City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our regular meeting for Tuesday, June the 2nd. Ms. Hilberg, will you please call roll?

Yes, sir. Councilman De La Garza? I'm present. Councilman Kidder?

Here.

Councilwoman Butler? Present. Councilwoman Scott? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Young?

Here.

Councilman Lofgren?

Here.

And Mayor Crocker?

Here. If you would please rise, join me for the pledges, followed by a moment of silence.

Thank you, please be seated.

All right, welcome everyone. Good to have you here. We'll jump straight into our business for the evening, and we will begin with announcements and reminders. Mr. Garza, good evening. What do you have for us this evening?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I do have a few announcements for you this evening. On behalf of our Convention Visitors Bureau, We want to remind the public that food vendor applications are now open for Tejas Fest 2026. Applications will be open until June 22nd and can be found online at discovervictoriatexas.com. Discover Victoria, Texas and the Victoria Main Street program also announced the return of Night Tunes, a free summer concert series in De Leon Plaza. The first night tunes will take place on Friday, June 12th from 7 to 10 p.m. and will feature food trucks, inflatables, and drinks with live music by El Camino and Hamilton Lumies. On behalf of the Communications Department, we're happy to announce that a brand new episode of Town Talk is now in session. This episode features Municipal Court Judge Vanessa Heinold, who gives listeners an inside look at how Municipal Court really works, from helping residents resolve cases to connecting people with local resources and nonprofits. This isn't Judge Judy. It's the real deal. We invite everyone to tune in now on the city's YouTube channel at Victoria, Texas Videos. Again, I just read these. Staff takes all the credit for writing them. On behalf of the police department, our police department will host a Coffee with Cops event on Friday, June 5th from 7.30 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the lobby of our public safety headquarter facility. This is a great opportunity for the public to visit with officers and ask any questions they may have. No agendas or formal presentations, just coffee and conversation. This event is sponsored by the Salvation Army. In addition, our police department will be hosting Casting with Cops, a free youth fishing event on Saturday, June 13th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Sun Valley Ranch to strengthen the relationship between Victoria's youth and VPD officers. During this event, children ages two through 15 will have the opportunity to meet their local first responders. Officers will help children with baiting hooks, reeling in fish, taking fish off the hooks, et cetera. The event will have four one hour time slots with a maximum of 50 participants per hour. So participants must register in advance at victoriatx.gov forward slash casting with cops or by contacting the community engagement unit at police eu at victoriatx.gov. And lastly, on behalf of the police department, they'll be hosting a Lunch and Learn program on Wednesday, June 17th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community Center Annex. The topic will be men's health awareness. Lunch and presentations will be provided by DTAR Healthcare System and participants must register in advance at victoriatx.gov forward slash lunch and learn. So that's all I have for this evening.

CHRIS JERRAMSEN. All right. Thank you. With that, then, we will move on to public and employee recognitions. We'll start with our Keep Victoria Beautiful Beautification Award for the month. And Ms. Burton, I believe you're here to do the honors again this month.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. Before I get on to our Beautification Award, I'd like to speak for just a moment on the designation that KVB was just awarded last month or so. So we were named a Gold Star Affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful for the fourth year in a row. And there are certain criteria that are set forth by Keep Texas Beautiful that city affiliates have to meet. And so I'm very proud to say that we, and there's, I think there's bronze, silver, and gold affiliate status. And so this is our fourth year consecutive as a gold star affiliate. And it's based on obviously our 2025 year. And so I wanted to just talk about a couple of bullet points that highlight our achievements. including our two roadway cleanups, our spring trash off and fall sweep in 2025 where volunteers collected 388 bags of litter from across the city. We had one neighborhood cleanup that we were able to reach 89 homes with our volunteers and help the residents of those homes get large items like tree limbs and old furniture and such out of their yards and to the curb for City Crews to come by and pick up. We debuted our Earth Day Picnic fundraiser which garnered $17,000 in revenue that's going to be put right back into our beautification grant program. to help bolster that. Last year we gave $2,750 in beautification grants to local businesses and organizations to help with tree plantings, new landscaping, things that help improve curb appeal. And we did 13 presentations and programs, whether it was booths at community events, those sort of things, reaching 1700 people, including three elementary school career days, and taking a group of fifth graders to the landfill and compost facility. So I think there's also a slide with our board members and

Yes, this one, yes.

So that's our Gold Star Affiliate Award and this is our current board of directors. And I'm really, really proud to work with this crew.

So just wanted to toot our own horn for just a moment.

As well you should.

Okay, now I'd like to toot somebody else's horn. So my other reason for being up here tonight is that I'd like to bestow our Beautification Award on to Victoria ER at On North Navarro, this building, they reminded me, used to be the Bible bookstore back in the day. And Victoria ER just celebrated their 10-year anniversary. But this is just another example of a property that really looks great, located along a very busy stretch of Navarro. Beautiful, colorful landscaping, just amazing. top to bottom, a really great looking property. And so I'd like to invite you ladies up here to receive your award for the month of June. So please help me congratulate Victoria ER.

