Remarks by Amanda Rodriguez
219 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 9
- Play at 49:45
“Yes, ma'am. For the sake of the conversation, could we pull up that?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 50:12
“So I know mayor, we've typically stuck to the 3% every three years. Correct. Am I correct on that?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 50:31
“So I saw your question on the message board, uh, as it related to cap a potential cap. And then I saw, obviously given it's based on impervious cover and that a cap may not necessarily be feasible. If you're interested though in entertaining perhaps I mean, while ideally I would be totally okay with a 5.8 given the capital investment that's necessary for some of these massive projects that are very critical, I can hear how given all of the other increases that we've made in terms of rates, this could be a sticker shock for some of these businesses. Are you interested in perhaps a potential…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 53:47
“So, Mayor, I know on a couple slides prior to this one, there was the rate adjustment scenarios that provided scenario one, I believe, was the 0% of what we're at, the 1%, 1.9, and 3.8. I know we have one, 1.9, 5.8.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 54:12
“Right. And I was particularly interested, you know, if, if council's not amenable to a 5.8%, I'm seeing on the previous slide, uh, the 3.8% would generate an additional $368,000 in revenue, revenue compared to the 561,000 under the 5.8%. Um, mayor, are you more amenable to a 3.8 versus a 5.8? Like, are you trying to find somewhere in the middle? Just trying to see what, you know, where the interest lies?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 59:18
“Yeah, and Mayor, you know, this one, as all of the other rates, like we talked about the last time, these are not easy discussions that we have. They're not easy decisions that we have. But, you know, to the point my colleague just made, but also... The critical nature of this infrastructure that this fund specifically funds is actually saving us money long term should we have a major flooding event. A major flooding event doesn't just cost a municipality considerably, it also costs businesses considerably should there be damage. And so in terms of potential return on investment or return on…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:00:48
“From my colleague that wasn't here, the discussion at that time, while I think we all can understand, given especially state legislative action, the financial strain that school districts are under, I think without understanding, though, at the same time, that when Texas State chose to pull out, THAT COST US. THAT COST US SIGNIFICANTLY. THEY WERE A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THIS FUND. AND I WANT TO SAY, AND I KNOW SAVAS IS HERE, I THINK WE WERE PROVIDED AT THAT TIME WHERE THE DISTRICT LIED ON THE LIST OF TOP CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS FUND. YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT CREATING A POTENTIALLY MASSIVE HOLE IN A…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:22:24
“I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 65.15 cents, which is effectively a 2.5% increase On the tax rate. Is it in the tax rate or just grammar? Is the state set in?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:22:42
“Thank you. It just feels grammatically incorrect, but okay.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:39:14
“And just for, so I'll second, thank you for the sake of discussion. Um, I believe it was all encompassing of the things that were inverse and that I had flagged. Right. Um, but this isn't necessarily a substantive in the sense of you're changing the amount and it's just fixing the formatting. Am I correct?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:39:36
“Yeah. So, uh, I guess what I was asking is despite them being inverse, now that they're correct, you're not necessarily proposing that not only are doing, enhance them in terms of... No, no. I just wanted to clarify.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:39:53
“Yeah, especially for all the jumping castle.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:40:44
“So I went through this as comprehensively as possible, just cause it's so much. Um, and I guess I'll start with, so the two, uh, that were subject, not just to the 3%, but to the review as well, where just so I'm clear parks and the library. Correct. Yeah. Um, so let me ask, I know that all of that, all of the. proposed rates were contingent on the study that y'all looked at, peer review cities, correct?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:41:11
“And let me ask, did that study and did the methodology within that study account for, and I understand in terms of peer cities what classifies what, but does it actually go and further disaggregate the data to include poverty rates in comparison to other cities?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:41:46
“Okay, and I ask all this because the recouping of the fees isn't lost on me at all. It's just in terms of essentially some of these hikes that are being proposed are quite significant. And I want to support them, but I guess what I'm trying to understand is did we do an additional, and it doesn't sound like we did.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:42:09
“An additional accounting for the individual nature of our poverty rate in comparison to the other comparator cities.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:42:29
“Okay. You know, because one of the questions that I had asked, I guess let's start from the beginning. The portable toilet cleaning, the 538% increase, I see that the rationale was that we were greatly undercharging for that service. I guess in terms of the recipients of those charges, are they normally big organizations that host events at Plaza Park or who all necessarily goes and requires the portable?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:43:51
“Yes, so I guess the 118 dollars I guess in terms of y'all's ability to calculate this where y'all looking at the number of events that are already Hosted on that property and then basing the cost recovery on Like insuring or I guess guessing that they would reschedule in the subsequent years to do the cost recovery or I'm just trying to understand so that so the the fee that”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:44:34
“Okay, and I'm less concerned about... No, go ahead, but I want to ask a question relevant to that. Oh, please, because I was about to...”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:45:16
“I would wonder if whatever costs recovered from this could be actually for public facilities versus a portable, if they could be encumbered for that purpose, now that I'm thinking.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:45:33
“Is it more affordable to just build, similar like to the Dunbar? Yeah, I see where you're going.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:45:48
“But for each event, they would individually be charged $118, correct? Correct.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:46:33
“Yeah. I saw where our minds were going on that one.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:46:45
“Yeah. Cause the purpose of the question was we were kind of having an off, uh, the, the conversation about would it be more cost effective to encumber the whatever funds that are raised through this particular fee for the purpose of constructing public restroom systems similar to what we have at Dunbar. Which would also have to be cleaned, but they do have restrooms.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:49:42
“Okay, so now the activity center membership fees. This was really the one that, so for the public, and if we could pull the schedule fees just so everybody watching both in-house and online could be. ON THE SAME PAGE. SO THE PROPOSAL IS CURRENTLY THE ANNUAL FEE FOR A RESIDENT WHO IS AN ADULT IS $92 AND WE'RE PROPOSING TO INCREASE THAT BY ABOUT 40% TO $130. And, you know, I had asked other questions in the message board because I'm trying to think, like, I know I've been on y'all's tours before. The activity center is struggling. It's busting at the seams. I think that was the phrase that was…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026