City Council - Regular Meeting

26 and we will start our meeting at 6 p.m. We will start with the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance and progress. Almighty God, as we come before you today to discuss important matters, we ask you for your guidance and wisdom. Our Father, who art in heaven, be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we tres against us and lead us into temptation us from evil. Amen.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Okay. May Marissa is here. Jake Lambert is here. Council person Francis Doris is here and Mr. Fix is also here and I myself mayor of the city of Louisville. We will at this time if there's any public comments or anything from the agenda that anyone wants to discuss at this time any person wishing to address the council regarding any item on the agenda may do so. Speakers are requested to state their name and address for the record. Public comments are limited to five minutes per individual. In accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, the city council may not deliberate or take action on any matter that is not posted on the agenda. However, the council may direct staff to place the item on a future agenda for discussion or action if it's appropriate. At this time, we will ask for comments from our com from anyone out there.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Jillian Bliss. I actually live in New Bronals. I can give you my district if you'd like it or my address. Thank you so much. Thank you all for having me tonight. I'm here on behalf of the congressional campaign of Carlos de la Cruz. As I'm sure you are all aware, Carlos is in the Republican primary runoff that will be held this May. And I just wanted to come and introduce myself as um I'm so grateful for what he's been doing. Carlos is a 20-year United States Air Force veteran. He is a small business owner and someone who truly understands what it means to serve his community. Throughout his career, Carlos has put public service first. whether that means serving overseas or serving his community here at home just like y'all do here. And I thank you so much for being here tonight and doing that for us as well. Um because of that leadership, Carlos has been endorsed by the Border Patrol Council, by President Trump, and by members of the community who are leaders locally, statewide, and federally. And cities like Floresville, though truly he believes these cities, these small communities within our district are the backbone of Congressional District 35. and he believes that Washington needs leaders who are willing to speak up for districts like ours. So, as we approach this runoff, we would respectfully ask for your support and for your consideration of Carlos and his platform as it would mean a great deal to our campaign and would send a message that Wilson County is ready for strong leadership in Washington DC. Like I said, Carlos served his community in uniform for 20 years and now he looks forward to serving you. I don't have any parts on me, but I'm happy to reach out, you know, personally to each of you via email or otherwise. If you want, I can share my number. It's 214-949-6651. That's my cell phone. You're welcome to call me or text me there if you have any other thoughts or questions, but I really appreciate your time tonight and all you do for Florill.

Thank you. Do I have any more citizens comments? The council. Mayor, I do have a few comments if you're all ready. Yes.

Um so starting with um you know I walked in and I noticed there was a significant change to our lobby area and while I understand updates to city hall can increase efficiency and sometimes are needed. I noticed the mayor's pictures are no longer on the wall and um in my opinion taking the pictures out of sight kind of downplays our history. I'm also thinking about how this lands with the previous mayors and our city mayor and their families. Um, so if we can, I would like to consider um bringing back some sort of public spot, maybe creating a wall of service um visitors can see. I think it's very important that we maintain our history from our city as much as possible. So if that's possible, M to begin discuss that further.

Um I have another comment about make sure I get to my notes. Um so u for the next meeting I will need an update maybe a presentation item. Last week I attended TML midyear conference. This next week I will be um in DC for the National League of Cities Conference where I have visits at the Capitol Hill next week. And so I would like to come back and update council and our constituents as well at the next meeting. Um there's also another announcement of if council if you have checked your email you should have received um email from our regional director Councilman Ed Sims of Life Oak. He has sent out invitations to our regional meeting which will be held here in the city of Lordsville on August 17th. I think it would be great representation if everyone can make it out including staff as well. And there is also a call for our regional officers if anyone's interested. This is a great opportunity to get involved and serve within your region and uh help um shape the voice of our um region which could end up in our next legislative summit. And speaking of legislative summit, I am seeking any volunteers who are interested in being part of TML's um summitive conference which will happen in August. It's a two-day conference. So, anyone wishing to participate, what it looks like is um elected officials and employees from across the state coming together and deciding the legislative priorities for TML. So, um and sometimes it's um a great way to actually your foot in the door with wanting to advocate more for your city. Um, so if anyone's interested, just shoot me an email and I'll go ahead and send your name to the nominating committee.

