City Council - Special Meeting

Your back, put your hands on your hips. You're gonna tighten up your core, squeeze everything. and you're gonna tilt your bottom forward. Your knees are going to be slightly bent. Looking up at the ceiling, keep everything tight. And I'm gonna count 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and release your body. Stretch it out, relax. Take a breath. Blow it out as your hands come back to the hip area. Hands on the hip. Tighten it up and tilt. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and release your body. Stretch it out again. Take a breath. Blow it out as your hands come back. Tight and tilt. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And relax. Stretch it out. Take a breath. And blow it out. Tight and tilt. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And release it. Stretch it out. Breathing and blow it out. Last one, tight and tilt. 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And coming out of that, stretch it out. Take a breath and blow it out. Bring your hands back. We're gonna open our feet no wider than the chair legs. Bend your knees slightly. Reach across your body, stretching it out, starting with 10, alternating to the other side. Nine. Stretch it out. Eight. Seven. Using your whole body. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. And one. Coming back in, make sure you can touch the chair with the backs of your legs. We're gonna sit down 10 times. This is the fun one. Put your hands out to the front. We're gonna take a breath and blow it out as we sit down. Going down. Take your hands all the way to the back, like you're gonna scoop up air. Coming back up, take a breath. Blow it out as you go down. And breathing up.

Welcome to the City of Pearland City Council special meeting. I'll call this meeting to order at 4 PM on August 24th, 2026. At this particular time, we'll have roll call certification quorum. Madam Secretary, I attest that all members of council are present. Moving on to citizens comments. I do not believe that any citizens comments, uh, were submitted at this time. Uh, so next order of business is the new business, uh, presenting presentation regarding the fiscal year, 2027 proposed budget for all funds. And I'll turn it.

