reduced that from 8% to 3.5% for counties and cities and 2.5% for school districts. And then you have the UIR, which is your unused increment rate. That allows you, let's say in the previous three years you went with The voter approval rate one year, the next year you went somewhere in between the voter approval rate and the no new revenue rate. Those little increments that are left over between what you adopted and the voter approval rate, they are banked. And then you can go back for three years and use those as part of your voter approval rate. So that's what that unused rate is. It just allows you to go back for three years and use those increments. And then we have the de minimis rate and that basically is just the rate that would give you an additional five hundred thousand dollars over what you had last year and And then the formula for that is underneath it So it's just the no new revenue M&O rate plus the debt rate and then plus the rate that would generate the five hundred additional five hundred thousand additional in tax revenue So the next page Most of my employees are visual learners, so I'm sorry about the kindergarten paper, but this is a very good illustration. No new revenue, right? People get very confused about that one because it is... on identical roles. So if the no new revenue rate is 0.30, and I'm just throwing numbers out there, that is to get the same amount of money on the same properties and structures and everything that you had the year before. So what happens with that new value that's out there? That is not a bonus, but that's additional tax. So you'll get the same that you got the year before plus the new value tax. So you're getting a little bit more than what you had the year before, even though it's not really in the definition clearly. So this basically just illustrates that if you have six additional houses with the little stars, that's good, that's extra money. That's what the little stars are. And then that's all I brought as far as the rate information and the historical information. So if y'all have any questions on that or anything moving forward, yeah, go ahead. right so the voter approval rate that's just saying you can go all the way up to this rate and not have to have a vote now if you go over that rate that triggers an automatic election so yeah so that i don't know why they call it voter approval because it makes it sound like you approved it yeah that it didn't name it don't know why they did it but that's what it's called but that's not exactly what it means that just means that that's the rate that you can go up to without having to have a vote

I think you already explained mine. A lot of people ask me the question of their appraisal went up, so then we're automatically getting our... you know, we're automatically getting more taxes. But is that true?

I think you already explained it, but... Well, it's not because the way the property tax system is set up, the values are what they are. We're guided by the state. You know, they make sure we're doing our job, all that. And then that puts the power to raise or lower taxes back into your hands. So... That's why the tax rates are adopted after values are certified so that you will see, okay, no new revenue rate gives you a little bit of an idea of, hey, if we don't want to raise taxes at all, we got to go with this rate. That's the one that's going to not raise taxes. But as we all know, everything goes up. So it does give you that window of you can go up to this one without having an election. But values going up, a lot of times you'll hear, not so much in our county, but in other counties, you'll hear, well, we didn't change the rate, so the appraisal district raised the taxes. Well, you raised the taxes because you didn't change the rate. When the values went up, the rate should have went down. Okay. So when you have your notices put in the newspaper, any time that they're over the no new revenue rate, that notice is required by law to say that you're having a meeting on a tax increase. So that's why that says that. Any time it's over that, it is a tax increase that you're doing. And it wasn't really brought about by values because you get to make the decision if you're going to lower to the no new revenue rate or lower or go to the voter approval rate. or have an election, which I've never known anyone to do.

We know what the answer would be for everybody. So the no new revenue rate that's in here is just saying in order to get the money that we got the year before, that's what we need to have and make sure we don't lose money or whatever.

Right. Okay. And when you get your totals, there's a page that lets you know what the new value is. So you would say, okay, this is going to give us the same amount of money that we had last year. Let's see what our new value is. Well, I think you'll have about $50 million in new value this year. So the taxes on that $50 million would be in addition to what you got last year.

Okay.

So hang on. Thank you, Shirley. It's all confusing. So I had had a visit with Shirley last year. I'm still trying to learn it.

Yeah. It's a lot.

Yes, yes, yes. So I just want to make sure I've got this straight. I'm going to talk elementary to people that are listening so they can kind of understand. Okay. And correct me. Okay. Okay. So when the – of the homes in our area are done. They literally are done from people, I'm going to say Austin. It's the state. So the state are the ones that send people to kind of look at our values of our properties.

Not exactly. So, okay. Yeah, no, no, no. So you are talking about property value study and you kind of got them together. So I'm going to separate them out. So we are in charge of the value. So, yeah. When the appraisal districts were brought about, it was to make sure that everything was done fairly and equally and uniformly and all of that. Prior to that, every entity had their own appraisers. So you might get an appraisal from the city that was for $60,000 and one from the school district was for $120,000, and they would base your taxes on that. Well, the state decided that you need to have one equal and uniform appraisal, and that doesn't need to be... Watched over by local people so that there is no strong arming or anything like that going on. So that has been turned over to the PTAD division of the comptroller's office. And what you're talking about is after we certify the role, we have what's called the property value study of every other year. MAPS review is on the year that the property value study isn't. And so they're testing us every year on something. But the property value study is when they send out their own appraisers to appraise random properties in our county, do their own appraisal, and then they compare it to ours at the appraisal district to see if we're at least within 5% of what they came in at. Now, let's say we're within 5%. They think we're doing our job. We're good. Everybody's equal and uniform. If we start going more than that 5% below or above, then they start jeopardizing school funding, basically.

That's what I thought was interesting, how connected everything is to our school system.

Yes.

Yeah, it's very connected. That it will affect our ISD.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, it's all very connected. But they just make sure that we are at, you know, they pull the sales and all that kind of stuff and compare and make sure that we have everything at market value. So, you know, and then we give that to y'all to do with it, what y'all are fixing to start doing.

I have a question. Yes, ma'am. And I know this is putting you on the spot, and I apologize for it.

That's okay.

But... Give me an example, and I'm just going to ask you to make up numbers.

Okay.

If I have a $200,000 house, and the city's collecting X amount of dollars with a no-new rate, if the house is this year appraised at, say, $300,000, can you kind of give me a scenario of what the numbers would be like? I mean, they don't have to be real numbers, just an idea so people can understand. If we go with the no-new rate and the appraisal is higher, Then how does that, you're like, you have the houses with the little stars.

