City Council - Regular Meeting

Now they realize now I don't need problems. I need problem solveriz. Are we live? They have a lot of Okay. All right. Very good. I've got 7 o'clock uh on my watch. So, we'll go ahead and get started. I now call this regular council meeting of the city of Santa Fe, February 12, 2026 to order. Natalie Lori, roll call, please. Mayor Brandon Oto here. Mayor Pro Tim Dana Mars here. Council member Rusty Schrader here.

Council member Ryan McCain here. Council member Bubba Janette here. Council member John Dickerson here. Quorum. We have a quorum.

All right. Um I'll now invite uh Pastor Greg Wackey from Santa Fe uh Christian Church to come up and do u the uh invocation with us this evening. And then I've asked the uh Santa Fe FFA officers to come up after that and do the pledges of allegiance. Father in heaven, we thank you for allowing us into your presence. And we ask, Father, that you would uh grant us wisdom in our in in the council's decisions and things. Father, we ask for safety for our uh first responders. Father, we we just ask that you would continue to bless this town that we love so much. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Y'all want to come on up and do the pledges of allegiance for us? Are we going to start at the same time? I pledge allegiance 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. Honor Texas flag. I aliance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you. If y'all will stay up there. Stay right here. I'm on my way down this way.

Had to bring a piece of regalia. Oh my gosh. Up here. So, it still fit. Thank you for asking. Okay. Y'all come stand up here and face the crowd here. something else to look at besides.

So, um I've got a proclamation that I'd like to present um on behalf of the city of Santa Fe. Whereas the National FFA organization and agricultural education provide a strong foundation for the youth of America and the future of our food, fiber, and natural resource systems. And whereas we recognize that FFA is not just for students who want to be production farmers, but welcomes members who aspire to be future chemists, veterinarians, government officials, bankers, entrepreneurs, teachers, doctors, scientists, international business leaders, and leading professionals in many fields. And whereas we recognize the FFA programs promote leadership, personal growth, and career success among its members, giving members of this dynamic youth organization the tools to achieve real world success. And whereas the FFA motto, learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve, gives direction of purpose to these students who take an active role in succeeding in agricultural education. and whereas FFA strives to promote citizenship, volunteerism, patriotism, and cooperation. And now therefore, I Brandon Oto, mayor of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, do hereby proclaim the week of se uh the week of February 21st to the 28th, 2026 as National FFA week in the city of Santa Fe, and do hereby encourage all citizens of Santa Fe to support our local FFA organization. and witness whereof, I've set my hand and caused the seal of the city of Santa Fe, Texas to be affixed this 12th day of February in the year 2026. So, congratulations to y'all. Let's uh have have y'all hold this right here.

Hey, man. Brandon's going to put his jacket on. No, no, no, no, no. I don't get to wear it anymore, but I get to hold it. So, I'm going to hold the Santa Fe part.

Good. Oh, I'm sorry. The important one. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry.

Awesome. Thank you. CONGRATULATIONS TO Y'ALL. NO, YOU KEEP IT. MINE, not yours. The organization. I think most people um know that um that FFA is extra special to me. I'm an alumni of Santa Fe FFA and a former Santa Fe FFA adviser. Who else on here is a former FFA member? The 4. 4. Okay. Couple. We got a whole room full of them. That's awesome. Thank y'all so much for being here.

And uh uh I taught some of those kids their FFA motto probably. So uh really special for me to um to recognize them. And um I would not be where I am uh today either um professionally or um civically without the FFA and the the lessons I learned. So maybe that's a good thing. Maybe some of y'all are now mad at the FFA. Um but that's okay. I forgot I have another one. Okay, so um this month I also uh am wanting to are going to present a mayor spirit of Santa Fe award. Uh this is an award that was started by our former mayor Bill Pittman. Uh, and it was to recognize folks um that are proven leaders dedicated to serving Santa Fe um and don't feel like they have to post on social media about it all the time and uh and toot their own horn. It it's for those people that are just quietly um serving in the background to make our community um a better place to live and and work and and raise our families. And so, um, uh, I'm so thankful, uh, that this, uh, has concluded, um, because I used to have to hear about it, um, every time I went to go see my orthodontist. But, uh, Deborah, if you'll come up, Deborah Glover, come up here. I want to recognize Deborah tonight. So, Deborah is, um, the office manager, I think,

at at Dr. Gallerano's office. Not the wife.

Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Gallerano's office. but she's also very passionate about public safety and uh Miss Glover took it upon herself for the past two year and a half year and a half um to be a thorn in the side of Tex dot about a traffic light um at 646 and 4th Street. And so um with her help and our police chief's help and and everybody pulling on the on the reinss, we finally got it done. But tonight for you going above and beyond and spending your own personal time to help um the safety and well-being of the city of Santa Fe and the citizens, I want to present to you the mayor spirit of Santa Fe award.

Did you want to get a picture? And y'all, the lighted 28th is next. the next one.

Thank you so much. Thank you. And you're welcome to stay, but please don't feel like you have to.

Okay, got that out of the way. Um I do have a uh report as well. Uh just go over um the past month. So, uh, right after the last city council meeting, um, kick things off, um, January 28th, I hosted the, um, um, uh, quarterly chief's meeting at Santa Fe ISTD where the, uh, top elected official of of each of the taxing entities in Santa Fe, get together and, uh, just communicate with each other on what's going on and, and make sure that we're working together um, as we have different projects and developments and things coming down the road. Um later that day I also attended the Bay um council of mayors. Um so all of the mayors that are members of Bay get together and um uh discuss things that are going on. Believe it or not, we're already starting to have um conversations about proposed legislation for the legislative next legislative session uh which is a year away. Um but we're already um talking about it. So um there's um a lot of things. Uh I don't want to spend too much time on this, but you know, every time they get together in Austin, uh they take more and more of our ability away um to to govern um to govern our our cities as local officials. And so they've got some some lot uh uh restrictions in there and um some um revenues and expenditures resection, you know, uh restrictions and we'll spend some time on that, but but it's a it's on our radar and us mayors are going to make sure that we um that we send our voices to Austin. Uh, as as a conservative, I believe that the best government is small and local, and I think Austin needs to stay out of our business and let let us uh let us run Santa Fe. So, that's my soap box on that. The next day, January 29th, I was able to attend the elected officials a day that was put on by the Aggra Life

