City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'm going to call this City Council meeting for the City of New Braunfels to order on Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 6 p.m. Mrs. Wilkinson, will you please call roll?

Council Member Carter? Here. Council Member Capizzi?

Here.

Council Member Edwards?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tems-Bradley?

Here.

Council Member Lebowski? Here. Council Member Ryan?

Here.

And Mayor Lennertz?

Here. We have a quorum. And Mayor Pro Tems-Bradley is going to lead us in the invocation followed by the pledges. Please stand.

Gracious Heavenly Father, may your Holy Spirit cast away fear, doubt, bitterness from this last election. Bring hope and love with this New Citizens Inspired chapter of New Braunfels. We thank you with sincere hearts for our outgoing Mayor Linnertz and Councilwoman Ryan. We are grateful for their service, commitment, and the personal sacrifices that they freely devoted for the benefit of New Braunfels. Lord, open new doors for them. Give them peace and renewed strength as they move forward beyond City Hall. Lord, we now look to you to entrust our newly elected mayor, French, and incoming councilwoman, Shaw, into your hands and care. Instill in them the wisdom, unwavering integrity, and a humble servant's heart for the responsibilities that lay ahead. Grant them with vision and empathy to govern justly and fairly. May they hear the concerns of every resident and lead in ways that advance fairness, opportunity, for the flourishing our beloved city. Lord, we now ask you for a powerful spirit of unity to bind our city council with our community as we work together for the common good. Let us lay aside any divisions, focus on shared goals. Help guide our transition with harmony, mutual respect, with your divine grace for the benefit of all our citizens and tourists alike. We also ask you Lord to bless the courageous people who serve and protect us each day. Our dedicated 911 operators, police officers and firefighters who stand ready to assist our citizens and our military service members facing evils of this world. Lord protect them all and give them strength in their noble calling. We're especially grateful to you God for the recent rains that have nourished our beloved home and the cherished freedoms we enjoy here in America, particularly the sacred right to vote and shape our very own city council one vote at a time. Let us remember Psalms 3312, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. As we celebrate America's 250 years of independence, we thank you for the blessings of liberty and for a renewed commitment to cherish, defend, and preserve these hard-won freedoms for generations to come. Lastly, we ask you, Lord God, to pour out your blessings upon our city. Fill it with love, civic engagement, genuine care for one another, and a hope for a brighter future for us all. In Jesus' holy name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag.

Honor the Texas flag. Our pleasure leads to be Texas. One state, under God, one and indivisible. We're going to let everybody have a chance to try to find a seat. And if you can't find a seat directly across the hall, we've got another room open and everything's broadcasting live on TV across the hall if you can't find a seat in here. First item on the agenda tonight is to complete and issue certificate of election to the mayor-elect Michael Alexander French for the mayoral position. Mrs. Wilkinson?

Yes, sir, this is done.

Next item is complete and issue certificate of election to the council member-elect Nikki L. Shaw for District 6.

This is done.

And administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Michael Alexander French.

We're going to pray. Father, we come to you today with grateful hearts. We thank you for the city of New Braunfels. We thank you for the families who call this place home, for the generations who built it, and for the future you still have for it. Today, as Michael French has sworn in as mayor, and Nikki Shaw has sworn in to serve on city council, we ask your hand to be upon them. Give them wisdom beyond their own understanding. Give them courage to do what is right even when it is difficult. Give them humility to listen, patience to lead, and strength to serve this city with clean hands and sincere hearts. Lord, we ask that their leadership would be marked by righteousness, transparency, honesty, and accountability. Let them never forget that public office is not a platform for self but a calling to serve the people. guide their decisions, guard their families, surround them with wise counsel, help them lead with conviction and compassion, with truth and grace and boldness and restraint. We thank you for the hope and optimism that people feel today. We pray that this hope would become more than a moment. Let it become a renewed commitment to the good of our city. May New Braunfels be a place where families can thrive, where neighbors are heard, where leaders are trusted, and where justice, integrity, and stewardship are honored. Lord, we do not put our ultimate hope in any person, position, or office. Our hope is in you. But we do ask that you use these leaders for the good of this city and for the blessing of the people they have been called to serve. Bless Mayor French. Bless Councilwoman Nikki Shaw. Bless every member of our city council. Bless our city staff, first responders, workers, families, churches, schools, and citizens of New Braunfels. Lead us forward with wisdom, righteousness, and peace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I please state your name.

I, Michael Alexander French.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully.

That I will faithfully.

Execute.

Execute.

The duties of the office.

The duties of the office.

Of the mayor.

Of the mayor.

Of New Braunfels.

Of New Braunfels.

Of the state of Texas.

Of the state of Texas.

And will.

And will.

To the best of my ability.

To the best of my abilities.

Preserve.

Preserve.

Protect.

Protect.

And defend.

And defend.

The Constitution.

The Constitution.

And the laws.

And the laws.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

And of this state.

And of this state.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Very good.

Hello, everyone. I never write anything down, so I'm just going to tell you by heart. This is such an amazing experience, and I'm truly honored that every one of you has given me to be here. I want to serve you guys honorably. I know this is a big responsibility, and I'm going to do it the best that I can. And the people govern me. They govern me. They tell me what to do. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to follow that. I've had so many friends that I made over time doing this nine-month thing. But I'm telling you, I've met so many people, so many neighbors, a lot of stories, good stories, bad stories. But it really touched me so hard. And we walked forever together. We were blood, sweat, tears. We were out there. But I'm telling you what, I'm going to do you guys proud. I will do my best. And thank you, Neal and Nards. You were great. I tell you, like I said back there, there's no mean bone in your body at all. And I really appreciate everything you've done for this city. I swear I do. And thank you. But I... Let me get my glasses.

Oh.

I'm gonna get my glasses real quick. I need to read. Oh, all right, now I'm prepared. Oh, wrong one. Next time I'll be prepared. All right, so, okay, on D. Where's my paperwork? Here it is, I got it, I'm sorry Larry. Administer the oath of office to district six council member, elect Nikki L. Shaw.

I, please state your name. I, Nikki Lynn Shaw.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully.

That I will faithfully.

Execute.

Execute. The duties. The duties.

Of the office.

Of the office.

Of council member.

Of council member.

District six.

District six.

Of New Braunfels.

Of New Braunfels.

Of the state of Texas.

Of the state of Texas.

And will.

And will.

To the best of my ability.

To the best of my ability.

preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States and of this state.

So help me God. I just want to say thank you, first of all, to God. All things happen because of him. And I am here in this position because I believe God put me here. And because of the people that showed up. that showed up and voted. And I think it's really important. We had a large turnout, and I encourage everybody to continue to show up, to continue to have your voice heard, and to continue to be an active part of this process every month when we have city council. So I would like to also say thank you to my sister. She's been phenomenal. She's my campaign manager. I couldn't have done it without her. She's been my rock. She's also my best friend. So it was really cool to go through this with her. And we've learned a lot together. And it's been really great. So thank you, Katie, for everything that you've done. On a side note, I'd also like to say the Bible that I just swore in on was my grandfather's Bible. And it was his. And in the beginning, it says his name and then 1921. So I think it's really cool to have that family tradition and have that piece of my family here and be part of it. Again, thank you all. I look forward to serving the people, learning a lot, and being very actively involved in this community. Thank you all.

All right, next thing on item E, presentation and recognition of the public service rendered by Neil Lenartz as the mayor of New Braunfels, Texas.

Thank you, Mayor. Come on up. So it's my honor to read this proclamation for Neal. And I want to go ahead and read that for you all. The state of Texas, the county of Comal, city of New Braunfels, whereas on May 6, 2023, Neal Lehnertz, having been elected by the citizens of New Braunfels, assumed the office of mayor of the city of New Braunfels. And whereas Neal Lehnertz, who served as the mayor of the city of New Braunfels from May 6, 2023 to June 22, 2026, And whereas his career as the mayor and his wholehearted participation in many related functions have earned him the respect of the city of New Braunfels. And whereas he has served faithfully as the mayor of the city council and has played a vital role in the important work of this body. Whereas his years of service have been marked by exemplary dedication dedication to the best interests of the community and his performance of duties and responsibilities as the mayor of the city council have been characterized by excellent constructive contributions to municipal government in our city and whereas with respect for mayor leonards the flag we present him we present him with was flown over a city building in his honor now therefore be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of New Braunfels, Texas, acting for and on behalf of the citizens of New Braunfels, that they hereby express their sincere appreciation and thanks to Neal Lennertz for his distinguished service to the community and highly commend him for the manner in which he has carried out his duties and responsibilities. In witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the City of New Braunfels to be affixed this 22nd day of June 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, Neal Lennertz.

Thank you, Robert. And I want to start off with some thanks. Thank you to my wonderful wife. I don't know where...

Thank you, Teresa.

Four years ago when I got roped into this, I told her, this is all something that I volunteered to do, not something that you volunteered to do, but you've been a sport. You've hung in there. You've attended everything. I want to thank my parents, Roy and Faye. They've been very supportive, right at my side. I want to thank everybody that was supportive over the last three years. Haley, thanks for all your hard work during the campaign. It wasn't always fun, but it was always rewarding. And Robert put out a... Going into the next years, it was a list of accomplishments that the city accomplished, and it was 14 pages long. And so over three years, we've been able to see a lot of accomplishments. But I've picked out some of my favorites. So I always believe in leaving something in a better place than where you found it. And so over the last three years, our tax rate is down 14%. Our sales tax collections are up 9%. Our median income is up 11%. New construction permits are down almost 70%. And crime is down 6%. We've implemented Ride the Rio. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars into improving our roadways. We acquired the Northwest Park and the Willard Canyon Park, and we opened Zip Family Sports Park. We implemented a right-of-way beautification team to keep the right-of-ways that are textotting and not actually our responsibility clean because it's part of our city, it's the right thing to do. Our downtown managed parking. We adopted a land use fiscal analysis. We adopted a strategic plan. We implemented signal box art program. We've adopted a arts master plan. We implemented or we funded an early matters New Braunfels. We started a tourism public improvement district and we formed TURs four and five. So I'm glad to walk away leaving New Braunfels a little better than I found it.

Gary, don't go anywhere. We have something for you.

Okay.

So it is also a tradition for us to provide outgoing council members and also retiring staff a street sign, which they get to tell us what they want on the street sign. We always check and make sure it's appropriate. And so I want to go ahead and unveil that for you all tonight, but this is your street sign, sir. I won't let you hold it. I'll put it down, but this is also the flag that was flown over a city facility in your honor, sir. Does anyone want to say anything? You don't have to, but you certainly are welcome to. What's the sign say? Leonard's Lane.

Love it.

This is for you as well.

Yes, sir.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you, sir. she didn't leave on me did she oh there she is okay April Ryan again I'm honored to read this proclamation April Ryan, the State of Texas, County of Comal, City of New Braunfels, whereas on June 26, 2023, April Ryan, having been elected by a runoff race, assumed the office of District 6 Councilmember of the City of New Braunfels, and whereas April Ryan served as District 6 Councilmember of the City of New Braunfels from June 26, 2023 to June 22, 2026, and whereas her career as a Councilmember and her wholehearted participation and many related functions have earned her the respect of New Braunfels. And whereas she has served faithfully as a member of the city council and has played a vital role in the important work of this body. And whereas her years of service have been marked by exemplary dedication to the best interest of the community and her performance of the duties and responsibilities of a member of the city council have been characterized by excellent and constructive contributions to municipal government in our city. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed, the City Council of the City of New Braunfels, Texas, acting for and on behalf of the citizens of New Braunfels, that we hereby express our sincere appreciation and thanks to April Ryan for her distinguished service to the community and highly commend her for the manner in which she has carried out her duties and responsibilities, a witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of New Braunfels to be affixed this 22nd day of June 2026.

Thank you so much, Robert. I guess I'll start by saying this. I never set out to be on city council. While my friends lovingly joked that I was going to be the mayor of New Braunfels at some point in time, it was because of my enthusiasm for this community. When I decided to open my business with my sister in downtown New Braunfels in 2009, which blows my mind, I immediately got involved because, not because that was the fun thing to do, or the popular thing to do, or the thing that was going to line my pockets, but because it was the right thing to do. And things needed to get done. We had issues throughout the city that needed the next generation of leaders to take over. And I am so immensely proud of the work that we've been able to accomplish with everybody up here and everybody that I've gotten a chance to serve on council with. City staff are just next level crazy, right? They think I'm crazy because I just did this for three years, but they have dedicated... 30 more years to this community, and without their dedication and their time and their energy, we would not look as good as we do up here on the dais. I love this town immensely, and I have only given a small fraction of what it's given back to me. Thank you so much for believing in me, New Braunfels, and for putting the little weirdo up on District 6. We love you, and yeah. Go unicorns.

