City Council - Regular Meeting

Give us just a second. Whoa. I think we're experiencing some technical difficulties. Yeah. Give us just a second. Talk amongst yourselves.

Quiet.

Let's quiet.

Thank you.

Mr. Beaman. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this regular called meeting of the Temple City Council. I'm being told that our technical issues have been resolved. And so at this time, I'll ask you to please stand as Rucker Preston gives the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance will be led and the Texas Pledge will be led by City Secretary Janet Llewellyn.

to be a part of your work. We thank you for a place where we can worship freely and be in a place where we can freely share our voices and ask that every community member's voice would be heard. Thank you so much for the servant heart and the willingness of our city council to serve on their own volition, and that you would give them wisdom in every single decision that they make tonight and every single day that they serve this community. We ask that you would bless us, that we would worship you in all of our actions, and that you would be shined upon in every single person's face in our world. In your name we pray. Amen.

Thank you both

Uh, next, next item on the agenda, um, is to administer the oath of office to our new chief of police, uh, chief of police. Sorry. Our new fire chief, uh, Christopher Perez.

Thank you, mayor. If you would please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Christopher Perez.

I, Christopher Perez. Do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully execute the duties.

That I will faithfully execute the duties.

Of the position of fire chief.

Of position of fire chief.

For the city of Temple.

For the city of Temple.

And will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend.

And will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend.

Constitution and the laws of this state the Constitution and the laws of this state and of the United States and of the United States so help me God so help me God

Chief, who was that that pinned you?

So that was my father, Justo Perez, Master Sergeant with the Army, retired after 23 years. Very good. I'm going to need these. So good evening, mayor, members of council, city management, Temple Fire Rescue family, friends, and members of the community. It is truly an honor to stand before you today as the fire chief of the city of Temple. I accept this responsibility with gratitude, humility, and a deep commitment to serving the community and dedicated members of the Temple Fire Rescue. I want to thank the city management, the mayor, and the city council for their confidence in me I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the city of Temple. I would also like to recognize my firefighters that are here and present and all the firefighters at the station that are there serving their community. It is our job to serve the community It is our job to serve the community, and we're there for them every step of the way, every single day, 24 seven. It is our responsibility that we take on as firefighters.

It is not something that we take lightly.

My commitment is simple. I will lead with integrity, transparency, and accountability. I will support our people, build on a strong foundation already in place, and work alongside our team to continue providing exceptional service to our community. I want to thank Chief Setzer and Chief Bush for the interim time that they were in charge of the department. They grew a strong foundation, and we're going to continue to lead Temple forward and the fire department to be one of the best in Texas. That is my pledge to you all. Finally, I want to thank my family, my friends, and my mentors for their encouragement and support throughout my career. This honor is not just mine. It is also you all's. And I appreciate you all. Thank you very much.

Welcome, Board Chief. You're inheriting a strong department that's ready to serve. So thank you for being here, and we look forward to all the good things that happen next. Thank you. Appreciate it. You bet. Thank you.

Yes, I would love to.

Oh, that'd be great.

So as I mentioned, this is my father, Fusco Perez. This is my nephew, Matthew Grace. My sister, Rosinda. My niece, Megan. My sister-in-law, Gabriela Perez. And my brother, who's also a 25-year veteran of the fire service.

Very good. Thank y'all.

In the audience here, I have my godparents, Richie Pettis and Kathy Pettis, and my girlfriend and wife. Very good.

Congrats. Glad to have you born. All right, moving on to the next item is to receive a presentation regarding the city's Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project. Ms. Myers. Thank y'all for coming out. I hope he's buying dinner, right? Good.

So Mayor and Council, I was asked to give a brief update on our aquifer storage and recovery project. As we mentioned briefly, after Dr. Asbury's very thorough comments today in the workshop, there is an associated agenda item on the consent agenda today, which is agenda item R. which is seeking your authorization for us to submit a grant application for this project. So there's lots going on with it, so I wanted to give you a brief update. First, just for those in the audience that might not be familiar with what is ASR, ASR is Aquifer Storage and Recovery, and it is a system that stores treated water underground in a naturally occurring aquifer. Water is injected into the aquifer when additional supply is available and demand is low, and then water can then later be recovered during times of drought, peak demand, or even during emergency conditions. So how does it work? Well, first you take water, either from, it could be excess surface water from the lake, it could be reclaimed water, it could be treated potable water, and you treat that to the standards that are required for injection. That depends on, that is something that's regulated by TCEQ and is determined as part of your permit application. It depends on the, natural naturally occurring water in the in the aquifer of exactly what those treatment standards are but you you treat the water to your permitted standards you move that water to an ASR well you inject the water into the aquifer and then later you can recover that water through that same system of wells for later use when you need to have additional water because you're in potentially in a drought condition where less surface water is available. You have peak summer or other higher usage demands or for any other number of reasons. So obviously, the more traditional way of storing water is in a reservoir, like a lake, which is above ground. But there are definitely some benefits to using the aquifer for water storage and recovery. Of course, that's underground, so it really minimizes evaporation. Above ground, reservoirs lose significant water to evaporation. There's virtually no evaporation that occurs with ASR systems. It really limits the land acquisition and environmental disruption because you're using an already naturally occurring aquifer system for that storage so you do not have to acquire and disrupt large amounts of surface land to create new reservoirs and so it really draws on what's already there what's already naturally occurring and helps you maximize that use and minimize the environmental and land disruption The city of Temple, as you know, I love to talk about our water. It's such a critical and important asset that we have. And we are in a great position thanks to the historic leadership of the council and our community. We have longstanding water rights. We have rights dating back to 1915. So these are amongst the oldest rights in the state of Texas, which is important because the way that water law works in the state It is determined, your ability to use water that you own is determined based on who has the oldest rights. So you can call upon your rights and seek those who have newer rights to curtail water usage so that you get the benefit of your older water rights. We, of course, own our own water treatment plants, both a conventional and membrane treatment plant, as well as two water reclamation plants. And our ASR system will strengthen our existing water rights. So we currently have about 440 uh forty thousand acre feet of water rights um in uh all in surface water um we have uh storage rights in lake belton uh we which is about eighteen thousand acre feet We have run of the river rights, which is essentially we have been using that water since before the lake was built. So that's about $11,000 to $12,000. acre feet and then we do have two contracts with the Brazos River River Authority one is a 1992 contract for about 8,500 acre feet and then one is a system rate contract from 2005 which is about two and a half acre feet It's important to note that all of those rights are annualized rights, so that's 40,000 acre feet of water rights annually, and it is a use it or lose it system under state law. So if you aren't pulling that water right, it doesn't carry over to the next year. So say you only use 35,000 of your 40,000 acre feet, next year you don't get 45,000, it resets to 40. So the ASR system can help us maximize the use of that full 40,000 acre feet of water rights because water, as you know, use is typically seasonal or can be cyclical, especially for residential use where we typically see usage peak in the summertime when folks are doing watering or outdoor recreation activities that involve more water use in the winter time when it's cooler and folks aren't using as much water for landscaping, you can see our average day drop to something just like 12 or 13,000 acre feet. I'm sorry, 12 or 13 million gallons a day versus 19 or 20 or even even into the 30s in a hot summer day. So if you use the water, if you continue to treat the water during the low use times and store it in the ASR, then you can pull it out in the higher use times and make more use of the water rights that you already have. Again, it stores water underground, is not subject to significant evaporation loss. It reduces reliance on surface water availability. It creates drought and peak demand reserve, and it helps support our future growth needs. So our concept for using ASR in Temple, we participated in a regional study several years ago that involved most of the entities in Bell and Coryell County. It was led under the direction of the Clearwater Underground Conservation District, and it helped to identify areas within our region that were particularly well suited for ASR systems. There is one area in Temple in particular near the Synergy Industrial Park that has an excellent naturally occurring aquifer area that is ideal for an ASR system. So once we obtained that information, we began further studies and further developing this concept for the city of Temple. The other strategic thing about the Synergy Park, in addition to the natural geology, is that we already have a lot of infrastructure in that area that we can pull upon and use to maximize the effectiveness of an ASR system in this area, including pipelines already from two of our reclamation plants and pipelines from our membrane and conventional plant. So again, our plan here is to use both our existing surface water rights and reclaimed water. Water will be treated to required standards before injection. Improvements can be phased over time. So while this will ultimately involve probably four maybe even five wells to fully develop out the well field in the ASR system we can get started with just one and build on that over time and again the existing infrastructure in this area is ideal and we have the well the first well has already been drilled which we'll talk a little bit about here in just a second Just to really drill in on this point, before water can be injected, it must be treated to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act standards. It cannot endanger drinking water sources. ASR wells require metering of injected and recovered volumes, and TCEQ regulates the recoverability, the impacts to existing wells, and water quality requirements. So the first piece of the puzzle for us was developing what we've called the synergy well. This is the initial well that is currently constructed as a production well, meaning that it draws water from the aquifer. It's a great well, it has demonstrated strong capacity, better than the initial studies called for, so we were very happy with the performance. It has been designed so that while it is currently a production well, it was designed with the end point or the idea that it could be converted to an injection well and serve as the first piece of the puzzle or first piece of the infrastructure for the ASR system. So the injection well is the part of the system that puts water into the ground. And again, the production well is the part that brings it back out of the aquifer. There has been some misinformation circulating online that I wanted to address. The city of Temple owns and controls the Synergy Well. As part of an economic development agreement, Rowan constructed the well, but Rowan does not own the well, they do not own the water, they do not own the aquifer, and they do not own any of the water rights from the well. Their agreement with us was to build the well and to dedicate it to the city as public infrastructure and so we owned the well and all of the water rights from that well and Rowan's water rights are expressly granted by the city through utility services agreements. They have limited domestic water use. The closed loop cooling fill is limited stage and scheduled with a maximum amount per day for domestic water use as part of that utility service agreement that is currently approved for phase one and any future phases would also require uh separate approved utility services agreements by the city council they do not have unlimited access to city water they are not allowed to exceed contractual limits there's no pay to pay to exceed fines or anything like that it's just they they do not have the option to exceed the contractual limits they do not have ownership interest in the well or the asr project and they're not allowed to discharge to the aquifer the agreement specifies what they how they must pre-treat their wastewater and what options they have to discharge which includes one of our reclamation plants or hauling it to another approved facility but in no case will they be allowed to discharge to the aquifer We've talked about this before, but I did want to highlight that what allows the city of Temple to control the groundwater is the fact that the projects are located within the city of Temple boundaries. We have the opportunity to approve or deny well applications within the city limits. So these projects being in the city limits is what gives us control of whether we allow a well to be drilled. And again, in the case of Rowan, We allowed them to drill a well that was dedicated to the city and the city owns and controls and decides who, if, and when we sell that water. Bottom line is that ASR helps Temple protect its future. It increases our future resources. It supports community growth and drought resiliency. And it begins with the Synergy Well. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have, but I did just wanna give that quick overview. As we talked about in our workshop, the capital plan for the budget that we'll talk about here in just a little bit does have the first phase of the ASR system, which is estimated at $20 million, and then you do have as item number, what did I say, R, on your agenda a request for allowing us to submit a grant for future phases of that system as well.

