City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Shenandoah City Council meeting for August 26, 2026. I'm going to call the roll. Please answer. Councilman Summerall.

Here.

Councilman Summerlin. Here. Councilman Pollard. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Brott. Here. And Councilman Robinson is excused with a mild medical issue. I just got a call from him 10 minutes ago. Wish his quick recovery. All right, we're gonna stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance followed by an invocation.

and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

On and under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the city of Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you. Gospel Summary.

Let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come before you. and to take care of our neighbors, and to do what we can the best for our city and for our community. Be with us, Lord. Guide us. Be our primary partner in all that we do. In Christ's name, amen.

All right, we're gonna move on to item number five, Citizens Forum. Citizens are invited to speak for three minutes on matters related to city government that relate to agenda or non-agenda items. Speakers are asked to approach the podium and give their name and address before sharing their comments. I think we have a pair of speakers we wanna start off with. Justin Woods and Steve Berry.

impact report. My name is Justin Woods. I'm Steve Berry. And we're here with the Piney Woods Film Festival. Our inaugural year was this past year. Shenandoah helped out a lot in a number of different ways. We actually started about a year ago. I was going for grants and trying to grow it. And with the help of Mayor Escoto and Shenandoah giving us letters of recommendations, we actually worked on trying to get these grants. But we were able to put the event on at Lone Star College. We partnered with them. We had over 132 films from 20 different countries. We had a big initiative for student films. Scott Falk works for the Woodlands High School, and he was really big in contacting. He contacted over 80 different high schools. We allowed high school students to enter for free because they wanted them to come. So almost half of our entries were from high school students. from around the world, actually, but we did a lot with that. And then we had over 41 different partners, community partners, and sponsors, and we wanted to grow that. And we wanted to say thank you for everything that Shenandoah did to help this event, you know, working with the city of Shenandoah and Visit Shenandoah. We partnered with, like, the Crowne Plaza and Amarina, and the whole group donated a lot of stuff to help us help the event going really well. And it was well attended, and we want to grow that and do it again this year, make it an annual event.

And I just want to say, you know, you're a member of the Economic Development Partnership, and we got to sit into a meeting with them, and they're always wondering, how do we get these companies, and why are they all going to Plano and Frisco and all this other stuff? And I know we're just a small part of it, but having an international film festival, when you put that, it's one little piece of a puzzle. And that's what we are and what we can bring to this community so that when somebody shows them a company that there is you know, something different, some foreign films from people from around the world, films from here and there, plus locally. So we're just one little piece of a puzzle, but we appreciate everything that you guys have done for us.

Thank you.

And then we have a report for you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I love the name Paine.

I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the presence of our superintendent of CISD, Dr. Vinson. Welcome. Welcome to Shenandoah.

Thank you. These guys are wonderful artists.

Thank you. Yes, they are.

All right. Next, Gary Henson.

Good evening, gentlemen. I just want to ask a small question on an agenda item. Out there I put down a couple of things, but I think I made the wrong agenda choice. But let me just clarify. I really want a 7-8 agenda item that you've got listed there on the 180-day agenda. reserve that we have, yes. And I think there's a discussion later about that, whether to go to 90 or 120 or leave it at 180. And so my point is, as I was looking at that and looking at the monthly financial statement that's given out in the agenda items, it seems like that that reserve fund, the current reserve fund is like 5,000, 5,908,000. I think I'm pretty accurate there. And I just wanted to find out, is that because we have, uh, not funded or not, uh, put into, into the fund, into the fund for 25, 26? Is that why that number's so small or why there is, uh, a difference between what we actually need, which was 6,000, 6,908,000. That's my question. So I don't need an answer from you guys, but I would like an answer.

You may hear a response during our discussion.

All right.

Great.

Thank you, Mr. Hanson. All right. There are no more speakers. Madam Secretary, that was it? Yes, sir. All right. I'm going to move on to item number six, presentation of a proclamation designating September 17 through the 23rd as Constitution Week. I'm going to read the proclamation. whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary. and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion and, whereas, Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week. Therefore, I, John G. Escardo, Mayor of the City of Shenandoah, Texas, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals of the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed, it is through this guardian of our liberties, remembering that lost rights may never be regained. In witness hereof, I have Heronto set up by my hand and caused the seal of the city of Shenandoah, Texas, to be affixed this 26th day of August 2026. We have four members of the Twin Creeks Chapter National Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, to accept this proclamation. Would you meet me there by the podium, please? And that'll be Ms. Pat Keene, Ms. Cherry Callender, Ms. Judy Lano, and Ms. Debbie Jackson.

