City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Uh today's February 3rd, 2026. We're going to go ahead and call the Church City Council uh regular meeting to order. Uh we're going to go ahead and start off with the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States and the state of Texas. We're going to Well, we're going to go ahead and start with the prayer by uh Councilman uh Maluso.

Lord, I thank you. I thank you for all of your blessings. I ask you to to be with us today. Help us maintain and keep our focus on service. I ask you to bless our new employees, our uh first responders, and uh keep them safe. Please be with us. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. 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 the Texas flag.

I aliance to thee, Texas. One state one and indivisible. Thank you for that. Uh, Councilman Maluso, uh, we do have a special announcement. The Howal Ballwin scholarship students attending for the How Ballwin Scholarship need to sign in on the sheet located in the back of the podium. If you are watching remotely, please email Sarah Gonzalez at s gonzalezshirts.com to virtually sign in. Please direct any questions to Miss Gonzalez. We'll move on to proclamations. At this time, we have a proclamation, United Act of Kindness Day, February 3rd, 2026. Council member Hayward United Acts of Kindness Day, February 13, 2026. Whereas Random Acts of Kindness Day is recognized on February 13th as an annual tradition of performing acts of kindness, whereas millions of Americans focus together to change the world, one random act of kindness at a time. Whereas First United is seeking to complete 1 million acts of kindness in one day through the help and generosity of residents, community leaders, churches, nonprofits, businesses in the in church's community. Whereas United Acts of Kindness Day will inspire people in our community to come together to spread joy, hope, and love to friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors of church. And whereas United Acts of Kindness Day positively impacts

lives by extending love and allows us to be more kind. Now therefore, I Allison Hayward on behalf of Mayor Ralph Rodriguez of the city of Church do hereby proclaim February 13, 2026 as United Acts of Kindness Day. And do we have the representative from First United? Thank you. Very important.

Yes, it is. Okay, we're going to go ahead and move on to employee introductions. We'll start out with public works drainage. Trevor Walker, drainage crew chief. like to introduce a new employee to the drainage department. Richard Melz started with us the 15th of December. Uh some of the hobbies and activities he likes to do outside of work is spend time with family and everybody likes to barbecue. So that's always a good one. Uh likes to spend his time off with his son and his family. Of course, everybody loves family time. If he could visit anywhere in the world, he says Cuba and Mexico. So,

just want to say thank you'all for the opportunity shirts.

[applause]

Next we have PL public uh works water ish part uh water wastewater crew chief Good evening. My name is uh Ismile Partardo. I'm a crew chief uh water wastewater department. First, I'd like to introduce Brad Hetes. Uh Brad was with us a while back and uh went to the army uh for four years and he missed us and came back to us. Uh one of his uh favorite movies is uh Goonies, a classic. uh his favorite movie uh music is rock. Uh and one of his uh places he would like to travel to would be Japan. Okay. I also have uh Daniel Rodriguez here. Uh water wastewater department. Um one of his favorite movies is Star Wars. Uh metal metal and rock music. He's also in a band. What is your band?

Morta. Morta plays in a band. And one of his places he'd like to visit is Hawaii. So these are the two guys in the wastewater department. Okay. I can say um I just want to say thank you for having me back and uh I'm here to serve. So thanks. I just want to say I'm liking church so far. I came from Bear County Public Works and everyone's treating me nicely so far. Thank you. [applause]

Next, we have neighborhood services. Uh, Lisa Lockan, neighborhood services manager.

Good evening. I'm here tonight to introduce Ruben Lara. He's our new sanitarian. Ruben is a graduate of UTSA and he majored in public health and he has over five years experience working in health inspections. He's originally from Edinburg, Texas and he's been in the San Antonio area for 12 years. He's happily married and he's the proud father of two children. And outside of work, he enjoys spending time hiking, exploring new sites, and visiting theme parks with his family. Would you like to say something, Ruby?

Yeah. Uh, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be part of the team. [applause] I'd like to take an opportunity to welcome all our uh new employees and uh we definitely look forward to seeing the contributions they're going to make to the city of church and to the residents of the city. So once again, let's uh congratulate them for coming on with the city of Shirts. [applause] Okay, next we have announcements of upcoming uh city events. Uh Sarah Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor. A few announcements for tonight. So, first one is on uh this Friday, February 6, council will be having their strategic planning retreat. It'll be located at Green Valley SUD and their boardroom there um which is located at 605 FM465 in Marian. This will be a 9:00 am start time. On Saturday, February 7th will be the mother son dance and the daddyaughter dance. The mother son dance kicks off at 4 and daddy daughter is at 7 at the civic center. Then we have the um the canvasing for the runoff election for place 7 will be on Monday, February 9th at 6 p.m. here in the council chambers. On February 12th, we have the Trail Rider lunch out at Pickrol Park at 11:30 a.m. On the 14th will be a nature discover series at Crescent Bin Nature Park beginning at 9:30. City offices will be closed on Monday, February 16th for President's Day. And then lastly, we will have our next regularly scheduled council meeting on February 17th at 6 p.m. here in the council chambers. Thank you. Thank you for that announcements and recognitions by the city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Just a couple of promotions this month. We're really happy for these folks. Moving up, we had Amy Anderson moved from our mobile integrated health or MIH paramedic to community health coordinator. In the neighborhood services department, Justin Langford was promoted from code enforcement officer to sanitarian. And in PD, Ian McMath and John Ortiz were both promoted from officer to sergeant. And then also, I would like to say great job today at the groundbreaking and kudos to Greg and his team and the marksman folks for putting on a a really nice event and having we're really excited to get that going and and have that see that project move forward. So, great job all the way around. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for those announcements. Uh I do I would like to recognize um a future council member. We have Dr. Robert Sheridan with us. [applause] And I also wanted to take the time to also recognize the men and women of church fire department for assisting the city of civil on a structure fire where they went in and saved a life. So uh uh chief uh thank you men and women for their efforts. So [applause] all right at this time we'll go ahead and have hearing of the residents. Mayor Pro Tim Davis, do we have anybody wishing to speak?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. First up is Kelly Kh. Good evening, mayor, council, city staff. My name is Kelly Kiss. I work for the shirts police department, but I am here for um as part of the chambers leadership core um program. And so I just want to thank you for the opportunity to come and um watch a city council meeting for this um program. Thank you. Next up, Mr. Mayor's Bob Jameson. Bob Jameson, 454 Brush Creek Drive shirts. You all have seen me here before, and it's the same story. um the construction at um 309 and Weerstein Road. I'm sure you all travel that way and see the concrete icon. Uh my house is directly behind it. Um we've suffered damages throughout this construction and uh we'll address those or I'm going to address those with the the owner of the property. So, I'm not here about that. What I'm here for is to help whoever lives in shirts that might have this happen to them. I really request that the city council take a look at the building codes and the planning for the

land to get enough of a buffer between the properties. 20 feet isn't enough. Allowing them to mill away 12 foot of limestone. so they can get a flat surface is too much. Running two rock crushers to crush all the limestone that they mil off created a huge dust problem. If I put a ladder out the second story window of my house, I would go parallel and I could walk over to the roof of the building. 35 foot off the ground is too far in a residential area. I no longer see the sunset. In essence, I live behind a prison. Um, I'm truly disappointed and I know there's nothing you can do for me, but maybe the next time you do allow something like this to be built, people will you can do something for them and help them out. So, thank you.