Thank you, mayor. Good afternoon council. So as we normally work through our budget workshops, a lot of what we talk about is what we're not able to get done within a budget. or our unaddressed needs. But today, as I get this kicked off, I wanna talk about what this budget does accomplish and the goals that it meets as we head into this fourth workshop. So first off, there was a goal to be at the no new revenue rate. We are actually one cent below the no new revenue rate. Streets, we've identified in streets that we have additional needs, but again this year we added an additional $500,000 to the street rehab and maintenance budget. Cost recovery, we completed a significant review of our revenues and our fees. better cost recovery to ensure that they track along with our increased cost to provide those services. That's been completed and is actually the bulk of a lot of tonight's presentation. We went through a fund balance review and optimization process and analysis. That's been completed and is baked into this budget where we had Fund balances for the general fund that backed up where we had fund balances in other funds, and we've been able to utilize those dollars instead of having them sitting there on the sidelines. Compensation. We've been on basically kind of a three-year journey to review each major segment of our compensation plans in order to remain competitive in the market for retention and recruitment. The goals established were to be above market versus our peer cities in the public safety arena in those pay plans and at the market for our non-public safety pay plans. So that three year journey where we've gotten to today is we've addressed the PD pay plan with our meet and confer agreement. The second year of that is included in this budget. Last year we made a big move on the fire pay plan based on where we were versus the market. And then this year we're making some structural changes in that fire pay plan to set us up better for the future. And then we also this year completed our compensation study for the rest of our employees. The analysis from that study identified two main things. The areas where we were below the market and basically what adjustment would be needed to keep us at the market average for those pay plans. And this budget addresses both of those as well. Healthcare. We had to go out to the market for healthcare this year. That's always concerning because you always see the cost increases in the healthcare arena. But we did go to the market. We were able to limit our cost increases there to 6.8%, while the industry is typically seeing over 11% increases. And then lastly, our water and sewer rate increase. While last year's modeling estimated it to be over 16% this year, we were able to get that down to a recommended of 12 and then squeeze it even a little further down to just south of 10%. I'll bet with another significant increase projected for next year, but we're near the end of those large rate increases. And as you've seen in the headlines recently, we're not the only ones dealing with those kind of increases. But we get through next year, and depending on what we do there, it could extend another year. But we see that drop off significantly in the two to three year time frame. So it's a very tight budget, but does accomplish much. And at this point, I want to hand it off to Rachel to walk through our presentation tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. For today's discussion, we'll be reviewing some of the general fund revenue and then discussing the fee changes that are applicable to this budget process. So similar to how we've shown expenses in the past, this slide shows both our revenue and expenses for general fund by the strategic priorities set by Council. So strong economy includes sales and use taxes as well as community development. Trusted government includes charges for services and the TERS admin fee. Safe community includes EMS, fire, and PD. And Parks' connected community and our sustainable infrastructure includes franchise fees as well as transfers in. Another way of looking at revenue is revenue by department. So fiscal year 26 projections shows the best estimate of revenue through the fiscal year, while projections for fiscal year 27 proposed budget are usually conservative and take out any one-time funds that may be accounted for in fiscal year 26. Most revenue is considered non-departmental, including property taxes, sales taxes, TERS admin fee, as well as transfers in. Departments reflect revenue for services they directly provide. And as you can see, not all departments are listed as some may not generate any revenue. Those that do are encouraged to do so on a cost recovery basis when possible or to the legislative maximum if below the cost recovery threshold. These are reviewed annually as part of the budget process. During the budget process, departments followed the council direction to review fees and account for cost recovery. Updated fees throughout this presentation are built into the FY27 proposed budget and reflect legislative and or cost recovery updates. Most proposed fee updates were included in the budget highlight section of the fiscal year 27 proposed budget book with a few cost recovery fees for the fire department added for the purposes of this presentation. When fees are being updated, the old fee shows alongside the proposed new fees, and when new fees are shown, they will be added to the fee schedule for approval on September 14th. This slide shows six animal control fees that are proposed to be updated for fiscal year 27, and the next slide shows a fee that is currently being charged and needs to be added to the fee schedule based off of services provided by the shelter. This next permit fee slide reflects things that have been listed on separate ordinances and may or may not have been charged and will now be included on the non-development fee ordinance and charged consistently as written. And this brings both ordinances into alignment and the police department will begin collecting fees as indicated. The fire department is updating EMS fees to increase in line with legislative maximums. These changes do not allow for full cost recovery, but do bring them more into alignment with that. Beginning in fiscal year 27, we're proposing to begin collecting additional fire cost recovery fees, and those fees are shown here, and they're applied based off of the services rendered at the time. The fire marshal is proposing to update three fees to be more in line with the other fees in the schedule so that they're charging consistently. Parks has two updates to their parks and recreation auditorium fees, as well as additional new fees proposed for the West Pearland Community Center. This would bring in new revenue, as well as an update to the timings, new timing system daily use fee. Community Development will be updating their development fees for the first time in over five years. These are done on a cost recovery basis, as well as in line with legislative changes. So there are a significant amount of these. So if you click on those links, you're able to see them in more detail. There are some additional new fees that will be included in the update to the development fees, and this will also come before council on September 14th. And then there are solid waste fees in alignment with our contract. contract with Frontier, in addition to the solid waste fees shown here, which will be included on the non-development fee schedule, the water wastewater fees will also be updated as discussed during budget discussion number two, with that 9.9% increase and included on that non-development fee schedule. So as we start to wrap up the budget process, we'll come on September 14th with a budget public hearing. The first reading of our budget ordinance, tax rate ordinance, non-development fee ordinance, and the development fee ordinance, as well as the adoption of the five-year capital improvement plan. And then on September 28th, we'll have the second reading of the budget ordinance, tax rate ordinance, non-development fee, and development fee ordinances. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Epperson for questions.

Thank you, Rachel. I just, once again, wanna thank our budget team, all of our departments that are here, and all the hard work that's gone into the budget up to this point. And at this point, ready to hand it back to you, Mayor and Council, for any questions as we wrap up the final budget workshop and head into budget adoption next month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Representative, and thank you, Rachel, for that information. I'll look to council for any questions or comments. Oh, sorry. Member Koza. Thank you, Mayor.