So when the ASR well is operational, estimates are that the well will increase the city's water capacity by roughly 10%, 15%. Yes. So 43 million, and that's for the one or is that the full well field?

It's the full field.

Okay, so that would, you know, 10% would be four and a half, 4,500 or so acre feet.

And that's based on using. Excess treated potable water from our existing water rights as well as reclaimed water the other opportunity which Dr as Barry mentioned in your workshop comments was is the. Essentially the the flood level water. So once lake belting gets above a certain level the water Doesn't water used doesn't necessarily count towards your annual allocation. So there'd be some opportunity to To work through options there as well. So it could be more but that 15% is based on potable water from our existing surface rights plus reclaimed water opportunities.

I always have to dumb things down a little bit. And so for me, I always think of, not everyone knows what an acre foot of water is. And the way I look at it is three acre feet of water is about a million gallons or so. It's 326, 327,000 gallons per acre foot. So that is a lot of water whenever we talk about a standard household using about averaging about 500 gallons of water per day. um one acre foot would be 650 homes per day roughly so um that is uh whenever you talk about 10 or 15 that doesn't seem like very much but then whenever you put in gallons per day in homes per day that is significant right and so we have you know we have 40 000 acre feet of water rights and surface rights in either lake belton or run of the river

Roughly half of those, a little less than half, are storage rights in Lake Belton, meaning we own a portion of Lake Belton. So completely separate from the Brazos River Authority who owns the rest of the lake. When Lake Belton was built, we purchased storage rights in Lake Belton. So we got about 20% of it and BRA got about 80% of it. That's a very different position than most communities have, including communities around here, which buy their water almost exclusively through BRA or use groundwater. We have actual storage rights in Lake Belton. And then we have that 12,000 roughly acre feet, not quite 12,000 acre feet of what I call run of the river rights. Again, that's water that dates back to our rights are 1915. I think we're in the top 25 most senior water rights in the entire state of Texas. so that provides you know an additional opportunity we own so we use right now roughly half of what of those water rights so if we have 40,000 acre feet of water rights we use on an annual basis about 20,000 so again part of that is is reserved for future growth and we're planning for Decades out we don't you know you Developing additional water projects isn't something that happens overnight. So you want to be well out in advance of it? And so this community has done a great job in that historically the AR The ASR system is our next step in helping to add as mayor as you mentioned 10 to 15 percent of additional water rights so that Or more in depending on on how we're able to maximize it. So it's a great opportunity. We have a ideal ideal location and ideal geology at Synergy Park to make this a great system. And again, we are on our way with our first production well drilled that was drilled entirely at the cost of Rowan. The City of Temple did not pay for that well, but again, the City of Temple owns that well and is not selling water. Rowan through from that well so the utility services agreement that we have with Rowan is not tied to water used from that well it's going to be part of our ASR system and they're not projected to be served by the ASR system so just want to be clear about that because I know there's some misinformation that's being shared about that point very good council any comments or thoughts on that right now no

now's not the proper time you're signed up i believe for public comments and you can say whatever you would like to at that time council anything for uh miss myers all right thank you for that now we will move on to uh public comments Uh, anyone wishing to speak to the council may do so as long as you've done that. Uh, as long as you signed up prior to this meeting, we asked is always that you keep your comments to, uh, roughly three minutes. You have a timer on the, on all the screens. And, uh, we asked you to watch that and, um, keep it close to 30 seconds, 30 seconds, three minutes, if you would please. So first up we have Carolyn Riley.

Good evening, peoples. I just want to make sure y'all don't forget me, because I've already talked to you about my journey that I've been on. But I'm going to give you another date. On March the 3rd of 2017 is when all of this started. Now, that's almost 10 years ago. At first, it was a home improvement grant. It was approved. I was told my house was nine on the list. That was with Carl. Carl left and here's Richard. Richard comes to me and tells me that they've moved me, my project under the Zoe wings foundation, but nothing happened. Then in 19, Roberto replaced Richard. Roberto calls me checking to see if I was pleased with the work that's been done and have they finished. And when I told him there's nothing been done, I'm going to get some contracts that we need to get you taken care of. Then in 20, when COVID comes around, everything is dead to water. 21, ron transferred from mayburn center to that department and when he finally gets to me he wanted me to make a list of things i wanted done to the house he was all excited about trying to get it all fixed up blah blah blah blah a few weeks later i heard a rumor that ron had retired i'm like what the heck's going on then i get a call from kirby he replaced ron kirby shows up He takes more pictures. He tells me this. He tells me that. And at first, when this all started, I was excited because something's getting done. Nothing's been done. I'm not excited anymore. I will be excited when a house is put on my property and I get the keys to go in. I want to know why it's taking so long, why I keep being told one thing and then they said, no, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. And then it's like, I know there's a certain amount of money budgeted, and contractors have gone up because of materials and stuff. I understand that. But what I don't understand is it's not good practice to start one thing, then just drop it and start something else. because I kept this little article in the paper that he had. I had been listening to it, but I never thought about it until I looked at the paper where it says Temple residents may apply for $10,000 in neighborhood enhancement grants. Why not take care of people that you started with before you start on something else? That's my question. And at the last meeting, you weren't here, but I asked the council. It's been this long. What if you were me? How long is too long to be waiting? And when is something going to get done? Because come March the 3rd of 27, that's going to be 10 years. I've been displaced from my home for five years. It's like nobody cares. Nobody's worried about where I'm going, what I'm doing, except for me. So I hope that if you got all this money to redo parks, hundreds of thousands of dollars to do a park, that Jones Park being all tore up, there were never any kids over there because you get all these drug dealers and winos and all these other people hanging around the park where it should have been for kids. But now we redoing that whole park. And I would be really surprised if I saw some kids over there playing because they can't even go sit at the picnic table because all these other crazy people. I'm just frustrated. I'm tired. I want to be back in my house. I'm tired of I'm staying with somebody. I'm helping pay bills and stuff. I want to be able to open a closet, hang up some clothes, open a dresser drawer, pull something out and just walk around. You know, I just want to be back in my house. So I know when I spoke the first time in February, you said we'll be looking into it. Well, I'm still waiting. So if you guys can tell me something and I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up is Nell Brindley.

Nell Brindley, Native Temple, Texas. When accountability, integrity, and transparency give way, the people no longer trust their leaders. That's why 10,000 Temple voters signed petitions to remove you. We, the people, want answers. Why did you change the city charter twice, increasing the total number of voters required to recall mayor and city council members? Was it to retain power longer? What city official signed a nondisclosure agreement, an NDA, with Mehta and or Rowan, and where are the documents? How many total data centers have you approved for Temple, 12 or more? Where is the proof that Mehta and Rowan have undergone UL9540A state fire code testing for large-scale projects? and welcome Chief Perez. If they have not been UL 9540A certified, why have they not been immediately shut down for breaking state law and endangering our first responders and citizens? And who on earth thought it was a good idea to make Temple taxpayers pay for a Rowan ASR well? I see you've conveniently renamed it the Synergy Well. That was a smart move. with direct access to the aquifer. And exactly when did Ms. Myers and our city council enter into such a foolish agreement with a foreign-owned company? Your Facebook well post states it was several years ago. We still have not found out when that was. And why on earth did you do that? I understand ASR Wells, but why Rowan? Why a foreign-owned company? Why was Meta granted unlimited water use? And why do you, Mayor and City Council, serve foreign tech billionaires and their investors instead of the good people of this city who elected you? Rowan says they've won, but they can pack up and head back down under to Australia because we, our temple, stands together and Almighty God is on our side.

