City Council - Regular Meeting

Everybody looked at the Everybody looked at the clock.

How's everybody? Yeah. Um the two things that we are going to discuss in our meeting here. Obviously, we can discuss the public hearing because you can we can't talk about what we're related to. You can't deliberate it or we can't decide who's going to vote for against but this is one public hearing we can discuss it. It might have been at the time. We're on the top. Charlie wants the official clock worked on over there. Uh, thank you for my comment.

So, uh, I assume that everybody kind of looked at this SU, the information, what we're looking at. Um, I would say that uh first does anybody have any questions based on what they've looked at? I can get a summary, but go ahead, Jim. I got a list, guys. I'm my apologies. That's all right. Um, so there were a couple things on uh that were confusing to me. Were the letters of support opposition for this agenda item? because the comments in there mentioned an expansion of the RV park at the site adjacent to this. So they're the neighbors. Yeah,

they're just trying to reiterate. No, they're reiterating that they're trying to that's a whole separate deal, but they are those are the actual comments for the Okay, that's they they seem out of place, but I get what you're saying. Makes sense. They're just trying to bring their stuff up to the board and all the stuff been approved yet for them to expand it. Is that I thought it had All right. So we gave them they we gave them it's not an agenda item tonight. So we can't we can discuss it. Hey, it's there. They have it in the workshop. They have what they did. It's going it's going through process. Yeah, that's what I was. It is in the works.

So um I don't necessarily disagree with the findings and what but my questions are how did we get this far down the road with all these items not done? And I guess that was that pre predates you and most of council. How do we get that far? My my concern really is that with the recommendations on the items going forward some of these requirements. I know we

well I mean some some of it goes back to turnover code enforcement turnover those kind of things. It's hard to it's hard to establish and we're probably four or five code enforcement officer down. So things just slip through because there's nobody, you know, people are having a hard time staying on top of it. Last question on this PNZ 4. So the question is, are we having problems getting members to PNG meetings or is that just a fluke?

No, there's always there's like one or two members that are occasionally out. So there's natural absences kind of like with council some there's absences, but we've had no issues with anything a lack of quorum since I've been here. I was just thinking four reference is an odd number, but you have two alternate. Yeah, we had one alternate there. So we can't count him because there was a quorum there. Four. Gotcha. I only had a quorum because an alternate was there. Understood. How often do we have to approve the SU? Is it kind of what we're doing tonight? We're going to say, "All right, yeah, it's all right to continue as is or how often do we or do we have to approve?" Why did this come up for amending? There you go.

This uh basically there were with the previous one that was passed in 2018, there was a group of conditions that had to be done and eventually a new certificate of occupancy had to be gotten because there's new ownership related to the the solar farm. And then we went back and pulled the SU up. We have it much more organized today than we had it. So when we pulled the SU up, the building official did at least. He's like, well, okay, well, oh, wait a minute here. These condition, you know, these conditions need to be done. So we're sitting on a certificate of occupancy for this until basically these new conditions are approved then they meet all the or that these conditions are changed or removed some of them then they meet the SUP standards we can issue the CO2 notice

have we given is there a time limit on this the one thing the the weather monitoring equipment that's causing the heartburn and the and the fire is there a time limit on how long they're given to rectify this. Is there a do have they shown us what what their fix is? Have we agreed on?

We're working with this the new owners and their staff right now and we're to a consensus whereby there's a staff condition and the PCC brought that forward in here that will address the issue of the weather heads that which was the issue which the weather heads are just the wires from the solar panels that go into a hookshaped uh thing into the ground kind of like you have on your house with overhead wires. those kind of things. So, we're we're working with the staff now to rectify that issue. We'd ask you to bring that condition forward, which we'll get into later. And basically, we're all in agreement in regards to how that needs to be done. And as far as time frames, there's right now the solar farm is kind of in a situation where it's not fully operable. So, they have to get their CO to make it fully operable. So, they kind of have a time frame on themselves to get through the process in regards to getting that plant operable. If you were to approve those condition changes and removals tonight, they want to get up and running as quick as they can, I would imagine.

But you're going to bring those conditions up like sprinkler heads. I'll bring it up in the presentation. Yes, Charlie, you asked a question and I think the answer which makes me dangerous because So, you were talking about uh time limits to bring these things back around. Uh this one doesn't have one attached to it, but SUPs we can attach intervals to them that that we review the SUP and compliance. And now there are some that have like people want to live in an RV for a year, they have to reup every year. Well, yeah. So, so to answer the question, we can add time

constraints constraints to review to SUP. Yeah. I mean, you can put where it has to come in and be reapproved and everything. It just thing you have to consider in projects like this is it's a pretty sizable investment. So you have to fairly consider when it comes back up. So is it prudent in this one that we have that? I mean it might have caught this issue sooner than later not when the ownership changes.

I think that question should probably be deferred till we have the public hearing on it. The applicant can provide some additional information. But I agree that there should be I think we should have oversight on on special use permits and so on. Not that the city doesn't and has caught this, but I I really do. I think it should come up for a renewal, so to speak, to make sure that they're in compliance. What do you think?

I mean, I I know at least two instances where we've had time limits or conditions applied and conditions or time limits haven't been met. to to the wording of the SU, but we don't have the personnel to enforce the conditions. So, when it comes up automatically, that's an automatic thing to where we say we're going to review this. I'm for that, actually. I don't know what you think, Greg. Oh, I I I don't disagree. No, obviously I don't disagree. I'm just probably getting into the deliberation part, not getting into the So, does everyone something we got to talk about sometime? So when can we talk about it? After the public hearing.

