City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our council meeting for Tuesday, July the 21st. Ms. Hilbert, will you please call roll?

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

Here.

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

Here.

Councilman Lofgren?

Here.

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, again, welcome everyone. We will jump into our business for the evening. I do have a prepared statement I'd like to to read before we begin the meeting tonight. So we want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of someone whose impact on our community has been truly immeasurable. On behalf of myself, council, the city of Victoria, and this entire organization, we want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Gary Moses and to the countless friends, neighbors, and community members who are no doubt mourning his passing this week. Gary dedicated his life to serving others. He always demonstrated compassion and humility. He believed in the potential of every person he met and he has inspired Victoria and inspired hopefully each of us to lift others up and work together to build a stronger community. His legacy will be seen not only in the lives that he changed, but also in the spirit of service that we can use and we can adopt to unite our city. We are grateful to have had the privilege of calling Gary one of our own, and his influence will continue to be felt for generations, not only through the people he inspired, but also through the Gary Moses Community Center, which proudly bears his name and reflects the values that he championed throughout his life. For those who haven't seen, the city has launched a dedicated online tribute celebrating Gary's extraordinary life and legacy. And we invite the community to visit that tribute at www.victoriatx.gov slash brother Gary. There you can watch a memorial video. You can see a video of him being presented with the key to the city during the bicentennial celebration. and hear his own words from his town podcast interview and reflect on the lasting impact that he made on Victoria. Gary often reminded us that serving others is one of life's great callings. So it is my hope that his memory will continue to live out, and each of us in his memory will continue to live out those values each day. So if you would, please join me for a moment of silence in honor of Brother Gary. Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you haven't received word, services for Gary will be July the 29th. I believe they're scheduled from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock at the aptly named Gary Moses Community Center. And we at the city are working on live streaming that event for those who may be unable to attend. So check with the City of Victoria website for additional information and more details on that. All right, with that then, welcome everyone. We will get to the business of the night and we will jump into our announcements and reminders. Mr. Garza, what do you have for us this evening? Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I have several reminders this evening. On behalf of CVB, applications for the City of Victoria's Hotel Occupancy Tax Funds will close on Friday, July 31st at midnight. Information sessions covering the Hot Funds application and evaluation processes will be held Monday, July 27th at 6 p.m. at 700 Main Center Room 205. Attendance at an application session will be taken into consideration during the application scoring. Applications can be found at victoriatx.gov slash hot funds. For more information, contact Discover Victoria office at 361-485-3116. On behalf of the library, please join the Victoria Public Library on Friday, July 24th at Dalium Plaza from 2 to 4 p.m. to celebrate the grand finale of our summer reading program with an epic end-of-summer foam party. Come wash away the summer heat, dance in the bubbles, and celebrate your reading achievements with us. It is also the last day to turn in any youth reading logs to be entered into our summer reading prize drawing. On behalf of Municipal Court, applications for the City of Victoria's Child Safety Grants for 2026-2027 will open on Monday, July 27th at 8 a.m. and close Friday, August 14th at 5 p.m. An informational workshop for potential applicants will be held in the Municipal Court Chambers at 2525 North Main Street, which is our new public safety headquarter facility, on Wednesday, July 29th at 11.30 a.m. For more details, go to victoriatx.gov slash child safety program. Contact Municipal Court Administrator Tiffany Tota at 361-485-3050 or tune in to this evening's City Manager's Report. On behalf of the Communications Department, a new episode of Town Talk will debut tomorrow morning on YouTube and Spotify, featuring the City's Economic Development Department, Texas A&M Victoria Small Business Development Center, and the Vigor Victoria Networking Group. Tune in to learn about the challenges that small business owners face and the resources that are available to help, including the upcoming Victoria Small Business Resource Fair that will take place on August 6th. As a wise man once said, let's get down to business. I don't write these. You tell us at every meeting.

Because I want to make sure people tuning in know that.

Yeah, Gilbert writes these. On behalf of our police department, on Friday, July 24th, they will host Coffee with a Cop from 7.30 to 9 a.m. in the lobby of the Public Safety Headquarters located at 2525 North Main with breakfast sponsored by Victoria Communications Services. Immediately following Coffee with a Cop, the Victoria Police and Fire Departments will host a community blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in partnership with VCS and South Texas Blood and Tissue Center. also at the public safety headquarters, with lunch provided by VCS at 11.30 a.m. All blood donors will receive a $20 e-gift card from the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center and be entered into drawings for additional gift cards that have been generously donated by Walmart, H-E-B, and Target. And I did notice that a graphic popped up on the screen regarding the Tip a Cop fundraiser supporting the Special Olympics at Texas Roadhouse that will take place on Thursday, July 23rd from 5 to 9 p.m. BPD officers will trade their badges for aprons and volunteer alongside the staff at Texas Roadhouse. Every tip and donation collected during the event will directly support Special Olympics, helping provide year-round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Lastly, our police department will host a free VIN etching event at the Victoria Masonic Lodge located at 3502 North Navarro Street on Saturday, July 25th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. VIN etching on vehicle windows is another layer of security and helps deter vehicle theft. And with that, I've completed the announcements for the evening.

All right. Thank you. Well done. So we'll move on then to public and employee recognitions. We have one proclamation this evening for National Health Center Week. Ms. Hilberg.

Yes, sir. Whereas community health centers are federally qualified community-based organizations governed by patient majority boards and dedicated to providing quality, affordable health care to all patients regardless of insurance status or ability to pay, and whereas in 2026 community health centers of South Central Texas, a federally qualified health center proudly marks 60 years of service having provided compassionate, patient-centered care to individuals and families since 1966, and whereas community health centers served more than 20,000 patients in 2025, including more than 8,600 uninsured patients, helping ensure that essential healthcare services remain accessible to individuals and families throughout the communities to serve, and communities it serves across South Central Texas, and whereas community health centers, providers, staff, leadership, board members, volunteers, and community partners work each day to strengthen communities through the innovation, service, and commitment to improving health and well-being, and whereas National Health Centers Weekend 2026 celebrates the theme building innovative healthcare where it matters most, recognizing the vital role community health centers play in expanding access to health, to care, advancing health equity, and improving lives across the nation, and whereas the City of Victoria proudly recognizes the lasting contributions of community health centers of South Central Texas, and joins in celebrating its 60 years of service, leadership, and dedication to accessible patient-centered healthcare, and now therefore I, Dwayne Crocker, Mayor of the City of Victoria, Texas do hereby proclaim the week of August 2nd through 8th as National Health Center Week in Victoria, Texas, and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the dedicated service, leadership, and lasting impact of the Community Health Centers of South Central Texas.

Good evening, Mayor Crocker and members of the City Council. On behalf of Community Health Centers of South Central Texas, thank you for this proclamation recognizing National Health Center Week and our organization's 60 years of serving Texas communities. Our Victoria Community Health Center is located at 4206 Ray Thomas Circle. Our dedicated team provides medical, dental and behavioral health services to individuals and families throughout the Victoria community. Our clinic is open Monday through Friday from eight to five. We are honored to serve the Victoria community and remain committed to improving health and well being of every patient in every family we serve. Thank you again for the recognition and for your continued support for community health centers of South Central Texas. Thank you.

All right. We will move on then. Mr. Garza, do you have any other public and employee recognitions?

No, sir.

OK. We'll jump to items from council. Mr. Lofgren, I believe you have an item this evening.

I would like to add an item to the next council agenda. I'd like to further discuss the stormwater drainage utility fee. And so I'd like it to be on the council agenda so we could all discuss it.

Okay. Mr. Garza, can you take care of that for us?

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other items from council? Seeing none then, all right, we will move into citizens communication. We have quite a few cards this evening. Just as a reminder, if you would please limit your comments to three minutes, there will be a countdown clock there at the podium. We want an opportunity for everyone to address council. So we'll start with the first card I have this evening is Ms. Carrie Wycliffe. Good evening, welcome back.

Good evening, Mayor Crocker and members of council. So I just wanted to stop by and give you guys an update as far as protest season has gone. We are set to certify this week. We're currently running into a small issue with some of the new exemptions being applied appropriately in the software, but they assure me it'll get resolved tomorrow. Hopefully so. We'll still have about 1,400 outstanding protests that'll have to be heard through September 18th, right before we start our software conversion. So we're working hard to get those knocked out in advance. My other plug, if you will, is we are currently recruiting for the appraisal review board members. These are citizens of Victoria County that they come in every summer and they'll listen to protest cases between the appraisal district and the property owners, take into account the evidence provided, and then determine a value for those properties. They're crucial to this portion of the year for us, and so we have them on a two-year rotation. We have five currently set to fall off this year, so we're accepting applications, so if you know anybody, please send them our way. This is a paying gig, too, as somebody asked. They make $200 a day for every hearing day they're present, and then if they're there a half day, it's $100. But we look forward to working with the citizens of Victoria to get their protest and other exemption questions and stuff resolved so that we can get them taken care of. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. All right. The next card I have is Cade Crisp. Mr. Crisp, welcome.

Hello. I would like to begin to say that I am currently worried about the data centers that use an excess amount of water, electricity, and are developing, in my opinion, at a far great rate. I think 500 feet is a bit too close to people's property, which disrupts their day-to-day lives. And I am worried that both of these things can violate personal and community autonomy. It could be interpreted with the data centers that it is an attempt of centralization of power for the data centers, which is viewed as a threat to democracy and the local community. The worry about surveillance, environmental harm, and the issue of corporate dominance over the people is a real concern that many people worry about in our community. I worry that this may cause resource inequality and violate the idea of distributive justice. This is because data centers consume disproportionate amount of water. I believe the scarcity that this may cause will cause inequality. This is also a violation of many conservative principles, in my opinion, because it is the violation of principles of local autonomy. For many young and old conservatives, it is viewed that local resources are not being controlled by the people, but rather the data centers are consuming these said resources. Because of these concerns, I do not wish for only a 500 foot ruling in the future, but rather a plan that is more just and fair for our local community. So I would consider a one or two year moratorium or postponement to the data centers in Victoria.

