City Council - Regular Meeting

I now call this regular council meeting of the city of Santa Fe, May 21st, 2026 to order. Natalie, roll call, please.

Mayor Brandon Noto. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Marks.

Here.

Council Member Schrader.

Excuse.

Council Member McKinney.

Here.

Council Member Jeanette.

Here.

And Council Member Dickerson. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Natalie. I'll now invite Pastor Tim Gregory from the Santa Fe Worship Center to come and do our prayer, and then we'll do the pledges together.

Father, first I just want to thank you for the mercy and goodness that you show us, Father. Thank you for how you have blessed this city, Father, how you have been gracious to us, the city, the school district, Father, thank you. Lord, I ask your blessing upon this council meeting tonight, Father, that you give this council wisdom to lead this city, Father. Guide them, direct them, Father, let them not lean upon their own understanding. but on yours. Father, give them favor, Father. Let your peace settle and rest within these chambers, Father. Bless this meeting, Father. Bless this city. Continue to bless this district. I ask you these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all under the texas flag i pledge allegiance to the texas one state under god one and indivisible thank you there he is natalie if you'll let the record show that council member schrader has arrived Alright, this evening, we're going to start off with several proclamations and a mere a mayor's spirit of Santa Fe award. So for those of you that attend our city council meetings regularly or watch online, you know that try to at each meeting give a Mayor's Spirit of Santa Fe Award. This was started by former Mayor Bill Pittman and it is an award designed to just thank folks that really embody the spirit of Santa Fe and don't really ever seek any recognition for it. They just kind of work in the background. They do it for the right reasons, not for any type of notoriety or recognition which makes it really hard because i then try to get them to come up here and get recognized and sometimes they dodge me for a little while so i have to be secretive and uh try to um to surprise them but uh i'm doing um two awards tonight i'm trying to make up for lost time and for a couple of months that i missed but uh The recipients of tonight's awards are some folks that really impressed me. I don't know how often they're volunteering and how often they're being voluntold to do things, but they are there out in our community at community events doing whatever needs to be done to make the event successful and just serving our community and being the hands and feet of Jesus And at their age, it makes me even more proud of them to be an example of how you should be involved in your community and give back. So tonight's recipients, this month's recipients, are going to be Lane and Landon Welsh. Boys, if you all want to come up and accept. And these guys do so much, particularly with the school district. So their mom, Gina Welsh, is our wonderful executive director for the Santa Fe Education Foundation. And they are at the galas. And they are at the award ceremonies. And they are at the clay shoots. And everything, anything that needs to be done, they're there. willing to do whatever they're asked to do and they make a huge difference i know whenever i walk into an event and those two guys are here i know that if i need anything i can call on them and ask them and it'll get done and that means a lot for the success of those events and for our community so y'all are in what grade going into junior going in to be juniors and uh and already have established themselves as leaders in our community so thank you boys for what y'all do so much Awesome, thank you. Great parents, George and Gina Welsh, you've taught them well. All right, next is a proclamation of the city of Santa Fe, Texas. whereas flooding is one of the most common and destructive natural disasters affecting the state of texas posing serious threats to life property homes businesses and public infrastructure and whereas the city of santa fe recognizes the importance of flood preparedness public awareness and emergency planning to help protect residents and reduce the impact of severe weather events and whereas preparedness measures such as assembling emergency supply kits, monitoring weather conditions, understanding local hazards, and developing family emergency plans can significantly reduce risks associated with flooding, And whereas the City of Santa Fe encourages all residents to remain weather aware, follow the guidance of local and state emergency officials, and take proactive steps to ensure the safety and resilience of our community. And whereas Governor Greg Abbott has proclaimed May 18th through the 22nd, 2026 as Texas Flood Awareness Week throughout the state of Texas, now therefore i brandon noto mayor of the city of santa fe texas do hereby proclaim the week of may 18th through the 22nd 2026 as texas flood awareness week in the city of santa fe and do hereby encourage all the citizens of santa fe to support efforts that promote flood safety preparedness and community resilience and witness thereof i have set my hand and calls the seal of the city of santa fe texas to be affixed this 21st day of may in the year 2026. which is a good time to remind you all about the eight drainage projects that were funded in the city of Santa Fe by our Economic Development Corporation. And two of those projects have been done, right? Third one's in progress. So we're making good progress on those and trying to alleviate the flooding as much as we can at the city. Okay. Now I've got to get Natalie and Lori to come up here. I know y'all are so excited.

Who's going to take the picture?

Georgia will take the picture. So this is Natalie Arnett, our city secretary and Laura Tollett, our deputy assistant assistant city secretary. Uh, whereas the profession of municipal clerks is essential to the effective functioning of local government by ensuring transparency, accountability in the smooth operation of municipal services and Whereas municipal clerks serve as the official record keepers, managing vital documents, conducting municipal elections, providing legislative support, and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations in cities across Texas. And whereas municipal clerks demonstrate exceptional dedication, professionalism, and integrity in their work, often going above and beyond to serve their communities and facilitate the effective governance of local governments and Whereas Municipal Clerks Week provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the invaluable work of municipal clerks, acknowledge their vital contributions to public service, and highlight the important role they play in the day-to-day operations of our cities. And whereas the City of Santa Fe wishes to recognize and thank City Secretary Natalie Arnett, and Assistant City Secretary Lori Tolent for their ongoing dedication, knowledge, and tireless service. Now, therefore, I, Brandon Noto, Mayor of the City of Santa Fe, Texas, do hereby proclaim the week of May 4th through the 8th, 2026, as Municipal Clerks Week in the City of Santa Fe and do hereby encourage all the citizens to acknowledge the important work of Natalie and Lori and join in celebrating their contributions to our community and witness whereof i've set my hand and caused the seal of the city of santa fe texas to be affixed this 21st day of may in the year 2026. congratulations ladies Congratulations. Thank you.

He was photobombing that one.

All right. Now, if I could get Billy and all of our public works department to come up here. Y'all actually clean up pretty good. All right, proclamation of the city of Santa Fe, Texas. Whereas public work services are an essential part of everyday life in the city of Santa Fe and contribute greatly to the health, safety, and well-being of our community. And whereas the City of Santa Fe Public Works Department works diligently to maintain the city streets, drainage systems, right-of-ways, and other vital services that support our community each day. And whereas Public Works employees serve with dedication and professionalism by improving streets and drainage, supporting public safety, and preparing for severe weather and emergency response efforts throughout the city. whereas national public works week is an opportunity to recognize the important contributions of public works employees and to raise public awareness of the critical role they play in maintaining enhancing our community and whereas the city of santa fe proudly recognizes and expresses appreciation to the dedicated santa fe public works department for their commitment to help maintain the safety and overall quality of life within our community now therefore i brandon noto mayor of the city of santa fe texas do hereby proclaim the week of may 18th through the 22nd 2026 as national public works week in the city of santa fe and do hereby encourage all the citizens to recognize and thank the public works professionals for their hard work and dedication to serving our community and witness whereof i've set my hand and caused a seal of the city of santa fe texas to be affixed this 21st day of may in the year 2026. i'm telling y'all these guys are the superheroes of santa fe i mean from hurricane barrel to the freezes i mean they just make it happen and you know the worst part of my day when it's really really hot is is going from my air conditioned house to my air conditioned truck to my air conditioned office or in the winter from my heated house you know but these guys are in it every day it doesn't matter how hot it is it doesn't matter how cold it is if it's raining they've got work to do and man they pick up dead animals and uh you know they ice or sand the roads They picked up I don't know how many hundreds of tons of debris from Beryl, did it all themselves. We were the only community in Galveston County that did it in-house. We were the first city to start picking up debris, and we were the first city to finish with our debris. And these guys, they just knock it out of the park. And I'm just so proud and thankful of them, and there's just not enough words to express my appreciation. But, Billy, you're a great leader. These guys believe in you. and we appreciate everything that you and them do for the city of santa fe thank you guys Okay, we now have an update and special presentation from his ministries regarding the Southeast Texas Housing Grant. So I'd invite Janet and Kim and whoever else from his ministries. What's that?