When we have the public hearing. The last thing will be is everybody everybody understand everybody saw um uh Chief Sullivan's notes on why on him being the fence the rock the fire hires. Everybody everybody saw his notes saw reasoning why all that. Just want to make sure everybody. Okay. Any other questions we can answer here? No. Okay. Moving along. Are we Yes. meeting agenda. I'm sorry. Minutes from last month's I have a question for the first time I don't ask him. Now you're gonna so and it's educate. It's a gotcha thing. You know I know

I know I know Mr. Burch was late to the workshop so he was kind of absent but then came in after. Do we note anywhere in those that he show? Okay. Oh, you didn't read it all. I I thought I did. See I said educating. Now I'm going to Now I'm going to look educating. um number four in the workshop agenda. It's in there. Okay. So, it shows him present at I knew he was present for the council meeting present there, but Okay, perfect. I was about educating. Oh, yeah. Right there in bold. No. No. Thanks for bringing that out, Jimmy. Appreciate you bringing up my tardiness. He just wanted to find

he was just looking for something to mess with me about. I just wanted to remind everyone that Charlie showed up late last time. Thank you. Does anybody else have any any changes to the further than that? I didn't bring that up, but they wanted to. You want to talk? Okay. We all have in front of us the new novel written by Chief Come on, chief. I'm just messing with you. I don't have back in my eyes back there. I can't see what phases he's making. He's smiling. He's standing up with his cuffs in his hand. Moving slowly towards you. And he's got health here tonight, too. So, there two of them. There's like guns everywhere.

Okay. So, um we had the comments from the ladies last time and we couldn't have any discussion. So now we're here to have discussion on the animal policy. Chief, will you come over here and just So what's the So they had some concerns, but our concern had to do with not really having this out there, not everybody really knowing what the do's and don'ts were. Correct. Like her job works from 8 to five,

right? So, you want to kind of give everybody the cliff up version?

So, I think their biggest concern was communication, mainly after hours. Um, and we've never had a policy written down as far as animal control and procedures to follow. Um, the way we've always operated, um, is basically what we've written down or the way we should be operating. Um, of course, we don't have 247 animal control coverage. She has time off. Um, there is the ability for the supervisor to be able to call animal control out if we have a sick or injured pet that's wandering the streets. Um, she can be called in, uh, paid overtime for that. It also covers things such as chemical immobilization, whereas Carl, former animal control officer, used to dart animals. We never had specific policies or guidelines he needs to follow for that. So, we've put that in here. So, we've just kind of documented procedures we should be following. Um, Saturday we held our community forum for animal control and the CNR program and that went well and I think answered a lot of concerns they may have had as far as communication. They put out there dispatch but you can use the the Sequix app to report animals too. So, and acco now has the ability to comment on Facebook post in their forum like they wanted through the through the city channels instead of her personal account.

So, if y'all didn't know, they made her her own city so she doesn't have to use her personal account. So, now she can talk to them. Now, that was one of their concerns, right? And that that's the biggest concern I saw from them was us, you know, seeing their post on Facebook and be able to comment on them and commun communicating back and forth on Facebook. And what we've been trying to push them to do is, you know, even though it's out there, we may not see it instantly and they need to call dispatch so it's documented correctly, the call for service is entered by dispatch and that animal control is dispatched to it.

Is it a question on that? Because I see the the the ability to communicate through Facebook leading to her leaving to go into a call that isn't dispatched. It isn't recorded. So I know that's policy is it all goes through there. Does does acco have the ability to hey I saw this on there so I'm going to Yes. And she can make the she can make that call and she will notify dispatch that hey I saw this online. I'm going to go to that location and check it out. and dispatch will actually start a call and that's safety reasons so we know where she's at if she needs assistance and it's documenting the call that she went on.

Will you tell these guys because Craig and I discussed it today but the the city has the first 72 hours we are required to hold the animal. Right. Which is why we have to send them to why we can't do the local shelter. We have to have the Craig as Craig gave me the 47 list from the state of Texas of what you have to do and build the shelter to be okay for so that's that's one I know they wish that we could just

yeah we don't we don't operate a holding facility here a temporary holding facility or anything and in the past animal control may have had contacts he would let people hold animals for a time until the owner could be located but that's not what we should be doing. They should be taken to the shelter immediately to start the 72 hours. And the the shelter actually documents the 72-hour hold. And the shelter actually vets them when they come in. So if they're sick or something, they'll document it because what we don't want is to pick up a dog wandering around and take it to somebody's house and they take it home with their three dogs and then suddenly their three dogs all have disemper.

And a good example of that today is we had one come in ended up having Parvo. So, so that's the pro issue we running into with uh letting people foster these is and we actually had one that had been fostered to a person that actually bit their smaller dog and cause some injuries to it. And so we we try to stay away from that and now take them directly to the shelter after a reasonable after we reasonably try to find the owner with microchips and Right. Right. They need to understand we're not just we're not just taking them straight to the shelter. We are trying to figure out who right within our means and then when you can't the times kind of started you got to go.