On the memo that was sent out, page three of 27, I just had a question here on the 26 estimated and then the 27. It shows the cost recovery was 78 in 26 and then 84 in 27. Is that what we're, one, is 26 estimated Since we're almost through it, I assume that that's pretty accurate at 78% recovery. Oh, there's Carrie. I didn't see Carrie.

Yes. Those numbers were based off of our mid-year projections that were approved in June. But that's what we've been adhering to, and we anticipate our expenses to be 100% of what was adopted in June.

Okay, all right, and then showing for the next year, albeit it's a forecast, we're looking at 84%. The revenue is roughly flat to me, about, I don't know, $2,000 different. The expenses dropped quite a bit compared to the year before, so that's where the percentage difference came in. As far as, you know, moving forward, I know, Like we said before, the COVID hit us hard and it was, we went from about 105 to 55%. What do we have? What are we looking at to try and get back up to the, if you want to call it break even or 100% cost recovery?

So we're looking at a lot of different things. One, always looking at our expenses and our staff cost, monitoring that as we go through. One of the reasons for the decreases in expenses in FY27 versus FY26 and 26, we had several HVAC units that we had to replace that were unexpected repairs. And so that was driving up those expenses. So in FY27, we expect that to get back down to where that average should stay. And then we are looking at a lot of new revenue generating opportunities. We're looking at improving our group fitness classes, which will drive additional membership revenue. So membership revenue is one of our largest revenues for the facility. And then also in the natatorium, our team has been working very strategically to start, I'll say, playing Tetris with the use of the pool, where we can still offer swimming lessons and we can still offer member swim, but we're also opening up a lot of opportunities for larger meets, which are a huge revenue-driving opportunity for us. The revenue staying about flat was tied to two large swimming meets. that move across the state throughout the year. So those aren't showing up in our revenue estimates, but those also open up prime weekends for new business, and we're working to fill those spots. So when we budget for revenue, we base off of what's already on the books, or what we feel very confident will be on the books. So I anticipate the revenue numbers to be even higher than what we budgeted, and we'll adjust that at mid-year projections.

Okay, fair enough. And I assume there for a while we had seniors coming in here on a regular basis saying that they were shut out of the Nanatorium. I assume that was all related to our rework of the HVAC, the deck, all that stuff that we were doing because we haven't seen seniors in here complain about it. Would that be a fair assessment?

That's part of it. I will say some of our group fitness classes that are attractive to our senior members, with us trying to find space in the pool that's very limited. And so we could offer more group fitness classes for that demographic. But we're just so limited on space that we have to be strategic about what we offer. So there still is an additional demand. But as far as the facility remaining open and available to our members, that has been happening.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. And then on Slide 427 in our packet. It's got, yeah, right there. It shows the assessed value for Missouri County, Fort Bend, Harris County. I don't know if this is Victor, Trent, but it shows Brazoria and Fort Bend with basic drops and Harris County with increases. Is that due to our industrial stuff going up on our lower Kirby stuff? Is that a safe assessment in that? Because we've got two counties going down and one going up.

Your assessment is correct.

Okay. And then as far as the assessed value going down, I assume is that the ad valorem tax for the $2,500 to $125,000? That's absolutely right.

That's what it is, yeah. That's over $170 million in itself.

Okay. That's what I was assuming, and I just wanted clarification. Right. Thank you.

Any council members? Member Cade? No. Member Cade?

Just on slide four is revenue by department. I'm sorry. Thank you. FY 26. That column doesn't add up for me. Something's missing. Did I miss something? I don't know. We can look into it. You can tell me I'm wrong. It's fine. I just remember Fernandez is adding and saying I'm wrong.

Let's see.

While we participate in this exercise, I'll pass it to Member Byron.

Council Member Fernandez got it. It's right. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry I broke the meeting for a minute.

No.

All questions are valid. Thank you. Thanks, Levity. It's great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Back on page three of the packet that Member Koza was talking about, Just as kind of a note, if we can, that cost recovery goal, 75 percent for FY26, FY27, I'd like to make sure we talk about that when we get to strategic planning next year to look at what that cost recovery goal is moving forward, because I think through different conversations we've had, we want to get that cost recovery goal back to 100, and I think that's where you're headed anyway. I just want to make sure we have that as a target to discuss.

