City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, thank you all for coming. Today's July 21st, 2026. It is 6 p.m. We will go ahead and get our regular session city council meeting to order. First call to order is going to be opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States and the state of Texas. Can I get everybody to please rise? Council Member Macaluso.

Yes, Jesus, I thank you for everything you've blessed us with, myself, my family, everyone here. I ask that you continue to bless our community. Thank you for being with our staff during this possible national holiday. natural disaster, giving them the knowledge and the ability to make quick decisions to provide comfort to the families of our town. I ask that you are with the individuals that did suffer harm to their property or any kind of damage or injury that they may have occurred, and ask that you bless us all. In your name we pray, amen. Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

with liberty and justice for all.

Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you for that, Council Member McAluso. We have a couple of presentations we'd like to do. We're gonna go ahead and start off by a presentation that I wanted to give a while back to one of our former council members, Alison Hayward. if you may come up. One of the things that I wanted to present her with was a United States flag, and we have that here today. Council member Allison Hayward served on place six, and she's also served on various committees to include being a TML president. So let me come down, I'll present you with the flag. Now to our next presentation, Municipal Clerk's Office Achievement of Excellence Award. We have a presenter, City Secretary Shelly Goodwin. Shelly's from the city of Rockport.

So it is my pleasure to present the Municipal Clerk's Office of Achievement Excellence Award to the City Secretary, Sheila Edmondson, and her team, Cherie, Irene, and Melissa. The City of Church City Secretary is amongst a distinguished group of municipal clerk's offices across the state of Texas to receive this prestigious award. The Excellence Award is presented by the Texas Municipal Clerks Association to recognize excellence of efficient and effective management of a municipal clerk's office. To earn this designation, you have to win. You have to meet the criteria of 9 of 12. And they range from records management, open government transparency, open meetings act, the municipal public information act, and a few more. This award reflects an office's commitment to professionalism, innovation, transparency, and outstanding public service. On behalf of the Texas Municipal Clerks Association Board of Trustees and Directors, it is my honor to congratulate Sheila at City Secretary team and the City of Shirts on winning this award. And just on a side note, just pulling that packet together and doing it in an exact way that they ask is a huge achievement.

Thank you so much. If y'all would like to come down.

Good evening, Council, staff, and residents. I would like to begin saying thank you to Ms. Shelley Goodwin from the City of Rockport for traveling here to the City of Shorts to present the Achievement of Excellence Award to the City Secretary Department. Also, again, I would like to introduce our staff here. We have Deputy City Secretary Cherie Kearney. We also have Assistant City Secretary Irene Chavez. And right there in the back is our Records Management Coordinator, Melissa Zipp. I WON'T REPEAT WHAT SHELLEY SAID ABOUT SOME OF THE REQUIREMENTS AND THE STANDARDS THAT OUR OFFICE HAD TO MEET AND PROVIDE EXAMPLES FOR. BUT THEY WERE 12 STANDARDS AND THEY WERE QUITE EXTENSIVE. I DO WANT TO SAY A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO SHERRIE. SHE TOOK THE LEAD ON THIS PROGRAM AND REALLY WAS ABLE TO IDENTIFY AND GET ALL OF US FINDING THE RIGHT RECORDS AND WE PUT IT TOGETHER IN RECORD TIME. SO WITH SHERRIE'S EFFORT, A LOT OF THIS GOES TO HER. THANK YOU, SHERRIE. This marks the second time the city secretary's office has received the achievement of excellence award. The first year was 2021 to 2022 and recognize the efforts of the former city secretary staff. For the current city staff, this is our first award and hopefully not our last. Again, thank you, Shelly, for joining us tonight. And I also wanted to extend my one last moment to thank the staff that I work with every day who consistently strive to provide the best possible service from our office. Thank you.

Very well deserved. Thank you ladies very much for everything that, not only what you do for the city staff, but also for serving the residents of our community. So thank y'all very much. Moving on to city events and announcements. Announcements of upcoming city events. We have Deputy City Manager Brian James.