Good evening. My name is Sheila Kilgore, and I'm the marketing director of Victoria ER. And this is Jeanette Hill. She's our facility administrator and our director of nursing. And so on behalf of Victoria ER and our entire team, we would really like to thank you for this award. It means so much. As she just mentioned, Victoria just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. Some of the services we provide at Victoria is CAT scan, X-ray, bedside ultrasound. We have a full clinical lab. All of our doctors are board-certified emergency physicians. Our nurses are all registered nurses. And we're open 24-7, holidays, weekends. We never close. We're always open. So if you haven't come by our facility, we would love for you to stop by and for us to be able to give you a tour. We're located at 6703 North Navarro. We treat all minor and major emergencies, but with no wait time. So again, thank you so much for this award. It means so much.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. Mr. Garza, do you have any public and employee recognitions this evening?

Yes, Mayor, I have a couple. Meredith already spoke about the recipient of the recognition for KVB and so congratulations to them as well. Recently, we also had some promotions within our police department on May 19th. We'd like to congratulate these individuals. I want to congratulate Lieutenant Brandon Allen for his promotion as well as for his 16 years of service and he's actually here. Congratulations. Lieutenant Matthew Daly, who's also celebrating 13 years of service. Sergeant Ryan Beard, who's celebrating seven years of service. Sergeant Mark Kelly, who is celebrating 10 years of service. And Sergeant Jason Stone, who's celebrating 15 years of service. And so congratulations to all of these fine individuals and fine police officers for their recent promotions. In addition, we recently had a promotion within our fire department as well. Brandy Davis was promoted to EMS captain, and she is celebrating 11 years of service. I don't know if she's here.

She is, there she is. Brandy, congratulations.

Thank you. And lastly, this is also related to our fire department. Our Victoria Fire Department Station 4 members were recently recognized in local media by a patient whose life they saved during EMS week. On Monday, May 18th, Kevin Thompson prepared food for himself while his wife Caroline spoke to their grandchild in a bedroom. Not long after beginning his meal, he began to feel the initial stages of choking on a large piece of food. VFD A-Shift Station 4 arrived at their home, immediately getting to work on life-saving measures. Crews used equipment to physically retrieve the lodged food in Kevin's airway, and all members received a life-saving award for their great work, saving Mr. Thompson's life. And so here pictured, we have Fire Captain Raymond Mitchell, Engineer JT Rudd, Firefighter EMT Noah Smith, Fire Medic Hannah Frank, and EMS Lieutenant Belinda Freit. And so congratulations to them for their hard work. Obviously, it goes without saying that the men and women of our fire department and police department, for that matter, save lives every day in some way, shape, or form. And so thank you for their service, and we're greatly appreciative that they are on our team. And that's all I have for this evening.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Garza. We will move on then to items from council. I had a heads up that we may have a couple this evening. And Mr. Kitter, I believe you had an item from council.

Thank you. I recently attended the town hall meeting regarding the stormwater drainage fee. Got a lot of good feedback there, but I was wondering if the city manager or anybody from your department had any kind of updates or additional information.

Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for attending the event and representing us. City Council. As you know, we held the town hall this past Thursday. We had roughly a couple of dozen individuals present. And even though that might not seem like a large number, we do believe that the group that was there was pretty well representative of a variety of different groups from our community. And so we had representation from religious institutions, from nonprofits, from the private sector, multifamily developers were being represented. Individual citizens are being represented senior citizens were being represented that evening And so again, even though we only had a couple of dozen individuals. We do feel that it was pretty representative of the different Groups around our community that have some very valuable input on the proposed stormwater utility Throughout the evening. We were able to address and answer several questions that I think helped clarify and explain the why behind it and the why we were proposing or are proposing the stormwater utility, which of course, as you know, is to try and tackle some of the issues that were identified in our stormwater drainage utility master plan a few years ago. More importantly, we listened. And so we very specifically got some feedback in a few areas. One, on the religious institution front, we received valuable feedback that there ought to be consideration for an exemption for religious institutions that is a discretionary exemption that state law allows local communities to consider. And so there was a very specific request, I should say, from representatives of the religious institutions that we take that into account and we consider that moving forward. And I assured them that I would provide that feedback to you. Second, there was some pretty strong feedback around just the figure and the amount. There was several opinions that centered around the affordability aspect of the fee. And so that's obviously something always to be mindful of. And then third, feedback around the timing of the implementation itself with several opinions expressing some concern on the timing of the implementation. And so I committed to everybody that was present that I would provide that input to all of you, which I'm doing this evening. And so I appreciate Council Member Kitter providing me the opportunity to do so. And then in terms of moving forward, we intend on over the next couple of months continuing to do what we can to answer any questions that the public might have around the proposed fee. Personally, I will be going around speaking at a variety of different groups to address the topic and make myself available to answer questions. We will continue to put out information through social media and other press releases encouraging folks to visit our victoriatx.gov forward slash drainage webpage that has a lot of valuable information that includes not only the master plan, all the different presentations, but goes into pretty good level of detail on the projects that were proposed in funding with the stormwater utility. More importantly, there is a link there to a map, GIS map, that specifically for non-residential property owners provides a great avenue to go to the link, find their property, and they'll be able to see exactly how much impervious cover is estimated to be on their site and what the fee is estimated to be for them as well. And so another feedback that we've been getting is that it's very clear to articulate that for a single family residential, it's $5. per month, but a non-residential is a little bit trickier since it's based off of the impervious cover calculation, and so for that we're referring people to the webpage so they can find it themselves. And so again, we'll continue to do that over the course of the next couple of months, and as we get into the proposal of the fiscal year 27 budget, we obviously anticipate having ongoing conversations with you about the proposal.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Garza. Obviously, public input is always an important part of that process. I had one item I wanted to, well, let me ask this. Does anybody else have an item from council? Mark, I'm sorry. Mr. Lofgren.