Sure, and just, I think, to clarify, the goal never had been set at 100. I think at one point we got over that with the way we were calculating it. We did come back and revamp making sure we were capturing some of the cost to operate it that maybe weren't captured in the early years. So I'm not sure we ever got as high as it was stated at one point. But if the ask is to revisit what the cost recovery goal is, then yeah, we will definitely get that on the radar, yes.

certainly not putting forth a direction other than just say, I want to make sure we talk about that when we get to strategic planning. Um, also just you guys have kind of answered this offline, but just for, uh, public record in our memo it talked about under our IT strategic plan that there were 49 initiatives. Eleven of those have been completed, which is great. Seven of those were moved to day-to-day operational budget functions. One was removed altogether, which leaves about 30 initiatives from the original IT strategic plan that weren't listed in the memo. As I understand it, there's another memo coming out in a couple of months that will more detail that. And I'm hoping when that memo comes out, it details how much we have left, because that original strategic plan called for about $26 million worth of investment over some period of time with 18 of those being taken care of. I assume that number would be slightly different, but we make sure when we get that memo it has that cost projection in it as well. I think I had one other question that I had for Rachel. The TERS, remind me again, the TERS administrative fee is roughly about 60% of the taxable value, is that right?

It's about 60% of the property taxes collected in the TURs, roughly.

Okay. Other than that, I just want to say thank you guys for your work on this budget and for coming in below no new revenue. That's always great. I know you all put a lot of effort in this year at revamping the way you approach the budget, looking at your departments, making cuts where you need it. And so I know the taxpayers appreciate it, and I appreciate it as well. So thank you guys. Mr. Fernandez.

Thank you, Mayor. I believe it's slide 20 out of 27. Trent, can you maybe give a little bit more, how do you, 20 out of 27, the fire department's proposed new fees? Okay. Just a little bit more context on how are these fees gathered? I see that it says similar to the existing emergency medical services cost recovery fees, but how do we gather that? Do we compare it to other cities, or how do we get to these numbers?

How do we come up with the actual fee amounts? And then off the bar, you got that, Chad?

Yeah, so these fees are... kind of set based on what other cities are doing, correct, Chief? And they would be billed through Emergecon, which is the company that we currently use to bill for EMS services.

Okay. I also want to echo Councilman Byram's comments. Great job to the staff, everyone that put in to make this possible. We came together in February or at the end of January at our retreat to give a request for a no new revenue rate, and y'all exceeded that. So I just want to say thank you to all those that made that possible. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Chavarria.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a quick question on page three. How often do we look at our membership fees and increase those fees for RCN? Is it done every other year, once a year? When was the last time we increased membership fees?

So we increased our membership fees last year, and then we are following the Consumer Price Index for regular increases. And so as soon as our membership rates hit an even number, then we'll increase. We'll come back to you all with a proposed increase. Okay, thank you.

And then, Trent, can we have a breakdown of what percentage of salaries would be allocated to fire and police, and then what's for everything else in general fund. Does that make sense?

So the percentage of salaries dedicated to fire and police, I think it's around 67.9. Yes.

We actually have a slide, if you want us to display that, which will show that for you.

Yes, please.

So you will see police at 40.8 and fire at 26 1⁄2.

Okay, and then so that would be what, 32% would just be general fund for all the other salaries, correct? Precisely. Okay, thank you. That's a good slide, thanks.

Council Member Echols? Yes, I too would like to say thank you much to the staff for your hard work on this budget. When we asked for no new revenue, I knew that was going to be a challenge. And then when the state went from $2,500 to $225 on Abdullon deduction, that put a big strain as well. So it's much appreciated. Two questions. One question would be on the fees for the fire. what percentage of these fees do we feel like will be attainable on receiving through insurances and other needs whereby we usually write off the unpaid balance of insurance? So of the practicality of these fees, what percentage should we look at being able to collect and what percentage would we need to write off?

So Emergecon says that statewide they're able to collect about 30%. Okay.