Okay. Don't go anywhere. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You gotta come back. Mayor, I too have to wear my reading glasses. So if you ever need any, I've got a pair. Let me read this to you. District six council member presented to April Ryan. You exemplified our mission statement by providing quality services, encouraging community involvement, and being responsive to those we serve. Then it gives the dates of your service. Here you go. But then we also, as I mentioned, our tradition is a street sign.

There you go.

Hi, partisan party. Thank you, April. And with that, Mayor French, Council Member Shaw, congratulations and welcome to the city family.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we take a 10-minute recess so that you and I can go out into the lobby in the overflow area and say hello and thank you to the supporters that couldn't make it into this room.

I second that. I'm okay with that.

Any objections to that?

Okay, 10 minutes. The time is 6.26. In 10 minutes, we'll be back right here from a little recess. Hello, everyone. Hey, everyone. My ten minutes are up. Yeah, I just wanna thank everyone. We did go out there and we talked to everyone out there, that was out there, but now we're gonna restart again. And Larry, Council Member.

Yep, if you don't mind, Mayor, I'd like to just make a real quick two statements. Number one, welcome to the dais, Mayor French, and welcome to the dais, Councilwoman Shaw. Yep. Now we have, now we have three experienced veterans on City Council. There was only one for the longest time, so I'm really proud to be serving with y'all. And secondly, we're fixing to go into the Mayor Pro Tem. I appreciate the last year being able to serve as Mayor Pro Tem, but I'm taking my name off the list, so I won't be considered tonight.

I'm gonna do something a little different tonight, and probably a lot of people haven't seen it, and probably a long, long time. I did something a few days ago, but this may be a little different for everyone. I did find someone for me. This person, his name is Ronald R. Stinson, and he is a professional certified and registered parliamentarian with the National Association of Parliamentarians. He was the past president of the National Association of Politarians, and he is also a certified parliamentarian teacher. He has over 50 years of experience. And for tonight, I just would love to have him up here. And I'm going to bring a seat right here. And he's right there. And whenever I have anything that, I want to be very, very transparent in what I do. And I want to make sure that I get everything right. And I did as... So what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to be very, very transparent to everyone. And this is going to be a very, very positive thing. This whole thing is going to be positive. And so if I have any questions. that I wanna do and I may not know how to do it correctly. I did read a lot of the Robert's Rules of Order and the ordinance for the parliamentary procedures, but he's gonna help me out. I just look back and any advice that he can give me, that's what I'm looking for for tonight. And that was way before anyone told me there was someone for me. He drove all the way back from San Antonio and this guy is very, very brilliant, is Ronald. And before we get to item G, one little statement on how important a mayor pro temp is. See, the mayor pro temp, I wrote something here, plays a vital role in ensuring community of leadership for the city of New Braunfels. I am nominating this individual, I haven't picked anyone, but someone else will, because of their Demonstrative commitment to public service. Anyone up here could be a mayor pro temp, and they have already demonstrated public service, a ton of it, and it shows all the time. So when I am unavailable for any duty for the mayor, the mayor pro temp will perform the duties effectively for the mayor, preside over our meetings, and help ensure that a city business continues effectively and efficiently. And I will have full confidence in anyone that is elected here tonight in their ability to represent the city and serve the residents of New Braunfels with professionalism and integrity. So item G is to discuss and consider the election of the Mayor Pro Tem. And I'm gonna open it up to the floor for anyone to bring out a nomination.

I make a motion to nominate Council Member Tony Carter.

I will second that motion.

Is it a motion or a nomination?

Well, I'm gonna, it's a nomination, excuse me. It's a nomination. I'm unfamiliar with this process, but I'm guessing that we say a name and we vote on it.

Are any discussion with council if somebody else has a nomination as well, sir?

Yes. I seek to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. And I wrote a little bit of something is because I love serving New Braunfels and want to continue serving New Braunfels. This role is about leadership, service, supporting the mayor, council and residents. I have dedicated and completed my continuing education and have received my certified municipal official certification three years straight. And I continue to stay informed and I, excuse me, I would be honored to serve as mayor pro tem.

Yes, I have a nomination. I'd like to nominate Mike Capizzi.

Mayor, if you would please turn your mic on.

We have three nominations for Mayor Pro Temp. Right now, is there any more nominations for Mayor Pro Tem? Just three. One, two, three, four, just four.

Oh, sorry, I don't know what I'm doing here.

There's three right now, there's three.

All right.

If there's no further nominations, the nominations are now closed. So are we going to vote by voice, ballot, or raise hands? Gail?

Just a show of hands, but you need a motion and a second. You need a motion and a second.

No, not to vote.

So you have the nominees, so now the first person nominated, you would see whether or not they're able to obtain the four votes. If not, you go to the second person nominated and continue until someone receives four votes.

So for a show of hands, got to do a show of hands, the first nomination for Councilwoman Lebowski?

No, Carter was the first nominee. No, sir, it was Councilmember Carter.

I am, okay. Councilwoman? CARTER. SORRY ABOUT THAT. I'LL GET IT STRAIGHT. I WILL GET IT STRAIGHT.

OKAY, SHOW OF HANDS FOR THE NOMINATION.

SO THAT WAS THREE AND FOUR. AND THE SECOND ONE FOR NOMINATION IS COUNCILMAN Lebowski, show of hands. All right, that's two to five. And the next one for nomination, Mayor Pro Temp, is Councilmember Capizzi. Show of hands. Okay, so. So right now we have three, two, and two. So we're kind of stuck right now. Three, I'm not sure.

Mayor, I'd like to suggest that we just open it back up to nominations again, and I would like to nominate if I would agree.

No, we already closed the nomination. So right now, my parliamentarian wants to make a decision on the 322, and we're looking at plurality, right?

No? No? No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. Under open meetings, you have to have four votes. Okay. To be someone. Need a majority. So it is not.

So we're gonna have to go and nominate again.

You will, the three who received the nominations, because you decided to go into Robert's Rules, those are the three that are nominated. And bottom line is you have to continue voting, convince each other, talk to each other, until one of those individuals gets four votes.

Okay, so right now, I knew this was gonna be hard the whole night. So we're gonna start over again with the three individuals that volunteered. So at first we're gonna go with Councilwoman Carter.

I mean, I can speak to this matter, and I appreciate the confidence of the public, certainly, and I appreciate that I saw the show of hands. That was remarkable. Thank you so much. Thank you. You know, it was very much unsolicited by me and I can tell you even at my old age of, well, 58, I'm just gonna be honest about it. It's still an honor for folks that expect you to serve to think of you in a positive way. I don't take this role lightly and I don't think anybody should. Ultimately, we should all be looking at worst case scenario. That not only does the mayor go on vacation or just traffic to work or whatever. This is a role that should anything happen to the mayor, it's much akin to the vice president is to the president. The pro tem is to the mayor. I have been an executive since I was 38 years old because I worked my rear end off. I'm sure that that doesn't surprise anybody in this room. So I've handled situations of tremendous chaos, emergencies, even things that mattered to the public as a whole from the continental United States. And I've managed over a billion dollar budget, so I've made tough decisions in my career for quite some time. I do believe that it puts me in position to be a great leader in the second seat, of course, for the city. So I think that's probably where some of you came from. I also am not afraid, ever. It is just something that doesn't hit my matrix. I don't back down from a decision and I don't back down from anyone. So I'm proud of the support and I most certainly would accept the role, thank you.

Out of any one of the three, is there anyone that would wish to withdraw their name for this nomination? Any one of the three? No? Okay. Councilwoman Lebowski? Yeah, just, the nomination, just please tell us why you wanna be as nominated as Mayor Pro Tem.

Oh, I read it, but I'll reread it.

Okay.

But, I mean, I, okay. Okay. I had to text myself. Okay. I seek to serve as mayor pro tem because I care deeply about New Braunfels and I want to continue to serve our community. This role is about leadership service, supporting the mayor council and residents. I have completed my 10, my Texas municipal league training to stay informed on governance, ethics, budgeting, and best practices. And I believe in leading by example and continuous improvement as long as As the longest serving council member, I bring experience, institutional knowledge, and a collaborative approach. I will help foster productive discussions and support informed decisions. and keep focused on the people of New Braunfels. If selected, I will serve with professionalism, humility, and a commitment to help our council work together for our community.

Thank you. I just want to ask the same of Councilman

Absolutely. Capizzi. And I appreciate the nomination and the opportunity to potentially serve in this role. And one of my desires and things that I bring is a unique ability to work with the new mayor and bridging gaps, building bridges, And hopefully my goal, one of the top goals that I would have in that role is to utilize that role unifying the dais and hopefully restoring respect and unity following a very tough election. I've also got 32 years of professional experience running high stakeholder meetings, working in tough environments with high emotions, strong opinions when it comes to, like I said, just stakeholders in those environments. So my number one goal, like I said, because I love this city, I love this town, that's why I ran for council in the first place. is to restore unity and build bridges and respect. I recently met with Council Member Carter, had lunch with her last week, sent a letter to our city council a couple of weeks ago entitled Unity and Respect. It's a strong, passionate desire of mine. None of us are perfect, and I will be the first to admit that I am not a perfect person. However, I have a desire to, strong desire, to help heal this city.

Mr. Mayor, is this open for discussion outside of the three?

If I can open up to me talking, or . Does anyone on the council have anything to say about any one of the members that wants to be pro temp?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Go ahead.

So I nominate Toni Carter. I don't have a city email yet, but my campaign email was flooded with emails from District 6 and people outside District 6 asking for her to be mayor pro temp. And I think it would go a long ways in building trust back in the elected officials if we listen to that call just when we voted the number of people in the audience that raised their hands saying that that's what they were wanting. Um, I think it's really important that we take this opportunity to listen to the citizens, um, and let them be heard.

Mayor, mayor, mayor. Mayor, I also had numerous emails on behalf of nominating me as Mayor Pro Tem by the community also. And I believe the other council members and I believe that you were copied and Council Member Shaw was copied on those emails as much. And we should also, I mean, I was nominated by the community also.

Yeah, thank you. I saw that. I would like to say something, too, if I'm allowed to say something. I did get thousands of emails. I'm not kidding. But the biggest name that I did get was Councilwoman Toni Carter. It was so hardly her. And that is the truth. And I've known Toni for a long time. I find her to be an outstanding person. She's done very, very well. But I have to go with the choice of the people. And I have got overwhelming emails on her. And I just, I can't ignore that at all. It's unbelievable how many emails I got with her name on it. So that's all I got to say. I can't ignore that. I cannot do that. Thank you. So right now we're going to open the floor to a vote, a show of hands for Councilman Tony Carter. All right, that's three again. All right. The next one for the nomination of Councilmember Capizzi. Show of hands.

Back out.

We got Councilwoman Lebowski backed out. So we're down to two. city council members, and... You had four votes in that one.

Four.

Yes, sir. Why do I have three there? Okay. So it's one, two, three. One dropped out.

That's right.

Four hands for Capizzi. Can I see them again? Okay. That's four hands for Capizzi. For right now, as it stands, Councilmember Capizzi is now elected mayor pro temp. All right, right now, this is a new session here. This is the citizen communications. This time is for citizens to address City Council on issues and items of concern not on this agenda. There will be no City Council action at this time. In the interest of protecting the city's network and data, the city is not accepting flash drives or electronic files for use during citizens communications. Please use hard copies and overhead projector or access the city's online digital form to upload electronic files you would like the mayor and the council to view. The digital form would need to be uploaded two hours prior to city council meetings. I know it's a lot. A link to this form can be accessed on the City Secretary's website. Individuals desiring to speak at Citizens Communications, please line up behind the podium and be ready to speak. If anyone needs extra time to finish a point, just ask us. This is the time to speak to City Council and we will never, ever interrupt you. That is all. How you doing?

Thank you, Mayor. Congratulations to City Council. My name is George Green, former City Councilman here, first elected in 2013. You know, I work for the Criminal Justice Department in Texas. It's a $5 billion, $6 billion agency. And one of the things that I did learn working for the state of Texas is that Texas is an at-will employment state. This means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. The city manager is the chief administrator officer of the city. That's including the city charter. The office is responsible for the implementation of the policies mandated by the city council, you. The city manager is also responsible for the direction of all departments and functions. Therefore, I ask you, city council, that you consider firing our city manager. Now, we had an employee that took the blunt of the city charter and some of the things that were wrong there. The city manager should also carry some of that responsibility. That's why I ask, based on what I would call neglected duty, but I also call it incompetence. And I would also add that there's a misuse of our taxpayers' dollars under the city manager's realm. So with that, I leave it up to you and your hands as you go into and get into the future of this city and where we're going to strongly consider that while we're turning over a new leaf with our mayor and some of our other city council people, that be under consideration also. Thank you and I appreciate it.