Ladies. Thank you, ma'am.

All right, we're going to move on to item number seven, discussion of possible action to approve the general fund reserve policy.

Mayor and council, senior agenda pack, this is a returning discussion item about the 180-day, well, about the reserve policy with the 180-day requirement in that policy. Back in March, I had presented a risk analysis study that was done in coordination with the GFOA best practice on that. And at that time, the risk analysis yielded that an appropriate level of reserves would be between 60 and 100, I mean 90 and 120 days, or 26 to 35% of your operating budget. I have put a little chart in there in the agenda form so you can see, like, with this upcoming budget approval, what those dollar amounts would be at 90 days, 120 days, 180 days. And what you'll see is the two lines that are highlighted in the same color as the column for the committed and then the unassigned and reserved. Obviously, as you go from 90, you have more, less committed, but more unassigned, and then the trend will just continue as you add more days increase your committee and reduce your unassigned.

Can we get that up on the screen, Kirby?

Yes.

It's on PDF 6, I believe. And just a little background. So GFOA's best practice suggests just as a minimum, cities should have 60 days. But they do recognize that every city is unique and there's different risk profiles for every city. We are very commercially sales tax revenue based. So that's our biggest volatility. So when you looked at the study, it showed you kind of some of the rain events we've, I mean, serious weather events we've had, how that's affected our sales tax. I focused a lot more on sales tax in that risk assessment because that is our bread and butter. So as you see on the screen, the green column is 90, the yellow is 120, and then the orange is 180. So with the, if we approve the 26-27 budget as presented in the agenda, Um, the committed reserve for 90 days would be about 3.4 million, 180, I mean, 120 days would be 4.5 and 180 would be 6.8. And to, to answer the question that was asked during the citizens forum, I had brought this, um, to fund the 2526 budget at the, I believe it was December 10th meeting. Um, at that time council wanted to explore if 180 days was, necessary. So we deferred and tabled that vote to give me some time to look at that study, talk to GFOA, talk to our auditors, kind of establish a good policy going forward. I presented everything in March and then at that point we decided let's table it until the workshop and then we kind of had more discussion at workshop and this is why it's here today. So the amount that would have been required for the 25-26 year was about 6.2 And it's about 276,000 that would have been added to that 180 reserve balance of 5.9. But if you look at our monthly report, our committed reserve balance of 180 is that 5.9. But then on my unassigned, I have 3 million. So even though it hasn't been committed by vote, we have that coverage, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm.

So to answer the specific question that was asked before about the amount.

We just never formally voted, so I did not assign those funds because we wanted to do more research before we actually made a commitment for the 180-day replenishment.

Okay.

But with our unassigned available cash that we have of $3 million on top of what we have committed as that 5.9, which was the 2425 180 reserves, we're still within policy. It just wasn't formally committed into that bucket, if that makes sense.

Okay.

So I know Mr. Robinson, Council Member Robinson, he kind of spearheaded this conversation and discussion. So I don't know if there's any opinion from anyone else if we want to look at 120 days versus 180 or if we want to look at 90.

Where did, as far as having a discussion with our auditors, and where did they fall on this as far as risk assessment?

So if you look in the actual audit report, I believe it's in the management, the MDA section of it, they just kind of say, hey, GFOA recommends this minimum of 60 days. And Louis, our senior management partner on our audit, Um, he does a good job every year during the presentation explaining you guys are well above, you're healthy. Um, so 180 is a very, we're overshooting, you know, to accomplish above and beyond. Um, but he, you know, so he does a good job explaining that we're good. Um, but we could do the G of Wayne minimum of 60 if that. That's what they base their risk assessment on when they look at cities. It's using GFOC.

Before we go into more discussion, let's make a motion and then discuss the motion that's made.

Well, as far as choosing what for the general fund reserve, I would like to make a motion to accept 120 days.