Okay, thank you for your comments, Mr. Christopher. Nice to meet you. You too. All right, the next card I have is from Gary Hall. Mr. Hall, welcome.

Mayor Crocker and city council members, I too wish to speak about the negative impacts of data centers on our community. According to World Resource Institute's As technology advances and computing demands grow, data centers are becoming increasingly energy hungry. A single modern AI center can use as much power as 100,000 homes. Many of the larger data centers being built are expected to consume up to 20 times that amount. Estimates of total future power demand from data centers vary significantly. One study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers could represent up to 12% of US electricity consumption by 2028. Another analysis by Grid Strategies says that up to 90 gigawatts worth of data centers could come online by 2030. That's about nine times New York City's peak summer demand joining the grid in less than five years. Of course, another concern is this young, the gentleman just mentioned, is our water supply. Data centers require huge amounts of water to keep servers cool enough to function. Midsize facilities can use up to 300,000 gallons of water a day, while large facilities can consume as much as five million gallons daily, comparable to what a small town uses. Recent estimates project that by 2028, AI-related data centers in the US could require up to 32 billion gallons of water annually. This massive demand is a pressing problem for communities already facing drought or depleting water supplies. Two thirds of all data centers built or in development since 2022 are located in water stress areas, much like Victoria has often been. Leading the number of data centers is Virginia, the state of Virginia with 566 data centers. Coming in second is Texas with 391 current data centers. According to Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, data centers increase local electricity utility rates by driving up overall energy demand, which can strain grid capacity and force utilities to invest in costly infrastructure upgrades, which are often passed on to the consumer. Data centers have long secured long term power agreements, which reduce available supply and push prices up for consumers. A single data center can consumed up to two megawatts of power, equivalent to the power used by 2,000 homes of millions of gallons of water annually for cooling. This strains local resources and infrastructure. Regarding tax incentives, tax breaks for data centers do not deliver the promised economic benefits, such as high paying jobs, and they reduce local tax revenues while shifting financial burdens onto communities and schools. I ask that the city council members protect the citizens of Victoria from rising economic costs, depletion of resources, and possible future health risks. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments.

Next card I have is from Eileen Stewart. Good evening, welcome.

Hello, thank you so much for your time, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'd just like to begin by saying I'm very pro economic development. I'm a local realtor and so development is good for my business as well as the city. But I'm very concerned that our growth is not at the expense of running out of important resources such as water and electricity and we find ourselves in a position similar to Corpus Christi. I would ask you to be mindful of the people that you represent, the citizens of Victoria. The companies that want to build the data centers here are not the people who elected you. Their owners are not Victoria citizens and they did not vote for you. and they do not have concern for the city of Victoria. The people who did vote for you are the families who live here, pay taxes here, raise their children here, and have invested their lives in this community. We're the people you were elected to protect. As you consider whether data centers belong inside our city limits, I ask that you put the interests of Victoria residents first. We are the ones who will live with the consequences, whether that is increased demand on our water and electrical systems, noise, changes to our neighborhoods, or negative impacts on our property values. My biggest concern is water. These facilities can require enormous amounts of water for cooling and our first responsibility should be protecting our community's drinking water supply, especially since we're already usually in some stage of drought. Even the closed system cooling systems require a lot of water. Recently when a Facebook data center, which is still under construction in Cheyenne, Wyoming, The system did a test flush. It discharged serious bacteria into the environment. In the city limits, these data centers will be using our clean drinking water, not brackish water. In South Texas, we're experiencing drought conditions most of the time. This is no place for a thirsty data center to be located. I'm also concerned about the constant noise generated by the cooling equipment that will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, affecting the quality of life for nearby neighborhoods. There are also questions about increased demands on our electrical grid, the potential need for additional public safety resources for the lithium battery related fires, and these long-term costs that could ultimately fall on Victoria taxpayers. No doubt the owners of the data centers are asking for tax abatements. They do not wish to pay their own way. Finally, I worry about the impact on our neighborhoods and property values. People choose to live here because of our quality of life. If we bring in developments that consume significant resources like water and electricity while creating noise, pollution, and other concerns, we risk changing our community for the worse. I believe the cost of Victoria residents- Stewart, you're over your time.

If you could wrap up your comments, I'd very much appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Please remember, we trust you to make decisions that protect our community. not the interests of outside corporations. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Next card I have is Michael Vondero. Mr. Vondero, welcome back.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. I'm Michael Vondro. I live at 2107 North Bend, Jordan. My condolences to Brother Gary Moses. He passed away due to a bacterial infection in his lungs, and he was known for doing the 5K runs, and he also was a director for the Victoria Parks and Recreation many years ago. A lot of people don't know that. And Also, I'd like to thank the director of the Victoria Parks and Recreation. She did her most important job today. She found a net that was up backwards, upside down, and she instructed someone to correct it and stuff. It's kind of hard playing basketball with a net backwards and stuff, so I'm glad she found it. She's making rounds on the nets and I appreciate her diligence. And also, at Summerstone Apartments, there's a lot of people stealing bicycles. And these are bicycles that's locked up, you know, with lock and chain. About Saturday at about 4.30, I left to go to Walmart for 30 minutes. I come back, and someone already stole it. That's two bikes they've stolen that was locked up. And they also broke into the Salvation Army and stole a bicycle. I don't know if it's organized crime, but I got to answer to the problem. I think they just need to put a shock thing on the seat and get an undercover detective. And when they get on it, just go and just shock him, you know, because they need to learn their lesson or have it to where the seat blows up or the bike just locks up because, you know, to like a lot of people getting a bike stolen ain't a big deal. But if you're homeless, it might be it'd be similar to like you go after the council meeting and your car is gone. Some of you are rich, you got full coverage insurance, so you just get a better one, so it wouldn't be a big deal. If you just got liability insurance, be out of it. But I don't know if this is organized crime, but I wish people would stop stealing these bicycles. You know, they must have used a lock cutter. Even those Krypton devices, in 30 seconds, someone can saw through it with just a common grinder. You know, that's with the top device. But thanks again for the parks, for keeping up the parks and everything. I appreciate it. My condolences again to Brother Gary Moss. That's three minutes. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Rondo. The next card I have is from Jewel Buchanan. Ms. Buchanan, welcome.

Welcome, thank you very much. I'm gonna try to keep it in my three minutes. So thank you Mayor Crocker and council. I can't list you by name because that'll take too much time. Right now in Victoria though, we are at the tipping point. Right now we are at the tipping point of the balance between the needs of Victorians and the rights of Victorians and the needs and the effects of data centers within our city limits. In a colorful discussion yesterday on social media, I was made aware that today's public hearing concerning data centers has more to do with cleaning up punctuation and clarifications to a code that was actually created last year before the bit farm was put in on Main Street. At a council meeting that I attended a few weeks ago, it seemed like Mayor Crocker's address to me and the other people in the audience, as well as Mr. Garza's comments, they alluded to new policies, including the 500-foot policy that were being created. So that's what I was under the understanding of, that this was all something that we were currently working on, not just the punctuation. It's my hope that the people that are here who have shared and plan to share their concerns about the data centers coming into our town will be allowed to provide that input and participate in dialogue towards additional revisions to the policy and codes during the public hearing. Within the last few months, the evolution and infiltration of the hyperscale data center has come to the forefront of the regular citizen's daily news diet. We're learning about these things just now, even as they seem to have been in the works with deciding bodies for months, and in some cases years. We do not currently have any hyperscale data centers within our city limits. As council members though, you guys have more power than many of the other deciding bodies. to protect the property values and livelihoods of the people living here. There's so much that we do not know about the negative effects of living near the 24-7 rumble and vibration of a data center and its power source. I've heard it described several ways, the most innocuous of which is likened to having a neighbor who mows their lawn 24 hours a day, every day, all day, 365 days a year. the constant drone and the constant vibration all day and all night. I understand that nobody wants to be told to do what to do with their property, but these data centers are different. They affect areas past their property line and they visibly and audibly. It is my hope that you can recommend some sort of a moratorium and give us time to learn more and let research and technology catch up to what is being pushed on us so quickly. It's the legacy that you will leave, the decisions that you guys make today and in future policy decisions. And we would all hope to leave a legacy like the amazing brother, Gary Moses. So thank you very much for your time.

Thank you for your comments. And just to clarify, tonight there are some punctuation issues in other portions of the ordinance. I know this will be a shock to you, but social media was incomplete and wrong. Whatever you read, there actually are new rules under consideration tonight.

Awesome. Thank you so much.

You are welcome. Read the agenda, not social media next time. Our next card is Joseph Napoleano.