David Wormke, District 5. Wow. That was really a... You can kind of figure out what he is. I've used him before, been a long time since he made an appearance at City Council. This was really a unique election. There we go. And he had a really good outcome, a very clear outcome, and a very clear new direction. real change and a real change of leadership. And I've been really impressed with today. And there's one elephant in the room that when I came earlier, I saw signs that maybe it was okay. And I never address people directly, but in this case I will. Leadership is a challenge. You've done an excellent job of leading this first meeting, sort of working your way through, bringing in somebody to do it. And I thought it was almost deja vu all over again, but fortunately it wasn't. So had a good ending. Leadership is inclusive, humble, truthful, and respectful. And I have seen that out of you today in a little bit of time here.

Now the elephant in the room, Dumbo, I used him at city council meetings before, maybe on Castell.

And that's the thing that everybody sees but nobody wants to talk about. And this is a relationship between Mr. Spradley and you. I've known Mr. Spradley for about five years here as City Council. Last year I haven't been around. But I respect you. Last year I'm not sure you seem to have changed as Mayor Pro Tem. But I know you're a really good guy. And Mr. French, you have done a wonderful job. I know you're a good guy. But you two guys are both also ex-military, which is like win, win, win, win, win, and lose. And if the two of you battle, everybody loses. Two of you need to figure out how to win. You know, leadership in Washington is broken. It's not here. This is a good, godly place. We need a win-win mindset, not battles, legal or otherwise. And I think y'all will do that just fine. We all need forgiveness, and we'll leave you with a song. It's called Forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key, the key to contentment, the key to internal peace. Forgiveness is the key, the key to it all. Do you have it all? Do you have real peace? Are you truly, truly content? Why not? You need to. You need to just forgive. Forgive yourself first. Forgive all those that love you. Forgive those that hate you.

Forgive God. Now that's the big one.

Forgiveness is a key, the key to contentment, the key to internal peace. Forgiveness is the key to it all. We all need forgiveness, even God. Despite what you think, he's not perfect. Have you read the Old Testament? He laments his mistakes. God was very angry. You realize he needs forgiveness. It's kind of an outstanding thing. Do you think it's easy being God? No one to guide you. No one to guide you from above. You know you're not crazy. You know you need help from above. You need a God. You know God. You need him. You realize he needs you to forgive, to forgive. Forgiveness is a key, the key to contentment, the key to internal peace. Forgiveness is a key to it all. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you for an outstanding start to a new meeting and a wonderful continue in unity. And I'm glad to see we are working on inclusion and we have some balance. So God bless you. Thank you.

You forgot your elephant in the room, sir.

My name's Steve Say. I am a resident. Mr. French, congratulations. Ms. Shaw, congratulations. I'm looking forward to the election next year. And I'm telling you what, I love this. The city has awakened, and I love it. No more DEI. There's been some great victories. No more porn books for kids in the glass case that Mr. Camerino approved. I praise God for that. No more pride events at the fairgrounds. In fact, the pride moved to Seguin. We said we don't want that here, and praise God. But I'm not here to speak about that. There's a target on the state of Texas right now, and I want to give us, I'm going to start a series at City Council about Islam. There's a target on Texas with Sharia, with Islam, with Islamicist. And before we talk about the beginnings and the history of Islam, Muhammad, history tells us the first war after our war of independence was with Islam. We didn't pick it. They picked the fight. In the 1700s, up along the Barbary coast of the Mediterranean, Muslim pirates attacked European cargo ships and killed the crew if the crew did not pay a toll or a tribute or a jizya. If you look in the Quran, it's called jizya. This is something we all have to know because it's really attacking our state and we don't want it in our city. Many European nations paid the Muslim tribute in order to avoid any attacks. The U.S., a new nation, they fell in line with this and paid the tribute. They paid up to 22% of our entire federal budget to these Muslims to not attack us until Jefferson came as president. Jefferson said, no way. Mr. Adams, I think you made a mistake, right? So throughout the late 1700s, Muslim pirates, in one attack by the Muslims, they captured 115 American sailors to which the U.S. paid a million dollars in tribute. In 1798, a treaty was signed, but can you guess who broke the treaty? Just like we're seeing today, right? IRGC, Sharia, they're going to be, you can't negotiate with these people. You can't negotiate with evil. And the more that we negotiate and let this ideology come in, it's going to ruin us like the UK, okay? So in 1801, with Jefferson as president, he refused to pay any more money, right? He went to the Muslims in Tripoli. He's like, why are you attacking us? We didn't do anything to you. But this is what their answer was. It is founded on the laws of the prophet and was written in the Koran that all nations who do not acknowledge Islam's authority were sinners, and that is their right and duty to make war upon them. and make slaves of all they could. And every Muslim who is slain in battle was sure to go to paradise. The Quran is a very disturbing, if you study it, it's a very disturbing book. Again, in 1803, Tripoli's Muslim pirates captured 307 crewmen from an American ship. Six died, five were converted to Islam out of fear, but they were killed by the Muslims because they renounced Islam. See, in Islam, when you renounce that religion, your head comes off. Okay, it's in the Quran to kill you. In the Muslim Hadith, it says, Muhammad said, whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him. Jefferson sent Marines into Tripoli and crushed any future Muslim attacks. You know who's going to go into Iran in the IRGC? Marines. They're going to go get them, right? So this gave rise to the Marine anthem from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. The Marines were called Leathernecks because they had leather straps worn on their necks to prevent being beheaded because they had the scimitar. The Muslims, they had a curved sword called the scimitar. And as the Quran states in Surah 47, 4, when you meet an infidel in battle, strike off their heads. Nine years before Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner, he wrote a song in honor of Stephen Decatur, who led the Marines, called When the Warrior Returns. It says this, in the conflict resist list, each toil they endured, till their foes fled dismayed from the war's desolation. And pale beamed the crescent, its splendor obscured, look at this, by the light of the star-spangled flag of our nation. where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war and the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare. The Muslim pirates broke the treaty again in 1815 and 16, but here it is. This has been going on for years. The Quran does not agree with our values, our constitution, and our way of life. And when it comes into New Roffles, it's our best decision not to let it in. Thank you.

Council members, my name is Bob Moore. I live in Veramendi in ETJ. I was very proud to get involved in the elections here this year. Congratulations, Nikki Shaw, Mayor French, Mr. Capizzi. Gonna kind of bring something up I brought up in April. I know that when I got involved I was extremely concerned about the rate of development that was going on in a city. That was why I really and truly threw a lot into it. The one thing that I would ask you all to consider is that we're doing responsible growth is to get with these developers, get with some type of water conservation. I know that we've had a lot of rain. All the rivers are flowing, all the creeks are flowing. I've never seen Atlanta Park look any more beautiful than it is right now. But when these people come in and they don't have any type of, you know, water conservation idea, like when I spoke in April and I spoke in front of the former mayor and KB Holmes was doing a presentation. He asked if anybody wanted to talk. And that's when I thought about it and I was like shaking. I was like, you know. Okay, I'll get up there. And I did speak about it because I think it's something that we all need to really take a look at. And that's all I'm asking. As I said, I live in Veramendi. We had to build two huge water containment systems for our neighborhood. And I would ask that at least people that are coming into New Braunfels, and I intend to speak to the Comal County Commissioner's Court about this as well, that we take this into consideration. Thank you very much.

My name is Joey Lynn Massaros. I'm a resident here in New Braunfels. Congratulations, Mayor French, Councilwoman Nikki Shaw, Tony Carter, you've got some backup on the dais. I want to first and foremost thank Jesus. He made this happen for a very tired and weary people and God be the glory. He went before us and he secured the victory for us. It has been a long series of City Council where we have come up and pleaded with you and spoken to you and represented the will of the people and you have ignored us. I'm speaking to those who were not sworn in today and not Tony Carter. So Mr. Capizzi, District 2, Mr. Edwards, District 3, Larry, Mr. Spradley, District 4, and hello, Ms. Lebowski, District 5. When Andres Campos was in District 1 and he said he didn't care what the boomers wanted because they'd be dead in 30 years and said this town was not for them, I let Mr. Campos know that we would flip his seat and we flipped it with Tony Carter. That was the will of the people. And I let the other council members and the mayor specifically know that we would flip their seats as well. And I was laughed at. I was mocked. I was told I was a small minority, a 1%. I didn't represent the majority. I was just a loud voice. I was a squeaky wheel. I was annoying and you dismissed me. This representation here today has nothing to do with me. This has everything to do with these individual people representing themselves, their own ideas, their own independent thoughts, their own votes and their own wills. They've made their voices heard at the ballot box and they've made their voices heard today by a show of hands and you completely dismissed them and disregarded them. You said you wanna work on unity together with the new council and then you spit in the face of the citizens by voting Mike Capizian for Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah. Marianne, Marianne, you barely kept your seat. Everybody knew Chase was a better fit. You could not compose yourself during debates. It was just because of the smear campaigns that went out against Chase Taylor that lied, cheated, and stole his reputation and his character just to try to keep your seat by 13 votes. That should tell you that you, that people did not overwhelmingly choose to keep you, okay? Mr. Spradley, the same is gonna be the same for your seat should you choose to run again. When I, as a citizen, as a civically engaged citizen, a mother, not a candidate for any kind of political office, decided to share my thoughts and views on social media, I was doxxed by people who endorsed your campaign, sent mailers out for you guys, and donated to y'all's previous campaigns. Y'all are in cahoots with people with the Chamber of Commerce, with small business owners, and what I refer to as the establishment, people who call themselves conservatives and lie to the voters to try to get votes to keep you guys in office so that they can get their projects passed. They fund your campaigns, you vote what they want through, and just like we saw today, you dismiss the will of the people, and we will flip your seats next. Now, I would like to say... Yes. Yes. Yeah, we're taking small bites of the apple, but we're making huge progress. The people are awake, the people are involved, and the people are voting. It would be in your best interest to listen to the will of the people. You said in emails back to your constituents that I've seen posted on social media, Councilmember Spradley, that you didn't care who they wanted you to vote in for Mayor Pro Tem because you disagreed with them. Your role at its simplest form is to represent the will of your constituents, not yourself. Not to say I disagree with you. It's to say I represent you, and if that's what you want, that's what I'll do. The people here today spoke. You nominated yourself, and not one person in this room clapped for you. Everybody clapped for Tony Carter, but in your pride and your arrogance, you flipped your vote for Mike Capizzi, and Mike Capizzi lacks the quality and character to be Mayor Pro Tem because I watched him stand there and record while my friend was called a bitch by Justin Meadows. He flipped... Meadows flipped Chrissy French off now was it mutually respectable back and forth that's debatable but he stood there and he recorded it and in my federal trial when he was called to testify he pled the fifth because he's a coward he lacks the character he needs to represent this city I am tired. I am exhausted. My child has absolutely nothing to do with this. Mr. Edwards, your daughter has smeared me all over social media, which I guess is fair game because I've had a lot to say about the rest of you. But my child has absolutely nothing to do with what's between me and you guys. Anybody that is endorsing you, putting billboards up for you across this town, donating to you, and endorsing you as a PAC that is doxing my child, we have a freaking problem. To comport yourselves with decorum, and you ought to denounce that behavior.

I'm watching it. Oh, when I speak? Okay. My name is Stephen Fikes. I'm a small business owner, a former citizen of New Braunfels. My business is still here in the city. How do you follow Joy Lynn Mazaros? Give her coffee, and that'll give you about 30 seconds. I didn't come here tonight with the intention to speak, but I just feel compelled. One, Jesus is king. God is perfect. And there's so much to be said in the Bible that the Bible says about the perversion of the word and the depraved mind as it relates to that, and I'll leave that there and I wanna say as a veteran, I'm a Marine Corps veteran, have another brother Marine over here, two soldiers. I do agree with setting your differences aside. I do believe that as veterans that we are and should be held to a higher standard, that the public has put their trust in us in one point in time. And for you three gentlemen, I'm not sure, Mike, if you're a veteran or not, forgive me. or Mr. Edwards if you are or not, but as veterans, we are called to a higher standard and our service should not be called into question amongst ourselves. I had a question about Mayor Frenches, congratulations by the way, Mayor, nice to call you Mayor, about his service and I just did a little research and then I picked the phone up. Guess what? He answers his phone. But I know for a fact that Lawrence, you do too. I have to say that Lawrence has some integrity. I don't agree with everything that you say, but as your brother in arms, he's offered to show me his checkbook and his bank account in private conversation in the library. I don't know if you remember that or not. So I do believe you have integrity, but as it goes to our bond with each other, Robert, Mike, Larry, Our bond with each other should stand for something. Let's set aside our differences. I'm sad to see that you're not gonna run again for Mayor Pro Tem. To me, I felt like that was a slight, you know, you're pouting a little bit. No, brother, if you did a good job, you should have ran again. Now, as to unity, I thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, your history doesn't back up your sentiment now. That doesn't mean you're not a good man. I'm not a good man. Look me up. I've had to interact with these guys. Thank God for Guadalupe County vindicating me. New Braunfels is special. The world watches New Braunfels. It's evident. We're all over social media. We're all over state news. Something special is going on here. And the people did speak. I'm not gonna insult you. I'm not gonna insult you. I'm not gonna insult you.

