City Council - Regular Meeting

Like I stated, it's 6 p.m. We're going to go ahead and bring this regular council meeting into session. And we're going to go ahead and start by the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States and the state of Texas by Councilmember Guerrero. If I can get everybody to please stand.

Okay, everyone bow your heads. Lord, we ask for strength, courage, and wisdom for each one of us to make the best decisions for our city. Please watch over this entire city council meeting as we all work together towards resolution of existing challenges and or issues for the best interest of our residents. We worship you, Lord, as we accept Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior. 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. Under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one to hate, one to God, one indivisible.

Thank you, Councilman, Councilmember Guerrero. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and our first item is discussion and action items. Appointment of Mayor Pro Tem, discussion and consideration and or action regarding the confirmation appointment or election of the Mayor Pro Tem. Presenting will be our City Secretary, Sheila Edmondson.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and City staff. Tonight I'm bringing forward the appointment procedure for a new Mayor Pro Tem. In the City Council's Code of Conduct and Procedure under Article 5.1, the appointment procedure for the Mayor Pro Tem is as follows. A, the Council will discuss and with the majority vote, appoint a Council member to serve as the Mayor Pro Tem for the City. B, the appointed mayor pro tem must be a council member and must meet the qualifications of section 4.02 of the city charter. In addition, to be appointed to this position, the mayor pro tem, a council member, must be an elected member of council and a member in good standing. C, term dates for the Mayor Pro Tem position will begin in February and August of each year. Terms will be sequentially rotate, will sequentially rotate according to each council member's place. D, if a council member that is up for appointment as Mayor Pro Tem is vacant or is held by a council member who is not qualified or chooses not to serve as Mayor Pro Tem, the Mayor Pro Tem appointment will go to the next qualified council member. The next in rotation is Council Member Michelle Watson. Thank you.

Okay, are there any discussions? If there are no discussions, can I get someone to make a motion?

I make a motion that Councilmember Michelle Watson become the next Mayor Pro Tem.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion made by Council Member Robert Westbrook, seconded by Council Member Sarah Dietz. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Does she want it? Would you like to accept the Mayor Pro Tem position?

Okay. All right, can I get the votes published, please?

Having four yays, no nays, motion passes. If you'll go ahead and step down, I'll be more than happy to give the oath of office. Okay, if you raise your right hand, repeat after me. I'm Michelle Watson.

I'm Michelle Watson.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully execute the duties of.

That I will faithfully.

City of Church, Mayor Pro Tem.

City of Church, Mayor Pro Tem.

Of the state of Texas.

Of the state of Texas.

And will to the best of my ability.

And to the best of my ability.

Preserve, protect, and defend.

Preserve, protect, and defend.

The Constitution and laws.

The Constitution and laws.

of the United States, and of this state, so help me God. Congratulations. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and move on to employee introductions. This time we have EMS, we have Linda Castle, we have EMS Assistant Chief Tyler Boecker, we'll introduce staff.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Linda Donlia joined us here at Short CMS as our administrative assistant in May of 2026, where she provides administrative support, manages incoming communications, and helps keep daily operations running smoothly. Originally, she was born in Athens, Ohio. She spent part of her childhood in Germany before moving to Alabama and finally here in Texas. where she graduated from Texas State University. Linda enjoys spending time with her husband, Shannon, her children, and especially her first grandchild, while also cheering on Alabama football and working in the yard with friends and family. We're happy to have Linda. We look forward to her continued support here. She's been a great asset to us in the front office, keeping us all running smoothly and on task.

Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Thank you, and welcome to the City of Sharks. Thank you. Next, we have our Police Department. Assistant Chief Phillip Waller will be introducing staff members.

Mayor and Council, I have Officer David Salazar. He comes with us with 16 years experience from the Bivouac PD. Had various roles, but he left there as a sergeant, so he's been hit the road, very experienced. He comes from us, from Frankfort, Germany, before he moved to Texas. He's been with his wife for 26 years, and he has grandkids as well, which makes me feel very old.

So I think we're the same age.

And he enjoys various hobbies, including boxing, basketball, track and field. Sorry, that's his kids, sorry. He does enjoy collecting pocket knives and spending time with his family. And Officer Perez could not be here today, so he'll be pushed into September.

Okay. Okay.

Hello, everybody. Thank you again for the opportunity. I enjoy so far my experience here in the city. It's been very positive and I'm having a good time. Look forward to being here for the rest of my career. Thank you.

Well, welcome to the city church. Look forward to having you. Next, we have police dispatch. We have communications manager, Felicia Campos, who will be introducing staff.

Mayor and council, we are excited about welcoming our newest public safety communications officer, Eugenio Gonzalez. He began his career with us July 13th of 2026. Eugenio was born in Monterey, Mexico. He spent his early childhood in Miami, Florida before moving to San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Johnson High School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in both criminology and criminal justice from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Family is important to Eugenio, and he remains close with his brother, sister, and family who live in the San Antonio area. He and his girlfriend, Chastity, will be celebrating their five-year anniversary soon. One of Eugenio's most unique hobbies is his passion for pinball machines. He not only enjoys playing pinball, but he also repairs and restores machines in his spare time. Recently, he has developed a new love for running and is currently training to compete his first half marathon. Whenever he has a little free time between work, pinball, and running, he also enjoys reading. We're excited to have Eugenio become part of our communications team, and we look forward to watching him grow in his new role.

Thank you, Council. Thank you, Mayor. I really appreciate the opportunity to be working for the City of Church.

Well, we welcome you to the City of Church family. Thank you. Next up, we have Public Works and Water. We have Water and Wastewater Crew Chief Paul Lopez will be introducing staff.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. I'm here to introduce a couple of employees. First off, we have Zion Thomas. He's from Stockton, California. He has a background in plumbing. He has a lot of great knowledge he brings to our team. He enjoys football. He enjoys all types of music, mostly country and metal. He enjoys reading and sleeping. And he enjoys Michael Jackson and likes working out. Next we have Frederick Jones. He's from Midland, Texas. He enjoys family time, fishing and hunting. He enjoys jazz music. He enjoys meditating. And if he has to, he'd like to... Visit the Virgin Islands.

My pleasure of being here. I appreciate everything that the city have done and I'm looking forward to elevating in success with everyone in the community. Thank you.

I'll say it's an honor to be here in Texas moving from California. So far I'm loving it. I love the briskets and The culture. And I love the gas stations, QT. Love that also. Plan on being here for, I'll say, a lifetime, retiring here. It's great people, a great society, and all-around love for everybody. So appreciate the opportunity.

Welcome to the Church family. Thank you. Next up, we have city events and announcements, announcements by upcoming city events. We have ACM, Sarah Gonzalez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. So a few announcements tonight. First, regarding the general election for city council places three, four, and five. Candidate packets are available for those who are interested. Applications will be accepted by the city secretary's office from 8 a.m. through 5 p.m. on business days until Monday, August 17th. Any questions, you can reach out to the city secretary. The council budget retreat has been rescheduled to Tuesday, August 11th. Start time will be 5 p.m. here in council chambers. On Saturday, August 15th will be the Cardboard Boat Regatta. That'll start at 10 a.m. at Pickerel Park Pool. And then finally, our next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be on Tuesday, August 18th at 6 p.m. here in council chambers. Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have announcements and recognition by the city manager, Steve Williams.

No announcements this time, Mayor. Thank you.

Okay, and then we have announcements and recognitions by the mayor. I do just want to address council and the city staff and a lot of the church residents who's kind of reached out and they've had my family and their prayers. My mom did fall ill and she ended up passing away this past Friday. So thank you all for all your condolences and your prayers and for kind of being there for us. So appreciate that. Thank you. Moving to the 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 personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks 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. First up, we're going to have Mr. Daniel Jameson. As you come up, for the record, if you'll just please state your name and your address, please.

Daniel Jameson. 11,000 FM 78 on behalf of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. And I'm here to talk about food. Everybody likes food. So on April 15th at 8 o'clock in the morning, come get a nice breakfast at your Veterans expense. You know, just bring your appetite and a $12 donation, and we'll feed you to the gills. A few of the council people have... indulged in our breakfasts, loved it, and for the size of meal you get, you can't beat the price. So please, August 15th, 8 to 11, here at the VFW Hall, and we welcome everybody. Put it on your calendars, council and staff. Come have a good breakfast on us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Kerry Flanagan. Okay. And then next up we have David Prestridge. You'll be given six minutes and she's forwarding her time to you. Four minutes and five seconds should be adequate.