Good evening, sir. Welcome. Good evening. Greetings to the council and the mayor. My name is Joseph Napolitano. I live here in Victoria on Goodwin Avenue. I would certainly echo the statements everyone has made in opposition to data centers here. And I think a moratorium for at least one year so that people can gather and determine what it is we want in our community would certainly be appropriate. I'm a member of Concerned Citizens for Responsible Development. and we were opposed to any data centers in Victoria and in Victoria County, as well as infrastructure that will support data centers in Calhoun or other surrounding counties. And that is specifically referring to the blue energy development at the Port of Victoria. The thing I want to bring out is that Who benefits from this? Certainly it's not gonna be anybody that lives within 500 feet. You know, I'm kind of old now, but back in the day when I played ball, I could throw a baseball almost 500 feet. That means you could hear me yelling at 500 feet, right? So the 500 feet thing needs to be revisited, certainly. But more importantly is that we go out and we've canvassed several neighborhoods, we're on social media, and we make a lot of phone calls to different people, not just our members, the people in the community. And, you know, between 50, and this tracks every Texas poll that you can read, between 50 and 60% of people are opposed to data centers in their community, 50 to 60%. In some rural areas, it reaches 62%. The people we talk to, 20, 25%, they think that, well, you know, we do need jobs, right? And, well, we're not in favor of data centers. Well, at least we'll get some jobs out of it. And more disturbing to me, actually, it came as somewhat of a shock. Between 20% and 25% of people that I talk to say to me, you're just wasting your time, that it's already a done deal. People have gotten campaign contributions or other forms of payment to allow data centers to be built in my community. Now, I don't agree with that. I don't think anybody up here has done anything inappropriate. But that's what your constituents think. And we've... Like I said, Canvas, different neighborhoods. We speak to a lot of different people. And there's really nobody that's enthusiastically supporting this, to be honest with you, that I've ever talked to. And I've talked to a few thousand people about this, right? We've knocked on hundreds of doors to have conversations with people in our community. And I've yet to find one person that says, man, this is the best idea that I've ever seen come to Victoria, Texas, for economic development. And one other thing real quick and I'll leave is that for an example is the blue energy development. They're asking for huge tax abatements, right? Now I understand a tax abatement isn't them getting money, right? It's the amount of money they're investing in their development that won't be taxed on. Some of these abatements are well over $100 million per job. There'll be 38 jobs coming for the first phase of the plant at the navigation district, 38 jobs, nine of which will be local, 27 of which will be imported. So please do your due diligence on this, right? Who's going to benefit from this? Who's going to get the jobs? It's not going to be your average Victorian. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. The next car to have is the Reverend Jeff Williams.

Good evening, sir. Welcome. Good evening, Mayor and City Councilman. My name is Jeff Williams. I'm the pastor of the Palestine Missionary Baptist Church, the historic Palestine Missionary Baptist Church. And I just wanted to come before you on this day. A while back, you had an item on your agenda regarding some property that was donated to our church. It had some unfortunate things that had happened to it. And I just wanted to say thank you to you all for your Using common sense in your evaluation of the issue and not letting red tape get us upheld From not being able to do what we needed to do We definitely want to make sure that we say thank you to each and every one of you I thank you for the efforts that went into it. I also thank city manager Jose Garza and City Attorney Allison Lacey for their efforts and what they did to help get this problem rectified for us. So on behalf of our congregation, we just want to say thank you again. And look forward to if there are any opportunities that we at the Palestine Missionary Baptist Church can work with you in partnership in any kind of way. We are open to doing that. And we say at the Palestine Baptist Church, come visit us. You're welcome to come worship with us at 11 a.m. on Sundays. We glorify God, and the love of Jesus Christ is exemplified. So thank you very much again for your issue, for taking the time and approving our issue. And thank you again.

Thank you, appreciate it. All right, the final card I have is for Mr. John Swanson. Good evening, Mr. Swanson, welcome back.

Thank you. I wanted to come down and tell you that I think you're doing a good job I also want to recognize Gary Moses. He was a great, I feel like I knew a VIP. Gary could go anywhere, be with anybody, and he would stand out. And I feel like he was a great, great citizen for Victoria, example for everybody. and I've worked with him personally, so I can tell you, I know Gary Moses, great citizen of our city. Another guy I'd like to recognize real quickly and briefly is Tom Halapaska. I don't know if you all remember Tom, but my dealings with Tom dealt with business, small business, and the discussions we had. I'm going through Victoria now, And we've got a lot of vacant buildings, too many vacant buildings. I don't know what the cause is, but something is going on and y'all just be sensitive to whatever is the issue here, but we've got too many. And right now, it looks bad for this building to be vacant. But I understand you've got bigger plans and greater things for it. And that's positive in the right direction, but in concert with so many other things. I'm short on time, but I want to also tell you that we all are blessed, including y'all, for citizens' input. Every time I come down here, you got a couple of guys that are, man, they are really, really good on finding stuff that's very helpful, I think, for the city. I find them helpful and valuable and that we want to consider. There's other stuff going on, and I know you have to sort through the good and the bad, and I appreciate that. Honestly, I do appreciate that you're able to sort through the tough stuff on there. Toughest one, in my mind, is we got too much fire department. I don't feel like my input is that, be tough. You need a backbone, I'm behind you, okay? Make them toe the line. It's way too much. We can't afford them. And in the interest of time, I would like to yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Mr. Swanson. Appreciate you being here. Y'all have a great evening. You too, sir. All right, we will close out Citizens Communications, and we will move on to Item C, which is items from public hearings, or items with public hearings, excuse me. We have one item tonight, Item C-1.

Item C1 is an ordinance amending Chapter 21, the Unified Development Ordinance of the City of Victoria Code of Ordinances, and this item is on first reading.

Good evening, Ms. Fulgham.

Good evening, so I'm back again with more proposed unified development ordinance amendments So the first amendment I'd like to dive in and talk about is really just a cleanup These panel numbers that are showing to be deleted are to the old effective maps as you know in 2024 FEMA adopted new maps and so these old references are need to be deleted from the ordinance and we're just going to generally refer to the firm insurance rate maps that were effective with a new effective date for our community the second is to add a use of bus depot and I will explain that definition and what that means as in another section of my presentation Now we get into the meat of it, which is our use-specific standards. So the first does deal with data centers. So if you will remember, back in April of 2025, we adopted the first-ever regulations we had on data centers. Previously, the ordinance did not have any regulations pertaining to data centers because, of course, a new type of infrastructure. And we were being reactive at that time because we did have a facility that was coming in and being permitted. And so the language in black is of course our existing language. So currently data centers and crypto mining farms shall not produce more than 55 decibels of sound at any time as heard from any property line. And crypto mining farms alone shall be located at least 500 feet from any residential use as measured from the property line. So what we are proposing is to add the language shown in blue to the ordinance, which adds that data centers and crypto mining farms shall utilize closed-loop cooling practices or similar cooling technology that eliminates the need for the facility to continuously draw fresh water from the city's public water supply for the purpose of cooling the equipment in the facility and be prohibited from using an open-loop cooling or evaporative cooling methods. as well as expanding that 500 feet for many residential use to include data centers as well. Currently, like I said, it's only for the crypto mining farms. So this would expand that prohibition to include also data centers. And then they would be measured. from property line to property line, which means, of course, adjacent properties does not meet the 500 feet, but it's important. We're asking you to regulate it by property line because it's a lot easier to regulate for if it was not regulated by property line. Say you have a five-acre site, And you have a data center in the middle of it. We would have to find out where the proposed use is going to be located, measure from that proposed building site to the nearest residential site. And so it just gets a little bit a lot more complicated. And as planners like to plan as much as we can on the front end rather than the back end, Also, these are much more hard data measurements. So the linchpin of all of our regulations is the 55 decibels. That is actually a fairly low standard. Your typical lawnmower hits at 75 to 95 decibels. So no data center or crypto mining farm currently in Victoria shall operate more than 55 decibels at any sound as heard from a property line. But that is an operational requirement, meaning that someone can come in, build a data center. If it exceeds that 55 decibels, then it becomes a code enforcement activity. And so staff of course has to build a case and submit charges to municipal court. And so it just becomes a lot harder to regulate when it's an operational standard. So we are not proposing to eliminate that. I mean, it is a very good standard. It really is the linchpin of what our rules are saying as far as the size and scale Because of that 55 decibels will keep anything at a smaller scale but we prefer regulations that They're easier to regulate on the front end and aren't those operational type, which is why we're proposing to expand the 500 foot boundary to include also data centers Before I move on is there any questions about yeah, I was gonna suggest that Anybody having questions on this portion

I do. Clearly, there's public interest in this and recognizing that we put this in place as a result of needing to address that at the city level. Why did we choose 500 feet? I understand the property line and I understand the revision, but why did we choose 500 feet as the?

Sure, so if you look at our existing.

Can we back, I want to back up a little bit. So, and we probably should have started here, but I think it's helpful for context. So we don't have zoning. We don't have a zoning ordinance. If we had a zoning ordinance, we would be able to be more strict, be more restrictive with any kind of use. In the absence of having a zoning ordinance, we adopted the UDO. And because we don't have a zoning map, the only way that we can influence the physical location of different uses is by being creative with the verbiage and creating a feet parameter, or foot parameter, or parameter by foot. And so I just wanna provide that context because... it's important to understand that we don't actually have the same powers that most cities have. It is true that municipalities have greater authority over development than say counties do, but we don't have a zoning ordinance, which is the tool that most cities actually utilize, which again puts us in this position of having to use this kind of mechanism. And so I think that's important, but I'll let you address the why 500.