Next up, Mr. Mayor's uh Brian or Hello. Um, just wanted to be here as kind of a observer. I'm here as part of the leadership core and just want to see the proceedings and how everything goes. Mr. Mayor, next up is Maggie Titterington.

Good evening, council. I wanted to let you all know we had our uh living well health and home show. Very successful. In three hours, we had over 300 area residents, families come in and out. Vendors were very happy. There were free flu shots, health screenings. Um everybody just we got some really good testimonials. Some folks that come every year uh some folks that were really excited that there were more uh home providers for services. So um looking forward to doing it again next year on the 17th of February. The much anticipated and awaited state of the cities uh for our lunchon. We um are predicting we will be sold out uh because we have a lot of people already registered for that. So all three cities have been mum on the word about what their videos are about. So again we are very much looking forward to uh seeing those videos and the presentations of all the successes of the cities from last year and all the projects coming up this year. Also, um, ironically enough, since you're already going to be at Green Valley SUD at 9:00 this Friday, we are actually there riving cutting them for being in their new building at 9:00. So, this will be a great opportunity [laughter] to have you all as part of this picture. But, uh, we are we're, uh, they want to officially recognize their brand new building, which is beautiful. They opened it up a little bit over a year ago. Um, but anyways, if you have a free moment before you all get started on your strategic, would love to have you part of that. And, uh, we do have two ribbon cutings for this month that are at the Kramer House. One is on the 20th at 1:30 for Taylor and Taylor. Uh, and the second is on the 25th of February at 10:00 a.m. for Living to the Plus. Whenever we have the ribbon cutings at the chamber house, it's because they are either a homebased business or they're too far away and they want to be, you know, in our city to show what they

have. So, if you're available the 20th at 1:30 or the 25th at 10:00 a.m. and uh want to give a shout out and thanks to um Allison for coming out to collection station and shirts. What a beautiful town home area that is. um the amenities, you feel like you're at a retreat and you're just you're right there in shirts just down the road. So, they're very proud of it. They're very excited about it. So, if y'all haven't been out there to take a look, you need to go take a look. Very last um we're already looking at legislative issues for next year's session. I met with my government affairs leaison, um Michael Carpenter, and uh if there are any issues that start revolving, we're waiting till after the primaries happen before we actually sit down and start discussing possibilities. We know bills will not be filed until November, but it doesn't hurt to start looking out for our cities and our businesses now. So, if there are any conversations you all would like to have, any ideas you have going around, whether it is city related, whether it is business related, please uh shoot Michael or myself an email and we'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. Next up is Jim and Jane Hoverver. Good evening. Uh my name is Jim Hoverver, my wife Jane. We are uh longtime residents of Cibilo shirts. Uh we just recently moved to Shirts on Bentree Drive uh in Greenshshire Oaks where they have these beautiful 200year-old heritage oak trees. We are having an issue with our waste management company, Frontier. They have come through and it's my understanding that the height limit on our trees is 15 feet on the road. And this the frontier truck, if I was a gambling person, I would say that truck is probably 18 or 19 feet high that takes our waste and empties it into the truck. Well, they are they have taken out two of our oak trees already. It's a beautiful bent tree. If you haven't been down Bentry, it's a beautiful drive. It's landscaped beautifully, but we're having trouble with Frontier Management Waste Company and we didn't have this problem with Republic. So, I don't know what the remedy is, but it's sad to me that we're losing these 200 year old oak trees because of negligence of our waste management company. And I just want to bring this to your attention so we can come to some kind of remedy for this. Now, this has happened twice already. And we have a tree in the front of our house that every time the waste management company goes through there, they pull on our branches on the front of our tree. And our tree is over 15 feet high.

But now I don't know what the remedy is, but it's sad to me that these trees are being destroyed by our management company.

Yeah. And um one of the trees uh we're still trying to figure out whether or not they told y'all that they took out the first one. That was a few months ago, but they our understanding is because it's right down the street from us. Uh we think the truck just backed into it. This time he came through and tore off half of a tree and just kept going. And um we were told that there's a smaller truck that can go through that area, but that it has to be through the council and everything, but we were we're hoping that that's done sooner rather than later so they don't take out more trees. Um because there's no reason for them to be taking out the trees, especially when it's been a few months between them taking out the two trees. We know they can drive better than that and they just have to be attentive. So it's just carelessness and those trees are not going to come back anytime soon.

Yeah. And I myself personally, I was just wondering if there's maybe the council will know if there's a monetary value to these trees. In the state of Texas, heritage oaks are protected by the state. So, uh, we would like to get some answers on that. We appreciate you hearing us. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry. Could I ask a question? Could Could you let us know where the location of the first tree is? We have not been able to locate on the same island. Both on the same island. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Next up is Mr. John Green.

Evening. My name is John Green. I'm a husband, father, and local attorney. And God willing, I'll be the next county court of law judge after the primary in March 3rd. I want to come here, introduce myself to y'all, tell you a little bit about myself, why I'm running, and what I think I could do better. Um, so just to start out, what is the county court of law? There's two county courts of law. It's county court of law, county court of law number two. They're sister courts. They have the same funding, same staffing, same everything. And they're able to handle a variety of cases. This is family law, juvenile, civil, probate, and criminal law. But after 2021, county court of law, the one I'm running for, has recuse itself from criminal, family, and juvenile law. But those cases have to go somewhere. And so all of those cases have been bottlenecked in the county court of law, too, which has created a huge disparity in the amount of cases uh each court seen. In fact, I I got a public records uh from the 2025 year. County Court of Law number two had 1,800 cases filed in it that year. County court of law had just under 600 cases. So, it's a 3 to1 ratio. the amount of work that these uh courts are taking on. And the reason that this is important is as Guadalupe County grows, more and more people are moving into the county, more and more cases are going to get filed over the next four years. In addition, we used to have four district judges. As you all may know, we just lost Judge Steel uh due to redistricting. So, all of his cases have to go somewhere, too. But they can't go to this court because it's not taking the family law, or at least it wasn't until very recently. Um, in addition, I just don't think this court's being run very efficiently and currently it's essentially a part-time court. It only has docket about once a week, um, on average and actually made a demonstrative. I got the public records for the the schedule for 2025. Um, and I put that on the calendar for January through September. Um, so as I'm going through, I'd like to show the council members what we're looking at. You can see in green that are actually held last year, red ones that are

about a third of the dockets that were supposed to be held in 2025 were cancelled. And it's it's just because I think that uh with the right leadership, we can actually increase the amount of talks that are held once a week um to five times a week to make it a full-time court. And I think that the numbers we're looking at, the 600 cases filed in this court versus the 1,800, I don't think that's fair to the staff um for county court of law number two. And I think that we can balance that out. So my goal when I come into office is to take on criminal law, family law, and juvenile law in order to split the case load between the two cases and also take on more jury trials. This court has only held two jury trials the last eight years. Uh the sister court has held 15 jury trials. So the disparity in workload is is astronomical here. So I just want to again introduce myself, tell you why I'm running, and tell you what I think the problems are in this individual court and specifically how I plan to fix it, which is by taking on the case load that I don't think is being taken on right now. So I appreciate your time very much. Thank you.