And also one more for the next meeting. I would like an update on the Brazilian communities grant that was approved in October, please. Thank you. I leave you the floor, mayor.

Thank you. Yes. Um, I've got a couple of comments. Um, first, I would like to thank all of the women that work here in the city of Floresville. Um, it is National Women's Month. Um, y'all do an amazing job of helping to make our city go around. I'd like to especially thank our mayor prom, our mayor, and then our council place for U, Miss Francis Flores. Um, so thank y'all so much for everything y'all do and y'all continue to do and and keep up the great work. Um, another comment that I want to make is it was brought to light to me from a couple of citizens. Um, about the situation going on at city park u specifically the softball fields. Um, I would like to make sure, you know, we had a there was a citizen uh his daughter fell in a hole and was hurt and that is a liability for for the city itself. Um, so I'd like to make sure that we're continually monitoring everything going on out at the city park to avoid these future uh problems. and to the citizens daughters who got hurt in the situation. I hope you're healing well and we look forward to having you back out at our softball fields there at the city park. The mayor, Miss Okay, I do. I want to I I I just want to say that I am so grateful to everyone who came out to celebrate Floresville Day on March um I mean Friday, March the 6, that was last Friday and I want to thank them for sharing the many resources that are available in our community and I want to thank our staff

who went above and beyond to make this event such a success. It was also great welcoming our new city manager, Andrew Munos, and uh introducing him to our wonderful town in our community. That's all I have to say. Moving on to um city manager comments. Uh good evening, mayor and members of the council. Just quickly uh we are planning to do our budget schedule. Right now we have some tenative dates uh for our budget schedule for the upcoming budget season. Right now we are tenatively putting a joint uh workshop between the council and FBDC for March 21st. It'll be about 3 to four hours and then for the foreign corporation on March the 28th and then having a workshop between the council and staff to begin developing our capital improvement pro projects program that's scheduled tenatively for April the 11th. Times will still need to be figured out. I know we have some confidence in schedule. Uh we're going to try to accommodate those as best we can. But to give you an idea of what we're doing for the budget in preparation for that and then at that time we'll release the full schedule with public hearings, meetings, your interactions with staff on the upcoming budget as well as other agencies that may uh be interested in approaching for funding for the for the upcoming budget. Uh the sea street update, we did meet with the design team, we met with felt uh we met with a couple of other agencies that are involved in the project. Um we looked at the design. We did have some concern in terms of staff and the procurement document. We did document those and we provided those to the development team. We looked at the design and the design calls for about 15 ft for pedestrian walkways in the future. So what we asked

the design team to do was on the south side of Sea Street. Um we can't relocate those poles because of the cost and we can't add sidewalks. So the proposed plan is to put sidewalks on the north side of the street, but we also have called on the street itself about 15 ft of walkable shared pathway. So we wanted to see if and what it would take and if there's a bit alternating cost of what it would take for us to put that pathway on the south end of the street and put a protective barrier for bikes, pedestrians, uh joggers to do that. They did give us a preliminary cost estimate of about 47,000. It would delay the procurement about seven weeks. I think we can do something else in the future in order to get this project up and moving. We're just waiting for an updated uh program spec sheet from the design team. Uh we did give a date today, a deadline of today to Frontier to remove their communication lines. Uh they do have a team standing by when Phelps relocates those poles. We're submitting for their schedule. which should be in the next couple of weeks. Once that starts, those will be out of the uh out of the way for the construction of the sidewalk, the demolition, the reconstruction of the curbs, and then we can start that that project. So, hopefully we'll see something in the next 30 days moving on that project.

