Human Services Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the March regular meeting of the Human Services Advisory Board. I am calling the meeting to order at 06:01PM. Thank you all for attending. Do we do roll call?

So then I had thought you would read this and then tell me to do the roll call. Okay.

Perfect. I'm sad to note that Kimberly Chavez, the board's nonvoting social work member, has resigned due to changes in circumstance. Also, the city council moved HSAB member Lucy Johnson to the Planning and Zoning Commission based on her prior experience and the need to fill a vacancy. So this evening, we are welcoming Madeline Smith, who was appointed to HSAB by the city council on February 28. Carol, will you please call the roll for the record of board member attendant?

Yancey. Erdog. Sorry. Raymond Best?

Here.

Linda Harper Williams?

Here.

And Gravis? Here. Sherif Bessie is not here, so that's a surprise. Madelyn Smith? Here. And Alyssa Ramirez? You have to say

here. Here.

Have 123456.

Alright. So with six out of seven voting members in attendance, we have a quorum.

The numbers would be correct.

Oh, sorry. Okay. We will count you as present in the roll call. So we have seven.

Alright. Seven out of seven. Thank you, Sheree.

That's fine.

How are you doing?

Alright. It is now time for the citizen comment period. Anyone is allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes. If you would like to speak during this citizen comment period, will you please raise your hand?

And then we do have someone, so he would need to state his name. Do they have to state their address? I'm not asking same question just because he's on

No. No?

So he would need to state his name, and then we'll just take notes

that that he wants to be here. Ready?

Yes. My name is. The address is 1104 Cheetah Street, Yesterday, I was at the Commissioner's Court, Hays County, and it was disturbed that I'm against this nonprofit organization, but started to got home, started doing some research. That's what community centered from what I've gathered so far, started 1927. It's considered a five zero one c three nonprofit.

Started doing my research. There's six most very common violations that flag investigations against nonprofits. One of them, political campaign activity and private benefit, are one of the first and second. That nonprofit has been involved with all of it. And I'm in the process of getting all my information so that I can submit to the IRS for investigation.

As I said, there's nothing against this organization. Yesterday, one of the pastors, I believe he's the president of the board, went up there and was asked who invited him to come and testify, and I was very shocked that a religious figure hesitated to do that. Now as a former cop heavily trained in interviews and interrogations, a lot of the indicators that I saw was that of an accepted individual. So today, I wanted to come up here and bring it to y'all's attention because, you know, some of the sanction guards, they removed the five o five zero one C three designation for violations if the investigation is sustained. So we wanted to bring that up.

There's a lot of posting on Facebook about how wonderful this is. There's a lot of other stuff that I've been made aware of. People donate stuff. It's being sold to other people. I have information and all that. I wanna bring it to light to the IRS, so hopefully, can resolve this matter. I just wanted this board to be made aware of the issues that are coming. So thank you for for the time.

Okay. Thanks for participating. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And that is our only citizen. So is it because y'all present in the next item. Right. Right. Okay. We're good. Okay. Okay. So then we're on to the next thing.

Now we will consider approval of the minutes from the 01/21/2026 meeting. Do I hear a motion?

Motion.

Motion was made by Yunzi.

Second.

Thank you. Motion was seconded by Shareef. Does the board have any discussion or corrections regarding the minute? I

have a correct sheet. Sorry. I'm not on the board, but I typed the minutes. And I would like to add that two attendees spoke at the public hearing. It was Elisa Gooch, who was government grants manager for Central Texas Food Bank, and Jamie Castleberry, director of grants for workforce advancement and goodwill of Central Texas. And so I would like to just grab that that I noticed after I sent it to everyone. So

Okay. If that's okay. Are you ready? I didn't

it's okay if they're ready. Okay. Carol, will you please call the roll for the vote?

So this is approval as amended. Yancey Aravallo? Yes. Raymond Best?

Yes.

Linda Harper Williams? Yes. Thank you. Ethan Graves? Yes. Sharif Gassiz? Yes. Madeline Smith? And Alisa Ramirez? Yes. Thank you. 907907.

Perfect. Alright. We're on to action items. So number one, next, we will receive a presentation by staff and a presentation by Southside Community Center. Hold discussion among the board staff and Southside Community Center representatives, and provide direction to staff regarding whether or not the applications from Southside Community Center will be accepted for consideration by the board. Carol, you have the floor for your presentation.

Okay. I'm going to read the memo that I sent to the board, and then I do have you know, if you have questions that refer to the exhibits I'm talking about, I can bring them up. So this is from me as the staff liaison to the board. On 01/16/2025, the Human Services Advisory Board, HSAB, or the board approved an update to the board's rules and regulations to clarify the requirements for the funding application process. Staff had requested clearer wording on what constitutes a complete application due to ongoing issues with late submissions of HSAD grant applications.

The rules and regulations state two requirements for an application to be considered on time. Number one, a substantive answer has been provided for every question on the application form. And number two, the application form has been signed by the representative deemed appropriate for that by that agency. The requirements from the rules and regulations for on time complete applications were included on page two of the FY twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven HSAB grant application, word for word. Now about the Southside Community Center applications.

Southside Community Center submitted three applications March 2 at 04:04PM, which is the deadline with 5PM on March 2, with all questions answered but no signatures. Lorena Escobar, who's the housing coordinator, and I were reviewing applications as they came in. We So were tracking them on a shared spreadsheet to make sure we were hitting them as they came in, and we were, you know, know who was reviewing what. I got to Southside at 04:55PM and notified Jessica Kane, director of neighborhood engagement, and Deborah Villapondo, executive director at four fifty six, that the daily services application, which was the first one I had reviewed, needed miss miss I'm so sorry. I'll miss Viapondo's signature by 5PM, or it would be rejected.

At 04:58, after reviewing the other two applications, I emailed them again to remind them that all the HSAB applications had to be signed. Miss Villa Pondo signed the signature sheets for each grant application, and they were submitted at 05:06. I rejected the three applications because they were incomplete at the time of the deadline. They are not included among the applications that will be considered by the HSAB and city council for human services grant funding. So for board discussion and direction to staff, The rules and regulations are set by the Human Services Advisory Board, so it seemed reasonable that a request for an exception to them could be brought before the board.

Southside Community Center is requesting that there are three applications be added to the list for consideration for grant funding by the HSAB and, of course, subsequently, the city council. Staff is requesting direction from the board on this request. Now what I thought we would also do is have a presentation from south side and then discussion and question.

No. No. You're fine. Okay. Thank you, Carol. So tonight, we have Jessica Kane here, director of neighborhood engagement for Southside Community Center. Thank you for being here. It is your you have the floor.

Absolutely. Well, first of all, I

wanna say thank you to Carol for faithfully executing this work. I know that it is not an easy job, and I just I wanna say you do an excellent job and let you all know that you have a a great staff member on your side. And then also, thank you to all all of you for letting me come here tonight. I can read my letter. Did you all have a chance to look over that letter? It's in your packet. I don't wanna read through it again. I'm just gonna hit some highlights then. So Carol's already laid out the timeline. Our applications, the questions were all answered.

Everything was turned in. The signature from Deborah was not on any of those applications. We obviously made the same mistake across all three applications that we submitted on the day. We are requesting that y'all consider our application anyway. As an important nonprofit organization in this town, we are concerned about what will happen to the folks that we serve.