Yeah. And the only places she can keep them right now is in her animal control truck. So, you know, and of course when it gets hot outside and hopefully in the near future we'll be getting a new truck with climate control box where we may be able to hold them a little longer. But right now we have she does a a a standard check of them for microchips. tries to find an owner and if she can't within a reasonable time she'll take them to the shelter instead of fostering them out to organizations or residents to hold them once once we take possession of them we required to hold them that 72 hours we are responsible for them we can't hand that responsibility off to a third party most shelters what they'll do and my lastly I had a shelter so they will contract with rescue groups after the 72our period Then the rescue groups can come in and uh we had contracts like breed specific rescues got first picked. So if a golden retriever came in, the golden retriever rescue North Texas got first shot at it. If they couldn't take it, then we reached to others. But there was actually a system, but we never picked up a dog, took it straight to a rescue. In fact, we held all our dogs seven days before we even considered putting them up for adoption because we had two different distemper outbreaks and had to put down. We had one where we adopted out a puppy and like three days later it died and we ended up having to put down every dog in our shelter twice because of distemper outbreaks. So we even though our ordinance said 72 hours we held them all seven days because that was the minimum incubation period for distemper. There's usually a reason for these rules and we just have to communicate that to

Can we get this put on the and we have city website in a spot where the the video Yeah, her video is really good. This is gonna this is going to once this all gets finalized, we will bring this back for council. Right now, what I've done is drafted the policy and I gave it to control and her supervisor to go through and um whatever they needed to do. She actually gave some good input. So, this is a draft version. This isn't the final version.

So, if I understand what what brought us to this point is lack of a policy and maybe some really well-intentioned acco things outside the norm. I mean, with with great intentions and even a lot probably even some great outcomes, but it brought us to this.

That's it. And a good example is like I said the guarding of the animals that was done in the past you know she's been to the proper training now the animal control officer and she understands that we have to have a veterinarian on call and be able to make contact with them to find out dosage amounts and whereas in the past that probably wasn't done. So we're just kind of polishing everything up and putting in writing. And the and the other issue we run into is hourly employees cannot volunteer their time to do their job and that was apparently a lot of that was going on shouldn't have been going on and it's our responsibility to make sure that

I think I think it's it's respectful for staff to make sure that she's protected right you know we we can't put her in a bad spot no and she needs time off that's a very very stressful job and you need some downtime you need to get away from it go Well, as as Craig and I talked about today, there are situations after hours that chief could he could decide that he needs to call her and the sergeant on duty or somebody can call her. There's other times that the guys in a squad car might be able to Yeah, absolutely. Something

and that's really why the calls need to come through dispatch. all calls through dispatch. So, whoever's in there can make the decision of is it worth overtime for the acco or can one of the guys just go out here and coax this dog off the side of the road. One one of the bigger concerns for me from the comp citizen comments was that they said that some of the complainants didn't feel comfortable contacting PD. And on that other side of that coin is without a dispatch call letting other officers know where she's at, she may be going to one of those people that don't like police. And she is very much a law enforcement officer. That situation could go badly for her by herself with nobody knowing where she's at.

And that was the intent when I sat down to write this policy was more to protect her than anything that that she's protected. And that's that was one of my biggest concerns is where in the past control may have self-d dispatched himself, not told anybody where he was at, whereas we need to know that in case something happens. But you're absolutely right about officers on duty after hours. They can handle routine dogs at large and easy stuff. But if it's something where the dog is there, my name is Kaden these medical attention, they can absolutely call her in and

pay. Bottom line on the citizens, they're just going to have to understand there are certain rules that are on the how it is and we communicate that in a kind way to them which we will and have then they'll learn to live with it and I appreciate all the things that they do things that they do without a doubt we've got some great citizens. Yeah. And obviously it's obviously a plus that we have all of them, you know, in there trying to make sure that they're helping. So, I mean, we probably have less of a dog issue than most communities. Yeah, I would say for sure. I say from the the how much money we paid the shelter that it I like that number is pretty large but it could have been a lot worse without those groups.

Yeah. Without them taking care of it and all we did was just give them the resource. They they did all the work. Wo shelter is now a kill shelter. Correct. Yes. Absolutely. No kill no kill shelter. You want to play that for them? Yeah. I just figured since we've been talking animal control, this is it today. This is Friday. So, hi there. My name is Katie Feller and I'm the new Robinson animal control officer.

The role of an animal control officer is to enforce state and city ordinances regarding animals. My day-to-day work can look like reuniting off pets with their families, working babies cases or bite exposures and anything from neglect to abuse of animals as well. Welcome to quick tips with acco. When you're taking your furry friend on a walk, make sure they're on a leash. Anytime you're tethering your pets outside, make sure they have an appropriate tether and collar and always ensure they have fresh drinking water. Learn from my mistakes. Make sure you stay in your pets so you don't have too many little furry friends. If your pet's going to be housed outside for any period of time, make sure they got a dog house, bowl of water. We live in Texas. You never know what's going to happen. If you see a stray or injured animal, a possible neglect case, or have any other animal related concerns, please feel free to reach out to us. Here's a couple of ways you can do that. If you need to get in contact with us, feel free to reach out to our dispatchers at 254-662525. You can also use our mobile app and online platform called Cclick Fix.

Hey there. Awesome. Personality plus. Go ahead. I was going to say one thing that did come out about Saturday's community forum is the TNR program sounds like it's doing great. was actually able to capture several cats about two weeks ago that were all pregnant which prevented about 28 other cats. So that program is looks like it's operating smoothly and it's going well.

And how do for my knowledge how do you activate that program? So they can call acco or on their own they can set out traps to capture the cat. Um they can transport it or call animal control to transport it to the ABC clinic. They do the spay neutering. Um they clip the ear so they know it's been done and then I think it's 24hour recovery period. They take the animal back to where it was located and released. So it's pretty simple process. Like I said, we've done several this year that from the money provided seems to be going well.

We can have a little more discussion at a regular time. So 6:25 will adjourn to 6:30.