And I second. Okay. We have a motion by Councilman Summerlin. for a 120-day reserve seconded by Councilman Pollard. All right, discussion. Let's continue the discussion here.

Any comments? To just as far as some of the obvious is, and what is going to be the difference currently if we go ahead and approve the 120 days How much is, I guess, the difference of what we have?

So what's currently allocated, that $5.9 million, you would put back $1.4 back into your unassigned fund balance.

Okay. Mm-hmm.

Well, I would not be in favor of going any lower than 120 at all. In fact, I'd like to take maybe 30 days off of it or whatever, but the motion is what it is. It's just a discussion.

Yeah, I was just keeping it in increments of the same.

No, I understand. I'm just where I'm at. We tend to use available cash, in my opinion, a little too freely around here to approve the budget sometimes. And... pay parities, less like that. And sometimes you have to, okay? But as a policy going forward, that's just my opinion.

So we typically use the unsigned fund balance for capital contributions and capital projects. And you'll see that kind of on that summary sheet on each of the major funds have a summary, and I kind of show how that all works out. Yeah. Because technically, you don't really want to, if we had to match our income and revenues for capital that was needed, your tax rate would be astronomical. So that's why with like interest earnings and other, we've had some land sales that always contributes back into your general fund balance. And we're pretty aggressive with some of our interest revenue. So that's what we typically try to do is use available cash just for those one-time non-recurring items, which are going to be your capital projects and capital asset purchase contributions. Yeah. And special projects, like things that would not reoccur year after year.

Even though the auditors say 30 for 35 days is adequate, I don't think that at all.

I think for our... Yeah, we saw that with that reserve analysis. We saw with our industry, I mean, our profile, that would not be the best policy, I believe. I think the 120 is, you know, it's fine. We've seen, you know... Um, even during major storm events, barrel Harvey, when we didn't have any business going on for a week, we still rebound it pretty well. Um, even during COVID, we didn't have a huge, we did not meet our sales to next revenue target, but we were only short, I believe about 500,000, which is pretty good. And we, and our expenditures had reduced. So we were, and we had a lot more building permit revenue that we did not anticipate. So it helped offset everything that year. So.

Any additional discussion on this?

120 is the sweet spot.

All right, if there's no further discussion, let's put it to a vote. The motion is to lower it to 120 by Councilman Summerlin and seconded by Councilman Pollard. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number eight, final report of public hearing regarding the 2026-2027 fiscal year operating and capital budget.

So I'm going to provide a final report just prior to the public hearing opening on this agenda item. So the proposed budget that's proposed in this agenda packet does include the pay parity that was presented at the council workshop and also includes the 1849 known new revenue rate. We were able to find some salary publishing corrections and we can balance the budget with the NNR. So that is the budget that's presented in front of you today. The other minor changes that were proposed during budget workshop just for transparency, not much in the general fund other than police pay parity year two, which was significantly scaled back from the original presentation we did last year based on kind of what we were looking at. The CBB fund, which is our other major fund, We did add that requested staff position for a potential sales position, so that's added in there, as well as conferences for the newly created tourism advisory board. And there's some projects for a potential CBB center build out as well. And then in water sewer, the main changes there were the staff requested additional operator position for the water plants and wells. And then other than that, there wasn't a whole lot of change. And then all the capital as well. That was discussed.

All right. Okay, we're gonna open up the public hearing on this item at 6.23. Is there anyone here who would like to make a comment on this agenda item? Okay, nobody is here to speak on this agenda item, so we're going to close the public hearing at 6.24. Item number nine, discussion of possible action to adopt the following ordinance. An ordinance of the City of Shenandoah, Texas, adopting an operational capital budget for the fiscal year 2026-2027. I get a motion. Now, what the proposed, it was the one that was published?

Yes, the one that's online that's linked in this agenda pack. It has the 1849 and then the pay parity included into it and all the capital allocated. Okay.

So that particular... Okay. Can I get a motion? So moved, Mr. Mayor, to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve a pro tem brought, seconded by Councilman Pollard. Discussion?

On the new NNR, and I'm still learning all of this, can we, one of my biggest worries came up in the discussion or the consideration of this when I was doing research. And one of the greatest fears or wake-up calls I got was getting on council and realizing how many trips I've made to Austin in the first year and how things that they do affect us. And in this particular setting, Now as a business owner, what the HB9 that was implemented from the state was fantastic for business owners. It did introduce some variances in our tax base. So can you elaborate on that?