Next up, Mr. Mayor, is Raquel Gutierrez. Good evening, mayor, council, city staff, and shirts residents. I'm Raquel Gutierrez. I recite at 1016 Silverree, and tonight I'm announcing that [snorts] I am a candidate for city council place 6. I'd like to share a quick story because it'll explain why I care so deeply about our community. As a military spouse, we relocated to Shirts the summer of 1991. The population hovered around 8,000 residents, and FM39 was a two-lane road. Our 13-year-old daughter would ride her bike on what is now a five-lane FM39. Back then, that felt completely normal. Today, most of us would not consider that safe. Back then, shirts didn't have big box businesses, fast food restaurants on every corner because at the time, Shirts didn't have a need for them. That alone tells the story. Shirts has grown significantly and will continue to grow. Today, our population is roughly about 45,000. And growth demands smarter planning and responsible budgeting. Memories matter because they reflect what shirts has always been about. Community, family, safety, and strong quality of life. Let me be clear. My approach because I believe in conservative values, responsible budgeting, and real accountability to taxpayers. Our city budget should be treated as a top responsibility because it impacts taxes, services, and the trust residents place on city leadership.

My vision and priorities are straightforward. Keep shorts safe, keep short strong, and make sure the basics are done right. I'm committed to be laser focused on public safety, strong support for first responders, maintain quality, quality of life, keep sure a desirable place to live. Make smart investments in infrastructure that keep pace with growth, water, roads, drainage, and welldesigned traffic flow. Economic development plan responsibly to address potential deficiencies. I've made shirts my home for more than three decades. I've seen and lived the growth. I'm ready to help guide what comes next with steady and responsible leadership. I invite you to connect with me. Let's talk about your neighborhood, your concerns because shirts deserves informed voices and stronger voter turnout. I'd be honored and humbled to earn your support and I respectfully ask for your vote for city council play six on April the 4th. Thank you for your time and thank you for staying engaged. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, that's everyone that's signed up for tonight. Okay. Since we have no more uh hearing of residents, we'll go ahead and move on to the consent agenda items. The consent agenda is considered self-explanatory and will be enacted by the council with one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless they are removed from the consent agenda upon the request of the mayor or council member. Council members, do we have any items needing to be removed from the from the consent agenda? Yes, mayor. Number five.

Okay. We're going to go ahead and remove resolution 26-R18 authorizing a letter of support for the texttop project to construct a grade separated crossing of FM309 over the railroad tracks and FM78 in the city of Shirts. Uh we're going to go ahead and remove that and it'll be the first item up uh on discussion and action items. So having removed number five, can I get um a motion to approve items 1, two, three, four, and six? So moved. Second.

Okay. Having a motion by Council Member Hayward, a second by Council Member Watson. Uh can I get everyone to cast the votes, please? Can I get the votes published? All right. Having six yays, no nays. Motion passes. All right. Moving on to uh item five, resolution 26-R018 authorizing a letter of support for the textile project to construct a grade separated crossing of FM39 over the railroad tracks and FM78 in the city of Shirts. Uh go ahead, Brian. Oh,

okay. So, um as council knows, we've talked about this numerous times in the past. It's on the thoroughare plan. Uh we hear laments from residents about congestion in the community and part of what happens is not only as our community grows but as the communities around us grow that traffic increases. And so as folks say you know we've added uh signals on FM39 and and if you're one of those people who are trying to get out and make a left you're glad they added that traffic signal there to be able to get out and make a left. But if you're somebody maybe who's just passing through on 39, uh, you get frustrated that occasionally you have to stop at red lights. So, you know, council's approved thoroughare plan for the city of Shirts shows that connection of an extension of 309 south of 78. Uh, one of the things uh, council and folks in the community now know is our public safety, our first responders, if they're trying to get down south in shirts uh, to respond to an emergency event, they've they've essentially got one way they have to go to pass through on FM18. Obviously, we see it now as people drive on 1518 in construction that slows that down. Uh, but there's a lot of congestion. Again, we've talked a lot about the council approved uh comprehensive plan uh for the community that sort of is our guide and our direction how we're going to grow. And it was commented earlier tonight about what our population was just a couple of decades ago. Was commented about that growth that's coming. Uh and again, that's growth that has good and bad to it, right? A lot of people like the small town feel. How do we keep that? Part of it the events we put on and we have a special big anniversary. Do we do it up big? Um, part of what people want are more places to shop and eat. Uh, if you're a business owner, you want that population of the community to grow so that your customer base expands with that. But unfortunately, we've got to keep up with infrastructure. That infrastructure at times lags and there's

good and bad to it. As I said, the signalization of FM39. If you're trying to make a left out, you love that they put a signal. If you're just trying to pass through, uh, it becomes problematic. So with that, you may recall maybe prematurely there was an announcement that funding for that uh grade separation had come in. It hasn't actually come in and so uh we have been working with text dot based on our pushing for this uh to create that grade separated crossing. And as you know if you look at 319 it can't go straight through the way it is. It's got a bend and veer becomes problematic to have an atgrade crossing of two roads that don't line up. we've all experienced congestion there and wondered what they're thinking. The other problem we've got is we've got to get over uh the railroad tracks and again to have it function efficiently uh we we really want that to get over FM78 as well. And so we've had a number of public meetings on it and again what Tex is doing is they are seeking funding sources wherever they can. Uh and when they do that they look to the communities and the folks impacted and say we'd like to get a letter of support. And so that's what this item is, is a letter of support to help get funding so that we can hopefully eventually get that project fully designed. Uh any rideway acquired that may be needed for and then eventually constructed. Again, these things take a long time and this is the first step in that. So I'd be happy to answer any questions along with the city engineer.

Do we have any questions? Councilman,

I just wanted to pull because um I'm not in support of it. I know the rest of council may be, but after talking to some of the residents, they don't like the idea of it and it's going to push more traffic onto Shirts Parkway with the original design that we saw, you have to go over a little bit of way, a mile, and then turn around and come back down and drop. And I they just don't like that idea. It's like it's a bridge to nowhere. Plus, we have all those businesses that will be blocked off when it goes up. So, we've got Christian Brothers all the way down in that area. And then we've got those businesses that's right at the end of 309 that be affected. We keep saying we're pro business and we want to do things for the business. Like, we voted for the flags for the businesses. Now, we want to vote for something that could put potentially put them out of business and I can't support that. Do I have any other council members that would like to voice any concerns or have any questions?