Right. So if you went with the no new revenue rate, their taxes would be about the same that their taxes was for you the year before, unless there was some kind of natural disaster. Let's say half the city was wiped out. well, then that value is gone, but that rate is still going to give you the same amount of money that you got the year before. That burden is going to be on the people that still had their homes that didn't get destroyed in whatever the natural disaster was. So if you're not having a huge fluctuation of we had a tornado or we're not going to have any flooding, but that's real big in Houston, if you don't have any major changes like that, their taxes, if you went with that rate, would be about the same that they were the year before. Go ahead.

But you had mentioned that on the appraisal, if the appraisal of the house went up, that there would be a little extra that would... Well, if the appraisal of the house went up, that would change what... That no new revenue rate would go down.

So the only way that... I don't know if you're talking about if your appraisal went up and your rate stayed the same as what you had the year before, then it would be about the same amount as the taxes from the year before. Because that rate adjusts for those values going up. Yeah, values go up, rate goes down.

Okay, so you were saying that we have $50 million more in property. If we went with the no new revenue, does that mean we're going to lose out on all of that extra realty that we have?

On the new revenue? No, you would still get that. so it's kind of like the existing part and then we would get the the other right you would get the new on top of that so yeah you have a right at 50 million 50 million 278 15 is what we have right now of course these are not certified values but so you would go with the no new revenue rate get the around the same amount of money that you had the year before and then you would add the taxes from the 50 million of new value to that okay it's just in addition to okay

One other question. Yes, ma'am. I haven't really followed it, but when is the change going to come into effect that business owners are not having to pay tax on inventory this year?

So y'all did lose about $42 million this year of taxable value because of the new business personal property exemption. So that's significant. But then you had the $50 million of new. So the numbers are going to, I feel like the numbers are going to end up being pretty close. But you did lose about $42 million because of the BPP exemption.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is that it? Yeah. I mean, I really appreciate it. Now I understand a lot. Okay. Thank you. Well, now in a week, I'll probably forget at least half this.

It is a little bit confusing. So anytime you have questions, just let me know.

Okay. Great.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Mayor, Council, we're going to take the rest of the evening to go over. I gave everyone a strategic planning survey. I gave it to Council. I gave it to the department heads as well. And what I've been able to do is when that information was shared with me, I was able to go through and take all the information from the Council. And you have this packet in front of you. it's also available online currently through the rest of the workshop and then we will compare and contrast the City Council and the department heads I think surprisingly we'll see that a lot of the responses are very very similar there are a few bridging opportunities but I think all in all we'll see that very consistent and we'll be able to see a theme as we move forward.

Rob, sorry. This right here, can we make sure that we get it either through, I don't know if we can add it to something where the, if somebody, taxpayers or something like that want to look at it to see the numbers, can we add that somewhere? No, no, no, no. I was just, oh, okay.

All right.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And I've taken a picture of it since Candace was here. Okay. Yes.

Thank you. That's going to be super helpful. Sorry, Ron.

That's okay. So five-year priorities. We'll start with council on the left, department heads on the right, and you see both number one answers were financial stability, responsible budgeting, long-term fiscal sustainability. Going down with council, infrastructure, roads, long-term planning, economic development, retail, tourism. city culture staffing organizational improvement and the last one is partnerships and city planning on the department head side it was again financial stability workforce retention development and succession planning was number two infrastructure expansion and modernization managed growth and economic development governance and organizational improvement public trust those are the five-year priorities Some of them, as you went through these questions, some of these questions were worded somewhat similar, and it's just to see the consistency that is there between both groups. So resources or support needed to achieve these five-year goals. The primary theme was funding and financial stability, mentioned by every respondent. The secondary theme was policy changes, mentioned by most of you. And the supporting themes were staffing, workforce needs, revenue generation, training, technology, quality of life group. On the department head side, 100% of the department heads said funding, 80% said workforce capacity, staffing and training, operational resources, 40%, and then 30% said policy and governance. Which of the following should receive the greatest focus? Going with council first, four of you said financial stability. Three said infrastructure and transportation. Three said economic development. One said workforce development. Just because one person said it does not mean it's important. Department heads. Eight said eight out of 11 said financial stability. Six said infrastructure and transportation, staffing, personnel matters. Four said economic growth. Three said public safety. And two said workforce development. So again, you're already seeing a theme between the two groups, which I think is good that we noticed that. Ideal state of Mount Pleasant in five years. Managed growth and development, financial stability, healthy budget, quality of life improvements. It goes back to the top five needs. The first slide we talked about. Downtown Main Street revitalization, clean, attractive community, economic development and business growth. The department heads listed financial stability and fiscal stability. discipline, manage growth and economic development, infrastructure expansion and modernization, quality of life, community identity, established, and the last one they mentioned was strong leadership, governance, and organizational stability. Next slide. And I'm sorry, I'm not keeping up with this for the people at home, I'm sorry. Biggest challenges or risks facing the municipality. Council said financial strain, debt management, fiscal sustainability. The department has also said financial constraints. I'm going back to the council. Infrastructure investment versus budget balance. Governance, decision-making, speed, and strategic responses. Number four was workforce compensation. Broad municipal balance, growth, trust, and operational efficiency. And for the biggest challenges, risk facing the municipality, the department heads, financial constraints, staffing challenges, specifically recruiting, retention, and turnover, infrastructure needs and capacity expansion, governance, compliance, and operational modernization. And the last one was public perception, trust, and communication. The question, which challenges? are likely to increase in importance over the next five years. Financial constraints and debt burden, that continues. The city did not get in this position overnight. We are not going to get out of it overnight, so this will continue. It will lighten, undoubtedly, but it will continue. Infrastructure needs and affordability, staffing and salary sustainability, growth pressure and development readiness, public trust, transparency, operational efficiency and planning, decision-making speed and discipline, and the department had responses for financial stability, debt management, fiscal capacity, workforce recruitment, retention, compensation, and structure. Third was growth pressure and demand on infrastructure services, long-term planning, capital improvement and assessment management, and economic development, infrastructure, infrastructure expansion and public perception. Regulatory financial or operational constraints. This question asks you to identify things that you think are standing in our way that would stop us. The sole response from the council was to rely on taxes and to work with consultants to create a blueprint. The department head's responses were financial constraints and limited revenue capacity. State and regulatory mandates, increasing workload and cost to kill those unfunded mandates. The states say you will do this, but we're not going to pay you or give you any more revenue to accomplish those goals or objectives. Staffing instability and organizational turnover. Number four was operational efficiency, administrative process improvements. And five was infrastructure, technology, and capacity limitations. When asked what are the opportunities for collaboration across departments, council response is we need short-time committee of business leaders or maybe a smart entrepreneur to help create revenue, tourism, publicity, advertising, EDC, council, and the Chamber. I wrote it just because it was written. So if Ms. Faulkner would like to explain a little bit more. There's a lot of information to unpack in that response. Department heads build stronger day-to-day collaboration, formalize collaboration through processes mandatory across the department reviews before council meetings, improve collaboration between council and staff, and joint planning between departments. I failed to mention, but if any of you have any questions or comments, please feel free to jump in and share those. Inefficiencies or process improvements that might need addressing. This is asking city council and department heads to identify areas that we could do better. Council's response was review all city contracts and agreements. I'll speak directly to that. created implemented a new program where all new contracts come through the city manager's office for approval before they get enacted and we're also collecting all current contracts and agreements to make sure that one we need them two if we do need them are they do they need to be are they old should they be updated amended and are they necessary long-term planning was the second answer communication between council, staff, and public, and the last one that council provided, the streamlining process. The department had said internal efficiency process improvements, staffing and capacity strengths, financial management and sustainability, technology and systems modernization, communication, clarity, and coordination. There's a lot of information, I think, between the two groups in there, but a lot of it is communication that has to do with everything.