If we are unable to even be considered for city funding through HSAB, we are aware that this is our fault. It is I will take responsibility as the one who submitted the grants that this is my fault for not fully checking and making sure every single thing was filled out. And also, the substance of the grant was completed on time. We submitted the signature pages separately to make clear that we have not made any updates, any changes to the rest of the grant. All the signatures are in a separate file. And we are just hoping that y'all will will consider those applications along with everybody else's. And I'm open to answer questions or anything.

Thank you, Jessica. So now the floor is now open for discussion by the board with staff and Southside Community Center representatives. Do any board members have questions or comments to share?

I've got a

question, and I'm asking this because I'm very new to the community, not just to the board. And that that's the question that she just brought up. What would happen to the constituents that they served if if we did not approve this grant? I mean, what what is approve them to be applied, I mean. What what is the magnitude? What would happen?

So I will say that this year, the the HSAB funding we received for 2026 is about 5% of our total budget. Southside Community Center serves mostly people living in poverty in the unhoused community. So we do that in a variety of ways. We serve a meal every single day, three sixty five days a year. We served 16,000 in 2025. We're on track for about 20,000 this year. We also offer free showers, laundry services. Folks get their mail through us. Also, we have lockers for their belongings. And then we also have a full housing stability program along with that.

That includes emergency assistance, eviction prevention, and transitional housing. We also own and operate a 100 unit senior living, affordable, independent community. And so kind of each segment of our work is represented in each of those grants. We submitted a daily service, housing program, and a Sunrise grant. If we do not receive the funding for daily services and our housing programs, we will have to make cuts, whether that's to the programs themselves or to staff.

Okay. And then, you know, I know you said in your letter that one of the reasons why you were hitting the deadline is because you were waiting on some, letters from constituents to kinda support your application. What I mean, I still wonder and and and, again, I've I've had been in your shoes before many times, by the way. I've, worked before in filling out grants and sweated out that last minute. What kept you from getting your applications checked before they got in even with them being at the last minute?

We actually did check over the applications themselves before. I looked them over, and we had several other folks in the organization looked them over. I think I had five different sets of eyes and we all missed the signature page in that process. And it's pretty clear, you know, we missed it on all three. Yes. The final application, we were waiting on those letters. But the the full language in the application was completely done the week before. We were just waiting on those letters. And like I said, we we looked them over. We've read through everything, and nobody flagged that the signature page had not been filled out yet.

And you I think you said this in your letter. This was not the first time you submitted applications for funding. You've submitted to this board year in years past.

Yes. We have submitted, as far back as I think anyone can remember. We have submitted every year. We've been on time, and we have faithfully executed those grants every single year that we have received them.

Okay. Alright. I'll stop monopolizing time.

I guess I'll put in a just a point of information. The reason that I asked the board to put the specifics into the rules and regulations is because Southside was late. So I just wanted to

bring that up last year and the year before. Previous Yeah. Years. Yeah. So my input on this is very it's analytical analytical, I guess, you could say. It's the rules. The rules are the rules are the rules for everyone across the board. It's a hard lesson to learn. It's I mean, what we accept for one, we have to accept for all. And so that's where that's my opinion and where I stand on that. I do not believe that the application should be should be accepted.

So are we voting on it today?

Or Yes. It'll need a vote, and it's gonna say it should be a motion that, right, you're either gonna grant some sort of waiver or accept them or you're going to not if I'm her.

Well, that makes sense. I just didn't set

it up.

It would be to accept Well, it's application.

I said direction to staff. Well, direction, but

Vote. We need a vote.

But direction, it's gonna you're gonna have to hear from all the council members. So I think not council members, the board members. So you want it you want it noted to who's supporting or not supporting. So you still need the majority is the bottom line to say. So I think it's best to just take note of that.

Yeah. Can I ask I know you stated it, Carol? When was the the rules changed to add the signature?

So the rule

rules were just clarified on what constitute a completed application in January '25. Okay. Yeah.

So previously, it was always a 05:00 deadline. Mhmm. And then they they were late on a

I didn't think to bring the old wording. It was just more vague. Okay. So it said something like, you know, they must be submitted by the deadline, but we were getting applications in that weren't done or complete. And so Okay. Yeah. So that's why I kinda requested to the board, can we make it really clear? Right.

And the

and the board said, yeah. That seems like a good idea.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that clarification.

I had one question, I guess, for staff. It was just, like, was there any other nonprofit that, like, I ever had a part of their application that you noticed was submitted wasn't submitted and, like, they didn't manage to get to it before the deadline to, like, fix it or anything like that, and you notified them? Like, whereas, like, they have, like, done it at, like, 05:06. Was there another organization that, like, had it incomplete and then just made no effort that day or anything like that, or is this, like, Southside was the only case?

They're actually the only one. We did have a couple that turned in their applications, like, the week before. Mhmm. And I noticed they're like, hey. You're missing this question. So I let them know. So we were trying to do that as a courtesy as people turned them in early. But, of course, we had to rush at, you know, four for a 05:00 deadline, and so we were just checking them in order. So from four to five, we didn't I think I found one other one that had something, and they got it in, and we were good.

So

I just kind of, I guess, sharing my thoughts. Like, it it does not bring me any joy to, like, penalize the organization over, like, a clerical error. But, you know, just thinking about, like, if this is gonna happen next year, like, are we gonna have to write, like, an exception into the rules? Just, like, thinking about if this is gonna happen in the future to any other organizations and, like, the board at that point doesn't make the same decision that we do today or, like, we decide to allow this decision through and another one we wouldn't. I don't know where I I don't know where I stand actually, but

So we proposed a motion. So then a a motion that we accept this application and based on the timeline that we're looking at, and then we can open discussion on why and why not. So do we have

do we have

a second? A motion. You'll need to ask for a second.

Do we have a second?

Second. Okay. For to accept the application. Right? Yeah.

To accept their application this time.

I'll second that. And by the way, so your second doesn't mean you can go either way, but it it enables discussion. Okay. Open discussion. And and to be just and I don't mean to complicate it. Yeah. It says you're providing direction. Mhmm. But can direction be provided in emotion? I think it's just better for the record to say either, you know, these were the notes. It just keeps it cleaner for the record, but it's still direction.

Especially because if we just provide direction, then that makes it seem like Carol's a bad guy. You know? At her discretion. And it's and it's worse than we wanted to guess for. Yeah. And this is this is something the board should be discussing and either accepted or not.

And I guess that's one of the thing. I guess when I was reviewing it, I was maybe looking at, like, the charter for the board and stuff like that. I didn't see anything in there where it does say that we can make an exception to the rules, but, like, we do we're, like, within our authority to, like, go either way on this. Right? Or, like Yeah.

This is a local program. It's not federal. It has these strict but, you know, but, again, it's whatever was published.

I will say working in the nonprofit space, I don't know of any other funder that would, you know, go through the links that Carol has tried, you know, to get it in. I think that's a really big professional courtesy, and I don't know of, you know, how much that happens with other funders. So if this were, you know, another situation, it would be, again, as I expressed earlier, the rules, I mean

So this is where I'm at. We're not discussing any other organization. We're discussing this organization, nor discussing this specific issue. So Carol sent it back at 04:55. That only gives them five minutes to get signatures in.