I'm not gonna insult you.

Mary, the four of you, I'm not gonna sit up here and pretend to understand the stresses that you guys undergo in serving us, right? But the will of the people was the will of the people. And Joy Lynn was right in what she said, right? I agree 100% with her sentiments. If you guys would have, bent the knee to the will of the people, your next terms would probably be solid. You spoke well. You were selfish. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I don't mean it in an insulting manner. You were very selfish. Larry, you were selfish to yourself. You did a good job as Mary Pro Temp. I don't know nothing about you, Mr. Evers, so you're free from my wrath. And Tony, I'm sorry, I love you. You're doing an amazing job. But as a businessman here in town to the growth, as much as I profit off of the growth of the city of New Braunfels, I'm an electrician and air conditioning contractor, it's too fast, too much, poorly managed, it needs to slow down. It needs to be done with consideration of legacy citizens. And whoever thinks that the boomers or the older people mean nothing, there's more of you here than my generation. They mean everything. The elders of this town guide the city. They're the heart of the city. And so when that was said, that kind of pissed me off. So I rebuked that. I hope you guys come together, all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. God bless.

Good evening. My name is Melissa Yamashita, and I'm a president of New Braunfels District 2. And I'm very aware, and I'm sure you got an email from me saying that please to back up back Tony Carter for a major pro-term. And I didn't get any email back from you. I was not planning on talking. but I'm so disappointed at the way that you guys behaved tonight. This was a chance to show us that you actually listened to us. This was, Ms. Lebowski, I'm actually disappointed because you're a female. I want you to back me up as a female instead of voting for a male. I'm just saying, I'm not trying to play sex as a gender here, but it's true. Why are you not voting for a female? I don't understand, I really don't understand. This is the thing, and I want everybody to understand. We voted for Michael French in to make a change. We voted for Nikki Shaw to make a change, but we will not be able to make any changes until we pop the bubble of the establishment, which is our four people sitting here. Michael French will not be able to change anything until we don't vote some of them out. All the promises that he did is not in vain. He's trying to get it together, but they're not gonna back him up. And we're seeing, and let me tell you, I live in District 2, but I will mobilize myself and everybody else to canvass to get you vote out. Thank you.

My name is Stephanie Maddox, and this is my first time speaking, and I'm a citizen of New Braunfels. I got involved in this round of this campaign after seeing how dirty and corrupt this town had become. I was raised by a father who fought for his rights, and we stood up and got him elected as city council and converse, and my father fought against this kind of behavior. You work for us, all of you. This campaign has been more dirty. I have worked for three Trump campaigns. This campaign, you, has been more dirty then all of those combined, and all of us have volunteered and helped and walked the streets to remove Mayor Lennartz and April Ryan, fought for these people, for the citizens that you're supposed to represent, you're supposed to represent, you and Miss Lebowski over there. So when we said we wanted Toad and Carter up there, look. We're not going to listen. We're not going to listen to the people. Tell me why. 62% of the people voted for French. That was not a request. And for Nikki, that was a mandate that the citizens of New Braunfels are fed up with this city council. and all the behavior. All you have to do is listen. This is what they want. Give the people what they want. You have not done that. The mayor did not do that. April did not do that. And they are gone. And along with these ladies, I will stand behind them and get one, two, three, four of you removed.

Angela Allen, I'm a resident of New Braunfels. I wanted to address two different bodies tonight. The first one I wanted to address was you, Mr. Camerino. Please know I've given this great thought and lots of prayer. With being involved in the election myself, there's a lot of things that I knew personally. And with sitting here in this room and watching what happened weeks ago against our old city attorney, Val, and having talked with her after that, it is very upsetting to me with the way that this leadership, this city handled that whole situation. I was here, I listened to the testimony of Val, and I listened to the testimony of Gail, And then I watched your reaction. And then I watched this body respond to it. And believe it or not, I was hoping and rooting for all of y'all to make the right decision. But I have to tell you that almost every single one of y'all disappointed me because you did not do the right thing. For one, there was no true due diligence in that. It was rushed. It was obvious due to a personal conversation I actually had with the mayor that you were using Val and firing her as a scapegoat. And that was very disappointing. Very disappointing. And again, I'd hope that y'all would make the right decision. But not only running as a candidate in this election, but also as a citizen, I continue to hope, I continue to pray, and then you continue to do the wrong thing. And I do believe you did the wrong thing that night. Because you not only were swift to terminate her, you didn't do due diligence, but you also, you wrecked her reputation. Her face is smeared on social media and every newspaper article that there probably is. Think about if that was you. Would you want that to be done to you? You wouldn't. I'm asking for all of you to reconsider that decision that was made and how you move forward in making things right. We can't go back, but we can go forward. And I'm asking you to restore the trust of the people because it has been broken, because the right decisions are not being made. And I would like to ask all of you, well, first of all, I wanna congratulate you, Mayor French and Nikki Shaw, and know that I'm behind you and I am praying for you. And I also want to, I wanna challenge the rest of you that have been serving for quite some time. You have some new leadership here and it's evident what they say is that they're here to represent the voice of the people. And I'm asking you to get behind that too. Doesn't matter what you've done in the past. Doesn't matter why you did it. Nobody's gonna know that but you. But you can move forward and make the right decisions. And you are here to serve us. And you are here to do the right thing. So I'm asking you to consider that before you move forward with one more decision, one more meeting, and take some time to reflect. on how you want to move forward. Do you want to continue in the legacy of the decisions that you've made so far? Or do you want to get united and start doing the right thing and start listening to the people because that's who you serve and that's the oath that you took. It's not about what you think is best. It's about what the people are saying to you because you represent them. So I will be praying for all of you. I'm praying for unity. I'm praying for that you all do the right thing. And I thank you all for serving.

Good evening. Michael Murphy, non-resident. I wasn't going to speak tonight. I was going to let this thing run a couple of weeks before I got up here and said anything. But after seeing some of the actions tonight up there on that dais, and people talking about unity and the laughter and the faces that were made. It was two weeks ago, some of you were on social media bashing everyday citizens, right? And that's completely unacceptable. What y'all lack to understand is the American people are tired of that. It's not politics as usual. You know, y'all are supposed to set the example. If you're not running for a position, you're not campaigning, why get in a fray? Have character. Let the race decide itself, right? Don't go bash people. That's self-serving, right? You've had people come up here tonight and tell you that. And I don't know how much more it's gonna take. When I come up here and talk about character, I mean that exactly. Show good, true character. And you can sit here and smirk and think it's funny and that my voice doesn't matter, right? And to you, maybe it doesn't. But collectively as a whole, the citizens are tired of it. They're over it. You know, you saw firsthand people wanted Tony Carter. And you didn't. You had a plan. You had a plan, all right, this is how we're going to do it. You know, people are seeing through that now, right? And it's just gonna get worse for you guys that do not see it. I'm not a resident, but I got out and I campaigned. And I can promise you I'm gonna put in overtime the next go around, the next seat that's up.

All right?

So please, if you take anything away from this, Decide to do better, right? Only get involved because of my family, my kids, my grandkids. Because I don't want them to live in a world like this. I don't want them to walk away from a conversation wondering, is that person just being fake, you know? Or are they being genuine? My youngest son come to me the other day and said, Dad, I'm reading the Bible. And one thing I'm starting to see and understand is people use prayer in the wrong way. Get back to using prayer the way it's intended. Randy Henson did a phenomenal job with his prayer with Mayor French. Look within yourself. I know you've got your personal agendas, whatever that may be, but you need to start setting it aside and do what's right by the people because it ain't about you. It's about the citizens of New Brunswick. Thank you.

Is there anyone else out there? Raise your hand or wanna come up and speak? How much time we have left? Unlimited, okay. No one else? All right. We're gonna move on to the consent agenda. And all items listed below are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the City Council and will be approved by one motion. There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a council member or citizen so requests. In which case, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as part of the normal order of business. Citizens must present to pull an item. And Do I ask if, Gail, is there anything?

Yes, our staff is asking to pull item A for reconsideration to be brought forward at a later council meeting.

Okay. And we just move it to the end.

Okay, and Gail, you probably didn't have a chance to see your, excuse me, Mayor, I had also requested to pull for consideration the parking, I'm looking for the item, hold on a second. I better put my glasses on.

Item E?

Yes. No, I'm sorry, Ms. Carter, I didn't see it.

That's all right, I understand, you had a busy day. Which one is it, E? Oh, it's E, E as in Edward, right? Is that the one I said?

Yes, sir, E. It's item E that Ms. Carter's asking to pull.

Yes.

The parking is item E, right?

Yes, that's what I said, E as in Edward.

And as a procedure item, those will be considered at the beginning of the regular items for consideration portion of the agenda. We do A and E first.

A is being pulled by staff, so that's not being considered at all. It's not ready for approval tonight. So A is totally being pulled off the agenda. It is not to be considered tonight because it's not ready

Okay, so A and E are gonna be considered separately at a different time, that's what I'm getting?

Just A, sir. Just A. A is gonna be considered at a different meeting completely and E will be considered first under individual.

All right, so the approval of the June 8, 2026 Special and Regular City Council Meeting Minutes and there,

Do I ask? No, that item is being pulled. Mayor, that item is being pulled. It is not ready for consideration tonight.

So E, we're going to bring that up.

We'll need to vote on the consent agenda. The rest of the items, which is B, C, D, and F, we'll need a motion and second to vote on those consent items. And then when we get to individual, we will take E first, since that was being pulled.

Okay. Mayor, I make a motion to approve consent agenda items B, C, D, and F. I second.

And it can be by show of hands, sir.

Okay, for a show of hands for this. All in favor? That's one, two, three, four, five, six, all of us. It's a general... I will get it, I will get it. So right now, this would conclude the consent agenda, am I right?

Yes, sir.

And so going into the next one, individual items for consideration.

And we will take item E that was pulled by Councilwoman Carter first.

Councilwoman Carter, that's correct.

Item E will be considered first. The approval of the budget amendment for FY 2026 parking fund. And can I bring up who, Carrie Cook, the budget manager?

Yes, sir.

My question on this revolves around the budget adjustment. I didn't know for clarity purposes if this is excess funds. So if you can explain where this money's coming from that's being moved around, please.

Yes, ma'am, so the way the budget was originally set up, so budget development would have happened last summer. At that time, the parking fund was very new, so the expense budget was, just to give a small amount of spending authority, the money that this amendment is coming from is based off of the revenues that have been generated this fiscal year. So the revenue that has been generated was used to determine the projects for the reinvestment plan. That was presented and approved, and that is where the amendment amount comes from for this item.

So this is from the overage or the revenue profit side, and what are we funding?

So there's several projects that are funded through the reinvestment plan. I believe Jeff Jewell is here if there's project specific questions that need to be addressed.

But this was that reinvestment, that parking project reinvestment? Yes, ma'am. I wasn't getting that clarity out of what I was reading and it had been a minute, so okay.

Yes, ma'am, it was the reinvestment plan that was adopted by council in May. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

I was just making sure we weren't pumping more money into this, but I understand. Thank you.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Go ahead, go ahead, City Council Member Edwards. Is there any further discussion on this? Council Member Shah, go ahead.

So the 200,000 is coming from what was made? It's not, they're not increasing that expenditure. The 200,000 is coming out of revenue already made through that program? Correct.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, at this time, is citizen comment time for this agenda item E?

So I'm Bob King, resident. Congratulations, Mr. Mayor. Congratulations, Ms. Shaw. Congratulations, Mr. Capizzi. And thank you for the nice prayer, Councilman Spradley. I think that got skipped over. I think you did a great job. My problem with this is that even if this came from a parking overage, if my understanding is that's general fund money, is that correct? Can somebody answer that question? That's not?

This is a separate special revenue fund. So not general fund dollars.

Okay, what is it? Ms. Cook, can you get to a microphone? Yes.

This one? Okay, no, these dollars are not general fund dollars. There is a separate special revenue fund designated for, it's called the parking fund. It's designated for parking revenues and reinvestment plan expenditures that were approved in May.

And my next question is, if this $200,000 did not come from this and came from another source, what would that $2,000 be? $200,000 be used for in the future?