Thank you, Mayor. Can we ask questions of the city manager at this time on this? Sure. Thank you for the floor. Um, Mr. Munos, I did have a a question. Can you remind me um of the how the project was originally approved? Does it have to does a delegate authority to staff to make changes, change requests, or does it have to come back to council? All change requests and change orders typically come back to council for approval. So, this update you were talking about with the sidewalks, that would be a change request. if we approved it or we wanted to proceed with that. A staff recommendation is a bid alternate that would come back to you for approval.

Okay. So that's also going to be a change in scope and budget as well. Correct. And so we would anticipate an amendment to that if we decided to go that way. Yes. But right now based on the budget we know we have budgeted. It's not going to be feasible for us to propose those changes. So, we're just waiting for the corrective information on the bid spec sheet that we found there were errors and we're just waiting for that to come in and we're ready to place that out for bit, but we'll come back to you for authorization to solicit for pricing.

Also, I wanted to go back to your um update that you mentioned. You touched on this a little bit about the deadline for Frontier Communications. In your update, you had um said that you had given them the deadline of today. And if that wasn't going to if they weren't going to meet that deadline, then we were going to um cut and remove lines.

We can do that because we are the owners of the rightway. We've given them more than substantial time to do that. So the contractor or Phelps, we can authorize them to go ahead and remove services for that in order to expedite and continue with the construction of that of the project. And they have crew standing by to already assist in doing that. They don't have a crew assigned for about another 6 months to be able to put that as a ticket item to have those removed prior. If we do that, then we're delayed another six months on this project. What does that communication look like with front tier customers that would experience a cut off in communication?

We have we've advised that and when we actually do make that move, we would post it on our social media access as well as our other outlets to let them know that there may be a disruption in services. Uh it is also incumbent on Frontier to notify their customers as well as a potential outage. And then my next question would be to legal. Can we verify that that's um something that is permissible and advised under the current contract. Yes, I uh Mr. Mos and I I'm I'm not aware of this circumstance, but I would be happy to look at it and and provide feedback. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Williams,

for everything you're doing. And um moving on. So, right now we're going to change our schedule because one of our council persons has three. So, we're going to go into executive session real quick. So, um if I have a motion to executive session and this will be um the city council will meet in close session through Texas government code section 551.07 074 personal matters discussing uh discussion regarding the goal subject objectives and evaluations of the city manager as authorized by section 551.074 the Texas government code and B the city council will meet in close session Texas government code section 551.087 087 deliberating about economic development negotiations that's broken a post project and also u see action following execution executive session I'll make a motion for um council to meeting post session pursuant to Texas government code 55.074 personnel matters and also pursuant to section 55 1.087 deliberating deliberating about economic development negotiations um the broken arrow project and see action following session I'm sorry we will go into session at 68

See y'all later.

Oh yes. Sorry. Sorry everyone for keeping y'all waiting, but do I have a motion to return session? I'll make a motion to return from executive session at 7:11 p.m. I'll second motion made by Miss Marissa, second by Miss Motion passes 44 and I mean moving on to um item And was there any action taken?

No. No action taken. Sorry. Okay. Uh consideration and action. I mean agenda. We're going to do consideration and action to approve meeting minutes for the regular council meeting on February the 12th. You have a motion to pass this. Can I make a motion to table this? There's a question that I have on the minutes

or correction postpone it. I'm sorry. Make a motion to postpone it for this meeting which is March 26. Thank you. March 26. Do I have a second?

I'll second four against. Moving on to item five, presentation and discussion. At this time, um I want to Good evening. It is truly an honor to recognize an outstanding young lady in our community, Madison Ardan. In her eighth grade year at Forzo Middle School, Madison saw a need and decided to take action. She created Maddie's winter coat drive with a simple but powerful goal to ensure that no student in our community would go without a warm coat during the winter months. What started with one drop off location at Wilson County News and her own front porch has grown into five community locations. This past year, she delivered more than 400 coats and winter items to the Forzel Independent School District Community College, helping students in need at no cost to their families. Madison, your leadership and compassion makes our community proud. You are proof that you are never too young to make a difference. I want everybody to please join us in You want to come up here?

