Remarks by Carter Holston
57 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
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“Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Yeah, there's the presentation. Be happy to entertain that. I always enjoy seeing our business community and seeing that they're represented here. So I noticed the chambers here as well. So if there's a presentation, happy to look at that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“OK. All right. Well, generally, if the city manager could give us the highlights of this agreement, that would be helpful for our citizens and us.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Mayor, I've got a couple questions. Brian, thank you for your presentation. I will readily admit I haven't been on council for 18 months, so I don't know the full process, but I do have some questions. First of all, I believe around July 29th, we awarded this bid to another contractor. Is that correct?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“SO WE HAD A BID IN HAND. CORRECT. DO YOU RECALL THE AMOUNT OF THAT BID? WAS IT AROUND $709,000?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay. I seem to recall that we were focused on a bid of a $709,000. Is that correct? RIGHT. NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000? NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000? NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE INCREASED THIS NEW BID?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay, so quick math. That's about $284,000 additional expense since this 709 for the same work, correct?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“AND DO YOU THINK THAT LOWEST BIDDER WAS QUALIFIED PREVIOUSLY?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“So now it seems like we wouldn't recommend them.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Well, I'm just trying to evaluate how the same scope rose by 40%. And we have a $284,000 additional cost from a low bidder previously. And so it seems sort of odd to me that they would have bid $709,000 and then not bid again, right? That seems unusual to me. Is that your experience?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“WERE WE PRESENTED THE DECISION TO MAKE AT THE 709,000 OR IS THIS COUNCIL?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“OKAY. AGAIN, I DON'T WANT TO HOLD ANYTHING WITH THIS PROJECT BECAUSE As I said, I haven't been here for 18 months, but there are some citizens that have that have been walking through this process. So it does seem to me that whoever this bidder was, and now they withdrew, and then we had a contractor draw drawings that were incorrect. It makes me want to ask, is there anything else that we should be looking at that we haven't considered regarding this particular project. Needless to say, this has not been our finest hour. Would you agree? Okay, you don't have to answer that. Okay. I would…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“I want to clarify that we do oversee our design contractor, and that is our responsibility to make sure that the plans that are drawn and bid on are true and accurate and correct. Correct?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay, and for whatever reason, that step failed in this process?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“All right. With that, we will move on to item 5B.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Yeah, mayor. If I could, uh, specifically about coil house and security, uh, have we taken additional measures one to secure underneath the home such that people cannot crawl underneath it into? Have we increased security? Make sure that the doors are locked every night that, uh, others can't get in it and that it is a secure and checked on a regular basis.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Is it a daily touch point such that someone is going by and they're checking the door, checking that there's no one underneath the building, et cetera?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Mayor, if I could make a few comments. Please. First of all, I want to thank staff for particularly pulling this item and focusing on the animal shelter. This is a great place to be in that we're talking about building this facility. And so as I think about building facilities, I think the word suitability and feasibility. Christoph, you mentioned suitability. Suitability meaning, can you build this building on that piece of property? Feasibility meaning, is there an expert such as animal arts? You presented them in your presentation. Who are they? What do they do? Do they examine the…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay. So I don't know anything about animal arts, not run across them in my limited exposure to life. But can you tell us what they do?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay. And the location of animal shelters.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay. Also, I heard tonight a licensed sound study. Are we going to conduct that as well?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Okay. And then the other thing I saw or heard tonight was a financial analysis. And I see that this presentation takes our contractor all the way from design development to construction drawings.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
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“Yeah, construction drawings and then construction administration. It is your plan, evidently, to get those construction drawings issued to contractors who will bid on them. At that point, we would be able to complete a financial analysis of what this will actually cost. That's kind of the process.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026