I guess it would be hard to say if these projects were to be delayed. It's potential that they could have been funded out of general fund dollars, but there's numerous funding sources.

Could the $200,000 be used to replenish general fund dollars?

So these funds have been separated from the general fund specifically to be utilized for the reinvestment plan.

That was approved in May. But could not the council make the decision to reclassify it? Mayor and council. Here's my question. We have a significant TERS that was set up for the purpose of funding things for downtown. And what seems to me is that what we're doing is we're doing anything possible to not spend any of that TERS money and take any other source of money from outside of downtown and use it to fix up downtown when that's what the TERS is for. That's all I had to say. Thank you.

Mayor, if I could just add a little bit of information. The parking revenue fund is a special revenue fund. The council established a downtown parking revenue standing committee to make recommendations on how the revenue from that contract is reinvested into parking initiatives in downtown. We made a presentation to the city council in May for the parking revenue reinvestment plan. That centered on three different initiatives. That plan was approved unanimously by the city council in May. So we said at that time we were gonna bring forward a budget amendment for the expenditures for those initiatives that were approved by the city council.

Is there any further discussion on...

I wrote this when the agenda first came, or my name is Nicolette Taylor, I am a resident. I am still kind of confused as to what they're saying, and so I... did some research when the agenda came out. So city staff is asking for $200,000 for the downtown parking reinvestment fund. Last month, Jeff Jewell did a presentation saying there would be approximately $374,000 after paying interstate parking. So I'm unclear why this month they need the additional 200,000. If the city has $200,000, to put towards making downtown look better, why wouldn't the city just pay to do it? I did ask through an open records request for bank statements for the paid parking and I was told there isn't one. I see city staff put out flowers and put out signs today and basically says that the flowers are there because of paid parking. I think that's ridiculous. The city should have a budget currently for maintenance of the downtown flowers and the gazebo area. And I feel that those signs, like putting them out there and what, that Jeff Jules and city staff think that the citizens are just stupid, that them telling us that the flowers are paid by paid parking, basically if we get rid of paid parking, then we can't have flowers. And I just don't think that that's true. So I'm asking that you'll vote to postpone the item and have Jeff explain why they need the 200,000 or deny the item as I believe there will be changes coming soon to the paid parking program, so this seems unnecessary. Thanks.

Mayor and council, this budget amendment is simply what's necessary to implement the reinvestment plan that was unanimously adopted by this council.

So I think if I understand this correctly, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but essentially it's an authorization request for funds that are already there. that were, that came from the paid parking. Obviously, and originally, there was essentially what we would term, or what I would call like a plug number that was put in because there was no true knowledge of what those total dollars would be. So you start with a plug number. When you find out what the exactual budget number is, then you come back and you have to ask for an authorization to spend what the overage was over the plug number.

Correct, correct.

I'm describing that kind of in the terms where what we do in contracting in my business.

Yes, sir. Yes, Council Member. I did want to make a clarification. The plan that was presented last month for the $300,000, this $200,000 is within that $300,000. So we worked, the budget team worked with city staff to kind of evaluate what they thought could be spent this fiscal year out of that plan. So instead of bringing the full 300,000 for consideration now, we're bringing the 200,000 and in this next budget process, you'll have the option to reconsider the budget for the parking fund for FY27.

So essentially there are conservative estimates in the beginning and then as that increase comes along, you come back and ask for authorization to spend the additional funds now that you know what the numbers are and what the actual projects are anticipated to be.

Correct. And just going to Ms. Taylor's question, it does pique my interest. And I'm going to go to Jared on this. Is there not a revenue identification of the funding of parking that we know exactly? I mean, I know you've got the numbers nailed in the city, so I can't believe there's not a revenue fund. or a specific fund that identifies the number.

As Ms. Cook said, yes, there is a budget for the parking revenue fund, revenue budgeted and expenditure budgeted. But again, as Ms. Cook said at the beginning, having no idea yet as to what those funds will be spent on and when they would be spent, the original allocation for expenditures was very, very low. And so after Mr. Jewell and his team presented that plan that was approved by city council, the next action that needed to take place was the budget amendment before the council this evening so that there was an allocation to then be spent. To Mr. Taylor's question, that is why we couldn't just go and spend the money because the budget was limited to that very small initial amount.

Right, okay. And that money is subject to audit, right? Absolutely. Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, thank you.

Hi, I'm Chase Taylor, resident, District 5. So very specific, should be easy to answer question. Do we have a dedicated parking revenue fund?

Yes.

So we've requested that now two different ways, which as the public, we're entitled to receive those account statements. Ms. Wilkinson, from your office, Matthew has told us twice now that there is no dedicated parking fund. So what verbiage should we use to receive the bank statements for the dedicated parking revenue fund?

The open records, when we receive those, are sent to department specifics. We are not the ones that make the decision on what to tell the requester.

Mr. Taylor, I think if there was a request for all revenues and or expenditures within the downtown parking revenue fund for this fiscal year or last fiscal year, I feel pretty confident it would get you the answer that you're looking for.

We can't just request the account statements for that?

The problem may be that the fund may not have its own separate bank account.

That's what I'm asking.

Yeah.

So where is it going? It goes into the general fund?

It goes into our pooled account structure with our bank depository. Our accounting system then reconciles the fund level detail, therefore the revenues and expenditures.

So for a layman citizen like me and others, that seems very intentionally non-transparent for us to be able to review the actual money that's being generated by the parking fund versus the actual money that's being spent and being requested to spend. So how should we word it so we get what you know we're asking for?

Yeah, I mean, again, I believe asking for the revenues and expenditures of the fund. You get every single transaction of revenue that hit that fund and expenditures. And I think to miss Carter's question, it's a good one. Those funds will be audited, meaning that you'll be able to see that separate fund level detail. Again, same information. And when we have our budget process, there's a dedicated section to the Downtown Parking Revenue Center as opposed to it being in the general fund and then therefore being buried and very difficult to see.

Mr. Warner, do you mind giving him that information of how to request that information?

Absolutely.

Because there isn't a bank fund.

It's a different wording. He'll be able to share that with you. Mayor and council, the way that we track revenues and expenditures throughout the entire municipal budget, the city's budget, is consistent with best practices and generally accepted accounting principles. And so we are certainly happy to provide you any information that you want because we are transparent. And so please, Mr. Warner will reach out back. Mr. Warner will reach back out to you and provide you whatever information you need. Perfect.

That sounds good. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I wanted my name is Joellen. I'm a resident. I wanted to show you Nicholas email to the city where she you can see here she's asking for all monthly bank statements for the bank account associated with the downtown paid parking AKA parking revenue fund or whatever name it is known by and the response by Matthew is we don't have a bank account for this fund, but I've attached a general ledger. Y'all are making it impossible for citizens to track this information down. I just wanted the people to see how hard citizens are trying to get the information and they're creating a brick wall.

Mayor and council, there are no separate bank statements for that one particular fund. And again, as I mentioned to Mr. Taylor, please reach out to Mr. Warner and he will provide you whatever information that you need.

And I would say a council position on this is that, at least from my seat, just release the information. We know what they're asking for. It's the revenues in and out of what's charged on parking. Just give it to them. It's not that difficult. And Jared, I believe you understand what I'm saying. We're talking the same language. I have a feeling you didn't answer that email. So you know what they mean.

No.

Steven Fikes, non-citizen business owner here in New Braunfels again. How do you still follow Joy Lynn? Every time. No, I'm not letting you go in front of me no more. No more. After. As a contractor who's actually, it might have understood this is the parking cameras, correct? That charge the tolls?

No, sir, that is not. That's not part of that system? No, sir, it's downtown parking. So when you park in the downtown, you scan the app.

Do that, but then I know over at Prince Psalms, we have the cameras and the scan tag as well, correct?

The scan, I'm not sure if there are cameras or not.

Oh, yeah, because I put them in. yeah so on the parking thing what struck me uh moved me to speak as a contractor that's interacted with the city uh i definitely want to let you know that the city looks to do business with local businesses they vet them there's a process by which me and some of my competitors had to go through to get pre-approval to do work with the city so just know that you've got good contractors my competitors By and large in this town, they're good folks and they care. Yes, we do profit off of the city, but on this project or on the parking, from what I'm aware of, the portion that we worked on, it's incredibly complicated with the electrical equipment. And again, I'm speaking more to the Prince Psalms because that's the portion that we did work for. They had a contractor that sold the cameras to the city that had another contractor that did develop the software for those cameras and how to integrate that. Then you have to communicate with the city staff, with those contractors, with the city's staff of the staff. So it's complicated, not to mention commodities are nuts. So as far as when pieces, physical pieces and equipment go into this facility, commodities are always going up and down and prices are increasing. So them having that plug budget in the beginning is kind of them going, well, we think it should be about this much based on bids that they receive. But that as soon as the, how long it takes to get a project approved from when the project was started in discovery, that price changes. because of commodities, cost of labor, et cetera, et cetera. So that price can go up. And I'll say this, that at least on Prince Psalms, the parking's paying for itself. So it sounds to me like it's generating revenue for itself. So it's kind of a good thing. I understand what they're saying about we didn't know how much. Now we know, okay, we need more. This thing's made money for us already, so we need permission to get money from those funds to complete projects or supplement projects, right? Or ish? Okay, that's it. It's not a bad thing. Now, the transparency, I get it. It's frustrating, but there's bureaucracy and red tape, and they've got a hard job. They've all got a hard job, and... I'm on the side that I'm on, but I also understand it from a businessman's perspective as well, that it's not always as easy as it sounds on the surface. So I hope that doesn't lose me any favor with my constituency. Thank you.

Ladies, gentlemen, council, Mayor French, Larry Lane, District 2. This is an interesting question regarding the parking monies. About a month ago, an item came up. I believe it was a payment to our parking consultant or contractor. After following that line of questioning briefly, I was told that anticipated revenues for this year would be approximately $600,000 with approximately $170,000 being paid to that consultant or the consultant moving money around. In any case, it was not made clear at that time whether there was a lockbox, a separate account, or just a line item entry in the budget. I don't know if my remarks will clarify or just serve to flog this dead log, but $600,000, 170 to a contractor or consultant, and now additional money's going somewhere, and I'm less certain now that the numbers I was given last month are correct based on tonight's conversation. Thanks for your attention. Good luck digging it out.

Does anyone have any further comments on this? So right now, the next thing to do is to move forward and take a vote on this.

Can I make a statement?

I find this to be very, very confusing to a lot of people, and even me, and even me reading all of this. And the one thing I do have a question on, and it's, We did pay out of state, interstate parking a lot of money. And then we have about 300 something thousand dollars left over. And then all of a sudden, that money would go into going into the signs, going to maintenance of the signs, maybe the website too, right? Is it maintaining the parking? Is that what it is? About 300 something thousand. How much is gonna go into maintaining that parking, which is left at a $374,000?

The dollars that are being asked to be approved today are all related to the investment plan that was approved. So all of the projects that were laid out in May. I don't know if.

After maintaining the downtown parking, how much is left over for land area beautification? After paying interstate parking, then maintaining the parking, out of what you're asking for today, how much is gonna be left over for land area beautification?

I'm not sure if, yeah, I would ask Mr. Jewell to come up and give us the specifics. I know that was presented in May.

It seems like we're putting a big deal into this and we're putting the citizens through a lot of downtown parking, but very little is gonna benefit downtown. That's all I'm seeing.

Mr. Mayor, if you would actually turn to page 34 of the agenda, that's actually where the investment plan outlines the investments, and you'll see that Downtown Beautification and Maintenance Program addresses maybe some of the things, sir, that maybe you've asked about.

Oh yeah, I just want the total of how much, after paying overhead, how much is gonna be spent downtown land area beautification?

through the end of this fiscal year, and given the revenues and after paying all the expenses associated with this program, we anticipate that there's gonna be about $374,000 that's gonna be available to be reinvested. The reinvestment plan spoke to that 374, but given how we have to budget the work that we can do through September 30th, we think that we can do about $200,000 of that $374,000 worth of of work through the end of this fiscal year, hence the request for the budget amendment. So that $200,000 is going into the three different priorities that we spoke about in that reinvestment plan, specifically pedestrian safety and comfort, parking experience, and parking supply.

To be honest with you, that's the plain English I was looking for.

Okay.

Because it tells me 200,000 from now until 9-30-2026.

That's correct.

The total balance being 174,000 and some odd would be from September 30 through the end of the calendar year. Is that correct?

That $174,000 will just roll into next year's budget planning.

So the total budget, okay.

Yes, ma'am. But we've identified how that $174,000.

But it will carry on the balance sheet.

Yes, ma'am, yes.

And it will be joined by the additional revenues that we'll be earning like now from the last reporting period through the end of fiscal year.

That's anticipated for next fiscal year, yes. Correct.

