City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] you feel me? [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Baby, [Music] hey. [Music]

Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing all of us to get here safely. I just ask that you watch over everybody and watch over our community and bring the rain in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

I'd like to establish that we have a quorum and call our meeting to order. We'll start by having the uh the pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Now the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee Texas one state under God one and indivisible. Everyone be seated.

Thank all of you for joining us tonight. [Music] Right now would be the time for uh public comment. Is there anybody that has any comment before we continue? I just had one brief one and I fell down on the job. I should have printed enough copies of this for everybody to have. This is the front page of the city budget. And down at the bottom it has a statement that says this budget will raise more to property taxes than last year's budget by 26448 or 00599% of that amount. 7,900 is tax revenue to be raised from new property and whereas 1,800540 is tax revenue to be raised from an increase in property valuations. I'd like to bring forward that that statement is untrue. Um the uh the the part that's untrue about it is the last part. Uh what's funny is the city has that statement on the front of their budget. The uh where is that? the U in truth and taxation on on the uh actually the appraisal district's website they have another statement that says two major components of your property tax calculation are exemptions and tax rates which are both determined by your taxing units school district county city etc. These are not determined by the appraisal district or tax office. So it it's like we've got

two of them denying trying to deny where tax increases come from and just so we all got on the same page. I think it's important that we're truthful with taxpayers as far as what uh actually causes their taxes to go up. Yeah, our taxes went up an additional $18,540.554, but that also could have been negated by the tax rate being set lower by that much. I mean, that's a minute amount. I know it's not much when you scatter it out amongst everybody, but I think we need to be truthful that where our tax increases come from is from the rates that are set by the political subdivisions in a county and not by the by the appraisal district. We know that the appraisal every year has gone up and yes that stings but at the same time uh our taxes don't have to go up because of that there no new revenue rates there and I feel like we're we're being dishonest with people on the front of the city budget saying that we couldn't help this. The appraisal went up, so we raised it. And that's not true.

But our tax rate actually went down from what it was last year. Tax rate doesn't matter from last year because you're working with a whole new pile of money every year. It is a completely different pile of money. But it does matter. Not the tax rate doesn't matter until you get the new tax the the actual uh appraisal and what that um totals up to, what pile of money you have to work with from the appraisal district.

But the appraisal district is half of the equation and we're the other half. The appraisal district has nothing to do with it really. So my taxes if everybody's taxes went up 200%. Not not my taxes. If everybody's appraisal

200% every taxing entity could lower the tax rate to a non-due revenue rate and we wouldn't see minimal new taxes. Okay. We could probably make that happen, but we also have to consider, do you know of any business that doesn't have an increase in prices of doing business every year

and it costs them more? So, there's more out of their pocket and and we only have one way. We're not a manufacturer. We don't market a product. We don't have anything to sell. We sell our water and and sewer rates basically. That's it. So, yes, we're actually collecting a little bit more money this year, but

and it's not a lot. I understand. But we also try to give our employees a raise every year. And that's one of the things that offsets that little bit more that that we're getting. Plus, we also have insurance that goes up every year.

All I'm bringing out is that it is not true that because the appraisal went up, our taxes went up by $18,540. So, I mean, I don't think you're complaining. You're you're saying we have a small amount that we're actually going to collect more money. Uh but what I I'd like to comment back to we had this discussion in our public hearing the other night in regards to our tax rate. Uh no you it was just us here we had this discussion I want to comment uh on this but so for me as a conservative I'm I'm more small government. I don't want the government controlling everything that we do. And so the problem that we have in the state of Texas currently that they're actually hiding behind and most people can't see it is they're coming in and they're forcing the appraisal districts to increase the value. The issue that I have with that is it's pretty hard to vote out our state legislatores especially when they've been there as long as they have. Let us control how much money we are in taxes every year. Leave the values where they're at. There's no reason to adjust the values at the appraisal district because it doesn't it doesn't correlate to what you can sell that property for, what you should tax it for. There's no correlation. Leave the values alone and let us adjust the rates appropriately. And I think if we could, we would probably see a more conservative approach from our end on where we need to set the rates at because we know we have the control. And the best thing about that is if you don't like the way that we're doing it, if if it was set up that way, you or any constituent doesn't like the way that we're doing it and they think we're raising taxes all the time, we could be voted out pretty easily where I think at the state level, but for some reason our governor wants to be big government, have his hands in all the local control. And the problem that they do is