I like it. If you'll refer to their handouts, eight and a half by 11 and then some yellow pages. They're drawings and they're fairly condensed so You probably really won't be able to gather much from them, at least from the meeting, but I'll be referring to those so that later on if you want to take time to peruse them. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. Williams, staff, and citizens of Shirts. My name is David Prestridge. I reside at 3708 Hillside in Shirts. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of the Scenic Hills community. I'd like to update you on the previously discussed sinkhole in our community located on Hillside. Mr. Brian James met with our HOA president and a couple of board members on Thursday, July 23rd, 26, to discuss this issue. Thank you for making this happen, and thank you, Mr. James, for your time. In the plans and paperwork that Mr. James brought, part of which is included in the handout, Reading a section of the design specification that's on the eight and a half by 11 sheet containing section B, it says three development conditions shall be analyzed for each development. Section C and E1, the area highlighted requires the city to require the developer to determine if the increased runoff from the ultimate watershed development results in adverse impact to other properties. Part of that C, that was highlighted starts with the sentence, the owner or developer of the property to be developed shall be responsible for the conveyance of all stormwater flowing through the property. According to Texas Water Code 11.086 and the City of Church design specifications, the city is responsible for ensuring that proposed developments do not result in adverse impact to other properties. Additionally, we believe that the city had the additional responsibility to ensure that allowing further development and the additional runoff created by the improved covered would be handled in a manner that did not affect other properties. Specifically, all the water runoff from many houses that were constructed over a natural two-acre retention pond in one area where the city conducted that runoff to an existing drainage system constructed by Sassina Kills. prior to the development of the area in C1 and area C1 and C7. I believe that's on page C, the first page, 11 to 17 page. The areas in Mark C1 and C7. You'll see a large white area there. It was all that area there. According to Mr. James' latest information, it's probably 14 acres up there where they developed and all that impervious coverage of the water flowed down into our drainage system. pre-existing drainage system. Within that area, there was a two, approximately two acre holding pond that of course went away and houses were built over top of it. and a lot of that area had no water running through it. The system, the drain system that we're having a problem with right now, there is practically no water that comes out of Scenic Hills that goes in that system. It all comes from the development up above us. We would like to point out... our drainage system that was developed prior to the development of the area above us and had no water running through it. We'd like to point out that the city failed to inspect or verify the unknown infrastructure that came with the annexation of City Kills, primarily that drain system that is in question, prior to approving the additional development. Had that been done, they would have discovered that despite information provided by drawings provided by William Steakhouse Incorporated, dated December 1980, of which you have a copy, that the plans call for drain pipes of 30-inch diameters, first section, followed by a drain pipe of 36-inch diameter, next section. In actuality, when those failed and we dug them up and replaced them, we found that that first section that was supposed to be a 30-inch was actually an 18-inch diameter. The next section that's supposed to be a 36-inch pipe was actually a 24-inch diameter pipe. Another way to express the difference is a 30-inch diameter pipe can carry 2.8 times the amount of water an 18-inch pipe can at static pressure. When you pressurize it, a 30-inch pipe can carry 3.6 times the amount an 18-inch pipe could carry. So when you look at the area and impervious cover, the pipes that were supposed to be there probably would have handled it without too much problem. The issue is the pipes that were actually there were undersized and they could not handle it. I don't know if it's a standard practice when you approve new development off of areas you had annexed for you to actually verify the infrastructure before you tie into it. Apparently it wasn't done this time. Based on this description, unfortunately, you know, Mr. James has contended that the city has no responsibility for this issue. But based on this information, we had to unfortunately disagree with him. We think the city has actual all responsibility. We therefore request... We therefore request you create a resolution to reimburse Seneca Hills Community $308,529 for the cost of completed repairs and additional funds approximating $170,000 to $185,000 to complete the repairs of the remaining 170-foot section of pipe that follows what has already failed. The total of that is $478,529 to $493,529. We welcome and await further dialogue with the city to resolve this important issue. On another note, not directly connected with the drain line, but of significance, I think. Annexing Scenic Hills in 2004, the city of Church has collected upwards of $6 million in property taxes from Scenic Hills. Scenic Hills residents, with the exception of EMS and police, both of which respond very punctually when we call it. we receive no other services from the city. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Next up to speak is Tracy Campos.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Tracy Campos. I live at 12340 Schaefer Road. I'm inquiring when the city decided to make property owners responsible for the right-of-way in front of their properties. It's not an easement. It's an actual right-of-way. On Wednesday, around Wednesday, July 23rd, at 9 a.m., I was mowing the yard at Schaefer Road, and a Shirts Neighborhood Service truck drove by slowly twice. I was there, I stopped and in case they wanted to talk to me, they never stopped to talk to me. I didn't think anything of it until July 29th when I received a letter from the city telling me that I have a nuisance violation, excessive growth of weeds or other vegetation. So I called to find out if this is the yard, it's four acres, I'm trying to mow it, I haven't got it all done. There's been some setbacks this year. It says the violation must be corrected by August 8th or be subject to further action. I thought it was an error, so I called and left a message for the person that wrote the letter, Justin Langford. He called me back after late that evening, that afternoon he called me back, and I asked him what grass he's referring to because my front yard's lower than eight inches in height, even the part that I haven't mowed. That day. He said that is the area in front of the fence but I told him that's not our property that's a right away that was purchased in 2011 when they did the drainage on. Shaffer road and they put in curbs. and bought the right away from us. We don't have anything to do with that property. There's been a force main installed in that property. Spectrum has a box on that property and there are deep ruts in there that prohibit me from mowing that property with my mower or walking it because the ruts are about a foot deep. They never, the contractor, when they put in the force main, they did not come back and level up. And I just, I still, I told him I've called, you know, Bexar County has always maintained this property. And I called Bexar County and I talked with Rick, who's the supervisor for the Northeast Service Center on Judson Road. And he goes, no, we maintain it. You don't maintain right-of-way. Property owners do not maintain right-of-way. They maintain easements. And he checked his schedule. We are on the schedule to be mowed. And he mows all the way from Schaefer Road from, I think he said from, no, not Lisa Meadows, but from where... Part of it. He doesn't mow all of Schaefer Road, but he mows in front of ours all the way to the creek. And we are on the schedule to be mowed. I told what's going on. I explained to him the letter I received. And he stated that he can call him and he'll let him know that it is their responsibility. The county will maintain it, not the property owner. Before the force main was installed, I did maintain the property because I know Bexar County is busy. They have a lot to mow. Bexar County is a big county. But with the ruts in there, I can't mow it anymore. I can't do it physically by push mower or with the riding mower. And my dad, I live with my father. He's 96 years old. He's got congestive heart failure. He has AFib. I have to watch him. I also have a boyfriend that lives with us. He just had a stroke last month. And so I just can't do it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, we have Gordon McCleary.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. Williams, and staff and citizens of Shirts. My name is Gordon McCleary. I reside at 3713 Hillside in Shirts. And I thank you for the opportunity to come and speak on behalf of our community. And I want to reiterate, as laid out by David Pestridge, Scenic Hills residents, we have incurred personal cost because of the upstream development of the approval of the city's shirts based on inaccurate information regarding the Scenic Hills drainage system. Since Scenic Hills infrastructure was annexed and therefore unknown to city planners, one would think the city would have verified it before approving further development. As a result, City Assurance bears total responsibility, in my opinion, and I urge you to please create a resolution to reimburse $308,529 to Scenic Hills for the cost of completed repairs and the probable amount of $170,000 to complete the repairs to this drain line. It's a total of $478,529. And it's rough on a small community like Scenic Hills. City Assurance, we feel, is responsible. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next up, we have Othen Warner.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. Mr. James and fellow citizens, I also, 3717 Hunter's Glen of Dunmore. I also live in Shirts. And I would ask the council to be cognizant of the fact that we have a large percentage of our community that's 80 plus and living on limited fixed income. And having a special assessment to try to cover these expenses would be burdensome, to say the least, particularly when it's not our water that's going through these lines and causing the problem that's coming from the neighborhood up above us. And so I would implore you to keep that in mind and to come up with a reasonable solution to this problem. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Tony Rivers.