And that will all carry forward on the balance sheet.

Yeah.

That's a little more plain. I appreciate that.

Just to kind of summarize, this is a projection of what we can spend through the end of the fiscal year. So people who deal with fiscal year budgets, that's essentially what it is.

Yes. We can complete about $200,000 of that 374 that was presented to the city council last month.

When we brought in the paid parking, we had to pay to survey and to initially get that implemented. Have we paid that off? How much do we still owe to have implemented paid parking?

Well, we have an ongoing contract with Interstate Parking. That contract is about $174,000 a year right now. So that's our ongoing annual contract with Interstate in order to manage and operate the managed parking program.

But have we paid off the initial? Like for them to come survey and put in all the signs and all that stuff, has that been paid off?

Yes, those costs have been absorbed through the program so far. But yes, the ongoing... program costs with interstate is 174,000, just about that annually.

It would be fair to call it sustainment, that it's sustaining the program to fund it.

Yes, it's operated.

It's nothing new, it's sustainment. The program is pacing forward. We're not in debt.

No, the program is self-sustaining.

Okay.

I may ask one more time. How much exactly is gonna go into our curbs and flowers, land area beautification? What number do I see? I know I'm a simple guy, I just wanna know how much exactly out of the $600,000 is going into?

Through this fiscal year, about $200,000 of that. We spelled out in the plan itself how that's gonna kinda move forward, that additional $174,000. But it's going into the landscaping beds, it's going into new curbs. and ramps, as well as the pursuit of additional leases with private owners to make more public parking available in downtown. Thank you.

Thanks, Jeff. Thank you for that clarity.

All right, for this one, item E, does anyone have any more comments or anything like that?

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve.

I second. You have a lady wanting to talk.

Hi, I'm Christina Brown. I'm a resident of New Braunfels. So this has been something that has been on my mind for a long time, because I'm really not sure how this even got voted in by the people to even have the parking in downtown and in Green. And tonight I'm learning about this out of state, interstate parking. How long is our contract with them? And are we bidding other companies to see if they can do the same job at a lower amount than what they're charging? Also, how did we beautify New Braunfels to be one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, and we have to charge for parking to beautify our city? Like, what has happened to New Braunfels? I know what's happened to the city council. People are not happy about the parking. We are losing visitors that have come here for 20 years and they don't want to come here anymore because you have to pay everywhere you go. Small business, and I am all about small business, how many businesses have closed downtown because of what you guys wanted, parking? The people don't want the parking. We don't need the paid parking. If you wouldn't give the tax breaks to the developers, we'd have the money to beautify New Braunfels. So I think we need to clean the slate and start over from what the past city council has created, because we're not happy about it. So you can vote in what you want to vote in, But the people do not want paid parking, period.

David Warmke, District 5. I really wasn't going to interject here. Two points. Consent agenda items are seldomly written to inform. They're often seemingly intentionally written to obscure and make it really difficult to tell what in the world is going on. That was something I spoke out many, many times here. Second, this parking thing. I watched three different presentations at City Council of this being incrementally slid through. It felt sleazy, every one of them. And the way it was done, I have more problem with the way it was done with the three presentations that start out, oh, we're just going to have somebody do this for free to turn into making money. At the end, it was spelled out well. But the process, we should have started beginning like that, not at the end. Thank you.

Good evening, I wasn't gonna speak. I'm Kim Huntsman, been down here a few times and it is so nice to see some new faces on here. Something I brought up actually probably three, four years ago. Right over here, you gotta look at this, where we're sitting right now, this used to be an Albertsons. I've been here a long time. This used to be an Albertsons, now this is this. So right over here, We have lower income senior citizens. Right down over here, you have another elderly apartment. Let's see. I see the food bank come over here to these elderly apartments. But, interesting enough, here we are spending all this money on all this stuff. We can't have a sidewalk. If you, I would love to just take a little walk with everybody. from the senior citizen apartments, low-income apartments over here, right in front of Dollar General, There's a sidewalk, people, I've seen them. They come on their walkers, you see the elderly in their wheelchairs, they go up and down the street. I leave here, you see them and they're coming down, going to Dollar General for their groceries. For some of us, it might seem petty, maybe they need, you know, arm deodorant, maybe they need cat litter, I don't know, but the food bank, they're not gonna get everything they need, right? These people are walking, The sidewalk stops when you're right in front of Dollar General, it stops. I cannot believe, I mean, I came down here a few years ago and nothing changed. I see change happening now, I'm so blessed and thankful. But if we could get, with all this other stuff we're doing, if we could get a sidewalk put in front of the Dollar General, and I'm serious, I will meet all y'all, we can do the walk. We can do the walk from the senior citizen area and walk right over here all the way to the Dollar General. And then there's a little uphill. So then you see these people with their little walkers trying to get up there and stuff like that. If you go look, the sidewalk stops. They have obstacles. There's sidewalks on the one side of the street, there's no sidewalk on the other side. People gotta go through the parking lots and so forth and then it stops right there. There's a sidewalk and it stops. Then you see these people in their wheelchairs and stuff like that walking through the mud or they're having to go on the street. Just something to think about. I'll be happy to meet with any of you afterwards. Let's do the walk. Let's do the walk and see what it's like to go from there to there. And maybe we can get a sidewalk done for these people. Thank you.

I'd like to make a recommendation based on this young lady's very heartfelt presentation that we put that on an agenda to discuss about and perhaps push that towards the EDC funding because I think that's what EDC money is for, is it?

They have provided funding, ma'am, in the past for pedestrian. In fact, that's one of the items on the agenda tonight.

And perhaps this needs to be reviewed. I mean, I've heard this about folks in wheelchairs and going through mud. We should at least review it for a potential referral to the EDC. I know we're talking about downtown parking, and we're supposed to stay on point, but I do want to acknowledge.

Council Member Carter, it was item C is to discuss sidewalks, and that's been pushed off until what date?

That will be the first regular meeting in July, but that's a specific project. We can bring forward a presentation on the investments that we're making on the pedestrian side and have a discussion about that specifically.

And maybe we can annotate those roads that this young lady has referenced so that we can go on to the paid parking.

If I may. Thank you. The complication that we see with a number of things, like having the parking fund and others, With the things that we have when it comes to the parking fund or other funds that are earmarked or the general fund and where money comes from, it's a complicated process and of course we need to demystify that. But to give you an example, 92 to 94% of all tax revenue, sales and property, go to public safety. all tax revenues. So that means we have about eight to 6%, depending on how the economy fluctuates, to be able to run the rest of the city, or we need fees. And we have permits and parking fees and a number of different litany that comes from to operate. When I moved here 32 years ago, the total road repair budget and drainage budget was under $250,000. A project just came up that's been requested in your district, Council Member Shaw, just to fix that drainage issue of the flooding in front of that house, which has been going on a number of years. And the cheapest fix possible is about $165,000 because the cost of road and pavement and so on is about $500 a linear foot. And that's not counting scaling it, ripping it, and putting it back down. So it can be very costly. So when we analyze these things, we have to see where. For example, on sidewalks, several sidewalk projects that got done this year were because we got federal funds. Some of the road projects that we do, they were able to be done now because we got federal funds or state funds. And to get those in the AMFO meeting that I was in today for the city, we're working on 2050 because we have to get the projects lined up and engineered so when the money comes available, we can activate them. Or if in the case of Spring Branch years ago, Bolverde, they had the opportunity to widen the intersection at 281 and 46, and they go, no, we didn't want it. We were able to claim that money because we had a project ready to be able to move it over in that FYI. So we need to do a better job explaining how these pieces work so that the public has an understanding. But at the same time, We have to, some of these things can be necessitated because we get funds from all different realms. Most of the sidewalk work we're seeing right now, correct me if I'm wrong, Robert, have all been from grants and federal fund distribution that we had and a couple other things, correct?

That's correct. Some of it is AMPO funding, along with EDC, the Economic Development Corporation match, as well as some bond funding as well.

Yeah, and the EDC and the improvements of that. This is just an explanation to say we're not really trying to hide anything. We're just saying it comes out of so many different buckets trying to put it together. And so that's my only comment just for the public's assistance.

If there's no further comments, I would like to bring this to a vote.

Okay, okay.

Not yet.

Yeah, he's not closed yet. I don't think you ever close it.

Okay.

Is this thing on? Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Nadia Douglas. I live in the ETJ. I'm completely new here. My first time. I'm obviously quite young. First time speaking at the City Council. So thank you for the opportunity to speak on these things. And Councilman Edwards, thank you for your explanation. Because for someone who, at least my family, has done construction and contracting for a very long time, I saw my friend behind me. I've done contracts since I was seven. So hearing your explanation as to how budgets and different requirements, how different parts of the city, their budgets and the requirement to maintain them as we know them have changed substantially over time. Growth aside, that's just gonna happen with inflation, cost of contracts, bids, et cetera. What I'm hearing and understanding, because as someone who, when I moved here, we didn't have paid parking and all of a sudden we did, I'm kind of young and I was kind of mad. I was a bit confused as to where this mystery fund was going. Taking my own personal experience and perspective on how different accounts are set up and how budgets are structured, you need a certain revenue. So as Mr. Edwards said, a lot of our money is going to fund the great security and safety that has received amazing ratings in this city. With 92 to 94% of that is being spent there, you have just general maintenance across, development or otherwise, that has to be maintained. And it seems like parking has been a way that has generated that revenue. I personally have been kind of against the idea of paid parking because I have heard, I work in parts of our tourism industry here, I've heard from our own visitors that they've come here also for decades and they've become very upset that this town went from kind of this gem that didn't seem to have similar structures to, say, San Antonio or Austin with paid downtowns, overcrowded parking, et cetera, and now they feel, because they've seen the signage and the parking that they see elsewhere, that we are falling in line with that. My question is, and I have, again, this is my first city council meeting, so maybe this is in an agenda item somewhere else. Aside, before parking came, was there any alternative plan to raising funds? And I ask this to everybody in this room. If you're upset about paid parking, what's the alternative? If you support paid parking, did you consider other opportunities to do that? I'm not sure if that's for the budgets or if that's for Mr. Jewell, but if we need the funds to maintain the beautiful city that we have and parking is doing that, then is there, was that the only option? Were there other options to generate that funds and that revenue? Because ultimately the bill is due, right? And this isn't meant to be demeaning or moralizing to anybody. That is just my general question. Like the money has to be raised. We can't, like the city can't run on scraps. So that's my general question. Does somebody have an answer? I'm totally open.

That's a very fair question and a very good question. And just from my perspective, you're right. And I'm going to defer to Jared because he's got all the nooks and crannies of the budget. However, From sitting in this seat for a year, I give great amount of grace to how money is found. And it's using different funding sources. So I'm okay with using this parking revenue overage that we have currently. I'm not saying I'm endorsing the parking program. I'm just saying we've got the overage. And I want to see beautification in downtown. And if that's what it's going to be used for, I'm okay with that. I'm appreciative of the example. But for your other question, as far as I'll ask Jared to give you a specific answer.

Yeah, Jordan and I may tag team this. And, you know, first off, I appreciate the deep dive we're doing into the budget tonight. We don't get a chance to do that very often. We veered off topic a little bit, and again, it's your prerogative, because again, we're not really having a conversation tonight about the downtown paid parking program. We can certainly go into that, and Ms. Matney can talk about some of the goals and initiatives for why downtown parking was brought forward for a policy discussion. I think that's probably where we'd go to with that question.

Yeah, to answer your question specifically about did we look at other revenue generation before we implemented paid parking in downtown specifically, the downtown managed parking system, the initiative was established to create turnover in downtown parking. So in working with our downtown businesses, there was a lot of frustration about parking availability throughout the day. There was an influx of vehicles that came in early in the day, stayed parked in the same spot all day long. We were trying to generate turnover. That was the purpose of the managed parking system. We have done a tremendous amount of presentations. I'm happy to meet with you individually, and we can do a deep dive on the system itself, why we established it, and what we're trying to accomplish with it. But that was the point of the managed parking system. When we established the managed parking system, we wanted to do a couple of things. Number one, we wanted it to pay its own bill. And then number two, we wanted the funds, any excess funds that were generated to go back into parking improvements in downtown. So the revenue, I'm sorry, the expenditure plan that Mr. Jewell presented in May outlined three initiatives, and that's where the money that we're talking about tonight is going towards. And so it is increased safety, increased beautification, increased parking inventory in our downtown. So great questions. Thank you.

So what I'm hearing right now, and I'm gonna make a little statement, we do have downtown parking, and I know that the public has a lot of feelings on how that money's being generated from downtown. Now, this is to propose the budget amendment to it. I'm okay with spending money that is already generated, but at some point in the future, this subject with downtown parking is gonna change. So we have money now. I wanna see it going to land area beautification, okay? And I'm gonna open it to a vote. Mayor, you will have to close the public hearing. Oh, I'm sorry. All I say is we're closing public hearing. Public comment, we're closing. And I'm gonna bring this up to a vote. Mayor, a motion to approve.