That is the current

Hold on. Me finish. The time it takes to print the entire thing, then get the signature, then get scanned, and then sent back over, it is not reasonable to expect it in five minutes. So if the application was in at 04:00 by 04:15 or twenty, they should've sent it back and said, hey. We need this extra stuff. So that's point number one. Point number two is we're not rejecting just a nonprofit organization's application, which I'm pretty sure we didn't give them any money last year too, by the way. But

Yes. We did. It was yeah. We did. You did. Yes.

I thought I thought the 800,000 was a c b CDBG, and then we gave him zero.

We received 54

Okay.

For for 2026.

I do not

know how much we receive in 2025.

Okay. Thank you, Penelope. Yes. So my thing is we're penalizing the people that depend on this nonprofit based on a five minute time frame that they there was no way on earth they could have met those five minutes. So this isn't just the rules are the rules. This is what happened. Basically, the city didn't give them enough time to correct the issue that no offense intended that they were faced with. And, yes, they should have checked signatures, but it's it's a it's a very simple oversight, basically. So that's what I'm saying. And that's why I I the motion to approve it because, again, we're not penalizing this organization.

We're penalizing all people that would depend on their services, and that's the community. That's San Marcos.

But yeah. Yeah. Do you

have something to Go

ahead, please.

I do agree with you. I in some aspects, definitely, I do feel that that panel is in the organization, you know, one of the few one of two organizations in town that helps the homeless population here in in Tamarcos. You're right. It is gonna hurt them. And I don't want to hurt my community, but I I guess I'm also indecisive at the moment because I also agree with Alyssa.

Where those are rules, especially considering the history of you know, like Carol mentioned last year, they were late. This year, I was bringing the email thread. So they forgot the three signatures on the HCP application, but then the CDPG grant application was incomplete. You know? It's what I understand from that email.

So I also don't it just also doesn't seem fair to other organizations who applied on time and submitted a complaint application. Right? And so I also I don't know. It's just I also understand grants. Right?

You got sometimes you submit them late, and I agree that maybe they weren't given enough time to check over the signatures at 04:55, but also Carol stated that they were reviewing applications so they were coming in. So I assume that they theirs wasn't the only application, you know, that happened either submitted at four or before four that they were also looking at. That being said, still undecided.

I have a I I guess another question for Southside. In I think it was the email originally. It stated something about, like, y'all had waited till that last day because y'all were waiting on Mhmm. Letters from the public. Is that correct? Could you maybe just, like, explain,

like, more about that? Like, were

you getting those later letters, like,

up until that last day? Or, like, were you making them on that last day?

Yes. So we as soon as the application went out, I started working on it. And I remember from last year so I did the application last year, and I was not in town when it was due. So I don't know if things were late last year. And then I've not previously worked on the application.

But I remember from last year there were a series of documents that needed to go along with it. So I scrolled right down to that page and saw that the three letters of recommendation, preferably from the population served, is the way that it's worded. So I immediately started reaching out. I spoke to our case managers. I spoke to our staff member at Sunrise and said that we need three letters of recommendation about failed services.

We need three letters of recommendation around housing services and then also from Sunrise. And we set a deadline of the Friday before for folks to turn those letters in. We did not receive all of them from our eviction prevention and our daily services folks. I received one of them, I think, at 11:00 on Monday and one of them in the afternoon on Monday. And then the file has to be combined and then sent off. So as soon as I did have them, everything was combined and sent off. But, yes, we were waiting up until that day for those letters of recommendation.

Oh, I hate this decision. I hate this item.

We're let's just

put that on the record.

Did you say yeah. Yeah. I'll write

that down. He said, I hate it. Did Okay.

You say earlier that the funding traditionally that you've y'all received from HSAB is 5% of your total budget?

What we received last year is 5%. Well, for 2026 is 5% of our 2026 budget.

And how many staff members do you have?

Have so I'm speaking we've only submitted four staff sides specifically in the past. We have three staff members at Sunrise, and that's a completely separate budget. So I those numbers are very different. But in terms of staff side, we have nine staff members. We have Okay. Six full time and three part time staff members.

Okay. I just wanna reiterate, and I I can't advise either way, but it was very clear in the application and in the regs what constitutes a complete application. And that is if you fill out every answer and sign it. So it didn't have anything to do with the attachments.

How many times have they been late again?

Oh, I'd have to go look back in the records.

Well, more than twice, you think? I don't know. I

wouldn't wanna lie to you.

Again, my position is we're talking about five minutes. It's not twenty four hours late. Was a Monday, so it's not like they turn in on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And two, we're affecting hundreds of people, a lot of homeless people in San Marcos. For five minutes, I'm willing to extend some grace to this organization this year. That's what I'm gonna work on. And especially, I think, because the timeline, four fifty five, hey. You have five weeks to get this back to us. I don't know about that. To me, it's a cut and dry. Like, yeah, we should approve this, but that shouldn't be.

So this here says no.

Oh, yeah.

So I

was thinking it wasn't. But since Sam is here, we are taking his direction, and that's a much better idea. And so then I think what you could do as chair is go ahead and can she call for a vote? And then we'll see where we are. Right.

That's

right. And so I think that's what you could do, and then we can just Is

there any more discussion yet that anybody had?

This award is. Mhmm.

Yeah. So, basically, the vote is on

Uh-huh. Linda As it's posted, it

says whether to accept the application for consideration by the board.

Yeah. So that's been It's

still a two step process. Right? Because assuming you accept it, then you go through your normal scoring and review process. Yeah. So it doesn't mean you're necessarily awarding funding tonight. Right?

It's just Right. Mhmm. So we're voting on the motion that I put it forward. That's what

we're Will this go to counts our recommendation to accept, or it won't just be a show as not just the It's the board's decision. The board's decision. Right.

So they make that based on what I suppose is you're either saying, we're gonna accept it, meaning it'll come back to you for review Right. Or meaning it won't be part of the ones that you look at. It will not be included. So those are your two.

So, basically, there's we have two motions on the table. My motion's on the table to accept. We have the one on that. And if that gets shut down, then we have to have one one motion to reject it.

No. Well, it doesn't. I think that I this, I think it's not accepted because staff has already rejected it, but

it's Right.

And I think that pretty much Okay. If well, that's

So if we could see

my motion, then that's it. Basically Right. You in regards to the sponsor. Okay. Cool. Perfect. Perfect.

Okay. So the thing yeah. I just wanna make sure I'm clear not being in the room, but the motion on the table is to accept their application past the 05:00 deadline. Is that correct? Nothing nothing else?

Okay. Okay. So with that in mind, I'm gonna make one last comment, and I'm gonna be done. And that is just simply I'm I'm I'm kinda with our our chairman here as a rules follower because, you know, I work in a I work in an area where rules are rules and deadlines are deadlines. However, I am impressed by the fact that once Carol got ahold of them and let them know that their application was missing those signatures, they did not waste her time, staff time, or anyone's time to get the signatures turned in to Carol so that they could at least try to be on time.