everything they push out is to fit more of the larger counties in Texas and it does not fit small town Texas. And so like I think if they would just back up and back off of it a little bit and the reason that the appraisal district keeps having to do it is because they're withholding school funding. So they're basically dangling school funding over the pre appraisal district saying if you don't do this then we're withholding that school funding from your school system. It's why why why do they want to be like that? Especially with the surplus of money that they have and if they're conservatives that we vote for. They definitely don't have the same values I do. You know all they're they're all about control. And I just don't think big government big government control is is good. I mean, I go back to the co years and thankfully we live where we lived and uh we didn't have big government trying to control us. Now, I absolutely see what you're saying. I agree with you. I just have a different perspective. I just feel like this is a bad place to have that statement saying it's not our fault the appraisers.

Sure. Because people don't understand how property taxes are calculated and how how how they come down to that number that they have to travel. Absolutely. They they feel like, okay, well, shoot, the states make me pay it. Oh, the state really doesn't have anything to do with property taxes. They do have to do I mean for one thing the state really has lowered our property taxes as far as school and still being paid by tax money which I ran into that earlier today that they they don't believe that it's still being paid by tax money sales tax it it's coming from and and uh you know I I feel like local government is probably the place where we can look harder and find more places and also be more honest with citizens as far as where the property taxes come from and and what we're doing with those property taxes. And I Gary, I know what what you're saying as far as Yeah, there's a lot of things that we're committed to providing, but at the same time, is government too large? I mean that that's something in my mind that always comes up. Is government too large? That's along the lines of what you brought up.

Government's always been too large. Yeah, it always is. And but I think that starts here. And I believe that right here is the purest form of good you're going to find. You know, one of the silliest things since I've been on the council uh was an unfunded mandate from the state that forced us to change out all of our uh polls for stop signs, yield signs, any type of street sign. In a tent, a cost study we did on it at the time was going to cost us between 180 to $200,000 unfunded mandate just so that signs would break away if you hit them, right? like, well, just don't hit the sign, you know? So, they force this stuff down us. It's all about them having control over what we do, how we spend our money. I think if they would back out of it, I think we would we're all very uh conservative here. You know, we we talk about that a lot. We don't want to raise taxes. That's when I think you probably see more often your fees uh have gone up. But you know, in that sense, the state's probably done us a favor because we can say we hadn't raised taxes, right? Well, they forced the values up. If they wouldn't have forced the values up, at some point we would have to raise taxes to operate. we would have to raise the tax rate, you know, but I would like it to be uh our decision on when that rate goes up and when we feel comfortable moving it up. If we don't have to, don't do it. Well, you know that and and like I said, this just being not correct. And the fact that well, let's quit comparing this year's tax rate to last year's. Let's compare it to what the tax levy is.

Sure. The tax levy is what is important, not the tax rate because the tax rate comes off of whatever the appraisal, the countywide appraisal is. But I just I just this just caught my eye that it it's like we're we're all the taxing in it in it. The appraisal district is not a not a taxing entity, but they are also saying, "Hey, this doesn't have anything to do with your property taxes because these entities set the rate." And here you're saying, "Oh, no. The appraisal district made us raise taxes." So it's just kind of like, hey, we we don't want the blame for it.

Yeah. So it just caught mine, that's all. Absolutely. No, I I hear you. That's Is it tonight that I got to read the specific wording for the tax rate? Is that tonight or they got away with uh

because I think that's a little misleading in itself, too. that the state forces us to read wording in this specific wording. To me, it's misleading. I'm like, I don't even think this is accurate. So, just to cover a little bit, uh, Mr. Lewis, the statement on this budget is required by the state.

We have to put the statement in front of our budget. Okay. We do hire the appraisal district. Every tax entity has hired an appraisal district to not only collect for us but they also help us in determining the rates. Okay. The tax levy as you said went up. Okay. Uh property valuations for the city were up 17%. The difference in what you see on this budget is from the non- new revenue to the voter approval rate which is uh 2 and 12%. Okay. It is the max that the city could raise taxes. That's is that's what it is. You said uh something about the last year taxes has nothing to do with this year's. The difference between last year and this year that's where the rates are set. The tax base went up from 186 million to 197 million for the city. Not the county me that's what it went up on the city. Yes. Our tax rate did go down. Okay. From 6932 to 6730. Our tax rate is less. We are collecting more taxes because the tax base went up.