So we have, in our land use, our use-specific standards, we have several uses that have a distance requirement. Near 500, 1,000, or the max would be heavy industrial uses, like slaughterhouses or whatever, is 1,500. And so the 500 really was more in line with other 500 feet uses. But if council wishes to amend from the dais to expand up, we wouldn't want to recommend anything too expansive. Because while we do not have a zoning map and we do not have traditional zoning, our unified development ordinance is actually adopted under the zoning chapter authority and the texas local government code and so we would not want to um fall into any um gray area of exclusionary zoning of saying nothing is this use would not be allowed um even though we don't have a zoning map we don't have the full expanded powers in that texas that under the I can't remember if it's 211 or 212. One is subdivision, one is zoning. But under those chapters, we don't have, like I said, adopted the full expansive chapter and the authority of those on the Texas Local Government Code. But because we do have regulations that are use-specific, and especially when it comes to, for example, landscaping, In the previous structure of the old ordinance, everything was permit-based. So if a permit required you to put a tree in and then you CO'd that permit and closed out and someone wanted to tear down that tree, there wasn't any recourse. By adopting this under that correct chapter, now we can say, no, that permit was based off of that tree and So we still have to somewhat pay attention to some of the zoning laws, which one would be that exclusionary zoning. So we don't want to say a five mile radius or have so many bubbles where you cannot do it that we effectively exclude it completely throughout the city or we may run a foul of state law. But the 500 feet was more in line with some of the less intensive uses, knowing that we also have the regulation of the 55 decibels?

I personally would like to see that 500 feet extended. 500 foot is a baseball field and a half, which is not very far when you're talking about a residential area. And while I appreciate the 55 decibel, I know that there are some data centers that operate with a low frequency. audible that isn't a decibel that you would recognize in a lawnmower-esque sense, but be more of a low rumble that would be a deterrent for, would affect animals, could potentially affect individuals with neurological impairments and things like that. And so I would really like to see the 500 foot extended. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask about is we don't have anything related to electricity. We've addressed water in this, but we haven't addressed electricity usage. Is that something that can be added to the UDO?

That would take more research on our part for sure. I haven't really seen a lot of regulations that address the electricity side. And that might be because there's a lot of cities that actually do not provide their own electricity.

It's not a utility that we oversee or are responsible for.

That is an ERCOT issue. And there's been new legislation that forces them to regulate how the power is used from these data centers.

Mr. Program, I have a question. If we were to expand that 500 feet, obviously we don't want to do anything that's going to violate whatever statutes apply to this. And I know I'm asking you cold on your feet. I mean, do you have kind of a range that we would probably be fine falling within or a maximum distance that would be allowed?

Well, our current ordinance has a max of 1,500 for some other uses. OK. And so when we went through the unified development ordinance codification process way back with the consultant, Fraser Nichols, there was a lot of, buffers that were done on different sites for the 1,500 feet, so we felt comfortable proposing that. We can of course, if there's another number that gets thrown out, we can try and do that analysis ourselves. But there is other uses in the ordinance that speaks to 1,500 feet.

And are those more heavy industrial? Mm-hmm. Okay, that was my recollection. Yes. Okay, thank you. Ms. Scott.

I have a question. It's a common question. There's been some discussion that we've heard from the citizen communication also asking for a moratorium. While I'm not advocating one, I just want to make sure that I'm understanding correctly that we have an ordinance before us tonight. We can make an amendment to that ordinance, but we don't have anything on our agenda that would allow us to create a moratorium at this time. Correct.

Even if that were the- Correct. Okay. Correct. Thank you. That's a separate statute. Completely separate. That's a separate action item than something completely separate.

I also want to note there's currently no active kind of permits that have been filed with Development Services to build a data center, so these amendments are proactive, whereas our first shot at regulating them, the ordinance that we adopted 18 months ago, was more reactive. Of course, that doesn't mean someone won't come and apply for a permit tomorrow.

Any other questions? Yes.

Under B here, it says it seems like it's a loose way that they could find a way to draw water from the city's public water supply, some shape, form, or fashion. It seems like a lot of ifs, ands, or buts. Utilize closed-loop cooling practices or cooling technology that eliminates the need to facilitate the continuous draw of fresh water. So would there be something that would not be continuous, like every now and then? Or it just seems like it's just not strong enough.

CHRISTIE WOODARD- So we do have a definition that I can pull up that is a companion to it. But you do have to provide water to a closed loop system. to the system to begin with So the definition is a cooling system that is utilized by data centers and or crypto mining farms that continuously recirculates water allows for the reuse of water for cooling purposes Prevents water from being lost through evaporation and it minimizes the overall amount of water use But you do have to supply that system with water to begin with Who's gonna regulate that part?

the city and how much water they have lost through evaporation and have to replace?

So in the permitting side, we would require engineers to be certifying the closed-loop system. And the oversight would be done at the construction. Now, of course, because we did adopt this under the zoning authority, if we saw a big water spike use or something, we could then, of course, use that for justification to go do some investigation, and if they were in violation because their closed-loop system was failing, they would be, of course, in violation of the ordinance. But most of it would be implemented or, I guess, regulated at the front end with part of their building permits. We would require engineers to be certifying that it complies with all of this.

Any other questions at this point? OK. Ms. Hogan?

And the open loop cooling is also defined that relies on water evaporation or direct air cooling. So I will go back to the rest of the proposed ordinance.

We drug you through your presentation with questions, yeah. Thank you.

So the next new regulation that we're looking at is also regarding bus depots, bus terminals, or the downtown historic district. So in the overlays and special area district section, we do, of course, have the historic overlay standards. And then we have different historic districts, which, of course, being our largest and most recognizable, and then some residential districts near downtown. And so this is a list of prohibited uses within historic districts. And we are proposing to add bus depot, bus terminal, which I have definitions that will show this, but a bus terminal is not a bus stop, basically. So we have defined transit station, transit stop, or bus stop as someone getting on and off in a bus terminal at the beginning or end. So transit stops would not be prohibited in historic districts. But we would be proposing to prohibit bus depots, bus terminals, and then heavy industrial uses, which downtown is so residential. A lot of those are closer than 1,500 feet anyway. But just to double up and make sure. This is just a correction in a section reference. And then these are some cleanups on the actual number of MILRs and black line copies that we need in the review of minor plats. Again, these are kind of administrative cleanup. Filing fees need to go to the county clerk's office on how many plaque copies we need. And then this is kind of the meat of some of the ordinances. You read it, and then you always have to refer to the definitions of what does that mean. So a bus depot is a facility used by public transportation designed for storing, maintaining, repairing, or cleaning. So bus lot, bus barn. So that's where buses go home every night and, of course, are maintained or cleaned. whatnot. A bus terminal is typically what you think of more of a Greyhound bus, but it could be also local transit if it is a primary hub for routes to disperse that. Routes are beginning there, ending there. It can be known as a bus station or a transit center, but it's not a bus stop. The key is that it is really the hub of beginning and ending routes or connecting routes. And then the closed loop system, open loop system, and the transit station, that's just where people wait for transportation services. So that's a bus stop. And that covers all of the proposed amendments.

Okay. Any questions on any other portion of that? None at this time? Okay. All right. Thank you, Ms. Fulgram. I very much appreciate it. I'm sorry. Please don't interrupt the meeting. We're going to open the public hearing. If you have something to say, you can come up and say it at that time. This is not an open question and answer session. So at this time, then I will open up the public hearing with respect to item C1. Anyone who wishes to address council on this item, please come forward at this time. Again, I'd ask that you please be mindful of the time limit on your comments.

Sure. My name is Joseph Napolitano. I just spoke. I have a couple of comments. Any AI data center that's built has on-site backup power. Typically, those are going to be either gas fire generators or diesel fire generators. And so there's not one that I've ever been around that I'm a master electrician, been involved in the construction industry my whole life. that would fall within the 55 decibels. So that would have to be addressed because not only would it be used if there were a power outage, ANSI standards require that that unit be tested weekly, monthly, and quarterly for specific durations of time and annually under load for a certain number of hours, right? So if we're talking about 1500 feet or 1000 feet or 500 feet, that noise level needs to be taken into account. And the other issue I would like to address is closed loop. Closed loops have to be drained. That means the water has to be taken out and it has to be recycled somehow. So there needs to be a provision in our standards of how that is going to be handled. It cannot be just put down to drain as frequently they contain chemicals that are toxic. And the other thing is that with closed loop systems, you're trading one thing for another. because we don't have evaporation at the site, but we use a tremendous amount of water the way we generate electricity in Texas at gas fired power plants. So we're using less water here, but at the power plant we're going to use a lot more water because how do they remove the heat from these loop lines is with big fans and that's the source of the noise that everyone is talking about, right? So you're kind of pushing one problem away from us into another area that's power generation. Um, That's it, that's all I gotta say. Please consider those things because, and just something else I would suggest is that possibly on the standards that we're gonna develop, we have some folks that have some knowledge and skill in industry, right, to sit on those so that we can bring up the things like the generators and the switching of evaporation from open loop systems to closed loop to power generation. And by the way, power generation uses more water than any open loop system is gonna use. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any one else who wishes to address council on item C one, please come forward at this time. Good evening ma'am. Welcome.

Please state your name please. Um, new plant from Wisconsin. I'm down here living in Victoria County. Um, I'm not real up to date on all of your governance, but I'm wondering if you cannot do a moratorium, could it possibly be a situation where this could go to referendum? And you could actually allow the citizenry of the city of Victoria, because that's where this proposal is gonna be taking place, to allow them to vote for this. Is there anything to prevent a referendum?

I mean, this is a comment period, not a question and answer, so.

Oh, I don't get to ask a question?

Yeah, so if you have additional comments.

Okay, well, I'll just throw that out there. Okay. It's just something to think about. And then the second part would be, while I appreciate how learned you all are, you're out of your depth on this one. I don't mean to insult anybody, but I would strongly suggest to.

Saying that we take bribes. You've already done that.