Extension um in conjunction with the Texas Farm Bureau. And we did that out at um Tackard Ranch and really learned a lot about all of the agriculture that's still going on in Galveastston County. I mean, tens of millions of dollars of agricultural production. And um so, uh it was really good to learn about all that. even somebody that's been intimately involved in agriculture here in Galveston County, I was still very surprised um to learn about that. And so it was good. We had, you know, state reps there. Randy Weber's office was there. And so the right people were in the room to kind of hear um some of the challenges that we face and u as far as as agriculture goes. Uh January 31st, I attended the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce gayla and um enjoyed that. Uh February 4th, uh city manager Collins, myself, and u council member Shrader had a site visit at Centerpoint. Things are going very well out there. Um they are rocking and rolling and doing a very good job. It's looking very nice and just very uh thankful that Centerpoint worked with us and made concessions that they did not have to um just to be good neighbors and u they are expecting substantial completion by October. So, uh, it'll be here before we know it. But what I'm most excited about with Centerpoint is is that they're they are going to have, um, in the ballpark, um, about a hundred employees coming in and out of there every day. Uh, and that's going to be huge for Santa Fe, for our local economy here, for our lunch crowd, and the the retail and and restaurants um that will benefit off of that. And that doesn't include um, all of the contractors. So, Houston, uh, North Houston, Pole, and, you know, all the other contractors that work for Centerpoint that are going to be coming in and out. Um, and so it's going to it's going to do good for our local economy and hopefully our sales tax dollars and, um, everybody wins. Um, and I think it goes without saying it'll be nice to have them here when we have an

emergency or or a threat of emergency. So um on February um 11th just yesterday I attended the um Chamber of Commerce lunchon and um things are going well there and uh they have a new president um so uh their former president or almost former president is actually coming on board at the city joining the city uh Carla and so we're excited about having Carla over here um and they have um hired Rebecca Martinez um who most of us know um is the president of our parks board. she's now going to be the um president of the chamber moving forward. So certainly um excited for her and looking forward to the continued relationship that we have with the chamber. Um looking in the future after today um we've got the um the coffee talk um on Tuesday at the fire station. Uh and then we're going to be meeting with the county fair and um beginning discussions on our Fourth of July celebration. Uh next week we're also going to be um getting together. I'm going to be getting with staff to discuss uh the Rungi Park grant uh process and where we are in that. Uh start get the ball really rolling on that. And then Friday, um, uh, city manager Collins and myself are going to be attending the HDAC state of the region and annual meeting for the HGAC, uh, which if you're not familiar with that, that is one of the main um, funding mechanisms um, through which the GLLO um, and other federal um, entities give money. So, it's good for us to be involved there. and Harris County gets a lot of the money, but if Galveston County can kind of get together and pull our votes and our resources, we're hoping that we can get some of that money down here. I think the county of Galveston was awarded 7 million, I think they went up there and received last week. So, um, we're starting to get some of that money down here in Galveston County. So,

uh, that's just a wrap up of of what I've had going on. Um, Seth, do you have a a report for council tonight? I do not. Um, just that we've had a uh a a a great week thus far and um I hope that everybody has a a happy uh Valentine's Day as that comes this weekend and I think Marty Gall's this weekend as well. So rained out. Yeah. Hopefully not. Hopefully not. All right. Very good. Well, we'll go down to number two, presentation, approval of minutes. January 8th, 2026 special meeting. January 8th, 2026 regular meeting. January 9th, 2026 special joint meeting. and January 22nd regular meeting. Council, those were um uh provided to you in your packets for your review.

Make a motion to approve minutes as presented. Second. The only thing I see that needs change is that on the 22nd I was out of pocket and it appears Councilman tried to move in on my position. He noted is Mayor Pro Tim. He can have it if he wants, but if we want to keep the record straight, we probably need to make that change. I can promise you I didn't find it. Rudy, can you make sure that uh Bubba did not get Mayor Pro Tim pay for that meeting that he just got regular council meeting pay? Okay, very good. Motion to adjourn.

Um also, I was informed by staff that um council member um Shrader caught a um an error in the January 8th um regular council meeting minutes. Um the the uh set that was provided to y'all uh stated that um Terracon was given uh the primary um Geotech firm and then um Rob Kissner was the secondary and that was flip-flopped. Should have been Rob Kissner was primary and Teraccon was secondary and so I have the updated minutes that I will sign on those. Are there any other corrections, additions or deletions? Do I have a motion? Vote and approve minutes as presented. Amended.

Amended. Thank you. Second. Second. We have uh it has been moved and seconded to approve the minutes as amended. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Lori, roll call, please. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Schroeder, yes. Council member McCain, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. All right, motion passes. Thank you, council. Now we'll hand it over to uh Seth for our department reports. Is that right?

Got it. That's right. All right, we're going to jump right on in. Okay, so for the month of January at the municipal court, there were 227 uh cases filed, which is uh down from December when we had 290. Um also we are down in warrants issued for the month of January. We had 174 uh and down from 247 uh in December. And then total revenues collected. Of course, that number is down as well. Uh but we're right at over $31,000 collected for the month of January. All right, over to community services. We had a 180 permits issued uh this month or for month of January uh as well as seven new residential permits, which has really been on track. If y'all noticed, it's been between five and 10 for the last few months. So, uh, really staying on track there. Right under $50,000 in fees collected for the month of January. Uh, we had over 168, uh, inspections completed. Um, and then, of course, as the mayor uh mentioned earlier, uh, myself, um, Councilman Schrader uh, and Mayor Noto uh, visited the Centerpoint Service Center and as the mayor stated, uh, they are going to be at substantial completion um, in October. I think that for our residents who have not been uh or or seen the project, I can tell you what I would call Lake Center Point is is huge. I could not believe how much uh water that that that pond could hold. Uh I think you could put a jet ski in there and uh and and have some fun. But just to give everybody an update on that. Um as far as our rentals go at Runi Community Center, we had five rentals for the month of January. We had one rental at Thelma Weber and we didn't have any rentals um for January at Timberla Park. Uh so we took in $1,700 in rental fees. All right. For our police department, um they had um right over 3,100 calls from

service uh which is up um over the last couple months. Um they had 42 arrest. Um they had 412 traffic stops and they gave 129 traffic citations. Um and C they have 79 active cases. They cleared 30 cases. Uh they had 23 new cases and then they have four um uh warrants issued for the month of January. All right, over to public works. Um we had 53 segments of roads that were patched throughout the city. A couple of those roads they had to patch a couple of times. Um but uh with that moving over to drainage, they excavated from Avenue S on Avenue S from 4 and a half to the end of the east side. They excavated Avenue Q from 1764 to Elizabeth. Uh and then they excavated 7th Street from Avenue L to Avenue. All right. In terms of um drainage, they put in 59 um feet of new coverts and then 60 ft of corrected coverts throughout the city. They trim trees on nine different roads. Um and then they had to repair replace 146 traffic signs which is um up over last month. I think it was like around 120 or 122. Um and then of course due to wintertorm Fern um just out of precaution, we sanded 33 um drainage crossings and then the three state bridges within the city limits because Texot um was really focusing on the I45 corridor. Um so out of precaution, we did that and we also cleaned um each of those uh bridges and crossings. All right. And then last to our fire marshall. Um he completed uh four burn pile inspections. Uh he had 40 burn permit renewals and then so we have 28 active permits right now and he completed 14 fire safety inspections. So thank you Manny hard at work and that's all I have. Y'all have any questions?