Yeah. There's the 17% increase in value. So if we take the rate if we take if we take the rate from last year's we will be there will be a lot more increase than what we're actually doing because the base has gone up. Okay. Council approved the rate. Okay. That is what I did. We did have the public hearing to hear the comments from the public.

Sure. Uh we had nobody come up if y'all remember that y'all also set the date to approve the budget tonight. Okay. The rate that has been approved by y'all is 673093. That is with a 2025 2026 fiscal year. Yeah. Uh I would like for any citizen that would like to come in and talk to us about their taxes, my doors open. I would try to explain to you what we do. I'm not going to say what the county does, the school, or anybody else. But it' be more than glad to say I was any citizen of Mosu and talk about truth of taxation and what the state require us to do. The statement in front of our budget that is required that is something the wording that's in here. I'm required to put that word in. I'm not going to sit here and blame district. They got a job to do. They are in higher but all the tax entities they are. You made a comment mayor. Yes. The state sets uh a cap on how much they can go up on taxes. They are the one to go up on the taxes. They are. Okay. We hired them to do that. They um so there was one other time Kirk that uh one of the only times that we've actually raised the tax rate since I've sat on this council which has been since 2012 so 13 years one of the only times we raised the tax rate you know there was some pretty severe disasters that went around along the state that year wildfires and different things and the state was talking about capping us I I think it's when they capped us at at we could only go up 3%.

Three and a half. 3 and 1/2. Well, our concern was if we don't go ahead and increase our rate a little bit and we have something major happen, we wouldn't be able to increase it enough. So, at that point, what the state did was force us to go ahead and be prepared. So, we raised rates that year. And it's like if the state will just get out of our business and quit telling us we have to mislead people by stating this or by me stating this. If they'll just get out of our business and let us run our town, I think we could do a lot better and be a lot better uh at what we do. But they force us. You know, while I've been on the council, we haven't had any major issues that I thought was going to be very costly until this last year when we had the sewer line collapse out here on Highway 84. You know, at first, uh, what we spent a week or week and a half trying to fix it when we couldn't get that done and we were having to look at maybe the textile wasn't going to let us go down there and repair. We were going to have to bore. And so we were looking at what 800,000 or something like that.

Uh anywhere from a million to two to bore. Well, we don't have that kind of I mean we have some money put back. That's a significant amount for us to come up with, you know. So then what are we going to do? Fortunately, you know, this the road started buckling and text dot let us go down there and it still cost us somewhere around $200,000. Uh it wasn't budgeted, you know, and so I'm with you. I I wish take the misleading statements off, get out of our business and let us take care of the things that we need to take care of, you know, and that's my opinion. And so, but I always appreciate you being here. Uh, we don't get a whole lot of attendance at our meetings and anytime we do, uh, I always like that we have people here.

Yeah. And that, like I said, just an educated taxpayer base is something that I think this takes away from it for sure is all I'm saying. I'm I'm with you. I'm with you. We would love for citizens to get educated, come talk to us. We would love for that. I mean, we want to be as transparent as we can. Uh we are transparent. Uh that is my number one goal.

That's my number one goal. So, uh, if anybody would like to come in and talk to us, we'd be more than glad at any time. And, and since I've started this, this is the 18th time that I've done a budget. And that's probably too long, but that's just the way it is. And to this day, in 18 years, not one time that I can remember, correct me if I'm wrong, but not one time have we ever had anybody come to a public hearing for the tax rate. I don't remember one. So, we do the best we can. We We're doing what we're supposed to. We're following the law. where so we when we have a public hearing we would like the public to come and we'll serve you

for sure or even be at this meeting I think it's great I I like when people are here and we can converse back and forth and you know as long as it's not out of hand I don't like to limit the the conversation either because that's how I think that we get places. several. All right, we're going to move to uh the first item on the agenda to approve the meeting the minutes of the meeting held August 11th, 2025.

Motion we approve those minutes. I'll second it. We have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Our next item is to approve the minutes from the August 28th, 2025 public hearing meeting. Make a motion we approve those minutes.

I'll second it. We have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to consider uh the ordinance removing the real property from the extra territorial jurisdiction which we spoke about this last meeting and

this is the second reading of that ordinance. And has previously stated it it reduces a ETJ on that particular site from half a mile to 500 ft. Does anybody have any questions in regards to that? I'll make a motion that we pass that ordinance. I'll second. Motion, a second. All those in favor say I.