The presentation and the picture? Yes. You want me to present?

Yeah, bring it on up here.

Thank you. It's a quick presentation.

Well, we appreciate you being here. State your name and who you are.

Janet, Jamie from His Ministries. So for the month of April, for our intake and food pantry, we serve 230 individuals. I'm sorry, families.

One second, Janet. Is the green light on that? Will you hit the button? No. Let's start over.

Yeah, I want to make sure all the folks hear what y'all are doing. And I'm grateful to be here. In April, in our food pantry, we served 230 families. That was 577 individuals. And what that breaks down to is 146 children, 308 adults, 123 seniors. In our transportation department, we did 44 trips to 23 different individuals, and that equated to 1,042 miles. And our financial assistance, which is like rent, utility, emergency financials, that was 23 individuals giving out $3,658.13. And out of our Helping Hands program, it was two AC units replaced, two ramps, one electric bike for somebody who didn't have transportation, one bed, and then frame for April. Do y'all have any questions about that?

councilman thank you so much for what y'all continue to do you just get up here and act like it's no big deal no we love doing it we're honored changing lives and and uh really doing good work over there at his ministry so we appreciate that yeah and then we have a check that uh for the set pass through grant yeah Come on up, Kim, our representative for us. Kim, maybe if you want to just give a quick overview of what that grant was and what it's doing for his ministries.

Kim Stelhorn, the city of Santa Fe's representative on the Southeast Texas Housing and Finance Board, which is known as SETH. And SETH issues out grants periodically to some of them to the fire department, EMS, and police. And then they also do the larger grants with the $50,000, which the city applied for. four or five years ago when alan was here and bobby wright was also the on the board of seth and so uh managed to get the city to present this the last few months and so it went to his ministry and they're using it for the uh the emergency funding electrical and help folks that need help you know immediately and so forth yeah awesome we appreciate it so much so

Mayor, you've got a big picture of the whole council. It's up to y'all. Just come up here. Just come up right up here. And that way we'll get all the council in the picture.

I'm going to take a few just to make sure.

One more.

Awesome. Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Kim, for everything that you do. You just came back from a conference, didn't you, for Seth?

Yes, we were in San Antonio for a conference for a few days with affordable housing.

Awesome. I appreciate you've really taken that serious, being on that board and representing Santa Fe, and we appreciate everything that you do. We are going to start getting into the business of the city council meeting. So if you were here just for presentations or proclamations and you need to excuse yourself, please don't feel like that is disrespectful or rude. We certainly don't expect you to stay here with us all night, but you're more than welcome to do so if you would like. All right, before we get into the minutes, I do have a little bit of a mayor's report to give, just some of the ongoings that have been going on this past month. April 28th, myself, the city manager, and our police chief met with the National Weather Service and the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management. for a briefing on the upcoming hurricane season. For those of you that may not know, the National Weather Service has a branch right here in League City, office 646, and they are right across the hallway from the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management. So excellent communication and partnership there. and they're just getting as prepared as they can for the upcoming hurricane season. One thing that I found really interesting that I never thought about is that they also give navigational guidance to the ports. So the Lake Jack, or Freeport and Texas City, Galveston and the Houston Ship Channel, if it's foggy or windy or whatever, they're calling down to those ports and giving navigational support. So you have to think about all of the tankers and cruise ships and barges that are coming in and out of those. That's pretty incredible, the amount of work that they do up there. April 29th, I hosted our quarterly chiefs meeting. That's a quarterly meeting that I have with all of the other local entities in Santa Fe and some of our state and federal leaders, partners, and we just discuss ongoing projects. So really good things coming. We've got Arcadia Station residential development there on Cemetery Road that we were talking about. And of course, we're always talking about drainage issues that affect all of us and some grant opportunities, all of that kind of stuff. May 13th, we had the State of the City at the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon that City Manager Collins and I presented. Thought it went well and was a good showing and a good opportunity to give a summary of what we got going on in the city. May 14th, we had a semi-annual meeting with TxDOT. We thanked them for the light at 646 and 4th Street. And we also asked them to make the light at 646 and 28th Street a full signal light instead of a flashing light. And then we talked about some of the road work going on down 646 South. And we also talked about they have a safe routes to school grant. that can be used to improve roads and add sidewalks to roads that are um wraps to schools so we're going to be working with text dot and applying for some grants for sixth street and warpath and avenue s and maple street behind the high school and try to see if we can get some help with some of those roads just keeping our kids safe as they come to and from school then it's not in the city limits but it affects all of us probably at some point in time We'll ask them to please move up on their list of priorities the intersection of Highway 6 and Al Gore-Friendswood-Mustang Road to be a full signal light. We all know about the fatalities and accidents that happened there. We talked about 517 and Cemetery Road and Algoa-Friendswood Road and all of those as they will become more busy and some of them will be feeders coming off of the Grand 99 Parkway, but a really good meeting with TxDOT. We'll continue having those meetings every six months. May 15th, I participated in the Santa Fe Police Officer Association Skeet Shoot and it was a great day and they really put on a good tournament out there and we had a good time. May 18th, I attended Baytran State of the Counties, which was a presentation with Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, outgoing Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta, and then Adrian Garcia, the Precinct 2 Harris County Commissioner. I don't know where the Harris County judge was, but we're all thankful that Commissioner Garcia was there to give us an update from Harris County. But good stuff. Everybody's talking about the same things that we are. Roads, drainage, hurricane evacuation routes, tech stock projects, grain 99. We're all in the same boat, but a lot of good coordination going on. with HGAC and hopefully funneling some grant money down here to Galveston County to help with flood resiliency and transportation infrastructure. That is all I have for my report. We will now do presentation and approval of minutes from the April 6th, 2026 special joint meeting, April 16th, 2026 special joint meeting, and April 16th regular meeting. Council, the minutes were provided to you in the packet. The review.

Move to approve the minutes as presented. Second.

Moved and seconded to approve the minutes as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Schrader?

Yes.

Council Member McKamey?

Yes.

Council Member Jeanette?

Yes.

Council Member Dickerson? Yes. And Council Member Marks?

Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, council. Item number six, presentation of department reports by staff, specifically a recap of the activities performed during the previous month and report of upcoming activities, events, and projects on the horizon. This our next.

All right, so this is my first time, so bear with me. First, we're going to start off with the finance department. For the month of March, year-to-date FY2026, revenue collected was just over $5 million. Expenses were just under $5 million. The net revenue over expenses totals $201,206. The projected general fund balance is approximately $5,064,771, which is just over six months of operating expenses. Next, we have municipal court. For the month of April, there were 298 new cases filed. 229 warrants were issued. and total revenue collected was $54,416.02. Community services, for the month of April, there were 186 permits issued, 13 new residential permits, $47,456.13 in fees were collected, and there were 137 inspections that were completed. For parks and community center, for the rentals, there were two rentals in April at the Runge Community Center, one at the Runge Pavilion, and two at the Thelma Weber. Total rental fees collected for April was $880. For the police department, for patrol and dispatch for the month of April, they had 3,414 calls for service, 70 arrests and 174 traffic citations were issued. Also for the month of April, there were 78 active CID cases, including 15 new cases and 12 cases that were clear. Okay. For public works, also for the month of April, street maintenance, there was 30 segments of roads were patched with asphalt. Debris entries were cleared from ditches. There were 178 linear feet of new culverts. And for corrected culverts was 28 linear feet. um excavated was 15th street from avenue i to avenue h south side which was 400 feet then it was 11th street right away which was 450 feet and barbara lane from tower to the end of the south side which was 950 feet next we have library Their total circulation was 1,933. Active account is 92. Their door count was 2,562. Per capita was 17.04%. And the members saved $15,841.54. OK. And last but not least, we have the fire marshal So in the month of April for the fire marshal, he inspected three burn piles. There were 32 burn permits renewed and total active burn permits is 182. There were 10 fires in the city limits. There were no fire investigations. And then we have two fire reviews, fire plan reviews. And then there were three fire safety inspections. I'm sorry, five. And then for code enforcement, there were 13 new cases. Six cases were closed and 16 cases that were open.