And I second.

Mayor Yancey.

Okay, show of hands.

Okay, so we have a motion and that's, okay, all those in favor of this spending of the downtown, the amendment to the budget, show of hands. Okay. Oh, yeah, it's unanimous, thank you. And I believe we are now in the individual items for consideration.

Yeah, A, so individual.

Mayor, we could go to 2A.

Just go to A. Councilmember Edwards, the minutes are not ready for the council to consider tonight. That's why we're asking that they be tabled for the night. Okay.

All right, so individuals desiring to speak to any individual item, please line up behind a podium and be ready to speak when public comment is recognized. And so we're on A. I'll read this out. Discuss and consider the approval of a contract award to Randall Scott Architects Incorporated for the feasibility study and site assessment for a combined public safety training center. And you got Gary Ford, Director of Transportation and Construction Services.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Again, Gary Ford, Director of Transportation, Construction Services, and I'm joined by Chief Flores and Chief Lozano to kind of go through this presentation. So this is an approval of a contract to do a feasibility study. Uh-oh, hit the wrong button. there we go, for a public safety training facility. And the project objective is to evaluate the facility needs for both the fire and police department to create a conceptual design for a joint facility. It's to create a conceptual cost estimate and phasing plan to inform future funding, and it's also to perform a site evaluation to identify potential properties of the facility itself. Next is project justification, which I'll kick over to Chief Flores.

Good evening, Mayor, members of city councils, your police chief. So this one's gonna really talk about just the justification for this project. It's an opportunity for this project to inform the governing body on the direction of public safety training complex. The items that you'll see up here are in alignment and in support of the 2025, or of my priorities for the police department, which are outlined in the 2025 annual report. This project will close some critical training gaps that currently exist in our operations by expanding access to reality-based training environments, some scenario simulation as well as a broader and more consistent use of some dedicated law enforcement firearms training facility. It ensures readiness for both current and future demands by aligning both police and fire training capabilities within the city to sustain our population growth and increased service complexity. Overall, we can see that this project will strengthen overall emergency response capacity by co-locating a training facility for both police and fire by ensuring that they're more closely

Well, the police chief is talking, so that's appropriate.

Thank you. Is that my time? So ensuring that these training environments most closely mirror some real-world incidents, improving decision-making for our staff, safety, and performance under stress. It also enhances interagency coordination and joint response. through a shared training environment that allows both police and fire personnel to train together for planned special events, critical incidents, disasters, and large-scale emergencies. As you can imagine, an event happening of this magnitude, of such magnitude, will require a comprehensive, coordinated response from both public safety professional groups. It also improves operational efficiency between the functions of police and fire and training accessibility by reducing some dependency that we currently have on external or leased facilities. It increases our scheduling flexibility and ensures uninterrupted training availability. As you can also imagine, this design would help elevate officer and firefighter safety performance through utilizing a modernized training methodologies that reflect our current threats, tactics, technologies, and national best practices. It aligns, as you all know, there are regulatory governance requirements for both police and fire, so this would help us align to those regulatory expectations by positioning the city to adapt to changes in training requirements, accreditation standards, as you know, both our departments are either in the process or have sought for accreditation standards, and technological advancements in public safety. As with anything else, you've heard the topic of recruitment and retention in public safety. All cities across the United States are dealing with such topics, and so this would give us an opportunity to support recruitment, retention, and professional development that would be able to provide a state-of-the-art training facility and environment that demonstrates organizational investments in our people and their career growths. And lastly, I think this reinforces the city's commitment to public safety excellence by ensuring that our training infrastructure design, not only for today but 20 years into the future, keeps pace with our community expectations, the complexity of the variety of calls that we go to, and the high standards required for modern first responders. So I'll turn it over to Chief Lozano for this segment of the presentation.

I think it goes without saying that co-locating police and fire training provides huge cost savings, not just today, but in the future, and sustained cost savings. Obviously, you have the initial capital cost by us sharing the classrooms, the workspace, the areas outside where we perform different types of training, we can also do them together. But then there's also that reoccurring cost, the most difficult of all costs, which is the maintenance, the utilities, that when it's time to install IT, the upgrades. And more than anything else, what's always important, as Chief was just mentioning, we train together and we have high expectations, but a lot of the training goes for both police and fire, whether it's incident command, EMS, terrorists, natural disasters. So by being able to train and co-locate the same facility, we eliminate instructor costs We are able to do it together, build synergies. But overall, even long term, as you know, forecastability when you have huge infrastructures like these public safety training facilities, there's when are you gonna renovate it? When are you going to do the upgrades? When is it the replacement cycle? Well, by only having to worry about one facility for both entities, those long-term cost savings are sustainable today and in the future. So one of the reasons that we're asking for this feasibility study is because we want to work together. We know that we wanna train our firefighters, we wanna train our police officers, but we also wanna be fiscally responsible. And one of the best ways is by co-locating our training facility. Thank you.

So for the feasibility study, we issued a request for qualifications in January, and we received 11 qualifications. After review by fire, police, and the TCS team, it was found that Randall Scott Architects was the most qualified, and including with their team, they have sub-consultants that have training specialty with police and fire training setups. So the contract amount is 150,000. The schedule is approximately six to nine months. And the funding for the project identified in the 2026 Police Department's budget. So with that, we'll entertain any questions.

Mayor and Council, if I may just add to what they've said. We fortunately, we're very fortunate that Chief Lotus actually has experience with Randall Scott and their feasibility study for a training facility at the city of Arlington when he was in Arlington. The feasibility study will not only look at potential sites for a training facility, but they will also look at phasing opportunities for this project. Then the outcome of all of the, the outcome of that study will then help to inform a discussion of this council as to how to then develop and structure a possible May 2027 bond election.

Thank you for the presentation. And y'all too are amazing. That's the best thing I've done since I've been on city council was in the hiring process of these two men. They're wonderful. But are we still looking at the training facility being on the FM 306 footprint?

This specific, we're really kind of having a clean, well, this is a possibility, or using that 306 is a possibility, but also, is that enough space? So that's part of reviewing the site specific, is that enough space? Likely, with it being a joint facility, you'll need a driving range, you'll need other components that would likely need another site, so. Not necessarily. I'm sorry.

He said a driving range. What kind of driving range do you use?

Where you drive vehicles? They use very expensive drivers to hit the golf ball. I'm just kidding.

I was like.

You see in the side words.

You guys need a driving range? Or do you mean a shooting range? I'm sorry. Both.

You need both, actually. Okay.

So this is the conventional shooting range that I've been after for many months.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

This is gonna include the firing range?

Yes, it would include that. And so one of the things that I think is of benefit for you all to consider is in a feasibility study, it is generally the first step in the process before this is taken to the voters for consideration, specifically as it relates to a bond election opportunity. But this is an opportunity for the feasibility study to not only inform us, but inform you all on options to move forward. It'll take a look at what our current training program looks like for both police and fire, the spaces that we utilize for such training, what is our expected legislative and elective type training that we want to be able to provide for both of our agencies. to be able to not just address those issues for today, but address them for the future. And so my experience with working through a feasibility study is sometimes it will provide us new information, but it will look at existing places, but also opportunities for us to be able to co-locate with the understanding that there may be an opportunity for us to have two sites for different purposes while at the same time, merging our training together. As you know, we are doing that as often as we can, whether it's an implementation of a med tachymetic program, that integrates EMS personnel into high risk operations, provides us an opportunity to provide help much sooner than we would have traditionally been able to do. This is an example of what this would do in terms of training for us to be able to expand upon that. So it'll look at those things as well.

Would it be an outside range or indoor range or both?

What they typically do in these is they, we identify subject matter experts within both agencies, which we will do and have done to be able to get us through the feasibility study. What we look at is how we currently use the range, and so for some of you all, you may know that we lease a range, it's an outdoor range, and there are some limitations as it relates to that. Whether it is, typically we don't shoot at that range after a certain hour in the evening, and as you know, we're a 24-7 operation. So being able to provide the training at a time in which I know those officers are already working is a significant benefit to us that currently is a limitation. One of the things that I like about this feasibility study is it challenges us to expand our thought process of what we might need in the future. And so we will identify those needs, not just from the organization, but get direction from you all on how to proceed with some of this as well.

In that regard, you hit right on it because we have to look at this facility at where we're going to be in 2050. As we run out of land space, in your particular case, Chief Lozano, is that we're going to see vertical construction at some point in time. It may not be in this 10 years, but 15 to 20 years from now as we begin to eat the old and rebuild out the natural progression of a town that's landlocked is that it goes vertical. In your case, that creates other things as density changes near downtown and other areas of how your force will work and how they'll have to be trained. And of course, how other things in an office. So I think it's a great idea to get the study done.

And for the benefit of the mayor as well as council member six who hasn't heard your presentation before, does the city of New Braunfels own a training facility for the police or the fire that is adequate or own it at all?

Our current training program involves the use of classroom space in our current public safety or police department headquarters. That does not include a range. The exterior or the external partner that we use is through a lease or a firearms training capability. Outside of that, we're limited to those two areas.

How far is your training facility from your station?

Oh gosh, probably 20 minutes away or so.

Okay. And you, Chief?

So historically the fire department had to go to the Guadalupe County to use a training ground to be able to perform live burn training. Now we are in the process of getting two props put in over at the 306 location. That was funded partly through the TERS and partly through the ESD. But it's only gonna be burn building props. But the feasibility study is gonna look at that land and see if we can add to it or enhance it to be able to collate both police and fire's needs

Gentlemen, your folks deserve a place to call home in this city.

Yeah, my only concern is pilferage from police to fire because Chief Lozano says both, there's one thing in common is everybody wants to be a firefighter. So.

Well, sir, I would respectfully disagree to that.

You're good? You know, the one thing I was looking at here is why would it take six to nine months for this study? Couldn't we do it maybe in one month?

Well, there's a couple things. Number one, you know, we have to, you know, we're negotiating a contract right now. Here's the price. We get that done. We get the purchase order. This takes time. Then we get them on board. They provided us a six-month schedule. However, we do allow a little bit more time for our team to review, having some questions, and then make a presentation to council what the results of that study are. So again, we feel that this is a good timeline. They can likely push it a lot sooner, but we wanna give them adequate time for their team and then our fire and police team and our TCS team to review it.

And if I can add one piece to that, Mr. Mayor, is that having gone through this program or this feasibility study in my prior agency just about three years ago, this was a aggressive but realistic timeline to get the information that we needed to make informed decisions.

All right. That's it for me. Thanks.

All I can say is if you run in any amount of red tape that takes you outside of six months, you come back to this council and I'm pretty sure you're gonna have the votes to make sure that that red tape disappears. Yeah?

Do you have anything else?

Other than driving course is a better name than a driving range, so.

I appreciate that, Gary. So I got to test out that driving course.

I would love to have more infrastructure for police department and fire department. If you guys are together, that's really good. I was just worried about the timeline. In my mind, why would it need to take that long? But if it's six to nine months, then that's six to nine months. And in reality, how much a facility that I'm looking at right here, how much would this whole thing cost to build?

that that will actually be a part of the feasibility study, Mayor, is to not only look at sites but then also look at cost estimates and then possibly phasing the project and developing cost estimates based on those phases as well.

This includes SWAT too, right? That includes every aspect of what you gentlemen do?

Yes, so one of the things that we will walk through is, as I mentioned, identification of subject matter experts to be able to understand current and future needs throughout the entire organization. And so as we do that, that will be a component for SWAT as well.

Awesome. And NIRB. Feasibility studies, so people understand, you have best case scenario, everything I want, and your worst case scenario, this is all I can afford, and how you put the bond in. Plus, some of the timing will be, if we're balancing our budgets, it's usually the issue is, do I have a bond retiring before I bring a new bond on so I don't increase the tax rate? So those are all considerations in this deliberation.

That's correct.

Do I open it for public comment?

Yes, public comment first.

We're going to open it for a public comment.

Thank you, Mayor. Ladies, gentlemen, council, one more time, Larry Lane, District 2. Cross training, gentlemen, is a great thing. Having your own facility out the back door or down the street is wonderful. But ladies and gentlemen, we're looking to hire a consultant who will then likely get the design-build contract. We're talking about locations, and we're talking about a bond issue already. This seems to have been a foregone conclusion. It's only exactly where we're going to put it, how much it's going to cost, and how much it's going to cost to run. This type of operation, to my maybe uneducated way of thinking, seems to be an ideal situation for city-county cooperation. We've got Comal County. We've got Guadalupe County. We've got surrounding boroughs and cities. Now, maybe if we come to the point where the voters approve whatever the bond issue is, maybe you can come up with a way to cover the maintenance and operation costs by leasing space, time, and instructors to our neighbors. In any case, gentlemen, I agree that cross-training is the way to go. We may not be able to have this in our backyard, but thank you. Thank you, people.