There you go.

Next up will be, is it Alice Stinson, A-L-I-S, is that right? Elise? Very good.

So I had a couple questions for y'all tonight just to get some confirmation when it comes to the flock cameras that have been seen throughout our community as well as the data centers. Since the Flock Camera Network was rolled out in 2022 meta, they broke ground on their data center during that same year. And my question is, can you clarify how these, if these two massive data infrastructures timelines are linked together, if there's any relation to them?

Go ahead.

um public comments is just reserved for you to make a public comment it's not for um the council to discuss or okay respond well um then i'll just say all my questions that i have then y'all don't have to answer um because it is things to think about when it comes to having these um infrastructures in our community um If they're hosting, processing, or storing any ALPR data that is collected within the flock safety, if it's within our city limits or not. Auditing the accuracy of the flock cameras, who's doing that, what are the safeguards to ensure our citizens are not being misidentified given flock's track record of errors in other jurisdictions? How is the city gonna ensure data centers like Rowan-Romeo will not contaminate the aquifer? How is Temple going to regulate the water and energy use of these data centers when big tech companies have been known to lie about the usage of what they've said? What will the city do if these data centers are operating out of regulation? We haven't really heard what actions would be taken. And then the environmental impact studies that have been done on the long-term use of these data centers. Based on my research, I haven't seen anything, which I find to be a bit disappointing. And then how is Temple going to ensure that the wastewater from these data centers like Metta will not pollute the wastewater so badly that the city waste manager rejects it for processing? Because in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metta, they polluted that wastewater so bad that the wastewater management made Metta haul off the water and trucks physically off the site. and then um yeah that's all i have for y'all thank you thank you ma'am carly byrd hi

My name is Carly Byrd. Sorry.

As I understand, there's no questions that are going to be answered. I can just make a statement, correct?

Sure.

Okay. I'm going to still ask it even though you're not going to answer it. So considering Resolution R, Bren, when you stated that in the past that we had enough water in the past, were you considering the ASR wells in that? On Item 7? In the paper, I'm not sure of the process of the public hearings. I'm still learning in that. So excuse that. But in the agenda, it states first reading. But in the paper, it does not state first reading. Is that something that needs to be put in the newspaper? Is that important to put that in the newspaper to include that it's a first reading? Yes?

I don't think that makes any difference. It's notifying the public that that is an agenda item.

Okay, so you just have to notice the public hearing aspect.

Okay, got it. I think that brings me to another question as far as the process of those of that. Give me a second. Sorry. I think that's all I have, thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Eve, is it Rainy? Okay, I'll ring the bell.

Good evening, Temple City Council. I am a native-born, lifelong Texan, and a resident of Temple. My name is Eve Raine. On a silver platter, I hand you three words. Omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. Three words describing attributes of God. In the Bible's Old Testament, we're told a group of builders who deigned to erect the Tower of Babel. Their expressed motivation was to compete with God, with his omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence. Now, I see a connection between those Tower of Babel builders and the developers of large-scale data centers. I see a connection between those three attributes of God and the super knowledge of AI, the gargantuan Goliath mega-powered computer servers, and the rapid proliferation of hyperscalers everywhere. I have suggestions because I have concerns. Suggestions. Require developers of large scale data centers to pay for grid upgrades tied to their projects. Require developers to publicly report electricity and water use every six months. Require developers to meet statewide standards addressing community impacts of noise, air, water, and soil pollution. require rate protections for consumers with clear contract provisions so that the cost of upgrading the utility infrastructure to service a data center is not passed on to consumers. Require from yourselves broader planning as to what our city and our utility jurisdiction can handle as to the demands made by hyperscale and co-location data centers. Require also from yourselves your stronger voice in representing this Bell County community of Temple, Texas, in determining whether or not to welcome data centers and under what conditions. concerns. The public broadly is quite negative about large-scale data centers. Our concerns are legitimate. Everyday Texans say no to hyperscale and colocation data centers being pushed upon us, upon our land, upon our electric grid, upon our water resources, upon our atmospheric air and temperatures, upon our night sky of stars and moon, upon our homes, upon our vegetation. upon our wildlife and livestock and pets, and in all respects upon our health and well-being. We have concerns. Concerns about rising electricity rates caused by data centers. Concerns about the enormous water use that data centers require. Concerns about tax breaks going to these developers because they are incentivizing further data center development. Concerns that data centers don't bring meaningful economic developments, especially in the form of long term local jobs. Concerns about these developers' plans conceived only to deceive communities. concerns about the lack of transparency, and that should be a bare minimum requirement. Obscurity, secret contracts, redactions, non-disclosure agreements, screaming from the proverbial mountaintop, we want what we did not sign up for to go away. Short of that, we ask you to address our concerns by implementing our suggestions. Meanwhile, if this proliferation of gargantuan Goliath large-scale data centers is allowed to continue, we will continue to show up, stand up, and speak up.

I was trying to give you another minute. before you got fired up about it. All right. So are you done? Okay, no, no, no, no, no. Play by my rules, finish behind the podium. Don't just yell at us from the middle of the room. Okay, all right, I accept that.

I'm an actress, I'm a theater person, I'm a speech teacher. Okay, so I just, the last sentence was, if this proliferation of gargantuan Goliath large-scale data centers is allowed to continue, We will continue to show up, stand up, and speak up. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next up is David Rowe. Mr. Rowe, are you here? There he is. Come on down. You're the next contestant.

Y'all basically know the stuff that I've been trying to get straightened up in the neighborhood pertaining to trashing all over the town. And let me turn my assistant on here.

Are you going to be able to see your three minutes?

I get five.

You do? Why is that?

That's what it says on the deal.

Public comments, three minutes. But we'll start you over, let's go. Jana, would you please, you'll get an extra 30 seconds.

In the years I've tried to maintain my property from the city, I've tried with the city manager. When she first got here, I don't know how many years ago that is, they referred me to the secretary. That tell me they can't go see what I was trying to point out. My request through code have not been effective. I tell him. There's been grass 4 foot tall. Y'all seen pictures of it. The city will start a case on it and they take as much as 180 days before anything will happen other than. Set there then they can. They can start the 180 up, and then when it gets to 107, the renter or owner can clear whatever that problem was so there wasn't any penalty for leaving it there for 170 days. If you go to the front yard and you've got a sidewalk, you've got to keep the trees trimmed. about eight foot above you. The property owner has to do that. The street, they have to have 12 to 13 foot over any part that the tree goes over. The owner is responsible for that, but somehow the city decided they'll do it for you for free if it's out in the front. That seems like an unjust thing. And I've been out here, this picture, Shows an alleyway. And this is what compliance looks like. Doesn't look like very good results for what's been going on for like seven years since I started trying to get stuff done. I want you all to have time to look at this picture. And it's all over Temple. And it has been for a long, long time. No entries.

Very good. Thank you, sir. Next up will be Laurie Broughton.

So let's do a little show and tell, shall we? I've got a report here. Well, let's see. I can't read.

And we can't hear.

OK. There has been a study at the Vantage VA2 Data Center in Sterling, Virginia, Ludown County, which is right next door to Washington, DC. The study was done by An independent study was done by M-P-O-W-E-R, M Power Analytics Group. And in that study, they were studying the health effects from the natural gas simple cycle turbine engines at full power, diesel generators for emergency backup power at a data center, the findings found that particulates in minute sizes causes lung problems of asthmatics of people with other lung diseases with estimated costs of $53 million to $99 million per year in health-related damages, 17, 17 to 33 additional premature deaths over the next five years across the impacted region. Now, how far does this region go? It goes miles. So you did not want to do masks during COVID. What are people going to do when they have lung diseases, asthma, COPD, heart problems? How are they going to go outside if they have adequate filtration systems within their houses? And this is going to affect first responders also because your job is going to go, is required for you to go do 911 calls to these people. It's everybody. It's every living thing that breathes. Thank you.

Thank you. I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna confirm, Sharla. We can make statements of fact?

Yes, it's just the public comments is not for discussion.

No discussion. Yeah. The operating META facility right now does not have diesel generators.

You have to have diesel generators before you can kick in the batteries.

That's not true. I have asked them directly, and they do not have diesel generators on site at the operating facility.

Does META?

I just said Meta at the operating facility does not have them. I don't know. I'm just telling you right now that the current facility.

We don't know any of these answers to these questions.

You live next to the busiest interstate in the state of Texas.

Yeah, I'm also asthmatic.

Lots of diesel trucks on the interstate. Next, Sarah Royer.