Yes. So House Bill 9 was approved in the last legislation, the 89th, and it basically raises the business personal property, it's like a tongue twister, exemption from $2,500 to $125,000. There was also some other little rules in there changed that you can use multiple locations, are treated individually, stuff like that. So it helps out business owners. It's great for small businesses, but it also can be used by corporations as well. So they can basically, what business personal property is, it's basically equipment and inventory. That's the easiest way to explain it. So inventory they hold on hand, they're supposed to pay property tax on, and also inventory. I mean inventory and equipment. So fixtures, everything is all kind of considered into that. So that house bill got approved in the 89th and then went to the November election because it was a constitutional amendment. Um, it was voted in by the voters, whoever voted in that election. Um, and then it went to affect January one of this year. So what that does is that it increases basically what businesses can now exempt from their property tax bill. Um, so our hit as a city was about 33 million from our total valuation. which equates to about 30,000 of revenue that we would have brought in this year. So when the tax assessor takes that off, when you look at the worksheet, she has to take that off as a loss to the city from last year. So it brought down our appraisal value, you know, our net down. So what tax rate law says is that your no new revenue rate has to bring in the same revenue that you brought in last year. So, When you take out some valuation, unfortunately, to make it up, the tax rate does have to add some to it. And specifically, you'll see the tax rate go down. Like, so we had 1821. So I thought our NNR was going to be closer to like 1818. You know, I was already preparing for that. But because of that house bill loss, it didn't put the NNR to 1849. Also, when they calculated no new revenue rate, the NNR, it doesn't take in new improvement. So, um, whatever was on the books as of January one last year, that's what's using that calculation. Um, and it accounts for, you know, some increases to the, those existing properties. Um, but like, um, what else might be a good one? They probably, they're not all shelled out yet. So they weren't on that calculation. Do you, so we still have some new property that hasn't caught up in time as well. because it's as of what the property is as of January 1. So we're kind of in a weird little limbo period, but next year it should start balancing back out, because you now have a new benchmark.

And that increase was what, over 40,000%? Oh, yeah, it was like 4,000%.

So historically, the original... exemption was $500 and that was introduced in 1996. And then in 2022, they amended it to be 2,500. And so from just four years, it went up like 4,000%. It's crazy.

And the hit that, again, the hit that the city took on that revenue was what?

It would equate out to be about $30,000. About $30,000? With the tax rate, yeah. So unfortunately, it is good for small businesses, and that's, you know, but it does. It will hurt, you know, and we're a small city, so I can only imagine what larger cities are starting to see on this as well.

Yeah. Any further discussion on this item? If not, we're going to vote on it. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're going to move on to item number 11. Public hearing regarding the 2026 ad valorem tax rate. We're going to open up the public hearing at 6.30 p.m. Did we do 10?

Did we? Wait a second.

Oh, I'm sorry. Is it a discussion item? Yeah, okay. I'm sorry. Discussion. I don't know if it's a discussion regarding the proposed ad valorem rate.

Mayor and Council, we kind of touched most of the high points in the last agenda item.

That's why I jumped.

Yeah, per truth in taxation laws, I do, because we had set the proposed rate at 1911. I had to put that in the agenda pack as 1911, even though we were able to balance the budget at the NNR rate of 1849. So I've taped on your monitor, so the new, if you want to approve the tax rate at 1849, the debt service rate would stay the same at 1002 per 100, but the MNO, the maintenance operation, would go to 0.0847. that would be the only change when we do the vote.

Okay, any discussion about this?

The difference as far as impact to the citizen's property, what is that considered on the homesteads?

So when I kind of looked at the average homestead value for our biggest neighborhoods, the valley, obviously there, I think they have about 510 homes. They're the largest by far. So I kind of use them as my and they when I did the rate differential, it was about $8 for the whole year between what they would pay at the 18 to one with the instead of the 1849. OK, because it's the increase is only point zero zero to eight. It's it's less than a penny per hundred.

Got it. Yeah. And that's for the average?

For more like the Valley. Obviously, some of the other neighborhoods, like Park 8, they're larger homes. They have higher valuation. So you would just have to equate whatever that percentage increase was across kind of, yeah.