Okay. And it says, for her leadership and dedication in creating Medic providing over 400 and winner items and one more Moving on to 5B, review and discussion. Our finance director, mayor, council tonight for your review and possible discussion are amendments to our financial policy.

They're they are intended to strengthen the city's current financial policies, improve transparency, and promote fiscal responsibility. Uh the policies included for your review this evening are cash family handling policy, credit card use policy, time clock policy, the city donation policy, petty cash policy, and a tuition reimbursement policy for new non union employees. Um these uh policies have been drafted to establish clear procedures, strengthen internal controls, and support responsible management of city resources. Uh page two of each of the policies is a page for council feedback and comments. Um if you could please have those back to me by the 27th so I can compile if there needs to be any updates. Um or and I can discuss with you as well if you'd like to give me a call or come visit me. Thank you. I read them and I like the way you did it. So, thank you so much.

What date was that again? March 27th question. Uh thank you Cindy. My first question would be um because of course I do have questions and recommendations very usual but my next question would be after you receive this from us then are you going to take this and then get with legal on it

correct and then bring it to us when would I expect to see this by the 27th give me a week to compile everybody's comments and then I would say by the end of April it would come back to second April. Okay, great. Thank you. Moving on. New business. Consideration and action to approve proclamation 2026-01 International Women's Day. Proclamation 2026-011 International Women's Day. Whereas International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8th to recognize the achievement, resilience, and contributions of women throughout history and across all cultures. And whereas women played a vital role in shaping families, communities, governments, businesses, and institutions, making lasting contributions to economic growth, social progress, and civic leadership. And whereas women continue to break barriers, and serve as leaders, innovators, caregivers, educators, and public servants who inspire future generations. And whereas the city of Floresville recognizes the importance of empowering women and girls, promoting equality, and celebrating the diverse accomplishments of women within our community and beyond. And whereas International Women's Day provides an opportunity to honor the women who have paved the way

for progress and to encourage continued advancement toward a future where every woman and girl has the opportunity to succeed. Now therefore, I, Gloria Morales, and the mayor of the city of Florville, Texas, do hereby proclaim March 8, 2026 as International Women's Day in the city of tourism, and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions to women in our community of women in our community in witness where I have here on to set my hand cause the seals of the city of Morville, Texas to be to exist 12th day of March 2026.

Do I have motion to approve motion by Mr. A second? Second by Miss Marissa Himenez. All in favor. Motion passes. 340 next. Moving on to item B, consideration and take possible action to approve proclamation 2026-012 Red Cross Month.

American Red Cross Month 2026. a proclamation 2026-012. In March, we celebrate American Red Cross month by honoring our neighbors who make it who make its humanitarian mission possible in Floresville. Every day, their act of kindness change lives, bringing relief, comfort, and hope when help can't wait. The compassionate spirit runs deep in our community just has just as it has for 145 years through the American Red Cross. Today, those who serve with the San Antonio chapter of the American Red Cross light the way during emergencies, whether it's delivering shelter, food, and comfort after disasters, providing a a safe, life-saving blood supply for patients facing conditions like cancer treatments, childirth complications, and traumatic injuries. assisting military members, veterans, and their families with 247 global support or empowering individuals with skills like first aid and CPR that saves lives. These collective efforts are power are a powerful reminder that the strength of the community lies in our shared commitment to one another. As we mark Red Cross Month, let's celebrate our local hero heroes and resolve to continue lifting each other up so no one faces an emergency alone. Now therefore, I pray more of Floresville by virtue of this authority vested in me by the laws of Floresville, Texas by proclaimed March 2026 as Red Cross Month. I encourage all citizens of Lorisville to reach out and support its humanitarian mission in witness where I have here on to set

my hand on this 12th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026 and of course of a motion to make a motion to approve proclamation 2026- 012 motion made by council men by council 34. Moving on to item C, consideration and take possible action to reject a request of proposal for the event center audio system update and authorize the city manager to particular of all related documents.

Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Uh when we were out for proposals with this, uh we found that we did not pro appropriately post the addendums that were required and so information was not released to all of the vendors prior to the expiration of this solicitation. Uh so what we're requesting is that we reject the bids and allow us to rebid, but we also need to work on the scope of work. I know as I have visited the event center, we do have an echo feedback within the main hall. So what we would like to do is include a sound engineer to come out and give us recommendations on how to control the echo as well as give us recommendations on the sound system that would be appropriate for that to minimize the echo. Uh so at this time we we request that we reject the bids as presented.

All right. Do I have a motion for this? Mayor, I'll make a motion for consideration and action to reject the request for proposal for the event center audio system update and authorize the city manager to execute all related documents. Do I have a second?

Motion to reject made by Miss Council, second by Councilman. All in favor zero against motion tasks. D consideration and possible action to request to reject the request of proposal for the infield renovations and offing and authorize the city manager to execute all related documents.

Good evening and council members. Again, this was an issue that happened to us where we did not appropriately close the addendums that were required uh prior to the deadline and expiration of this solicitation. Uh it could affect the pricing. So, at this point, what we would like to do is reject the bid as presented and staff reapproach the council for approval to uh advertise at a future date. Make a motion to reject the request for proposal for infield renovation in building a second.

I'll second motion made by council men second by Morris. All in favor? Motion passes. 340 against item E. consideration and take possible action to appoint audit review committee for fiscal year 2024 2025 as per city charter section 9.27 I'm sorry go ahead the finance direct I'll go ahead and take this one

mayor members of the council as required by section 9.27 27 of the city charter. The council shall designate no fewer than three of its members to serve as an audit committee. However, there is a conflict within the charter at 11.01. Uh council members serving on committees. It says council members are prohibited from appointing themselves to any committee or board even if permitted under state law. So since there is a conflict and we still want to stay compliant with the charter, what I would like if legal is okay with this is that each member of the council appoint one member of the community and we then present to that audit committee and then we come back at a later date when the audit is finalized and prepared and we do the final uh reading of that audit report to you and you file and accept at that point. That would be the entire council which would include me as well.

I don't remember I don't know if the attorney is. Yes. So this is odd, right? That you have the most recent section of the charter says that you shall not appoint any yourselves basically to any committee, but you have a specific section in the charter that says you're going to appoint at least three of yourselves um to the to the uh to that committee. I'm not opposed to the proposal that's on the table. Um I mean the audit's basically going to come back to you ultimately anyway, right? This is just going to be a recommending committee anyway. Correct. I have a question.

So, Mr. Monos, I just want to know I would like maybe a more detailed or planned out before I make a recommendation of anyone to serve on this committee. Um, just so that they know what's expected of them. So if we have like a plan in place that I could share um you know before we before I appoint anyone anyway. Sure.

At this point based on your recommendation I would say we take no action on the side. Okay Mr. Moz you would still need to comply with 103 and Senate Bill 1851. So that audit report will need to begin by the 27th of this month. We're working with the auditors to meet that. We understand and I was discussing earlier with with legal on that. Um they according to our auditors there are legal suits that are pending that are being filed and there is questions as to does that apply to this year or to the next year.

Correct. But I don't want to take any chances and it's recommended that we submit and it come back to council afterwards to sure that we meet the deadline because the AG can come after us if we don't meet that. Yeah, the auditor is aware and we're making every effort to make that deadline anyway. Thank you. Okay, then we'll just have Mayor check. Mayor, um can you check with Councilwoman Francis if she would like to postpone this item or what is your preference based off of your comment? I would like to postpone it for the next meeting. Is that going to be ample time? Does that have anything to do with your deadline?