Good evening. Sarah Royer from Temple. I think just everyone's a little bit frustrated right now. Let's see. Lately we had some desperate fabricated stories about crazy adult parties that have been circulated to try to embarrass us. Same language Kathy Davis used in her exit monologue. The stories are targeting a private space that existed in our home about 15 years before Joe ever bought the property. a space we dismantled years ago. The hard truth is, though, you can't embarrass someone who's not embarrassed by it. We choose to live authentically with zero secrets, and it's really freeing, it's powerful, and it means nobody has control over us. I say this as a testimony because looking at you right now, it feels like you are being controlled. It feels like you're carrying secrets that you're terrified that will be exposed, and someone's using them to pull your strings. but let's talk about the blatant hypocrisy mayor councilwoman the city manager have all physically been inside that room you've looked for yourselves you knew it was there for a long time you never said a word you'd hang out with us you'd sit on our boards you'd communicate with us without issues and still until we started asking why you're allowing 11 hyperscale data centers to swallow our small city In the past space, we used to teach classes about the gravity of language and, above all, consent. We taught that whenever you handle anything that impacts another human soul, you must have an open conversation, a direct, explicit consent. Clearly, this council needs a class, because right now you're violating the consent of our entire town. Look at what you're doing. When a multi-billion dollar corporation like Rowan rolls into town, you quietly buy up land for them at ridiculous premium prices with our tax dollars. But when you need a water tower to feed the company's massive water demand, I thought we were good on water, you suddenly undervalue land. This mic is going down. That's nice. You suddenly undervalue the land. You kick out a local mobile home residence. You tear down Pearl's Place, a nonprofit animal shelter. You are targeting the most vulnerable among us. Where is the consent for the citizens of Temple? Recently, Rowan's own representative came to my door unannounced. They looked Joe right in the eye and told him that while we would probably successfully get you out, that we would never get them out. They'd be too far down the road to stop them. They even offered to help us. you know, for next time. And so, they don't care about you. They think they already own us. So I'm asking you directly, are we teaming up with Rowan to get you out, or are we teaming up with them, with you to get them out? Look around this room. We want to team up with Temple Citizens, which most of you are. Before you got lost in this we want to save our town from out-of-state billionaires You can leak cheap fabrications about my personal life if it makes you feel powerful, but it doesn't bother me Please remember who you are Remember who put you in those seats and start acting with consent and start protecting the community that elected you Thank you Next up is Joe Royer

Good evening, I'm Joe Royer, I live in District 2.

Thank you for the presentation on ASR wells. The Texas Water Development Board says that an ASR well is something that should not be taken lightly. When you look at their strategies for mitigating water crisis and water shortages, it never makes the top five. These are very dangerous things to be considering. This is generally considered an extreme case. There are so many ways that an ASR well can go wrong and accidentally poison an aquifer. It's not as simple as treating water to drinking water standards. It's not as simple as pumping flood waters into the aquifer. Something as simple as having too much oxygen in the water can poison the aquifer. This is a very sensitive and delicate matter. I'm not just speaking to the city of Temple, but government in general has not been really great at regulating safety when it comes to the safety of citizens. And the fact that it's going to take four, maybe five of these to even gain 10%. And this council has told us many, many times now that we have plenty of water. There's nothing to worry about. So why are we taking extreme dangerous measures to supplement our water supply if we've got plenty of water and it's nothing to worry about? And you also talked about how this is an ideal location to build this well right next to a massive construction project, a well that's already runs the risk of poisoning the aquifer. None of this makes sense. This just doesn't add up. And since I have a little bit of time left, I've been doing some deeper reading and research and consulting with some legal minds on Texas House Bill 3824. We're shifting into fire code here. I really, really hope that our new fire marshal will take a good look at all the means available to him to enforce this. So 3824. I have recently learned it does exclude the data centers. Even if the data center has just as many batteries as a battery storage facility, if it's not called a battery storage facility, it's exempt from 3824, which means it's exempt from NFPA 855 and exempt from UL 9540A. Now, these are smart people. This is the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA, that came up with these standards. These are people that spend their whole careers studying this stuff to make sure that they know what they're talking about, they know what fire safety is about. And the Texas legislature, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to change some of the rules that are clearly stated in annual 9540A and adjust those thresholds from 70K to one million. So instead of being anything over 20K or 50K or 70K, depending on the type of batteries that you're using, the state legislator is affecting a law next January raising that threshold to one million without consulting. They just seem to think that they know better than the National Fire Protection Association. But again, these are all things that we see in the data centers that are not specifically battery storage facilities. I hope our fire marshal will take these matters seriously. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Royer. Mr., is it Helene? Are we gonna talk about salmons?

Nope.

Nope?

So far so good.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were, gotcha.

Thank you mayor. Thanks for the council for allowing me a few minutes. Yes, sir. I think I can, I'm going to talk about something a little more, not quite as germane as some of the rest of the topics have been discussed. Um, I'm a long time, uh, temple resident. I've been here since seven, early seventies. Um, got married here, joined military here. Um, got 87, came back here, drove a cab for a while, operated a daycare here in temple on north side town. I got recalled back in 99. I served in the Navy until I retired out in 2011 and came back here because the cost of living is better here. So I'm a long-time resident. But what I saw one day when my wife and I came out of H-E-B is it got me a little bit upset. We came out of H-E-B on the service road and went up 31st Street and saw a guy holding a sign that said Trump S. Ice. And for the sake of dignity and decorum, I won't tell you what the S stands for. I called the police department and complained about it, non-emergency number of course, and told them it was freedom of speech. But I did a little research and I called back and said it's not freedom of speech. The Supreme Court has been trying to regulate what our First Amendment declares. We know that 1911, they said that you can't yell fire, fire, fire in a crowded theater. That's not protected, okay? Well, in 1957, they tackled it again. and they rule that opportunity is not within the area of constitutionally protected freedom of speech or press, either under the First Amendment as to the federal government, or under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment as to the states. So you cannot hold a sign, I just want the police officer to go up there and at least cite the guy, right? Well, it's what the police officer said, or didn't say, that I kind of understood better, okay? He's afraid that if a situation goes sideways, then all of a sudden they're under the gun, okay? You know, someone takes out a cell camera and the guy doesn't react properly to the officer, doesn't respond to what he says, then the police are in trouble. What I'd say to that is that if we start not conforming to the law because of social issues, then we run the risk of becoming a non-civilization. Thank you. Thank you.

I have also, um, I, I received a number of phone calls about that. So I understand what you're talking about. Uh, next up is Margie Fraser.

My is over your budget. Is that allowed today? It has to do with your total outstanding debt. It's all on your files that you sent down and you have a total outstanding debt including principal and interest of $354,695,000. Is that true? I don't know. Your general fund Revenue shows $153,806,450. Your hotel motel is negative by over 40%, same as your reinvestment zone one fund is negative. So we find that on page 147 of your budget also document, you plan 61 parcels to be acquired in 27. 50 negotiated by agreement and 11 by eminent domain. What are the 61 parcels for and why do 11 require use of eminent domain? In 2026, there were 42 negotiated and 13 acquired by eminent domain. why the increase in the use of eminent domain in the past three years and the coming fourth year in 2022 they used eminent domain zero times and negotiated 62 purchases they negotiated 62 that's a little bit more than right now 23 you use four case uses of eminent domain then it jumps to 10 oh excuse me in 23 four uses and then in 24 jumps to 10 11 and 25, and why do you keep using it? This is my things I want to know about. If you're going to be doing a budget, it doesn't look like you've got a really good budget when you've got total outstanding debt of $354 million $354,695,000. That sounds like a lot to me. So those are my questions. Those are my things that I want to know about because y'all are proposing all of this, but you got a whole lot of debt. And the next person in line as mayor, because I understand you're not running again, is how I heard this story anyway, who's going to carry that load? Besides all these taxpayers in here and all

Well, I think Lynn left. Is she back? No. Gloria Bell? All my public commenters have gone to the bathroom or something. There, he's back.

Good evening. My name is Gloria Bell, and I'm just here. to find out if there is a status report on Sammons Community Center since you're doing up the budget, and I don't know anything about it at this point, but not to be forgotten. The Sammons Community Center is an important thing here in Temple, and I just don't want it to be forgotten about. And I think that August was the deadline for putting together whatever's going to be proposed for November. So just didn't want Sammons to be forgotten about, that's all. Thank you, ma'am.

It has been. Allen, you're up, sir.

Allen Lytle, I live here in Temple. And tonight I want to tell you about our police department. This past week they've had a conference with citizens down at Market Street. They've had coffee with a cop. They've had... Miss Thomas, you're next. They had the kiddie What do they call that, Chief? Kiddo cards. Kiddy cards. Thank you very much. And the next statement I'm going to make, I don't want you to take incorrectly. I'm not going to pay for it. But I am inviting you to tip a cop at Texas Roadhouse on Thursday, July 23 in support of the Special Olympics.

Thank you. That's always a good event. Thank you, Alan. Next up, Ms. Thomas.

Hi. Um, I guess you guys can hear me when Thomas live in temple a couple of weeks ago, I went to the natural resources meeting at the Capitol and representative Harris told the data center bros, that they had a PR problem. That no matter what they put out, nobody's going to believe them. And he's right. And I think that's why they've gone around town sprinkling money everywhere, so that they can impress people. And I feel like you guys have a PR problem too. You've got the whole mobile home situation. You've got kicking out, removing Pearl's Place, how you've handled the whole data center thing. It's not hard to understand how it feels like you guys don't have a lot of credibility with the citizens anymore. There's a certain thing about compassion that feels like it's missing. It feels like you guys just do what you wanna do, regardless of what anybody else thinks. I don't really know how you fix that. And honestly, I can't say that I'm that much interested in trying to worry about how you fix it, because I hope you guys get replaced. how this whole data center thing has been handled, and now with the ASR well. You spent a lot of time talking about how that well was gonna be good for reclaimed water, but right now it's only being used to take, with the possibility that in the future we can use it for that. So, It just seems strange to me that, credibility-wise, that Rowan paid for this, and we're supposed to stand here and believe that they're not going to get anything out of it. They just did that. It staggers the imagination that Rowan is that magnanimous, that they're just going to do that for nothing. And that takes us back to credibility. Not that I have any kind of real belief that anything I say tonight is going to sink in, but I just felt like you all needed to hear it because there is a PR problem. There's a lot going on in this city that a lot of people don't agree with, and I'm not hearing from you how you're addressing it. And on my last few minutes, I'm gonna leave you with that. My question is, a lot of people came up here and had questions. How are those questions gonna be answered? Because you said that this is not the place. So how will those, how will we know what those answers are? Will they be put in the paper? Will there be a letter? Is somebody here taking notes, writing down those questions? So that's what I'd like to know. A lot of people asked a lot of good questions. we need the answers, how are we gonna get the answers? So, thank you.