I think if they would have lingered on or if it would have gone several, you know, day even a day for that matter. If they'd have waited till the next day, I wouldn't be as moved by it as the fact that she told them at 04:55 they needed three signatures. By 05/05/2008, I think, if I remember correctly, they had those in. So they didn't keep her long. So I think that should be considered in our thoughts as we decide how we wanna vote.

Just to clarify, my motion is not to accept applications past five. My motion is to accept this application in this specific instance. Because if we if we accept the we accept an application past five, then we have to accept more of it, and that creates a

Yeah.

This is just this specific application. That's all I'm yeah.

Exactly. You gotta read? Yeah. Amanda. I'm gonna try to change the rules over here.

Okay. So

Unless there's no more discussion, you can ask for the vote unless there's further discussion.

So I just so I guess on this was to accept the application.

Yeah. Mhmm. Right.

Yes. K. So do I

Go ahead. No.

I know. Please tell me. I do I do I just say, we do we know what it's we're voting on? Everyone's clear. Okay. So do I need to get a motion, or we just vote on

the Got it.

So all you have to do and

I guess Carol will actually call over here.

Okay. Yep. Yep.

You know, and it's either yes for accepted. No would be don't accept it. Okay.

Auntie Arbonne. Yes. Raymond Best?

Yes.

Linda Harper Williams?

Yes.

Ethan Gravez? Yes. Sharif Gassiz?

Yeah.

Madeline Smith? Yes. Annalisa Ramirez? No. So we have six guesses and one no. So then if you would say it passes, then

Alright. So with six out of seven, yeah, it passes the yes to accept the applications from Southside Community Center. Okay. Thank you, Jessica.

So much. You'll never see me again for this.

Yeah. See you at presentations all.

I can say,

Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

So the next item on the agenda is to review the annual calendar for possible revision. So when did that? This was requested as a future agenda item in a prior meeting. Carol, will you please give us an overview of the calendar?

So this was requested by, I think, Lucy Johnson. I'm trying to find it.

I thought I had it open. Oh, I

brought up the the acceleration. So I'm not she didn't elaborate on why. She just said, please, at the orientation meeting, have the calendar available for review and discussion or possible change. And so this is the calendar. I have changed the application due date.

It was well advertised, and it was in the application. So I was confident. I did that because I didn't want people to be confused with CDBG, which had to be in by March 2. And so I that's the only thing I've I've done, of course, to the calendar. We have meetings in April and May, scores due, and then discussion meeting set. The idea, just FYI, is that we'll present the allocation, the recommendation to council probably July 7, I think, is the meeting.

But they won't I'm sorry. Go ahead. April 8 is the first meeting.

Eighth is the first meeting where we'll have presentations. And then just to reiterate, council has to wait till they pass the budget for next year in order to make the final decision on the allocation. So it'll be September 15. But by presenting presenting it early, then the agencies can kinda plan ahead like we think we might have this funding. So that's what we've set up on the calendar.

Does anyone have any requested changes to the calendar at all? Give us a second to look at it.

My only question, I guess, about the allocation is if we're making, like, the funding decision before the budget is passed, if they make any changes to that, will we have to go back and, like, rereview it to just match back up with whatever they're

That's a really good question. My thought is if it's a very small amount, we may just go across the board, right, and not have to call a meeting. But, really, we may have to call a special meeting at that point and just make sure that you're happy with the reallocation and then maybe take it back to council for the final approval. So and we we'll receive a budget policy statement probably March 31, and so that will be council's first idea of what the board will have to allocate. It could still change.

So it's kinda we'll just have to roll with it a little bit. But we would if it's substantial, substantial, I I do do think I should bring it back to the board. And y'all can either do percent across the board, or you could decide by program. That's a good question. I meant I covered that. Sorry.

Do we have enough time for, like, a waste moving? If we need to, like, reschedule for something then?

We do, especially because council can't make the decision till September. The reason I pushed it to April and May is just so I'm not trying to have a lot of meetings in the summer Mhmm. Especially with presentations. But, yeah, we have flex in this if we had to have it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Will the next will the next meeting, the April 8 meeting, since Teams seem to work here, will it be available also? I'm afraid I'm I'm out of town right now and will not be back by the eighth. I do know that much.

This was the exception. We I had thought we would be able to have the meeting in a different location, and we will have that location for every other meeting except April 22. So we're just having to work with that. April 22 may be, like, at the library or something, but it would still be able to be virtual. We had a question of whether virtual would work in this conference room with Teams. It's not really supported by IT in that way. But the rest of them, you should be good to be virtual. Yeah. Yeah. We'll make sure.

Okay. Apologize for not being able to be there in person. Out of my control.

I work.

So we're moving again?

Yes. We'll in the City Hall Conference Room

Oh.

Typically. So I've got that reserved for all of them except April 22.

Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah.

Perfect. Alright. I guess can we take a vote on the calendar then? I need to get a motion to vote, or we just

Were there 18%?

There was no change. Yeah.

Sure. We were.

So and it's already been approved

by the board. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, it's just an update then. Let's it's has specific requests to change.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well and it was just a requested future agenda. Okay. So I

Then you're okay. But

it's Agenda.

Perfect.

Okay. Sorry about that. I'm sorry.

No worries. I'm glad you're here. Yeah. No. You're right. Really yeah. Just make it easier.

I'm for you now.

Really quick question. What are these for? Because did I just eat somebody's food?

Oh, welcome to HFCC then. Yeah. Yeah.

No. Lisa is setting the precedent that the chair is gonna be poof. Okay. And so that's why I'm meeting. So I see it. Yeah.

Oh, man. I'm missing food. Oh, that is so bad.

Oh. Okay. On to discussion items. As part of the board orientation, we will now receive a presentation from city attorney, Sam Aguirre.

What was that?

Over here. Oh, you yeah. You should. Yeah.

I gotta see if it works.

Yeah. It's because it's going to that. The only thing I wonder is I don't know if Raymond and Linda can see the presentation.

Can you share here?

Oh, you can share screen. And then if they're obliterated by the presentation, is that okay?

Yeah.

Just because if you're just doing the training, we don't have we're not asking them for a vote. So they're still here. Do you want me to help you?

Well, why

is this? My website down?

You're on two screens. So, like, here, if you wanna share it, it's over here. This one. Oh, that'll work. And then Right.

It just wasn't scrolling like when I was.

Oh, that's weird. Maybe.

Let's try it now, maybe. It it's was show. Well, then it's gonna do it automatically, isn't it?

Nope. I see what you're saying.

It's like not stuck.

It's not working on this.

Which is weird. No. Not at all.

Now this is why we Right. But And I'm gonna stop sharing real quick and see if that helps. It's like we need to be in my or just make close-up. It shouldn't work, but the box is over there.

That's That's. Can you just

shut

it down and bring it back up?

Yeah. Or Or But it was working yesterday from that seat, so I think

I think Oh, see, these aren't even clicking. It's frozen.

Yeah. You may just shut it

down and bring it back up. Yeah. Close it. Yep.

Oh, I'll have to put be gone

for a It's not even closing, so she's not

You wanna try opening it again?