The deadline is the 27th, which is Friday. It's about the day after our meeting. We can it can be submitted by the city before it comes to council. Okay. And if you come back, we can go ahead.

Yeah. Yeah. if we can just postpone it to the next council meeting with the recommendations.

Mayor, I would like some clarification. Um, so does that mean that you are going to be ready to appoint at the next meeting or do you want him to bring the clarifications at the next meeting? I mean, preferably I would like for the clarifications at the next meeting. that we would appoint at the April meeting. Right. Got it. Is that okay? How many with that? We're fine with whatever direction. All right. So that's

so mayor I'll make a motion uh for I guess clarification or recommendations based on what we talked about a plan what the expectations are and preferably a timeline for the audit review committee. for fiscal year 2024- 2025 to read the whole thing.

I'm sorry. Can we ask if we need to amend this one or to what you are saying? Sorry. Can you give us a recommendation? to amend this motion or uh was I understood that you were making a motion for to clarify and establish a timeline in connection with the audit review committee. And is that correct? Yes. I think that's an acceptable uh motion with the item that's been put on the agenda.

Okay. Thank you. No, that's a motion. Do I have a second? All in favor or motion passes. Item F, discussion and possible action to award a contract construction company for this station and force main improvements at 665 Newsville, Texas in an amount not to exceed 257,914.

Yes. Good evening. So on January 21st, we opened bids for the blue bonnet list station. Um we did have six bids they did um the one that they are recommending is for 257,000. Um it is well below our CIP budget. In your packet you do have the recommendation from 6S Engineering. They did um check references that the vendor that won the bid. They also um in your packet I don't know if the bid tabulation is in there as well. Yes.

Thank you. Do you have any questions? Um this does coincide with the grant that we have for the sewer lines to the station for the annexation. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Have a question before we make the motion. discussion. Yes. Um you Cindy, you mentioned that they checked references. How many references does it say in this letter or on the tabulation? Just out of curiosity. Three references.

Each had three references. Okay. Mayor, I'll make a motion for to award a contract to Mercer Construction Company for the list station enforcing improvements at 665 to the Bonnet, Floresville, Texas in the amount not to exceed 2 $57,914.

Motion made by council. We have a second by all in favor G. consideration and take possible action to approve resolution 2026-012 of the city council of the city council of the city of for authorizing participation of the Texas multiple multiple I'm sorry Texas multiple award schedule purchasing program and authorizing the city manager to exe execute all related documents finance. Yes. So, um text mass it's a procurement program through the comproller statewide procurement division. Um it's government governing uh government contracting tool that helps streamline how state and local governments entities buy goods and services. If you have any questions about motion sot to approve city work by council second

by minutes. All in favor zero. H consideration and take possible action to approve resolution by the city of Texas suspending the April 18, 2026 effective date of the proposal by Centerpoint Energy Resources, Centerpoint Energy Index and Centerpoint Emergence Energy Texas Gas Houston, Texas coast, South Texas and Vermont East Texas. geographic rate areas to implement interm rate adjustments to gas utilities investments in 2025 and requiring delivery of this resolution to the company and legal council finance director. We received notification from centerpoint that they will be increasing their rates. They did um give us a resolution that if passed, it would suspend those rates from increasing 45 days. So um my recommendation is to pass this resolution to give an additional 45 days before rates would go up to the customers. Um, currently they're saying that rates for residential customers are going to go up $247 per month. And then, um, so they'd be looking at a bill from $22.36 to $24.83 per month. And then for general small service, it would go up $418 a month. Um if this is not um passed then they would be effective April 18th.

Just out of curiosity Cindy what are the the rate increases for our surrounding areas for center point? I would know for surrounding areas. Yes. I'm Okay, go ahead. I work for Center Point. They're the same across all the cities that we operate. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? I'm sorry.