So the Valley resident would probably get about $8 a year.

And that's a very quick, rough estimate, but that's about what it looked like when I did it, yeah, per year. All right. With the difference if we went with the, if we remained with 1821 or if we went with 1849. Yeah. All right.

Any more discussion? All right. If not.

Oh, also let me just. Go ahead. So if we go with the NNR, we don't have to say that lovely statement that, is in that bold on those next agenda items that if you go above the NNR you have to say that says it's an effective tax increase, you want to say that statement. So you just have to make the vote with that, the rate.

Okay. Okay, now we're going to move on to item 11. We're going to open up the public hearing at 6.33. Is there anyone here who wants to comment on this item? Having no one here to discuss this item at the public hearing, we're gonna close it at 6.33. We're gonna move on to item 12, discussion of possible action to adopt and set by order resolution, the 2026 ad valorem tax rate for maintenance and operations at 0.0909 per 100.

That's based on the 1911s. That's based on the 1911s. So the motion would be 0847. So the 1849, which is 0847 per 100 from M&O and interest in that service at .1002 per 100.

Is that correct? Mm-hmm. Can I get a motion on that?

So as stated.

Actually, while they target that motion, we've got another line item for debt. Yes, I think you can approve it separately.

Okay, so just for the .0847. Yes, correct. Okay, let's clarify that. Is your motion for the .08?

My motion is for the .0847. .0847. Maintenance and operations. For the maintenance and operations journal.

You have a motion by Councilman Summerlin. Second. And seconded by Pro Tem Brock. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we're gonna move to the second part. Discussion of possible action to adopt and set by-order resolution, the 2026 after-loan tax rate for interest and sinking at .1002 per 100. Can I get a motion? So moved. We have motion to approve by Pro Tem Brott. seconded by Councilman Pollard. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. We're going to move on to item number 14. Discussion on possible action regarding changes to the Civic Club bylaws.

Mayor and Council, city staff has been working on making some modifications to the Civic Club bylaws in conjunction with our city attorney. The goal here is to, one was to make some updates because the bylaws made some changes that haven't been touched in quite a while. And one of the other goals was to help put in some safeties for the Civic Club to further separate them. apologize in advance, from city council in a good way so that they can plan events, plan great activities for the community, but not be subject to the Texas Open Meeting Act. And the city attorney really helped to clarify a lot of that language that was in the old bylaws and to change that language to just help further separate the Civic Club as its own entity so that they can function to plan those events. We didn't really want our volunteer army there worrying about getting in trouble with the law for discussing whether to have hot dogs or hamburgers outside of a Civic Club meeting. So you will see in the agenda pack, there is a draft of the bylaws and that includes every suggested change by city staff and the city attorney. And also in there, just so you could see it, is a red line and actually a blue line version showing the proposed changes. So we're happy to answer any questions that you may have about this. I will say that this was presented to the Civic Club. I know a couple of you were in attendance there, and the Civic Club didn't have any concerns about it. We've got the president there as well, and we got a thumbs-up from the Civic Club.

All right. A motion.

Make a motion to approve.

We have a motion to approve. Second. Any changes to the City Club bylaws by Councilman Potter? Seconded by? Summer. Summer. Any discussion?

I don't think we've ever updated these. They needed to be updated. We would like to have guidelines. Nobody wants to go against what the rules should be. And having them written down and us all understanding it is a big help. Everyone agreed in the club?

I was there for the meeting, and I can attest to the concurrence from all the attendees of the Civic Club meeting to this. There was a little pushback, but I think that was resolved before the meeting ended. Any additional discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 15, discussion and possible action to cast the city's vote for a nominee to serve on the Montgomery County Emergency Communications District Board. Now, this is something that whenever there's a vacancy, the city is asked to cast a vote, and there is a vacancy on that vote. on the Board of Managers of the Montgomery County Emergency Communications District. And one of the nominees is our own Sam Nazem. And another one is Paul Sims and David Young. So we need to cast a collective vote. Let me guess, what are you guys going to vote? I'm for Sam. Sam, if you're okay with that and with us nominating you for this, are you willing to accept that?

Absolutely.

Okay.

All right. The motion is to cast the ballot for Sam. Yeah.