I'm sorry. I strongly suggest you get outside help on this. Some of the things that you're thinking about putting into play, you're not covering everything. And I've seen a lot of communities that wish they would have sought out more counsel in coming up with a plan and how to protect their community. Thank you very much. And I'm sorry if I insulted you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else who wishes just, I don't, I don't have cards, so please come forward. Good evening, sir.

Would you state your name, please? Yes, sir. Good evening, everyone. My name is Avi Patel. I went to school here. I did four years at UHV, now A&M Victoria. And as everyone is talking about the bad effects of data centers, I think it's important for us to kind of go over how it could benefit the community and the businesses. As we know, All over the news, businesses are closing down, restaurants are, you know, they're shutting down or being bought out and stuff like that. I have a small thing to say. We understand the concerns, although I'm not a citizen of or a resident of Victoria, city of Victoria, but I do have spent most of my time that I've lived in Texas and Victoria, going to school here, working here. I'm a young hotelier, and it's kind of important to kind of highlight the benefits of it. I understand that any data center project must be carefully evaluated. Obviously, it's meaningful for, we have to care about our community first before any of that comes, and the impact on water, power, noise, infrastructure, and nearby residents that reside from those plants. At the same time, I want to express strong support from local hospitality and business community for bringing responsible new development to Victoria County. Over the past years, our community have lost many projects, some big ones, some small ones, that could have propelled our economy forward. But at this point, we are somewhat stagnant with no, although Port of Victoria are doing an amazing job with stuff in pipeline already, but we are getting a lot of pushback from the community. But it's, you know, I'm sure you guys are you guys are competent enough to make decisions where you guys think of not only a community but also the economy of Victoria and so it's it's Victoria has many hotels highways businesses and Services to support construction crews and corporate travelers. We're ready to go. We just need something to come something to, you know, start developing in Victoria so that, um, we don't stay stagnant in our economy, uh, keeps thriving and, um, um, We're not asking officials to ignore legitimate concerns. Obviously, those have to be addressed first, but we are asking them to find responsible solutions so Victoria does not continue losing economic opportunities to other cities in other states potentially. Local hoteliers and businesses are already ready to support and help welcome them in the future. Another thing, if we are going to halt those projects or not welcome them, it's important to address permitting issues as well, like hotels, for example. In this city, we haven't seen as much of it, but we will see that we get a lot of permits that are approved. But we have so many hotels already overdeveloped in town that When there is no work, when the economy is not thriving, we all are scrambling for clients. So it's important if you guys can take that into consideration as well, and thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments.

The public hearing remains open. Is there anyone else who wishes to address council? Please come forward.

Interesting. But my confidence is in y'all, okay? Y'all are taking the time and effort to go through this stuff. Let me offer a consideration. I've heard berms, trees, really knock a lot of noise out, if noise is the issue. The water and energy side is a, conservation of energy law, and that's a tougher one. But you guys can do it. But don't be swayed by a few that want government to tell you how to do it. Trust the American entrepreneurs also. Tell them the rules you want and give them the opportunity to figure it out. And you'd be amazed, things you're not even thinking about, they can come up with. Peace. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else who wishes to address council at this time? Please come forward.

Hi. I really appreciate the discussion and the thought you're putting into this. It really makes me feel heard as a citizen and I feel like it makes everyone here feel heard. Um, and I will get back to that person on social media that, you know, slammed what you said. So I'm getting right minute I leave. But anyway, so I have three basic comments. Um, as far as water goes, um, there's been comments about, you know, water usage for closed loop, which is definitely better than openly. But then there are also non-water cooling solutions. And I don't know if you're aware, but there was a Legislative National Resource Commission meeting in Austin held, I believe it was last Tuesday, but it could have been the Tuesday before because, you know. But anyway, very recently. And the committee requested the data centers bring information on how much water they use. and very few of the data centers present brought any information at all about their water usage. They just ignored that request. And to me, that was telling. My second comment is about codes and fines. The decibel limit, keeping it low is great, but one, if it goes on all day long, no matter how low it is, like Ms. Butler was saying, All day long, the vibration and all of that is, you know, you mow your lawn for what, two hours? But all day long is totally different, seven days a week, all month long, all year long. And I have personal experience in my neighborhood with a code violation. It took probably seven years to get the solution. There was a building built and they were supposed to have their trash compact or whatever thing hidden from view from the neighborhood and the contractor didn't do that. So the HOA called code enforcement and code enforcement went out, they took pictures, they sent letters and it took seven years because they just kept paying the fine. They had plenty of money. And these data centers are like Formosa. If their decibels go over 55 to 65, 85, 95, they have so much money, they're just gonna pay the fine and blow you off. And I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just saying they've got deep, deep pockets. And then lastly, the comment about economic development. I love Victoria and I want it to grow and be great. We've got all this culture, we've got events, but we need to be responsible in the development that we bring and data centers have shown that they do not bring long-term jobs. They bring a few months of construction and then you've got about six people out there mowing the grass and mopping the floors and everything is done remotely. And it takes jobs. AI is going to take the coding jobs from our kids that are graduating with engineering degrees. It takes customer service. How many of us have used a phone and gotten a robot instead of a person? Those are jobs that used to be held by human beings. And the AI tech guys are saying, this is going to be so great when we have AI to help you with your job. You're only going to have to work three, four days a week. Well, your company is not going to pay you for five days of work if you only come in two days. So that's not a real life solution. So those are my three comments. Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you for your comments. Any other individual wish to address council at this time as part of this hearing process? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Go ahead.

I appreciate so much the discussion that y'all had after the comment period. I see y'all have concerns too and you've been getting information on how destructive these data centers have been on the communities where they exist. I never heard anything about them until maybe April of this year and then I just started seeing so many stories on my newsfeed about smelly brown water coming out of communities taps because the data centers like sucking out so much they're just dregs left and that would destroy the property value for every homeowner in the city. I just got back from a week in Mexico have to remember to use the bottled water to brush your teeth, it's so good to be home, and use the water from the sink. It's just really important for us to protect these resources, and I think a moratorium would be a wonderful idea to get a lot more information, to put more detail into the code, and I love your idea of adding the distance, at least right now, having the 1,500 square feet distance because these are definitely heavy industry, but I really appreciate the conversation that y'all had this evening. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. All right. Last call. I mean, at this time, anybody? All right. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts on this with us. So with that, I will close the public hearing and for purposes of discussion and moving forward, I will entertain any motions with respect to item C1.

Move to adopt C1. Second.

All right. I've got a motion and a second. So let's open the floor for, or the dais for discussion. Anybody have any comments?

Additional questions? I would just like to see the verbiage of the water usage stronger and more powerful.

Okay. No, I think that's something we definitely need to check on.

It seems like there's some ifs, ands, or buts in there.

Right. Thank you. Okay.

I'd like to see the maximum feet being placed in there, the 1,500 feet, if at all possible.

OK. And just as a reminder, make sure I'm right on this. Is this first reading or is this? Yes, yes. OK. This is first reading only. And so we'll have, this will come back before council after any adjustments that we may request. So just so everybody's aware. Any other comments?

No, I agree with Councilwoman Butler's feet. $1,500 seems certainly more reasonable to our citizens.

Is that something we should do as an amendment tonight?

I would say if there's going to be others, why don't we pass this and just a suggestion. Let's get all the amendments and do those on second reading so that we have all those together.

I have no objection to that. I just wanted to make sure that everybody was in agreement on any amendments that she's going to make.

I have one more request. Julie, would it be possible to have the team look at the low frequency, the hertz, and also the decibels? Because I think there's been some valid points made at the 55 decibel, if there's an increase that might be justified.

You mean lower?

So there's a low frequency, but there's also a decibel that's your normal hearing. So a low frequency is emitted through a lot of the data centers. And so these are two separate items that I'd like addressed. Please.

And Mayor, you also do have the option. Y'all can table it tonight. If you want to make your suggestions, we can bring back a revised version at the next meeting also.

OK. Let me just make a couple of comments here. Because I've been thinking through this, and obviously, you know, I'm agreeing with that. Let's look at a further distance here. Let's make sure we're very tight on our water and um, that definition in there. I don't want, I don't want the discussion to be, one that gets away from really the reality of what we're faced with here. By that, I mean that we use the term data center. It's like saying a manufacturing facility. there's a lot of different kinds of manufacturing facilities. You know, I could be manufacturing cars or I could be manufacturing, uh, floral arrangements, right? Those are two different completely total impacts, right? And not all of these facilities are created equal. You know, we hear, uh, certainly very popular in the news right now and we hear all kinds of things about these big giant, you know, uh, Google, uh, data centers and that sort of thing. that's not the kind of data center that's going to be looking to locate inside the city limits. Let's be realistic. I mean, that's not going to happen. They need a huge footprint. They need water that we're not going to provide them. They need, you know, all of these kind of things. Those, those kind of data centers, those huge monster ones, they're looking at rural property. Okay. So really what we're looking at here is, okay, what are the type of data centers that are likely, uh, potential, if you will, to actually be within the city? I kinda look at these and think, okay, we regulate right now, we regulate industrial use, right? We have different UDO regulations for light industrial use versus heavy industrial use. And the reason for that is that we wanna make sure that heavy industrial use does not negatively impact the community, the environment around it. So what we do in those situations is we adopt rules that are based upon the impact of the facility, not what the facility is called, not that it's painted with a broad brush because we're calling it X instead of Y. We actually look at the impact of what a potential facility would have on the community. I think the goals of these regulations was to 100% look at it from an impact standpoint. I think Ms. Fulgram pointed out the 55 decibels. In effect, you're greatly limiting what types of these facilities could actually be within the city limits. You're really restricting what could be there just by that one simple rule. And when you combine them with these others, we're not talking about centers that are gonna use huge amounts of water. We're not talking about centers that are gonna be huge amounts of electricity. In fact, we have small data centers in the city limits right now that, to my knowledge, have had zero impact on their neighbors, on our electrical rates and electrical power draw, zero impact on water. And I get that as you add things, it's a cumulative effect, But I think it's a little bit short-sighted to say, well, we're going to paint all data centers with a broad brush and say they're all evil. They're just not. They're just not. I mean, goods move over highways. Goods move over rail, right? Information moves over digital technology. That's just the fact of where we are. And that's the information age that we're in is that we're all moving toward a digital economy. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I want to have some good, sensible, reasonable regulations that say we're not opposed to these as a general rule, but we are opposed to those that can't meet these requirements, and those requirements need to be tailored towards what's the minimum impact or what's the impact that we're willing to live with. Okay. And so, you know, I think, I think we have to have a balanced approach. I don't think we can just take a knee jerk reaction on either side of the equation. I think we really have to have a balance, a balanced approach. And I think these, this is a good first step, I think, towards striking that balance that, um, uh, uh, protects our community, protects our citizens. You know, certainly we've heard concerns here tonight. But also the reality that, you know, while these may not create a lot of jobs, but they certainly create a tax base. They certainly are useful for a community. You know, these types of centers are used for all sorts of things, for, you know, medical billing, for telecommunications, for, you know, they can support and help business within the community. But we have to be measured. We have to have a reasonable approach to this. And I think this is a good step in the first, good first step in that direction. Ms. Fulgram, I think you have kind of some homework and some to-dos on this that maybe we can come back. And so if anybody, yes, Mr. Lofkin.