I went into the settings and just did it take time and turn it off. Turn it off automatically. Turn it back on. We just replaced the seal with a big clock in the back. That way we don't have no questions. All right. You ready? All right. 6:30 we will call our meeting to order and have our friend Jerry Friedman from Bethl come forward. Here's our invocation.

Thank you, sir. Let's pray. Lord God, we are grateful to you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Thankful, Father, for the fact that you are the one who provides. Lord, where we have a need, we recognize your hand providing everything that meets that need. Father, tonight one of the things that's been on my mind is uh those folks who you've brought into our lives over the years. From parents to grandparents to aunts and uncles and cousins to to neighbors and friends, sometimes pastors and Sunday school teachers. But Father, those folks who have had a a positive and lasting impact upon our lives. Lord, we thank you for those people. And we pray, Father, that you will continue your work of shaping us to be that kind of person for somebody else in this world tonight. We pray, Father, that you will be with this council. We ask, Father, your blessing upon them. We pray, Father, for our first responders. We ask that you will provide protection and help and wisdom for them in all that they do. Lord, for our students, for our teachers, Lord, continue in every way possible to bring this community together in you. All this we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, sir. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May be seated. Roll call. here. Here

the city council invites citizens to address the council on any matter including items on the agenda except for public hearings that are included. Those comments related to public hearing will be heard when the public hearing starts. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Council is not permitted to take action or discuss any item not listed on the agenda. When called to speak, please state your name and address if you're speaking on an agenda item. Uh, okay. I'll have a blue card, so we don't have anything right now, but I'm sure we can have things later. Um, all right. We have a presentation for public service recognition week. I'm just all over the place. It's kind of the day I'm having

Look at all the protection they gave. There you go. All right. Is she gonna All right. Are we coaching now? Okay.

Whereas the public service is among the most noble and demanding of professions and excellence in the delivery of public service helps to keep Robinson strong and prosperous and a wonderful place in which to live and work. And whereas Robinson City employees through their commitment to excellence and diversity of skills have made great contributions to the city of Robinson by preserving public safety and the health of our citizens, protecting our economic well-being by keeping a close eye on the financial resources of the city, maintaining our streets, parks, and other infrastructure, administrating justice, providing excellent communication and education to our citizens, and handling a host of other essential duties the public entrust them with. And whereas the city of Robinson recognizes the contribution made by public employees at all levels of city government finds it fitting to set aside a special time to honor and thank those dedicated individuals who perform such vital roles. Now therefore, I Greg May, mayor of the city of Robinson, Texas, do hereby recognize May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as public service recognition week. And I urge all citizens to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of city employees and to observe this week by expressing their gratitude and appreciation to those dedicated to public service for the service they provide our community every day.

David Harold, should you be up there? I can come take the picture. Dustin, you can get where you should That's what I'm saying.

Just in time. All right. We have one item on the consent agenda. Would someone like to make a motion? Motion to approve consent agenda item number seven as written. Second. All in favor? I. Any oppose?

All right. At 6:35, we will open a public hearing to consider and take possible action on ordinance 2026-007 modifying some conditions on the existing specific use ordinance, otherwise known as SUP 2018-026 on 67 acres located at 1622 Greg Drive. MCAD parcel ID 403899 the OkampoC at 68.992 acres David

yes mayor council thank you this is an this is a request to modify a uh existing specific use permit so this hearing affects the conditions that are being modified with this ordinance um this does not affect conditions that are being changed or the use it that are not being changed or the use itself 12 the AG district. This where this parcel is is where the solar farm is at. It is a use by permission which requires a specific use permit. One was granted in 2018. Um with that original granting there were conditions associated with that. In this actually in 20 actually be 2025 there was a condition which requires the reissuance of new certificate of occupancy because it's under new owners and some of those conditions on research were not carried out. So, this modification is to the conditions to change some of them and eliminate some of them. And I'll go into further detail through the presentation. This is within your packet, but this is kind of a summary. The blue line around the perimeter indicates a six-ft tall wood fence that was not complete, but there's a chain link fence around there probably for security related purposes. This would remove that condition from the original 2018 SUP. The red circle is fire hydrants at near Greg Drive. That was never added. However, there are hydrogens within the 600 foot of that uh driveway that changes to reflect that standard. And the light blue circle uh there is a drive approach that was supposed to be paved. It was never paved. It was gravel and it stayed gravel. So, it'll be uh changed to remove part of that condition. Because this site is related to a certificate of occupancy and some of these can be fire related issues. We asked our third party consultant and our volunteer fire department as well to provide input. So they believe adding a wooden fence would increase fire load. So there's risk for fire. They believe that two existing hydrants on Greg Drive, both within 500 ft are adequate

to meet the operational needs for any fire related services at that location. And as I said a minute ago, the gravel roadway has been used multiple times at that location with no issuance or no no concern. So they feel that uh the removal of that would be no there would be no danger to the community or any life safety related issues. Now within your packet as well, I've indicated I've had some fire reports included they've responded to three fires at this location in 2025. Now this there were situations one of them where they need mutual assistance to put those fires out and it was determined on review that the weather heads which as I said earlier the device where the wires come down they hook into a piece of metal and go down to the ground they were sparking causing fires on the grass. Um, from a staff standpoint, we think this is a hazardous condition. And we think from the standpoint of staff standpoint, staff would ask that that be taken into consideration a condition be imposed to help alleviate that, like an additional step to keep that from occurring should something like this happen again. Now, under the city code requirements as stated there, there are eight findings of fact that you consider and those are within your staff report. And with those uh findings of fact, you can make your own determinations as the council on anything within the packet or additional evidence presented tonight. But we believe the request will not be detrimental to the area if there's an additional condition on the request for any fire related issues that can be resolved. And I touched upon this earlier tonight. We're working with the staff to add additional redundancy to keep fires from occurring there. conditions already existed on the site with no issues and the VFD and third party fire representative indicated support for the approved approval of the conditions. Now under code requirements you can impose conditions and uh reasonable conditions necessary to protect the interest welfare including a time period. It may impose conditions and