Thank you, Mayor. Just to let folks know, this Friday, July 24th, Parks is doing music and movies in the park, and that movie is gonna be Cars. That's at 8 p.m. at Ashley Park at 534 Ashley Park. Tuesday, July 28th, Parks is doing a foam party. That's at 7 p.m. at Rhine Valley Park, 9958 Mullhouse Drive. Saturday, August 1st, Parks is hosting the Shirts Hometown Harvest, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. That's at Pickerel Park, 703 Oak Street. And then Tuesday, August 4th, Parks is doing a Nerf war, 7 p.m. at Heritage Oaks Park, 11700 Longleaf Parkway. or long leave. Unfortunately, that conflicts with our next council meeting, which is also August 4th at 6 p.m., but maybe if we get out quick, we can catch the end of the Nerf war. And then just as the ongoing reminder, for the election coming up in November, city council places three, four, and five. Candidate pickup is available and filing is open and has been open since July 20th through August 17th. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to announcements and recognition by our city manager, Steve Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to give a big kudos and shout out to all the staff and the hard work they put in last week during our rain event. And a lot of times we see the stuff on the surface, we see the public works, the public safety out there, but there's a lot more to it. There's preparation by our emergency management team as well as all of our staff members to prepare and make sure that we're well equipped and set up and ready to go. There's also, I wanna give a kudos to a lot of the other staff that helped support in ways like opening a shelter with our parks department staff and IT and people who stuck around and even answered phones well into the night. And of course, kudos to our police, fire, EMS, public works departments for being out there all night and making sure that we did the right things the right way. I believe they did a fantastic job, kept a lot of people from harm's way. And along that vein, I would like to read an email that I got from from a Mrs. Claire Layden. You've probably seen her at our council meetings several times over the last few years. A big part of what we do in an event like that is to make sure that we communicate effectively with the public. And she sent us a kudos reading Leaders of shirts, I would have liked to tell you the following in person because I think it needs wider public than an email. Unfortunately, I'm not able to make it to tomorrow night's council meeting. Hence, this email, which I hope you will share. The city's web posting concerning last week's rain was amazing. As soon as I heard on one of the many different news outlets I was listening to to report that Cibolo Creek was flooding over FM 78, I immediately went to the city's website. From the news report, I feared a repeat of the last century's amazing floods when the Cibolo Creek devastated 190 acres that is now Crescent Bend Nature Park. Never in my 30-plus years of living in this area have I ever seen such current and useful information concerning a potentially devastating event so clearly laid out. I was proverbially gobsmacked. I'm not sure which department and whom all might have been involved in posting the updated information, but I want to thank them. I would also like to thank all of the police, firemen, and EMS who stood by during this situation. They all did shirts proud. So I'm proud when we get an email like that, and I'm proud for the acknowledgement of the great job that our public affairs folks, as well as our public safety, public information. You received an email from me earlier today kind of explaining that process. It is a big effort to make sure that the information's current, and it's really nice to get an acknowledgement like this. So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, and I kind of share the same sentiment. Steve, definitely want to say thank you to you and your staff, job well done. The first responders did a tremendous job out there to include public works. A lot of long, hard hours are put into that, not just during the event, but also after the event and also before the event. And I also wanna say thank you to a lot of our residents for being cooperative and moving out when they did. I've been around for a lot of the flooding events and I gotta say this last one went pretty smoothly. So I appreciate all the cooperation from our residents. We're gonna go ahead and move on to hearing of residents. This time is set aside for any person who wishes to address the city council. Each person should fill out the speaker's register prior to the meeting. Presentation should be limited to no more than three minutes. All remarks should be addressed to the council as a body and not to any individual member thereof. Any person making a personal, impertinent, or slanderous remark while addressing the council may be requested to leave the meeting. All handouts and or USB devices must be submitted to the city secretary no later than noon on the Monday preceding the meeting. Handouts will be provided to each council member prior to the start of the meeting by the city secretary. All USB devices will be vetted by the city IT staff to ensure city property is protected from malware. The first person that we have to come up to speak is Greg Sebold from the Scenic Hills community. When you come up, if you'll please state your name and your address for the record, please.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. Williams, and staff. My name is Gregory Siebel. My address is 3841 Greenridge, Inchurch. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of Scenic Hills Community Association. Unfortunately, I'm here to reiterate our concern for a stormwater situation that has caused our community over $300,000 in counting to date. We are a community of 55 plus adults that represent 211 lots, including 207 homes. We have approximately 350 plus or minus residents, 80 of which are single widows over 70 years old. The last collapse that occurred in 2021 from the same issue cost each lot $1,050, a significantly negative effect on those residents.

I arrived after the collapse, but I still had to pay.