And if you guys have any questions.

Manny, the 10 fires, is that structure fires?

No.

No, it's not broken down. Okay. So it could be just people burning in their yard? Yes, that are actually active fires. Okay. Got you.

Do you know if we'll have the last month's sales tax?

Yeah, we got it. I was fixing to go over it. So one thing before I talked about the sales tax, Georgia, I did want to thank you for putting in the year-to-date on the permits like we asked you to do and then what last year's was. So this month, 13 permits for new residential construction have been submitted. have been approved, 49 year to date. Last year, we had 14 in the month of April and 77 year to date. So we're actually about 33% down on new residential construction permits for this year. So just thought that was interesting. And then on the staff reports, if you go to the staff reports where it says the monthly finance report in the box, Rudy did put that for us. So sales tax is up from last year, May, by 9.9%. And sales tax is up from last year, April, by 9.7%. So we're still at a net of 1.4% for the year, which still gives us a... an anticipated shortfall of a little over 96 000 but we're making ground we're back up in the nine percents instead of the getting close four and five percent getting closer to projected so we're getting closer yeah every month we're gaining a little bit of ground on it so maybe we'll have a super month all right council any questions for staff 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 Meetings Act, the city council may not deliberate on the comments. Personal attacks will not be allowed, and personnel matters should be addressed to the city council during normal business hours. Sorry, Lori, I meant to grab that whenever I was down there and totally forgot. Okay. Is it Zimmon? Okay, yeah, come on up, sir, and just state your name, and you have three minutes to address council.

All right. Sir, it's Zimmon Kaczynski, and... I live on Courtney Street, 2106 Courtney. I came here with the intent to gripe a little bit, but after speaking with Billy, he updated me on what the situation is on 4th Street. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but they redid 4th Street. It hasn't been probably three years ago, four years. They redid the whole street and I was so proud of it because I go that way frequently. Then they redid Cemetery Road. When they did Cemetery Road, it was a combined city-county job. I saw it daily because I travel that way all the time. They allowed all these dump trucks to go down 4th Street. Now, somebody, Billy, I don't know if I'm stepping on a foot or not, but somebody allowed that to go on. They shouldn't have. So it destroyed 4th Street in such a short time. And my request is to you guys, whenever Billy told me that, I guess it's on projection to be rebuilt again, put a zone limit. No tandem trucks, maybe dump trucks limit the amount of trucks can go through there. But completely redo the whole of the road. It's destroyed. If you go down 4th Street, you have to avoid the one section between S and Shelton. And a lot of people go on the other side of the road. And it's going to cause for either a head-on or something. So my request is really, I guess once it's rebuilt again, put some signs out there, load zone or, you know, restricted from, you know, just shortcuts for these dump trucks, which I see frequently, you know, and they're going from cemetery road to 646. You know, it shouldn't be allowed. And it shouldn't have been allowed when they finished that, you know, 4th Street. They allowed, somebody allowed it. Somebody should have said, no, no dump trucks down 4th Street. So in a short time, 4th Street was destroyed. And we have to deal with it every day. You know, so that's what I came in here to gripe about. But once I spoke to Billy, you know, I see that y'all are going to go ahead and fix it. But I guess what I'm asking is put some science on both ends, you know, 646 and cemetery.

Okay. Thank you.

Once again, thank you, Billy. After talking to him, I'm pretty, you know, okay. We can't respond to you right now. Who's that?

You didn't send us some comments. We can't deliberate about it because it wasn't an agenda item. So we're not ignoring you. We just can't discuss it. But we're listening.

If you can put it on the list, go ahead and at least put some signs out there to limit the heavy equipment. You talk to the right guy. All right. Because I saw it the other day. Cemetery Road, he turned from Cemetery to 4th Street, and he was hauling a house. The full house was on the truck. And I followed him all the way to 646. I can only imagine the weight load on that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're certainly not supposed to be doing that, but people do things they're not supposed to do all the time, unfortunately.

Well, hopefully they can do something about the signs and then maybe they'll, if they can. We're going to do the road correctly this time. All right.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you coming and talking to us. All right. Next is Michelle Johnson. You're going to have to come up and speak here.

It's regarding something that's on the agenda.

Oh, that's on the agenda. Okay. We'll move you down.

No problem.

No problem. Okay. Rachel Marshall.

Same thing.

Okay. Tom Driscoll.

Same thing.

Okay. All right. Well, we will get to you all then just shortly here. All right. Are there any other citizens that would like to address council? all right uh we are moving along to item number six business a old business one consideration and possible action second and final reading of an ordinance of the city of santa fe texas repealing ordinance 13-87 chapter 7 section 7 subsection c and d of the code of ordinances to result in the dissolution of the library advisory board providing a repealer clause a severability clause and an effective date

Mayor and council, the first reading of this ordinance was approved at the April 16th meeting. So staff just recommends that you guys go ahead and approve the second reading as well.

All right. Thank you, Natalie. I'll entertain a motion.

Moved to approve the second reading of the distillation dissolution of the library advisory board in alignment with the city's strategic strategic plan and its broader initiative to enhance operational efficiency streamline it advisory structures and reduce redundancies second it's been moved and seconded to Approve the second reading of the dissolution of the library advisory board.

Is there any further discussion?

I

Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Jeanette?

Yes.

Council Member Dickerson?

Yes.

Council Member Marks?

Yes.

Council Member Schrader?

Yes.

And Council Member McKinney?

Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Council. Item B, new business one, consideration and possible action appointment or reappointment of three members to the Planning and Zoning Commission to each serve a three-year term to expire May of 2029, Miss Argentine.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The Planning and Zoning Commission has three positions that are expiring. That's going to be Commissioner Willoughby, Commissioner Villery, and Commissioner Heffner. Commissioner Willoughby and Commissioner Villery have reapplied. Commissioner Heffner chose not to reapply for this term. We've got several applicants that have applied for the open positions. Brian Wofford, Kyle Dunham, Robert Lloyd, Crystal Holscher called today and withdrew her application. Stephanie Webb and Tom Estep, and then Ronnie Willoughby and Christine Bellary did reapply for their positions.

Are there any applicants here that would like to address council?

planning and zoning would be a great place to start to learn and and really start to you know build my community service here within the community I want to see this community grow I recently moved to this community and you know I'm you know just like I know all we all do you want to see this community make that a reality. And so, um, you know, I know there's a lot of, um, a lot of things I may not know at this moment, but I'm, I'm a quick learner and I'm, I'm wanting to, um, you know, serve my community best I can. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Kyle. Any other candidates or applicants I guess I should say?