Mayor, city council members, I want to thank you for the time to speak with you today. There's not a whole lot that I can add to what has been said, but if you take a look at the facts, No one is an island and development does not occur as a solitary function. The proper preparation to handle water was not made in this case and it is your responsibility to make certain that that is done. Thank you for your time.

Next we have Anne McMaster.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. Williams, staff, and citizens of Shirts. My name is Anne McMaster. I reside at 3604 Elm Court. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of Scenic Hills community. I, therefore, have lived at Scenic Hills about seven years now. We've had prior issues with this that we've covered and had, as Othan had said, And as David Prestridge has said, we've covered charges and water because of this sewer drain. As outlined before by our previous speaker, Mr. Prestridge, Scenic Hills has incurred a significant personal cost because of upstream development approved by the city of Shirts based on inaccurate information regarding Scenic Hills drainage. Since the Scenic Hills infrastructure was annexed and therefore unknown to the city planners, one would think that the city would have verified before approving further development. As a result, the City of Shorts bears total responsibility in my opinion. I urge you to create a resolution to reimburse us $308,529 to Scenic Hills for the cost of this repair and the probable additional cost of $170 for the next session that moves out to Country Club Boulevard. for a total of 4,700, yeah, I can't read. You know the numbers, we've already said them a couple times, so I like to flub it a couple times. I want to thank you very much for your time and your opportunity, and I look forward to hearing a great resolution. Thank you.

Next we have Missy Jeter.

Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. Williams, staff and citizens of Shirts. My name is Missy Jeter. I am new to this area. I reside at 3800 Greenridge in Shirts. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of Scenic Hills community. I am the secretary of the board and we are very concerned about what is happening in our community. As outlined by our previous speaker, David Pressridge, Scenic Hills residents have incurred significant personal costs because of upstream development approved by the city of Schertz based on inaccurate information regarding Scenic Hills drainage. Since the Scenic Hills infrastructure was annexed and therefore unknown to the city, planners, one would think the city would have verified it before approving further development. As a result, the city of Shirts bears total responsibility in my opinion. I urge you to create a resolution to reimburse Scenic Hills $308,529 for the cost of the completed repairs with an additional cost of $170,000. Repairs to the drain line, the total would be $478,529. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, that'll end hearing of the residents. Moving on to our consent agenda. 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 wishing to remove anything from the consent agenda? Having none, can I get someone to make a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Motion. Second.

Okay, I have a motion made by Council Member Guerrero, seconded by Council Member Watson, I mean Mayor Pro Tem Watson, I'm sorry, stand corrected. So if I can get everybody to cast their votes. Can I get the votes published, please? Having four yeas, no nays, motion passes. All right, moving on to discussion and action items. Item number four, resolution 26-R-089. authorizing an interlocal agreement with the City of Garden Ridge, sewer capacity, and Wieland. We have our Deputy City Manager, Brian James. Thank you, Mayor.

Yes, as you said, what we have is an interlocal agreement with the City of Garden Ridge. Garden Ridge generally does not have sewer service. They're mostly on septic, but the area is kind of right north of us. They have some areas they want to develop for commercial uses, and generally it would be beneficial for those to develop on septic, or rather on connected to the sewer service. They're also served for treatment by CCMA, the Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority, who serves most of our community. So Garden Ridge's challenge is how do they get the sewer flows from their community through our community to one of CCMA's lines because CCMA's line doesn't run up to Garden Ridge. And the way they would do that is reach out to us and say, hey, shirts, you guys have sewer lines in the area. What we'd like you to do is let us connect into one of your lines and flow down to where it connects to CCMA's line. So there's mutual benefit there, right? It's a line that infrastructure we have, infrastructure that we're putting in. And so essentially what the ILA does is lays out that. It allows them 750 LUEs of sewer capacity, which will have enough to cover those flows. And for that, they make two kinds of payments to the city. of shirts. One is an ongoing payment every year based on the average gallon of flow that they would then send through the city of shirts to help us cover our general ongoing and maintenance cost of that sewer line. Now keep in mind we'll have flows running through that as well. We'd have to maintain it either way. but it kind of lets them pay their fair share. The other thing that they would do is at the time when they have development in their community that either gets a tap or a building permit and wants to tie in, they would pay the equivalent fee of our sewer impact fee that businesses in the community pay. They would pay that rate, or if it goes up higher in the future, they would pay that. So again, it's a fair system. They're not getting a free ride. They're paying their fair share and really lets us kind of maximize economy of scale for a line that we would have, we'd have to maintain anyway. So partly it's being a good neighbor, but also partly it's having them pay their fair share to have revenue associated with it. It's a 20-year agreement. The one change from what's in the staff report is since the staff report was published, We had put in a three-year provision for cancel, is it canceling that? Garden Ridge called up and said, you know, if we were in a need to cancel or if for some reason the city of Shirts canceled this, we would basically have to build a whole new sewer line through shirts to get to CCMA's line. We're not sure we can do all that in three years. Could we make it five years? That's certainly fine with us. So staff is recommending approval of this with the change to the cancellation period of going from three years to five years. But I think obviously from our perspective, if Garden Ridge wanted to cancel and wanted to cancel sooner than that, we would have to come back to council. I don't see why we wouldn't. But basically that change would be to give them time to make alternate arrangements, build a sewer line, if for some reason we canceled. So I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Council have any questions?

Okay, we have Council Member Westbrook. Yes, sir. So looking through the ordinance, I guess the resolution on page two down at the bottom, it's just a language. I just, you're seeing, here's the language that I read. Okay. Annual basis by March of each year, a fee equal to 34 cents per the estimated average daily gallons of flow for the prior calendar year. So we're just seeing 34 cents a gallon.

34 cents a gallon that they pay us once a year, every year based on the flow, right? And then there's a 3% annual increase on that. So that's the ongoing annual payment. That's similar to some of the other agreements that we've got. For instance, we did with GDSUD Green Valley down in Southern Shirts. There's a similar kind of payment that they pay.

All right.

Yeah, so there's that payment that we would get every year based on how much flow is going through. And then above that section, there's the provision about the payment of the equivalent of our sewer impact fee.

I don't have no impact on... Our ability to use the pipes whatsoever? No.

When we did this, right, that's partly why we capped it at 750 is to make sure that there's adequate capacity. What we wouldn't want to do is say, sure, Garden Ridge, you can use some of this pipe to flow sewer through. And then we look up and find ourselves going, ah, now we're short. What do we do? We've got to go spend a bunch more money. Right. We're doing some improvements in the area as is. We already plan to sort of size for that. based on these conversations going on. So yeah, we've calculated it to not run into a problem of us not having capacity because of what we gave or allowed Garden Ridge to have. And so that's why the 750 LUE cap. And then certainly at some point in the future, if we realize that we've got more than that, they needed more than that, potentially we could recalculate that, would have to come back to council to up it. But we're comfortable with the 750 that we can, we will be able to accommodate that.

For the next 20 years.

For the next 20 years, right. We, you know, on this area, really, we're going to put in sewer to kind of cover our ultimate build out, right. It's one of those things that most of our, a lot of our area up there has developed, so we know generally the flows that we're going to have come in, coming forward, right. I would not anticipate we're going to get a really, really large water sewer user coming into the area, right, because when we've had some of those, we basically as policy decisions for council we're not trying to incent really large water users coming into the community because of water that we need so i mean that would be the caveat to it but we don't anticipate this to be a problem it's consistent with our plans for edc and our plans for our water and sewer master plan the water master plan huh And sewer master plan, right? Yes, sir. That's where we look at, right, the plan I'm talking about is the size of the infrastructure that we need, right? Because not always. Sometimes we'll put in a smaller line than we ultimately need, and then we'll come in and upsize it later or roll in a parallel pipe later. Other times what we'll do is, hey, when we put it in the first time, we're going to put it in bigger than we need right now so that we don't have to come back in and do that.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Does that help? Okay.

Yes, sir, it helps. Yes. Okay. Next we have Council Member Guerrero.