Yeah, to your point, there's different size data centers. And I think we definitely need a definition in there because like you said, there's already data centers in our city. I mean, there's a data center in, 700 Main Street. It could be defined as a data center. So I think we definitely needed Definition.

Yeah, I think these are something that as we clean up these definitions and we fine-tune them that will get a really better sense of What we find is going to be an acceptable impact versus an unacceptable impact And I think that's really what we need to be looking at is not what it's called, not what the parade of horribles in the news media or social media is, but what is the actual impact of this type of facility on our community? And so I think that's a good mindset. And I'm going to suggest that as we move forward and address these. All right. Any other comments? OK, so we have a motion on the dais to approve on first reading as drafted. We have homework from Ms. Volkerm in terms of some potential revision that she could bring back later. So if there's no further discussion, I will call for a vote on the motion. All in favor of approval on first reading, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, so this is first reading. And we will come back and revisit this in the future, I'm sure. All right. Thank you. And thank you all for your comments. Very much appreciate it. All right. We will jump into our rather lengthy consent agenda. Ms. Hillbrook, we're making you work for it this evening. Yes, sir.

I take a vacation. I got to pay when I can.

If you would help me out on the consent agenda, I would very much appreciate it.

Yes, sir. Item D1 is adoption amendments to the regular meeting held on July 7th, 2026. Item D2 is an ordinance approving an amendment to the FY 2025-2026 budget in the amount of $2,144,921.73 for the purchase of two automated side load trucks, the mowing of city owned properties and a professional services agreement for collective bargaining negotiations. And this item is on second and third reading. An ordinance submitting chapter 24, section 22 of the city, a Victoria Code of Ordinances to remove the mobile food unit fee administered by the Public Health Department. This item is on second and third reading. Item D4 is a resolution considering the authorization of the expansion of the Quail Creek Municipal Utility District for a proposed final plat of Quail Creek East Subdivision. Item D5 is a resolution approving a variance request to section 21-260K, Street Design Principle Frontage Each lot of the area to be subdivided shall have frontage on a public street for 55 acres of land to create Gin Creek Estate subdivision located off Gin Road and situated in the Alex Russell survey in Victoria County, Texas. Item D6 is a resolution approving a variance to request to section 21-141 commercial separation standards for light auto repair. A facility shall not be located within 150 feet of any detachable single family dwelling for property located at 704 East Crestwood Drive. Item D7 is a resolution approving contract extension for the annual supply contract with Brintac Southwest Incorporated for liquid chlorine. Item D8 is a resolution approving the removal of the annual supply contract with Thornton, Muso, and Bellium for TMB 1160 in the amount not to exceed $479,808. Item D9 is a resolution approving the renewal of the annual supply contract with Thornton, Muso, and Bellium Incorporated for TMB 26 in the amount not to exceed $190,460. Item D10 is a resolution approving the renewal of the annual supply contract for the Thornton, Muso, and Bellium Incorporated for TMB 471C in the amount not to exceed $171,623.79. Item D11 is a resolution approving the renewal of this annual supply contract for Thornton, Muso, and Bellium Incorporated for TMB 78 in the amount not to include, not to exceed $138,306. Item D12 is a resolution awarding the 2026 striping project to Stripe Lines Incorporated of Houston, Texas in the amount of $128,934. Item D-13 is a resolution approving the change order number two to the 2026 Thoroughfare Maintenance Project contract with Clark Construction of Texas Incorporated resulting in additional cost of $352,939.82 for a total contract of $4,254,666.27. Thank you, Ms. Hilbert. Well done. Take a break. Yes.

Do I have a motion with respect to the consent agenda?

Motion to approve consent agenda as read by Ms. Hillberg.

All right, I've got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And your hard work paid off, it passed. All right, let's jump to action items and we will begin with action item E1.

Item E1 is a resolution supporting the renaming of the VA clinic in honor of Master Sergeant Rory P. Benavides.

All right, I think this is my item, and I don't have a presentation put together. Many of you may know that the county had actually passed a resolution here a while back supporting renaming of our local VA clinic, which was newly opened here, what, about a year, year and a half ago. after roy benavides of course you know master sergeant benavides is a local hero known to many of us for his heroism in the battle that they called six hours in hell you know certainly if you learn about his actions in that battle the lives that he saved the injuries that he sustained um you know i would think that in my mind this type of of honor and name me something after, um, after him would be, um, very appropriate, uh, to honor the service that he's given to our country. And so I had to ask city staff to put together a resolution. Um, now understand we're not renaming the VA center. We don't have that kind of power, but we are recommending and, and joining with the county, um, at their request in recommending that, um, or supporting the idea of renaming the VA clinic in honor of Master Sergeant Roy B. Benavidez. So, with that, if there's any motions on this item, I will accept those.

Motion to approve item E1.

Second. I've got a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And it is done. Very, very good. Item E1 is approved. Thank you for that. Absolutely. Yeah. So we will get that resolution put together and get it to the appropriate entities and individuals and see if we can help make that happen. So, all right, let's move into item E2. Ms. Hilbert.

Item E2 is a resolution considering an appeal of the building and standards commission order for property located on Southwest Moody street being a 1.3 acre portion of a 1.573 acre tract identified as lot two, tract five, block seven, range three of the West Farm in Victoria, Texas and identified by property ID 48335 to extend the order from 30 days to six months.

Miss Fulgram, you're almost as busy as Miss Hilbert tonight.

Yes, almost. So the Building and Standards Commission issued a demolition order for these two properties at this property located at Southwest Moody, which does not have an address. But you do hear April read the property ID. So the West building is, well, they're both wood frame buildings. with sheet metal covering their exterior. The west building is substantially rusted through, and there's a lot of wood rot and wood deterioration throughout, and so we don't believe it's salvageable at all. The east building has some rust and water leaks and water damage, but the foundation is essentially completely gone on the east building. As you inspect all of the piers, over 50% of them gone or the building is not sitting on them anymore, you can definitely tell that previous floodwaters have pushed the building off of its foundation. So it is important to note that both of these buildings are in not just the regulatory floodplain, they're in the actual floodway with new maps. this is a site of where the property is. And so for those reasons, the Building Standards Commission did issue orders for demolition. The property owner does agree that for the demolition of the property, West Building, but would like to salvage all of the material that he can from the West Building. And his plans for the East Building is to actually move it off-site to a location outside of the city limits, outside of the floodplain and the floodway. And of course, the substantial problems with that building is the foundation. So moving it, of course, would fix or he would be able to put it on a new good foundation that works. And so for those reasons, he requested to appeal the decision of the 30-day order to a six-month timeline to allow him to get the new site for the east building situated, and then also take time to demolish the west building in a way that the material could be salvaged. So I don't have a lot of pictures. I did include a lot more, basically the entire staff report and packet in the agenda item. But because it is a request to appeal the time frame, I just included a few here tonight. but that is essentially the request of the appeal and the property owner is here. Okay.

Thank you, Ms. Fulgham. Any questions? So basically we're just extending time period. Got it. Okay. Is what's being requested. Yeah. Okay. Any questions? All right. Do I have a motion with respect to this item?

I move we adopt this item.

I second it. All right. I've got a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on item E2?

I'd just like to comment that we get these requests periodically. But here's a situation where we have a property owner that has a plan. And that makes a big difference. And so I'm certainly expecting that this won't be a problem and that he'll be able to follow through.

Yes. And I'm glad I'm not in charge of the moving process. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Item E2 is approved. Um, we will jump now. We have item E3 and E4. I think we'll do a, are we doing a joint presentation? Yes, sir.

Chief Gomez will provide a joint presentation.

Okay, very good. Mr. Burke, will you call up item E3 and E4 please?