Very good, thank you. There's a level of frustration sometimes sitting up here when it seems like the answers have been given and when the answers either are not accepted or are not believed then somehow we've not given the answers. Ms. Myers just went through a presentation about the ASR well and we've talked about it not being functional yet. Rowan did pay for that. Just because it was put out on social media that it was somebody else's well does not make that correct. That's the City of Temple's well. Through a series of negotiations, that well was paid for by Rowan and it is expensive. and uh rowan to say that roman's magnanimous um and of course they would expect something from the well that's simply not true that's the city of temple's well it's the city of temple's infrastructure that will run to and from that well period um one thing i do want to point out that's been brought up a few times is uh the charter review that charter review was 12 years ago And so to say something like, did y'all, this crew, do something to, to hold onto power. One thing was 12 years ago. I'm the only guy still up here from 12 years ago. I remember the charter review. I put CJ on the committee for the charter review because he, at that time he was going through some issues with the city. I thought it was appropriate to put him on there. Um, the charter review actually did not give anybody any more power and it didn't make anybody be able to stay here longer. In fact, prior to that charter review in 2014, there were no term limits. anybody will remember a very dear friend of mine he's passed away Bill Jones Bill Jones served with Mayor Temple for eleven and a half years because there were no there were no term limits now I as the mayor whether I wanted to stay or not I'm limited to three three-year terms nine years whether I've done a great job or a horrible job I'm out of here because that's what term limits are for So not only did that charter review limit the amount of time that someone can stay up here, it also, by the way, took away our pay. And you know what we were paid? Five dollars a meeting. Not to exceed three meetings a month. We could make a whopping 15 bucks a month. most right here volunteering for the city of Temple and that was taken away by the Charter amendment so at least if you're if you're gonna come speak and that's great that's what this is for speak accurately or at least don't accuse because man that gets really old We are here as residents, we love, by the way, I do live here. I own some land in Corio County, but I sleep every night with my wife on the north side of Temple, unless I'm on vacation, okay? So, I mean, let's argue, let's fight, let's have conversations, but at least be meaningful. and be willing to listen and learn rather than just simply accuse at the drop of a hat. Thank you. All right, next item. Next item is a budget item This item is subject to a public hearing and we will receive a presentation by the city manager and conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. Ms. Myers.

As council knows, the annual budget is always presented in the context of our six-year business plan, which contains our strategic plan, our financial plan, our annual budget, and our capital plan. the foundation of the business plan of course is our strategic plan which sets the direction that you have established for the organization as we work to serve our community inside that strategic plan you have five focus areas that you have adopted including high performing organization communication and collaboration health and safety places and spaces and smart growth Focusing in on 2027 for the proposed budget in the category of high performing organization, there are additional positions recommended in the budget for general services. As council recalls, General Services is the department that manages both our facility maintenance as well as our facility construction. So we have a few positions in this department that we're recommending being added for 2027. There are two additional maintenance technicians, as well as an HVAC technician recommended in our facility services team, and then a two project management resources in the facility services team to manage some of the capital improvement projects related to facilities that we'll talk about here in just a little bit, including new fire stations, rebuilding salmon and other facility related projects. In fleet services, council obviously had a huge priority in the current budget in FY 2026 related to investing in and bolstering our fleet services team. You added a total of 11 positions last year that allowed us to establish a night shift for our fleet services team. So you've invested heavily in our current year. We do have two additional positions that we're recommending being funded in FY 2027 for fleet services, including one additional heavy duty maintenance mechanic. that will work on our fire trucks and our solid waste trucks, as well as a fleet share coordinator to help us develop and implement a program where equipment can be shared amongst different departments and equipment and vehicles can be more effectively utilized amongst our entire organization. We have one additional analyst in our budget and reporting team recommended to help support not only that fleet share program but some of the other initiatives that you've seen Sherry and team really develop as we've gone through this budget. cycle. We do have an additional people operations generalist recommended in our people operations or H.R. team and then an addition and a continuous improvement coordinator as part of our strategy and innovation team to help us reduce red tape, run our our red tape reduction program to help ensure that our processes and our practices are as efficient and effective as they can be. In Smart Growth, we have recommended an additional mowing crew in our drainage services team. This is a three-person crew that will be added to our existing three-person crew to help maintain all of the drainage channels and drainage detention ponds that the city of Temple owns and is responsible for maintaining. in engineering services similar to general services our engineering services team manages all other projects that involve utilities roads parks and so we are recommending an additional project management resource to that team to help implement the extensive capital projects that are recommended not only as part of this business plan proposal but also from the reinvestment zone project plan as well. In district services, this includes the first phase of the expansion of our district services team out to provide more resources proactive maintenance of our city city owned assets in in the in the public realm so similar to what the current transform temple team does to serve downtown maintaining sidewalks and and making sure that areas in the public realm are well maintained and serviced district services would have an additional rapid response crew that would be able to provide that type of work to other areas of the city this this first phase of program would involve the manager position as well as two service coordinators that would be responsible for patrolling their assigned areas, identifying things within the right of way or in the public realm that need to be addressed, that need to be maintained or fixed or that have some type of issue. So think of trees that are in that that need to be trimmed or a street light that is no longer working or a street sign that needs to be replaced or overgrowth in the right of way that needs to be addressed or junk or debris that needs to be addressed within the roadway or alleyway. So this crew would do a more proactive work at inspecting for those needs and getting those to the correct department in order to resolve or assign that work to the rapid response team that would be part of this first phase that would be able to quickly mobilize and get those areas addressed and those things that may not fit neatly into a single department but need to be taken care of, this team would be ready to be deployed in order to help address those service needs within our neighborhoods. Street services includes a recommendation for a position to manage our infrastructure maintenance program. This includes all of our in-house crews that that currently do street reconstruction, pavement patching, but also our to help us manage the contracted services that include slurry seal and mill and overlay programs as well. And then in utility services, we have an additional distribution crew on the water maintenance side, water distribution crew recommended to be funded. We are recommending the funding of a two person hydrant inspection crew. Currently, that service is performed primarily by our firefighters, and that's not the best, most effective use of their time. So we would like to switch that over to the utility services team so this crew would be able to offload that responsibility from our fire crews on to a dedicated team doing hydrant maintenance and inspections and then there's also a fleet coordinator recommended in utility services to help coordinate repair and preventative maintenance needs for the fleet with within the utility departments back to our fleet services team to get addressed and then finally there is a recommendation for two additional water operators to help support some of our remote infrastructure including our pump stations and elevated storage tanks In public safety or health and safety, we have additional positions recommended for both our police and fire teams. In police, we are recommending three additional patrol officers to be added in FY 2027, as well as two patrol officer over hire positions be funded. We're also recommending an additional school resource officer be funded as part of our partnership with Temple Independent School District. And so that would be an additional officer to help support safety in our schools. In fire department, we are recommending several things, including the staffing for squad four, which would be initially assigned to station four, which is on Waters Dairy Road. It's our southernmost station, responsive station at this point. We would be adding a company to respond there. That's a squad team with a driver and a firefighter. So that's a total of six positions, two per shift with three shifts. So six positions, three drivers, three firefighters for that priority. As council will recall, that team will form the basis of eventually the full company staffing for Station 10's engine. Once Station 10 is built in the 93 31st Street area, this team would then be relocated to that engine company with a captain added for each shift, but they will initially start by responding out of Station 4. We also have a recommendation to add three coverage firefighters to maintain our minimum coverage standards. As council will recall, our goal is to have one minimum coverage firefighter for every three firefighters that are assigned to a emergency response unit. So as you know, our department responds to 911 calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So when one of our firefighters is on vacation or on sick leave or on training duty or on jury duty or on military leave or any number of reasons that they can't be at their post on their company truck, we have to backfill that position. in that moment. It's not a situation where if it's like an office job where you can have that vacancy for a day or two and then have that person come back, that position has to be backfilled. So in order to make sure that our department is not saddled with just an enormous amount of mandatory overtime, we like to keep that three to one ratio. So as we add these positions for the squad four, we will need to also add three minimum coverage firefighters in order to keep that three to one ratio. And finally, in fire, the last priority that we are recommending funding for FY 2027 is a battalion chief to work in our professional standards team. this chief would report to Chief Bush Kirby assistant chief Bush and help him manage the logistical needs of the department as we've talked about in the past assistant chief Bush has a heavy load he manages all of the emergency response teams all of our shift command so all I think he has 10 or 11 companies that he manages on a day-to-day basis, six battalion chiefs. He manages the fire academy. And in addition to that, he has responsibility for making sure that all of the fleet and facility needs are coordinated with our fleet department and our facilities department. So this position would offload those logistical responsibilities from Chief Kirby to this dedicated battalion chief. This position would then be able to focus on fleet maintenance coordination, facility maintenance coordination, things like uniforms and radios and bunker gear and all of the administrative things that need to be taken care of to support our men and women who are keeping us safe. As we move into the capital program, I just wanted to highlight that our current capital improvement program is just under $580 million. This is from Tracy's latest quarterly report. You can see the breakdown there. We have projects going on in a multitude of different areas, including utility projects that support our water and wastewater system, mobility projects, which are road and trail and sidewalk projects, facility projects that help us maintain and improve the 700,000 square feet of facilities that are owned and operated by the city of Temple, our places and spaces program, which helps to make investments in both our parks and our neighborhoods. We have capital funded equipment, which is some of our larger equipment purchases like ladder trucks and engines, some of our solid waste vehicles and then some other other programs as well. Proposed for FY2027 is a total of $75.5 million in additional capital projects. About 52% of that total is recommended in utilities, 28% in public safety, 12% in facilities, and 8% in equipment. For 2027, those projects include the addition of fire station number nine and the associated purchase of the ladder truck, as well as Salmon's Community Center rebuild. As it relates to equipment, we are recommending the replacement of our financial software, some public works equipment, and the replacement of our police department radios. In utilities, we are recommending projects related to wastewater, water storage, water lines and mains and treatment plant maintenance. The total budget is supported by a proposed tax rate that remains unchanged from the current fiscal year, which is 69.99 cents. So no change recommended for the property tax rates. For solid waste rates, as council knows, solid waste is part of our general fund. So we are recommending a $2 per month increase to the solid waste rates. You also have a recommendation for a multi-year plan for water and wastewater rates to support the capital program that we have presented. And so this includes about a 5% total increase in water and wastewater. It's a little bit higher on the wastewater side, a little bit lower on the water side, but when you put them together, it's about a 5% increase. Drainage rates, we've talked a lot about in the workshop today. So there are some adjustments that are needed to our drainage rates, but we are looking at actually a decrease to residential rates as we've discussed in the workshop. So we're gonna continue to work through that with you all in the next few weeks. some some change to drainage rates and the way that those are structured is recommended and it looks like we we might be recommending a decrease to the residential rate here in this category so altogether the the current proposed budget is proposed at 337 million dollars just really just shy of $338 million. That's all funds, including the general fund, the water and wastewater fund. But it also includes the reinvestment zone number one, which I just always like to remind you, Temple is the host entity for this fund, but it includes revenues from the increment from all of the participating taxing entities. including Bell County, Temple ISD, Belton ISD, Troy ISD, Elm Creek, Water District, and Temple College. So it's more than just our increment there that's shown, but we're the host entity. So the full budget there is shown on our sheets. Future action items, tonight obviously you have a public hearing on the proposed budget. Important note is that this budget is built on estimates because we do not yet have the certified tax roll. That is due to taxing entities not later than July 25th, so just a few more days before we receive that. So these numbers that we're working from are estimates at this point, so we'll provide any updates as we receive them once we receive the certified tax roll. On August 6th, you'll be asked to set a proposed tax rate ceiling, meaning that whatever tax rate that you set there, you can come down from it, but you can't go higher than that. So you want to set the maximum rate that you are going to consider. Again, the proposed budget is built on a rate that remains unchanged from the current year, which is 69.99 cents. On August 20th you'll will have the first reading which sets the first reading which sets the tax rate and then on August 27th you'll have the second and final reading setting the tax rate and the adoption of the 27 through 2032 business plan including the FY 2027 annual budget. That is a brief overview with a heavy focus on FY2027. Obviously, it is a six-year plan, so much more is included in the overall six-year plan, but council formally adopts and appropriates the FY2027 annual budget through this process, so we wanted to highlight what was recommended and upcoming for the next fiscal year.