Okay. So before we get too far into this on our end, uh, Natalie, could you get with Seth when he gets back? I'm curious to know, going forward, for example, planning and zoning, board of adjustments, I feel like those guys should be making recommendations to us instead of us blindly sitting up here and looking at applicants, trying to figure out who best fits with that team. so it may not be doable but i would like to have that conversation when seth gets back to see if we can move that direction it's still appointed by us but i feel like they can make recommendations for their own team based on the applicants well i think when you have um when you have incumbents or people that currently hold the position that are reapplying that kind of makes it tough right that's an obstacle to

But eventually be an elected official and staff recommends, you know.

Yeah. I mean, would you do this in public or let them talk about it in private?

They can go into executive session.

No, they can't.

They can't? No.

There's only three reasons why you can go into executive session. Litigation, real estate, personnel.

Okay.

So we'll make it paid positions.

They provide their, they provide their contact information. And as always, I encourage council to, you know, reach out to each one of the applicants and, um, you know, talk with them and develop your own, you know, opinion of who you think would be good or not good. And, uh, We can either, um, I'll entertain a motion either way. We could do all three in one motion or we can do each position. It's totally up to you to y'all. However you want to do it.

I moved to the vote on each position individually.

You don't have to move. That's fine. We can do that. You can request it. Okay. That's fine.

You got a motion, folks? I do. All right. Well, let's go. I move to appoint Brian Wofford to the Planning and Zoning Commission to serve a three-year term that expires in May 2029. Okay.

It's been moved and seconded to appoint Brian Wofford to the Planning and Zoning Commission to expire May of 2029. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Schrader?

Yes.

Council Member McKamey?

Yes.

Council Member Jeanette?

Yes.

Council Member Dickerson?

Yes.

And Council Member Marks?

Yes. All right, motion passes. Brian has been appointed. We've got two more, Council.

I make a motion to reappoint Ronnie Willoughby. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to reappoint Ronnie Willoughby to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a term to expire May of 2029. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member McKamey?

Yes.

Council Member Jeanette?

Yes. Council Member Dickerson? Yes.

Council Member Marks? Yes. And Council Member Schrader? Yes.

Yes. DAVID BURRAGE. Motion passes. All right. We've got Ronnie coming back. We've got one more hole to fill.

DAVID BURRAGE. Make a motion to appoint Tom Estep to the board. Second. DAVID BURRAGE.

It's been moved and seconded to appoint Tom Estep to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a term to expire May of 2029. Any further discussion? If not, Natalie, roll call, please. NATALIE ROLL CALL.

Council Member Marks. DAVID BURRAGE.

Yes.

NATALIE ROLL CALL. Council Member Schroeder.

Yes.

Councilmember McKamey?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeanette?

Yes.

And Councilmember Dickerson?

Yes. Motion passes. All right, Council. So just to summarize the motions, Brian Walford, Ronnie Willoughby, and Tom Estip have both been appointed a reappointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a new three-year term. So congratulations to those gentlemen. Thank you for your willingness to serve, along with Ms. Valeri and all of the other applicants. As I know of at least three planning and zoning alumni. Were you on PNZ? Four? No. So four planning and zoning alumni. Number one, it looks like it's a stepping stone to city council. I don't know about that. That's just coincidence. But it's certainly a tough board. Maybe even tougher than city council a lot of times. Very important. It is an extremely important board. So we appreciate you being willing to serve. For those that applied, we appreciate you for coming. Thank you for applying.

I'd like to also thank Christine Villery for her service. And it is nice to see five applicants, two applicants. I would like to thank Christine for the service she showed on the committee. And Glenny. Glenny served for many, many years.

I don't know how many years she's been on board.

I heard Ronnie. We're kind of a constant always.

Yeah. All right. Item number two, consideration of possible action, adoption of a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Fe, Texas, approving the contract between the City of Santa Fe and Pro Playgrounds for the removal of the existing playground equipment and installation of the new playground equipment at Joey Taylor Park in an amount not to exceed $274,999 and authorizing the city manager to execute the contract and related documents on behalf of the city. Georgia.

The quote that is being presented to you to go as a resolution for Seth to authorize was voted on by the Parks and Recreation Board after reviewing, I would like to say only three quotes, but we reviewed probably 50 different pieces of park equipment before we finally reached this final quote. And with this company, They will be coming in, importing the equipment, removing the old equipment, and laying approximately 6,000 square feet of the pour in place. And that's going to take care of all of the ADA compliancy. It will connect directly to the walking path that is already in place. It will cover the entirety of the existing area underneath the swings that's already there and it will have coverage where we are getting the Lions Club is having the mechanics department at COM build a ADA compliant wheelchair roll on swing. And so once that is finished by the COM department and brought in, there will already be pads in place for that as well. And so these are two fairly large pieces of equipment, but that price that is being submitted to council for approval includes all of the structures the new ground that's going in and then the removal of the old stuff as well all right thank you georgia

So whenever the agenda item was posted on this, I was contacted by a local outfit here in town that does this. I actually didn't know that we had somebody in our backyard that did it. But they've done some work. And when I say, I mean, in Santa Fe. And they've done some work for the city of Texas City and some other cities. And they reached out to me and said, I think, is it Tom? Is Tom here? Tom, if you want to come on up, Tom. They are interested in taking a look at the project for us, and not only as an opportunity to do business local, but also as an opportunity maybe to find some cost savings. Yeah, there you go. It's always a negotiation. But anyways, Tom, why don't you just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you do. Council may have some questions for you.

Okay, sounds good. We've been in business here over 20 years. We install over 400 playgrounds throughout the state of Texas. We, based off of Cemetery Road, been there for about 12 to 15 years, running out of that facility. We employ about 40-plus staff here locally within Santa Fe, and then another 15 staff in New Bronzeville is on our second location. Nothing against who you guys have used or looking at. My big thing is I think there's a lot of room for improvement that we can help you guys with. to get you a little bit more bang for your buck. I think between my connections with our manufacturers, it's not really a business thing for me. It's to kind of help out the community and get them a little bit more. So maybe the price stays the same, but you get a lot more value. One, the companies we use are out of Wisconsin, which is a network partner of us, so we get discounts through them. We find special jobs throughout our communities, churches, day cares that are in need. We do a lot of stuff with private entities that are struggling just to help them move along. So looking at some small cost of what you guys are looking at plus what we can offer. I think we can get you guys a little bit more. Obviously, there's some donation on our end to help the community out in that aspect. Not for free, but hey, at a probably much better discount. A few things that I just noticed, just looking through some of the designs and stuff, curbing, drainage within the areas, just thinking farther ahead and trying to understand what the needs are. And I feel like you can get a lot more higher value you know looking at some different options nothing wrong with the company that's here um i just obviously we're local so we can help so do you do your old site work the pad work and all yes yeah yeah we have full blown uh three divisions construction shade and the playgrounds so you're you're it that's it yeah we're not subbing out georgia with the comp still do the I guess they have to set the anchors or whatever for whatever the equipment is And like I said, I've looked at just some some renderings and designs Got with my manufacturer over the last three or four days Like I said, some people presented it to us and they said hey, you know, this is going and I looked at it, and I saw that a pet project of ours to help out and work with the community and try to improve, give you guys more value. Obviously, there's through donations on our end as well, give backs through. you know, some cheaper labor, free labor on certain aspects that we can. I think a little bit of on the design. We've been doing it for 20 years. It's not just putting a playground in. It's actually putting a place that's usable. It's going to be here, you know, our warranties are 100 years on post-index free replacement. So obviously, we're here local to maintain the product if you end up with issues or problems. So I think that helps as well. Like I said, I think it would be more getting design with you guys. It wouldn't take long to kind of go through what you guys are going to do versus what we feel like you guys can add to that. in your equipment area where the actual hard pieces are that'll be contained by curb or whatever that's my idea all weather material not mulch yeah so the the big thing with uh put in place material is the sub base really needs to be prepped properly you need to have good drainage or else the material underneath it it's an epoxy resin so it will break down sitting in water so drainage is super important i've been out to the site a few times i don't see big issues but Like I said, we would put a concrete curb around everything versus a plastic or a wood border. It would be, and it wouldn't be like a bullnose edge where you just dump the mulch right in, or the rubber right into the ground. It'd be a six inch curb primming the whole thing. Slightly adjusting the footprint that's there now, so.