That's reasonable. And the second question is on animal services being a pet owner. And some of these services that we have here is far, far less than services provided by any local veterinarian clinic. Is there any way we could look at these fees and not saying be exactly that of the private veterinarian, but we're staffing a veterinarian, we're paying their salary, paying the medication. Is there a way that we could look at a more structured fee that would correlate with the commercial entities that are the veterinarians in the area?

So generally speaking, where our fees are coming from is through our contracts with the animal disposal service that we have. So this gives us a cost recovery on that plus a little bit of profit. I'm not sure, Chief, do you know the exact percent?

I don't know the exact percent.

We can get you that data. I know we have – we can get you that information. Generally speaking, we don't do a whole lot of these, Councilmember Echols. This is kind of more sometimes people that don't have their own vet services and they're just – they're not sure what to do with a deceased animal that they own. And so a lot of times we get them that route. We have very few pets actually surrendered to us in part because we don't generally have the capacity to take that on. And then as far as a microchip implant, while you see that going down actually, that's because a few years back we changed our city ordinance to get rid of pet registrations, as in like tags, and there's instead a requirement for microchipping, and so that's kind of our part to help encourage our public to get the animals microchipped, but we actually do that in-house, so our expense there is basically what's there is the fee. Okay, thank you so much.

Mr. Patel? Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to take the road that's not popular, but I had asked you to provide the gross employee salaries or payment, and what I would like to do is on the budget to include that full, I guess for the past 12 months, and include that. You can take names out, but keep the positions. I think it's important for transparency that we share with our constituents what salaries we're paying when we're talking about 70% of their taxes going towards payments. Also, I would like to have this council consider including all vendor payments included in our budget for the past 12 months. I think it's important for, again, constituents to see who our vendors are and where our dollars are going towards either consultants, engineers, and whatnot. Is Dan here in IT? Hey, Dan. How many softwares do you guys support?

Paid or not paid, or all together? Probably upwards of 200.

We have 700 employees and we have over 200 softwares we're supporting.

Roughly, yes. I mean, you're talking like Adobe Reader and all of that. Sure.

So I guess the exercise would be, Dan, and maybe this is the next year's budget, what are we really, what areas can we really cut back, right? Especially on the ones that are costing us. Is there an opportunity there to consolidate some of this? Or if the group is really small that's using it, is there a way we can get them off if there's cost associated with it? And I guess how much time are you guys spending on maintaining it, right? If my understanding is correctly, you have 14 people in your department?

2025.

Sorry. Okay. 25 people. So I mean, I think it's kind of, it's worth looking at, right, the IT software, supporting that many software among people and what the usage is. So just a suggestion, but I think it's worth looking at. And maybe we can send that money somewhere else, if that's possible at all. Justin. Trent, how many, I guess, open positions do we still have that we don't fill on an average that we have funded?

I don't know if someone from HR can speak to kind of what that rolling number looks like. If not, we can get it to you.

And I guess what's the dollar amount attached to it, and what's the average if it's six months, 12 months that we're rolling these positions? Because if there are open positions that are not being filled, either we need to eliminate those positions, maybe we can take that fund and percentage-wise increase it for somebody else who's already doing that work, but maybe we don't need that position.

I don't think we've got any positions that we don't fill on a regular basis. When they become open, that we move forward and fill those.

Well, I mean, again, if it's long enough, is it really needed? And again, if you don't know how long those positions have been open, I don't know the answers. I'm just asking. Sure.

I mean, we have those statistics. But one of the things we do, you know, there's areas where we know we have, we need the capacity. We fill those positions. But we do look at positions as they come open and look at them from a standpoint of, do we still have that need? Is there a greater need elsewhere? Can we better employ that somewhere else or in a different way when we have positions come up? So we don't just automatically say yes every time. We're just going to fill these positions without thinking about what we're doing and how our business is changing and what our current most pressing needs are. Okay.

And again, I guess the question that goes back to that position being open or exposed or unfilled for however many minutes, two months or six months, I guess the salary on that position would go to your fund balance, correct? If it's unutilized? That's correct. Okay. So I guess what's that balance for last fiscal year that we have these positions? Are the departments able to use that money for some other line item?