So can I get a motion? So moved. Okay.

Second.

We have a motion to cast that ballot and to let Ms. Maisel, our own Sam Maisel, to represent the County Emergency Communication Board by Councilman Brott and seconded by Councilman Summerlin. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 16. Discussion and possible action regarding a partnership agreement with Conroe Independent School District, CISD, and the Shenandoah Visitors Bureau.

Mayor, I will take that one. This is an item that has to go before a recommendation and also a vote. We have a partnership with CISD, with the Natatorium, with the football field that lies within our city limits. And so this is a budgeted item already in the Visitors Bureau budget. And we were able to look at this budget and I mean, look at this agreement and make a few changes to it. And one of the changes that we were able to negotiate with CISD was use of the parking lot for events for the CVB to host possible events throughout the year. So we don't know what those events are yet, but this does open up the opportunity to coordinate with CISD to use the parking lot for festivals or whatever event we would want to coordinate with the school district. Now, we do have to coordinate with the school district to make sure it does not conflict with any of the school programming that goes along there. But this is a good first step in building that partnership and relationship. And you met Dr. Vincent here this evening, and he is very much willing to work with the city in any way to help promote the CVB and also promote the stadium. So happy to answer any questions you may have. I want to thank John Maynor as well. He was in those discussions as well as helping us renegotiate that.

I'm saying we've talked about this for many years and objected to the cost, basically, but I see the advantages exceed that now, so it's probably a good idea, right? Yeah, I'm sorry.

It's a very positive step for the city of Shenandoah. Getting a closer relationship, which this brings us a lot closer than we've ever been with CISD, with the superintendent, the new superintendent that really appears to like and support the city of Shenandoah. This is a really positive step. I think it's just... like a small step. I'm hoping that next year we will even expand this contract to be even much more of a promotional thing for our city. It's really good for the city.

On the, as far as the due diligence thing on this, I noticed that I guess it's automatic re-up on this as stated in the agreement?

Absolutely.

Okay. And I guess my question is, before that actually goes into effect, it already sounds like you've already considered some different things that it's going to be a tremendous benefit to the city in being able to do some things there. But to have us near this time of year before it gets renewed is to come back and present to the city different things that occurred for the city and showing the benefit, attaching that value. But I think it's a great idea.

All right. Can I get a motion?

So make a motion. Oh, he does.

All right. We have a motion to approve by Councilman Sumrall.

And seconded. And seconded by?

Summer Lynn. Summer Lynn. You're going to have to change your name.

Yeah, you're lucky.

One of them talk lowers.

Yeah, that's right. Any additional discussion? I think this is a great idea. I think it's a change from the last couple of years. It's a breath of fresh air to have this opportunity. This agreement with CISD. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 17, discussion of possible action regarding the updated water conservation plan.

Mayor and Council, this is the new water conservation plan for the city. We need to update this to the Texas Water Development Board every five years. Basically, the plan is a description of our wastewater treatment plan and water system for the city. Changes every year for new water plans, new additions to our system, so it needs to be updated. That helps with also, part of the plan is also helps public education as well, accountability for the city on our goals and targets, and also provides them with a schedule on those goals. And the most important part part of this plan, it helps the city be eligible for loans and grants in the future. Thanks to this conservation plan, we were able to get the loan for the wastewater treatment plant, for example. So it's critical that we approve this plan right now.

Okay. Can I get a motion? So moved. A motion to approve by Councilman Summerlin. Second. Seconded by Councilman Sumrall. Any additional discussion? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 18, discussion of possible action regarding members of the Impact Fee Committee.