I want to pull D8. And D2 and D3, it would be nice if we could have a presentation about what happens in it. in a horrible weather event, how debris removal works, how FEMA works. I mean, we're in hurricane season. It would be nice to everybody to know how that works. This is a renewal of a contract that's been going on for years and years, but it'd be nice for the public and for us all up here to know how that all works. And a future council member, if we could have some sort of discussion about it or a presentation from staff.

Sure. Certainly, we've actually been planning on having Rick McBrayer, Emergency Management Coordinator, come and provide a presentation to you in anticipation of hurricane season. And so we're expecting him to be here at either the second meeting in June or first meeting in July. And we can incorporate what you just requested as part of that presentation.

Thank you. And just to confirm, you'd like to pull D8 from the consent agenda? Yes, I'd like to discuss it separately, yes. OK, all right. Any other items from council? OK, I had one that I wanted to bring up. I know there's been a lot of discussion recently in the community about data centers and issues surrounding those. That's not so much of a recent topic from the city standpoint. So Mr. Garza, I would ask if you'd just kind of let folks know kind of what the city's been doing, not recent, but recent and previous prior to that before it became a hot topic among citizens in terms of looking at the data center issues and all the things that surround that. If you could just give an update on that, I think it'd be helpful for the citizens.

Sure. Thank you for the opportunity. So for us, this is actually an effort that began last year. And so you may recall that we had a crypto mining facility that popped up. on Main Street and that prompted us to explore what we could do to help ensure that facilities like that did not pop up specifically close to residential areas because of some concern around the noise. And so shortly thereafter, on April 15, 2025, we actually officially amended our UDO and added some verbiage that specifically addressed crypto mining facilities. And in that amendment, we specifically included a requirement that there be a noise level that they can't exceed at their respective property line. And we also instilled a requirement that any new crypto mining must be 500 feet from any residential use. And so since then, we really hadn't heard from any potential crypto mining operation. So we suspect that it's been successful. Now, since then, there's obviously, to the mayor's point, there's been a lot of chatter about data centers just in general. And so we recognize that not all data centers are created equal. And so with that in mind, we are proceeding with making some recommendations to the Planning Commission, which they will consider at their June 18th meeting this month. And the staff proposed amendments to the UDO basically will require that a data center use a closed loop cooling system and will prohibit an open loop There's a lot of chatter about the utilization of water and data centers. As I mentioned, not every data center is created equal. Some, yes, use a lot of water and some not much water at all. We want to make it very clear that we would be prohibiting data centers that are open loop, which are the ones that require substantial amount of water. In addition, we're also putting the same 500-foot buffer from a residential property on data centers as well. And so those are the biggest additions that staff will be proposing as amendments to the UDO. And as I mentioned, that'll go before the planning commission on June 18th, which if that goes as planned, that would come before you on July 7th for consideration.

All right. Any other items from council? Mr. Garza, thank you for that update. I appreciate it.

Yep, you're welcome.

Seeing no other items, we'll move on to citizens communication. I do have several cards this evening. Before we begin, I will just remind speakers that we do ask that you limit your comments to three minutes out of respect for time for all involved. So I will begin with Father Jacob Kother. Good evening, sir. Welcome.