Hey uh next Friday is that HJC thing. I mean you and Brandon. That's correct. Are you joining us? He is because he's on he's the uh the um alternate on you. That's correct. Good. I've got some of their information since remember the uh Rangy Park deal with the expanding cemetery or outdoor friends and all want to kind of see where they're at on that. Yep. Oh, that'll be great. All right. There you go. All right. Any other questions for department?

Yeah, on these uh on the police update, the traffic stops 412 citation. I'm not posting some citations, but is there any way to get a breakdown what the actual stops were far? We could we could segment them. We can definitely segment that. Is that something that you'd like to see on the on for in the future? We'll we'll segment it. you know out there like uh council member Janette, do you mean like um uh like for speeding or signal was what the actual stop was for? Yeah. Okay. Make that happen. All right. Anything else, council?

We're not going to put people's personal information there. Just No. No. No. Just to stop.

Just a reason for what the violation was. Gotcha. Yeah. Very good. I'm sure that uh Seth will work with you to make sure he understands exactly what you're looking for. All right. Uh now we will get down to item number five, citizens comments. Any person with city related business not on this agenda may speak to the council. Time is limited to three minutes. In compliance with the Texas Open Meeting Act, the city council may not deliberate on the comments. Personal attacks will not be allowed and personnel matters should be addressed in city manager during normal business hours. Uh we did have one citizen sign in. So I will give her the first opportunity to come up and address council. Uh Miss Vicky Smith, if you'll please come up. And I've already stated your name, but if you will just restate your name for the record. And um thank you for being here.

Of course. I am Vicky Smith. I live at 3422 Avenue K. and a half. Um, we've been here going on a year now. Um, and recently I did an open records request about one of the addresses that we've been making complaints about. Um, and when I did the open records request, I found that only one complaint had been made about this address. when I know that I've personally made three different and varying dates complaints about this particular property. Now, I know that we've had different code enforcement officers since I've been here. So, I don't know what has changed or happening in that process where the complaints aren't getting documented. Um, but we would really like to see some progress on those code enforcement issues. So, I think that maybe the documentation process would be helpful if we could find out where the holes were in that process. Um, I've spoken to other people within Santa Fe that have made code enforcement complaints and they're finding that they're having the same type of issues I am. Um, it's an understandably slow process to report something in code enforcement and there are things behind the scenes that I'm very much aware have to happen to a complaint before access or things take place. Um, I've even gone as far as to contact the health department in Galveastston County um, on one particular address and they've gone so far as to site this particular resident. Um the new fire marshall has been great and trying to help us the best that he can. And I know again there is a process for this. It would be nice to see that progress speed up a little bit so that we could live in peace. Um that would be absolutely amazing because I know if we're suffering through it, other people are suffering through it. Um we've dealt with homeless people living there. Um

we've had the police out at least three documented times. Um, we listen to people go in and out. Um, we've been assured that the doors are now secured. Um, but the code enforcement process is my biggest point of pain right now. Not being heard is what it feels like to me as a resident because I do continue to feel like the squeaky wheel. Um, but I'm not getting the grease. Um, I'm happy to resend the address to anybody that would like that address, but my point tonight is more a generalized one that it would be really nice to have somebody in code enforcement that even if they leave us that that process does not have to start and stop and restart all over again. It continues on with whoever takes that role. Um, because I am having to reexplain myself. Um, it just it it would be nice if we could get some progress in the code enforcement area.

Is this the house that backs up to JL? Can Can you ask her the address? It is. Okay. Yeah. I'm happy to share the address. I'd like to not. 3511L. I've had complaints on that on my phone, too. Yes, sir. No, that Thank you, Council. Any other questions for Mr. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Send me that to me on my city email. Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Uh we always appreciate citizens coming and addressing council. Uh is there any other citizens that would like to speak about any items not on the agenda? No. All right. Well, then we are moving right along to number six. Business. A new business. One consideration and possible action. Adoption of a resolution of the city of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas. Approval of an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe, Texas and Galveston County for the provision of animal control and sheltering services effective October 1, 2025 and authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement on behalf of the city finance director Zapeda.

Thank you, mayor. Uh so this is the interlocal agreement with the county uh health district and the participation in the participation of the regional animal resource center program. Uh this uh agreement establishes that countywide animal control and shelter services throughout uh through the animal control center of which um the council has appointed me a board member. Uh and I've read through and um this program pretty much uh provides for the centralized animal sheltering services, field animal control services, babies control authority, bite investigations and quarantine. uh animal adoption and redemption services, cruelty investigation support, population control, and public health uh protections. Uh right now we're spending uh just under $100,000 and it went down a little bit under this um new agreements like $95,000. So a little bit less, but um the um it does cover all those services and they do a great job for us. So I do support uh the agreement as it stands

and I believe we were the only municipality that went down in the county in their agreement. So it's based on usage. Very good. Council, any other questions for Mr. Zedo? Not entertain a motion. Move to approve the resolution approving an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe and Galveston County as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the resolution approving an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe and Galveston County as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Lori, roll call, please. Council member McKenna, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. Council member Schrader, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Motion passes.