So we do not allow that to be used for some other line item by the departments. Usually that's accounted for as we go through the budget amendments dealing with, like this year, a lot of years where we have salary savings that is, if we have any overtime expenditures that are necessary somewhere, they help cover those. Or they fall to the fund balance and we utilize them through a budget amendment process. Or with this year, with some very tenured employees retiring, There are the accrual payouts, which we haven't traditionally budgeted the full amount of those, and we've always used salary savings to pay those out. So this year, I believe we pretty much used all that for those long-tenured employees that left the city. And so looking at how that work this year we're actually building some more of that into the budget to make sure where we have known retirements and things like that we're budgeting for that not relying upon salary savings to do those things okay but we do not you know we just don't allow those to be used in any way they go towards those sort of things or they come back through the budget process yeah and that's fine um and and i know we're buying i think what is it 43 vehicles i read right um and i'm going to

last year or year before I had mentioned considering doing EVs for certain departments, right? We have this new maintenance, I guess, building we build out there. And again, I know in Houston they do use a lot of hybrid vehicles for inspections and code enforcements. And I know we end up always buying trucks, it seems like, for most of our, so if there's an opportunity, I think it would be worth it. Again, I know there will be some costs incurred for charging stations and stuff to put those in there, but since we have a new facility, I hope that we have the power. Again, it's a long-term plan, but I think it's worth looking at it.

I think we can look at that, but we have vehicles that sit at multiple locations every evening. We have vehicles that go home, so I think We've got to consider that as far as going to that type of vehicle. And it wouldn't be just putting the infrastructure in at the new fleet services facility. It would be every building we have.

And I guess that's a fair point. We can ask. I mean, I think it's $10,000 per charger to put it in, overnight chargers. So I guess that's my take on this. I think it's worth looking at it. But the other thing I'll tell you, Kerry, I know a couple of council members mentioned cost recovery. The goal is $100,000. But I guess you're not including CapEx on that. That's just breaking even to operate that buildings down there in Natatorium and the

It doesn't include any of the capital costs, and it also doesn't include any of the cost of some of the programs that happen in the facility, such as our summer camps, basketball leagues, pickleball leagues. Once you add in those, you're adding, if we were to have to pay to rent space for those, you're looking at about $460,000 in additional cost.

Yeah, and I think I want council to kind of understand that. You know, Kerry mentioned HVAC is, I guess, you just had it repaired. Right? Yes. But that cost is going to probably come due, and Member Byrum, you can probably tell us better, but I feel like HVAC, every seven to 10 years, you got to rip them out and start it over. And I think we should make it a point with all departments to say, you need to budget just like we do with the motor pool funds and stuff like that. Same thing with the natatorium to say, hey, you guys need to put the CapEx consideration into your budget. and start budgeting this, right? We got lucky with the Pearland ISD paying for to exit the contract. That's why we were able to, correct me if I'm wrong, $3.5 million?

That's correct.

So, we were able to use that. But otherwise, that would have been a hit on our P&L, right? And so, and I think, you know, one of the big costs when I look at this, it's kind of, one thing I would ask you, Trent, again, I know we got the meet and confer for the police and we're gonna do with the fire. What is that five year, I guess what I would ask you to do and what this council should understand is what a stress test looks like, right? What does it look like if, let's say, we do have another recession and the values plummet and we have all these agreements out there and the percentage are guaranteed? What does that stress test look like for us? Right? And I think it's very, it would be irresponsible of Council to just look at one year today and not consider what does it look like in three and five years. And so what I would ask you is to do a stress test on this. Like, what's the worst-case scenario, and what does that worst-case scenario look like, right? If we're going to consider dropping the 90-day funds to, let's say, 75 days, right, fund balance, well, does the stress test hold up? And that's really important to kind of consider that. And I know we're kind of celebrating that we went below no new revenue tax rate, and that's great, and I appreciate that. But I don't think any of us really realized there was going to be 120, at least I did not, and I'll take responsibility, that this new $125,000 exemption businesses were going to get were going to be that impactful for our community. So, you know, we can go around and say, hey, we reduced your tax from last year, but just keep in mind, your tax bill is going to go up. The tax bill is going to go up on everybody. So, a couple of other things, Trent. You know, I do appreciate the staff getting market salary, and that's, I don't have a problem with that. But does that mean that they are above 50 percentile, I guess? Are they above 50 or are they below 50?