Good evening. Thank you. I wasn't able to attend the town hall meeting last week. And so I wanted to just express my own thoughts about the stormwater drainage fee. So I'm the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows just around the corner down the hill. And so I'm pretty familiar with the danger of water and stormwater drainage. It's a part of our history there with the church being flooded, of course. But recently, just last year, my own house flooded, too. Water backed up into the house, and I was homeless for a little bit. But, and so I understand the need for repairs and maintenance and making sure it's effective and efficient. But I guess my concern would be for the fees. Of course we're a non-profit and we serve primarily Hispanic community on the south side of the city. And so what we're looking at for our fee would be around $7,000, which will be a bit of a burden for us. And so I just wonder, I haven't been a part of the conversations, but if there's been discussions about tiers of payments, maybe not just exemptions for certain groups, but then also I have a concern about the difference between or the fee for residential homes being equal across the board with some of the sizes of the homes in my neighborhood versus those in other parts of the city. It seems like $5 across the board isn't very, I guess, a fair kind of share of the load. And so I was just wondering if there's been discussion about that. tiers within the payment of residential homes or maybe rebates on how to help capture water so that it's not getting into the storm drainage system or some kind of capturing water and on off of buildings and things of that nature, so I guess one of the the biggest ones for me concerns for me thoughts I've had is that I am in the same boat as a Nonprofit in in the way that the fee is being discussed as like I'm in the same boat as McDonald's, a global business and entity who can pass on their costs to their consumers. It's not something that I can really do as a nonprofit. But I thank you for my time and for just hearing me out. Those are some thoughts and questions that I had. So thank you.

Pretty good. Thank you for your comments.

Appreciate it.

The next card is Sister Ann, and I'm probably gonna butcher this, and I'm sorry, Milito? Miletio, I apologize. Welcome, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Crocker and the council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I am Sister Ann Miletio. I'm a member of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Victoria. and the sisters have enjoyed a very long relationship and partnership with the city. I am here to ask your consideration that churches and the private schools be exempted from the proposed stormwater utility fee. While we all recognize the importance of addressing these storm drainage issues, I see it difficult to ask these nonprofit organizations to pay a new fee in perpetuity in an attempt to solve these problems. Churches and private schools often provide services that complement and support the work of local government. They help meet community needs through charitable assistance, youth programs, education, counseling, volunteerism and outreach efforts that strengthen our city, our community and improve residents' quality of life. These entities reduce the demands on government services. Every dollar collected from the churches and the private schools is a dollar that cannot be used for scholarships, educational programs, youth activities, food assistance, counseling, and community outreach. It is important to note that because of the nature of churches being assembly buildings and having larger parking requirements, the burden would be disproportionately higher than commercial properties who service a similar size of the population. Also, private schools often have significantly less resources than public schools. and to require a fee to be paid by private schools and non-public schools is an unfair burden as well. An exemption for churches and private schools would have a limited financial effect on the overall stormwater program while affirming the important role these institutions play in strengthening our community, supporting the families, educating children, and providing services that benefit residents throughout the city. Our government already recognizes the unique role of these organizations by being tax exempt. It would be in continuity to grant an exemption from this fee for tax exempt religious organizations. And I respectfully ask the council to consider an exemption for the churches and private schools. from the proposed stormwater utility fee.

Thank you, sister. Appreciate your comments.

Thank you for your consideration.

Certainly. Thank you. All right. The next card I have is for Terry Lowe.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Good evening, Ms. Lowe. Welcome.

Good evening, council and mayor. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. I'm Terry Lowe. I'm a City of Victoria resident. I'm here to provide takeaways and insights from the town hall meeting last Thursday regarding the proposed stormwater drainage ordinance. Councilman Kidder, thank you so much for being there. There was clear concern that stormwater issues are affected by runoff from the creeks and drainage areas outside of the city limits. There was concern raised by young Victoria residents in their 20s who had concerns about the increased costs associated with passage of the VISD bond, the rising cost of food and fuel, and overall rampant inflation that is affecting their limited pocketbooks. And regarding the ordinance itself, there were concerns raised about exemptions, why the City of Victoria and VISD are exempt under the ordinance. The state statute mandates exemptions for state agencies, public or private institutions of higher learning, undeveloped property, subdivided lots, and private drainage systems. It was expressed by several in the audience that VISD being exempt and non-VISD religious nonprofit schools having to pay a fee is grossly unfair and inequitable. It was also noted that single family residents that are on pier and beam foundations that don't have the same impervious cover as single family residences on concrete slabs. I would ask council this evening can you treat, how can you treat mobile homes and estates with pools and other outdoor impervious features the same? The city of Victoria has many homes that have permeable soil under wood frames. You are proposing a flat rate ordinance. This is also another example of an equity under this proposed ordinance. At this time, I would like to ask James Worden to follow up.