Mayor. So, Rob, I was curious. I know you've done a lot of work on all the contracts and agreements. How many do you think that you all... Because I know you all have gotten rid of some for different reasons. We were able to get rid of them. And then we've got the lease contract or whatever that's going away. How many do you think we've done since you've been here?

That we've called? Probably a half dozen to this point. But that doesn't mean that we're not. There's several that we're renewing. Right, right. They haven't been renewed since the 90s. And there are things in that agreement that says we should be doing and the other party should be doing that we are not. So we're, like with the chamber, we're about to amend that, bring that to you as well.

Okay.

So probably around.

I know. I mean, it's a big.

And I don't have a dollar figure. Yeah, I know.

I mean, that's great. Thank you.

Next question is what do you believe are the top concerns of the residents? Cost of living, property taxes, department heads with cost of living and affordability, transparency and trust going down the city council line. Transparency and trust in government spending. Quality of life and neighborhood conditions. And your fourth response was community amenities and youth or family engagement. Department heads, again, cost of living and affordability. Quality of life and community amenities. Public trust, transparency, and confidence in government. Services funding and value protected space. To me, that is everything between all eight answers. Very thematic between the two groups. How can the municipality improve community engagement and transparency? Start with council, town hall meetings, hire a communication person to provide timely and consistent information across social media platforms, and someone suggested a minute with the mayor. Very good idea. In fact, you sent me a message that he has. Yeah, Anna.

I know you're working on getting a communications person. Basically, they write it for him, and he gives a two-minute thing for the whole meeting.

Very informative.

Oh, yeah.