I'd like to speak a little bit on that. You know, when we co-locate, we become in a better position for grants from state and federal funds because they look at if you're co-locating the synergies and the fact that it impacts a greater group of public servants. So this is an advantage when you're looking for federal funds to help assist, whether bringing in training and hosting training. The fact that you have a facility and you'll be training both police and fire puts us in a better position for those grants.

Motion to close public comment. No motion? Okay, closing.

Closing public comment?

At this time, I'm gonna ask for a vote, a show of hands. Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve. Say again?

I'll make a motion to approve, Mayor.

Second. Okay. I'll second. Second the motion. Have a motion, a second to the motion? Yes, sir. And now we vote on it. Okay, everyone raise their hands. All in favor? Show of hands. And it looks like it's unanimous.

We're missing one.

Six in favor of this one. And I believe that motion adopted. The second one is discuss and consider the approval of the resolution recommended by New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation approving a project expenditure of up to $405,000 to the City of New Braunfels for the final design of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Citywide Pedestrian Improvements Phase Two pursuant to 505.152 of the Texas Local Government Code. We have Gary Ford, Director of Transportation.

I'm back, Mr. Mayor, Council, again, this is looking to approve the project expenditure for the final design for the Ampo citywide pedestrian improvements. One thing regarding New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation's strategic priorities, it is priority number two, and that's planning and infrastructure, and again, that's investing in capital plans to improve the quality of life and safety for our residents. So again, this is Alamo Area MPO funded, and just for reference, it's our regional agency that provides federal funding. We're a partner in that agency, and at certain times, there is a competitive process for us to receive federal grants for different type of improvements. This is improvement we call transportation alternatives. So we're receiving transportation alternative funding, and those are funds that are dedicated to sidewalks and bikeway facilities. So again, that's what it's dedicated to. There is another group category for general roadway improvements, but again, this is a funding category specific to pedestrian improvements. So the project scope is a number of areas and we've been successful at a number of these. It includes sidewalks or a shared use path, improvements to include completing gaps, making sure that everything is the American Disability Act compliant, ADA compliant crossings. intersection enhancement, pavement markings, and signage to improve connectivity and pedestrian safety. The funding that we're looking for right now is $405,000 for final design. Again, we issued a procurement for a professional for engineering. We selected one and this would fund that engineering part of it. And then for future, we did receive over $4.2 million in federal funding for construction. So the MPO provides 80%, and then we come in, or our local agency provides that 20% construction match. We've identified this as a future EDC funding, again, not committed, but something that we'd be looking for with our partners at the EDC. And the locations you see, there's three streets from Peach, Plum and Grape that it connects sidewalks down from sidewalk improvements we did on San Antonio Street to the railroad crossing. The railroad crossings over is another planning activity we plan to move forward. Completing gaps on Hans Drive from Green down to Fair Lane, crossing the loop. So again, that's an area that we have some gaps in our shared use path that provides access to Green and then also to Fair Lane. And then sidewalk improvements on Avery Parkway. That's associated with the elementary school there. We received a lot of complaints regarding providing better pedestrian mobility for the school children. We recognize that this really hits a number of areas and through town. So the contract award, again, was issued earlier this year, so now this is the funding to get that award moving. We are scheduled specifically for our 2028 let date through the MPO, and we need to make sure that we meet that date. That way we secure our funds. If we do not meet the date, we have a risk of losing federal funds, and then secure the 20% match back in 2028. We are looking for approval of the resolution and I'll be able to answer any questions if you have any.

Mr. Ford, thank you. Do you mind explaining to council what the AMMPO is and how it works?

Yes, and actually I'll be providing a very detailed, a little bit more detailed presentation on the MPO, kind of MPO 101 and the various categories that we're involved in regarding funding opportunities, but it is a regional organization That includes City of San Antonio, Bexar County, Comal County, the different agencies, and really they help direct federal funds that come in regarding transportation, construction funding, but also planning dollars. So we are involved, have a number of studies going specific to New Braunfels, but we also take a regional approach when it comes to transportation funding and so forth. That's kind of just a very brief, but we do plan, likely in August, come with a detailed presentation on the MPO, and then even the long-range plan, what projects that we have that are here within the next four years, and then also to Councilman Edwards' point, what's in the 50-year plan that we have identified, because it does take time for us to develop major roadway projects, but also with our pedestrian and bicycle action plan, have these smaller road projects. I know the lady mentioned Landis Street. We actually already have something conceptual design ready to go waiting for funding if that happens. So again, we are prepared to handle a lot of these requests that come in.

And then Councilman Edwards is on that board. Yes. So he's our voice of the city for AMMPO.

We went through it today. It was a pretty long meeting today on the AMPO. So for everybody to understand, You have multiple counties, Guadalupe, Comal, Bandera, Medina, to the south. And they are morphing the association. So federal funds come directly into AMPO. And then those funds are distributed into the MSA, which we're a part of. When you get to a certain size, everybody ends up in AMPO in order for dollars to be distributed efficiently by the Fed. come up with as a council and from engineering standpoint, a plan of things that we wanna accomplish. So our vision plan, our thoroughfare plan is submitted to them to see their plan for Bexar County and the city of San Antonio and everybody else, and how does the spider web fit together to get those federal dollars? And then from those dollars, certain projects can move forward. So we have the opportunity to pick up federal funds for the construction of this project on an 80-20 matching. It's not tech stop money, this is federal funds. And so we put all of our shopping lists together and submit to them and then we have to negotiate for what we can get out of there. So some years we may get a good road project where other times we get something like this which is more a redo of older areas to get things done. it does require the matching. So we have to always be prepared to have 20%, 25%, or whatever, or the seed money to get it going, and then we can get it. Some projects, no, but in this case, this is an 80-20. A couple of the roads we built with TxDOT were 80-20s. 306, I think, comes to mind, right? That was it. That was a shared project on a portion of that.

Yeah, a portion. Back in the day, that was the city taking care of some of the utility costs. Yes.

So it's not whether or not we can shift the demand to something we feel is more immediate. This is a targeted opportunity. And the EDC, with what we're proposing tonight, gives us the opportunity to go forward with helping some of the older areas, like Palm, Grape, and that area. Avery, who's got some issues. and then Hans Drive, which has issues for the construction side, so.

Thanks. So, first off, I'm really happy to see the Avery Park portion of that on there. That is a pretty significant concern for folks in District Two around that elementary school right there. And I think you just went through this, but I think you might have got a little in front of me, and I was trying to follow and catch up in my head. So I see we have, so the $405,000 in final design, that's what we're voting on tonight, correct? That's correct. So are the AMPO funds, are those not secured yet?

The construction dollars are secured, yes, for 2028.

And then the EDC funds, it says future under, so that...

Yeah, that's something that we've identified for future funding through the EDC, but they haven't committed those funds directly for the construction. So once we do the final design, we'll have a better number from kind of the conceptual schematic to the final design. We'll have a better number. Then we can come back in and then go back to the EDC for that number when we're ready to.

Kind of present to them this is what we've got.

Left for construction. That's what we're looking for. Right, that way they're not necessarily committing those dollars two years in advance.

But if we don't deliver the money on our portion, You don't get the 80.

That's correct. Yeah. And remember, the cities and local agencies are responsible for project development. And that's something that we are working with the MPO to kind of change up a little bit.

All right. Appreciate it. Good presentation. Thank you.

So the 405 is coming from the ADC? Yes. As long, I mean, and also the future 1.5. One five million is also coming from them.

That's what we've identified, but it hasn't been committed by the EDC.

And the EDC funds are from tax, correct? That's correct. Right, so this won't come out of our general fund whatsoever to get these sidewalks done. It's gonna come from the EDC.

That's correct.

That's awesome, thank you. So what we're voting on tonight won't go into construction until 2028?

That's correct, so what you're voting on tonight is going through that final design, and the final design is a lengthy effort, plan specifications, estimates, and kind of going through TxDOT's involved in reviewing that to the federal state specs. So again, it's a lengthy process for us to get through, but we wanna get through it. That way we have plans ready to go, and when funding's available, let's get it constructed, so.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing EDC is paying for this, and in the future, it's gonna pay for the 1,115,000, and this isn't coming out of taxpayers. This is kind of a sales tax, right?

That's correct, yes.

Okay, thank you. Anything else? That's it? We're open for public comment at this time.

Pardon me, my voice is shot, but I'll be quick. Timothy Davis, Ms. Lebowski's my representative. Thank you, council, thank you, mayor. Nice to see your face up there, sir. Quick question, just a procedural question, maybe for city management or Mr. Ford. Why would we be talking about phase two before we talk about phase one? Is there a reason? I know they're just different streets, I believe. Is that correct? So they're really, is that just, just name it? It's just...

Yeah, that's all it is, is that we have a group phase one, a group phase two, we'll likely have a phase three, so there's different phases on that one.

But as far as implementation, it's kind of happened altogether?

Right, well, there's different timings of the design, there's different timings of the schedule for construction.

Just why are we bringing up item B before item C, if phase one is the first?

It's just a matter, or it really doesn't, I mean, again, it doesn't matter, the order of those, or even the phase numbers, and actually we're considering, if we named it, you know, do call out the streets, so the terminology is just the phases, just one of them that we do.

Okay, thank you, appreciate it.

Kim Huntsman, back again. Quick question for you, sir. You were, yeah. I know you were talking about the Disability Act and building sidewalks. By chance, is the sidewalk added for, in front of Dollar General over here?

So that is not included in this phase. However, we've identified that for a future project. So we actually have a schematic design. So if there's future funding that's coming available, then we'd be able to submit that as a future grant opportunity.

Okay, thank you.

Ma'am, one moment. What was your name for the record?

Kim Huntsman. Thank you. Voted for you the first time too.

Your sign was in my yard.

Angela Allen, a resident of New Braunfels. So I have a question in regards to this money. Does this in any way, if it goes through and is approved right now today, are we committing to, does this have, obviously it does have to do with the thoroughfare plan that y'all approved. But does this commit the dollars to that thoroughfare plan? So meaning that if anything were to ever change on the current thoroughfare plan, would AMCO, do they hold you to the thoroughfare plan, those dollars?

Yeah, this has nothing to do with the thoroughfare plan.

So if y'all approve this money tonight and things were to get changed with the current thoroughfare plan, you could still use this money?

That is correct, because this does not include anything with the thoroughfare plan.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else have a comment, public comment? All right, right now I'm gonna close the public comment, and I'm going to do a show of hands and vote on it, is that right? You need a motion, sir. Okay, motion. Let me get ready.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution.

I will second. Okay, that's two. Then we vote for show of hands.

All in favor?

All in favor, raise your right hand. All in favor, raise your right hand. And it looks like unanimous consent. All right, that's it for...

And now.

Item C wanted to be pulled, is that correct?

Yes, sir, we want it to be postponed until a date certain to that first regular meeting in July, I believe that is July the 13th. There's just some additional work that needs to be undertaken before it's ready for the council to consider. Okay, so item C is gonna be pulled until later.

I'll make a motion to pull item C for a date certain.

Well, I'll make a motion to table till the next. July 13th? First meeting in July. Postpone until July. This is a motion to postpone. Motion to postpone until July. First meeting in July.

Is there a specific date?

I think it's July.

It'll be July the 13th, sir.

July the 13th.

July 13th.

I'll motion to supply.

I'll make a motion to delay this until July 13th.

I will second.

And show of hands.

All right, it's a motion to postpone it to July 13th. And so now we're going to executive session. And so in accordance with the open...

And you'll have to read this statement about what we're going into the session on.

Mayor, you were already reading the captions, sir, for the, you were already, you were on your way to doing it. I'm not sure why you stopped.

So B, we already voted on B.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

And we postponed C. Yes, yes, we were, yes, we were already done there, yes.

And we postponed the executive session. This one right here, the yellow part, right?

Yes.

All right, executive session. In accordance with the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551.071, the City Council may convene in a closed session to discuss any of the items listed on this agenda. Any final action or vote on any executive session item will be taken in open session. And so I'm going to... Item A, which is... deliberate the appointment of the employment of the city attorney, including matters related to search and selection of candidates pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.074, personal matters. So we're going into closed session and it would be 9.08 p.m. That's it. Thank you everyone for showing up tonight. We're back in open session and it's 9.49. And I don't think we have anything to, no action's taken. Yeah, no action taken. No action's taken and we're adjourned?

Yep, that's it.

A 949, thank you.