Thank you for your comments. And actually, Mr. Weirden did submit a card, so we will start his time. Mr. Weirden, please come forward. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Thank you, Mr. Kidder, for being there on Thursday and for Jesus for hosting the event. I just want to follow up with some of the things that we observed while we were there. As a city that's been around as long as Victoria, there have been different models of development that have encouraged what today appears to be excessive impervious cover, including parking lot, driveway standards, and street design. As pointed out in the presentation, the city's spending roughly half a million dollars for repair and maintenance of existing stormwater infrastructure. These dollars come from the general fund, which is sourced from our property tax payments. As mandated by state law, property tax payments can be used for stormwater infrastructure. Currently, homeowners and commercial property owners are assessed valuations that include a monetary amount for what is considered hardscaping, whether it includes a concrete patio or a Walmart-sized parking lot. All those things were created under a city development ordinance's requirements at that time. To assess a fee on top of a tax payment that is already being made to the city for this infrastructure seems grossly unfair. Homeowners and owners of commercial properties are constrained by limited resources. In particular, commercial property owners are faced with competition from other cities and especially Amazon. As a city, it would be foolhardy to inflict further pain upon retail centers that are already under duress from this online competition and financial inability to transform excessive impervious cover into green space while they're also incurring financial obligations to pay property tax. During Thursday's meeting, there appeared to be no consideration given for conservation development or stormwater mitigation efforts in the city's initiative to enact a stormwater drainage ordinance. The cost of the program over five years is roughly two and a half million dollars per year. The cost to bring up existing infrastructure according to the city would be $130 million. The presentation noted that this program is only a Band-Aid compared to what is actually needed to move forward. I asked council this evening, why would you apply a Band-Aid to a problem that could jeopardize our property and sales tax systems going forward? I suggest to you tonight that the stormwater ordinance be put on the back burner and city staff be tasked to come up with a long-term solution that doesn't drain the pocketbooks of our taxpayers. In closing, As Victoria is notably classified as a coastal community by the Texas General Land Office, I am submitting to council excerpts from guidance for sustainable stormwater drainage on the Texas coast in hopes that a more comprehensive plan be put in place for future generations of Victorians. I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Mr. Michael Vonderhaar is my next card.

Vondra, welcome. Mayor, council, welcome. I'm Michael Vondra. I live at 2107 North Ben Jordan. I want to thank Deputy Moya and Rick Madrid for contacting the railroad police to get rid of that two homeless camps by the Victoria Independent School District. I just don't think homeless people should be allowed to have homeless camps right by the Victoria Independent School District. It's not too safe living on a railroad track or right by it and stuff, and it just makes sense not to have one there. And I'm not happy about the $240 million bond. And I think a lot of that money is going to go for pay raises to the superintendent and the directors and the executives at the Victoria Independent School District. I'm not talking about the teachers. I'm talking about the ones that make... $100,000 a year or more. Right now the superintendent's wages are $262,000 a year and she was making $250,000. She just got a $12,000 bonus. And I'm concerned a lot of that's going to be used for her, you know, because the last one was making $350,000 a year, almost as much as President Trump, you know. But at least the superintendent here makes more than the vice president. So I thank her for that, you know, and stuff, you know. And the vice president, all he is is a lawyer, you know. You know, he don't got a Ph.D. like the superintendent or a master's degree or anything. Anything like that, but we have superintendents In Texas making three times more than Jesus and stuff and his test scores go downhill their wages go uphill and The Victoria Independent School District at best is average, you know, it's been poor for many years and it is better but It's not because of the superintendent, it's because of the teachers. Teachers are what's going to help the test scores. Superintendents are making about five times more than the teachers. There's a substitute teacher that makes $75 a day, and he's got to take a cab to work and then take a cab back. The superintendent has a $500 car allowance. When you're making $262,000 a year, why do you need a $500 car allowance? You get some extra vacation and all that stuff. Not everyone makes $262,000 a year in Victoria. Of course, you're happy when you're making all that money, but I think there should be laws where their salary is capped, maybe double of what the highest paid teacher is and stuff like that. You know, it's just getting way out of hand. Thanks and have a good day.

All right. The final card I have is from Jewel Buchanan. Good evening. Welcome.