So, despite uh despite rumors, there's still no requirement for all council to adopt a cat in this agreement as well. Dang it. We'll try to get that in there next year. Yes, sir. All right. Um, item number two, consideration and possible action adoption of a resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, amending the city's purchasing policy section 5.4 approval limits. Mr. Spa,

so our purchasing policy u part of our annual financial policy review and we go through it annually to look and evaluate for effectiveness, audit compliance, and operational effectiveness. So, currently it's $1,000 for department heads as the approval limit. Uh $5,000 for the city manager. And as of September 1st, 2025, Senate Bill 1173, the threshold for governments to seek bids has gone from 50,000 to 100,000. So now that's the new threshold before we need to go out for um an RFP and RFQ. It's $100,000. So, uh, because of some of these changes as well, um, with our RFP, our RFP, our ERP system that's coming online here next month, staff is recommending a $5,000 department head change limit, uh, $50,000 for the city manager. Um, this still allows council uh 5,000 to up to a 100,000 or above for anything that is not already budgeted uh for um to to come before you. So, if it's been budgeted already, uh that's not what we're talking, you know, if it's been budgeted, then uh those limits would would go up to 5,000 and 50,000. But if it if it changes the uh the aspect of that line item, that general ledger line item, if it increases it or explodes out of it, it's that's when it has to go back to council. So, this is just merely um trying to uh realign with what we're currently doing, especially since many of our department heads have credit cards that exceed that $1,000 limit anyway. And I believe the mayor mentioned the last budget season that if uh we can't trust the u the department heads uh with an increased credit card, then why are they in that position? And so taking that as a as a rule, we wanted to make sure that we were at least

getting uh all department heads closer to that level limit. Um, and with our new ERP system coming on online, that's going to uh help strengthen those controls because now every every purchase above those limits is going to have to go through the system. Um, and it'll have to be recorded. The um the general ledger has to be correct. Uh, and it goes through the hierarchy and then the documents are reattached. So there's a lot more control now than there used to be on paper which some things would get lost uh and then we'd have to wait for the purchase order to actually get approved from the requisition. All that took time. So this is these are some of the changes we need just to modernize not actually decrease the controls but actually enhance them uh with the the new system that we have. So, uh those are the changes we're we're recommending um with the uh policy and procedures in that section five.

Rick, these are like PE cards.

Yes, we currently have PE cards, but this would be uh a policy change for all requisitions as well. Uh so if if I wanted um to purchase uh let's say uh a new computer that was budgeted already and it was $2,500 and we had we had talked about it as part of our our budget planning session. It's not going to go over my limit for my line item. That's something that um the the new rules would say I should go ahead and purchase, right? It would still go through the same approval process um in the system where checks and balances occur, especially it has to go through the new accounting system, but it wouldn't need uh a purchase order because it's not exploding that particular line item. It's already been uh accounted for in the budget.

Is there a cap uh on a purchase before you have to go out for competitive bid? 100,000 now. 100,000. Mhm. That state changed that September 1st. State ours is 3,000 for me. Oh, for the for department heads. Yeah.

Yeah. Council, this is u something that I talked with with Seth and Rudy about and um wanted to bring it before y'all. I think it's just a step in in improving government efficiency. We approve their budgets. um we do background checks and credit checks and all other kind of checks and and Rudy and uh with the um the fail stops that he's put in place and and the checks and balances and um winning the the transparency and u accountability budget awards and all of that. Um, I know that sometimes with Billy at at the street department with parts and things like that, it's held him up and it's, you know, made him be down for longer because he's having to get approval from Rudy to buy something for a piece of equipment that he's got the budget for, but he can't buy it without Rudy's signature. It's just slowing him up and it cost him a day, cost him two days. Um, and I think I just don't think that's necessary. I think it it's a waste of tax dollars and and uh you know it's it's not efficient not efficient government. And with with Seth I mean I hope I don't mind I hope you don't mind me saying but um I think the the mulch purchase um the reason why we were only able to mulch two out of the three playgrounds is because Seth could only afford with his limit to purchase two loads or you know enough loads for two of the parks.

So I can only put it to 5,000 even though I have a $10,000 credit card limit. uh could only do 5,000 in purchases. And that's that this is kind of where where the issue comes in. Um and and it's it's pretty uniform across the board. So, I'm not asking that. If y'all don't want to do 50, that's fine by me. But I just want you to note that uh Chase Kerry, the city manager of Dickinson has a 100,000 limit. James um Newman at the water district has a $100,000 limit. Um and so I had a 50,000 in Georgia. Um I'd be fine with 25. Um, honestly, everything else has to come before you. But if we need to buy a mower, um, any piece of equipment, it just makes things a lot smoother having this, especially if it's already budgeted. If it isn't budgeted, I have to come to you anyways.

It ain't questioning you because the man right there that that handles the purse strings would stop. Correct. Well, and and I want y'all to know, I mean, the EDC board has up to 50,000 that they can spend. And so you don't and and I think everybody on that board are great people and and trustworthy 100% but you don't do a background check on them. You don't run a credit report on them like you I mean y'all did on each of our staff members. So in leadership positions so just kind of keep it bearing that in mind.

So to answer uh Councilman Janette's question, we do also have uh we do go out for comparative shopping after the $3,000 limit which is required. we have to do comparison. Uh but it's it's not required to go out for uh an RFP or an RFQ. Do you do you have any recommendations of what you would see the limits at?

Uh I'm fine with the $50,000 limit. Um any anything that council desires from 25 to 50. 50 is fine because like I said, uh it it's still in place as far as um exploding out that line item. Let's just say uh something has come up and and a $20,000 uh piece of equipment is needed uh that's going to uh increase that line item that did not have it budgeted, that still needs to come to council. But uh um if it is something that can be arranged internally uh moving one item one line item let's say for the emergency um uh line item that we have already we can move that from 507 department to the 501 or the 509 where it's needed. That's something that we can handle uh administratively up to $50,000. Yes.

And every month you provide us with all of the transactions for the city.

Yeah. And with the new system, uh council can also have um access online to all the uh accounting 24 hours a day. I spoke with Seth yesterday about this and uh been in that situation before and this is for efficiency. This is going to make things I I I couldn't stand when I had people under me and then something like what Seth had to do yesterday or last week. So now we got a payment. We we're doing a a job. We got a payment January. We got a payment. You know, sometimes you got to do three to spread three months instead of having it finished right there when you do it. And uh I mean that's why we hired Seth is to we have trust in him and I trust all of our department heads and you know if the still the purchase system's still going to go through the same way you know he's going to request it. You know that's why we hired Seth and I'm good with this. Uh anything to make city hall run more efficiently I'm good with.

Was that a motion councilman? I want to I want to ask Rudy again. Is is those figures sufficient or are you possibly need to go higher? Um I I think 50 at this time for me is is is plenty. I'm not asking for anything more. I talked with a staff member a while back he's going to need more than five grand.