For the department heads, how we can improve, better engage with the community, create a communications and marketing position, share more information with the public, either through a monthly newsletter, bi-weekly report, public surveys, and or public forum. How should the municipality balance growth versus fiscal responsibility, financial stability and fiscal discipline, responsibility and planned growth, workforce compensation efficiency, and organization mindset were the response that the council gave. Department heads, strategic planning, and discipline execution. And that's really what this strategic planning is all about, is that you have a plan, and it's a good plan. You stick with it, and that's what your budget supports. If it's not in the plan, you don't fund it, you don't support it. Financially, state sustainability and conservative fiscal management. And the last one the department heads provided was growth management tied to infrastructure funding and impact responsibility. This question asks you to identify emerging trends or technologies that the municipality should be prepared for. Either we're on the cusp of or maybe we're behind. Council mentioned AI data centers and lithium. Educate ourselves before it gets here. The use of artificial intelligence. Cybersecurity, GIS and data management tools. The department heads mentioned artificial intelligence, digital transformation and technology. and modernization, cybersecurity, surveillance and data systems, GIS, and data management tools. And since then, we have started our own GIS program. We've partnered with GIS, and they're in the process of creating a public-facing and an employee-based map that the public will be able to use that will have layers, water lines, sewer lines, property lines, right-of-ways, different things like that. We are slowly making progress in that area. This question asks to identify opportunities for cost savings, partnerships, or new revenue resources. Council responded, partner with nonprofit groups, explore more grants, improve operational efficiency through technology upgrades, Reduce or eliminate outsourced contracts that could be handled in-house. And the department head said pursue more grants and enter intergovernmental and regional partnerships such as Tri-Sud, Titus County, fire contracts, et cetera. Streamline purchasing process. Evaluate operations efficiency and review efficiency. There is a lot of information in here, but if you have this, you can take home to review it. It will also be on our website as well. How can the city municipality improve resilience? The council responded, strategic growth and management planning, organizational culture and workforce development, financial resilience and stability, infrastructure and city appearance improvements, and operational efficiency and modernization. The department has responded to financial stability. We definitely see a theme going through here. Risk reduction, workforce stability, employee support and succession planning, strategic planning and execution discipline. That's the third or fourth time we've heard that. Community engagement and public involvement. What are the KPIs, the key performance indicators that we could use or that we think we should use to measure our success? Council said town hall meetings and public surveys. Department heads responded resident satisfaction surveys, financial health and revenue stability through our audits, workforce stability, and organizational performance. Coming out of this, we will create a strategic plan. It may not be as robust as we would like to have one, say, for next year. I'd like to have it actually go through a strategic planning and budget workshop that would probably take us two or three days, and that person would be in the city for a few weeks. So this will not be as robust, but we will still create a strategic plan. How often should we review that plan? Council was split 50% biannually, 50% quarterly. Department heads were split even more, but we are going to review quarterly. That way it keeps us accountable, keeps everything current and fresh, and we see the momentum. If you could recommend innovative programs or ideas to explore, what would they be? Council said the city should explore enhanced public communication initiatives. example, hire any communication person, structured town halls once or twice a year, expanded beautification, work with extension office, adding butterfly and community gardens and quality of life programs. That has actually started since this questionnaire went out. Garrett, how many butterfly parks do we have now? So things like that are already in the works. Strong partnership with community organizations and regional entities. The department has focused on youth development, education, and workforce pipeline partnerships with ISDs and NPCC internships. Organizational development, leadership and staffing capacity, leadership development tracks, and supervisory training. We are looking at creating an emerging leaders group with our second in command in each department. Someone suggested creating a recreation department to generate revenue. And again, we see pursue more grants. What is one bold idea or initiative you'd like to see implemented? We'd like to ask this question just because that one bold idea, as crazy as it may sound, may be the one that really helps us. So council said create something to do for the youth, town hall meetings, economic growth, eliminate contracts that can be performed in-house, second time we've seen that. The department heads Sam Parker Field, turn that into an outdoor concert venue. Old Town Lake, make that a resort-style area with rental cabins. When I say bold ideas, these are bold ideas. This will not be happening anytime soon, but we could try. Audit city-owned property and sell surplus land. High school interim programs that also help with finding new employees. Internal leadership development strategy. Adopt digital agendas to improve efficiency and reduce costs. And we're working on a few steps closer to that thanks to Candice and Seth. AI training and adoption. Last one, we've touched on this a little bit, but I'm going to go back to it. What does success look like at the end of five years? If we get a plan and we stick to it and we move forward and we do what we're supposed to do, what does Mount Pleasant look like in five years? The department head, I'll just hit the high points. Economic growth, development, and investment. I-30s develop. Workforce stability, employee satisfaction, and organizational health. We were easy targets. We easily attract and retain and support employees. We have low turnover. Infrastructure modernization and physical capital improvements. The runway is improved where we can have large jets land there. Governance, transparency, and public trust. Those things are no longer an issue. Community quality of life and public safety. The council, same question. What does success look like at the end of five years? Execution and follow-through on plans, 90% of you said this. Economic development and financial strength. Multiple references to improving finances, including encouraging new businesses and fostering sustainable economic growth. Quality of life and community well-being. Improving visible and livable conditions, beautification. Good governance, transparency. And the last one was infrastructure and modernization. The last one, I'll go back to the three most important budget priorities for the next fiscal year. Council said financial stability and budgeting. Compensation and payroll was number two. Infrastructure improvements, number three. Fire protection, public safety. And number five was economic growth and development. Same question for department heads. Employee compensation, staffing, and retention. financial stability, budgeting, and fund health. So one and two were just opposite each other with council and department heads, but they're still in the top two. Training, workforce development, and operational capacity. Technology, systems, modernization, and process improvements, such as RMS CAD for our potentially shared dispatch project with county. And number five was service delivery, reliability, and infrastructure maintenance. In looking at these top five from either, well, let's just focus on the council. Is there anything that you think is not there that should be? Or is there anything that is there that shouldn't be? Again, this is a lot of information, but you definitely see a theme, financial stability and budgeting over and over and over again.

that there's there's a reason why that is recognized that's by the council by the department and I guess the quality of life I think that's one thing that a lot of people are wanting to focus on is I mean we collect taxes all right to run the city but we also do it I mean I think the quality of life in Mount Pleasant It would be one of our highest priorities. And I think it's in there. You know, it's all in there. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes we're going to have to do things that we're going to lose money on, but it's kind of like a quality of life issue that is part of giving back. So, yeah, not everything is going to pay back.

Any questions on this? What we'll do is we'll put together a – with capital projects and we don't have an awful lot of projects that we do have we will tie those to one of our strategic objectives and we'll create a strategic plan and also an implementation plan that will be done over quarterly and we'll share that with the public as well so we are being held accountable with what we're doing with the funds that we need. One of the things I did want to visit on before we take a quick break is we are in the process of going through the budget coming up with all the numbers not just the tax numbers, but also what are our revenues, other revenues, what are our expenses? And some of the things that we're looking at, we're looking at agreements, contracts, do we need those? Are they the amount that they should be? Also, are there inefficiencies that we have that are we not doing something that we should be? Currently, as we're going through one of the line items, we've discovered that it's about $80,000 that the city is paying I go and I pay my water bill with my credit card, there's up to, I think, 4% credit card use fee. And we're not passing that on to the customer of the city to the tune of $80,000. So if you're paying with cash or with check or automatic check, you're basically subsidizing the ones that are using the credit card. And we think that there's an opportunity there. It's $80,000 to fund the So we will eventually bring that to you. But it's things like that. It's nickels and dimes. That's where we sit.

If you think about it, it's $80,000 a year. Yes.

That's a lot. That's a lot. And that's finance.

As I mentioned to you when we had our meeting, that's what a lot of small businesses are now facing. And, you know, it's a hard thing to think about that our customers are going to use their credit cards and we are going to pass that on. But if you're looking at a city and how the volume and the amount of money a city is, and you think of a mom and pop store, it hurts. I don't like credit cards for that reason. But it is something I think we all need to think about.

Well, and they're also charging on ATM cards. Yeah, used to be able to get around that, but now they're processing it, so they charge us for it.

Well, we will bring that to the council.

I have one more comment. Yes, ma'am. And I know Wes has gotten the same thing lately. We're talking about the infrastructure. We're talking about the improvements, quality of life. One thing that has really, really been hot lately as a topic is Dale Woods. I know that I've gotten a lot of calls. I know Wes has gotten calls and I guess Kelly and probably Carl, but a lot of people are giving these ideas and we didn't know this. And what I would like to ask for Garrett and you to do is the next council meeting, would you present that again and let people have the input to talk about it, send their questions in? I've been asking a lot of people to either attend or to get their questions in because they didn't do it before. But I would like to see us do one more update and so that people know they have one more chance to at least hear what's going on, what's going to be there, and if they have any input, they can put it in there.