Here. Let me

Let try it back. I'm on

a computer. Even though No. It feels

weird on somebody else. So it's

I played with this yesterday just to make sure I knew where stuff was. Okay. So here is the present By the way,

I'll keep this short. I'm not gonna bore you to death with stuff you can't be completely can cannot possibly all memorize. Right? It's just gonna be a quick overview. You're gonna have your slides. So And then always available if you have specific questions to ask. Not

to Yeah. But that's the same.

I think. Okay. So we're just gonna go into this one. No. In

the corner. There you go. There you go. Seems to be working.

Oh, weird. Okay. Now you get two versions.

Go up to slide show or just click

I never saw the seal in in detail.

Oh, yeah? Okay. Yeah. That's gonna work.

The gazebo right there.

So you've got controls down here. Yeah. So

Notice how it's, like, always like,

and then the gazebo. Don't know. Okay. Alright. Mister refer I'm Sam. I'm the city attorney, and I've been asked to give you a little update primarily for because who's new? You and but I guess we do it annually, a little refresher for folks. And you all have already been through a couple of things already, I think. Have all of you done your open meetings video? Or and then you may have also received something for Public Information Act. And then you did the city clerk's orientation, and not anyone do

that. Mhmm.

So now you've been the most recent. But so, you know,

you already have seen a lot of this. So I'm and, again, you're gonna have the slides, so we'll just kinda hit the high points.

And let's

see if

I can

I think if you click on that blue screen, it'll move forward on that date?

I really like the huge screen. Oh. I know.

I'll click on that one, and it'll

Yeah. This will be the one. Okay.

There we go. Okay.

So we're gonna go over a couple things. Open Meetings Act, conflicts of interest in meeting procedures. Texas Open Meetings Act. The number one thing here is, have you all ever heard of sun they call them sunshine laws, and that's what the Open Meetings Act is. And why do they call them that?

The the concept is that public business should be conducted in the light of day, not behind, you know, in some dark corner of a bar or behind the scenes. It's the idea that the public gets to see public business, how you arrive at your decisions, the decision making process. And that's basically the concept. It's very simple. Right?

It's like, wanna see how you got to your decision. Because what happens when you don't have open meetings, even if it's not true, okay, sometimes there's nothing nefarious going on, but people can be distrustful. And so, like, if if you're meeting with somebody or something's going on behind the scenes, sometimes people will jump to conclusions that something nefarious is happening, like, are they taking bribes, whatever it's The whole idea is, can we have the debate in public? It's it's just as simple as that. And so yes, sir.

So I have I have a question on the advance notice for meetings. Will that be three business days or just three calendar days?

It's three business days. That's right. Holidays don't count. Right?

So if if you're if you're gonna have a meeting on Monday, you can't just submit it on Thursday.

That's correct.

It has to be Wednesday.

And in the old yes. And so I And and the business days are between like, it has to be three full business days. So, like, between the meeting date and the date.

Now is that if

if only, like, a two and

a half day notice is given, is that, like, breaking the law, or is it just like

Right.

It's gotta be three days.

Three full

days. Yeah. And so first thing, it doesn't do any good to have open meetings if the public doesn't know when those meetings are gonna occur. Right? So the basic requirements. Well, you gotta let the public know. And in Texas, the legislature seems fit that seventy two hours previously was a suitable amount of time for the public. Now they say three business days. I don't know what other states do, but that's what our legislature says. That's a reasonable amount of time for notice. Yes, sir.

I have another question. And this is this is actually a very specific case and but I won't get get into weeds. As far as oh, actually, there you go. The agenda has to be posted. Can it just be posted online and that's it?

We post it on the city's bulletin board outside too.

Not necessarily the city, just in general. Can it just be post like, if you're gonna have a meeting, can you post it only on on the Internet, and that's it?

Normally, you have to do both.

Yeah. Oh, so I forgot to change that. So it's now

three Yeah.

Because this is a recent change, the three business days. So, yeah, disregard that. But it's three business days. And another interesting thing is that if any of you have been in nonprofits, which I suspect a lot of y'all have done nonprofit work, your agendas probably commonly have new business and old business, and that's just the way how boards often work. Under the Open Meetings Act, though, the public needs to know, well, what is the subject you're talking about?

So, you know, you see our council meetings, you know, we talk it's gonna be a zoning. It's gonna be a discussion about police. It's gonna be contract, the award of a contract. That's just because the law requires that to because what good does it do if the public doesn't know what you're because here's the reality. People won't come to a meeting if it's just not important to them, but sometimes there's gonna be something they wanna speak to, and they need to know. Right? That's the only way they're gonna find out, so you post it. So, if it's not on the agenda, you can't discuss it. What you do in those cases, you say, well, somebody citizen comment may say, hey, man. I don't like what's going on.

Counsel can say, well, you know what, sir? That's a good idea. Maybe we can put that on a future agenda. We can't discuss it tonight because it's not posted for the public.

Yes, sir. Are you here the whole meeting or not?

No, sir.

No. I wasn't planning.

I wasn't planning to, but I

mean, it

ends up being

a fix.

Haven't planned on it, but I I

I'll go ahead and ask the question because I didn't even pull up the entire board with some of these questions. Can you go like, again, this is very specific example that I'm using. If you have if you do a meeting on Monday morning, can you go into executive session right away without informing the public?

You have to post it. So you usually have to post some sort of statement like city council does. They reserve the right to go into executive session on an item. So, for example, it's just a regular agenda item and a legal question comes up, and it's like, well, counselor, I'm gonna have to recess this meeting, and I'm gonna need to give you some legal advice. But, normally, we have to we have to say that on the agenda.

Yeah. Definitely.

So yes, sir. So even though that's a closed meeting, you still let the public know what is being discussed behind closed doors.

Yeah. And So the chairman can just can can't

That's right, man.

You know, I would be like, oh, by the way, we're gonna go into executive Yeah.

I said I'm getting into it. There's very specific provision to text or say go on your executive session, all the things. But Yeah. Advice. Property acquisition. Real estate. In yours your case, it's gonna be rare. It's gonna have to be probably legal advice for the types of matters you deal with because you're not dealing with real property acquisition. You're not dealing with personnel matters, you know, like the council might.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Citizen comments, again, we have the whole idea there is that, it can't open the door to a full on discussion and decision making because the citizen raised something out of the blue. And why is that again? Because there's thousands of voters in the city that saw the meeting agenda, and they know they have an expectation. And now all of a sudden, you're gonna go speak about something else.

So that's when council might say, oh, well, we'll put on future agenda if we if they're interested. Right? Here's the thing that's important for y'all. It's when what's illegal is if a majority of you, which is four members, are all talking to, say, the same person, talking about an item, or all talking amongst yourselves. Well, you can do that any day right here in the posted meeting.

It's not illegal for less than four of you to have discussions amongst yourselves or with a third party, but you gotta be careful. Because it's like, well, I just talked to this developer or whatever, but did he talk to any other members? You know? So just always be mindful. Have they talked to a majority? You know? You just never know. And by the way, those discussions, it doesn't have to be just in person. It can be by email. Like, I email you, then you email the next guy, and that person emails the next person.

So sometimes it's very unintentional, and it's very innocent. You know? But sometimes it can inadvertently end up the, you know, majority. So, you know, just be mindful of those things. And the best thing to think about is doesn't matter if it's email, phone, or in person. It could still potentially be considered a meeting.