Well, I guess the idea that I had counseling, ultimately, it's up to y'all, as you know. But my suggestion would be to postpone this agenda item to next week's special meeting on Thursday. We're only delaying it a week. And we're in a big hurry to get this playground equipment done, because it's

yeah used but so we don't want to drag it out too long but um if uh if we postpone this to a week from today would that give you all enough time to work with staff yeah our main thing is just making sure what we're looking at is what you guys really want i mean we'd be showing you guys we have some some renderings and stuff but it's making sure that you know we're not coming in forcing something on you guys what what's in there is pretty minimal so i feel like what we can do is an upgrade to that yeah

Well, I appreciate you being here. Council, do y'all have any questions?

If you were awarded a contract, start to finish.

Lead times, depending on when the contract's signed, is anywhere from 8 to 14 weeks lead time. Depends on product and stuff like that. Construction times, probably the rubber's the long term because obviously it's got to be dry. It can't be raining. So you're probably three weeks, probably three and a half weeks to get construction done.

I work parks and rec in Alvin, and it takes forever to get equipment.

We're fortunate that one of our manufacturers that we're recommending for this is the fastest producing manufacturer in the playground industry. Yeah. Very fortunate. It helped us in COVID. Absolutely. 14 weeks compared to 20 or 30 weeks.

Yeah, that's what we look at in Alvin.

So we're... So worst case scenario, we're looking at 14 weeks plus three weeks. So we're looking at about 17 weeks before it's...

Typically, we would start the construction aspect leading up to that 14 weeks. Oh, gotcha.

So you're kind of ready when it ends here.

So when the product's here, your base is done, your materials are done, you're just installing at that point in time. So you're going to shave probably about a week and a half off of that.

Georgia, can he be invited to the parks board meeting next week?

We've already posted that agenda. I didn't include Tamarillo on it.

When is that meeting?

Tuesday night.

I don't want to throw a monkey wrench into it. We can have a special meeting if we need it.

No, I mean, for $275,000, we need to get it right. I don't want to be having a conversation five years from now that we've got to replace all this.

What did you say the warranty time was on the post-index?

Typical product is 15 to 20 years, like little longevity. The post-index, the manufacturer warranties them for 100 years. Never going to live on it.

It's going to run out of code before then. I said we don't see that.

Oh, I thought you said we'll never see that.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It might live 100 years.

what I like about is if we get some extra stuff because we got some things that aren't actually in that playground area like the mole hobby horses and that seesaw they won't they won't hold me up and I think that's

The real reason to come here is I feel like you guys are maybe looking at a product or a brand that's fitting the need of the space and the budget. I don't feel like it's innovative. I feel like there's newer product lines that tailor a lot more to your ADA accessible that aren't just a ramp that the kids drive up. They can't usually slide down. There's a lot of issues. Ours are fully functional. A little bit more, how would you put this, interactive and a little bit more complex, but still all certified ADA compliant. Some very new innovative slides that kids can go up and then come down the slide and stay on the slide the whole way and go back around. It's the one and only of its kind right now. I just feel like there's, to put something in, let's have something nice and good for the next 10, 15 years. So when you've had out there 20 plus years old, I went out the other day. So maybe 30. Yeah.

I know a young man was saying, I talked to you about it.

So council, I just, like I said, I just recommend, I'd ask if y'all would just postpone this agenda. That way we can talk with Tom and see what they could offer us. And at the end of the day, we might still go with, with this other company, but at least we have, looked at all of our options i like what he said and the main reason he's right down the street that's right if he doesn't answer the phone we can drive we can send an officer postponed until next week It's been moved and seconded to postpone this item into the next council meeting. Any further discussion? All right. Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Dickerson?

Yes.

Council Member Marks?

Yes.

Council Member Schroeder?

Yes.

Council Member McKamey? Yes. And Council Member Jeanette?

Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much. Keep your phone on.

And just for clarity, that was pushed to next week's special meeting for a regular meeting. I apologize. No, no, no. Next council meeting.

Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Budget.

Yeah, it'll be a special meeting, but we'll have the, well, we'll talk about it in a minute. Okay, Finance Director Mr. Rudy, I don't see Mr. Rudy here. Consideration and possible action, adoption of a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Fe, Texas, amending Resolution 2025-03, Section 4, designating the city manager as the grantee's authorized official for the Santa Fe Resiliency Center Victims of Crime Act VOCA grant application number 3702407.

Mayor and council, when this resolution was originally approved, it was February 13th, 2025. Whenever they did, they specified that the city manager would be the approved official for the grant. However, it didn't specify who, so that's gonna be amending that resolution to add it as city manager, Seth Collins.

They would like it to be more specific.

And it has to be named, not just the title?

Correct.

Okay.

I move to approve the amended resolution designating city manager Seth Collins as the grantee's authorized official as presented. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the amended resolution designating city manager Seth Collins as the grantee's authorized official as presented. Is there a

Council Member Jeanette?

Yes.

Council Member Dickerson?

Yes.

Council Member Marks?

Yes.

Council Member Schroeder?

Yes.

And Council Member McKamey?

Yes. Motion passes. Item number four, consideration and possible action. First reading of an ordinance of the City of Santa Fe, Texas, approving the sale and discharge of fireworks within the city limits of Santa Fe, Texas, providing a repealer clause, a severability clause, and an effective date. Fire Marshal Renta.

So that's kind of what we've been discussing the last few months, or the last couple of months, the modification of the existing ordinance so we can allow the discharge and the sale of fireworks within the city limits of San Jose. So it's been introduced, been presented already. We've discussed some of those, most of the items. I know we had some other questions. I don't know if we were all caught up on it. some interest and concerns throughout the community's calls and some emails have come in in reference to that, but more on the retail side of the ordinance versus the discharge. I'm sure the end users, the community would be excited that they can actually pop fireworks on their designated holiday there in a prescribed time frame.

Yep. All right. Before we invite the public council, do you have any questions for... Marshall Renta.

Nope.

Okay. We'll let you have a seat. We'll probably bring you back up. All right. So, uh, now we'll go back to your Michelle Johnson. Uh, if you please come up, state your name and, uh, you'll have three minutes to, uh, address council.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Michelle Johnson. First, I'd like to thank the mayor, the council members, farm Marshall, and all the other staff. for your time this evening. I want to speak regarding the fireworks ordinance. My husband and I, we've conducted firework business in Galveston County and surrounding Santa Fe for over 30 years. We've been forced out many times due to the city annexing or the 5,000 foot rule. Two of those properties we owned and they just were not deemed viable so we had to sell them. When this happens, we're expected to just pack up and move. It's always caused a hardship. Now we've invested in property in the county, outside of the city limits, knowing that it's not legal in the city, so that's where we bought our property. And it's been that way for as long as we've been in business. Our retail staff, our own commission, If the sales are permitted in the city, there is the possibility of lost revenue reducing their commission due to the extra locations being in the city. Other cities have adopted ordinances to allow only the use of fireworks within the city limits on certain days and times. We did speak with one of the fire marshals in one of the cities, and by allowing just the use, we were told that that reduced their volume of calls up to 40%. My opinion is if the sale is left out of this ordinance, the result would be hopefully the same as the other cities. Allowing the use for certain days and times would give the citizens the freedom to celebrate without straining city resources. Looking at the proposed ordinance, it appears that the sale would be allowed for the 10 plus days, but the use would only be for the one day. This is going to be confusing to the citizens. Because by allowing the sale in the city, then you're giving the citizens the availability or giving them the thought that if they're able to be sold, then they're going to be able to pop them at any given time. If the goal is to gain revenue, either by permitting or sales tax, I believe the cost to the city for enforcing the rules and regulations will cost more than you would possibly gain. So I would like for the council to have consideration for not only our investment, but our competitors' investments and then our staff.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for all your time.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Rachel Marshall.