I might offer this. If there's concern and well, I guess we can see how the vote goes, but if there's concern, maybe we could have Tex come and give a presentation or their engineers give a presentation on the the layout of the the roadway. I'm not recalling it exactly that way. Um,

yeah. So, I think I think certainly what we can do a couple things, right? We can we can have Text come back and and um propose something again or the other thing we can do certainly if there are concerns that the community and the businesses and the community would be better off. We can certainly do a study if we don't have an extension of 309 south of 78 at all or if we do a grade separated crossing or or an atgrade crossing and what the impacts on traffic would be. And I I certainly appreciate those concerns, right? I mean, I think this is where I said when we've got this there they're pros and cons to everything. Whenever we want to expand a road, right? We hear from residents about Weederstein, right? An old Weederstein. It's a mess. We need to get it. we need to improve. We're going to have to go out and acquire right away for that and there are going to be people that are affected by that and don't like that. And I think the one thing I would say on this is that when we had looked at this issue and studied it before the the big thing we looked at was well what if we don't do anything right which is which is an option right we don't we don't have to extend 309 we don't have to do a grade separated as I recall though and I have the data but traffic significantly became problematic and I I think the concern at the time was is we do a disservice to a lot of our businesses when traffic gets so bad because there aren't ways to get there and go and and so I appreciate the concern again. So one option we could do is we could bring texttop back why they have the design they have what the problem is that causes them not to be able to keep a bypass route open at grade uh going forward or andor we can do a study to to analyze we're we're doing an update of the thoroughare plan. we could pause that and we could have them do an analysis to say if we don't do anything with 3019 we just leave it the way it is what are the implications

of that right and then council can make an informed decision um you know that might be to to not do anything to to not have the extension to not push for a grade separated and that that you know you you prefer the other option but as I recall when we dealt with this the problem we have is the significant impact on traffic and then we get those calls and those frustrations. I can't I can't move through the community. But but those those we're happy to do. Any recommendation from council?

I think that maybe just the timing that tech stop can do on the traffic lights. I would be maybe the place to start. I don't know where they time it during the peak hours. just having that information to us maybe um because I have some people that I know that do work for text dot and said that timing is a little off and it could be adjusted. Maybe that might do an issue. I've left messages with text dot and they don't return my calls. So, okay. Yeah, let us see what we can do. We can certainly reach out to text

and and note that text dot folks are saying that the signalization is somewhat off and and can be adjusted and be approved. I know we've had text reps come to TESAC uh before and speak. We can certainly have that. So, yeah, we can certainly uh go that direction as well. Mr. James, can can they can they confirm like you're saying if we don't do anything situation the situation is going to be the way it is. However, with the construction, can they confirm that that that will eliminate some of the traffic, a lot of the traffic, most of the traffic?

So, so right. So, as I recall, what we did previously is we we did a a rough broad analysis with the master thoroughare plan update that looked at if we don't do anything and 39 stops where it is, what's the impact on traffic in the community for that? and then they looked at what's the impact of uh an extension of 309. So we can certainly um go to our consultant that we're having work on the Therapare plan do an amendment for them and we can have them look at well what if we don't do anything what if we did an atgrade extension of 309 or what if we uh try to push forward on the grade separated and get a feel for the impacts of that on and present an update to city council. We're we're happy to do that. Again, as Councilman Watson said, yeah, we're happy to reach out to Text and say, can you look at uh the signalization and the timing? And again, I would say this on signalization, those are one of those things that you don't ever find, oh, here's the perfect thing and you found it and it never changes. You go back a year as traffic pattern changes and grow and you have to adjust. So, I agree you have to have to stay on it. But, yeah, we're happy to look at all three of those options and that way council can make an informed decision um on on how you want to go with this. I just want to mention one thing that I I don't think we touched on so much that the importance of this is also not just for the traffic but for emergency services. There's no direct connection between north of 78 and south of 78 from 1604 to Sigin. There's no way for emergency services or or any traffic to get across the railroad tracks when there's a train. So this is a location where it's feasible, not ideal for everyone for every single business, but um feasible and um and reasonable.

Yeah. But again, there are infinite number of options we could certainly explore and look at to to try to minimize the negatives with things. Council member Westbrook. Yes, Mayor. So, um, I sort of am in favor of getting text dot to give us more information, but more importantly, you said you offered So, so we would do it. I I doubt text dot's going to do a study on it. Text dot's probably going to I mean, I'm going to be blunt. Text is going to say, right, thought we were headed this direction. So, yeah, we could certainly pay our consultant to do these analyses. Yeah. Right. But I'm more interested in the effect on the businesses. I don't know if you can present that one. So,

yeah. Yeah. I mean, so, so I think what Councilwoman Hayward has talked about, right, is that the the issue you've got whenever you create a grade separation where there's not one is those businesses were right there at street level that people could turn off the road and in, they they they can't do that, right? There's also a visibility issue that typically comes up when they start that that increase. they're not seeing the business right next to that. So that next time they need a service, they may come in. And in this case in particular, the problem that Texot has in particular with with UP the railroad tracks is they they cannot get approval for the grade separation and maintain as we understand it an actra crossing over the railroad tracks. And so in particular, the business Christian Brothers Automotive and the shopping center there have concerns because they're negatively impacted. I would agree with that entirely. They are negatively impacted by it. I would say more particularly the the little retail center than Christian Brothers. And in part of that is, you know, in my experience, when I need um car repair services, I know where I'm going for car repair services. I know how to get there and I get there. It's rare that I'm driving along just looking going I need to my car's on fire and I need to pull in someplace, right? But but you do have that. Um and and so that is the drawback that we've gotten the most negative comments on and text said we can't do that. Now again, I would offer I'm not sure how you make a left out of Christian Brothers ever. I I mean I it's I mean maybe it's easy. Maybe people do it all the time and it's not too bad and it's pretty straightforward and maybe it will continue to be very easy to do as the population grows. Um but but again

as council may recall at times we occasionally hear from folks we don't like this situation we don't like this situation and then ironically a few years later we get them coming back as this natural change occurs that will right this traffic's going to grow and they lament why am I experiencing this situation and they forget it's because they stood up a number of years before and said I don't want you to do anything different here and that I think is really the problem right it really is this thing of um what do we do? Ideally, we could find a way to maintain a grade at grade, have the grade separated and don't don't have those challenges. Text has said it they cannot get approval at this point. Now, again, we can continue to push that and I think staff has when we've had those conversations and anything we could do to to make this adjustment would be great. But I also don't want to naively go forward to say, yeah, implying that I think we'll be able to get that change because Texas has been pretty clear. They don't think they'll be able to get approval from UP to to maintain that that at grade crossing, frankly.

Okay. Mayor Pro Tim Davis.