So let me

just go back here. So one board member emails a quorum to explain their position on an item for an upcoming agenda. Just wait for the meeting. Right? You make a series of calls to gauge positions. You can wait for the meeting. Saying you email. It's the same concept. Again, can two of you talk? Two of you can talk. But you just need to be mindful that it doesn't inadvertently all of a sudden for whatever you're talking. And, you know, we're not trying to make it difficult. We're just wanting to keep you safe. You know? Yeah. So I'm not trying to make things hard for

you guys. You can't speak individually with five different people, right, on the same subject? Well right. If if even though you spoke one on one with a person, it'd still be considered a quorum because you spoke to all of that same subject.

If if it's the same if four of you have done that, yes. So here's what we have to say. Wait until the meeting. And here's the argument always here is, well, we need to have those one on ones. The community expects it. And I get that. They do expect it. But remember, community members can email. They can speak at citizen comment. They can speak at public hearings.

They can come to meeting and hand you information. They can, you know, organize and all. So there are other avenues for them to speak, but I understand the pressure to wanna respond to your constituents. And, again, the individual exchange is not a violation of the law. It's just when all of a sudden four of you talk to the same person. Just be mindful. It's just more just kind of caution. But, also, you can remind them that, hey. Come to

the meeting and,

you know, you've got some handouts for us, or send them to the staff liaison, and she'll share them with us in our packet. You know? So they're just remind them there are plenty of ways that they can all still have a voice. And people always say, well, it's limiting First Amendment rights and all. Well, there are all kinds of cases in Texas talk specifically about First Amendment, and the citizens' First Amendment rights never been curtailed. They're still able to talk to you all day long and send you emails, but it it might change the manner in which they communicate. And it's the same for y'all. Just it changes the way you communicate. It doesn't prevent you from communicating because you can still have a meeting. So they call that in the first time I wrote, it's a time, place, and manner restriction.

And the courts have said that's it's an acceptable law because people were challenging the validity of the of the Open Meetings Act. On the Public Information Act, the the main thing here I want to emphasize is that anything you do that's public business related to your role on the board that you generate in writing or digitized or recorded is public information. And be mindful. It doesn't matter if it's on your personal device or not. That's the big thing.

So if you get a request for some sort of text communication, even if it's on your phone, you're a part of producing. So I would say just make sure you say nice things about people. You know? Just always keep it professional. Like, don't say something ugly like, oh my gosh. It's gonna be embarrassing what I said about this person. You know, just be mindful to keep it like, well, what would it look like if a third party read it? And then just be mindful that it is public information if you generate it. Right? So just be mindful of that.

Other than that, it you are allowed to speak as a citizen on things that are not in your purview. So you you can't go to the you can't what's an example? If it's about your role as a HSAB member and you have text messages and all, those ones you have to give up as public information because it's about your role. But now you take off your HSA view hat and you're just a resident of a neighborhood, and it's a zoning case. You're still allowed to speak on that.

And and those those communications would not be public business in that sense because that, you're just talking about a personal matter. It's not within your purview as a board. So, you know, we're not doesn't mean, like, just because you're on this board, we can see everything you have on your phones. No. It's only if it has to do with your HSC business, if that if that's of any comfort.

Conflicts of interest. The main thing I wanna emphasize there is the way our code is written and really the statute, the primary concern is any kind of self serving behavior where you extract a benefit out of your service. And you you are think about a jury or jury selection. You ever any of you ever been in jury selection or seen movies? The whole thing about jury selection is they ask questions like, say it's a speeding ticket in this trial.

Are any of your family members police officers? How do you feel about police officers? You might ask, were you ever pulled over for a ticket, and did that change your opinion about the police, for example? Or how did it make you feel that you got the ticket? Do you think you could be objective, in this case today if it's about a traffic ticket?

This the same concept kind of applies with ethics is, as a board member, can you make your decisions in a fair and impartial manner? And so, for example, if you're an employee, say you're an employee of Southside, and then Southside comes with an application, you're supposed to vote on it, it's gonna be difficult to argue that you can be objective. Right? Because, oh, if I vote for it, I'm gonna keep my job. If I don't vote for it, I might lose my job.

So either way, you're influenced, and it's going to arguably make you partial versus biased. It's gonna make you biased versus fair and impartial. Right? And so that's the idea. Can because I'm trying to keep my job.

Now on the Planning and Zoning Commission, a real common one would be, you live next door to a property that's being rezoned. So you're single family, and the zoning commission is is deciding whether to zone it multifamily. Well, it could again, it could be positive or negative impact on you. You might want it to go multifamily because then now your property is worth way more money, and then you can sell it and make a profit. Or say, I don't want a bunch of college students living next to me in a, you know, apartment, so I'm gonna vote against it.

And the problem with that is your decision is being based on your personal needs versus the criteria in the code that say you know, talk about the public interest in zoning. So it's that's really what you're looking at with all this epic stuff is are you having any kind of a personal benefit or detriment that is influencing your decision? Some pretty pretty straightforward. Just think about, you know, is there something about this case that makes it so that I can't have an impartial decision? Or or

yeah. Make sense?

Oh, it makes perfect sense.

K. And Question.

Yes, sir.

If you know not nobody on

this board. Again, it's a

real world example. If you know that somebody has a conflict of interest, but they refuse to accuse themselves, what can you do? Nothing. Okay.

We can't prohibit them from voting.

Okay.

Like, they may have been advised, hey. We think you got a conflict. Or sometimes it usually comes from a citizen. And the citizen's gonna be like, you know what? This I think this guy has a conflict, and they're gonna raise it. Well, we have an ethics commission.

Yeah.

One option is any person can file a complaint with the ethics commission. They can allege, we think this person had a conflict of interest.

Okay.

And there's a lot of things, by the way, that like, we always talk about this a lot in law. There are a lot of things in life that stink or seem unfair or, you know, not just right to some people, but it's not necessarily illegal. Right? Mhmm. But the law spells out very specific violations, and that's what our codes do. You know? So sometimes we get situations where something looks a little not ideal, but you can't quite pinpoint a specific violation. It's just like more like public opinion. Yeah. For sure.

Public opinion would really be rule the day on that versus but so we can't tell that person not to vote, but what can happen is they say they ignore all the warnings by whoever whoever's alleging it. And they vote. Well, then they've been warned. They might have to go for the ethics commission. And, know, they get there to have their day in court. Just because you are before the ethics commission doesn't mean you've committed a violation. You you know, everybody gets their day in court. Right? Or they get a hearing. And with your board, if you ever have and you look

at the agenda

and you see something, you can call Carol or our office. I kind of prefer it works through Carol, and then she can coordinate with me. And we'll look at your question to see if you have a conflict to help you out. Because sometimes people are it's like borderline, and we'll help you work through that so you can feel more comfortable about voting on something. I think for the type of work you all do, it's primarily gonna be employment related because y'all's work is a little different. There could be projects that you maybe vote for for some nonprofits working on that somehow directs you or impacts you directly. But

I'm I not one question recently about if a HSAB member is on the board of a nonprofit, not an employee. And I was feeling like probably that would be okay. Like, they're not personally benefiting. We have a carve

out that specifically allows that if you're if you're not compensated. If you're an employee, that's different. Mhmm. But nonprofit board members don't receive salary. There's not a profit motive for nonprofits and all that. So that's actually carved out in our ordinance. A lot of folks still abstain anyways because they feel uncomfortable, but that's kind of a voluntary thing. But, again, if that comes up, we ask us to look at it, we'll help you feel more comfortable before you make a decision if you want.