Hi, my name is Rachel Marshall, and I'm here mainly to discuss the parking. If you allow the stands to set up in Santa Fe on Highway 6, the parking is going to be an issue. I know on the ordinance it says substantial amount of parking, but I've been in the fireworks business for 26 years selling. I've had stands from 20 foot to 40 foot, 60 foot. It don't matter if I have 10 parking spots or 20, people are still gonna park on the highway. Out here on 646, we had them parked on the highway one time. Accidents happen. If you allow it on Highway 6, who's gonna control the parking? At my location, I have three people directing traffic to make sure nobody parks on the highway. and that's going to be an issue if you allow it on Highway 6.

That's it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you coming to speak with us. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about Tom. I think Tom wanted to talk about the – oh, that was you. You are that Tom. All right. Very good. Is there any other citizens' comments that would like to speak about the fireworks, proposed fireworks ordinance? All right. Council? Council?

Well, how many is, you said there was, you talked to, Michelle, you talked to somebody that said they only sell and not use, right? Or use, not sell.

My husband spoke to.

How many, what cities around this area?

Lake City and Dickinson. The ones that our market has spoke to.

Okay. Another question I had for you, something you said, what's the difference for somebody buying it from you and bringing it into the city and doing them than somebody buying them from the city and doing them? What's the difference? If you got them, you're going to probably do them anyway.

I'm sorry, what was the question? Who are you addressing the question? Okay, I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?

What's the difference if buying from you in the county and bringing them in and discharging them?

Well, in my opinion, someone that's going to be in the city, say if they possibly were going to go purchase, say, from us in the county, and I guess discharge them illegally, they're going to probably do that. But you're not going to have as many do that. There's going to be more use in the city if they're in the city to be sold. That's what I'm just thinking.

I kind of see what you're saying.

Yeah. I mean, if they're there on every corner, then they're probably going to be like, oh, let me. And I think at one of the council meetings, someone had said the convenience. So, yeah, if it's more convenient, then they will go to it and do it.

We're in the world of convenience. Yes, we are.

Yeah. But if they have to travel for, say, a couple miles or even a little bit out of the way, they might not be as apt to do it.

Any other questions before I step away Thank you And Manny and I guess part of this is on Georgia too, but I just I got my clarification earlier But I just want to make sure we clarify it for the public that these permits are only going to be These permits are only going to be, um, approved for folks that are in commercial zone, highway or neighborhood commercial. Somebody that lives in an R1 cannot just put a firework stand at the end of their driveway and sell them out of their front yard.

Correct. They'll have to be in compliance with the zoning ordinance. And this will be listed as other retail sales, which is only allowed in highway commercial, the transportation district, neighborhood commercial, or light manufacturing. And under the permit section, it says that it has to be an approved permit. So it's got to go. Oh, I can't talk. It's got to go through Manny, myself, and the city manager before we ever issue the permit out for anyone to even put a stand on a piece of property to move forward with sales.

An issue in the permit is really at y'all's discretion. If y'all decide that the parking is substantial enough, that the property is substantial enough, is really at y'all's discretion. Correct. So not everyone's guaranteed to get one.

Correct.

Just because they live in a highway commercial. I mean, they've got to...

Right, and they've got to get a temporary CO, and they're not allowed to have generators that run the stand. That was not a popular opinion that... We got feedback on, but that is something that we decided to go with so that we're not gonna have generators running. If it is in a neighborhood commercial district, they've gotta have a temporary pole with power drop to it and then have it picked back up. So that's why they've gotta have the permit application submitted 30 days prior so that they can start that process. If you wanna come in and you wanna conduct this type of business, you're gonna have to put some effort into it.

So do they have to have a temporary pole installed, or if there's an existing building there that has electrical service, they can use that electrical service?

They cannot have a brick-and-mortar building. It's got to be temporary, moved in, moved out.

No, but I'm saying, like, let's say, I mean, I don't know. I don't want to pick a specific business because then people will start talking.

Well, like, for my parents, I say car lot. It was intended to be a car lot. With the way our zoning is now, it could never be a car lot. So it's... behind kiln where their property is at. So there is a pole that's there that has a light. If someone were to rent that from them to put a stand on there, they would be able to run aligned from that to power.

So if there's a gas station that wants to put up a fireworks deal on their property, can they or can they not run an extension cord from the gas station to the fireworks shop?

No, it would need its own service drop. They have to have their own temporary service drop.

Or if they have a service drop there, they're going to have to wait.

If they have a second metered service drop and it meets the code requirements upon our building side, you know, and it's elevated and cleared, you know, independent of the service station and then your set of fuel station, then that would incur more ordinance.

No, I'm just using that as an excuse.

Ideally, it would be a very. some of the zoning requirements that we're implementing. So having to pay a $300 fee. There will be barriers.

Plus having to put in a temporary service. I mean, that's going to limit a lot of people.

Ideally, without knowing the numbers of the industry, there will be subject barriers to entry, you could say, for this type of business to be in ongoings. But we can't take it lightly on the usage of it for these buildings due to the inherent risk involved. So we do need to have these regulations that are codes as well. So we're all building codes to be applied.

Are we limiting how many permits we're going to do?

We didn't limit it. The requirements are going to limit it in itself. The requirements that we put in place, that's going to limit what people are able to do.

They're going to basically have to go to a lot that's existing that has power. Because there's not too many. I mean, you got a lease for the season for 10 days and put a drop in and have to go through center.

Would they be allowed to use generators?

Why can't they use generators? Because of safety. Safety. And that's consistent with the state fire marshal.

Safety and noise.

Safety and noise. Boy, they've got those things right now, Bubba, where you can't hear them.

I know. I know. You're going to see very limited inside the city limits.

You're going to see somebody that has a lot that has a pole there because nobody's going to come in here and put... I'll put the Exxon station up there by Joe Daddy's on the corner. Let's say that... taco trailer that's sitting there right there it's not there anymore and you put a firework stand there they're not going to come in here and drop a temporary pole for that firework stand where they've got a business that's got electricity right there and we wouldn't issue them a ceo for it not unless they could check all of the boxes that yeah that's what i'm saying where we are you can have a food truck parked next to a building and plugged in to an external outlet But not a firework. But not a firework. Because of the safety. Because it's far. Gotcha. Wow.

I'm good with that.

I guess food trucks, they don't have any. They can just pipe into the existing plumbing.

They can plug in an extension cord to the exterior of the building. Let's get back on the topic. I like the restrictions.

It's pretty tight.

So, George, I have a couple questions for you or Manny, either one. Under Section F, fireworks sales permit. So in A, it says a fireworks permit expires on the final date of sales period at 1159 p.m. And if you go down to number one or two under A, it refers to midnight. Could we clear that up and put an actual time in there? Because... Midnight on January 1st, well, that's 24 hours after we celebrated New Year's, right? Correct. So if we could put a time, the 1159, instead of midnight of a particular day, I think it would help with some clarity.

Well, the discharge time is 1 a.m. on January 1st and 1 a.m. on July 5th.