Mr. James, everything seems to sound smooth. You're saying they're gonna be paying 3% increase throughout the- On that 34 cents,

per average gallon. We built in a 3% factor, right? Because $0.34 today, we look at it and go, oh, that's pretty good. That's enough to cover it. 20 years from now with inflation, that $0.34 isn't necessarily going to be enough. So we put in that 3% annual increase as a way to cover the costs going up over time.

And then in addition to that, they're going to be paying the impact fees that any business would pay.

They'll pay a sewer and a word specifically, and I'm not trying to be evasive and I'll tell you what I mean. They pay the equivalent impact fee as if it were in our shirt service area as it exists today or as it would go up in the future. So it's the cost that we charge today, which is generally the maximum. or if it were to increase in the future, that increase, right? So it's what we felt, to be honest, it's sort of the fair share, right? Because the way impact fees work, and you'll get a presentation on this in two weeks, is impact fees cover the cost that the city has of building new infrastructure to accommodate new development, right? So as new development comes in and we have to build water towers, we have to add water lines, we have to build sewer lines, It's that charge for new development to say, based on the amount of new development, this is what we need to build. Here's the cost of that. Here's how that kind of breaks down per use. So it's the cost as it exists today or would increase in the future. It's just so to be clear. So if as a policy decision, council chose to lower that for businesses and shirts, it would not, that reduction would not automatically apply to Garden Ridge. You could offer to amend the agreement, which I'm sure they would be fine with, right? But often what we do when we make policy decisions about setting impact fees is you may say, look, businesses that come in bring other benefits to the community, right? The sales tax services we need, we don't want to charge the full amount. And so you might lower it below the maximum. The development in Garden Ridge doesn't bring that same benefit, so we worded it the way we did so that if for that policy reason you lowered it, it would not automatically apply to Garden Ridge. So that wording is very specific. They pay the equivalent of what our businesses pay today, right? You got a 10,000 square foot office building here, 10,000 square foot office building there, same size meter. It's going to pay the same amount of insurance as they are. If we increase that, say 10 years from now, that goes up, costs go up, they would pay that higher amount just like our businesses would as well.

Okay, so they're willing to pay the 3% increase. They're willing to pay the fees. Everything looks good.

And that impact fee is gonna be basically the developer, right? So the city of Garden Ridge isn't paying that, the developer. So again, that developer, that office building, for example, Garden Ridge is going to collect it from them, hand it over to us. But that 3%, that Garden Ridge is going to pay, and they're going to collect that through their sewer rates, I would assume, that they charge to those users.

Okay. And also, you're saying this is a 20-year agreement, correct?

It's a 20-year agreement. And what I had written in it initially was, if anybody wanted to cancel, it's a three-year heads-up. Garden Ridge said... Yeah, we looked at that, we get it. We could use a little more cushion. Can you make it five years? And we were fine with that because essentially what happened is Garden Ridge would have to build a sewer line from their community down to where the CCMA line is, and that will take some time for that to happen. And so that's why they need that long window to get it built. Now, the other part of the reason we're doing this is if we didn't do this and they said, okay, well, we're going to have to come through, then they would have to come through and acquire easements from our businesses, our property owners, to get across to connect there, or they'd have to put it in our right-of-way competing with our infrastructure and things like that, which isn't really beneficial for us. It's not beneficial to our property owners. Again, it makes sense to have this win-win. But I will tell you that what you should expect on this is that 20 years from now, I don't anticipate the situation changing. Likely 19 or 15 years from now, if everybody's watching this, they'll come back and say, hey, we need to extend the agreement, right? This is great for 20 years, but this is one that we would anticipate, unless something radically changes, kind of forever, they would be flowing sewer through our city. And again, the part of why we put that 20 years, it is a different world 15 years from now. We may have a different take, they may have a different take, and it lets us revisit that discussion. But just for clarity, We would assume this would continue and continue because, again, 15 years from now, we don't want them going out and having to acquire easements or put infrastructure in there right away, if that makes sense.

Yes, it does. Now, there's a provision, like you were saying. They extend it into five years, correct? Right.

They requested after. We had agreed to three years, but as they went back and talked to their city engineer, he said, We can maybe get it built in three years, but that's tough. Can you see if they'll do five years? So he called me last week, the city administrator, and asked if it would be five years. And I said, sure, that's fine. If that gives you the cushion, we're good with it. But I would say if they got that done and they gave us notice and they got it built in four years, we'd probably come to council and recommend, hey, they've got it built. No reason for them to keep paying. They've switched over and ended at that point. But we'd have that decision.

Okay, so basically the ball's in their court. They can cancel up to five years. But what about if something happens?

And we could cancel it too, right? We can cancel it, but we've got to give notice, right? So, again, it's this notice provision not for fault. You know, and, again, there could be things that we have to work out if this is where you're going, right? So, again, if they don't comply with our – what's the waste provision, Larry, of – in the industrial waste ordinance. But this is again a CCMA thing, right? CCMA says, look, cities, y'all have to make sure people aren't dumping, like what's something you can't dump in the? Acid, thank you, Kathy. Can't dump acid in there. If Garden Ridge is dumping acid, then we're having this bigger conversation when Garden Ridge is going, look, you're letting this business dump acid. That's a problem with CCMA, who's their treatment provider. It's a problem with us as well. And we would go through and sort that out.

Yeah, and that was my concern, Mr. James, because it seems like they have the opportunity with this provision to cancel. However, what about us? If something happens, it impacts shirts. That's right.

And we cancel. Either party can cancel with the notice, right? But I will say, if we've got a problem like them not following the industrial waste ordinance, that's a... Frankly, a bigger, different issue that we're bringing in our city attorney, they're bringing in the city attorney, we're bringing in CCMA, they're bringing their attorney in. It's a bigger deal if we're allowing a user, right? And what they would likely do, I would expect just like us, right? If CCMA said, hey, if you've got some business that's dumping acid in the sewer drain, we'd go out and go, what are you guys doing? You can't be doing that. We'd issue a citation. We'd fine them if they didn't. We'd probably work with the city attorney to disconnect them from the sewer, frankly. That's how big a deal this thing is. And so we don't anticipate that happening. It can, I guess, but it's not the kind of thing we would anticipate happening with Garden Ridge. But we would deal with it if that time came.

Yeah, I just want to make sure that Schertz has the opportunity to cancel if we have to.

Yeah, we do. We have that ability. The one thing, though, is, again, if it's kind of not for fault, we've got to give them that five-year notice because we don't want to leave them high and dry with them going, what am I supposed to do tomorrow with all these businesses that are flowing through?

No, understandable. I just don't want shirts to be – Yes, sir. Get the short end of the stick. If we need to cancel, I would like the opportunity to cancel. Yeah.

I mean, that would be the only right. Again, they fail to pay, they fail to collect, they're dumping acid in, then we're sitting down with a big meeting with Dan and folks and saying, what do we do on this? But, you know.

Nothing further. Thank you.

Okay, and just for clarity. If we decide to cancel the contract, they still need the five years.

It's a five-year notice, right? They're concerned, right? The reason for the five-year is not that they would cancel. It's that if we showed up and said, I'm canceling this thing, they need adequate time to build a sewer line, basically. That's the reason for the five years. If they had said, hey, it's us canceling, we'd probably say, yeah, give us a year's notice, six months notice. Y'all can cancel it, but we just made it one and the same. But it's really if we were to cancel, they need to build a sewer line.

Okay. Mayor Pro Tem Watson, you have a question?

I'm very familiar with this project, and I wanted to go ahead and motion that we approve Resolution 26R089. Second. Second.