Mayor and Council, in october of 2020 the city adopted its first impact fee and some of you are on council some weren't so i'll go over a really quick history of what impact fees are about before i go into this item so impact fees are specific to our enterprise fund that's our water and sewer and what they essentially do is they're a fee for new development that comes into the city And it basically lets the city collect right up front some of the impacts, the cost of those impacts that new development is going to have on our water system and our sewer system. Now this kind of spreads that cost out because just adding one business doesn't necessarily mean you need to upsize your lift station, but you get two or three on that same run, now you need to do an upsizing. Well this allows the city to collect money from those who are impacting the system and causing those capital projects so that as they come about, you can afford to pay for them. And that keeps the cost away from your current customers, and they're not paying for the expansion of the new guy, as it were. So impact fees are very important to the city. They help us save a significant amount of money. Now, in the end of 2025, the state changed some of the rules surrounding the collection of impact fees. In the past, there was a requirement for a committee to review two things on the impact fee study. That's the land use assumptions, basically what do we think our raw land is going to turn into, and our capital improvement plan for water and sewer projects. Now, in the past, the Planning and Zoning Commission could act as that committee. That's not allowed anymore. So staff needed to organize a new committee so that this new committee, which has a representative body of those affected by impact fees, can have say in the land use assumptions and then second the capital improvement plan. So staff has reached out to five individuals and those five people, and some of them are here today, have graciously volunteered to spend their time reviewing these two items and making either a recommendation to keep things as they are, as far as our land use assumptions, or maybe there's been some changes and there's a recommended change that would come back to city council. So the group that has collected meets all of the requirements by the state. And I'm going to go ahead and name the five individuals here off of the agenda. So these are the individuals willing to serve. First is Alex Wormath, who's here today, Bill Smith, Jennifer Breedlove, Juan Pablo Paliz, who's here as well, and Patricia Bell, most people know as Pat, and she's here as well. So their goal is the same, it hasn't changed, is when planning and zoning did this. They have the same goal, but they're going to help represent the people who are in ETJ, in new development, and those who are in real estate, as well as some residents. So staff's recommendation is to approve the presented committee members to replace the existing use of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Thank you. Make a motion to approve. All five of these people?

We have a motion to approve by Councilman Pollard, seconded by Proton Bratt, to approve the members as stated for the impact fee committee. Any discussion?

I'm just excited to have one.

I keep talking, though.

Didn't this process originate from the guy that presented it here?

Yes, this is something I learned about five, almost six years ago at a TML conference and thought this would be a huge, huge benefit for the city of Shenandoah.

Yeah. Thanks for bringing that back from a TML conference. Absolutely.

Any more comments? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Gentlemen, thank you. Thank you for volunteering your time. And welcome to Shenandoah Committees. Part of the works of Shenandoah, the city of Shenandoah. The family, there you go. Welcome to the Shenandoah family. Thank you.

All right. Item 19, City Club Updates. Good evening, Mayor and Council. First of all, thank you for all the updates to the bylaws. We very much appreciate not having any hassles with our hamburgers and hot dogs. Plus, I don't have enough time to do another Tomah-type training to go with it. Anyways, on to the fun. So our first event coming up is going to be on October the 5th. It's actually not our event per se. We'll just be there for National Night Out, hosted by our Shenandoah Police at the... City Park will have a booth there and supporting them as always. It's actually, I guess, a week and a half later. We have two events, again, because we didn't have enough stuff to do on October 17th in the middle of the fall. So the first one is we have our fall garage sale that will be happening on October 17th from 8 in the morning Until 12, we put the signs out that night before. We'll be getting with Kirby to get the sign-ups set up so people should be able to start signing up here. The first part is September for that. And that just helps for the people that are participating to have signage on the ends of the streets to know where, as people come into the area, that they can know where they can go to for great sales. And then later that day, we will be doing our fall into fun event that will start at 5 p.m. and run to 7, so it is an hour earlier than last year. But that is hopefully to give everybody a little more daylight time during the activity. And so that will also be at the city park as well. And then I will invite folks. Our next meeting is September the 8th. It's always that second Tuesday of the month at 5 p.m. right here in the executive boardroom back here. And anyone in the city is welcome to come attend. Any questions?

Thank you. All right.

Thank you, Charlie.

Thanks, Charlie.

Item 20, city administrative updates.

Thank you, Mayor. Council, I have a couple of items tonight. Wanted to remind you that we are about to start our HVAC project here at City Hall. So we will be playing musical offices for the next several months. And so we will have signage up and we will push that information out on potential movements of where different departments will be moving temporarily so that the public will know and then also you will know as well. So we're happy to get that project underway. Also wanted to give you an update on the AMI project, the water meter project through Amoresco. They have already deployed this week and have started that project as well. So you will see them throughout the city doing water meter change-outs. And one more item just for event purposes. The veterans event that will be in November, For the veteran wall, if you want to have somebody that wants to have something put on the wall, we need those applications in by this Friday. And that has been pushed out through our constant contact notifications as well. And so we need to get those applications in so we have enough time to get that over to the folks that build that into the wall. So happy to answer any questions you may have.