locations to be important to the welfare, protect adjacent properties, excessive noise, offensive views, diminishment of property values, or other undesirable or hazardous conditions. So, you can make additional conditions on this. Now, based on the information within your packet, the staff has no issues or concerns regarding the request provided the additional condition is added to exhibit B of the ordinance. And that is basically areas where the weather heads are located must be raised up further out of the grass or materials placed to cover the grass around these weatherheads to reduce the risk of fire. These shall be completed to the satisfaction of the city. They shall be maintained for life. As I said earlier, we're working with the applicant to kind of do a uh material they put down each weather head about 18 inches wide. They're putting gravel on top of that to kind of hold it down and keep grass from grow. So that should resolve the issue and the fire department agrees as well. Uh April 7th, 2026, the planning and zoning commission met. They recommended approval 40 with the staff condition I just read to you a moment ago. And with that said, that concludes my presentation. Mayor Councel, I'm here for any questions you may have. The applicant also has their own presentation for this that they may want to go through here on the here on the next round. Thank you.

You are welcome to come up and you brought the whole team.

The whole team got everybody here. Uh, mayor, members of the Thanks. Uh, Tyler Wallock. I'm with Jackson Walker LLP. Uh, our office is in Fort Worth, Texas. Uh, 777 Main Street. I will have to say you have former uh, city employee, former city employee, different cities. So, I can say that we very much appreciate what city employees do as well. Uh, I think that city employees generally tend to be underappreciated. Uh, so the fact that you get your own week, that's fantastic. Um, so anyways, I have two representatives here from Solar System who is the applicant in this situation. Uh, so we got Henry Een and then Eugene Re as well. And let me see if I can see that.

Okay. Thank you. So good.

All right. So, here's the location. Um I think as staff was saying this is about a mile and a half northwest of where we are now uh along uh Greg Street. Um just a little bit uh northeast of Flat Creek right there. Uh and it sits on about 67 acres. And then so I'll hand it off uh to I guess Henry to tell you a little bit about who Solar System is. So before we dive further into the request, uh, Soul Systems, who employs Eugene and I, we are an independent power producer or an IP, which means that we are a non-utility generator of electricity. We build, own, and manage clean energy uh, generating infrastructure throughout the country. We have a footprint of around 4 gawatt capacity across 38 states, including Texas. Our customers include Fortune 500 companies, utilities, municipalities, school districts. Our company has a focus on creating strategic partnerships and community reinvestment to help ensure that clean energy development has long-term positive economic and environmental benefits for the communities that we operate in. A little bit of background on the site. So, as city staff mentioned, the SC was approved and uh given to the original owner of the site in 2018. Around that time, a 40-year lease was signed for the land as well as a 20-year power purchase agreement, which is an agreement uh where an optaker purchases all the electricity on the site. In 2019, the site began commercial operations, which means that the site was fully operational, transmitting electricity to the local grid and uh was selling electricity to the grid as well. In 2020, Soul Systems acquired the project and we have been operating it ever since. Recently, it was discovered that uh several modifications needed to be made to the specific use permit and uh

the proposed SCP conditions which were uh bringing forward to tonight are more accurately reflect um the fire uh safety concerns on site. This is something that we've worked closely with city staff on as well as the volunteer fire department.

So, here's a site And I think staff already showed you this by and large, but um did it again. Um so up at the north you have Greg Street, Grig Street, you'll have there's two fire hydrants. Both of them are within 500 ft of the entrance. Um and if you travel down that road, the first 100 feet is paved in accordance with the SUP, the original SUP. And down there where the C104 is, that's a turnaround. That turnaround is gravel. Uh we understand it was supposed to be paid but uh the fire I think the fire chief volunteer fire chief and then the third party said that the gravel does work uh for this situation. It does allow enough room uh to maneuver. Uh the request today it's really um again it's it's aligning what is on the ground today uh with uh I guess what we're doing is is aligning uh the SUV with what is on the ground today. So the first one is removing that six foot tall uh wooden fence and keeping in place what is out there today which is the chain link fence. The second is taking uh ensuring that the turnaround facility can stay gravel and that it doesn't have to be paved. The third is that and you'll notice there we originally had uh language that the fire hydrant is required no less than six feet but it should actually be no more than because they're within 500 feet of the entrance. So that's why you see that marked through right there. But that's simply uh so but simply put that's what's on the ground today and that's all we're asking.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you some of our findings and some of our counter measures to prevent uh further issues that require uh fire department intervention. So key fact pattern uh all of the thermal incidents that this site has experienced uh all happened at the same type of equipment on site and that's the weather heads. This is uh the place where above ground electrical cable transitions to below ground and then there's that uh hookshaped uh device that uh Mr. Mr. Harold referenced earlier that prevents moisture and critters from getting inside. If these weather heads are not installed correctly, uh that can lead to issues with moisture ingress and and uh and pests. So, all of our issues were centered around these these wet heads. Uh what we've done to address the issue, uh there's a series of steps. Number one, we terminated our contract with the maintenance provider. Uh the maintenance provider was also the original developer and the firm that constructed the site and they were handling the maintenance. Uh but uh we found their service to be lackluster and in September of 2025 we transitioned to a new provider. So that's number one. Number two, our new maintenance provider uh undertook extensive testing, electrical testing, specifically insulation resistance uh testing across the site so that we could identify if there were any areas where the insulation was compromised. Uh all the areas where we tested uh passing were sealed uh that the weather heads were sealed with foam to prevent the moisture and uh critters from getting inside. and the areas on site that had