At the last council meeting, I brought to your attention a serious sinkhole situation where approximately 105 feet of roadway collapsed. The morning after it occurred, I contacted Mr. Robert Martinez from your street department. He came over that morning, May 27th, with another gentleman whose name I don't remember. At that time, only about 18 to 20 feet had collapsed. His impression that he shared was when we fixed the infrastructure, the city would repair the street. However, a significant amount of rain fell after, causing the rain to collapse. I contacted Mr. Brian James at the suggestion of Mr. Williams last council meeting. When Mr. James and I first spoke last week, he said that staff and himself were inundated due to rains and storms and could I wait until Monday to get together. I completely understood the predicament and agreed mentioning that my Monday schedule was wide open without setting a specific time or place. Yesterday, Monday, July 20th, I called Mr. James' office around 10.08, left a message. Having not heard from him, I again called his office at 1530 and was advised that he was in a meeting and would call me when finished. Mr. James called back at 1539 and offered we meet either Thursday the 23rd at 1500 or Friday at 1000. I contacted Kerry Flanagan, our HOA president, and we decided that 23rd at 1500 would be best. I sent an email to Mr. James affirming such. I may have misinterpreted Mr. James's demeanor. However, it sounded like he had already made up his mind that the city had no liability. Hence, my reason for speaking with you this evening. The city, whether by their approval or through annexation, allowed approximately 30-plus homes with driveways, road surface, to be constructed without installing a storm drain system, other than grading it in such a way as that water falling on impervious cover was directed straight down into our community, which caused flooding in many places until the flow reached our storm drain system and was averted. It is my understanding that when contacted, the city came out assessed the situation several years ago and decided that they would install a catch-and-redirect system that intentionally diverted all that water into our community's storm drain system, which overloaded what the system had been designed to handle. Should I pass it off to somebody else, and can I use his three minutes?

That's up to Mr. Cain Flanagan if he wants to pass his three minutes on to you. Okay. Okay.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I have several videos that clearly depict the magnitude of the problem during a recent rainfall and another taken approximately 20 minutes after the rain had stopped, showing significant amounts of water coming from that community into our drain system. We addressed the council at the last session on July 7 and thought the reaction was genuine regarding the city's need to assist. Texas Water Code. 11.086, which I provided, I know you know how to find it, but I thought it was easier for you to see, which is included in my handout for your perusal, clearly assigns the duty to repair the failed system because of improper or illegal diversion of stormwater. Our HOA has been forced to shoulder the entire burden of this catastrophe in order to return the storm drain system to a functioning system and allow for traffic to flow and avoid further immediate damage to property or persons. We have contracted with a company to restore the collapsed portion up to but not including the roadway surface. I realize that Texas statutes prohibit cities from maintaining streets on private property. However, Texas statutes also assign responsibility to the city for damaging that same private property. We prefer to handle this amicably. Therefore, we are asking you, Mr. Mayor and council members. to create an approval resolution to compensate Scenic Hills Community Association for actual damages incurred by this breach of Texas Water Code. We understand that there may be a process for filing a claim in this issue. If so, please tell me who to speak to, what to do, or how to file that out. I would appreciate that. I still have a minute. I did not include this because I just got it before I got here. This is, and you can't see it very well and I apologize, but this is a map of the city's website stormwater management from 2009. And I will point to you, can you see if you can all see this vacant area here? 2009, there were no homes. There were no streets. There was no stormwater system. This is the storm drain systems. Now there's 30 plus homes there and still no storm drain system except driving it down our community. Therefore, I'm asking you to take a look at this closer. Mr. James's opinion might not have been how I perceived it. And I apologize if that's the case. But we're asking the city to create a solution that doesn't cost each of our community members another $1,050. Thank you for your time. God bless you all.

Thank you, next we have David Pristage. Okay. Having no other citizens, residents to be heard, we'll go ahead Move on to our 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. Do I have any council members wanting to move any items from the consent agenda? Having none, can I get a motion?

So moved. I'm sorry, so moved.

Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion made by Council Member Watson, seconded by Council Member Dietz. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Having seven yays, no nays, motion passes. All right, moving on to discussion and action items. Item four, ordinance 26-M-029, amending council rules of conduct and procedure, appointment process for city council liaison positions. We have our deputy city secretary, Cherie Kearney.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight, I bring back Ordinance 26M29, Amending the Council Rules of Conduct and Procedure. This amendment reinstates Section 5.3, the Appointment Procedure for City Council Member and City Council Liaison Positions to the City of Shirts Boards, Commissions, and Committees, and additionally revises Section 6.1B, which addresses the order of which items are listed on the City Council Agenda. That is new from the last one. So as previously mentioned, Section 5.3 was inadvertently omitted from the Council Rules of Conduct and Procedure with the adoption of Ordinance 23M28. So Ordinance 26M029 reinstates that section and incorporates the Council's recommendation from the June 16th City Council Workshop as well as the revisions requested during the July 7th City Council Meeting. So the provisions are an appointed city council member or city council liaison must be the mayor or a council member who meets the qualifications set forth in section 4.02 of the city charter. The individual must be an elected or appointed member of the city council and remain a member in good standing throughout the appointment. Member and liaison assignments shall be reviewed by NLE each December of every even-numbered year beginning in 2026. The review shall occur following the regular municipal election to provide for a comprehensive assessment of all assignments while maintaining continuity of service. Newly elected or appointed council members and the mayor shall temporarily assume the assignments of their predecessors until the next scheduled review. Board, commission, and committee member and liaison assignments shall be made using council seniority as a starting point. while providing meaningful opportunities for newer council members to serve in areas of interest. The assignment process shall begin with the mayor, followed by council members in order of seniority. During each round, each official shall select two assignments consisting of one member assignment and one liaison assignment. The process shall continue in order of seniority until all assignments have been filled. Council shall seek to maintain continuity of assignments where appropriate while providing periodic opportunities for rotation so that council members may gain experience serving on different boards, commissions, and committees over time. Assignment changes between biennial reviews may be approved by majority vote of the council when mutually agreed upon or when circumstances such as workload, scheduling conflicts, or personal commitments warrant reassignment. An appointed city council member or city council liaison may be removed from an assignment at any time by a two-thirds vote of the members of council. City council liaison will attend meetings for observation and communication purposes only and will provide updates and information from their assigned board, commission, or committee as needed or requested by the council. City council liaisons are not ex officio members of boards, commissions, or committees to which they are assigned. Their role is to facilitate communication between the city council and their assigned board, commission, or committee not to direct or influence its actions. City council liaisons shall exercise caution in expressing personal or political opinions during meetings of their assigned board, commission, or committee. Any comments made by a council member shall be clearly identified as the council member's individual opinion and shall not be represented as the position for the city council unless authorized by council action. Council members shall also recognize that board, commission, and committee members serve the community as a whole and not individual council members. A city council member appointed to serve on a board commissioner committee is expected to attend all meeting and special meetings of the assigned body. The appointed member shall serve as a full participant, exercise all voting rights afforded by the appointment, actively engage in discussions and deliberations, and represent the interests of the City Council while contributing to the work of the assigned body. Council reserves the right to amend, suspend, or replace this procedure at any time by amendment to its rules of procedure and approved via ordinance. The amendment to section 6.1b order for listing items responsible staff. The agenda shall list all items for consideration in a format recommended by the city manager. The name and title of the person or persons expected to present shall be stated on the agenda. The goal of this amendment was to establish a single comprehensive council liaison policy that defines the functions, responsibilities, standards of conduct, and appointment procedures by consolidating the applicable provisions of the Code of Ethics and the Council Rules of Conduct and Procedure. I believe that Ordinance 26M-029 now meets this goal.

Okay, is there any questions by Council? Having no questions, can I get a motion to accept Ordinance 26-M-029?

I motion that we approve Ordinance 26M-029.

I second, Mayor. Okay, so we have a motion made by Council Member Watson, a second by Council Member Westbrook. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yays, no nays, motion passes. Thank you. Moving on to item five, boards and commissions and committees. Appoint city council members as members and or liaison to city council boards, commissions, and committees. We have Deputy City Secretary Cherie Kearney.

So with the passing of Ordinance 26M-029, Section 5.3B, Member and Liaison Assignments, will be reviewed biannually each December of every even-numbered year beginning in 2026. The review shall occur following the regular municipal election to provide for comprehensive assessment of all assignments while maintaining continuity of service. Newly elected or appointed council members and the mayor shall temporarily assume the assignments of their predecessors until the next scheduled review. So at this time, I'm asking whether or not the assignments that were provided to Council Members Hayward and Council Member Brown are going to be ratified and presented to Council Members Dietz and Council Member Sheridan.

Do I have any discussion items on that?

No objections?

So it's accepting the, so are they willing to accept those current responsibilities?

If they are willing to accept and council approves it, then we can go ahead and put them on those boards as the liaison and or member.

Okay, can I get...

I'm willing to accept them.