Well, and and I get that, but they can come to me. I mean, that's kind of the you know, I can I can make that decision up to 50. So, if a department head like let's say um Billy, you know, he a lot of times has to have something that comes in, you know, at 7 or $8,000, he comes by my office usually every day. So there, I mean, we have that, you know, pretty pretty constant um communication. So, if there is anything, I can approve it right here on the spot. I don't want to mention but sometimes we do get like a chunk or transmission go out and you know you're always in that 11 to 13 range you know so I take that into consideration too and the cost of

and then you are down because you're sitting here waiting to come to us you know it could be a week and a half out and u yeah that's right I could do it so and and Billy has mentioned to me on numerous occasions that the costs of all these parts have quadrupled over the past 10 It is ridiculous. Who what department spends the most? Is it Billy? Um biggest budgets the police department. Police department. But Billy especially on those type of items just because you just never know with the equipment like what's going to go down. Um I mean he just has a um the type of equipment that he utilizes. We we can't have drainage equipment down. Correct. Correct. Billy, is that good enough for you? Yes, sir. Did you have a bench?

Yeah. He got he got the big balls to back him up. Yeah, right. He's got up to 50,000. Really, all he's got to do is pick up the phone and call sir. Correct. 55 55,000. I move to approve the resolution amending the city's purchasing policy section 5.4 approving limits to increase the department head's maximum spending limit to $5,000 and the city manager's maximum spending limit to 50,000. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve a resolution amending the city's purchasing policy section 5.4 for approval limits to increase the department head's maximum spending limit to 5,000 and the city manager's maximum spending limit to 50,000. Council, is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Lori, roll call, please. Council member Dickerson, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member McCainy, yes. Council member Shreder,

yes. Council member Marks, yes. Thank you, Rudy. Thank you.

All right. Item number three, speaking of Billy, consideration of possible action, adoption of a resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, approval of an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe, Texas and Galveston County for the milling of Port Street from Shast Road to Avenue S and the milling of Avenue L from 1764 to 6th Street and an estimated total project cost of $25,226.88 and authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement on behalf of the city, Mr. Millie. Good evening, mayor and council. Good evening. These are the two roads, uh, Fourth Street and Avenue L. Uh, on Fourth Street, the calcium sulfate and the lime has mixed and the road is raised up. There's no way for me to level that road back out to repave it. So, the only way to do it is to mill it down. And the milling machine will take it down level all the way across the whole length and distance. and the Avenue L road. The road is already spidered. We haven't do a lot of base repair on it, but the the asphalt is already separated. And if uh we lay new asphalt over top of that, all it'll do is crack open. So, the reason why we're milling that one down, too. And we we pick on two of the wor worst roads that we have. I know we have several roads that are falling apart on us now, but

those are busy roads. Those are real busy roads. And the traffic count is real high. And I get a lot of complaints for those two roads. Yep. Those are busy roads. The only other road that we have the most complaints are Second Street and that's on the county bond. Wait till you start milling it down, then you going to get more complaints. Yes, sir. Usually pretty painful for a day or so and but then once we get it taken care of, it works out pretty good. Explain me the process on fourth.

On fourth, uh the county will come in with their milling machine. We get the millons. So they'll dump into our dump trucks, come back to our yard with it. They'll mill down that stretch. It usually for 2,50T like that is, they'll usually knock it out day, day and a half and then they're out of there. And then it's up to me. We'll come in and uh reassphalt the road at the 2 in thick from Avenue S down the shs and uh relay the new road down and roll it in and compact it. When did they when we had them do fourth? Did they do the do the base too?

No, that that was that Texas material that did that. And uh yes, not happy about it at all because whenever you put lime over calcium sulfate, sometimes you can get lucky, but sometimes you can't and it don't and it won't mix right. And that's what happened to the road. It was almost immediately, too. Yes. And you can see it it's raised in areas and in other areas it's dropped down and uh yeah it's real disappointing when that that road is not that old. But you have to take care of it now. Yeah. So we're just milling that road and then you're going to come back with and pave it. Yes, sir. Okay. Um

we're not going to have to work on the base or nothing. No, the base is pretty decent on that one on L. Are we recycling it? Yes, we're recycling L2 and that's coming back to the yard, but I have a lot of base repair to do on the edges. So, you're milling it, but the countyy's not going to recycle it for us. We're just milling it down. We're just milling it down and bringing it it'll it'll recycle, but it'll be used for gravel for us. Okay. And then you're just going to you're going to recycle down I mean, you're going to mill down to the base and then pave it also. Fix your spots. Pave fix our spots. We usually fix the spots ahead of time.

Yeah. So we can make sure we have the road level when they mill it. And then the milling machine will keep it level for the whole distance. Guys, you know, uh I'm going to tell y'all something. We got some roads in this town. We're going to have to sooner or later we can't kick keep kicking down the road. And uh you know this is a stay on them. That's all I can say is stay on them. I don't want to I don't want to see a Highland road now. But you're coming back and doing the top. That gives me the better feeling.

Yes. And like Mr. Schroer said, I'm I'm losing more roads every year. We're We used to stay ahead or stay even with the game, but we're getting behind on several roads from P to From P to 646 on Sixth Street, man. Yeah. Uh I mean, there's just so many places. I mean it we're just just we're just losing the base. I mean like he's talking about spider cracking. I mean

you're lucky to drive a road in this town that we don't have it. And I'm going to tell you something. We got lucky last year cuz we didn't have the extreme heat and we had rain. If we have a summer where we have 20 or 30 days in a row 100 degree weather and we don't have rain, we're going to be in trouble. We're going to lose a lot of roads cuz we're going to have roads that fall off. Uh definitely something to keep in mind in that area that we need to budget cycle. Yeah. Just have to I mean we're going to have to think about there's several.

Yeah. You got to understand 10 years ago when I started paving asphalt was $46.50 a ton. I'm giving $120 a ton for it right now. Man, it don't go very far. The rock road days are over. The rock road days are over. We're 100% caught up then. Yes, Billy. How does that compare to concrete right now? That I'm going to tell you what, concrete is pretty equal. I know concrete's went up, but it's not much difference in pricing. It's about 150 a square foot. Yeah. How much? About 150 a square foot.

I'd like for us to each year start put a project together where we take even if it's just a small section of roadway somewhere and start moving towards concrete. We talked about that. And eventually work our way out of asphalt. Yeah, we we talked about that bringing that back at the budget budget workshop. I know we run into issues with the curb and gutter and drainage and things like that. Well, you don't really have to put in the curving the curb and gutter. We already have where the road ditches are there. You know, you can just pour concrete road and your your cost is a lot different. It's less than half just like the freeway. I mean, like I going you don't have and then yeah, just leave your open ditches and just pour your concrete roads. We really need to look towards that.