That person's not on the

board anymore. Right? Honestly, I can't remember who asked me, which is kinda sad.

So one other thing is

I know a few months.

Interesting about

We have seven or nine members.

Seven voting and then one nonvoting.

Okay. Yeah. So that that that's Thank you. Yeah.

Let me give you another little warning. So if you have a conflict and so so that you can't vote on an item here and that item then goes to city council, the way the rule is written, it's very clear. You are must abstain from any participation all the way to the bidder end. So if you abstain here, you can't then go call the council member and say, hey. I want you to vote for this item, or I want you to support this.

You have to be out of it the whole way Sunshine. Till the till the end of the process. And that makes sense because, like, oh, well, you're acting now, and you're interested again because, you know, you're So rules of decorum, you know, the main thing here is we have some options for the public to speak. And that goes back to the open meetings thing too. Like, people say, well, I'm gonna talk to you directly.

And I get that, and that's fine if you're careful, but I prefer you don't. But you can remind them. We get citizen comment. Sometimes we have public hearings you can speak, and we have question and answer at the end of our meetings too. You know, Carol, I don't know how y'all are. We usually ask people to sign up in advance. And we don't.

Right. They don't show up, and then we just get through.

Each board is doing it a little differently. Technically, you all have the right to require them to sign in. What I found in San Marcos, we tend to be kind of lenient. That way,

if, like, somebody shows us

a meeting and they ask to speak During You know? They comment. It's kind of the discretion of the board if you wanna allow it or not. But, you know, San Marcos, a lot of people know each other. It's always a little awkward to say, yeah.

I'm not gonna let you speak, but it's your discretion as the board, the chair, if they don't sign up. The other thing is some people lately have some issues about giving out their addresses. We like them to give addresses, but what lately even the mayor is like, we're not forcing the issue with people. Like, we're not gonna have people start off storm off because we didn't let them speak because they didn't give their address. I mean, we're still asking for the address, but you gotta pick your battles. So I don't know if that comes up as an issue. I don't even know if it probably not likely here if that's an issue in the first place. But

Oh, stating the address just to make sure they live in city limits, isn't it?

Well, that's one of the philosophical questions because should only citizens who live in this residents of the city be allowed to speak. Right? And so that isn't really we don't limit it to people who live in the city.

Oh, okay.

And that's across the board. We allow anybody to speak. And so

Then why did they ask for the address?

It does make a difference.

It does make a difference. Like, you're a council member, it's like you'd kinda like to know, are these all local people or is this 20 people from out of town? It makes a difference. So but it's we don't limit it to just locals. But as a public official, y'all could kind of be like, want me to give more weight to this guy than this guy or this woman?

Gotcha.

Whatever. But that's all just, you know, your personal preferences on that. So one of the things here, we ask people to behave. This is the chair. This is where it comes in. Again, this board is probably rare that you get people that are getting too ugly or yelling at you, but I don't know. Something sometimes things get heated. We have in the past. Yeah. So Sorry.

It can get you know, but if things get heated, people always worry about First Amendment. But in America, look at all the things we regulate. You know, we have age restrictions. We have you know, on records, we put labels, you know, on movies. We put so what's legal under the First Amendment is reasonable time, place, and manner.

So we're giving you the right to speech, but that doesn't mean you have an unrestricted right to yell at the board or the council, to distract other members of the audience who are there to listen, and you're interfering with that. You can't defame people, intimidate, you know, personal threats, profanity. We can ask you to not to use your cell phones and so forth and, you know, booing. All that stuff is Just boo? Because we're allowed to have decorum. That's it. And by the way, you still have the right to say what you're gonna say, but in this regulated manner, like, to maintain the order of the the meeting. I would mention, I think,

just because we're on the topic, one of the applications that we have that are gonna that's gonna come before you is an application where someone came on and was very disrespectful and defamed me and the applicant and semi council and I also at HSAB. And so it'll just be a judgment call. I mean, it's only three minutes. You know, they can say what they want, but it was almost to the point of, you know, something needing to be said. So, like, at the council, the mayor just kinda let it roll, but then the council put into place more stringent requirements on their quorum because of that.

Is it is I, a member of the public on, like, saying something about applicant?

Yes. And about me as a staff person.

So

So one of the things after that. One of the weird things is and I've been yelled at by the public. I've been criticized by the public, the city manager, the council staff. Staff gets criticized. And right? We all get and but it's, again, one of those pick your battles situations because I learned the hard way, like, more than once where somebody's getting a little out of line, and you try and say, hey. Wait a second. You know? Watch your language or whatever. You try and speak it.

Next thing you know, they're they're escalating, and now they wanna fight. And now your three minutes turned into five, and and it sometimes it's best to, like, just let it go. So somebody drops, you know, an f bomb. Well, you can't unring the bell. They dropped it. The mayor might say, please watch your language, but we're rarely gonna just remove you. At that point, it's like, let them finish and move on to the you know?

Yeah.

Sometimes the more you downplay it, it's easier and just makes it it's all but it's the chair really has the discretion.

You know? Cosmic powers. Or

other board members can also speak up. Madam chair, this is FMT. You you can ask them to, you know, watch their language here, whatever. So y'all can speak up too. I mean but, normally, the chair is kind of running, hopefully, it doesn't happen.

Carol, is that situation that kind of current application or previous?

So it was on a previous couple of years ago. That same entity has now applied again. Oh. And so when I see fireworks. Mhmm.

Do we need a police presence?

No. It was not to that point at all. And it was online.

We discussed it, like, what, two years ago, I think it was, whether or not we could help police at the at the meetings. Yeah. Was that

me or sorry. That was it for you. Is that what you're saying? Yes.

Okay. You're a good And we're here in legal if you have questions. Like I say, you can call Carol, and she'll work with me. But you can call our office directly too if, you know, whatever's more convenient for you. But

Thanks for being here. It's always fun. It's always fun. Yeah. It. Yeah.

Do you

have time to go if you'd like? I'm serious.

I want

to I don't know. Do we need

a break or anything? Are y'all good?

Let's talk to

them. Okay.

We're good today.

We only have two more things.

Right? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Got a pretty short. But

Do it. Yeah. You should be.

You're super proud of it.

See, I'm I'm the soft lace, I guess. Cookies on those. Almond. I like the almond. All

all the scenarios I was asking you were actually real life examples. Okay.

Y'all can witness. I'm just touching part of this. I'll put the other half back in with the napkin.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

I sent you this.

So Oh, wow. That's very

Okay. I didn't condemn it.

Raymond,

can can you you hear hear me? Yeah. I'm still here. Earlier earlier, I did cut you off when we were having discussions. I apologize about that. Like, you're ordering I'm I'm learning you guys now. I'm learning all these different didn't members. I'm I'm gonna watch out for you. I'll be there in person soon, and we'll we'll discuss.

April. We'll we'll see you when is that? April 8?

April 8.