lower insulation values we've bookmarked and we're in the process of remediating all of those sites. So between the testing uh the new maintenance provider and then this this last line here after consultation with Mr. apparel. We have agreed to add the geoexile fabric and uh gravel around the weather heads to prevent sort of fuel for the fire. I'll show you a picture. Which button am I pressing? Yeah, that one. Okay, thank you. Uh on the right hand side, we have two pictures of these weather heads. Again, this is where the above ground wire transitions to below ground. Uh so you can is some orange and white foam. That's a really critical piece that was missing from the original installation from this contractor that's no longer on site. Uh those were added to all the areas that have passed the testing to prevent uh prevent these unwanted circumstances. Uh and then you'll see we are in close contact with the vegetation and that's purpose for the geoexile fabric as well as uh the gravel. Uh the map to the left is just a small subset of the site, but that yellow strip there indicates uh where this where these weather heads are located. They're at the end of each row. Uh there's several hundred locations on site where you'll see these. And uh that's that's where we're focusing our our counter measures because that's that's where the root cause of the issue. And I believe that is it. Questions. When will the uh gravel and the the geo has that been added or what?

We are in the process of uh contracting for that work. It has not been done yet. We expect it to be done in the month of May. I would say that would be a huge factor. Yes. How far around that weather head are you going to go? Uh we have an 18 inch uh 18 inch diameter around the weatherhead. Please, you think that's out, Dave? The third party fire consultant for the city and the volunteer fire department. Believe it is. Hey, before you go any further, I close the hearing at 650. Now you can ask questions since he jumped in. All right. Well, he gave me permission. I'll let you.

I'll let you. I don't want Miss Taylor getting mad because she be waving her hand. I'll draw that statement. Does anybody else have questions for the guys while they're standing up here? It doesn't mean we can't go back. Is that I I don't I have a question for Mr. Okay, y'all can be seated. We might we might call you back or somebody might have a question. I appreciate the picture. I was wondering what it looked like.

So So my question is just in regarding to a motion to I'm trying to scroll back up to the recommended actions. I believe I found I'll be there one day. Only 55. Well, it's 15. It's on page 151. Yes, I'll be there. Yeah, page 15.

So, um, you know, approval with conditions, I believe, the staff recommendation. So, in constructing that, do I just need to do the read aloud the approval with conditions and then the conditions would be to include with conditions um stated in exhibit B. Would that suffice? Um let me go ahead. Yeah, if you go ahead and read the approval with the conditions and then the condition would be right here in green. Is that the condition P&Z recommended? Yes, verbatim. So they could do it and just say with the with the condition as recommended by PNC. You can do that without reading the whole condition. One more time.

Just you can say approve the ordinance with the condition including the condition as recommended by the planning and zoning commission. Easy because you're not changing that condition. So that's already unless you want to just read the condition. No no condition is as recommended as. All right. Any any other questions that we have not covered? All right. The one question I had Greg in our workshop is addressing the review of subs at some point. Is that not appropriate to talk about that right now? No, we do that as a separate agenda. You can bring that up. Yeah, that needs to be at the future. Great. Thank you. We'll talk about that. Okay.

I've got a question. So could we impose a condition once the occupancy certificate's issued? Is there an ability to issue that for say three, four, five years and have to come back or not? I would you can make any condition that you like as far as the the SUP in relation to those conditions related to those conditions. You could Yes. But um go I'm sorry. Go ahead. I didn't understand. There is a provision that if conditions aren't being met, they can replicate it. We can bring it back and revoke the SU, right? Yes. So, these particular conditions within the SU, right?

Yeah. Okay. Or you could replicate the entire SUP. I mean, yeah. Because you said, if I believe I heard right, it's this is a 40year pro. So yeah, what's the difference between 20 years of service and 40 years? Does it quit after 20 and you keep it for another 20? How's that? We have we have a site lease for 40 years. So that's how long we'll be occupying that. That's a sight lease between you and the land owner. Between us and the land owner, do those solar panels last all 40 years or you have to change them at a certain point of time? Yeah, they have a useful life of 40 years and that's the expected uh duration of of this plant.

Okay. 20 years was you're a utility producer. You got the the license or the permit to be a utility independent nonutility producer. The the 20 years that I mentioned is for a power purchase agreement. So that is the length of time that we have agreed with uh another company who will purchase our power. So they said we're going to purchase your power for the next 20 years. After that point, you know, there's 20 years left on the lease. would go and find another company or resign with that. But there's not any that has nothing to do with your agreement with Robinson or our No, it doesn't. Is it strictly commercial?

So, to be clear, Greg, all I'm talking about is making sure that we review subs, which might pertain to the benefit of our city at some point, which we'll talk about later, but has nothing to do with y'all or any other stuff we might have going on right now. It's just a concern I have as a council member to make sure that our city is protected and we make sure everything stays safe and all that. Not to say that you're not and thank you for doing the things that you have done already to remedy these problems.