Okay, we have a motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Watson, seconded by Council Member Dietz. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Having four yeas, no nays, motion passes. All right, moving on to item five, Declaration of Emergency, July 15th, 2026. We have Fire Chief Greg Rogers.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and Mr. Williams. Thank you for having me. I believe there was water we needed to discuss. So just briefly before I kick off to discuss why we're here, I want to expound on my profound appreciation for all the staff and everything that they did during this event. I cannot express how quickly they were able to come together and what they were able to do, in my opinion, Saved a tremendous amount of work that we would have had to do otherwise, whether that's for residential or saving people in some shape or form. I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to work with him that fast 36 hours. So that said, our flood response evacuation and disaster declaration on July 15th. It's not something we get an opportunity to do very often, thank goodness. But let me kind of walk through why we did and how we got there. I happened to be at a meeting in Bexar County at the 911 Center about 9 a.m. that morning, and that's about the time that the tornado ran through 1604 and I-10 area and by the rim. That was my opportunity to be close enough to four tornadoes. That's more than enough in a lifetime. From there, I paid a greater amount of attention to the weather, not because of the rain, because everything was predicted to be further to the southwest and west. It was more of, is that type of weather going to be upon us and what we would have to deal with? So in monitoring that, we just kept an eye on everything that was going on. From that point, about 1 o'clock, I left there at 1130, and I'll cover that more later, but preparations initiated for the major flooding event at 1 o'clock. Evacuations were ordered for impacted areas to protect life and public safety. A disaster declaration issued at 3.30 to support the emergency response and recovery and council action tonight for the declaration of ratification under the Texas Disaster Act of 1975. Just a little... administrative part that we need to do for y'all to have total understanding and acceptance. So here's what we were looking at. And I think everybody remembers this. We knew that we were going to have significant weather to the west and southwest. To what degree this was a small amount, and that doesn't look horribly bad. We go through that all the time. As a matter of fact, this reminded me at the end, sadly, of last year's event when similar situation occurred. However, one day later, Bernie area alone had six plus inches more of rain. And they are our indicator of what we can expect downstream. And depending on how time changes, and it's been a while, how quickly that water can get to us. What is nice, and we will talk about this, is the technology that has been put in place and more is to come that allows us to make educated decisions on what we're going to do rather than just hoping and praying a little bit. So here's what we had there. So why do we do it and who are those involved? Overall, we have our partnership and many good friends in the Bernie Fire Department. So I was in touch with them to see what kind of rain they were having regularly. As I said, they're our indicator. At the end of the process, when it was all said and done, they had estimated because their gauge stopped working that they had 27 plus feet of water coming out from that area down towards us. Anyone that was here in the 97, 98 time, well, 97 was 16 plus feet of water, while the 98 flood here in Shirts alone just in the local area caused the same kind of devastation and actually flooded places. So that was our barometer that we had to work to and from and between. The quick rise of the Cibolo Creek, while I was in that meeting at Bexar County, I could monitor things as it was progressing. And while it was coming up, it wasn't anything of overly great concern at the moment. From there, we found out it was, we made a declaration here. We had a unified response and I wanna speak to all these agencies and the people that work within each one of them. Again, how quickly they came together and without one second hesitation to serve the community in any possible way that they could. And life safety is, as we always know, was a primary focus and objective. So the weather timeline on the 15th, we knew about the heavy rainfall in those regions. In the afternoon, the Cibolo Creek was ramping up. Water upstream, we talked about how it was coming, began the predictions of what time it might reach downstream through the National Weather Service as well as the technology, and were those two marrying together and making sense to us, which to a certain degree they were. The National Weather Service predicted forecasted a major flood for us between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. The overnight Cibolo Creek ended up cresting at 22.5 feet for us around 2.30 a.m. We had two calls for service that involved no dangerous people. It was just water moving some things around and ended up with a trailer kind of flipped over one time. But luckily no one was in it. And Because of everything and the team and the work that they did up front in a proactive fashion, I believe provided a tremendous amount of calm to the community, the presence and the visibility that we had, and a great amount of credit goes to them for the way they responded to that. So I talked about the 8.30 a.m. meeting, 9 to 11. We monitored the weather location. At 11 o'clock, about 11.30, actually, I left to go back to the office, staying in touch with our team and talking about... preparing for what we might come public works and Larry and his squad were already way ahead of the game in terms of getting barricades out. And I don't mean our typical response. So when I say barricades, the goal was to make things a little bolder, a little more visible, a little grander than we do for our typical, you know, floods that we get that come and go rather quickly. Uh, And then we put an operational team meeting together at 1.30 to talk collectively of different options that we might have moving forward. At this point, we did know that the water was coming up fairly fast. So here's to help understand that. is an example. And what's important to note, we've stated 22 and 1 half feet. You'll see here that this gauge itself stopped at 21.94. And I'm saying it stopped because we statistically know upstream two other locations where the gauge fell off, and you see where it goes down, it didn't come back on until it hit all the way to bottom and came up again. they were off by five to seven feet upstream. So that helped us understand. The reason ours is not as high as some or less than others is when it gets down to our region, we really widen out. So we can absorb a great deal of water. When it gets past us, where is it going? Or in this case, it can also go into Aviation Heights area. So you see quickly on the 16th at midnight, that we had a little dip and then it took off and that's where the wall came. If you think back to last year in the tragedy of Kerrville, everyone talked about the wall of water. They could see it a little better than what we could based on what was upstream and the darkness of night as well like them, but that's pretty much the concept of what was occurring. So this is the part that was added to our water challenge. Between 12 and 1, the rain in Burney and between pretty much Bulverde and there was still significant. We happened to stop, which allowed all of our watershed, thankfully, to go away and gave us some more capacity. Had it been raining here, we're having a different conversation right now. And held a meeting with... What I was looking for was some historical data. What's been the history of shirts and the challenges that you've had? So I reached back to, I don't want to age them too bad here, but Assistant Chief John Perry and Captain Chris Meek, who have been here a long, long time, their entire lives, they've seen all of these floods. And one of the statements that caught me off guard, I wasn't quite prepared for, is we've never seen anything like this. So, okay, tell me about what's happened in the past and where that is and give me a relation to where we're going. the fact that we had in our pocket was that it stopped raining. I can't emphasize that part of that. But they said what happened in 97 and 98, so that helped me come to the conclusion that the right thing to do at that point, without a doubt, was evacuate areas of the city that we know are problematic. And that also, doing it so early, the importance there is you have mobility challenged people, different things go on, people aren't home from work yet, They get home. I can't commend our EMS and our police for the help that they did in helping people get in and out and communicating. But equally as important is our building and code enforcement personnel who went out to each of these areas door to door with a piece of paper. And if you weren't home where they could talk to you, they left and said, you need to leave. They know those areas. They were unbelievably quick and efficient in what they did. I can't applaud them enough. So how do we figure out where we could go? We knew that historically we could flood, but what does that look like? We had, and thank you, Kathy, for a little newer map of what floods could be, as well as what FEMA has online that are maybe a little bit outdated. But between the two, we could make an educated guess. I go back to the fact that we didn't have rain, which means Deech Creek was not flooded. That's a huge thing for our region. Typically speaking, when we come down the Cibolo, that whole area is full of water as well and problematic for the region. As we moved into the... The evacuation portion of things, the other part was getting to know, communicating with the county and the state and our neighbors to the north in Cibolo and finding out what they were doing and where assets would be so we could focus and not worry about that part and we could focus on getting the city of Shirts prepared. So we did a mandatory evacuation of Pecan Grove involuntary for Lone Oak, Rio Vista, Buffalo Valley, and later added a southern portion of Aviation Heights. And as spoken about a couple times, we had three to five homes that probably had a little water to get to them, but that was about it. I've talked about the personnel who did an amazing job, and here's where we are. And if you look at the FEMA map, the one on the left, Pecan Grove, that is just, it wraps right around there, fills right up, and there's no way for those people to get out. So it was, in my mind, being proactive in that fashion, that was an easy, easy decision to make. After that, the other areas that typically have challenges are associated to the edges of that, but we opted to make not just the portions in the yellow, but even outside of that as a voluntary evacuation area. We figured our efforts would be that the reason it was voluntary, if something did come up, we could change that and still get door-to-door in time. That's the beauty. We did have time, and we could get in there. That was the other part. Pecan Grove, we weren't getting in. So the declaration paperwork was completed and emailed to the mayor. He was not with us at the time. His reply to Mr. Williams served to us as his signature of the moment until we could get his formal process done. Public affairs and Officer Kraft, we kept in communication with them so they could begin the process of making sure that people in the community were in contact with news. Public information was sent to... different agencies, and then social media was updated fairly regularly. It is very, very hard during these things with everything going on and dynamic as fast as that is to keep constant updates going on. So we truly did our very best, probably an area we would try to improve. But at the time, we focused on setting a cadence, doing meetings, and updating during those time frames. And from this point at 5.30, we were in full swing with communication and to the public. I think watching how they responded said that that really did work to a significant degree. And from there, we began focusing on our operational plan and continued monitoring. By the time we reached 6.30 or 7 o'clock, everything was really in place. The evacuation had gone well. We had a very good idea of what the water was going to look like. The predictions were accurate, and everything coming downstream electronically matched that. We knew that 20-plus feet of water was coming. Now it's just a question of how high is that going to come in our region. So I know it sounds cliche, but you all know and you've heard it enough times, when water's going, people tend to play and something bad happens. I can't say enough that we had no calls of that nature. That just impresses me. very much. The goal was getting things in place early and communicate with the public and then have a visible presence so all understood. This I go back to PD, I go back to Public Works and those people, they were out sitting out there all night long where the community came up, they engaged them. They didn't tell them to go home. There was no danger in any, they didn't, there was no challenge on either side. And I thought that was a lot of fun. It made the evening less stressful on something that we knew was great devastation. Um, it talks about the evacuation report, opening a shelter to civic center. Uh, since I've been here, we've opened the shelter for the civic center five times. this is the first time anyone's walked through the door. And they were thankful, they were appreciative, but more impressed was... the fact of what the Parks Department personnel did on something that they've never done in their life. We talked them through the small details that you've got to do to make that safe. PD had a security plan in place. They all worked together, and everyone in that element worked extremely smooth. And if I'm not mistaken, they took on 3-1-1 from over there as well. So we transferred that. As we figured, there would be calls coming in from that perspective, and to have them in that space rather than sitting in Building 2 allowed them to wear two hats. So that was great. They made it through the night. We were able to get Red Cross to bring some extra cots. We did not need them, but cots and blankets were provided, and TETM was in constant contact should we have needed any additional assets. So, again, if anything else, simply an unbelievable job there. PD, I will say they used all available personnel. If we needed something, they had to pivot in the moment and reallocate some assets from time to time. But they did a very good job in doing that. And Public Works was everywhere. Larry, his team, Nick, and a large tip of the hat to Robert Martinez as well. So from a fire perspective, as well as either, the business doesn't stop. So how do we prepare for that even though water's running through town? Our biggest concern was the fact that if we had a flood and we were not able to get our assets from the downtown area out 1518 towards station three and all that region that we serve, how are we gonna be able to help them? So we called in personnel, they were willing to help. And basically we took everything, portions of what we have anyway, and built that out there. EMS put an ambulance out there so they would be able to do the same thing, allowing them the same service they have every day, except they weren't going to get anything from the other side if the water would cut us off. In emergency management, we worked on, I had Crit with me, and he's very good in the web EOC world. So he developed us an incident action plan as we went to keep us up to speed. That allows the state to see us in the SOC if they want to, as well as in the county. So they're up to speed without us having to literally make a phone call and do all that. Worked there and communicated with our local partners throughout. When the trailer, for example, did get caught up, we had a significant response to the region. And while we were tied up, assets out of Marion through the Texas Game Warden showed up and they were able to support inside the city during that period. So after the after plan, right, once the excitement's over and everything's supposed to go back to normal, it doesn't really do that so quickly, but how can we help it? As the water began to recede, we watched, again, back to the gauges, how it came down above us. That was the expectation of how long it would take for us. It actually went much quicker. I heard from several people that the water moved from Burney to us probably three to four hours quicker than it has in history. So that's another checkmark to understand should this happen again. But they also decided once that began, because of the darkness and what you can't see, that we were going to wait until daylight to begin those windshield surveys and see what was going on in the community. PD drove roadways. They did an incredible job getting out there very quickly. Building and code, again, those personnel came back out and began doing damage assessments all throughout the city. We assigned different regions for them, and they were incredibly, incredibly efficient at what they did. Public Works, Larry and his team and Nick did damage assessments on our infrastructure to check those pieces. I think there were a couple of challenges, but nothing that we couldn't quickly handle or address to get us back up and running in our normal fashion. And the initial pass for all of that was completed and the evacuation lifted by 1230 the next day. Still a tremendous amount of work to be done, but essentially that's 24 hours in a nutshell. So as I wind up a little bit, I just want to understand, we all know what happened last year, and that was certainly horrible, but this was significantly more rain than last year. And I know that's hard to believe, but I think what happened in South Texas, as well as what rolled through us, is very hard to really understand. While it was a five-day estimated rainfall, I think it's pretty accurate. Thank you for your time. Any questions?