Hey, um, Short notice, I have not practiced my speech to see if it's under three minutes. So I might be talking really, really, really fast. And I was also trying to recopy it. But I was just made aware of this today because I can't be everywhere all the time. But a concerned person called me about this. So thank you, first of all, for allowing me to speak. And thank you, Jesus, for updating us. beginning your work to protect the residents from the many negative effects of AI data collection centers within our beautiful city. So thank you, because that is a big concern. I live right down the road from that bit farm place. I've been a resident of Victoria County for 20 years. Before that, I lived in Jackson County for 20 years and still own property there and care about that community. And further, our family has several homes in Calhoun County near the proposed Synergent Ammonia Plant. I tell you all of these things because recently there's been a great deal of concern in these communities with the types of economic development being proposed. Development that is opposed across the board by citizens in these three communities that I mentioned. Why am I speaking to you, our city elected officials? This evening, it's because you, like Victoria County, Calhoun County, and the City of Aetna, all use our tax dollars to pay for the services of Victoria Economic Development Corporation. Victoria Economic Development Corporation is tasked with locating and bringing economic development to the entities who are paying them for their services. Economic development, great jobs, and a thriving community are all what we want. We want these things. We want them for our family. We want them for our community. We want responsible economic development though. And a lot of times, these citizens are upset because people that are, or entities that are being invited to our community are using 20, wanting to use two million gallons of well water a day, discharge 800,000 gallons of water. They don't know where they're gonna put it. But I'm getting off task here. I'm here to talk to you about your closed session tonight where you guys are going to talk about incentives for industries. It's my hope that you will think about the people that live in the community here. We have a beautiful community. We have colleges. We have lots of great things here and no one wants to live by a data center. No one wants to live by a bit farm. So I can see them about at a time. It's interesting that this has been an across the aisle effort. And to sum it up, politics does make strange bedfellows, but water pollution and AI data centers are turning out the fact that red plus blue are working together to stay green and stay clean. So across the board, we're all working together. So we hope you'll work with us. Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. So that will close out citizens communication for the evening. We have no items with public hearings. So we will move on to the consent agenda and we will consider items D1 through seven. Ms. Hilberg.

Yes, sir. Item D1 is the adoption amendments to the regular meeting held on May 19th, 2026. Item D2 is a resolution approving the fourth amendment and final renewal to the debris management contract with Ashburn Incorporated. Item D3 is a resolution approving the First Amendment and renewal to the Debris Monitoring Contract with Tetra Tech Incorporated. Item D4 is a resolution reappointing members to the Victoria Health Facilities Development Corporation. Item D5 is a resolution reappointing members to the Board of Health. Item D6 is A, resolution authorizing the release of all liens and fees associated with 900 South Cameron in the amount of $21,951.43 upon sale of the property. Item D7 is a resolution authorizing intervention in AEP Texas Incorporated's application to amend its Rider Mobile temporary energy, temporary emergency electric energy facilities before the commission approving cooperation with the city's served by AEP Texas, hiring Lloyd Goslink attorneys and consulting services to negotiate with the company and direct any necessary litigation and appeals requiring reimbursement of city's rate case expenses, finding that the meeting at which the resolution is passed is open to the public as required by law, requiring notice of the resolution to the company and legal counsel.

Thank you, Ms. Hilbert. Do I have a motion with respect to these consent items?

Motion to approve consent agenda as read.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the consent agenda passes. So we will jump then to item D8, and that will be moved down to action items. Ms. Hillberg.

Item D8 is a resolution approving the purchase and installation of a chlorine vapor scrubber from J.S. Heron Company for the surface water treatment plant in an amount not to exceed $527,000.

Mr. Rodriguez, welcome. Always good to see you.

Good afternoon.

Before you start, my question is, it said there was two bids and only one bid is listed. How much was the other bid?

$723,000.

That's all I needed to know.

Perfect.

From now on, it'd be nice if on a consent agenda that the other bid is just listed so that we can compare. I don't like just assuming that I'm going to I'd like to verify.

Yes, sir. We'll take care of that from now on. Thank you.

There you go. You're off the hook. All right. With that, then, do I have a motion with respect to item D8? I move we adopt D8.

Second.

I've got a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?

No, that's a much better deal.

Yeah, I like this number better. You did good, Greg. All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? and D8 passes. All right, we'll move into the action items portion. I understand that there are three action items and we'll have a presentation covering all three, is that correct?

That is the attempt that we will make, yes. We're going to make a run at it? All right, well, let's call the first one.

Item E1 is the resolution approving change order number one to the 2026 residential street maintenance project contract with Clark Construction of Texas Incorporated, resulting in a reduction of $283,660 for a total contract amount of $2,924,776.40.

Well, I think we ought to go ahead and read all three of them, April.

No, you can just go through the presentation. It's fine. OK. Yeah, we'll pull those up after the presentation, but we'll read the first one just to get you going.