So I was going to talk about this during the city manager's report during council, so I'll just go ahead and just talk about it early. That's okay. We're approximately 80% at design right now with Elwood Park. So what the plan was is as soon as we get the 100% design, we go out for bid, go out for RFP. We will come back here. We'll come back and bring that bid to you that we want to award. however many people we have bid on that project, we'll bring the one we'd like to bid it, award the bid to, and then at that point, he'll do the presentation of what will be in the project. But the design is done. The design is done.

Well, I would say it's totally already done and approved.

We're at about 75%, 80%. Yes, councilor has approved.

but could we at least do the update and let everybody know where we're at, what's being done down there, because there's a lot of questions, and at least give them the information.

Yes. When we come back with who's going to get the bid, we will do a presentation.

Can we do it before then?

We can.

Okay.

I would like that, yeah.

I would like to make a suggestion. I'm going to look over at Mr. Garrett. So two or three years ago when I got on the council, I was having a lot of people asking me the same type of questions, and I knew that I did not have the time. So I suggested that the residents and the people who love the park form an outside association. It doesn't have to be in the city. It's called Delwood Park Association. And I... You know, these are people that, you know, they're not really organizational kind of people, but they live there. They walk. They love it. So I told them, I said, look, I want to make sure that the association lasts. It's not a matter of who's elected. It should continue on. So we met. Garrett, my question to you is, did people sign their name? Did we get a good list of all the people that came when we were in the park? Okay. So it was a good crowd. It was a very good crowd. And we had a lot of people, some I did not know, that were asking questions. And I know later on when he did his presentation at the Civic Center, some of those same residents came. And I would like to figure out a way to encourage the citizens of Mount Pleasant. It shouldn't be, I mean, that needs to go on. Whether Garrett's in that position or I'm in this position, it needs to be for the love of the park. So I'm hoping that people are listening because if you're listening and you love our parks, Get involved. I mean, we're trying to form something that can outlive all of us here. Be involved. I know that they continue to ask Garrett questions, and Garrett will talk about what's coming. I do think it's a good idea to show it again because we might have new neighbors in the park, people who have moved up the side. But they might have grown up in the park. They don't live there, but they love the park. And I do think one thing that the mayor suggested is We should have more activities in the park. I mean, I had someone mention, why don't we do fireworks in the park? I thought, because we've got trees and they'll burn down. But there probably are some things that we could do more as a city to celebrate our beautiful park.

And that's just what a lot of people have been saying, and they were concerned. Garrett, everybody was talking to me about things in the park that actually needed to get fixed. They were like, we're spending all this money on this stuff. That's why I brought it up to you all. We're spending all this money on this new stuff when there's actually – things that are falling apart inside the park. And maybe with our maintenance and stuff like that, we'll be able to at least patch it up. So, yeah, great presentation.

I appreciate it. Yeah, the cool thing is, y'all, a lot of this is, especially with them the last few years, a lot of it is already going on.

So with the employees and with the council. So thank y'all. All right, we'll go ahead and recess for about 10 minutes and come back into regular session. It is 5.53. Okay. Did we lose Kelly? Okay. All right, we'll start when Kelly gets back. It was so funny, yeah. We're going to go ahead and start the meeting back up. Going to open session at 6.04. We're going to go into public comments now. The City Council welcomes citizen participation and comments at all council meetings. Citizen comments are limited to three minutes out of respect. For everyone's time, the council is not permitted to respond to your comments. The Texas Open Meetings Act requires the topics of discussion deliberations be posted on the agenda not less than three business days in advance of the council meeting. If your comment relates to a topic that is on the agenda, the council will discuss the topic on the agenda at the time that that topic is discussed and deliberated. Do you have any comments?

Mayor and council, my name is Kyle Mooring and I live in Mount Vernon, Texas. I am the primary complainant in a federal whistleblower investigation involving Walmart store 131. Look at the last three weeks. June 27th, the store was shut down for roughly 11 hours. July 9th, shut down again. Staff at the door, they blamed another blown fuse. July 19th, all refrigeration down, no meat, dairy, or produce. The residents are asking publicly what's going on. And a former asset protection employee of the store wrote publicly that things there never get fixed and that staff warned them off the cold food because they had quote, got above temperature. None of this is a surprise. Set the agency's findings next to your own internal emails. Start with the roof. Demolition began in late June of last year, June 30th. The assistant city manager emailed eight city employees about my records request. If this guy reaches out to you, please do not reply to him. July 1st, DSHS found 18,000 square feet of roofing already gone, no asbestos survey conducted, and later testing found asbestos and material that remained. Those findings were substantiated, and today the new roof leaks in the same spots it always did. Walmart still sets out tows to catch the rainwater. July 28th of last year, two inspectors walked that store, DSHS documented installation and debris on packaged food and a punctured water pipe, and marked my complaint substantiated. The city's inspector, same day, same store, wrote a letter for Walmart that said all food was protected from debris, no more follow-ups required. TCEQ's Environmental Crimes Unit has an open criminal investigation confirmed by the Attorney General into possible hazardous waste dumping during the TLE remodel. Your own records show the building department had nothing on file for the remodel while it was underway. Your building official didn't even know it was happening. And when he cited unpermitted work in a letter to Walmart, the code reference was removed at the Director of Development Services suggestion by his own email. The same day the city visited the store, the city manager instructed this entire governing body in writing not to respond to me or engage in any back and forth. The CapEx remodel involved refrigeration and the HVAC systems, the same categories of the systems reportedly failing now. Your building department admitted in writing had no idea what that remodel even was. The state's licensing agency knew. TLR's investigation on my complaint on that remodel is complete and the case now sits with the department's prosecutor for an enforcement decision. As of yesterday morning, the last three weeks of failures are part of that case file. Councilwoman Corbell, how does someone licensed in code enforcement for decades stay silent in the face of this much evidence? Should an elected official take an instruction to ignore substantiated public safety findings? Gandhi wrote that silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly. Your community is now asking the questions I raised a year ago. I ask for an independent multi-department investigation, complete permit inspection and contractor records, and answers on the record. Every warning I gave you is now a government record. What you do next will be one too. Thank you. Any public comment?