Council Member Guerrero. Chief, I also agree with you. Our first responders, city staff, everyone did an amazing job during this crisis here. Is there any preparations that we can do to improve for the next time, for the next flood crisis? Anything that we can do better? Under...

I would say the initial part is now that we have even more historical data is understanding what that water would look like coming down again. I don't know that you would change much. We could, if I said like we stretched PD, we could call a little more support. But it was impacting the region so greatly, I don't know the availability to a large extent. I know that once it got past us and got over to St. Hedwig, it was 36 inches full of water. So it was, I mean, everywhere had a challenge going downstream until it had a chance to level out. The biggest part is to have a little bit of a playbook in place and be able to get people to have the right mindset. It just, like last year, happened so quickly. I think learning from last year's experience helped understand to move this way quicker. Don't be reactive. Be proactive. And if that means, you know, you made a mistake in going early or nothing really bad happened, I think that's a win. You know, you can always look back on it, but I think, as I said, I would say time and time again, if somebody says I did wrong, I would challenge that because I'm a proactive thinker.

Thank you, Chief.

If there are no other questions, can I get a motion to ratify the mayor's local disaster declaration in preparation for major flooding in the event in the city of Shirts?

I motion.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion made by Councilmember Guerrero. I have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Having four yeas, no nays, motion passes. Thank you, Chief.

Lastly, Council, thank you all for your support that evening. I heard from every one of you, I appreciate it. And I know our team does too.

Thank you to you and your staff. Moving on to item six. Item six is ordinance 26-B-018. Consideration and approval of an ordinance by the City Council of the City of Church Texas authorizing the issuance of the City of Church Texas Combination Tax and Limited Pledge Revenue Certificates of Obligation, series 2026. And with us we have our finance director, James Walters.

All right, good evening, mayor and council. My name is James Walters. I'm the finance director here for the city of Schertz. Previously, we've come to council on this item to publish a notice of intention of issuing debt, as well as a resolution to reimburse ourselves for any expenses related to those items that we've incurred up until we actually received the funds. Some of these projects are kicking off and ongoing, but tonight we bring forward the actual bond sale for council's approval. Originally estimates had our overall interest rate coming in about 4.5, that's what we were estimating. After becoming bank qualified, which is a certain designation that our debt can get, we came in at 4.2%, so even less than what we originally thought. So that was very, very good. During the process, we also talked to Standard & Poor, and S&P re-rated us and confirmed our AA plus bond rating. The bond rating is very important. It helps us keep the interest rates low so we pay less overall whenever we do go out and borrow. So tonight, before council, we're asking you to accept the debt issuance as they've come in. We have Mark McCliney from SAMCO, who's our financial advisor's who assisted all the underwriters to help prepare this bond issuance, go out and find and negotiate the bond sale with various entities. So all these items are ready to be sold, and funds are getting ready to come into our coffers and get ready to spend on those capital projects. So if you have any questions, I'll help to answer. We also have, again, Mark McCliney from SAMCO. If there's any questions over how the issuance went or questions about underwriters or how that works as well.

Any discussions on Ordinance 26-B-018? Council Member Guerrero?

You're saying with a bond, we would pay 4.2% interest? Is that correct?

Yes. Effectively, the bond yield on it is 4.2. We originally thought it would be 4.5, so it came in at 4.2, which is our debt payments would be lower than we thought.

Okay. Well, I would prefer to pay no interest. Is there any way that we can pay from our additional sales revenue?

If council would like to consider that in the future, we do have some future bond issuances that we could make that discussion with because we made this decision to go out six months ago. We would encourage council to accept this bond issuance and consider future ones to subsidize with cash. Just once we've gone out, we have the contract underway. We have folks ready to purchase. And if we pull out now, that could hurt future offerings. Well, it's entirely possible. Council can turn around and deny this issuance and we could pay with cash. Since we have gone through a lengthy negotiation process coming out the last minute, We try to renegotiate with those same folks in the future. They could look at, oh, they're not sure if shirts is going to go through. So we could end up paying a higher interest rate in the future if we do that. Again, that's entirely up to council. I just want to make sure everyone's aware of what could happen if we do that route.