12 a.m. on January 1st will be the state's guidelines to close.

Yeah, because they're still open on the 1st.

Okay. Okay. Nope. I see what you're saying. Because it'll be January 1st.

So how many times can they sell? How many times can they sell?

That's where I get confused. What days can you sell?

What holidays? County, Memorial, San Jacinto.

Texas Independence, July 4th, New Year's. How many days before the holiday? They haven't put Diwali in there. Harris County did that last season.

How many days before the holiday?

I think it's five for Memorial and 11 for July 4th. In the New Year's, it's 13 days for the season. So they've changed a little bit.

So it says it right here, Council, under letter F, Fireworks Sales Permit, beginning June 21st, or I'm sorry, beginning June 24th and ending at midnight on July 4th, and then beginning December 20th and ending at midnight on January 1st of the following year.

And this year they added the 5th for July 4th. They gave us the day after the 4th. The 4th gave us two days.

Yeah, we're only giving them two holidays. Just the 4th of July holiday and New Year's Eve. Those are the only two days.

That's just for the 250th season, year. Yeah.

But y'all sells to all of those holidays. In the county.

In the county. The money is not there, so we don't.

It really doesn't.

We just exclude the sale, man. This would make things a lot easier for the whole city and the fire marshal. I don't understand.

If you'd like to address council, you certainly can, but you need to come up to the dais, please. We have folks that are listening online and for our recording.

If we could just exclude the sale of this, it would eliminate a lot of problems. 40% less volume. I think you're going to add 40% to what you already have. And I think you had said that you go out there and we can't give them a ticket because you've got to catch them lightning.

Correct.

Right? So why can't you make an ordinance to where that piece of, if you're on that piece of property, you can make an ordinance that says anything. No, sir, you can't. Well, you're adding a sale to this. So you're doing that. You can make any law and make it an ordinance. If the council passes it, That's a whole other discussion, sir. We can't just go and start superseding stuff for property owners. We haven't given the ticket 10 years. Right. Well, because of the rule. I understand that.

I understand y'all are trying to protect your business interests, and I understand that.

I mean, if there's so many restrictions and y'all are looking for sales tax, why do you do it if it's going to be that restricted?

Well, the great thing about it, council, is that if this doesn't work, we can come back and modify it, or we can cancel it out, or...

That's always hard to do.

You know, we've got a lot of empty spaces all through this town that people are not going to sell. They won't put a business there. Maybe they'll put a firework stand there. I don't think we'll get, with the restrictions I just heard, I don't think we'll get there.

Why would you want to do it? That's my question.

I certainly want to give you the opportunity to voice your opinion. I don't want this to turn into an argument.

I'm just asking questions. I think it's, you know, we've never tried it. We've never tried it. You never know until you try something. This council right here, If it doesn't work, we'll fix it.

There's a reason why it's never been allowed in the city for all these years.

I don't want to get into why it's never been allowed because that has to do with zoning and what people want to protect in this city along our corridors. That's why we have some of the that's why our city limits go out here on 646 that's why our city limits go out here on highway 6 and we don't have anything except the highway right and it was to keep city fireworks out of the city limits i agree i've been around it yeah i mean so i mean we're going to get back to how it all started we'll be here a while yeah yeah i mean i remember i remember i thought it was crazy when we had the chances and we did that kind of zoning to protect 300 feet and then we left everything back here open and now we're stuck we're stuck you know we can't grow this town can't grow this town is dependent on sales tax we can't go out there and annex somebody unless they want to be annexed it puts us in a hard we're in budget season right now we're going through a budget season process that our city manager gave us a balanced budget the other day there's a lot of people uh they're doing without and in our in our you know that we're we control take any action so y'all so uh i hear you and i i hey man i raised cattle my pasture was one of the biggest ones in the neighborhood my they popped over my house for years i couldn't do anything about it I'm not a big fan of fireworks. But there are people that are. And you have to do, in my position, I have to do what's best for this city. And what's best for this city is try to try something. Let's try it. Like I said, I don't think we'll get four.

I really don't think you really receive much anything.

And I, you know, I would say this. to some of y'all bigger guys out there, fireworks stands. Come to Santa Fe. Put Boom Boom No. 2 in Santa Fe. See if it doubles your revenue.

We're taking money out of our landlords that we rent from now in the county, like Elliot Decker down here on 646. Those guys that rent now is an issue. And it's just picking up state and dragging it somewhere else.

I understand.

And the customers are going to pay more for this product. I mean, we've already went up on tariffs, and we're paying a lot for that little box of artillery that we used to charge $5 for. Now it's $20.

It amazes me what people pay for fireworks that go out there and blow off.

And now we're going up on that.

I saw they got them for sale in Walmart. I saw them the other day.

I guess he was saying. Ken's going to get a bigger handshake. It's safe and sane. That's what it's called. There's no fuses. Everything's full string. Oh, gotcha. Okay, I'm still against the sale. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Appreciate y'all being here.

Anybody else that would like to speak?

sure that's absolutely that's what y'all came here for hi thank y'all for letting us talk for a minute speak to y'all my name is julie hill and i'd like to just say that i had bought property to do the fireworks And then we annexed, took my property. 10 years later, here we are. I can put fireworks back on my property. I don't want to buy property in town right here. And next year, y'all tell me I'm out. And that's the problem I have. And then also, I'm with Rachel on the parking. No matter where we're at, you pass a fireworks stand and they're going to have parking. They're going to have parking on the roads everywhere. normally all our stands have someone that sends them in to park into our parking place we can have 80 parking places but we still have 100 cars but we have someone parking us i've been in little stands that had 10 people could park and we'd get them in there but they would maybe we're on the back roads out here not in the city so we can let them park they get away with it but right here in town They're going to park and still park, park. But like you said, there's got to be a big place for them, like that little auction barn place or that liquor store place that's not open no more. Buy it. I buy it. I set up. I get ready. I'll be there by 4th of July for you. But will you let me be there next year? So that's what I'm going to ask you.

Where's the law now for y'all would know the distance? from a city limits sign. I thought it was state law. 5,000? It used to be.

It was 5,000 feet. I bought property in Algoa. I was in there. I was setting up. I sold on my property. And next thing I know, y'all built the school. I'm 4,864 feet. I can't push my stand over or my warehouse over no more. I'm glad I didn't build a warehouse because the year I bought, that's what I bought it for.

The laws have changed.

Yes, sir. Because now I can open it up. I can put a warehouse. 500 feet? No, I'm not 500 feet. I mean, 500 feet, correct, sir. It was 5,000.

That's the new law, right? Is that the new law?

That's the new law. So now there's warehouses all down that road where I would have been the first warehouse, but y'all closed me down the first year. And so now, if I buy this place here in town, what I'm asking, if I get it, set it up. And I can get it set up before 4th of July. If I do that, I don't want to be here next year begging y'all to let me keep my business.

I understand.

And I know there can be some people come in and get some stands. I done found one place maybe let me put a stand. But they don't have all the parking I need. They're not going to have the power I need. I'm going to have to drop a pole like he's saying. Draw the poll, do it all correctly. I'm sorry, but sometimes I don't see a fire marshal come check my stuff. I had been in my stand. I didn't get checked by no fire marshal. I don't know if I got, y'all have one person? What's the address of your stand? We'll make sure.

I don't have just one.

I don't have one. That's the problem. There's not one. There's more than one. And I've been in the business or been in this for over 30 years. and I do know like it's a very thing something and here in town as I said we used to get them and have to go back roads to get home to be in the county because I live in the county and I want to shoot fireworks but city limits has always been off and y'all kept it that way all this time that's the only thing we're all trying to figure out now but I would if you want one here in the middle of town like you said or you said that's what's going to happen we'll pop one right there but I don't want to you'll put me out of business next year

These are going to be temporary. Everything's going to be temporary. Just the temporary stands all is going to come in. Temporary stands is the only thing we're allowing. As soon as it's over, that stand will be pulled out.