OK, the change orders to the 2026 paving projects are background information on these. All three of these projects were bid earlier this year. They were awarded to Clark Construction Company of Texas. After these projects were awarded, the streets included in these packages were reassessed to try and determine if there were some that could be, the work could be postponed and possibly use those funds on some streets that are in more desire and need of some maintenance work now. Each of the change orders that's gonna be discussed will achieve that. The 2026 Residential Street Maintenance Project, change order number one. The scope of this change order is to delete the proposed seal code and onyx application for the Terra Vista subdivision for a cost reduction of $667,859.80. We also are looking to revise the method of maintenance in the Greenway Park subdivision. Initially, we were just gonna do some point repairs, seal coat and onyx, but after we got out there and actually walked these streets recently, we determined that we were gonna be spending so much money on the point repairs, it was gonna be money ahead, a better product to go in and reclaim the streets, stabilize the base with some cement, and then seal coat and onyx. This would result in a price increase of $383,694.80. Also, we were adjusting unit price on some seal coat based upon the locations, the subdivisions that they were in. Originally, there was some 57,000 square yards of seal coat that was part of the Terra Vista subdivision. They were factoring all of this in and they gave us one unit price for the whole project, but based upon each one of those subdivisions, there was gonna be a little bit of difference. when he went back and looked at it. This was going to end up adding overall to the contract $19,384. We had some other miscellaneous changes, some power washing and some curb and gutter that we won't do, or probably won't do, and that was gonna see a cost reduction of $18,879. Overall, we would be looking at a contract reduction of $283,660 with the final contract price $2,924,776.40. our 2026 thoroughfare maintenance project. The scope of this change order was to delete the proposed HMAC or hot mix overlay on Edinburgh from Glasgow to Joplin Street for a cost savings of $253,196.70. That gave us a net contract price change $253,196.70 with the final contract price of $3,901,726.45. And our final paving project was the 2026 Street Improvement Project. This project came about because our original residential street maintenance project was very much under budget. We had some extra monies and it was determined the best way to handle these additional funds rather than change order into another contract was to just package up another bid package. The scope of this change order was to also delete the hot mix overlay of Edinburgh from Joplin Street to Navarro Street. for savings of $295,430.82. Originally, the thoroughfare project and then also the street improvement project would have had a hot mix overlay in Edinburgh Street all the way from Glasgow all the way to Navarro Street. That is going to be postponed for hopefully not too long. But then we'd also be looking at adding a hot mix overlay of Northgate Road from Glasgow all the way to Navarro Street at an additional cost of $461,460.82. Now, Northgate Road runs across the front of Vickers Elementary. We're going to be doing Glasgow Street this year in the third for maintenance. We'll be doing Northgate Street as part of this street. The streets all around that school now will be in very good condition. Our net contract price change will be a reduction of 166,000, no, I'm sorry, increase of $166,030 for final contract price of $1,638,573.42. Any questions?

Questions for Mr. Shiblik? I know we talked about this in the CIP presentation, I believe, so no questions?

OK.

Thank you very much for the information. Then we will start with item E1, which has been called. Do I have a motion with respect to item E1?

I move to adopt E1.

Second. I've got a motion and a second. Any discussion on E1? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. E1 passes. All right. Item E2.

Item E2 is a resolution approving a change order number one to the 2026 thoroughfare maintenance project contract with Clark Construction of Texas Incorporated resulting in a reduction of $253,196.70 for a total contract amount of $3,901,726.45. Do I have a motion on E2? Motion to approve item E2. Second. Motion is second. Any discussion on E2? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

and E2 passes. We will then move to item E3.

Item E3 is a resolution approving change order number one to the 2026 Street Improvement Project contract with Clark Construction of Texas Incorporated, resulting in an increase of $166,030 for a total contract amount of $1,638,573.42. Do I have a motion on E3? I move we adopt E3. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any discussion on E3?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And E3 passes.

All right.

We will jump then to our city manager reports. Mr. Garza, I believe you have one for us this evening.

Uh, yes. So Julie and Zach will take the lead on this item, which is a recurring item that we hear about usually this time of year, which is our annual action plan for CDBG program.

So good evening, Ms. Fulgham. Welcome.

Good evening. Um, so again, like Casey says, it's time, time again to discuss our funding recommendations for the community development block grant. So these recommendations are for plan year 26, which corresponds with the city's fiscal year 27. I'm going to actually turn over the funding recommendations to Zach Wendell as this program is his baby. But I did want to give council some reminders that we actually cover with our subrecipients. So during the mandatory Pre-application meetings. So as you know, this is a reimbursable grant. And so as part of the application process, we do require all of our subrecipients to submit their financial data to show that they do have the capacity to manage whatever grant funds that we are awarding them. This year, we received twice as much requests for funds than we have available to actually grant out for our public service activities. As you know, our public service activities is capped at 15% of the grant, and that is the type of activities that have the greatest need in our community. So we received $160,000 in requests, and only about $80,000 is in that 15%. And so you will see different agencies have requested a certain amount and we're only able to recommend sometimes half or less of that amount. But again, these are reimbursable funds. So they are meant to supplement existing programs. They're not meant to actually carry an entire program. which is why the Code of Fire Regulations have all of the sustainability requirements and require us to review their financials as part of the application process and whatnot. So with that, I will turn over to Zach to go over our recommendations.