All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to consider resolution R-824-0925 ratifying the increased property tax revenue. Mayor, that's what this resolution does and it's required by state law. It confirms the increase of the proper tax revenues. The total increase for this year is 29,576.79 with the 2025 2026 budget. Um so we are confirming that we are in increasing this amount.

Is that a new item? I believe this is it. It happened um Senate Senate Bill uh two the same time that itre changed all the wording. So this is the first year we've done it. No sir. I just didn't remember it last year. No, it's been it's been done for two three years. I'll make a motion that we uh pass that resolution. I'll

second. Motion a second. All those in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to consider ordinance 0-553-0925. That's adopting the 2526 budget. Just just like it states, this ordinance adopts the budget for the 2026 uh year. Um copy of that proposed budget. It's on our website. Um that it will up till tonight was a proposed moving forward that will be the budget for the 2025 2026 year. I'll

make a motion we pass that ordinance. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to consider ordinance D ordinance 0-552-0925 setting the 26 tax rate. So this will have to be a two-part rule set of tax rate for M at 0.56 3692 and then interest and syncing at 0.109401 for a total of 673093 that will be the tax rate for 2026 fiscal year. So, I'll need a motion for no and a motion for IS.

And do they have to be a show hand? Yes, sir. I make a vote, please. Okay. I'll make a motion that we set the tax rate for maintenance and operation at.563692. I'll second a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All opposed. I'll make a motion that we set the uh interest and syncing tax rate at 0.109401. Second. I have a second. All those in favor raise your right hand. Opposed. Both motions uh pass. Totaling the tax rate at 6730. Our next item number six is considering ordinance uh 0-554-0925 amending the fee schedule.

Okay. What this ordinance amends a fee schedule for fees and rates charge of the city that changes to the fee schedule or adding section 80003 vector control. What this section does, it establishes $150 a $1.50 charge to the monthly utility bill on all accounts handled by the city utility bill building billing department. Uh this funds are collected will be used to defay the cost spray. Uh this year was pretty wet year, you know, so we spray quite a bit more. So, uh it's something we kind of decided, uh not only increase the chemicals and all that, but it's something that, uh we need to offset some cost, and that's what that session does. Uh also, it amends article 87.00 garbage collection fees, section 87.001, 001 residential and commercial pickups fees will increase for $2 a month to reflect the following uh $32 a month for uh single family residents and multif family. What that does to commercial accounts will increase $2 regard uh kind of depending on what service you're getting which two two or three times paid up a week. So, uh, across the board, it' be a $2 increase a month. Um, it also amends article 88.0000, the water and sewer fees. In particular, section 88 8004 sew utility fees. The fees will increase a $2 a month for residential and a $5 a

month for commercial reflect following. Uh, residential be $20 a month and commercial be $23 a month and also the changes to the fee schedule. Does anybody have any questions? I'll make a motion we pass that ordinance. A

second. Have a motion in a second. All those in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to consider the request of the holiday treasures for the hotel motel tax funds for the promotion of the 25 holiday treasure event.

Mayor Lorena Deion is requesting up to $1,000 of hotel motel funds for the advertising and promotion of the holiday treasure event. Uh vendors from out of town stay in local motel for this event. Uh I think this event will be held on November the 1st. Um it is up to a,000 that uh staff will verify receipts. Uh last year they requested 900 and I believe they they did turn in $900 worth of receipts. Uh they did go up $100 uh from 900 to a,000. It is something that you know we've been doing for years. Uh so I'll make a motion that uh we approve that request. I'll second it.

Motion, second. All those in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is to receive the financial statement for the month ending August the 31st of 2025.

Make a motion to receive the financial statement. I'll second it. Motion to second. All those in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries. Item nine, administrative reports. Mayor, the SPAG annual general assembly meeting will be held Wednesday, September 17th at the Science Spectrum Museum in Lovebook. Uh if any of you wish to attend, please uh let Tummer know. Uh also the TML annual conference will be in Fort Worth October 28th to 31st. Uh the community water park is closed for the season. Uh the Seal Co program is scheduled for September 23rd. Uh we ask citizens that please work with our public works department. Uh please don't park in the street. Uh if more than likely if your tree overhangs the street, we'll have contact to you already or we'll contact you. Try to keep those. We don't want to cause damage to the trees itself, but it also helps the contractor and uh other works to do a good job. So, and that's all I have.

Does the council have any remarks? No, sir. That I think we're adjourned.