Same here. Okay, and we need to go ahead and... Any objections from council? Any objections from the council for them to be able to keep those responsibilities?

No objections, I'm here.

Do we need a motion for them to accept that?

I don't believe so. Just to clarify, so based on the action just taken, this will be revisited in November, correct?

In December after. December after the election. Yes, sir. That'll be a full comprehensive review. Right now we're just accepting them on a temporary basis. Okay.

Council Member Watson, did you have a question? No? Okay. And so by them accepting the responsibilities, we don't need to take motion?

No, not unless there's an objection from council. Okay.

All right, no objections. All right, moving on to item six, Resolution 26-R-083, TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool Nomination to Board of Trustees, City Secretary Sheila Edmondson.

Good evening, excuse me. Good evening, Mayor, council, city staff, and residents. Tonight, I bring forward resolution 26R083, a resolution to nominate someone to the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool Board of Trustees. Currently, there are four positions of the TML IRP Board of Trustees whose terms expire October 1, 2026. Those places and their current members are Place 1, J.W. Buzz Fullen, who's Commissioner of Henderson Housing Authority. Place 2, Emily Crawford, City Manager in Abilene. Place 3, David Rutledge, Mayor of Bridge City. And Place 4, Austin Bleas, CITY MANAGER OF JERSEY VILLAGE. THE GOVERNING BODY OF EACH MEMBER OF THE POOL MAY NOMINATE ONE QUALIFIED PERSON FOR ELECTION. THE NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED TO THE BOARD SECRETARY BY SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2026. THE BOARD SECRETARY DAVID REAGAN WILL DISTRIBUTE A BALLOT TO EACH POOL MEMBER BY AUGUST 17, 2026. There is a number next to their name. So for place one, Mr. Fullen, there is a number one. I was told by Mr. Reagan currently there's one nomination for place one. He didn't tell me the name. For place two, there are a total of two nominations for place two. Place three, Mr. David Rutledge will not be seeking reappointment. However, there are two nominations for place two, excuse me, place three at the moment. And place four, there is one nomination for place four. So the other three of those Board of Trustees are seeking reassignment or reappointment. Just place three, Mr. Rutledge, is not. Thank you.

Okay, do we have anybody in council that... would like to nominate anybody for the TML Intergovernmental Risk Pull Board of Trustees?

Mayor, I will say this. I do know Emily Crawford personally. If somebody wants to nominate her, I would vouch for her.

I don't know if it's appropriate or not. So there's a recommendation by the city manager with a, Council member, former council member Allison Hayward agree with that one? Are you familiar with? If they do agree, I don't mind recommending. What's your name?

Emily Crawford, city manager of Abilene.

I'll make a recommendation. We support the city manager of Abilene.

I agree.

All right. I believe we need to make a motion on that one too, correct? All right. I'm sorry, sir. We need to make a motion.

Yes.

So can I get a motion for us to represent Emily Crawford, City Manager of Abilene, for the TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool Board of Trustees?

I make a motion, Mayor. Second.

Okay, I got a motion by Council Member Westbrook, seconded by Council Member Macaluso. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Yes. Can I get the votes published, please? Having six yeas, one nays, motion passes. We'll be representing Emily Crawford, City Manager of Abilene.

Thank you.