Thank you, Ms. Myers. Counseling questions for Ms. Myers? We've gone over it a lot, and I wanna thank staff for all the hard work that we've done. This is a austere year, as we've talked about, and we're still gonna get the major priorities into the budget, and we appreciate that. We know that's not easy to do. This item is subject to a public hearing. Anyone missing to speak on this item may do so. We ask you step to the podium, state your name for the record, and during a public hearing, we ask you limit your comments to five minutes.

Hello. Hello. My name is Jeremiah and I live in Belton. I think from what I've heard today, I will introduce myself and tell you that I come from the desert, the Mojave and the Sonoran, and I've come to call Texas home. As a matter of fact, I tell everyone that I went from Sin City to God's country. I have not come here to blame. I have not come here to protest. I have only come here to speak the truth. And what I have learned over my years is that inside the Bible, it is said that God, our creator, had made us in his image. And in that image, we have been given the power to create and to destroy. What the elders have taught me was that when the creator made everything, at first, there was a thought. And then after this thought, there was action. A big bang happened. Stars and planets started forming. And just like us, whenever we create something, we put our love into it. And this love that our creator, God, put into his creation is water. All throughout all of creation, scientists are looking for water because they know that wherever they find water, They will find life. And it's not something that can be taken lightly because you mess with the water, you mess with our, and not just ours, but yours as well. This area that we breathe has water in it. I even have a theory that all of creation, this thing that they call dark matter is just an extension of water and its characteristics. So the only thing I really have to say is just take care of the water and the other things that God has given us. The land, the air, and each other. Because we are all one people under the sky. No one's better than anybody. And we all have this home that we need to take care of. The elders tell me that when the people from across the sea came, they asked us who owned this land. And the only answer we had is nobody owns it. We only take care of it. And I don't know what you guys know about the history, but it's been pretty rough for the last 250 years. And it's also been pretty good for you all. You know, with everything that's been going on, I really don't know what was going on with your forefathers. Was it really for freedom or was it really for corporate exploitation, you know? You guys are in a very, very powerful position. You know, you have the ability to be able to tell these companies to put principle over profit. And so just really quick, you know, um, I know your position is not easy. I know there's a lot of criticism, you know, but my prayers are with you. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Who else? Alan.

Alan Lytle, I live here in Temple. And Mr. Mayor, you totally undervalued what you said. These poor people have been working for months. I've been to several of the meetings to get this budget for us, the city of Temple, so that we can continue to thrive as a city. So everybody, I know you guys worked on it too, but these guys have done a Herculean task of creating this budget. And one of the things I was a little confused about, and I may be wrong, is we said we're gonna get three new police officers. But just like the fire department, that actually means just one new position because they have three different shifts. So we're only gonna get one new position in the police department. And as I do every year that we talk about these, I know the chief and the other chief, I always say they're happy but they're not really that happy because I think they really should need more police. We need more police and we need more fire and we need to do them ahead of time so we're not back into the position we were several years ago trying to catch up because of the growth of the city.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Joe Royer from Livin District 2. Again, like other people have said, I really appreciate all the work that's gone into this and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to be more involved in it myself. I did read the previous two budgets in their entirety and I know it's a lot to take on and a lot to do. My only comment at this point is to please table this vote until December 3rd and the vote on the business plan, thanks.

Thank you. Who else? Anyone else on the budget? You know what? If you really need to say it. But we got it the first time. I'll go back and watch the video.

All right.

Well, come on up to the microphone.

for all that debt that is incurred already. I didn't hear anything in the plan on how to rectify and stop kicking it down the road that can.

Can we go back and show the tax rate?

I mean you had 406 pages of stuff to try and read in your business plan. Is there anything proposed in there?

Well it was in the presentation. Right here.

I had to miss it probably because I went down and got my over shirt. All right. Well, look at the look at the screen. What was the total plan?

The 37.54 cents.

is gonna cover the extra $354 million in debt.

I'm trying to answer you. I'm trying to answer you. Okay. The 37.54 cents is for, the M&O stands for management and operation. That's just the day-to-day workings of the city. INS stands for interest in sinking, and that is the piece of the 69.99 cents Total tax rate, 32.45 cents of that is used to pay the debt.

Okay. So how many years is it going to take to pay down this $354 million?

It'll take a long time. A long time. And we're going to add more to it as we go. So as debt, you know how whenever you buy a car and you pay that car off and after a while it wears out and you've got to go out and get another loan to buy a car?

No. We do the same thing. I don't know about those things because I take care of my business better than what I see the government takes care of. You don't think so? My car is paid for. Okay.

All right. Thank you. And I take care of it.

If it breaks, I fix it. I don't go into debt if I can help it. And I don't have to go into debt because I've saved money over the years to take care of the accidental things. And if not, God takes care of them for some reason. Because he takes care of the widows, orphans, old ladies like me. I trust in him. But I know that government doesn't anymore. I mean, I know where our government started. Our government started with a Christian nation. But we've gone 50-50. And now I see where it goes. But that's what I see. We don't incur debt, further debt, until we pay off debt. And then we can. I remember eating sandwiches with just nothing but maybe a little butter on because I don't want to be in debt because I learned the hard way. I know people from World War II, my mother and dad. I know people from the Great Depression and I know how they felt. They learned to save and put back and die. Thank you, Margie.