Yeah. So, even if we're going to look at some other alternatives, just to have that discussion, is there any reason why we would not submit a a request for a potential grant? Yeah, I I I don't think that there is, right? I mean, at the end of the day, to to be sort of blunt, I think when I've had conversation with Texot, Tex stepped into this because the city of Shirt said, "Hey, we have this problem. We need your help, Tex, to try to solve this and go this path." And that if the city of Shirt said, "Hey, look, we don't want this grade separated. We don't want an extension of 309." I think likely Tex dot would say, "Okay, then we'll we'll go elsewhere where they they kind of want us and we'll take those funds or we'll recommend those funding be applied to another community that has a traffic issue that needs to be corrected." I don't think, you know, when early on when when this policy change happened and staff started having those conversations, you know, Tech kind of made clear, yeah, if you guys want us to come in and do this, we're happy on your behalf to do it. And so we could certainly pull out at some point going forward. So I I would say this that if council is now of the position that unless we can do this without any negative implications, we don't want to do it. then I would say you don't vote for this tonight and and we come back fairly short order because right I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to spend the money to do these traffic studies if no matter what that study says we're we're not going to do a solution if it has any negative consequences because we're not going to find any solution without a negative consequence the only thing I would offer to you is to do nothing I I would as a city manager would say I would bet you dollars to donuts that you

will have folks up here including some of these businesses or future businesses saying this situation is a problem for us traffic backs up so much and and again if we have an incident where we can't move from south southern shirts to northern shirts people are going to say why did we not make these decisions and and I think the other thing I'll offer is If you look around San Antonio is a good example and you see where they made decisions for the reasons they made them at the time or with the information they had but subsequently proved problematic where that creates challenges right so you know if you look at 410 in San Pedro in San Antonio for example that's that's a mess because you didn't have the freeway system you then have 281 bend around where you have 281 one is it as it comes through um you know kind of Hildebrand by Trinity University and incarnate word and the road the the freeway curves the way it does there's always a backup of traffic there it always backs up and it backs up because of that S pattern to try to fit through where they needed to fit it through and so you have the congestion you would have so my answer would be yeah text dot to Councilman Davis if we pulled out at some point that's fine this doesn't set that stage but if there is a strong feeling we're not moving forward with anything that has some negative consequences, then then I'd say you you probably want to rethink this because we're not going to come up with a solution that doesn't have some negative it just doesn't exist. I would only offer to do nothing I think has very very significant right. So when our population goes from 45,000 to 65,000, when Cibilo's population doubles, right, as the area grows,

what are those two intersections of Shorts Parkland 78 and FM39 and 78 going to look like? And and how much is that backup going to be? And if you say, well, we need to expand widen 78, right? I'm not sure how we're going to support that because I'm not sure how you're going to acquire right ofway because you got the railroad tracks. You can't you can't go one way. You're having to go the other side and that's going to negatively impact businesses. So, I don't see how expanding 78's really an option. Council member Hayward, I did it on aspect of business, but I was out to dinner on Friday

and residents saw this on the agenda and it wasn't just businesses that were having issues. It was residents that were having issues and said they would not even use it. They would just go to Shirts Parkway to get to where they needed to go. So then we're trying to solve a problem by doing a flyover for 39. And if other people are saying, "Hey, I'm just not going to do that because it's extra and I don't want to do that." And then we throw more traffic on the Shirts Parkway. Did we really solve the problem when I'm sitting at dinner and someone starts talking to me and I'm trying to enjoy dinner? Um,

yeah. No, no, I I don't disagree with you, right? There are some residents who who would sit there and say, "This isn't right. I wouldn't do this." And and that certainly may be the case, right? And and so again, if I were at dinner and somebody walked up and said, you know, you got this flyover, I wouldn't do that. My question would be is so how long would you wait at Schz Parkway in 78 to to make that turn, right? And and their answer might be, well, you know, right now I typically don't wait more than two or three cycles, right? that okay that seems reasonable but in 20 years or in 50 years how many cycles are you going to sit through and that person may say well I'm not going to be here what what do I kind of care right but but that literally is the issue so for those folks who've been in the area and you've seen what this was and what the growth is that would be the thing that I would say right and so if you want to come through now and you want to go from 35 to 10, you're going to do that on 1518. And if 39 doesn't extend, everyone who wants to do that is going to be sitting with this resident you spoke to at dinner waiting to to cross. And and I think that's the problem. We think about things today and say, I don't know why we need this. It's not right. But again, how much did we hear about old Weiderstein being a problem 15 years ago? Not not too often. How often do we hear about it now? We hear about it a lot, right? But I'm not sure how we're going to expand Weederstein

without negatively impacting somebody because we've got to get rightway for it, right? And so if that's the concern, I certainly appreciate and understand that's a policy question for council. Um, council member Maluso, I think, you know, I'm sensitive to what Allison said about the businesses. I think that's should always be a concern,

but doing nothing is not the answer. It is a a bad situation already. Uh if just in the 15 years I've been out here, if you're going southbound on 39, you're taking a left on 78. It it it can be four cycles before you make it through. So I it's just going to continue to get worse. And this I don't see how there is an alternative. I mean, I don't know if there's even the space to have the alternative because you would need at least double double turn lanes to be able to, you know, decrease that. But I I think doing nothing is not the answer. I don't know if what they've proposed is is the best. Obviously, it is going to impact those businesses, but I think just like you said, I think it it's going to be impacting them either way because just as people might want to avoid that, they're probably avoiding that now and going to Shirts Parkway. So, just because they don't want to wait through those turn cycles. So, I think that realistically, I mean, we have to look at things 10, 20 years down the road. We can't just look at it now. And uh you know that that's that's going to be a key key part of our infrastructure is to be able to have that bypass so we can continue south and for public safety reasons. So I'm in support of uh supporting that letter.

Okay. I have a city manager would like to ask questions. Okay. So I do have a couple of questions. Oh, turn that back on. Couple of questions. What is the realistic timeline for say funding and construction? I mean, are we looking at a project that would be done say in two years, five years, 10 years, 15 years?

So, so it won't be done in two years, right? A year from now, we'll be saying, "Oh, our fire station's coming along. It's almost it's almost done." There isn't funding for this yet, right? And and so, you know, I once there's funding, I don't know. I know it's a two, threeear project for construction maybe is is probably what it is. But but again, the issue is there isn't funding for this. It's extremely expensive. Um a a project. And so again, I but I can't tell you that tomorrow we won't get something that says, "Oh my gosh, look, there's there's funding for it." So if it's if and I'm assuming this is like a legislative appropriations every two years

or it's something that gets considered an AMOS cycle every year but so we're looking it's possible that even fasttrack this is seven years out. Oh very yeah and so conceivably 12 years out. So considering what the community would look like 12 years from now it that would be my guess is about how long it would take is 12 years to open it up. I don't disagree with you. I think Steph's big concern initially was preserving a corridor to even have this thing be able to make it through.

Right. And so I guess my followup to that would be if we tell now that we don't support it, how likely are we to get them to pick it up in the future, say a year from now? I mean, I think there's lessons learned from like 1103 and some other projects that really kind of got shelved for a number of years. So, so I I think I mean, I'm be giving you my opinion.