Moving on to resolution 26-R-084, authorizing expenditures with heat safety equipment for fire department self-contained breathing apparatus, also known as SCBAs. We have Fire Chief Greg Rogers.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Williams. All right, so I just want to go over real quick and discuss a couple of reasons of the why and where we are with our program and where we're headed in this and kind of what the state of Texas is. is requiring us to do so. Why are SCBA replacements required? To maintain compliance under current NFPA standard and TCFP requirements. In 2024, NFPA 1580 was adopted, and while that is a standard, and we do not have to necessarily comply with all standards in the NFPA, once TCFP adopts them, they become a requirement for which we do. Therefore, it makes it mandatory in this case for us to replace our SCBAs. Our existing ones have exceeded their warranty on their service life. Service life referencing in 1580 now is 15 years. Now, there are a few variables in there, but those other ones don't apply to us in this situation. This one does. And while not all of our packs have fall into this because we bought them at differing times, it does not allow you to make a change to one pack, not even one, where you don't make a complete wholesale change. And most of that doesn't do into a safety factor, and I'll talk to that a little bit more here in a second. So... Currently, we have 50 SCBAs in our fleet of responsibility. When I got here, we had approximately eight more than that. We had about 58. We've had some issues, some breakdown, whatever. But when we put truck four into service or platform two at the moment, That truck, we did not buy air packs with. We had so many in reserve, and we took four out of our reserve fleet and put them on there so we didn't have to go out and spend roughly $40,000 at the time. It works out better now, and we don't have to go back up in numbers because the air packs that we're buying have... cleaning capacity that the old ones did not. And one of the biggest parts of that is due to the cancer-causing initiative that we're going through with carcinogens from Firebase. So it's not just breathing it, it's absorbing it through your skin and we're trying to eliminate that the best we can. So in 2027, approximately two-thirds of our inventory will not meet the NFPA. That O on there is no checks to charge. Limited communication capacity and cancer prevention in our existing ones. Where we're going, and this is the best part, is I've never seen communication like this in our SCBA programs out there. I applaud Scott. uh, on what they've accomplished in the way that members will be able to see, talk and work with each other will far exceed anything that we've ever been able to do. And one of the hardest challenges on the fire ground is an atypical moments when things are really going tough and you need to hear what someone's trying to say. You want to be able to hear it in this setting. It is the clearest I've ever heard. Um, The other part is all of our mutual and automatic aid partners that we work with all the time, specifically directly around this Universal City, Live Oak, Selma, and Cibolo, all of them have already made changes. And now our packs don't hook up to theirs. And if we needed to swap air, do different things in emergency situations, we don't have the capacity to do that. And the limited interoperability is a huge part. So the strategic benefits of a full replacement for us is establishes a compliant CBA program, and this will carry us because of the 15 years through 2042. If we're compliant after two, however, cycles through new NFPA standards, it can go up to 2047. This eliminates another department-wide replacement in 15 years. However, for long-term fiscal planning, that's my favorite part is that With them setting a standard, we can plan for replacement in the future. It doesn't have to just sneak up on us because it's obviously a very costly endeavor. We talked about the communication and our long-term maintenance program. The one that we go through with them through our warranty period, other than paying for the testing annually that we're required to do, there is no maintenance cost. Everything is covered under this. I can tell you right now in the four months that we've been out of warranty, we've almost amassed $10,000 worth of repairs, for which I've parked those for the time being because I obviously wanted to see where this goes and not spend that money until we get to that point. Any questions?

Council Member Westbrook? Yes, Chief Rogers. So we talked about NFPA. If you want to, I guess, sort of, what does NFPA stand for? What does TCFP stand for? And you've already talked about SCBA. So that's the first one, just for the acronyms, just for individuals listening, because they may not always know what NFPA stands for. But the other part was, once we do replace all of the SCBAs, self-contained breathing apparatus, what do, like, If it doesn't allow for us to replace them one at a time, in the future are we gonna have to replace all of them at the same time or are we gonna be able to piecemeal it? You know what I'm saying? Like, we're gonna get all of them. Now what do we do if, One is broken, damaged in the next two, three, four, five years?

Sure, no problem. Excellent question. And first, NFPA is the National Fire Protection Association, and indirectly it's our governing body. Even though they are standards, there are, I believe, approximately 12 that the Texas Commission on Fire Protection, that's TCFP, that have adopted, and those are requirements for us to do. We don't Some of them cost money. Those are unfunded mandates if it happens in the middle of the year. But we must comply with those rules. If not, when we come for our annual inspection, biannual now, when we come for our biannual inspection, if we're not in compliance, we could be fined, held accountable, et cetera. Luckily, less than a month ago, they came in and we were doing great. No problems on our end. So we're good for two years in that regard. As far as if there's a problem, so there's two ways to approach it. Our warranty period, if we destroy one in negligence, that's one thing. Obviously, that will be our responsibility. As long as it's done out of an accident or something like that, heat will repair anything that goes wrong in that window of time, as long as we're under warranty, of course. From there, moving into replacement of the wholesale program, at 15 years you would. Between now and then, for example, Station 5 is in the capital improvement plan, right? So down the road shortly, five years. then we would buy a new fire truck. That would be a new truck to the fleet, and we would have to buy air packs for that truck. Part of the plan would be how can you accumulate that as you go and not have to incur that one time hit at a full price. We can put it in the replacement because you don't put it in the cost of a replacement apparatus. Obviously, you already have all the equipment for that. You're just replacing the truck. When it's new to the fleet, you have to buy everything on the truck. But once you get closer to the end, and let's say Station 6 comes on and you're two years or three years away from having to do a wholesale replacement, can you hold off on that through your reserve air packs, SCBAs, and not incur that cost because they're only going to go up. The masks alone are $1,500 now. They're impressive in cost and ability, but you have to take excellent care of them.