We need to look we need to look at our mainly our main roads. Yes. That the main heavy travel roads, you know, you have you have several of them. Avenue J, you have uh Sixth Street, you know, you have uh Tower, you have Tower Road, you have Jackson. You told me once, Billy, but I don't recall the life expectancy of concrete versus asphalt right now. you know on the high trouble and on on our remarks asphalt road we only have asphalt road from 5 to 15 years and that's if you have a good base under it

with the traffic we're having right now and the construction we're having in Santa Fe with the heavy trucks we're lucky if we're getting five to seven years of road you sit right here at city hall at 9:00 in the morning and watch them dump trucks come across them railroad tracks and come right down Main Street and then they get up there and they split and they're coming down L&J. Yeah. And they're going to 1764 cuz that's their fastest way to get to 45.

Y this is this is good discussion certainly something we can talk about in in uh in budget meetings, but the uh the agenda item that we're on is repaving um Avenue S from 4th Street to SH and Avenue L from 1764 to 6th Street. Just let me know this signal away. I move to approve the resolution approving an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe and Galveston County as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the resolution approving an interlocal agreement between the city of Santa Fe and Galveston County as presented. Council, any further discussion? Hearing none. Lori, roll call, please. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Shreer, yes. Council member McCain, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes.

Motion passes. Thank you, council. I'm certainly not diminishing the importance of this. It's just we we'll have this conversation in the future. Yep. Absolutely. All right. Discussion and direction. Yes, Councilman. Where's our paper come? It's here. Great. We have pictures of the the new tractor, the new PA, and the new dump truck. Awesome. All three pieces of equipment are here. Wonderful. I'll send it to y'all tonight. Thank you. I think I'm just seeing a dump truck coming up down the road somewhere.

All right. Item number four, discussion and direction. Opening 16th Street behind Santa Fe City Hall is a oneway through street. Billy, we never had a a real resolution that we can find why the road was closed. And we would like to open it up for just a one-way street to help kind of relieve some of the traffic from city hall here. And it would be one way of going on the highway six, not coming off of coming off. We want to make it just a oneway coming in going getting out. So maintain more signs. True, sir.

See, that road was closed, I believe, in the '9s. And so just looking as it's in good shape. We can open it up and it'll definitely help with traffic flow um here from city hall because there's there's usually especially when this red light backs up at at 5 5:30 in the afternoon, it it'll it'll really help with congestion over here. Well, I mean, and and certainly something to think about, you know. I mean, if if we ever had, you know, some kind of emergency where there was an accident right there or something and they had um Main Street closed off here that there's no other way out main street. So, I don't need to have a discussion about this one.

Yeah. Well, don't the only thing I'll bring up and I I thought about this a little bit today. My concern is people cutting off Main Street. You can cut through there to avoid the light and with pedestrian traffic coming out of this building to our parking lot. Just want to be cognizant of that. We probably need to put walkways, you know, painted and the signs. And if at some point it gets to where that is becoming a cut through versus traffic light, then we may consider closing this first entrance and our interest for parking would be the most north one and that'll prohibit some of that. It's something to think about in the future. Yes, sir.

Yeah, that's true. So, council, I understand it's the it's the the consensus that that staff go ahead and open up 16th Street. Yep. Yes. All right. Very good. Thank you, Billy. Thank you, Mayor C. All right. Item number five, consideration possible action approval to authorize his ministries to administer grant funds in the amount of $50,000 received from the Southeast Texas Housing Finance Corporation Seth grant to the city of Santa Fe, Texas for the purpose of assisting eligible residents within the city for rehabilitation of residential housing and other expenses in accordance with the Seth program requirements. Georgia, good evening, mayor and council.

Good evening. As some of you may remember, in 2022, Seth awarded us $50,000 and it was awarded to the city to target um homes that were facing code violations due to staffing changes and just overall overabundance of things that we had coming in. The funds were never expended. So, when Mr. Stalhorn took over as our Seth representative. He did a little bit of research for us and found out that we were able to redesate the funds and where they went to. So, we submitted an application to the Seth office and requested permission to reallocate the funds to his ministries to be used for a very extensive list of things. not to be limited just to home repairs, but to also cover um rent utility services, the backpack, uh back to school event, which covers school supplies, haircut, shoes, clothing, um air conditioning and heating repair, mobility challenge solutions, wheelchair ramps, sink repairs, solutions to cooking limitations, just a plethora of things. So, Miss Janet has come to answer any questions that you all may have. One of the things that we discussed was that with this grant, it will be geared towards the citizens of Santa Fe. And so, she and I will sit down and have a day together on how to work CAD and show exactly who is in the city limits and who is not matched with her process of how they go through vetting their applicants. Did you guys have any questions for her on their vetting process of anything? This 50,000 was originally for what now?

It was for code enforcement fixes. It was to help It was to help impoverished people fix up their place that couldn't afford to do it. Was this ever communicated to people that we had this money? No. No. It's just sat there. It wasn't ever It wasn't ever administered. Well, it sat there for years in the account.

No infrastructure was ever put in place to administer the money. There was something called a home program I think maybe in 2010 2011. And so the way that the home program worked was essentially based on the same concept where people had to submit their applications that showed if they own the home, their tax status, their pay income. There was a very extensive application. It had to show um three different bids from contractors. Staff had to review all of the contractor bids, all of the work that was done, do the inspections, and then issue payments on everything. So, it's a very, very extensive process on how the funds were monitored and expended and all the applications had to be reviewed and all the information they were submitting had to be reviewed. the original setup.

The original setup that when I came on these people we were asked to mirror. That's crazy.

So, um I've I've talked to to Seth about this and then had an opportunity to talk to Janet earlier today and that was at what I don't know 3:00 and she provided this to the city and it's here on our dis. So, um I think that's pretty incredible. But, you know, council, the the way that I feel about this um is that number one, I think we're very um privileged to have his ministries in our community. I think they do a great job. I get an opportunity to get an update from them uh at the coffee talk and um they're in the business of helping people. You know, the city's not in that business. And so, um I I don't think it would be a good use of our resources to task Georgia with setting up a program that his ministries already does and does very well. So to me, it just makes sense to pass this money through to his ministries and let them do what they do best, which is helping people that that need a hand up. And um I know um that that Janet is working on some some new programs all the time. One of them is is what's it called again? The hand helping

helping hands helping hands.

It's actually not a new program. We've had it for probably about 15 years. We just have a very small budget for that. and that's helping. Like for instance, right now somebody had requested one of the citizens of Santa Fe that um she's got uh rapidly advancing multiple sclerosis. And so they're telling me within about a month uh she's going to be required to be in a wheelchair and she has steps leading into her house and so I have a very little time. Um which means I can't find volunteers, you know, um I do work with Slun Lumber to get the lumber discounted. uh they usually knock 50 to 60% off, but you know, we want to make sure that she has something sooner rather than later. Um and so that's about a $4,000 project to be able to get her in and out of her house. Uh she's already an existing client, so I know who she is. I have her all of her demographics. Uh she shops at the food pantry as it is. And so that's an established process we already have it. This would just expand the nature of what we can do.