Well, I won't be there April 8, but after that, I should be in person.

See, I think the Yeah. Fifteenth is

the next one.

The eighth? Yeah. So at the eighth, we're every week. I I

might have COVID that on that one.

He's planning ahead. I have COVID. I'm just kidding, Raymond. Okay.

We'll see you on the fifteenth.

Alright. So, Carol no. Now Carol will provide a presentation on social work for values and best practices followed by discussion.

Really like how it pulls up the whole thing. Yeah.

Yeah. So I would like to ask, right, Raymond and Linda, what can you see? Can you see the big presentation that takes up the whole screen, or do you see the smaller one?

Well, on the last one,

it froze,

so we only saw

one side. Whole thing.

Right now, we can see both.

So oh, great. Okay. I was worried about having to do two page changes. Okay. This I do have a script. Let me get it. Okay. Social work. So

Man, that's a script.

It is. I'm so just a little orientation to the documents that govern the board really quickly. I'm gonna hand you all a thumb drive that has all the board documents, all the applications, and so forth. And then I will come back, and we'll add Southside's applications in and some additional information as it rolls forward, like the budget policy and so forth.

What color are they this year? Because

They are multicolor. That's, like, them at random with without looking large.

Well, because last year I can see which ones I had because last year, I was looking at the one year, and I was dogging in the presentations.

And Oh, look at them.

So you

can get a different yeah. I just labeled them just to make sure I knew who got one and who didn't.

2025. Think. 2032. Okay.

But they've fallen off. So anybody can follow-up. So So

as long as it's not any needs to be colored, I'm good. How about yellow? Oh, great.

I'm not. Perfect. Is there

a landing? I know. It's okay.

There is a laundry. Give me one second. We have white, pink, and gray, and blue left.

Is it 2026?

Now this would turn into a pain.

Are we that we're excited about? I said, who are we that we're so excited about?

I guess. So okay. So we know Linda and Ray have not gotten there. Okay. So we saw all these thumb drives, and we'll add a little bit to it. Have the bible. But what governs the board is first, it was created by a code of ordinances. So the city council passed an ordinance to create the board. And at that time, bylaws were created about how the meeting should be run. This board had super long bylaws.

Like, they really got into the details. And then a few years ago when city council asked all the boards and commissions to pass standard bylaws, which are more like, you know, exactly how the meeting should run and what the role is, then we moved the rest of the information to the rules and regulations. So city council kind of has jurisdiction over the bylaws and the ordinance view, as you saw tonight, you have jurisdiction over the rules and regulations. Part of that document, though, was the requirement that the social work member provide a presentation to y'all before the application process starts. So

And we don't have a social work member yet?

We don't. We had Kimberly Chavez, and she contacted me to let me know she has to resign due to changed circumstances. So I notified the city clerk's office, and they'll try to fill it pretty quickly. But, of course, we're gonna have to roll into a review, so we'll see what we can do. If you know somebody who's interested, have them contact the city clerk's office. They have to have either a social work degree or a certain amount of experience. We've made it an either or. So so a few years ago, our social work person was Mariana Zamora. She put this together for us, and I will just go through it pretty quickly. She also gave me some notes.

So I am Mariana Zamora. So here's the the what's covered. The rules and regulations actually line out what she was supposed to cover. So we'll we'll go through it pretty quickly. This is all in your thumb drive, and I included the notes that she gave me so you can it's like she's presenting it to you.

Why is it important? The board's, like, governing purpose is to enhance the it's like they're responsible for the development and enhancement of human services in San Marcos. And so because it's social work oriented, I think the people who started this board really wanted to have that element present for y'all to give advice. So we'll try to have somebody fill that space. Code of ethics.

Social workers do, of course, have a code of ethics that they run by specifically for social work practices. And so this is where if we have a social work person, they are they do participate nor as a normal board member, but they are also kind of a consultant for y'all. So you could ask them specific questions about, like, hey. I see this agency is doing such and such. You know, can you give us some context on how that works in social work?

So core values, service, social justice, dignity, and worth, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. So best practices, I think social workers have that knowledge of specifically how things can be done as a best practice. Measuring, benchmarking to show where you start and where you have ended after having a program, things like that. I looking back and identifying processes that could result in better outcomes, that should be kind of a standard practice in in the nonprofit world

and also, you know,

Evidence based models are a specific characteristic of specific models, I guess I would say. So they're a combination of best available research, understanding the client's background, culture, and preference, and professional practice expertise. And so there are certain practices, as I understand it, they're kind of marked as like this is an evidence based practice. Somebody has conducted a study to see how it worked, or they have done research on how it impacted a certain amount of people, and so this has some proof behind it. She also brought up the difference between outputs and outcomes.

An output is a, you know, a thing that can be counted. We are serving 1,600 people, whatever. An outcome is trying to measure the impact you had on those people. And so we have seen a thousand of those 1,600 come out of homelessness due to our practice of serving them in this way or whatever, trying to track the impact of what you did.

Yes. Good question. The things that we did that is the Southside Community Center's application in that too?

It is not. So I'll I'll send it to y'all.

As a Sorry.

ASAP. Yeah. And we'll just, you know, roll them right in. One more process.

Okay. Cool.

Cool. Grant applications, there are some standards for a grant application, and you can see how this is reflected in the one that you all have for Human Services Advisory Board grants, trying to discern how a program will meet these specific elements so that you can get a good overview of the program. So that's what we've emphasized as well. And then also process of applying for grants. This must have been I probably shouldn't change this at this point.

But, anyway, this is our typical process for HSAB. It used to be in the fall, so now it has moved to the spring. But we have sort of a notice of availability of funding that goes out. We email all the agencies we have on our list. There's, like, more than two fifty, I think, at this point. And then also put it in the newspaper, and we post it online. So that's we are trying to get it to as many people as we can or agencies. And that is it for the social work aspect. There's some references in the presentation as well if you want to look at more detail. Thank you, Carl.

You're welcome. I have no social work experience whatsoever, but she really did such a good job on that. And so I'm I'm really grateful that we have it. That position is a little bit hard to fill because it has specific criteria.

So

Thanks. Does anyone have questions? No. Alright. Moving right along. Finally, the board will receive a presentation from staff orienting the board to its role, bylaws, and application review process followed by discussion. Carol Okay. You are up.

So let's see. I have a this is my script for this one, but I won't belabor it. I know y'all have gotta be tired by now. I would say let's see. Let me find the board book. You can see what's on your thumb drive. So I give you a table of contents that'll have the board roster, the calendar. You saw the calendar earlier. I just wanted to go over quickly for the process. So starting April 8, five or six agencies are going to present.

We did put on your thumb drive the first five for April 8. We haven't scheduled out everybody else, but we should have that by April 8 so you'll have that full schedule. What we ask you to do is please review those applications for the ones that are gonna present. We I recommend that you go ahead and even do some preliminary scoring. You make notes. We have an evaluation form. You don't have to use that. You don't have to do written notes, but you're gonna be looking at 40 applications. So keep that in mind.

We have 32 last year? Yeah. So now 40. Do we know what our funding in here?

It I think it's gonna be 750,000. That's a really good question. So I'm I am gonna ask the board

because that's

Base your decision

on invested. Paid more?