Anybody else? Anybody else wanna speak on the budget? All right. With that, I will close the public hearing. And no action is required on this. This was just simply an opportunity to put the budget before the public. There's no vote. There was a schedule given earlier as to when the budget turns into action items on council agendas. Item six is the consent agenda. All items listed under this section are considered to be routine by the city council and may be enacted in one motion. If discussion is desired by the council, any item may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any council member and will be considered separately. Council during workshop we discussed removing Adams we see here I lost it is it C T and C through T C and K I'm sorry I think I'm working off the first one you sent me Jen I'm sorry so council if there's not any discussion on the consent agenda I will entertain a motion on item 6A through 6T, less items 6C and 6K.

I move to approve consent agenda item 6A through 6T, less items 6C and 6K.

I'll second. We have a motion by Councilmember Pilkington. We have a second by Councilmember Immons. Council, please cast your vote. Consent agenda as stated passes five votes to zero. Item 6C is to consider adopting a resolution authorizing an amendment to a lease agreement on T-Hanger number 71 with Daniel Rinkle at the Drawn Miller Central Texas Regional Airport to add Michael Emmons as a co-leasee. Counseling discussion on that? If not, I will entertain a motion on item 6C.

I'll move to approve 6C.

We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. We have a second by Council Member Pilkington. Council, please cast your vote. Six C passes, four votes yes, zero votes no, and one abstention. Moving on to item 6K, it's considered adopting a resolution authorizing change order number three to the construction contract with R.T. Schneider Construction Company Limited of Temple for changes related to the construction of North Pea Ridge Road improvements phase one in the amount of $149,146.52. Counseling questions on this? There being none, council, I'll entertain a motion on item 6K.

I move to approve item 6K.

We have a motion by Councilmember Grant. We have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. Council please cast your vote. 6k passes five sorry four votes to zero for yes zero no and one abstention Moving on to item seven is the first reading in a public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance authorizing an amendment and adopting the tax increment financing reinvestment zone number one financing and project plan to align with the master plans which include allocating bond proceeds, adjusting revenues, allocating revenue for future debt service, operating expenditures, and public improvements for fiscal year 2026 through 2062. Ms. Bernard.

The amendment before you tonight, this is the first reading. The second reading will be on the August 6th meeting, and this was approved by the Reinvestment Zone Board and recommended on May 27th. But just to summarize the project and financing plan amendment, it's allocating funds. The source of those funds that are allocated are updated FY 2026 increment based on receipt of the certified role. And this process is normally done in December, but it was delayed this year to allow us to work through some master planning. It also, this amendment based on that certified role, We update our forecast and we're required to keep the plan through the end of the life of the reinvestment zone, which is in FY2062. So we have adjustments for each year. It also includes revenue based on project priority or status that is available for reallocating it to other projects. We also had project savings that's being allocated. And to note here, there's TERS, Tax Increment Revenue Bonds Series 2026 of 124,490,000. Those are planned to be sold in on August, or brought to you for the award of the sale on August 6th. And then we also had some funds from the sale of land. The use of the funds in the financing plan amendment, they were to adjust various operating expenditures, rebate to HEB distribution, some correction of error on how the refund of discounts paid to the RZ that should have stayed with the taxing entities, City of Temple, Bell County, and Elm Creek, additional funding for the 2050 master plan, TDC annual funding agreement. There was a adjustment to that to be actual what it was calculated to be based on their funding agreement. There was an adjustment to the public safety fee to true it up to the actual residential levy on residential properties for the city of Temple. And then we had adjustments to district services and then downtown inspection services and project management. Uh, Brennan mentioned earlier, um, that the reinvestment zone based on the big, the number of projects they're about to add through this project and financing plan, they will also be funding a, uh, capital project managers and engineers for those projects. The project updates and adds from project savings of 3.2 million, future land purchases or right-of-way acquisition of 15.5 million, and then allocation to projects of $283,781,200. And also I skipped over the adjustment, the debt service on the TERS revenue bonds, there'll be 25 year bonds, and the average annual debt service on those will be $9.2 million. I'll go over the bonds in more detail, but there's a few points I want to go over with that. This big table just compares the current financing plan to the proposed plan and the year to focus on is the 2026. It added a total of $1.9 million to the increment. And then the last column just shows the increase from the previous year in the increment. Projects planned for with the bond proceeds, and this is sorted from the biggest to the littlest as far as the dollar amount of the projects. It's funding for Old Howard Road phase two, $27.3 million. Some upgrades to the Dozier Farm wastewater. Industrial pretreatment of $20.7 million. other infrastructure, transmission lines, drainage basin studies, and just, I'm not gonna go through all the projects, but you see them here for a total of close to $124.5 million. Looking at the capacity, how we determine capacity of the reinvestment zone bonds, just to note, these bonds are not, a tax is not levied to pay the bonds. They're paid from the increment that comes from the seven taxing entities, and it's deposited to the reinvestment zone, and then those funds are what pay the bonds. It's those revenues, and that's why they call them the TERS revenue bonds. By our existing cover covenants we can we want to maintain a Tom's coverage of what our revenues After we pay our existing debt service take your gross revenues You want it to cover your debt debt service by covenant, but it's required 1.5 times But we do this calculation to make sure it's paid We have a two times coverage which is a more conservative approach. Just the timeline for the bonds. Next week, these bonds will be rated. They'll also, we'll get our bond rating and insurance signed to the bonds. August 6th, you'll consider an ordinance authorizing the sale of the bonds. And then the actual closing funding of the bonds or the proceeds delivered will be on August 27th. This just looks at the financing and project plans by park, and you'll see that in 2026, there's a total of $236.3 million of project funding, and it shows each one listed by the park, and the majority of this financing plan is allocated to the Temple Industrial Park for infrastructure. Again, this shows the available fund balance, source of funds, total debt and operating expenses by year, total planned project expenditures, and available fund balance at the end of the year. And a lot of these projects, this amendment, the projects won't be completed in the next two months or three months of the fiscal year, so those will roll into, the budget will later roll into And that concludes my presentation on the amendment. I'd be happy to address any questions related to that.

Thank you, Ms. Bernard. Counsel, anything for Tracy?

No.

All right, this item is subject to a public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak on this may do so. We just ask that you step to the podium, state your name for the record. Five minutes, four minutes. I said five minutes a minute ago and you put four minutes on the, you got five minutes, Joe.

All right. Let her rip. I'm Joe Royer again, live in district two. Um, this one's a lot like 20 all the way through 2062. That's a lot of planning to do. I mean, we're, we just saw a budget proposal where we're running at a $2 million deficit year to year, and we're gonna try and plan all the way through 2062. I have to say, I, I don't have a lot of confidence in that. This was a really great presentation. Thank you very much. I wish I had seen it before the meeting. The documentation that was available, oh, first off, please forgive me, I'm actually relying on a lot of data from our research team, so I didn't do all of this research myself, so I might get a couple of these wrong. But the information that we found before this was just a basic ordinance. I didn't see any of this information. Was this gonna be available to the public, this presentation?

Yes.

Because, yeah, I would love to be able to go over this in more detail because, again, the basic ordinance didn't cover any of this level of detail.

The agenda narrative, we do have that in the packet. We have the financing plan in the packet, the actual plan, and the project plan is in the packet.

Thank you.

And then we also have another document that's referred to as the master plan projects that show all the projects by year. and it goes into more detail whether it's construction right away or design thank you and and maps and maps also too okay transparency and it is the state statute chapter 311 that governs the reinvestment zone and they require a financing and project plan through the end of the life of the reinvestment zone. And I do, I mean, you forecast way out, but each year you update, we update the financing plan for the actual increment we're going to receive in projects. So it is, you're doing a lot of forecasting way out there that most likely will be adjusted.

You know it's gonna change, yeah.

Year two and three is, Very, very predictable. Year 2025 and 30 are not as predictable, obviously. But just as you go.

Yeah, and when you issue bonds for revenue bonds, you want to try to really hone in and be conservative on the revenues that are going to support that bond issue. And that is also, when we go through our credit rating, that they really focus on that.

That's why you also add in the two times padding. Yes, sir.

all right well that actually addressed a lot of my questions or at least it gives me the opportunity to address them um the only other point i had is um do we have a full transparency on financial ties family ties to the board members of the the various uh tourist boards and whatnot um you know do we do we have all those conflicts of disclosures or uh come conflicts of interest disclosures done yeah

just you know basic transparency making sure we check all the boxes on these thank you thank you who else anybody all right with that I will close the public hearing and unlike the budget presentation folks this one is subject to a vote so I'll entertain a motion on item seven We have a motion by Council Member Emmons. We have a second by Council Member Grant. Council, please cast your vote. Item seven passes five votes to zero. Item eight is a public hearing. Consider adopting a resolution approving a grant application and authorizing the city manager to accept funding in the amount of $1.5 million from the Texas Park and Wildlife Department local parks non-urban indoor recreation grant program for the Sammons Community Center project, if awarded.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, yes, we are asking for approval to apply for this grant that will benefit the Sammons Community Center. It is a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department local parks non-urban indoor recreation grant program, which assists local units of government with acquisition and or development of public recreation areas and facilities throughout the state of Texas. The max award is $1.5 million with a 50% match requirement, and the application due date is August 3rd of this year. Our proposed project is to benefit the Samus Community Center. We'd like to demolish the existing structure and construct the new one, design in coordination with the adjacent indoor pool and golf course to create a cohesive recreation campus. The replacement facility will restore an important community amenity and provide modern, accessible, and flexible spaces that support programming, community events, senior activities, and recreational opportunities for future generations of Temple. as a requirement of this, one of the requirements of this application is that applicants hold at least one public hearing prior to application submission and with compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. So that's why we're here to request public hearing and approval, of course. And part of this funding, or this funding will provide not the total cost of the reconstruction of Sammons, but it will supplement the cost. Thank you.