Yeah. So, um, so like I said, I think I think it just makes sense, you know, to let his do what they do best. And and I was talking to Janet earlier, um, and what I would propose, um, is that when we do, uh, pass this grant through to them, um, that we, um, ask them to provide us a monthly report just like the Santa Fe Resiliency Center does. It's the same thing, right? We're a pass through grant for them. Correct. Um, and they just present us a a report every month of how that money is being spent. And so I just asked um if Janet would provide that to us every month um until that until the funds are exhausted. Um and she also mentioned to me that they're going through their first ever audit. Um so

the expensive audit we went all out this the third party audit. Yes. Um and they're expecting to have that March 31st. Yes. We're locked into a three-year contract. He's starting on 2024 now. He'll have 2025 next and then 2026. But those are open. Like I want I mean good, bad or ugly, I want to share it with everybody. Just like with our budget and our impact report, you know, good, bad, or ugly, I want you guys to see it. This is what we do. Uh and we always strive to impact more people in the community. What I would like to see with this money that this money is spent in in the city. All anything you buy goes to the city. Oh, you're talking about Yeah. He's talking about like

buying things from Sloan and Galo and you know spending the money locally versus going down to Home Depot or Lowe's and shopping. Oh yeah. Yes. But they also help me with work with you. I I had a good conversation with John yesterday. There's money to be saved with that man. I'm just just Yeah. He always gives me better prices. Who makes the decisions on what y'all help and who you help and who you use for your repairs and stuff? Uh so typically uh that's we have a budget and within that budget we'll make the decision. So the clients will come in they'll go through our vetting process make sure we I'm sorry who's we you and

well me and whoever comes to that client like they'll come in and get vetted through one of our processes. That employee will come to me. We have nine employees. There are three that work at intake and in the food pantry with me and they'll come to me. We'll review the file. We'll go over it and see what we can do to help. So, you're the ultimate decision maker on what within our budget? Yes. Like I'm I'm talking about like the porch project.

Okay. So, I don't build stuff and that's my favorite thing. I don't repair stuff that is outside. I run a me food pantry, but I don't build stuff. But, so what I do is I call Builmore Homes and say, "Hey, you know, uh there's two mics over there, mic one and mic two. Can this is the project that I'm working on. Can you find a guide that you trust? you know, can we get a quote from, you know, Sloan? And so he just copies me on the emails and then we look over those quotes. You were mentioning to me most of the time or a lot of the time to get the labor donated.

Now I do I do try to so if I have a little more time like two or three months like if it's not critical um so I work with the send material performance and they will donate the labor. So, we will have to buy the lumber, but they'll donate the labor in the guys. Like, we have we do have um our own augur and things like that, but and I don't know what they do with it, but they'll come and get that. Um we actually recently wrote a grant to get a trailer um so that if we have to get the wood and move it and transport it, I don't have to hunt down somebody, but um ascend material performance, we'll send people out and actually, you know, ascend carees, that kind of

through Ascend cares. Yes. Will this help? Uh I just I won't put take something I see on TV. U say a family's coming in here, car breaks down and out go and they're from and I know we said this is just for city people. Do we will we help anybody like for a couple of nights get a hotel so they can stay four or five you know until they can I mean is it for that or is it specific that would go outside of our okay outside of our scope so our bylaws designate an area so we do it by ISD um and in this consideration I would if there

that would go to someone else yeah they that's not something I can refer them out to other churches this right here is going to be for uh improving improving someone's living conditions basically. Correct. Yes. Yes. That's what this grant is for. I think she had a detailed list. I mean, but it it's we're going to try to stick with the original uh Yeah. We're not taking terrible property, but we're the original intention of the grant we're going to try to stick with. Correct.

Right. So when I called Janet before I got everything together to send over to Seth so that I could fully encompass everything so that if when Seth got ready to come back with any questions or anything if they said this, this, and this looks good, but this is a little outside of our scope, then we were very clear on exactly what we were allowed to do with the funds and everything that was included in that letter. They came back almost immediately and said, "Looks wonderful. Blessings." So everything that was listed in that letter, they have been cleared to operate and use those funds for. Yeah, I like the I like the breakdown, too. That was pretty. Only thing I ask, J is make sure we buy local. Yeah, I know the rules.

And I would say and I would also say that we have several local contractors, too, besides Bill Homes. Well, I don't So I I'm not paying Bill Homes. They're actually volunteering the services to help me find good find a contractor. Yeah. Because I am not um I don't build stuff and I'm not good managing contractors.

So I think um some I think the last thing to discuss um council member uh Dickerson brought it up to me and Janet mentioned earlier that she is willing to work with Georgia and make and and look at the CAD and make sure that we only help people that are within the city limits. I'm not I'm not so uh um I'm not so um hard on that. I mean um it's not city tax dollars. I mean it's a grant. Um and if there's people that are out in the Santa Fe community just because they're not in the city limits. I don't just my personal opinion. Y'all y'all got to make the decision. But um if they live out in the county, but they consider themselves Santa Fe residents, which most of them do, um

they do on Facebook. Yeah. I don't I don't see I don't I don't see how we would be um violating anything by opening it up to to anybody that's in Santa Fe ISD. ISD is and that would be, you know, one thing that one thing that Janet and I were talking a lot about just like we did earlier with with efficiency in our purchasing office. I don't want this to become more work than what it's worth for Janet. She doesn't have a lot of staff. She doesn't have a lot of time. So, if we say, "We'll give you this 50,000, but you've got to do all of these things in order to get it." Janet's very nice and she's not going to say no. But it may not literally be worth the money because it's so much work on her if we're asking her to.

And I'm not opposed to sending my bookkeeper who is 86 years old up here to talk to everyone. Um, yeah. So, I mean, anyways, like I said, council, it's totally up to y'all, but but my recommendation would be that we give it to them um to fund any of the services that they currently offer to any of the clients that they currently serve or new clients that are in Santa Fe, not Hitchco ISD, Santa Fe ISD. And that would be my recommendation. So, we purchase in the city limits from local business. I do agree with them. We we serve the ISD district.

Yes. What is the intention of the original grant for the community or for the city? I think I printed the original. We could look at it kind of thinking like we do with the VOCA grant for the Santa Fe Resiliency Center. They don't turn anyone away. I mean, they probably half of the people that go in are are unincorporated and half are are in the city. And what's your uh what's the mix right now with the people you've helped? City, county, I mean city ISD. She don't.