Because they pop in one day and they're going, you know, the 10 days period.

I think it was seven days before, seven days after, something like that.

What's going to happen this time? Usually it's a 10-day season or a 12-day season, depending on the July or the New Year.

We're talking about once the. You stopped. You've got so many days to remove it. You've got so many days to set up. Then you've got yourself.

Oh, yeah, like here in town. Usually our stands are gone. We want to get them off wherever they are.

Anything temporary in the city of Santa Fe.

No warehouse in Santa Fe.

No warehouse in Santa Fe.

Okay, because you said maybe somebody's going to pop a warehouse up.

and the city limits will be temporary. Okay, that makes a little. And that's why I'm saying.

I don't want to buy.

For a temporary stand, I don't see the, I don't see people just coming out here on the corner, you know, on a quarter, on an acre lot. Right. And popping up a deal there. Yeah, we know we have. Because they might get, this is the, you know, they might go through July 4th and the owner of that land says, man, I don't want this mess on my land ever again. No.

That's correct.

And. Then what?

Because the money talks. People say, I'm going to rent it.

Then you've got to roll that line back or that wire back up there and put it on the pole. Have somebody pop your, you know, and go look for the next place.

Yes, correct. So, okay, that was my opinion. Just to ask you all to let me know about that.

All right, council take as long as you need.

Don't go too far.

Yeah, this is, this is the first reading of an ordinance. So, uh, it fails and obviously we're done. If the reading passes, then we'll have a second reading next Thursday at our special meeting.

I move to allow the sale and discharge of fireworks within the city of Santa Fe city limits for both the retail sale of fireworks and the personal use of discharge of fireworks within the city of Santa Fe. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the first reading of an ordinance of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, approving the sale and discharge of fireworks within the city limits of Santa Fe, Texas, providing a repealer clause, a severability clause, and an effective date. Council, is there any further discussion?

I got a couple of questions.

Okay.

Either one of you two. Both of you. Both of you.

If you're serious about it, don't go too far home.

I just want to see how the motions went. So short memory, why did we even start this process?

I believe the mayor's request was freedom.

The discussion started in the strategic planning meetings.

I believe during the New Year event, we discussed how the operation went, the enforcement action that We talked about, you know, the probability about how other communities had allowed the use of fireworks within the city limits on a prescribed timeframe. So we talked about their strategic planning. I believe we had talked about, you know, the effectiveness of fines and actively enforcing the code and or what if we gave them the window because other communities such as Dickinson and Lee City had allowed it, you know, within the area that maybe changed some of the culture. So I did some contact with the corresponding communities to kind of finding out how it really worked. And, you know, the feedback was generally positive from the fire marshal's offices that I received. And it didn't incur or create, you know, any further incident volume or noise complaints that were actually reduced.

And that was League City and Dickinson, correct? Correct. And they allowed the disrupting of...

Yes, they allowed the disrupting of prescribed time. No, currently there's no municipality that I know of that... I mean, I can do another search again tomorrow.

No, I mean, you looked at two reliable sources, and they allow it because you're not going to force the law.

It's not going to happen. It's a challenge.

Well, I'm not saying you can't do your job. I'm just saying that it's very challenging. It's impossible. I think we're initiated.

yeah and then you put the restrictions on it where you're not going to see that many people setting up inside the city limit no uh i just think due to the um you know doing some of the research and some of the some of the trying to follow the zoning requirements trying to follow the safety requirements you know some other issues that the state farm marshal already has in place for it so it's uh almost uh A little bit of a barrier to entry when it comes into a municipality versus a county area.

I'm not saying y'all put the restrictions on. You're following the law. Correct. I didn't mean it that way.

But I sure, in the capacity that I serve, I don't want to just bring them in to the community willy-nilly and then we have a mishap of some sort, come to find out that we overlooked or shortchanged something.

Absolutely.

Georgia and I have reviewed, studied, read, made phone calls, emails, and to try to bring a... proposal that's uh hopefully as safe as can be if we are going to take this challenge into our community right um you know obviously the county has a different set of zoning requirements and they're more lax for this type of business so but we don't want to just say here it's a free-for-all either that's not what i'm asking if that probability is going to be offered for you know a business uh endeavor to come in to our city limits to bring that so it's um that's kind of where we're at and it's

I'm not complaining about the restrictions. I don't mean it that way. I mean, the requirements for them to be able to sell within the city limits, I'm all for that. But what I mean by that is with those requirements, you're not going to see that many people spending that kind of money to come in here.

I've actually had several people come in and go through everything line by line with us, and they are ecstatic to come in out of the county. And they've already started looking at lease spaces.

Most of that traffic would come to her office.

Whoever sells within Galveston County, what are our restrictions compared to theirs?

Finding Galveston County's restrictions is extremely difficult.

A city, a municipality. Who sells them in Galveston County? A city? No city.

The county goes off of state regulations. We could not find any cities in the county that had sales so the regulations that we had we pulled and kind of piece milled stuff together for other requirements like holiday sales and other types of different sales that went into effect in different municipalities across the state and put things together that we thought may possibly be an issue here with some of our corridors and some of our neighboring facilities that we've got and that's how we got our our permit list.

Santa Fe is so different because we're a warm country so.

Trust me.

So we would be the we would be the So we'd be starting something. We'd be the first. Yes.

I know I drove him nuts because we've been at this for weeks every single day. And I'm like, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? And he's like, please just decide on something. Please make a decision.

Appreciate y'all's work. Thank you.

All right, council, any further discussion? Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Marks?

Yes.

Council Member Dickerson? Yes.

Yes.

Council Member Jeanette?

No.

Council Member McKamey?

Yes.

And Council Member Schrader?

Yes. Motion passes. This is the first reading. Second reading will be next Thursday. right item number five consideration and possible action approval of an extension to the city secretary's employment agreement to expire june 18 2026. definitely not so definitely not it's not it expires on the 31st so vacation one more turn first this month

yes so um my renewal will be up for consideration at the june 18th meeting so we're just asking or i'm just asking to extend it until then if not i'm done on the 31st and i'm on vacation next week so you don't even have until then

Council, my recommendation to you. I move to extend the city secretary's. Your contract's going to cost us more money, so I would say let's extend this one as long as we can.

I move to extend the city secretary's current contract until June 18th, 2026.

It's been moved and seconded to extend the employment agreement of the city secretary to June 18th of 2026. Council, is there any further discussion? Natalie, roll call, please.

Council Member Dickerson?

Yes.

Council Member Marks?

Yes.

Council Member Schrader?

Yes.

Council Member McKinney?

Yes.

And Council Member Jeanette?

Yes. motion passes thank you guys congratulations you're still having another 18 days you still have a job council um just a reminder of our special meeting uh next thursday it'll be a budget workshop we'll also have the second and final reading of the fireworks ordinance and we will also have the um playground uh equipment item come up so uh be planning for that is there any announcements

Picket fence market days has been canceled for this Saturday because of the rain. It will be the following Saturday on the 30th.

I would just like to extend my congratulations to all of the seniors at Santa Fe High School and Arcadia First Baptist Church for graduating. It's the easiest thing that you'll ever do in the rest of your life. So congratulations and enjoy it. And pray that the rain stays away and that we can have a nice graduation ceremony at the football field tomorrow night. Any other announcements?

Make a motion to adjourn.

Second. Moved and seconded. Thank you, gentlemen.