I need a motion for this. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-013. I'll second. Thank you. considerations and take possible action authorizing the insurance of request for statements of qualifications for qualified law firms or attorneys to provide legal services to the city of Thorville. The selected firm or attorney will be expected to provide general municipal legal counsel including but not limited to drafting and reviewing ordinances, resolutions, municipal zoning and contracts. advising on compliance and applicable laws, representing the city of Floro and legal proceedings, and providing the legal services as request mayor and council. Uh, as we begin the budget process, we are reviewing u contracts that have expired, are expiring, about to expire, uh, or that are monthtomonth right now. And so over the next couple of meetings, we'll be bringing these to you for guidance as well as how you would like to continue or to go offer qualifications or professional services for these items. Uh right now, you do have legal services. Uh that is uh an contract. If you prefer to go out for qualifications, uh we're here to do that for you. You also have the option to directly negotiate with your current uh legal firm. Uh based on the time that you've

been here, you can consider that as a qualification. If not, you can go out and qualifications, they can also submit qualifications for this. It is not part of a competitive bid process, but for transparency purposes, when you go out for qualifications on a professional service, you want to be able to show that you're getting the best service at the best rate possible. Um but the way it is right now since she is uh her firm is under a month-to-month agreement with the council, you can consider her experience today as a qualification and begin negotiations to finalize the contract or you can go out and solicit. So we're looking for your benefits and this would only apply to the city. Uh the 4B corporation has legal services and 4A is also has their own legal services. So this would only pertain to the city of questions.

Okay. Do I have a motion?

Okay. I'll make a comment if I may motion. Um thank you for for that explanation, Mr. William. I have a preference of month-to-month services for legal. Um I believe we were in a contractual service with another firm years ago and that was not um handled correctly as far as bookkeeping goes and invoicing and so forth. And I don't want us to fall into that same habit. So I would like for us to remain on a monthto month. This is my opinion and quite frankly I have um you know the firm that we are using right now has had very short time to be with us. Um she is representing us on all general um issues with the city but also um litigation as well. So she does offer that extra expertise of having litigation as well as being general counsel. So I have no issues with our current firm. May I Mayor Mans? Um, so our contract that we provided, as you know, we came in as interim city attorney to after your previous city attorney resigned. Um, and we followed the same rate structure that the previous city attorney had, which is aligned with our race structure as well. But all of our engagements are set up this way so that Um I mean you may consider them monthtomonth but we view that as we provide services to you and you if you are unhappy with us you give us 30 days notice or if for some reason we feel that it's not a good fit for us then we would give you 30 days notice and even

then we would still work with you. So, uh, I appreciate the city manager's perspective that it's monthtomonth, but this is really meant to be, uh, an ongoing opportunity that if a city changes its mind, if the council changes its mind, it can give us 30 days notice, go up for proposals, do whatever it chooses to do. And so, I would just disagree a little bit with that. We would we I cannot think of an occasion in which we have ever gone into something that made you keep us say a year or longer or something like that. That's just not how we see our relationship or how we do business. So,

oh, I was just going to remind the council if I mean the way we go with this um it does become increasingly difficult for us to be able to budget accordingly versus a a contract where we have a base and additional fee structures so that way we can then uh budget appropriately. We're going to basically go with an average of what's been in the past. Uh, a lot of the stuff we're going to have to tweak because there were things that we asked in the past that will already been taken care of. So, that that number may come down. But, I mean, if you choose to do this, that's fine. We'll just do an average for the budget and then there may be a potential budget amendment mid year. So, it just makes it a little bit cleaner if we had an agreement in place with a fee structure. I agree with you, Mr. Leas. Um, that is, you know, I I agree. Since I've been in here, um, this is our second attorney. I get that, but it was, I was under the the assumption that it's kind of monthtomonth, which means very temporary. So, I'd like to see what is out there. I'd like to see if there's anything um, you know, kind of to your point, um, you know, that we can use for our budget, something a little bit more stable. Um, again, I know that completing a contract or what have you, there's usually clauses put in place to do so. So, mayor, I'd like to make a motion for consideration and take possible action authorizing the issuance of a request for statements of qualifications from qualified law firms or attorneys to provide legal services to the city of Forest.