Let me think.

Sorry, I didn't really get . I thought this was next week. OK. Mayor, council members. City Manager Mr. Vine. My name is Kim Haynes. As most of you know, I'm a resident of the county. I'm a founding member of the nonprofit organization Titus County SNAP, also known as Titus County Spay and Neuter Action Project. We believe in being proactive in our community by providing spay and neuter services at no cost to pet owners throughout our community. We're currently working with multiple local vet clinics to provide these services, as well as rabies, vaccinations, and microchipping. We also offer our services to local rescues that pull from our local shelter. Since June of last year, we've served almost 200 animals. Our last clinic held in June, there were over 88 animals serviced, spayed and neutered. along with hernia repairs, cyst removals, abscessed teeth, nail trimmings, and other things. Almost $45,000 in services performed for $3,400. Budget season is here. So we would like to request an agenda item with you regarding the needs that we can help with here in Mount Pleasant. We want to discuss current policies, how we can more effectively provide services to more citizens in the city. In addition, the spay and neuter services, we would like to discuss shelter hours, access, community outreach and partnerships involving local civic groups and rescue. We are compiling data from animal shelters all across Northeast Texas and our local shelter to see where we fall in in areas such as adoption, euthanasia rates, adoption fees, what those fees cover, time spent actively pursuing relationships with rescues, and how hours of operation affect these numbers. I appreciate all of you, everything that y'all do. Please feel free to reach out to us anytime. Thank you.

Thank you. Candace, can we go ahead and get something put on the agenda so we can actually discuss the Spay and Neuter program? I think it's kind of cool that we just had that presentation with Rob and one of the number one on identifying opportunities for cost savings and partnerships. Number one was to partner with nonprofit groups. And I think with a lot of thought, we could actually probably save the city some money. So we appreciate it.

Any more comments?

All right, let's go ahead and move into consent agenda. Now, y'all bear with me. I'm working on an iPad this time. Part of what we're trying to do also is get to the electronic agenda to save on all the printing and everything because it costs quite a bit to get that stuff printed out. We're just trying to make sure that we can make it easily, so I'm the guinea pig. Okay, so we're going to move into consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are approved through a single council motion, which applies to all the items listed. Consent agenda items are considered routine, not likely to require discussion or deliberation, and may be discussed prior to making a motion. There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a council member requests an item be removed and considered separately. Item number two, consider approval of July 7th, 2026 meeting minutes. And item number three, consider pay request number 38 for Drake Construction Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant. Any discussion? Motion?

I make a motion that we accept item number two and three on the consent agenda, and we approve.

I second. All right. Madam Secretary, you can vote, please.

Yes. Aye.

Aye. All right. We passed unanimously. We'll go ahead and move into a regular agenda. Item number four, monthly financial report for month end June 30th, 2026.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Manager, staff, and citizens. Thank you for allowing me to present your June 2026 monthly financials. It's also our third quarter of our fiscal year. For a general fund in the month of June, on a budget of $15,874,000, we've had a year-to-date actual of $13,420,000, or a year-to-date percent of 84.5%, and this is in relationship to 76% this time last year. For June, property tax collections were at a 94.9, or rounded up to 95%, and that's a target. Usually, if you don't have around 95%, it's where you want to maybe think about a budget amendment, but we did hit that year-to-date. We did have a negative percent, negative to actual budget for the month, but overall year-to-date was positive at 10.61%. For sales tax for the month of June, we had a month-to-date positive 8.54% and a positive almost $400,000. And in the same time last year, it was 7.95% or $372,000. So right on target to where we were at last year a little bit. General fund expenditures for the month of June. We had a month-to-date loss of $108,000, but a year-to-date profit of $2.1 million. And our target, again, is 75% for revenues and expenditures on the straight line. We are under that at 71.2%. And last year was 71.1%, so neutral this year to last year on our expenditures. Utility fund for the month. June on a twenty point four million dollar budget we are at fifteen point three million dollars and exactly at seventy five percent target and we had a fourteen point two million last year and seventy five point six so right in line with where we were last year and what our target is utility fund expenditures for the month of June we have a smaller year-to-date actual profit of just under $300,000, but our expenditure percentage is close to $75,000. It's slightly higher at $76.9, and last year it was 76%, but at this time we had a loss of $73,000, and we're having a very wet summer, as everybody knows, so that does affect our utilities. self-tax for the month of July. We've got those numbers in, and they're slightly more positive than June. There's a percentage of 9.56, and we're over our budget of almost half a million dollars for the year. Are there any questions on the monthly financial program?

Any discussion? All right. I appreciate it. Let's go ahead and move on to Oh, okay. Sorry. All right, let's go ahead and move on to item number five, quarterly investment report for a quarter in June 30th, 2026.

So our quarterly investment report, I don't have a presentation for today, but I've got some materials for you for covering the whole investments for the city and the EDC. We have a steady rate of checking account at guarantee of 1.76% And we had a positive, I would say positive than what we anticipated for the year with our interest rates. The feds have not dropped anymore. In fact, there's some talk they may raise rates based on inflation, which if that does happen, our pooled accounts are sort of like a money market. and the relationship with the rates will go up, which will benefit us that they do go up and not lower rates. Tech's pool was at 3.62 to 3.66 rate of return for the quarter. Our logic product was at 3.75 to 3.77, and Texas range was 3.64 to 3.65. You'll see next quarter we did move and invest some funds for EDC in the tune of $2 million was approved by their board and it was a good move to move them out of checking and get them into the higher interest rate. For the year we started out with $59 million, we're at $52.6 million. We did have most of our debt service payments principal and interest in May. that was what sort of affected our quarter. But overall, positive. We are looking at some things to bring to you in the future, some requests for maybe external help with our investments, just because the treasury management internally could be probably a little bit better off if we had professionals that are outside. Also, we'll be bringing forth probably depository agreement that's just a state requirement that we have to go out and do RFA for banking with that said I don't have anything else question but I if there are no questions I would ask for a motion to accept the quarterly discussion motion

I make a motion to approve the quarterly investment report for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026. I second. Madam Secretary, can we get a vote, please?