Mr. Wendell, welcome.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. We have our 2026 CDBG Annual Action Plan proposed budget and funding recommendations. So as a reminder, the CDBG grant is an annual grant that we receive as a city from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And we've been receiving this grant since 1995. And the purpose of it is to reduce poverty and its effects and to develop the viable community by providing quality housing, create a sustainable living environment, and expanding economic opportunities. So here's a snapshot of our application timeline. We start all the way back in March. We have our pre-application workshop, where we go over all the rules, regulations, requirements of the CDBG grant. The intent to request is due at the end of March. And then we have the big application open for the month of April. And then we take the first half of May, May 1st to May 15th, to review and evaluate all those applications. And then June 2nd here, we provide our initial funding recommendations, get your feedback. And then we will bring them back August 4th for a public hearing and final approval from council. And then we will have until August 16th to submit, but we usually always submit it before that. They encourage us to, but our statutory deadline is August 16th. So here are our funding from HUD for 2026. Our entitlement this year is $540,141. And then we have unallocated funds in the amount of $152,042.93. They come from various program years. I have listed out program year 21, about 5,000, program year 22, 25,000, 23, 30,000 about, and program year 24, 92,000. So the way we plan on budgeting these, funds we'll do for administration we're capped at 20% of our entitlement can go towards the administration so we're proposing the hundred and eight thousand twenty eight dollars affordable housing program we're gonna have bring back our down payment and closing cost assistance program and we're gonna fund thirty thousand dollars into that one Neighborhood programs we're gonna do our demolition and clearance program again. We're gonna fund seventy five thousand dollars into that and Then our we have a public improvements project proposed the one-lane street sidewalk project which will take all of the Unallocated and then part of our entitlement funds in the amount of one hundred ninety eight thousand one hundred fifty five And then our public facilities will total 200,000. And then public services, those are the ones, as Julie stated, they are capped at 15% of our entitlement. So this year we were only able to give out 81,000. So for a total budget of $692,183.93. And then to qualify for our programs, this is a snapshot of our low to moderate income limits. They just went into effect yesterday. They are updated every year and given to us by HUD. So essentially to be considered low to moderate in the city of Victoria, you have to fall below that 80% median family income. So depending on the number of persons in the household. So that's how we determine the low to moderate families and individuals. So for public facility recommendations, we are recommending for George Washington Carver Foundation for revitalization and pre-construction. So they're clearing some land and finishing engineering work. We're going to recommend $50,000 towards that. And then the Housing Authority, excuse me, They have a renovation of an office space to a community resource room on the Halsey Street main office location. We're going to propose $150,000 for that, totaling $200,000 for our public facilities. Now for our public services, we have our Boys and Girls Club. We're going to do their after school and summer camp program that they do every year. We're proposing $8,000 for that one. Crossroads Community Action, the rental assistance program for up to three months of rental assistance, we are going to propose 8,000 for that one. Food Bank of the Golden Crescent, the kids weekend meal program, we're proposing 8,000. Golden Crescent CASA to support their staff for the volunteer for every child in need. We're going to propose $6,000 for that. Golden Crescent Habitat for Humanity for their critical and general repairs program. We are proposing $10,000 to go towards helping It came out to about one home to help with repairs, because repairs are expensive. And then Gulf Bend, for their wellness community, we're proposing 8,000 to go towards supporting the wellness community. For Hope of South Texas, for their trauma care for victims of child abuse, we are proposing 4,000. Meals on Wheels South Texas, they're bringing back their home delivered meals program, and we are proposing a $5,000 towards that. And Midcoast Family Services, to support their resource hub, for a staff member there, we're proposing $8,000. And then Perpetual Help Home, their resident management program, we're proposing 7,000. And then page two, United Way of the Crossroads, Their community connections project for their community health workers, we're proposing $4,000 in support. And then Victoria County Public Health Department, their community resource center services, where they would do helping people get IDs, birth certificates, things like that, we're proposing assisting with $5,000 in that one. So as you see, we had $164,000, about $165,000 in requests, and we had to cut that down to $81,000. Important dates we have coming up, 2026, 2027 annual action plan. We will have our comment period on the plan. We will have it from July 2nd through August 3rd, 2026. And then we will have a public hearing and final approval brought back to y'all August 4th. And then our deadline, as I mentioned earlier, statutory deadline is August 16th, but we anticipate as soon as we get approval from y'all, we will submit that so we can get that process going.

That's what I have.

Any questions for Mr. Wendell on that? I did have a question. Mr. Wendell, I saw the funding is $540,141. I've seen over the years it continue to decrease. What is this compared to last year and the year before that?

So last year, or this current year that we're in, prior to year 25, we had 537. The year before that, 551. So we're about up and down in the middle. Kind of stabilized? Yeah.

OK.

Thank you. Any other questions?

All right.

Thank you very much for the information.

I know a lot of work went into that and appreciate it.

And we will look forward to seeing that as an action item the end of the summer.

Yes.

All right. Mr. Garza, do you have any other city manager reports?

No, sir.

Okay. I understand we will have an executive session. Yes, sir. So we will take a 10 minute, we will dismiss, take a 10 minute break and then reconvene into executive session.

City Council recess for executive session on the second day of June 2026 at 6.03 p.m. Executive session deliberation as follows. Texas Government Code 551.087, 551.072, and 551.071.