It would be a generation of Tex employees before they picked it up, right? Because this this issue came up 15, 20 years ago or so where Tex said, "Hey, we got this 309 extension." Right? And at the time, I think for the same reasons, council said, "This isn't needed, right? We're not going to we right and at the time our plan was all that stuff down south that was going to be farmland right I mean why do we need this second route and so we told Texas thanks but you can go on your way we don't want it now when we updated the thoroughare plan and we said oh my gosh look what problem we have as well as the 98 flood and the passibility I I think everybody said yeah we need to revisit this and that's where this thing came on um you know and I I will just say this just For clarity, this is not the only challenge we have in making this connection of 39. We have a challenge where Redbud Parkway has been built and that's kind of the name of it and and Schaefer. It is a it is a challenge to get through there and so we're not going to make everybody happy with that. Um,

so, so if we do this pro, this is aund I think it was 130 or $40 million project or maybe even more is what it was in the funding queue for. I I can't remember the way this that's probably

accurate considering the impact on our community and the and the the cost to do the project and the the extension of Redbud or whatever we want to call it all the way down. I mean, you're talking in the couple of$200 million range. I think by the time everything's built, there's a big impact on our community. Aside from the congestion and everything else and the movement and the potential for economic development, I think we could even consider something to the effect of doing an incentive program for relocating some of these businesses if they are negatively impacted and they could receive the benefit of of being in a better spot with high traffic and the the financial impact loss on our community would be much less. I mean, and I think there let me say staff clearly understands

from the comments we've received from council try to push for a solution that impacts folks the least and we will continue to do that. At the same time, what I don't want to do is string people along and say, "Oh, we're going to push for you. We're going to fight for you. We're gonna" When I want to be more realistic and say, "I'm not sure we're going to get there." Right. But I think to your point, what does the world look like in 12 years or 10 years and and what solutions do we have? Because again, I I'm I'm sort of a firm believer that if we're still sitting here in 12 years and nothing has happened, I'm not sure how you make a left into those businesses or how you make a left out of those businesses and then what's the impact on that? Ironically, maybe they shift and start doing auto body work for all the crashes that happen when cars are trying to make those turns. But I think we just underappreciate what that traffic looks like right there. You you hear stories and stories of how construction activity and the traffic that comes with that puts people out of business. Well, the same thing happens and and I think your point when you start avoiding intersections and as you said, yeah, it's it's if you drive 7839 Shirts Parkway in the morning rush hour peak time and in the afternoon peak time, it is a it is a mess already. Again, grade separation, as we understand, is not an option at 1518 because of the flight path of JBSA Randolph. And so to your point, we we've tried to look and this is kind of the spot. Doesn't mean something didn't come with anything else, but um I think it's just a challenge. Again, don't don't mean to not sound empathetic. I certainly am. We will push for it, but we are really concerned that what what happens to our community down the road. And again, I'm going to come back. As Kathy pointed out, we literally

have one way to get between central shirts and southern shirts. And and even if you look at what happened with 1518, they had to neck it down and narrow it down to deal with JBSA. And so we're not going to have quite the efficiencies as we had initially hoped there. Council member Guerrero, Mr. James, you were saying that uh the project from start to finish ballpark figure seven years.

Well, no, I'm I so who I I have no idea. I I would the construction is going to take a number of years. So, just to be clear, the construction is not going to happen quickly, but this is a huge amount of funding and and who knows when that'll that'll rise to the level, right? Because it's a really expensive project and we're all competing for the same pots of money. Cibilo, Selma, everybody out there is is scrambling. Bernie, right, are all after the same pot. So, I I can't tell you. I think to Steve's point, we're not anticipating this thing is going to happen in the next five years for sure. I I I'm not optimistic it's going to happen within the next 10 even. I think within the next 20 maybe, but I don't know what you think. Who knows?

Ballpark figure. What What would be our population 10 years? So, you know, in 10 years, assuming we're we're growing a little bit less than 10,000 people a year, right? So, in in 10 years, we're probably 52,000, 53,000. But here's the thing I would say, and this I think we struggle to get folks to understand. That's our population. But what is the population of Cibilo by that time? What's the population of Marian by that time? Right? Because you have all this background traffic. We think about shirts residents and shirts people, but look at all the folk. I mean, when you go to Sigin, how do you all go? I I go down 78, right? I mean, that's that's the way I go. So, you got all this background traffic. So, so the only thing I would say is you have to look at the increases in traffic based on this larger growth in the area. And and I think that's the key thing, not just a shorts population, but we're going 750 800 people a year typically. So 10 years we're going 7,500 8,000 people.

Thank you, Council Member Hayward. So I get that we need to do something. I'm not saying we can't do anything, but what if they could it possibly be where it's a fly over and then maybe like a a turnaround or turnabout underneath so that those people that are trying to get to the business, they don't go over the railroad track, they can get to the little businesses over here. And then it's a you a culde-sac underneath to swing those people back so that they can what the layout there's that when I first saw it that I didn't see that layout.

So the latest layout I've seen and this is really bad. Right. So if you have the way 319 goes today at some point well before it hits 78 kind of by where the specs is coming in or right past the Texas med the road is proposed to veer off to the left if you're heading towards 78. At that point, there'll be kind of an intersection there that you can make a ride on and you can get to those businesses and then turn around and come back out. Okay. So, when I first saw it, that's not how the plan was. It was just not going to give us that. Yes, it did. Lane from what I remembered from the photos that we had like a couple years ago.

And I'm sorry, remind me again cuz I want to make sure I'm not giving up. When I remember seeing it, it was going to where the storage center is. It was going to come back by the businesses Borgfield and they were going to pick it up from there and then take it over the road storage facility and then sw out and then swing it back around. It didn't show a lane that could go to the side where those businesses are. They didn't show that they could do that. Yeah. So maybe unless they take a stab at clarifying. So as you're heading south on 39 as it exists now, it dead ends into 78,

right? That section of road would still be there. They would leave that intact. They would just swerve off the new road to the east side of 309 through where the old landfill is or right by there over the storage facility across and then loop around on the property that the city purchased on the south side of handles. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's called a jug handle turnaround. It would go over and jug handle turnaround and face north, terminate north into

78. And you you'll remember the city bought that 40 acres over there for that purpose to have that do that. So the the old 39 that will dead end at the railroad tracks now still stays there. And I think they had a I don't remember it having the turnaround in the the first plans that I saw. Yeah. I think where we've been back and forth on this for for what it's worth is um may pull it up or

Google Maps. I'll show you. You know, at one point the hope was that you could continue at grade and make a right on 78 and that's where the plan said no, we can't make that happen and it's got to end there. But yeah, they've got to provide a turnaround um for folks to be able to because when we saw it, they had all the billboards there and we were looking at it. I don't remember seeing that.