Well, I'm just saying because I don't want to pay. I would prefer not to pay interest. And if we do have the additional funds, I would prefer to pay cash.

Over the next 10 years, the City of Schertz for the General Fund is still estimated to issue over $100 million in debt for ongoing infrastructure projects. While we do have some funds, we could take $9 million off of that. Overall, in that $100 million, that's not just a whole lot of money. But again, we could still do that, and we would encourage you to consider that for the next option if the full council prefers to do that. We do have future issuances planned the next couple of years. So if that's council, our recommendation would be to just use the cash on that future issuance so the current negotiations that we've gone through don't fall through. Again, entirely council's operations or consideration. I will say there's only a few communities in Texas that have ever gone fully debt-free. It's been a while since I've checked. I'm not sure if they're still debt-free, if they've had to issue some debt. But that is a goal that sounds great and is very hard to achieve. But that's something that we could look at going forward if council wants to go that route as well. But we just need that direction going forward during the budget process.

Well, and James, I would add that, you know, we do have a budget retreat. We'll be discussing the operating budget, but as well as the CIP on the 7th. So there'd be an opportunity for us to 11th at 5 p.m. Sorry, not the 7th, the 11th at 5 p.m. we'll have an opportunity to dig a little deeper into the overall CIP and our funding strategy for that, because it is a 10-year capital improvement program, a plan that we've laid out, and this is one piece of it. And what James is saying, I want to emphasize that you really don't want to get all the way up to a sale and then pull out arbitrarily. It can really damage your reputation in the market with the institutional buyers that buy your bonds, and it can ultimately harm your bond rating. So it would definitely not be advisable, I'm sure Mark would probably back me up on this as well, to pull out at the last minute on a sale. And if we want to consider making some sort of move, we could do that in the future and incorporate that into our plans.

And I'm not trying to do the wrong thing, but if it's going to benefit the residents of Schertz to pay cash, I'm all for it.

Yeah, your point is well taken, and we can incorporate that methodology or that thought process into our planning for the future. Just for this sale, we feel like it'd be best to accept the sale and move on.

No further questions. Okay, Mayor Pro Tem Watson.

I wanted to make a motion. I move that the city council adopt the ordinance authorizing the city of shirts, Texas combination tax limited pledge revenue certificate certificates of obligation series 2026. Second.

Okay, I have a motion made to adopt ordinance 26-B-018 by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. I have a second by Council Member Westbrook. Can I get everybody to cast their vote?

Can I motion to table it?

I'm sorry?

Can I motion to table it?

I don't know. You already had a motion and a second, so the motion wasn't timely.

Okay, can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Evan, three A's, one A. Motion passes. Yeah, three A's, one A. Motion passed. Thank you, Mr. Walters. All right, moving on to item seven. Item seven is ordinance 26-S-017. Conduct a public hearing and consider a request to rezone approximately 0.26 acres of land from General Business District, also otherwise known as GB, to Main Street Mixed Use District also known as MSMU, generally located approximately 50 feet southwest of the intersection of Main Street and Lindbergh Avenue, specifically known as Guadalupe County Property Identification Number 67454, City of Church, Texas. With us, we have Senior Planner Daisy Marquez.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilman Mr. Williams. Ordinance 26S017, a 0.26 acre zone change to MSMU, Daisy Marquez, Senior Planner. Here's the subject property outlined in yellow. It's to the west of the intersection of Lindbergh Avenue and Main Street. To the north is Main Street, our right-of-way. To the south is the railroad owned by Union Pacific. And then to the east, you'll see Main Street mixed-use already zoned properties, Melanie's, which we have seen more recently. And then to the west, a general business district zoned property. Again, this property is not platted, and it's approximately 0.26 acres. We did send out 15 public notices on July 9th. We did not receive any responses. We did publish in the San Antonio Express on July 15th. A sign was placed on the property, and we did hold a special Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 22nd. Kind of just showing you the difference between the existing general business district and what's proposed in Main Street Mixed Use. Again, the Main Street Mixed Use zoning district was put in place to essentially allow flexibility for the smaller lots along Main Street and the older parts of Shirts so they can still develop and we can encourage redevelopment along our Main Street. And again, just some other flexibility that's allowed within the MSMU zoning district. Right-of-way screening is not required as we would with our regular larger lots that meet current requirements. Again, giving them that flexibility to redevelop these smaller lots. And when we look towards our criteria for approval for zone changes in the Comprehensive land use plan. This area is designated as Main Street. You'll see that in the purple. Yellow is our subject property. And again, it's meant for residential, commercial, and cultural and entertainment spaces. The subject property is already located in the Main Street corridor on Main Street and implements the comprehensive land use plan intentions. Sorry, going backwards instead of forward. Any new development is required to meet the site design requirements and be compliant with the UDC and its requirements. So as they move through the process, as they decide to redevelop the lot, they would have to go through the development process and meet all the requirements of MSMU. Per the letter of intent, the applicant is wishing to revitalize Main Street with their lot. And with the TIA summary provided, engineering reviewed in their memo is that there would be no adverse impact to the city's transportation system with the proposed zone change. Again, MSMU is intended for properties on Main Street in proximity to Main Street and within the Main Street comprehensive land use area. And this subject property hits all of those three areas. And we already have along Main Street, commercial, restaurant, retail, and personal services. So all UDC requirements have been met for this proposed zone change. Fire, EMS, and PD have reviewed this proposed zone change without objections. And then again, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing for this item on July 22nd. So with that, staff recommends approval of ordinance 26S17 due to the location of the property on Main Street. It's compatibility with the proposed zoning district and the comprehensive land use plan feature land use map. And then the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on July 22nd and made a recommendation of approval to city council with a 6-0 vote. And that's all I have.

Okay. Is a developer here tonight with us? No? Okay. Well, at this time, I'll go ahead and open it up for public hearing at 728. If there's anybody that would like to come up and speak on behalf of ordinance 26-S-017. Go ahead and come on up. You'll please state your name and your address, please, when you come up.

Ann McMaster, 3604 Elm Court, Schertz, Texas. While I say thank you very much for everything you guys do, I do have one question because I did watch the YouTube video. What is the proposed property going to be used for? What is the proposed property going to be used for?

I believe it's going to be a parking lot.

Okay. None of that mentioned it was going to be a parking lot. I watched the YouTube videos. I knew it was going to be a parking lot, but did not see that in the presentation. It wasn't known if you were aware. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anybody else wishing to speak on Ordinance 26-S-017? Having none, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 7.30. Any council members have any discussions on ordinance 26-S-017? We have Mayor Pro Tem Watson.

I have a question. So does rezoning help him finish his project faster?

Yes, ma'am. It's less flexibility. We quite literally helped him fill out the application in our office. We haven't seen any site development application since then, though. Yes, but we expedited it, so we held a special P&Z meeting for him on July 22nd with this item, and then we pre-noticed it for today.

Yes, so the Main Street Mixed-Use District, right, that we created, that you guys have, is the house. houses on them, makes it easier to develop. And so we said, look, this really makes it easier for you. We agreed. He said, well, how much time is it going to take? So as Daisy said, credit to her because she's not taking enough credit for it. Helping him fill out the application, scrambling. Special meeting, kudos to Pete. Special meeting. Expediting to you guys. So yeah, this is in his benefit. He turned in the application. Our goal is to get him through.

Okay, any other questions? Having none, can I get a motion to accept ordinance 26-S-017? So moved. Second. Okay. I have a motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Watson, seconded by Council Member Dietz. Can I get everybody to cast their votes, please? Can I get the votes published? Having four yays, no nays. Ordinance passes. Item eight is in your city council packets. No discussion to occur on item eight and nine. Moving on to request by mayor council members for updates or information from staff. Do I have any council members needing any updates from staff?

Council Member Westbrook. Yes, Mayor. So I think we received a city manager sent us basically an email talking about maybe considering the possibility of being city council, trying to see how well we work as a city council, maybe city council of the year as awarded by the TML. And so our Texas Municipal City Managers Association. But I'm just, maybe we throw it out there, maybe we consider it. Just wanna see if, I think we work well as a group. And barring anything crazy, maybe we stand a good shot of achieving that, putting the shirts on the map.