Aye.

Aye. Yes.

All right. Motion passed unanimously. Thank you. Let's go ahead and move on to item number six. Consider ordering a special election to fill the unexpired term of the council member place two.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I am here. As you know, at our last meeting, we accepted the resignation of Council Member Savoia, and so we have to call an election to fill a replacement.

And you need a motion for them to actually vote.

Yes, sir.

I'll make a motion to order a special election for November 3rd, 2026.

I second.

Madam Secretary, do we have a vote, please?

Yes.

all right motion passed unanimously go ahead and move on to item number seven discuss and consider resolution 2026-18 designating signatory authorities and authorizing the submittal of a water supply infrastructure grant to texas water development board

back again. I forgot. So this is a resolution at our last meeting. We assigned an engineer and we assigned a administrator for the Texas Water Development Board grant. And so this resolution is to authorize the city manager or the city or the mayor to sign documents. And all the documents are attached in there, which I would like to note there is one revision on this page right here. in your packet where it just says city we changed all those lines to say city of mount pleasant on there on each one of those instead of city all right discussion motion

I make a motion that we approve Resolution 2026-18, designating the mayor and city manager as authorized signatories and authorizing the submission of the grant application for CWD. A second.

Madam Secretary, can you vote, please?

Aye. Yes.

Aye. Motion passed unanimously. Let's go ahead and move on to item number eight. I hold a public hearing and consider ordinance 2026-17 to approve a request for Jerry Herron on behalf of Tennyson United Methodist Church and Mount Pleasant Community Fund property owners to rezone an existing church and office building at Mount Pleasant City Block 166 lots 4R-1 and 4R-2, single family 2, to neighborhood services and addressed at 307 East 5th Street, Z-2026-03. And is there any discussion or anything you want?

Good evening.

And let's go ahead. Before we open here? Okay. Go ahead, Lynn.

So this is actually, it looks pretty complicated, but it's a housekeeping item. So the office that is in question was part of the church at one time. It was split off onto its own lot and transferred to a non-church entity, but the entire property is... lies in the single family two zoning. Single family two zoning does allow churches, presumably years and many, many years ago, it was zoned appropriately, but currently it does. So that meant That's the, see the big campus there. The office itself is the small lot at the top at the north that used to be church purposes. In fact, it still has offices. play equipment as if it was a nursery, so it may have been. This whole case came about when the office that is now CASA, and it may be some other item, they're kind of public entities, but they are not allowed in a single family to zoning. They needed their fire inspection for their, and without being compliant. that wouldn't happen. So this, like I said, this is a housekeeping issue. And so you can kind of see how big that is and where it is. The zoning map kind of gives a different picture. You see that there is general retail next to the railroad tracks, which is right across the tracks from downtown. that is already zoned general retail and the rest of it is single family in order to make it, to reach a zoning change that would allow the single family to up there by itself. to be zoned appropriately, which would be the least intrusive would be neighborhood services. It needs to be contiguous to another non-residential zoning district. And since churches are allowed in neighborhood services, it was discussed with the church ownership, who also happens to be in the neighborhood. the board member or the responsible board member for CASA that they would all ask for a reasoning check. These are some current photos. This is the Tennyson Memorial. That's on the front side. The office in question is pictured at the lower right. And then you can see looking past that office into the campus how big it is. There are homes across the street from Tennyson at the church entrance, and the lower photo shows the general retail development across the way, across the property. There is no interest on the part of the church to change uses whatsoever. This is just a housekeeping item, but it needed to be in compliance. So there are 24 property owners all around that property within 200 feet were notified, and I received two responses in favor of their remarks. A mentioned that there is a public responsibility for To us to advertise to the community in the newspaper as well, and we do not receive any any calls or emails on it. So we're recommending approval of this rezoning to both of those lots to neighborhood services and single family to. The current land use is compliant, and the former building has been, I think it's probably been an office for a little while, hasn't caused any consternation or complaints to our office that we know of. Before that, it was part of the church. There wouldn't be any detrimental impact on anything that exists now, and there's no future development planned either. The Planning and Zoning Commission did vote unanimously to recommend approval to this board at their meeting last week. Y'all have any questions for me?

Thanks. Let's go ahead and open the public here. Anybody need to come up and speak? All right, we'll close the hearing. Can we go ahead and get a motion?

Make a motion that... We accept... Make a motion that we redone the existing church and office building at Mount Pleasant City Block 166, blocks 4R-1, 4R-2, from single family 2... Miss Faulkner, that is an ordinance. Can you just call it Ordinance 2026-17? need to make the approval, for my approval, Z-2026-03 to re-examine the subject properties, neighborhood service, all right?

I second the motion. All right, Madam Secretary, do we have a vote please?

Aye. All right. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go ahead and move on to number nine. Discuss and consider action on criteria and guidelines for MPEDC's incentive policy.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager. About, say, three months ago, I think that City Manager Vine brought to you all the... city of Mount Pleasant incentive policies that y'all adopted. And so in the cities that I've served economic development, we've always had a guidelines and criteria for economic development incentives Rob beat me to the punch. And so we have officially got ours done, but we've incorporated the city's policies at the backside of the document. I think it's probably 15 or 16 pages. But what this does from the economic development perspective is it lets perspective people that want to invest in our community. It gives them an idea of what they can expect from an incentive. It is in no way a contract of what they will receive. You guys. might be able you may want to give them more or you may want to give them less and so and it states that in this policy but what it also does is it outlines the services that we'll provide for prospects coming in you know they may not know that we will go and initiate with the county Trying to get them tax abatement or at the city level trying to get them some type of incentive from the city It really outlines what we will do for a prospect to kind of make it where it's central located and not Somebody going to three or four different entities that will take the lead on that. So we've already Started on one of the projects the illumines project where we've taken over their negotiating at the county level and then with them on something at the city of Winfield level. So it outlines some of those services that we'll provide. The board did approve this at our last board meeting unanimously. y'all should have received a copy of that but all it does is it just outlines some of the services that we'll provide and then the incentive that we may or may not give and we used historical numbers of what we've done in the past the council approved and the board approved so obviously we want to look at these probably every two years when you look at your other incentive guidelines that you have to approve every two years if you've got incentives, I know for like sales tax or whatever, the city has to look at those every two years and renew those. So we'll certainly want to look at these and see if those capital investment and those full-time equivalents and average wage are where they need to be. And we can update this document as needed. But in no way does it tie you to those numbers. It's just a suggestion of what we may or may not give as an incentive. Certainly answer any questions, though, that you may have, Council.