So we we don't actually track that. Now there there's an ability to track. So I mean you guys could even go, hey, we'll do a tester for 3 months and see and we can still Georgia can still show me how to do that so that I could give you those numbers. But currently I don't track that because our bylaws focus on ISD. Either either we're going to be this or Yeah. open it up. But question is that the the rent was 4,000 you said? Yes. Okay. So it what's the max you going to spend per person?

So it really I don't really I really take it case by case basis. I I normally wouldn't go to 4,000. Well no I wouldn't I wouldn't normally this is just a Yeah. So, somebody asked about the original agreement. I'm looking at it here. Uh, it says it is simple and with local control over how to disperse the funds. We get to make it. It's up to us. Nonprofit law says that the the donor is the only person that can restrict funds. Okay. So, we could restrict them if we want to, but it says local. That means local. Yeah. ISD sounds good to me. Santa Fe ISD.

It ain't going to last long. current services with current servicing district. Yeah. Okay. I would I would like everybody else is saying $50,000. Uh I would really try to keep a cap, you know, somewhere to help as many people as you can. Absolutely. Okay. Don't go overboard. Don't go $30,000 on one person. No, of course not.

Okay. So, I will say council that the the recommended motion that we have um provided to us does say for eligible residents within the city. If that is not something that you want to include, then I think you could just say um within the current service um area of his ministries, Santa Fe ISD. Santa Fe. Well, because we cover Hitchcock, too, but this is a Santa. Santa Fe, sorry. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion? Council, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve to authorize his ministries to administer grant funds in the amount of $50,000 received from South Southeast Texas Housing Finance Corporation granted to the city of Santa Fe, Texas for the purpose of assisting eligible residents within the SFISD boundaries for rehabilitation of residential housing and other expenses in accordance with the Seth program requirements.

Second. It's been moved and seconded to authorize um his ministries to administer grant funds in the amount of $50,000 received from the Southeast Texas Housing Finance Corporation granted to the city of Santa Fe, Texas for the purpose of assisting eligible residents within the Santa Fe ISD boundaries for rehabilitation of residential housing and other expenses in accordance with the Seth program uh requirements. Council, is there any further discussion? I would say also um that that we would like a a report um every month of how that fund has been dispersed. You will get one at the coffee house and here. Awesome. Thank you. And also that you give um priority as much as possible to purchase within the city limits of the Santa Fe. Yes. Council,

I just want to say thank you, Kim, for finding that money because it it is for good use. Yeah, we are cast a check. But I'll tell y'all, I don't He may talk with me more than maybe he does with with with council. I don't know. But um Kim's done a great job on that Seth board representing us and bringing in resources. We got generators for the the retirement facility over there. He's done a great job. Anyways, okay. We have a motion and a second. Lori, roll call, please. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Schroeder, yes. Council member McCain, yes. Council member Janette, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you.

Josh, the new By the way, Josh is the new uh president. Are you the new president? Leader. Yeah. So, um it was Luke uh Pastor Lucas Campbell. Uh many of y'all may know he was at New Life um church and um God called him to his next uh appointment. So, he was no longer with uh New Life or in Santa Fe. So, uh, Pastor Josh with Arcadia Baptist, there's two Arcadia churches, um, stepped up. And so, we appreciate you. Um, y'all y'all get paid twice as much as council does to be on that board. Um, and so we we appreciate you taking the the time to do that.

All right. Uh, that'll get some people talking online. It'll be it'll be a Google it'll be one of the Google searches. How much does the his ministry board president get paid? All right. Item number six, executive session close to the public pursuant to chapter 551.087 Texas government code regarding economic development negotiation. So, we're going to retire into executive session. Uh please don't feel obligated to uh stay with us. Uh but if you want to, we'll you're certainly welcome to. Oh, we want to do announcements.

Yeah, let's do announcements. You're right. I'm sorry. Um the only I've got two announcements. Uh many of you probably all of you saw that um yesterday I um uh uh executed a proclamation um declaring uh yesterday February 11th, 2026 is Nancy Jane Dor Day and I was able to attend her um visitation services last night. But um certainly ask that you be with the Dor family as they mourn the loss of Nancy and um go by and do some business with Dors and uh thank them for their 50 plus years of service to the Santa Fe community. Then uh the other thing is um uh construct we got this email from Texot. I mentioned it in the mayor's Monday update, but the construction activities uh will resume uh on February 16th along FM 646 between Highway 6 and 204. And so, um, expect there to be construction going on 646 South. That's going to start back up on the 16th, which is Monday. And then I almost forgot, early voting for the primary starts um Tuesday the 17th. So, um, get out and vote. Most people know that uh the majority of our elections here in Galveston County are decided at the primary level in the Republican primary. Um, so it's very important to get out and vote because many of the people you're voting for now don't have opponents in November and so you are voting them in office um, in the primary. So, however you vote, go vote. Any other announcements? I just like

say thank you to the library staff yesterday for hosting the friends of the library. Love the library bake sale. I don't know how much they made. It was a good time. Uh and and go it our library is such a central part of this city and the people that use it. I mean if you haven't been to the library go I mean the our library stays packed. I mean people walk in and out all day long. Uh and the youth programs they have there and the kids and seeing the kids you know go in there and learn stuff in the library and then have a recess to go out in our park. I mean, it's just first rate. I want to thank the library and the staff for hosting us yesterday.

Yeah, they do a great job. Thank you, Councilman. Mayor Pro Tim, uh, one of our local organizations, Honor Your Local Vets. They're having a fundraiser March the 14th at X Red Music, so if you have an opportunity, stop by there. It's a barbecue fundraiser. You can visit and grab some food. $15 plates, I believe. barbecue. We currently have registration open for vendors and different apparatuses to register for the parks and recreation board second annual touch a truck. It is going to be at Runi Park from 10:00 a.m. until noon. So, if anyone has a cool vehicle they would like to come show off,

maybe a vendor booth or anything that they would like to come set up, then you can contact me or anyone in the front office at city hall and we can get you signed up. Yes. Very good. Have an application for the parks board. Oh, we are also accepting applications for the parks board. We have Is there any? Yes. Can you get a t-shirt there? When is the touch truck, Georgia? March 7th. March 7th. I might have any other announcements. All right, we'll retire in executive session.

Then you be in jail.

come in back there. Lorenzo's I saw the boxes. Lori, are we on? Yes. Okay. All right, council. It is 9:16 back in regular session. Um, do I have a motion? Motion. Second. moved and seconded. Thank you, gentlemen.