Council Member Guerrero.

And that was kind of a similar question. Because you're saying we have 15 years warranty, correct? Yes. 15 years. Okay, so if they all are used almost identical, then they'll last 15 years. Is that a good assessment?

That's the hope. Different ones go through different... processes during training and things like that things sometimes get damaged uh as i mentioned some of the agencies around us have already purchased them and they have run into challenges with uh their members not taking as good a care of them and there's a financial burden that comes with that uh if you're negligent right so part of our responsibility is obviously to make sure to put something in place that we don't incur that right um but in excuse me uh the replacement parts uh Primarily the mask and some of the other pieces are just really expensive.

So the good thing is if we're not negligent, then they'll be replaced.

Yes, and I will say in the time that I've been here working with Heat, the gentleman, he's fabulous to work with. He's very honorable. He'll go out on the limb for you for sure.

Thanks, Chief. Council Member McAloosa.

Just got a few questions for you. What was the previous age of the equipment or the age that we currently have?

So they varied, okay? And even a few of them went under a different standard. And that's the part when you go back to purchasing and replacement. Once you go through a couple of standards, if things change, you have to be very careful on what you change or you would be, in turn, required to replace your entire program. So if we went... five years and bought the wrong air pack, we'd have to replace all of them. We would go back and buy the air pack that matches the standard that we have. So we remain compliant. Uh, Age-wise, that was under the 2007 standard, and then we went under the 2013 standard. However, the 2013 standard, and what puts us in trouble here, the sevens weren't that many. The 13 was adopted in 12, even though it was the 13, just like the one we're in now is the 2026 standard, but it was adopted in, or 25 standard was adopted in 24. So it's usually a year behind. Therefore, the packs that we had at that time will be 15 years old next year.

How do they determine when to update the standards? I mean, I'm just wondering, like, I know it has a 15-year warranty, but in five years, is that technology going to be...

Knock on wood, it's supposed to be every four years. They typically don't get it done in four. The committees get together. It usually stretches to about five for every standard. We would be fine. We would be to the third standard probably in that 15 years when it comes up. And whatever technology that they come up with between now and then will... would be where we're at.

So you would have an expectation that that new equipment would last up to 15 years and that there wouldn't need to be a wholesale need to replace them prior to that?

My goal would be to say that, yes, I can't guarantee it. I will say that in the NFPA committees, there are members of business like our air packs or Scott air packs. People from Scott could be on that committee, and they have a motivating factor, of course. But we have the other side that say you've got to build a product that lasts and don't put us in a fiscal negative place where we have to pay a lot of extra money.

My last one there is, you know, it is a significant cost, isn't it? Was there a bid process for that, or how was the vendor determined?

On this particular one, we had a, I'm going to draw a blank, you can help me. Cooperative? Yeah, cooperative, thank you. Purchasing cooperative, where the bids have already come in, and you just go through and pick the things that apply to what you want, and you get to bypass the bid process altogether. We did actually go out on a separate side just to get an idea for what that might be like. from another vendor.

Just, just to be clear, you're not bypassing the bid process. The cooperative, true. The cooperative does the bidding. They do all the work. They fall.

Okay. But I mean, they're still showing that this bid is competitive with what others would have potentially provided that cost for.

Oh yes, absolutely. For sure. Actually, the ones that I saw that I was gonna tell you about, it was significantly higher.

Thank you.

Okay, and the only thing that I could share with council is when it comes to air packs, they do have like a 15-year shelf life, especially the self-contained breathing apparatus bottles. And you cannot get behind no more than two editions. So we're about the third edition now. And so usually you end up having to replace those. On top of that, this is probably one of the most crucial life safety pieces of equipment that our people can wear when they're combating fires. to sit there and tell one that you got to remember this air pack today, if I move you to another station, you got to get used to another air pack. I feel like we're putting our people at risk by doing that. So you definitely want to, if you're going to switch over to a new system, you kind of want to do that across the board and then also put a plan in place to where there's an upkeep so that way you're not doing a mass purchase like this. That's all I have to share with everybody.