Right. I say if I mean it's not going to change of use for 40 years. We're probably easily safe with the if if whatever is not being met, you can go back and deal with that. Otherwise, we should be good. But the 40 years only is only between them and the land owner. It's not an agreement we had with them that we're going to let you do that for 40 years. We the city hasn't given them an agreement. Well, no. The SU as originally approved is does not have a termination. Correct. It goes with the land. So, they want to operate. As long as they meet the conditions, they want to operate, they can. Right. Thank you. So, it sounds like it's written correctly. All right. Anything else?

All right. Motion to enact an ordinance 2026-007 for project number 826-00007. ordinance modifying with some conditions on spec I'm sorry existing specific use permit 2018-026 on 67 acres located at 1633 Greg Drive on MCAD parcel ID 403899 Okampo Cacres 68.992 with the following conditions that were recommended on April 27, 2026 by planning and zoning commission second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? We're not done with. Thank you, gentlemen. Um, okay. Last thing we got is back to the discussion of our animals welfare concern. And I saw CG and then come in after we'd had tons of discussion. So y'all can't leave yet. Take care. So

you got to stay for the duration. Since chief chief went and worked on a bunch of stuff to help get us in the up to date legally and everything else we need to do, you want to kind of give a the cliffnote version of for them of kind of what you

Yeah. So, the concerns brought before the council um at last meeting made me sit down and address some scenarios and actually put into policy animal control procedures and call outs and operations. Um so, that that's what I've given y'all as a draft copy of our animal control policy that we'll be moving forward with. It addresses um communication um callouts for animal control um immobilization techniques for animals uh chemical immobilization and transportation to shelters and that sort of thing. So it it kind of just outlines what we've been practicing just puts it in writing. and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

And as we discussed in the workshop, it you've put in this the requirements of laws that that regard in regards to how the city is supposed to do the business of taking care of the animals.

Yes, sir. and it it addresses the health and safety code and aligns with the things such as the 72-hour hold for animals uh which is the primary reason for us taking them directly to the shelter instead of fostering them out uh because we are responsible for those animals for that 72 hours. That way when we take them to the shelter, the shelter documents that time and they hold them for that amount of time before any other determination is made with the animal. Do y'all have any questions?

I don't have any questions. I absolutely as someone who puts my hands on way too many animals that I shouldn't um I respect that 100%. I totally understand that. And I u I think that we've already seen like some changes just in communication. Um and we're we're super excited about that. And I will also say that I kind of got to be in the life of Kaden a little bit today. And goodness gracious, that girl works hard. I worked about 10% as hard as she did today. And I am worked. So I'm super thankful for her. She was out of my house today trying to help with some TNR of some really kind of creepy cats there. And so

big time appreciate you guys. Some of what we discussed uh I think prior to y'all getting here is um the reason dispatch needs to be called for animal callouts is to document for one to start a call in the computer that a call has been made and that Caden is dispatched to that call so we know where she's at her safety her safety um so that way if she needs assistance we can send officers or or whatever in the past whereas a call may have come directly to the animal control officer via to his cell phone and he's self-dispatched. We may not have known where he was. Yeah.

So, a lot of this aligns with her safety and protecting her and and that's our main goal. So, you know, we mentioned you can call the police dispatch line or use the Sequix app and uh dispatch gets that immediately. So, if people report animals at large or injured animals through the app, we'll be able to dispatch that to Kaden. Another thing I know we discussed before y'all got here was that after hours because this is more defined because she is an hourly employee. So obviously you've got to take into consideration overtime, who's working, who needs to take slack up. Then after hours, the calls that go through dispatch, the sergeant on duty at that time can make the call of whether one of the police officers can take care of if it's not a hard thing. But if it's something that requires her, they can call her in after hours and approve the her being here. But that's another reason why they wanted to go through dispatch. The biggest issue that we had was during those two months from February 1st to April

17th where she could not and she was actually sending them to me pictures. This dog is at the shelter. So I was actually working for the city. I was glad to do it. It's our passion. But it was hard to keep up with where they were, what we were doing. Another thing that was really debilitating was we've got like a little dog right now, a little dog that somebody would put in foster care and and we got him in foster care, but he had already gone to the shelter. So, if those can be posted,

then sometimes we're able to get a foster immediately and they don't have to go to the shelter involved. So, one of the things we included in here is staying away from fostering for that 72 hours. Um, we don't have a local holding facility ourselves here. And like I said, the city's responsible for that animal for 72 hours. So, what Kaden does is she'll pick up the animal, do her best to find the owner through microchips, name or collar tags, whatever. if after a reasonable amount of time she can't find the owner, she will take it to the shelter instead of finding a local individual to foster it because we have had issues in the past. Um I know one was where about a year ago we fostered out a dog to an individual during that 72 hours and it bit their smaller dog and caused some serious injuries to it. So we're responsible for that animal. So our our responsibility is take it to the shelter so that 72 hours can be documented and after that time is expired. That's when the shelter can move along with disposition of the animal.

Plus to keep things like parvo from Yeah, we had a dog brought in today with parvo. As hard as that is to see and I I definitely get where you're coming from too. I also do understand it from your point of view. That's exactly the reason why I don't have fosters in my animal rescue, which is really just my house. But um and people get on me about that all the time, but I'm like I'm not going to be the reason why somebody else got bit. Like I'm not going to be responsible. We had a good looking puppy brought in today that I would have loved to have take home and foster, but we found out it had Parvo. And this is exactly why we have to stay away from fostering out to individuals in the city for that 72-hour. My son was playing with a kitten this weekend that's now in quarantine for possible rabies. Well, I get it.

So they need to Y'all don't want to foster We because it costs wings and money protected to the shelter. Yeah. I don't know. And protects us.