And what's the date for the event at Veterans Point at Vision Park?

We are scheduling that for November 10th, which is the day before Veterans Day, because Veterans Day we will be at TML in San Antonio. Right. So we're looking to be pushing that out as well for advertisement.

So, yeah, we're asking all veterans to please attend. It's an event that we started a year ago, two years ago. Kirby, two years ago. and we will continue to have. So we encourage all veterans of Shenandoah, or any veteran, Tamina, Woodlands, anybody who wants to come, please come to Veterans Point at Vision Park. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to item 21, Council Inquiry. Councilor Sullivan. Councilor Sullivan.

Just a note on the speed indicator coming into Shenandoah. I've gotten great feedback as far as residents living over there that they've noticed an impact on cars entering and not continuing to speed like they were.

That's good news.

We did have a few bugs we had to work out of it. It was picking up on the data. It was picking up research for us, so we had to adjust. It was picking up research for us, so we were getting conflicting data, so we had to shorten the way you perform on it.

We had to make some adjustments. Got it. Well, all I know is, since it was even picking up research, it's slowing them down coming in.

I'm going to follow you.

A status update please on Tamina Water Project.

So the west area of the terminal project is basically complete. They're just doing plumbing connections. The northeast is complete. Also, the plumbing connections are standing. The big remaining items is really the elevated storage stand. Got the latest this afternoon, actually, from the project manager. They're still looking to finish by the end of October. That's what they're telling me on the elevator storage tank. Obviously, it can change with weather delays, but that's what they're showing for. As far as the plumbing, it will be around the same time when they're done.

Good. So you're going to have a real big, beautiful tank that everyone can see for 20 miles away that says, Tamina, welcome to Tamina.

Yes, sir. That's the goal, and that's been the dream all along. Yes, sir. Great. That's awesome.

Good work. Speaking of good work, I'd like to commend the staff for tightening up your expenses, especially the police department. You really tightened expenses a lot to... to accomplish what we need to do but still not cut to the bone to where it hurts the city and the department. But all departments did do that. All departments took a fine-tooth comb through the budgets to hold expenses down and is very much appreciated by the city. What's important about that is that we're able to do it and still be able to give the premium services that Shenandoah is known for. We're a premium city. We do premium things for our citizens, our residents, and for the community. And this budget allows us to do it. But all of y'all worked hard on it, and it's very much appreciated by everybody. The last thing that I had is really it's a call out to a couple of people that are in this room. One is Courtney, who designed or came up with an idea a couple of years ago of having a cartoon character or a fun person that would go around and promote our city, perhaps in a uniform or a costume or whatever. And she got together with some other creative people here. Lisa, who just left, had a lot of input into it. But primarily, the driver behind what we're seeing now in the promotion of our city of Piney the Pine Tree is Kirby. Kirby is really great with AI, and she's put together flyers. She's put together promotions online. She's in our newsletters. She's doing a lot of things to promote our city, to break down the things that we're doing in simple form so that everyone can understand and see what all the city is doing. It's just an incredible amount of beautiful work. I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of Piney the Pine Tree in the future. I think you've seen it the last two months, and it's going to grow even more. But all three of you ladies, thank you very, very much for your hard work on that. The city needed something like this, and it's making it real fun. Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you. Carby, can you leave that up just for one second? Yeah, that's an example there for those here at Council and those who are watching on YouTube of what Councilman Pollard is talking about. Simplifying, understanding how the city works. In this case, what we see here is the budget, how the budget breaks down for every resident. And I agree with you. This is a great idea, providing vital information for people to understand what it is that we're discussing here when we meet twice a month. I think it's a great idea. Again, I echo Councilman Pollard's comments. Thank you, ladies. I don't have anything else to add. We are going to move to executive session. We're going to recess this meeting and go to the executive session. According to the Texas Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, Verna's Texas Code is annotated in accordance with the authority contained in the Texas Government Code as follows. Section 551.087, deliberation regarding economic development, negotiations, and Section 551.074, personnel matters. It is now 7.03, and we're going to recess.