Councilmember Westbrook. Keep forgetting. I think what the mayor said is crucial, but how many MOUs do we share with the surrounding municipalities? We have an MOU with everybody, right? All of them. With all of them. And so I guess really when it comes to that interoperability, should there be a major incident, I think the mayor can attest that as a fire chief, those rapid intervention teams, the ability for us to rescue somebody or for somebody to rescue us in the process, you know, that air pack, that's critical. We certainly wouldn't want to put our firefighters at risk because of a lack of ability to share SEBAs or connections with another municipality. That's key.

There are no further discussions. Can I get a motion to approve resolution 26-R- I take that back, resolution 26-R-084.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

Okay, I have a motion by Councilmember Macaluso, seconded by Councilmember Guerrero. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having seven yeas, no nays, motion passes. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, council, appreciate your support.

All right, moving on to item eight, resolution 26-R-080, requesting financial assistance from the Texas Water Development Board, authorizing the filing of an application for assistance, City Engineer Catherine Woodley.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We are looking to get a grant for a lot of money. Thought we'd put this on discussion and action to bring a little more attention to it because it's such a high dollar amount. It's a project that's been around for quite some time. It's been kind of put on hold for a while after we ran into some issues with some easement acquisitions. But with luck, we will be able to get it re-energized and hopefully get quite a bit of funding to go forward. So the legislature allocated or appropriated $1.038 billion in water funds for the state. They gave the money to the Texas Water Development Board to figure out how to distribute it. And so The Water Development Board came up with the Water Supply Infrastructure Grant Program. It's a one-time thing. They've had to themselves scramble around to figure out how they were going to implement the grant program. But they do have an application process. Our applications are due on the 31st. So we do have one of our on-call engineers working on the application process. And... I do want to point out there is one typo in the actual resolution. One of the whereases talks about our population. There are different thresholds of availability of the grant dollar wise based on the population. And we fall in the one from 10,001 people through 150,000. I believe the resolution says 100,001 to 150,000, so it should be 10,001, which is where we fall. And 21 million is our grant eligibility. So hopefully we will be able to recognize that entire amount to be able to fund this project that's currently estimated at about $32 million. And we do have that funded in our CIP. What this would allow us to do would be to expedite the project and also hopefully use some of the bond funds that were otherwise allocated to be used on other projects.

So, questions? All right, any questions on Resolution 26-R-080? Having none, can I get a motion?

I motion that we approve Resolution 26-R-080. Second.

Okay, I have a motion by Council Member Watson, seconded by our Mayor Pro Tem, Mark Davis. Can I get everybody to cast the votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Having seven yays, no nays, motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, item nine is for information. It's available in your council packets. Moving on to requests and announcements. A request by mayor and council members for updates or information from staff. Any requests from staff?

Yes, I'm sorry. For staff, for information, this is a conversation I had previously with Brian in regards to the data centers for the UDC changing them to a more defined for the UDC and removing them out of the industrial zoning district. And I'll have a follow-up email just to go into more detail with that. And then if we can have a work on the process in regards to the recognition, that was with Sheila, and you probably would involve yourself as well, Banger. I think that's all. Yes.

Okay. All right, and then any requests by mayor or council members that items or presentations be placed on any future city council agendas?

Well, I just have one, mayor. I believe we're members of National League of Cities. Are we gonna continue to be a member? I don't know when that, when it's up, when that registration or when our, you know what I'm talking about? I don't know when it's up. I just, I don't know if the council still wants to continue to be a member.

Dave, anybody have any information on that?

Okay. I believe we built it into the budget somewhere.

Okay, any requests by any council members on any items or presentation to be placed on future city council agendas?

Do you have one more comment? If I can put a 90-day deadline on the data center information that it'll go through PNZ and then to council.

Okay. So 90-day on the data center before, so that way it gives it time to go through planning and zoning before it gets brought to council?

Okay.

All right, having no other items, any city and community events attended or to be attended? Council. Nothing tonight, sir.

Nothing tonight.

Nothing tonight.

I attended the Chupacabra ribbon cutting. That's it.

Okay. Nothing, Mayor.

I attended the NEP lunch last week and the chamber lunch today. And Dr. Sheridan and I are attending, I guess it's next week, the TML new council member orientation.

Yes, I attended the SSLGC meeting and then also attended the chamber luncheon. Thank you.

Okay. And I just wanted to remind everybody that we are going to be celebrating the 82nd Guam Liberation Day out at the Church Park on July 25th. So if you all get a chance to come out and celebrate that, I'll be doing a declaration on that day. And that's all I have. Having no other items up for discussion, we'll go ahead and end our council meeting at 6.58.