The goal on our compensation plan outside of public safety was to set our plan basically at the market. So our midpoints are at the market, our starting point is generally at the market, and our top end is generally at the market. So at any point during anyone's career based on their experience, where they fall in that, they should be basically at or near the market.

Well, and I guess for me, what I would also ask, in most businesses, and I know we're not in a business here, but if we don't consider it, there should be a cap on everybody's salary. There should be. At a certain point, you've got to put a cap on the salary. And I think it's important, if you're going to look at this long term, that we're very clear on you can't have certain people and this is why i want that uh... the pay that we have paid we i think our city does well i think we pay fair uh... and i think it's important for constituents to be able to see what we have paid uh... and the reason i say that is We cannot continue to always go up 3 or 4 percent because the compounding will kill us in the future. It won't be our problem, but it will be the next council or maybe the third term council's problem to deal with, especially with this meet and confer. So, I think, I know this is maybe too late of a game, but I think it is very important that we have this discussion. And I would like to kind of get feedback on council on to be able to approve including vendors payment and salary payments that we paid to our employees. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments.

Just a couple things there. So we do include the pay plans in the budget. So that does show the range by position. And while if we want to share the information on vendor pay, I think we can find the appropriate way to do that. I'm not sure it's something to attach to the budget.

Yeah, I think, look, again, my point is we talk about transparency all the time. And, you know, I think even I was shocked when I saw last year or the year before when you first gave me the – the payment for what we have paid our team, which is fine, but I think it's important to understand that what people do make with the city. I think it's important. I think it's important for our constituents to be able to see, hey, people are getting paid pretty well. And again, there's nothing to hide in the city, show it. Right? Share.

Member Patel, I understood. I think your points are well received. I know, I trust that Mr. Epperson will find an appropriate way to deliver the information as requested based on the concerns. I know We're talking about budget, so we're concerning our taxpayers and residents, and I think the conversations that we're having are a result of the situation that we find ourselves in, in that, as mentioned in an earlier budget discussion, that no new revenue rate is not sustainable, because there are other factors impacting our city services. And I think your points are well received, Member Patel, as well as every other member up here. So as we move forward in potentially the next adoption or the adoption, I think going into the next year in the strategic planning session, we're going to have to make some really, really important and difficult decisions on behalf of the residents here for us to continue to deliver the quality of life and quality of services that we expect. All points said, and really well taken, and I hope, and we acknowledge the work the staff has put in. At this particular time, I don't think there are any other comments or suggestions. So with that being said, we can move on to the next item on the agenda, which is, I believe, executive session.

Happy to do that, but it leaves us 15 minutes, and if we're not able to finish then, then we may recess that meeting and come back if there's time after the joint public workshop, or. We'll do that at the end But I think that's a question for a City Council If if we think I think y'all know what I'm intending to talk about Whether 15 minutes is sufficient time to do that. I'm seeing two or three head knows that hadn't Shakes not nods, which is why I'm asking the question.

Okay I'm looking at I'm trying to count as well. It looks like there's some consensus member Cade I I got three. Patel? Executive session.

Do you want to do the exec session now and then come back?

Three no's.

Okay.

Are we going to? I didn't answer. We're not going to have time, so I think the right is one.

Remember, because of that's only one. Next two.

Our next meeting starts at five, so.

I would just wait. I would wait until.

I would go ahead and wait.

So that we don't have a consensus to move into executive session. And so at this particular time.

So I would recommend that we recess instead of adjourn so that we preserve the possibility if the JPH doesn't take as long as we want, we can come back to that item before the 630. So recess this meeting instead of adjourning it, and then that preserves that possibility.

Okay, that's good. I appreciate your recommendation, Mr. Provost. And at this particular time, we will recess the special meeting for the city of Pearland at 4.44 p.m.