I know we have to go through this, but you can always apply for free money. Don't ever doubt that. Very good. Counselor, anything for Ms. Chopine?

Anything?

Okay. This item, as stated, is subject to a public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak on this item may do so. We just ask you to step to the podium, state your name.

Allen Lytle, I live here in Temple, and used to go to the Salmon Center when it was there. Unfortunately, it hadn't been there in quite a while. Is 2.25 million gonna be enough to build the Salmon Center? No. So where's the rest of it gonna come from? Assuming we get the 1.5 grant and we have to pay the 750,000 to go match it, where's the rest of it gonna come from? How long is it gonna take us to get enough money to replace that building.

There's $9 million in the proposed capital improvement program to go towards the Salmon Senior Center, so this would be supplemental to that money. And as, as you know, a, um, the salmon senior center is not eligible for certificate of obligation funding. So it would have to be a general obligation funded project if it is, if, if, if it is funded through debt service. And so that will go to the voters in November. Um, if, if it is gonna be funded through debt. So there's $9 million in the budget. And so this grant would supplement that not, not be, it definitely wouldn't do the whole thing, but every little bit helps.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, there being no one else responding, Council, I will, unless there's further discussion, I'll entertain a motion on item number eight.

Move to approve item number eight. Second.

We have a motion by Councilmember Pilkington. We have a second by Councilmember Grant. Council, please cast your vote. Item nine passes five votes to zero. I'm sorry, item eight passes five votes to zero. Item nine is consider adopting a resolution authorizing a construction contract with R.T. Schneider Construction Company Limited for the construction of Hartford Bluff Road from FM 93 to Waters Dairy Road and FM 93 improvements in traffic signalization in the estimated amount of $9,711,390.76. Mr. Kalacki. Kalacki?

Yeah. Kalacki Kalacki. Kalacki, there you go. Senior Project Manager, City of Temple Engineering Department. This project is to widen and improve Hartrick Bluff Road. It's going to have two lanes with a middle turn lane, sidewalk. We're going to add signalization at FM 93. On June 16th, we had six bids. The OPC was $13.6 million. Low bid was $9.7 million. High bid, $14.1 million. And Walker Partners, who's here with us tonight, and staff recommend authorization to R.T. Schneider for the construction award. And we're here to answer any questions if you have any.

I get counseling thing for Mr. Clark. That's been a long time coming. That'll be nice. Very good, if there are no questions, this item is not subject to a public hearing, so council, I'll entertain a motion on item nine.

I move to approve item nine. Second.

We have a motion by Councilmember Grant, we have a second by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. Council, please cast your vote. Item nine passes five votes to zero. Item 10 is to consider adopting a resolution delegating the authority to initiate condemnation proceedings to the city manager as authorized by Texas Government Code Section 22606-053F for the acquisition of permanent utility and temporary easements as part of the Leon River Interceptor Phase II water line.

Mr. Chateau. Thank you. That's the language you just read. For this summary, for this presentation, we're gonna quickly go over the Leon River project history, and then we'll go over the purpose for the request, the eminent domain, delegation process, and then why condemnation may be necessary. The project history, the slide below is the phase one portion of this project. Phase two is up above. This is the Leon River Interceptor phase two wastewater project. It's about 8,550 linear feet of new 30 inch PVC wastewater gravity lines. And it's designed to extend between the city of Temple water treatment plants and the existing poison oak lift station. We have 12 acquisitions that remain for this project. We have acquired 17 of them. Of those 12 properties, their appraisal values range from the highest at $32,400, the lowest $2,100, and the average and median are both right around $10,000. And the question is, what are we asking here? We're asking city council to delegate the authority to file the condemnation petitions to the city manager. And this process is available when we're constructing facilities that connect one location to another location. The reason why the Leona River Interceptor Phase Two project, we have limited schedule for funding, design, and construction of this project. We wanna streamline the acquisition process as much as possible, and it's gonna give the city greater flexibility when responding to negotiations and project timelines. As I noted earlier, we acquired 17 of 29 easements. We expect condemnation for about 12 projects. One of those is because of unknown owners and airships. This will help clear that title for us. And then the 11 other is because we're unable to come to an agreement at this time. If this is approved, the city manager may then authorize eminent domain petition if need be. I would stress that this does not obligate the city to file condemnation proceedings. We will continue negotiating on. And the quick question is what are the process here? So city council adopts the resolution delegating authority to file a petition to the city manager. This happens at a public meeting, a properly held public meeting. Again, it does not obligate the city to file these combination petitions. This process is available when the project is a public use, such as here as wastewater, when it's done by a record vote, and when you're using it to acquire multiple tracts or properties to construct facilities connecting two locations. And again, that's between a water treatment plant to the poison oak lift station. Part of this process, we must identify the general area covered by the project or the general route for the project. The specific properties do not need to be identified, though, although we do think it's prudent to separately list those products so everyone knows where we're at. And the goal is to provide the reasonable notice that the owner's properties may be subject to the condemnation proceedings. And then once those conditions are met and the resolution is adopted, then the city manager may approve the petitions to initiate those combinations. And the reason why this is necessary, um, obviously this project connects wastewater between the city of temple water treatment plant and the existing poison oak lift station. And all these properties are in between those two areas. So we have to go through them somehow. And why would eminent domain become necessary? Like I mentioned earlier, condemnation is currently necessary on one property because we don't have, we have unknown heirs basically, we have to clear that title. It may become necessary for the additional properties if we're unable to come to an agreement with the property owners. And in order to meet the project timeline, staff is requesting city council to delegate the authority to the file condemnation petitions to the city manager But as I said earlier, ongoing negotiations will continue, but the city manager, if delegated authority, may file petitions when deemed appropriate to keep the project on schedule. Are there any questions?

Got a few. Okay. If we could go back to show the map. Might need some help on these. Why the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? Yes. Why the meandering lines?

I am not in engineering, I don't know that exact answer. Trying to stick to the edges of properties so they remain further developable.

And to not hurt the correct current landowner.

My understanding is a lot of these, a lot of this is running through like 1% floodplains and such like that.

And whenever the, a line is run like that and it's quote unquote condemned, um, the, the city is only taking the width that's needed to put the utility line in. Correct.

Yes. Well, we'll take the width as needed to put it in. Uh, usually have temporary construction easement during that actual process that goes away. And then we just maintain the width to. maintain the project in the future as needed.

Is does the city. I know it's called a taking and it's called condemnation. Does the city, what's the process of establishing a value for the property that is quote unquote condemned?

Okay, well we will go out, we'll find an appraiser to appraise the property. We'll send a initial offer based upon that appraisal's value. At that point in time, negotiate with the property owners. We try to come to an agreement. If we're unable to come to an agreement, we will send a final offer after a statutory time period. And then there's another statutory time period after that final offer that we can initiate condemnation. If we decide to do that, then it will go to the special commissioner's hearing where there are three properly um, qualified individuals who can then, uh, hear both sides. Um, it's kind of like a, it's kind of like a mini court hearing, but it's a little preliminary, um, qualified and independent. Correct. And the landowner. Correct. And then the three commissioners would make a determination about what they think that value is worth. Um, at that point in time, the, Landowner may accept that or not. If they decide they don't want to accept it. Um, then we would move into the next stages of actual litigation, in which case we would move into a more of a typical lawsuit discovery would occur. Um, and we can move all the way into an actual trial to determine the value, the proper value, um, throughout this whole process at any time, we can come to an agreement. But ultimately, the court at the very end of it could determine a value that they deem as the appropriate value for the taking. And that can be either accepted or not, and it can be appealed.

So the appraised value is the starting point of determining the value in the purchase price? Yes, sir. Okay. Very good.

I also just wanted to point out that the commissioners are appointed by the court. They're not appointed by the city at all. They're appointed by the actual Belk County Courts.

Not the city courts, as you said. OK. Very good. Anything else for the new guy?

Everybody good?

Okay, thank you, sir. Council, on item 10, I will obtain a motion for approval.

I'll make a motion to approve item 10. Second.

Carla, I don't mean to interrupt, but I know that there's often some very specific language. And when Mayor read the item originally, he said water instead of wastewater. Does that matter at all?

Wastewater? Is that better?

I think it's okay. Sorry to put you on the spot.

Sometimes the eminent domain has very specific language.

Why don't I read the whole item in officially again? Because it makes me feel better. Thank you. So item 10 that we've already received a presentation on is consider adopting a resolution, delegating the authority to initiate condemnation proceedings to, um, to the city manager is authorized by the Texas government code section 2, 2 0 6.053 F for the acquisition of a permanent utility and temporary easements as part of the Leon river interceptor phase two wastewater line.

I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you.

So we have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Walker. We have a second by Council Member Grant. Council, please cast your vote. Second by Pilkington and Grant, looks like. We doubled down. Item 10 passes five votes to zero. It's currently 725. That's the end of our agenda. Thank you all for attending, and this meeting is adjourned.