Yeah. So, as as the city manager said, what what's proposed to happen is that some point right here, 319 veers off and comes over, crosses this. The idea is doing a lease agreement with them to keep operating there. Right now they've got covered, right? And it drops down here and then you've got sort of a jug handle that comes and allows you to to to make the turn. But that this section of road or a section of it would come up like this at some point turn in here, connect to that new section of road before it elevates and and grade separates. And so what folks would do is they'd come down this way. they could make that right now, come down to here, go to these businesses, and then they'd have to go back up and and get here and get out. And and so the big drawback I heard is did not like the fact that this no longer continued, but that culde-sac here um was the big problem. And I I get it. I and staff is going to keep pushing for that, right? But Tex was not optimistic it would happen. And and so, you know, again, I think as Steve said, what's the world going to look like when this thing happens? What are our solutions at that point, right? I think part of what happens in these cases that I've seen is, yeah, part of what occurs is some of those businesses may change, right? The business that relies on a lot of drive by visibility, it's not going to do as well because it doesn't have it. But again, I'm going to go back. I I tend, at least from my perspective, an an auto repair shop, I know where I'm going to take my car, right? Unless you happen to be driving on the freeway, you look up where do I go? You find out where it is. Often they're in a place that's not quite as visible, right? But you now with your phone, they're easy to to find, right? We're we're not back in the days where I'm pulling out a paper

map, right? We look up auto and it tells us when we get there. And and so yeah, it it you know, I don't know that it's necessarily, you know, smoke to CBD and vape shop 14 that may be impacted negatively by the lack of the pass by traffic. I mean, that's a good example where they go, this location's not as good as it was because I I don't have that driveby. Um I'm just somewhat skeptical that Christian Brothers is impacted the same way, but I don't own Christian Brothers. I acknowledge that's not my business. Council member Westbre.

Yep. So, Mayor, just so I can clarify, what are we trying to accomplish tonight? What's the problem here? Because we started off with a a letter of support. Now, we're trying to solve traffic issues.

And and I think it's related. What we have for you tonight is a letter in support of Tex's request for a funding source to help bring this project about. And I think it's a valid question that if we're not sure we want this project, then why would we move forward with this? I think as Councilman Davis said, doesn't mean we can't pull back down the road. So, it's really to help get funding for this to try to make it to fruition, but it's it's my impression this is not full funding of the project by any stretch of the imagination. Can can some of the issues if we pass this resolution and get the letter of support can some of the other issues like uh financial support for some of the businesses be resolved in the next four or five years? Yeah, I think certainly saying I would say this, right? I would I would say that we staff certainly understand as this thing moves forward that our goal is to develop a layout that impacts the businesses in the area um as little as possible negatively and we will keep pushing for that. And then as this thing starts to come to fruition, we think it's going to happen. To me, that's where our time is well spent saying, "All right, now that we know what year it is, it's now 20 whatever 2035, 2040, right? It it who knows, maybe it's 2028. We say, what's things look like now and what are those tools that we want to put in place to to fix it? I think I think we're better off doing that than coming up with something now that won't make sense down the road.

Mayor, can we get call the question? This is Yes. Um, I I feel like we've discussed this enough that we kind of I feel have enough information for us to be able to vote to be able to move forward or to either move it to another another meeting if we need more information going forward. So, um, can I get a motion to approve resolution 26R-018? So, move. Second.

Okay. Uh, we have a motion by Mayor Prom Davis, a second by Council Member Watson. Can I get everybody to cast the votes? Okay, we have five yays, one nays. Uh, can I get the votes published, please? Okay, motion passes. Okay. Uh, moving on to action item seven, resolution 26R-010, authorizing a service and maintenance agreement with Honeywell for public safety station alerting services. Uh, do we have uh uh Mr. Bird? Bluebird. Council, mayor, and city management. This resolution is to get into an agreement for hardware and software maintenance for our station alerting system. It is for the four stations that we have now with the possibility adding the fourth fire station coming up next year. It is uh for a one-year term with the option to re renew for four additional years after that.

Any questions? Okay. Do I have any council members that have any questions? Yes. How many years did you say that was? This is for a one year with the option to renew for four additional terms. Gotcha. Yes, sir. Okay. Basey four-year option. Okay. Uh, Council Member Maluso, if no one else has any questions, I'll make a motion. Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Council Member Maluso, a second by Council Member Hayward. Can I get everybody to cast your votes? [snorts] Can I get the votes published? Having six yays, no nays. Motion passes. Okay, moving on to item eight. uh discuss action plan for ICSC 2026 in Las Vegas. Got this one, Mr. Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. And this is more of just a discussion item. We're looking for direction from the council. And I I I put some background in the in the uh packet here in the staff memo, but you may or may not know that over the last three years, the city has participated in the International Council of Shopping Centers. It's the ICSC conference in Las Vegas and it is the largest retail conference in the entire United States where about 25,000 people come together, decision makers in fact, that are there representing the retail establishments as well as the development community. And there are also some sessions that that discuss kind of the front end of of what's happening in that industry. It's extremely valuable for a city like us to participate in that. And in effect, we're going there to try and get retail to come to town. We have done it for three years in a row. This would be the fourth year in a row to do it. And we we've kind of had varying degrees of success. the first year somewhat being amateurs us not having gone before we didn't have much of a strategy but we did make some some headway in terms of learning the landscape and and and looking how to proceed there the next year we went with a little bit larger team and got a booth along with some other organization uh some other cities frankly in the greater SATX area we don't feel like that was very successful we didn't weren't able to make as many contacts. Last year, what we did is we slimmed down the team to four people and it was the it was Scott, the executive director of economic development, and Amy, the assistant director, and the mayor, Mayor Gutierrez, who's here tonight, and

myself. We went as a team and we broke up and we were able to hit meetings one after the other. And if you've ever been to the Las Vegas Convention Center, it's I don't even know how many millions of square feet. I think we watched multiple walked a bunch of miles and had a bunch of meetings. We had over 16 meetings in two and a half days. We which was exponentially higher and more effective than we were able to do it in the past. And we we actually had several really good conversations that that carried on even when we got back to to shirts. we were able to continue on and that we feel like we helped close some deals that were pending for Shirt Station as well as generate some new uh new possibilities and leads that we are actually still working on. So the intent tonight we we feel like that's an effective model that that kind of seek and destroy model small team meeting and getting um getting as many meetings in as we can and and maximizing our time. this year there's been some interest by another council member to go and so I wanted to open it up to the council to see if the council if there are other council members and have a discussion if they're interested in going we can we we feel like we stay with the same strategy but then maybe we change it a little bit to where some of the team can go to the sessions because that is valuable information and it is it it's helpful for us to know those things that are going on in the industry So, I just wanted to throw it out there for the council and and I'll put council uh woman Watson on the spot. She was the one who requested to go be part of the team. So, I wanted to see if there was other interest from council members in terms of going and it is in May May Scott May 20th

18 to 20 18th through 20th. Yes. So, um and I will just throw that out there mayor for the council and see if there's any discussion. Okay. Any discussion uh amongst council members that would like to attend? I have a I have a question. Yes. Uh Mr. Williams, you said the first year it was like minor, very little success. Second year about the same, maybe a little bit higher. Third year it was much success. Is that correct?

I I think we were more successful. Yeah. I mean gauging by the number of meetings and the effectiveness in those meetings I I feel like the last year was the most effective. Yes, we went to 16 meetings in two days effectively. So So the program is increasing is what what you're saying according to the track record. Not the program. The program the program is the same. It's just how we've been able to meet and have those quality discussions has gotten better.