Yes, sir. Item E3 is a resolution approving the purchase of the Pierce Sabre Pumper from Siddons Martin Emergency Group, LLC in an amount not to exceed $1,113,766. And item E4 is a resolution approving a 10-year lease purchase with PNC Bank for $1,722,942 for a Pierce Enforcer 107 for Siddons Martin Emergency Group, LLC with 10 annual payments of $228,978.18 for a total purchase price including financing of $2,289,781.80. Good evening, Chief, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I appreciate you having me here to kind of give you a brief overview of our current situation and moving forward. So first of all, I'd like to express my gratitude to City Management and Council for the continued investment in our equipment. Reviewing and maintaining our standards for apparatus replacement is essential, and doing so reinforces and justifies the decision you've made to invest in our fleet. What I'm gonna do is provide an overview of our current situation, outline how our operations will look once all of the units are in service. So I wanna make sure I give you a clear picture of the improvements and the benefits to our operational readiness and service delivery. And what I would like to do is just kind of you know, get your attention and point it to the picture of the engine. That is engine two that will be here in August. But if you noticed, it's not your typical red and white. We added a flare of gray to it because of the, The apparatuses are coming. We thought it would be a nice thing to change it up just a little bit. And it really, really looks nice. The picture doesn't do it any justice. And the same for the ambulance as well. Looking at it rolling down the road is a really beautiful sight to see. So in fleet management, we have what's called the NFPA guidelines. And this is what helps us determine what needs to be in service, what needs to be taken out of service. And as you can see, it's over both fire engines, what we call the fire trucks or the ladders, and then also as well as the ambulances. And you can see What that requires as far as a front line you see on the engine 15 years of service You see as well as the latter 20 years of service and then the ambulance is five to eight years now I want to stress and point this out. These are guidelines because every city has its own unique challenges and Victoria is definitely unique different and has its challenges and so, you know when you think about you know for the fire department we're covering our responsibilities are covering forty square miles of the city but then you think about the county which is nine hundred square miles and so they that's a lot of uh... road to travel factors as such this that's what uh... makes uh... comes into play with determining using the standards, using the demographics, the terrain, the operational needs in determining what needs to be replaced or moved over from frontline to a reserve. So on this slide here, it's the current fleet for our fire. We all know that our fleet is aging. The average life of the fleet right now is 13 years. We have one apparatus that is 17 years old. So our challenge is to provide effective fire suppression for the city. When you look at our fleet, Yes, we have six fire stations, but we have four engines. And so that is your primary fire suppression. We do have a ladder. We have a quint, which is half ladder, half engine, and they're limited in fire suppression. They only carry 250 gallons of water on the ladder, 500 gallons on the quint. And so you're asking for the four engines to do a lot of coverage when it comes to actual fire suppression. The engines that we have now, we have one that has 500 gallons, we have one that has 750 gallons, but the new engines that are coming, they're all equipped with 1,000 gallons tanks, which is gonna definitely increase our operational flexibility. It will allow us to distribute fire suppression workload across six engines and not just four This is a situation with our EMS fleet Again same situation our fleet is aging. It's different. They are difficult to maintain It directly impacts our reliability and response capability however As you recall, in our budget, I had mentioned that the five ambulances are here. We actually have one in service right now. The other ones are being prepped to go in service at a later time. And again, if you look, these are the new look. This is the new look of the ambulance. Again, we added that flare of gray. We believed it's a good look. It matches the color scheme of our engines and it creates a united and professional look across our fleet. So afterwards, with the engines in place, as you can see, Once it's all completed, the new engines will significantly reduce the overall age of our fleet by 85%. This improvement strengthens reliability. It reduces maintenance costs. It ensures our members have dependable equipment they need to protect our community. The same will go for the EMS fleet. We will be better equipped to meet the increase in demand for EMS. The medic units will reduce maintenance downtime, improve our response capabilities. In addition to all this, what that's gonna do, the domino effect is we're gonna have a reserve fleet. So with that reserve fleet, that again, it provides operational depth. So these reserves ensure we can sustain a high level of operational readiness, even when frontline units are out of service for routine maintenance or unexpected repairs. And then finally, with all of this, I'd like to remind that we also have the builder of our apparatuses, Siddons Martin. They are here in Victoria, they have a bay here at our service facility. So in addition with that, that will contribute to shorter turnaround times whenever our fleet maintenance are required, helping us keep units in service and available to the citizens of Victoria. So overall, again, I thank you all for the investment. It's the investment in our fleet. It's investment in our community. It's an investment also for the safety of our members on the fire department. It creates, again, what I said, safer for our members. It's a reliable response, better EMS care. We're fiscally responsible, and it just provides for a stronger community.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. I just want to briefly add that we're bringing these items before you in an attempt to save some money and also to get in line. As you know, a lot of this equipment is just taking a long time, and so we have somewhat gotten into the habit the last couple of years to pre-order, get in line as quickly as we can, and then we account for the actual monetary piece of it in the subsequent years. fiscal year. So expect for that to be the case, um, in the upcoming proposed budget, um, that we're accounting for these over the next couple of years.

Maybe we'll get lucky and get them early like the garbage trucks. Yeah, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. All right. Any questions? All right. Chief, thank you for the information. Very much appreciated. Thank you so much. So with that, then, why don't we begin with item E3? Do I have a motion with respect to item E3?

Motion to approve item E3. Second. All right.

I've got a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And E3 passes. OK, on E4, just a reminder, I believe Ms. Lacey informed us that we do need to make an amendment on that once we have an original motion for this item to correct the dollar amount.

Yes, sir, that's correct. The first dollar amount, the purchase price for the truck has not changed. Since publishing the agenda, there was a slight increase in the interest rate, which changed the dollar amount for the annual payments as well as the total purchase price. So those two numbers are gonna vary slightly differently. I provided those exact numbers to Councilman Lofgren, so he has that to make the amendment.

Got it. So we'll need a motion and a second on the agenda item as it's presented on the agenda. I move we adopt.

Second.

All right, I've got a motion and a second then. I'm sensing that Mr. Lofgren has an amendment here.

You have good sense. Due to the recent interest rate increase, I move we amend the resolution to approve a 10-year lease purchase with PNC Bank for $1,722,942 for a Pierce Enforcer 107 foot from Sidon's Martin Emergency Group LLC with 10 annual payments of, and these are the things that will be changed, $229,108.48 for a total purchase including financing of $2,291,084.80. All right, so I've got a motion for the amendment. Do I have a second? Second.

Got a motion and a second. Any discussion on the amendment? All in favor of the amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. So then we go back to the original motion as amended. All right. So do I have a motion to approve the original motion as amended? Do I need to do that?

I already have that.

Nope. I already have it. All right. I'll call for a vote on the original motion as amended. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Passes. Thank you all for keeping me straight. Rules of order are more like guidelines, as the chief said. I get, you know, anyway. All right, our last action item then is E-5. Ms. Hilbert.

Item E-5 is a resolution approving a four-year agreement with Motorola Solutions Incorporated for two Brink responder station-based DFR, drone as a first responder systems, with Safeguard Lite and Hardware Refresh and one Lemur II drone with Safeguard Lite in the amount not to exceed $449,991. Good evening, Chief.

Good evening, mayor and council. I'm sure that you've all heard me talking about this drone first responder program over the last several months. And with some behind the scenes work by Lieutenant Poe, the fire department, finance, city manager's office, we're to the point now where we have a contract that we would like to seek your approval on. Just quickly for your general knowledge, I'll go over some of the benefits and uses of the program and some technical information. So overall, it can provide faster response times, enhance situational awareness and safety for all public safety members, fire scene monitoring, decrease need for emergency or fast response, which puts officers and the community in danger. We could possibly clear up to 25% of calls for service without needing an officer to actually respond by getting there and just with the drone seeing that there is, whatever it is reported is not actually there. And the drones are made in the United States, and that it will allow us to stay ahead of potential laws that could be passed that prohibit drones made in China from being used by government officials. And the drones won't be used for mass surveillance. They won't be recording while they're in flight. They only would record once they get over the scene. And there will be a transparency portal that I'll go over here in a little bit. Some more benefits for police, it allows for de-escalation with real-time video and communication, enhanced officer safety by being the eye in the sky to see where suspects are, where they may flee, to help with overwatch, and crime scene documentation. For the fire department, it can help them with the rapid size up of the fire to identify where it's coming from on a structure and more easily adjust their resources as needed. For wildfire tracking, they can see the direction of the fire, identify safe escape zones, and then for search and rescue, it can get to a location quickly and it has infrared and thermal so that it can see in low visibility if someone is in the river, in the woods, whatever. Then for EMS, it can determine safe approach zones in a hazmat situation or a crash. It can help with pre-arrival triage. Then it has the capability of delivering critical emergency supplies. I'll cover that more in a second. So this is what the Overwatch drone looks like, and I won't go into all the technical details, but it has a very high-definition camera, it has thermal, and it has a 42-minute flight time and two-way communications. The Lemur 2 is an indoor tactical drone so that you can fly that in ahead of officers or the SWAT team or whatever. And it's designed for flying indoors in tighter spaces. It has night vision and thermal sensors, two-way communications. It can be attached with a glass breaker. And another cool aspect of that is as it flies through the structure, it can actually create a floor plan that we can download and so that we know what the inside of the structure looks like without actually going in. That's what the station looks like for the Overwatch or the launch pads. And so the drone is housed inside that launch pad. It charges it, it protects it. It has an integrated HVAC to keep it from being degraded by heat or cold. It has integrated communications. So it, uh, you can have prerecorded messages, for example, like crowd control. You can fly over the top and say a safe exit is, you know, east of your location. Or it could be, um, surrender. We have you surrounded, you know, whatever. Um, you can also do text to talk and two way communication. You can actually talk to them through the drone and hear what they're saying. These are some of the emergency deliveries that can be made. You can drop an IED, a personal flotation device, EpiPens, and Narcan. Hopefully not an IED. AED? AED. It's just an old habit, Chief. I just want to clarify. Acronyms are tough. So we have the data storage and transmission is in compliance with the highest level of federal security requirements. There is a transparency dashboard if citizens want to go on once we get this set up. They can look at DFR flight paths and times. For the cost, the first year is free. We can actually back out of it up to I think the 11th month if we decide we wanna back out of the contract. Years two through four are 149,997 for each year. Included with that is two of the station launch drones and those two drones should cover about 85% of the city. The Lemur or the indoor drone, there's just one of those. And then the software and hardware needed to run those systems are all included in that. We estimate that the launch pad installation, they require 16 foot by 16 foot pads for the launch pads to sit on. And we estimate that cost around $10,000 and Brink and Motorola have offered to assist with that cost. We have yet to see how much that assistance would be. So the estimated total cost with everything would be $459,991.