Let me let me address that one because I dug into that. So Craig explained to me today, obviously all this brought up is you got to have your checks and balances for what the legality is for the city because we employ the the caden to do this job, which once we take possession, we are bound by an ordinance that says we are responsible for the dog for 72 hours And for it to for us to be in compliance with the ordinance that the city has to operate under there are like how many things that shelter has to be comp there's a whole lot of requirements of what a shelter has to be. The biggest thing part of the reason we hold a 72 hours is to give the owner ample time to claim their animal. And so during that 72-hour period we are responsible for that pet. We we can we can't hand that off. And I had My last city I actually had uh a shelter and things like that and we had problems with animals coming in and with distemper and stuff. We actually our policy was we held them for seven days and and one of the things that I know the Waco shelter does is when they come in they get vetted. They get checked to see if they're sick. I think a lot of times they get their shots as soon as they hit the door. And that's what we did because you we adopted a puppy out one time to somebody and the next day it died of disemper and it infected their So, so we have to be cognizant of that. We can't just take a dog into custody and put it with somebody else without knowing what the condition of that dog is, what the whether it's potentially vicious and all that. So, that 72-hour holding period gives them time to assess the dog, make those things, and give the owner an opportunity to return and, you know, come and pick their dog up if they want it. I think the bottom line is our friends

here, we very much appreciate what you do and what you have done very much. And we want you to be able to do all that you can do with the caveat. Let me finish with the caveat that we got to respect the laws regarding it. And we you got to understand that the city manager, the city employees, and our our police, all of them, we want you to do what you're doing within the scope of what you can do legally, etc. Okay. We do appreciate you. We I I hope that you know that we are both fiercely proud Robinson residents. We love you. We love you. We love all of you.

We do know that. And for sure, we appreciate you guys taking the time to hear us. And I think that for me at least the main concern was that once they went to the shelter not having the communication where where we're figuring out where they're going and that has changed 100% once they get to the shelter. I understand what y'all are saying. I I never really thought about that. We were just always contacted you in an emergency. That makes sense what you're saying. But once they get to if we know they're at the shelter, we can start posting their picture from the shelter and get those fosters under the sniff program through the shelter once that 72 hours once that 72 hours is up.

So we can start working on it um too. But I mean I feel like that that communication is great now and like I said, I've had some experience with Kaden now and we are big Kaden fans. Um and so just yeah, thank you for everything. And I just wanted to add one more thing. when I said that my son was playing with a feral cat. My son is 21 years old. He's a grown adult. I was not letting my child play with feral cats. And I just wanted to clarify that. And

I think the month you're talking about as far as communication and her accessing social media and commenting on social media. That was during our transition time where she's required through the city to go through some training as far as using city social media and that sort of thing. and then getting that established, you know, with Carl leaving her coming in. Um, I think that's gotten better. She she has an account now. Um, and I can talk to her about, you know, getting with y'all when those animals are taken to the shelter and held past that 72 hours and get back getting pictures to y'all on our side if somebody wants to, which sometimes we can get the little ones out of the shelter or the sniff program from the shelter. The bigger ones are harder.

And that uh picture you saw the the big Pyrenees. That was a total emergency. There was nowhere for that dog to go. And so when I say it was show my house, so we're always here. Yeah. But um and like we discussed, animal control is Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. However, you know, when we need to call her in, we can and we will. Um especially with injured pets and that sort of thing. But but 247 people can call the PD, use the app to report animals. our patrol officers will respond if it's just a dog at large or they can usually find the owner with chip checks. They have access to all that. Um, so

I want you to know that we tell them constantly on every single post. I have type 620525,

but we can't make and you may promote the cclick fix app too because like I said that goes directly to our dispatch and as long as our dispatcher knows where Kaden is. That's the important thing to us. So we want the call routed through dispatch a call generated so it's we know it's documented and then they dispatch Kaden where our officers know where she is and for safety. And and then I think y'all heard me talking about the TNR program that y'all brought up Saturday. That's going well from what I understand.

We started in my yard today. Um we had some complications once we got started because I'm a rescue. It got complicated. Whether I was doing it or City of Robinson was doing it, so I think we're just moving down the street or something. But um I'm so excited about that. The cats in our neighborhood have been borderline scary for a while. So, and that program's been utilized. I've seen it in my budget. So, it's it's being used. I love it. Thank you.

And we did say before y'all got here, we we do acknowledge what y'all do to help. Robinson probably is up on the very top of small cities. They have a wonderful pet program between city and volunteers. So, we need that. Other cities are jealous. I'm telling you, they say it all the time. We hear it from all the surrounding stuff. How did y'all do that? The fact that we have this cooperation and communication with all facets of our city and our citizens to work

in Joel's post, Wson Police Department, anything that you posted about Kaden, we have been pushing that out there because it for two months and online, she deserved more respect than this. They called her the animal warden or the dog catcher, which that term has not been used since the 80s. So, we're we made a post on Sunday, put her a picture, we try to tag y'all so you'll see what we're a proper title. Yeah. Yeah. And if y'all ever want us to promote anything animal wise that you need us to do, just contact us. We'll make a post. Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you. Thanks.

We're good. All right. Uh, anybody to add for future? I'd like to review the subs. I'd like to review our policy on reviewing subs. Okay. For sure. Put that on a future agenda. Which one are you going to be back? Give me back for a second meeting in We'll put in the second. I'm going to check the luck of the Irish first meeting in May. I'll be in Ireland for two weeks. Oh, yeah. Since I'm married to an Irish girl. All right. Uh, anything else? All right. With that, we will adjourn at 7:20.