Thank you. And and I'm not suggesting that we we don't have more people go. I just suggest we rethink our strategy in terms of, you know, keep the parts that were are working well for us and we find another way to g gain value from the conference. Mayor Pro Tim Davis, there's a regional one in San Antonio February 17th to 18th. Are we going to that? I believe we are. Yes. Yes, sir. and and it is important because those are the folks that are closer to home to to meet with him as well. Any other discussions? Any other members that would like to attend?

Okay. You're it. Council.

Okay. I would just say that, you know, if there was a concern that if a higher amount of individuals went that it would potentially cause, you know, bog down the efforts, you know, it's, you know, we have to question, is it worth the expense? So, I think it would have to just be an evaluation. If if we had more people, is that going to hurt hurt our chances or I mean, or hurt our activities or would that help? Yeah, I might I might kick this to Scott as well, but in my opinion, I think, and Scott can maybe describe the way the booths are laid out, it it's pretty packed with people, and you maybe have room for a a couple of people to sit and talk to that developer or that retailer. And it does, it requires a certain level of expertise as well and knowledge. why staff is there because they it it is a it's a different world and if you're not ready for it I mean things move quickly and they are expecting it to move quickly as well the people you're talking to. So Scott, anything you want to add to that?

Thank you Mr. Williams. What I will tell you is when you get there, everybody there's just a whole bunch of booths and it's the largest retail con convention in the world and those booths are just jam-packed with people trying to get the facetime with the Texas representative that's working that booth for that company. So, you have to really more or less make a pest of yourself and try to linger in that area. And it's easier for one person to kind of linger in the area and kind of work its way in than it is for a group of four. And this will be my 26th ICSC. I've been with the city of Live Oak in the past and we've had two people go and the most maybe the mayor has has went along too, but but she's also had a very limited role to where she shows up for the meeting, she shakes hands and then we get out of there so they can continue their leasing discussions and things like that. The impetus for this tonight is they've changed things up on us. It is now Monday through Wednesday and they were also not letting you register for hotels until you're registered for the conference. So, we went ahead and grabbed hotels for the three of us who are who are going from the city. So, if anybody from the council is going, we need to know that four people, four rooms, five.

We got five. Okay, we got rooms, but they but they required us to get the rooms in advance and you couldn't get them prior to to registering. So, I don't know how we have rooms if we don't know who all is for sure going, but we're going to get there one way or the other for sure. Council member Westbrook. Yeah. Sorry, mayor. Maybe this was a topic better suited for at the end to put something on the future agenda. Just a concern I've heard over a period of time is the uh number of dentist nail places. You know what I'm saying? Maybe you won't see any dental or nail people at ICS. I promise you. Maybe you get to more diver. I It's just a comment that I've heard of.

I No, I'll be I'll I'll be candid and respond to that that we are working very hard to attract restaurants and uh a lot of the signage you see at Shirt Station. We met with those folks and we are working towards getting more of those types of folks. That's we are we are focusing on what we hear that people want and it it's a business decision for them to invest in our community and we are there to try and sell ourselves to them and and ask them to to to invest in us. Council member Guerrero,

I have a question for you, sir. um just to be more effective. If we send a a group of personnel down there, what how many how many would uh would you recommend?

You know, I would say groups of two as you're hitting the booths are affected, but when in the meetings, probably a group of three. So, I mean, we in the past, we've kind of divided and conquered on a couple of these meetings. We divided up in the mornings, joined up for the meetings, and then divided back up. So, a group of two or three is optimal when you're getting in those booths. Yeah, I just want to be more effective because I mean the things that we don't have here in shirts like Trader Joe's, Central Market, HB, BMW, things like that that we don't have that most or a lot of residents want that would be effective. We certainly understand that.

All right. Any other any other questions? All right. We don't need a vote on this, do we? Uh, no, sir. So the direction I think we have is that it'll be the same type of team as last year with Scott and Amy and I will be from the staff and then the mayor from the council and then we're adding Councilwoman Watson. So if if that's and if unless there's anybody else who would like to be added to the team, I just ask them to speak up now so we can make arrangements. And there is a bit of a timing issue, right? The hotel rooms go fast. So that's why we're bringing it to y'all now.

I I would potentially be open to going again. So that would give us two teams of three. Okay. Well, that's how we'll proceed then. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Item number eight was just for information purposes only. No action to be taken on item number eight. Uh moving on to item number nine. We're going to have a open up a public hearing on ordinance 26-m002. Conduct a public hearing to consider amending chapter 90 article 5 water and wastewater capital recovery fees section 90-142 definitions capital improvement and advisory committee. Uh Mr. James or I'm sorry Woodley. Hi, you're stuck with me.

Oh, let's have the public hearing first. Do we have anybody that would like to come up and speak on behalf of ordinance 26-m2 going once, going twice. All right. Uh so we opened up at the the public hearing at 7:24 and we closed it at 7:25 with uh nobody coming up to speak. Uh go ahead, Miss Woodley.

All right. I'll be brief. Um, so this is simply um a definition change. We're not changing impact fees. Um, we're not changing anything else in the ordinance. Um, there was legislation in the in the past session regarding the requirement for the makeup of the capital improvement advisory committee commonly called CIA. Um, that dictated uh how that committee must be made up. Previously, we were able to use our planning and zoning commission with a couple additional folks to um meet the requirements uh and we'll no longer be able to do that. We have to have um representatives uh who are not employees or officials of a governmental entity and planning and zoning commission was deemed too close to the definition of a governmental entity. So we'll have to have um a minimum of five folks not less than 50% from the real estate development building industries. Um and also we will have a member who is uh resident of the ETJ because our some of our fees do apply to the ETJ. So simply fixing the definition of being in compliance with um chapter 395 of the Texas Texas local government code. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve ordinance 26M 002.

Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Council Member Hayward, a second by Council Member Guerrero uh to approve uh ordinance 26-m2. Uh can I get everybody to cast the votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Okay. Having six yays, no nays, uh motion passes. All right. Uh we're going to go ahead and move to requests and announcements. Uh no discussion uh to occur on these other items. Uh, so requested announcements by the mayor, council members for updates or information from staff. Anybody needing any information from staff? Okay. Uh, do I have any council members that would like um any presentations or any agenda items to be placed on future uh city council meeting agendas? No. Okay. Uh do we have uh any city and community events attended and to be attended uh that you all want to present?

Yeah, I attended the uh parks board at the last meeting. Nothing at this time. I believe since the last meeting we had the uh fire award ceremony. Um we had three officer that retired their um ceremony as well and then the um station 4 groundbreaking today. Firefighters banquet. I attended that. Firefighters banquet. Mayor

um I attended the ribbon cutting at the uh shirts collection. It they looked like homes. It's amazing what they've done. They spared no expense. I guess I could say expense, but they just really made that a premium rental um home area. The finishes were amazing. I attended the um police retirement and the main street committee meeting as well as the ribbon cutting today for the fire station. That's all.

Okay. And I attended the mayor's workshop that was held in the city of Santa Clara and also the ribbon cutting for station number four today. Having uh no other announcements, we're going to go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 7:29. Man, we about killed that on five, didn't we?