Chief, am I remembering correctly, the launch pad, is that on the roof at the public safety headquarters?

So after further research, we think it would actually be better to be ground-based. To be ground-based, okay. Yes. It would probably lengthen the life of the roof so that we're not traveling across it for maintenance and things like that.

That makes sense, okay.

So that's all I have for you tonight. Do you have any additional questions? Can you go back a slide? Yes, sir.

I just want to make clear just from a timing standpoint. So the way that we've intentionally scheduled this out is that that first payment won't actually hit until October of 2027, which is fiscal year 28. So you won't actually see this included in the proposed fiscal year 27 budget, but you will eventually in 28. And so I just want to make that distinction.

Yes, sir. Thank you. I forgot to add that.

Any questions? No, we have other drones currently, correct?

Yes, sir. We've had drones for, I don't know, seven years, and we have multiple pilots, but they're not self-launching. We have to visually see them fly.

Will this kind of remove the need for those, or will we keep those as well?

No, we'll still have both. Okay. Yes, sir.

And, you know, just a point, you know, Chief, you and I have had conversations about this program, which I think is really, really neat, and I know you're excited about it. This puts you in a great position to assist the fire department as well. Yes, sir. Not just, you know, on police calls, but, you know, have a drone there before they show up and tell them where they need to be or where they, you know, which side they need to be on and that sort of thing. So I really think this is a great improvement to our overall public safety in Victoria. So I'm excited about it.

All right. Thank you.

All right. With that, then, I will entertain any motions with respect to item E5.

Motion to approve item E5. Second.

I've got a motion and a second on E5. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? and we're in the drone business. Awesome, thank you. All right, city manager reports. Mr. Garza, what do you have for us this evening?

We have one short city manager report for you this evening, and so I'll turn it over to Tiffany to provide that more comprehensive update on the child safety program. Welcome, Ms. Toda. He put some pressure on you there.

He knows I talk fast, so I have family from New York, so I tend to talk pretty quickly, and I promise I won't keep you here all night. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm excited to present the proposed program for fiscal year 27, Child Safety Program. Just some background information about this program and how we get the funding. This was originally adopted back in August of 2019 through a resolution in partnership essentially with the county. They do collect a fee on vehicle registration that we then get a portion of the vehicles registered within the City of Victoria. In 2020, that was a dollar fee and then the county did propose to increase that to the maximum amount allowable by state law at January 21, which increased that to $1.50. The program was then officially adopted and approved by city council in October of 21, and then this year, we're now in our fifth year of this program here. So it does have two components. We have a child safety grant component as well as a child passenger safety component. And so we do have a committee of city departments that help oversee the grant management of this, and that includes finance, Katie Connolly, myself as kind of the program administrator of it, Kevin from our legal department, and Sergeant Gravaldo from the police department. They help us to review the applications, ensure they are compliant with the requirements that have been outlined. So with the grant, the organizations that are eligible for funding are non-profit, non-taxing entities that operate exclusively within the city limits of Victoria, but not necessarily exclusively. The current eligible use categories that they can apply for funding is for child safety or abuse intervention and prevention programs or drug, alcohol, or substance abuse prevention programs for children. There are other eligible uses in state law that we could potentially explore in future years, such as nutrition and health, and we may propose that for next year to try to expand usage of this funding. They are required when they submit applications which that's part of why I'm here tonight. Applications will be opening on Monday at 8 a.m. on July 27th. The form will be available through an electronic form posted on the website. All form documentation will be there which will include our online child safety fee application form, a program budget form that is an Excel spreadsheet they can input their data into to show how much funding they're requesting and if they're getting any additional revenues for that fund. They'll also submit proof of their IRS Form 990, their most recent one, which is usually from the prior year, as well as an IRS tax exemption designation letter. Now, in this particular grant, it is a reimbursement-based grant. They're able to submit reimbursements quarterly to us, with the first one of each year usually being due in January and so on and so forth. So right now, we're in the third quarter of reimbursement, and they'll have until October 20th, essentially, to get their final reimbursement request. And then our committee does take those applications once received. We evaluate them based on a variety of different matters, including whether or not they attended our workshop. While it's optional, it certainly does help to answer questions, especially for new applicants. Did they comply with all of our documents? And is their information credible? And then we look at the number of children they're serving as well as the services they're providing. So in some cases, you may have something like a summer camp program that is a One child, one service, and in other factors, you may have counseling sessions where a child is receiving multiple services. And then whether or not we also look at have they been a previous grant recipient and are they utilizing that funding? And so our applications, again, they'll open on Monday, July 27th at 8 a.m. They will close at 5 p.m. on August 14th. which is a Friday. Our committee will then take the time to review those applications, notify them of their funding by August 28th, and then we'll bring back those recommendations to you all as a resolution September 15th City Council meeting. And then those contracts will be drafted by legal to then go out effective for October the 1st. So as of to date, we have had four out of our seven current recipients report and receive part of their reimbursement requests. Some have been fully reimbursed, others have partially gotten reimbursed. And there's a missing zero on there, I apologize. But the total award for this current fiscal year is $55,000 in available funds for these grants. And so as of to date, we've had $16,000 reimbursed to those recipients. Those that have reported, we've had 3,418 children served, and the organizations typically are volunteer-based. Some of them do not allow volunteers based on what they provide, but 85 volunteers have completed 1,749 hours. That's just part of our evaluation of their reimbursement request. It just gives us what their organization does, and some are specifically requesting funding for their volunteer programs like training and things of that sort. I did want to put some historical data here just to kind of show you where we've been at over the past few years in terms of how much funding has been previously allocated or received by these grant recipients. So it slightly went down this year. This year we allocated $55,000. Last year, in fiscal year 25, we actually had $70,000 available, but every applicant was fully funded 100%. And so we... did not allocate additional funding at that time. And so that's why we went back down a little bit to see where we would be at this year. And then over the past few years, we've had four applicants in 23. In 24, we had seven applicants. And then last year, we had six. And so I have gotten some interest this year from some new applicants. So we'll see when the applications open. We also have the child passenger safety program. This is just some of the things we have done in the community as well as getting a traffic safety award for this. We go to various events and educate frequently. The booster chart is my favorite. I always tell people I barely meet the requirements to not be in a booster seat. So that's always fun. So with that program, this year has been a little bit slower and I will admit it's been a busy year with the move and all the adjustments we've made. We're not quite where we were this time last year in terms of where we're at, but we've done 10 inspections. Seven new seats have been issued through a variety of different partnerships. This month, we had a class with a local nonprofit organization, SJRC Belong, and we were able to partner with them to issue a couple of seats at that event. Community outreach events, we continue to be out in the community. We went to the summer kickoff party. We have gone to schools to talk about different... career days and things of that sort. And so we're always out there in the community. And we currently have seven City of Victoria employees that are car seat technicians, including myself. I recently recertified and so another two year term for me for that. And so as you can see in the past few years, we did, have a really high year in fiscal year 24, and that was primarily due to our big events we had at Target. This past year and this current year, I've not yet been able to do that, but I hope to have one in September, potentially in the new parking lot at the public safety headquarters. There's a nice corner on the far left-hand side of the building that would provide an opportunity for that. So I'm hoping to be able to do that in September. And so with that, this is what our funding looks like. The 55,000 is for the grant program for this proposed year. And then the $51,239 for the Child Passenger Safety Program also includes general child safety administrative costs for staff that work that program. And so the actual program for the Child Passenger Safety is about 10,000 of that. And then the rest of that is administrative costs associated with administration of that program. We do still have, even with these allocations here, because we did build up a fund balance prior to launching of this program, we're projected to have an ending fund balance of 191,000 at the end of next fiscal year. And then moving forward, as I mentioned previously, we may propose to try to expand usage of that fund to potentially gain some additional applicants or fund usage for that. So we may bring that back to you all in next fiscal year as we look to continue to utilize this funding to make sure it's meeting the needs of the community. And continuing our partnerships with child passenger safety, car crashes are leading causes for serious injury to children and our goal is to help reduce that. As long as the county does not come and retract that law, that funding will be available as long as they don't come back and say, we no longer want to collect that fee. They also receive a portion that I'm not sure what it's currently utilized for, but it may also go to similar programs or within their own organization. I don't know if that would go away necessarily unless they chose to do that. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Ms. Stoddard?

No, thank you. I know these programs are a labor of love for you and your team, and so keep up the good work. We appreciate the report.

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Mr. Garza, do you have anything else for us this evening?

No, sir.

And I understand we will not have an executive session? Correct. You're too good to us. All right. Well, then we will adjourn at 7 o'clock.