All right. Any discussions? I'll make a motion to accept the MPEDC Criterion Guidelines and Senate Policy.

Second.

Madam Secretary, you can vote please. Aye.

Yes. Hi.

Motion.

Kevin.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. I was just having a conversation about you the other day.

That's scary.

It is. But no, someone was asking me how I thought the EDC was going, and I was able to tell them with what I know that I appreciate what you're doing. I can see a difference, and thank

Well, I appreciate that. I just want to say it's almost been crazy. It's almost been a year since I've been here, and this is a great product to sell. I mean, Lisa and I love East Texas, and so not so much today. I just looked at the heat index. It's 109. It's hot. It's crazy. And I got to go mow, so anyway, but no, I appreciate the kind thoughts, and I think we've got some things going. It's been a little slower than I would like to have been, although we've seen a lot of movement from some of the companies that are already here wanting to expand, and that's great that your companies that are here want to expand. And so I know that Rob and I are going to visit with one of those tomorrow that wants to expand, and we're excited to do that. And so... Anytime you get the chance to grow one of your own companies that are already here, they already know how great it is here. But we're going to get some of those folks from the outside. We'll get that interest as well. We've got a good piece of property out there. And I do want to give a couple of shout-outs, if I may, Mayor. um i want to give a shout out to rebecca and her staff they've been great to work with and we appreciate i know it was a little bit of trouble to get that money moved over but i appreciate it and i asked a lot of questions as we're trying to clean up some things and And then I also want to give a big shout out to Garrett and his crew for the work that they do for our business part. I know that we get billed for that, but I appreciate working with Garrett. So I mean that a lot. I appreciate the work that you do. So anyway, thank you all.

You're awesome. Thanks, Kevin. And motion passed unanimously. All right. And we're going to item number 10, discuss and consider ordinance 2026-18, a budget amendment for a $2,500 grant for the Texas Book Festival.

Hello, Council, Mayor, Mr. Vine. So I just wanted to bring up a budget amendment for $2,500 for a grant that we received at the library. This is our third year receiving this grant, and we're adding more books to our collection. Specifically, with this cycle, we're focusing on juvenile fiction and nonfiction as well.

Awesome.

Any questions?

No question. I just want to say that every time you're up here, you're giving us more money. And you're really good at these grants. So if you can give anybody else help on that, we'd appreciate it. And thank you for what you do.

Thank you.

Yeah, were you saying this month y'all have something almost every day?

I know last week we had something every day. This week we have something most days. But we're just finishing out the summer really strong. And then after that, we do sort of see a little bit of a lull, but we're hoping to keep it going.

Yeah, something that she's working on, too, is the notification. What is it? Civic... civic ready to where we can actually start sending stuff out to people normally it's just weather related or emergencies but there's another option in there that you check it off that you can get notification of the events and stuff like that so for the people that want things to do with their kids we had fun with our yeah we we do a lot and i'd like to give a shout out to the police department and also the fire department they were great the kids had blasts

I've ran into the parents since then and they just continuously say that was such a wonderful event and such a wonderful community event All right, you get a motion I Make a motion that we approve ordinance 2026 18 amending the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget for library grant funds Second that motion.

All right, I'm sick. You get a vote, please Hi

Yes.

All right. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go ahead and move on to item number 11. And thank you, Lupe. We appreciate it. Item number 11, city manager's report.

I don't know who put the council agenda, but I shouldn't have to follow the library director. I'll be happy to take this role. Real quickly, Mayor Council met with Holmes Murphy this week. They are our health insurance solvent. We went through some marketing results at the city's health insurance options to determine how much our insurance is going to go up. It invariably goes up every year. Initially, the percentage was higher, but they came back, looked like our insurance will increase 17%. It's a big hit, but it's lower than what it would have been. Even with this increase, we try to shop it out. We go to different, who can give us the best price, who can give us the best product, and This increase has approximately a $329,000 price tag. So staff is currently looking at ways to cover the increase. Second, the staff are expecting to receive the completed engineer plans for the I-30 East Border water line, the I-30 water treatment plant operation system, and the dam rehabilitation project. Thankfully, we should receive those this week. Once we get those plans in, KSA will work up, begin work on the I-30 water line and filtration system for the MSA that Council approved a few months back. And we are going to look at and determine that, like, thank you for the damn project, but that I might have to put here, or maybe even that we can't put that off. For budget, we are actively working on the budget process. The compensation that study has been presented to you, the consultant has also reached back out to staff and fine-tuned a few sections of the data for a potential grade and step solution. And then using that data from the study, staff has also added additional information that we have with some other cities that are protected as well. So we will be presenting that to you at a later session.

All right, we've got council comments. Council comments limit to announcements of upcoming events, recent council member activities, or requests to add agenda items for the upcoming meeting. Anybody have anything?

All right. I spoke with Garrett at the break, and we did something several years back that I was a part of a couple times, but a big campout at the park when it's a lot cooler weather. And campfire, s'mores, hot dogs, good time.

I was about to say, beast of the day, right?

All right, great.

All right, we'll go ahead and... We'll go ahead and move into our... Yeah, that is it. I thought we had at least one thing in there. I'm glad I'm sitting down. All right. The city council reserves the right to adjourn and to... Oh.

Am I looking at the... We're adjourned.

We're adjourned. The coffee didn't help at all.