Can I add one thing? Do you mind?

No. Just joking. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

So the Texas City Management Association, which I'm involved in, gives a Council of the Year award. And I think the recommendation of my email was that maybe a couple of council members get together. Staff will gladly assist in that effort. And maybe we can put together an application and see what happens. We would love to do that to help, you know, So if there are a few folks that want to volunteer.

Okay.

Yes, certainly, sir.

Then we have Council Member Guerrero. You have something you want staff to address?

I want to know, what is the status on the coins?

I believe Mayor Pro Tem Watson is working on the council challenge ones. Okay. Okay. Okay. Council Member Dietz.

I would like more research and investigation to be done regarding the scenic hills issue and the findings presented back to us, please.

Okay. We got our deputy city manager. Going to head that up, so. And then... I'd like for our staff, if they can, to reach out to CCMA. I know that they're working on that sewer line on Bobolin Springs Road. And I know that there's some citizens that are extremely upset about a lot of the work that's going on back there because there's heavy machinery that is idling and running throughout the night that makes it pretty irritating to them. And trying to see also what kind of dust control we can do to help them out with their property because I know that kind of plays pretty heavy on the AC systems and things like that. So if we can at least, I know that that's really not us, but if we can work with CCMA to kind of get with the residents that live around there and give them an update as far as like giving them some timelines on their projects so that way they can expect a timeframe of when things will be finalized out there. And that's all I had. Next, we have requests by mayor and council members that items or presentations be placed on future city council agendas. Is there any items that need to be placed on future city council agendas?

So mayor, before you adjourn though, I do want to draw your attention to something because there was updates made to your charter, the last charter election. And because you're lacking some members tonight, the item that was for the, certificates of obligation, even though the vote was a majority vote, failed to pass because of the provisions in your charter that require four affirmative votes. So it was a 3-1 vote. Because it's the same meeting, if this council wants to reconsider it, you can reconsider it given that information. You're not obligated to bring it back up. For a matter to be reconsidered, it has to be in the same meeting and the person making the motions the first time would be the person who would make a motion to reconsider. And I'm just putting that out there in case it's something that the council wants to entertain.

Okay. Okay. So that takes us back to item six, which is ordinance 26-B-018. No, or is that it? No, that was item seven, correct? Item six? Yeah. Okay, going back to ordinance 20 on item six, ordinance 26-B-018, consideration approval by the city council, the city of Shirts, Texas authorizing the issuance of city of Shirts, Texas combination tax and limited pledge revenue certificates of obligations, series 2026, providing for the payment of said certificates by the levy of an add Valorum tax upon all taxable property within the city and further securing said certificates by lien on pledge of the pledge revenue of the system and other matters incidents related thereto. So.

So the first step if you wanted to do that would be the motion reconsider would have to be made seconded and voted upon. And if the motion to reconsider passes, then you could entertain a motion on the main item. Okay. First, a motion to reconsider has to pass. If that doesn't pass.

Does somebody want to make a motion to reconsider Item 6, Ordinance 26-B-018?

Dan, would it be a... I'm sorry. Were you about to make a motion? Would it be inappropriate for our financial advisor to say a few words?

That's not up to me, Steve. If they want to reconsider it, if it is reconsidered, then that's up to the mayors, the chair.

Yeah. Okay.

All right.

So do we have anybody that wants to make a motion to reconsider?

Motion that we reconsider ordinance 26. No, that's not the right one. Yes. 26 B 0 1 8. Second. Second.

Okay, I have a motion made to reconsider ordinance 26-B-018, seconded by Council Member Dietz. Motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Watson. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Okay, can I get the votes published? Okay, having three A's, one A. The motion doesn't pass, is that correct? Because we need four?

All right.

Okay, so the item we won't reconsider and so this item, just note that item six, ordinance 26-B-018 will not pass because it's gonna take four votes with us only having four council members present, we need at least four votes for it to pass. So this will get pushed to the next council meeting, correct?

No, Mayor. May I have our financial advisor? This will constitute a failed bond sale, and it'll reflect negatively on the city of Schertz and the market, and it'll affect future bond sales and possibly our bond rating. So go ahead, sir.

Yes. So what the notice of intention stated today was the date that we would be selling. We have to meet that date and we went out and there'll be expenses that the city accrues because the bond rating and several of the other things that has occurred up to now. And these were all done at the direction of city council to proceed. we that date does state we're selling today and the only other option at this date we can state in a date certain going forward so if you said If one of the items was to have a motion to sell next week or two weeks, we could do that. But if this dies today, we'd have to start over and we don't have time to do that and get it in on the tax rate. So, but there, unfortunately there are expenses associated with what's occurring. Pardon? Would it push a year? Yeah, you'd be doing it after the fiscal year. So you wouldn't have it wouldn't be included in your tax rate. And so you could do it later on in the fall. But again, you can't set your tax rate until this time next year.

So just for clarity, if this doesn't pass tonight, does it cost the city of short taxpayers any money?

Yes, sir, it will.

And do we have an idea about how much?

I'm going to give an estimate because I wasn't expecting this. We would owe a bond rating fee and some legal fees, and I would estimate it would be approximately $50,000 to $75,000. Okay.

Council Member Westbrook, you have a question?

Yes. I guess this is for the attorney. Would we even have the ability to reconsider again a third time, a second time?

There's nothing in your procedures that say you can or you cannot. I mean, the motion to reconsider failed. There's, you know, this is not something that we've had happen here before.

So, so, so this is, I'm not putting you on the spot council member, but this is all dependent upon your ability or willingness to change your vote. I mean, I understand you don't want, you know, to pay any interest rate, but, in the long term, the city of Schertz may be negatively harmed by this. So I don't, we gotta have, we all have to satisfy your reservations for moving forward.

That's why I'm gonna motion to reconsider.

Okay, fair enough, thank you.

So- Thank you. based on the information that we've received, do we want to go ahead and make a motion to reconsider? He did, yes. He did? Do we have a second? Second. All right, so we do have a motion to reconsider item six, which is ordinance 26-B-018, and we have a second by Councilmember Westbrook. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Okay, having four yeas, no nays. Motion passes. Now going back to reconsider ordinance 26-B-018. Do I have a motion to approve ordinance 26-B-018? So move. Make a second.

Oh, I have to read the whole thing. I move that the City Council adopt an ordinance authorizing the City of Shirts, Texas combination tax and limited pledge revenue certificates and of obligations series 2026. Second.

Okay, having a motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Watson, seconded by Council Member Westbrook. Can I get everybody to cast their votes? Can I get the votes published, please? Okay, having four yeas, no nays. Ordinance passes.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to city and community events attended or to be attended. We'll start with Mayor Proctor Watson.

Nothing at this time.

Okay.

ATTENDED THE COLISEUM TRADING CARDS RIBBON CUTTING AND ALSO THE GUAM LIBERATION EVENT.

YES, I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND THE OPENING OF THE COLISEUM CARDS OPENING. ALSO ATTENDED THE STATE OF THE DISTRICT FOR THE SHERT-SIBILO UNIVERSAL CITY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. THEY HAD A BREAKFAST AND PRESENTED NEW MATERIAL. ALSO HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO TO What are the, the farmer's market out at the Pickerel Park bought some pear butter. Pear butter is jelly. I don't know if everybody knows that. Pear butter is sort of jelly on a good biscuit. But anyway, I digress. And then I did have the opportunity to attend the Shirt Sybil Independent School District convocation for the feeder pattern for Clemens High School.

I also went to the State of SCUC Breakfast, the Coliseum Trading Cards Ribbon Cutting. Last week, I attended the TML New Member Orientation Conference in San Antonio. And then this morning, the SCUC Convocation for the Clemens Feeder as well.

Fantastic. And I did also attend the 82nd Guam Conference liberation celebration that was held out at Pickerel Park. It was a fantastic turnout. It is the biggest Guam celebration that they do in the state of Texas. And being surrounded by all those people was very humbling and it was very awesome to be able to understand their culture and also to know that there are still survivors from World War II. It was amazing to be able to meet and greet them. Fantastic. So with all that said, this will end our regular council meeting at 747. Have a good night.