All right. Do I motion made by Miss Doris? Do I have a second?

Second by Mr. All in favor? All against. Motion passes two four one against. Moving on to item um eight. consideration and take possible action authorizing the insurance of a request for statement of qualifications from qualified law firms are collect collection agencies to provide professional services for the collection of delicious property taxes included but not including but not limited to foreclosure proceedings installments agreements and related legal actions in accordance with applicable laws and regulations City Manager.

Thank you, mayor. Members of the council, this one's a little bit different for us. Again, this is we have a potential expiring agreement with the county. The county does do our collection of our Adalorum taxes. We do have an expiring agreement with them. Currently, they do use Limeburger to do their collections. Uh we did have conversations with them. They are interested in continuing that relationship. uh staff does not have issue with that relationship. It's just that for again for budgeting purposes so that everything is transparent and open that we be allowed to negotiate that agreement or extend that agreement and bring that to you for legal to review as well as for us to continue that relationship with the county for our lower tax collections or you have the option to bring it in house and that's why we present the uh the option to you tonight to offer qualifications if you do choose to bring it in house. Uh we do have representation here from the county if you'd like to ask any questions to them as well.

Go ahead. I have a question for you, Mr. Moz. Since um you're saying that we have a relationship with the county and the county is the one that actually has it. Is it cost effective for us versus having an attorney in house? It actually is very cost effective to us because they uh pay for a lot of the attorney fees that are not applicable to us in the collection. So there is a cost savings to the city. Uh so our recommendation is that we continue with them. But again, this is your option. Uh and we're just looking to see what direction you want us to go for the future budgeting purposes of this. But staff would recommend that we uh enter and continue agreement with the county for the collection of abnormal taxes.

Mayor, if I may, um I would actually like to hear from our tax assessor um to talk about this contract that you said that is about to expire. Excuse me. Is it expired or about to expire? I believe we go ahead. Oh, it's about to expire.

I'm Don Barnett, the tax assessor collector for the county and of course I collect your property taxes as well. Yes, the um contract that we just renewed in 2024 um automatically renews annually. So, um, if you are not wanting my office to collect your property taxes anymore, um, you'd have to notify me by June 1st. But we do have a great working relationship with y'all, and I I I see no reason to, um, discontinue this. Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay. So, uh, do we do I have a motion? Mayor, I move to take no action on this item. Second. I'll second that. Mayor, all in favor motion passes three against. Moving on to discussion and possible action. insurance for qualification. And so that would mean it would just continue. We're not correct. Correct.

Discussion of possible action authorizing insurance for qualified to submit statements of qualifications for professional on call services as required under the Texas local government chapter 2254 professional and consulting services for yet not limited to service. Go ahead. Oh, uh, mayor, members of the council, uh, we do not have an agreement in place for a firm to represent the city's interest in terms of engineering, um, services. Right now, we do uh, solicit all engineering firms by project by project. What we're proposing is to solicit a uh request for qualifications for engineering firms to conduct and basically be our engineering team as items come up as as subdivisions come up, questions regarding drainage, street improvements, um things of that nature. We have a firm on call that we can directly deal with those individuals for this type of stuff. items would be excluded in terms of the registered accessibility specialist, construction material testing test. Typically those are third party but this firm would be selected. They would work as part of our planning team to do PLA reviews, subdivision reviews, uh any type of testing that we need or any small project, they would be on call to do that for us and they would represent us as the official engineering firm for the city of staff recommends that we go out for qualifications. Do I have a motion?

May I have a question?

Um, with this item that the way it's listed, I I'm going to need more clarification, Mr. Mo, because you mentioned one type of engineering, but you have several different kinds listed on here and projects to include, but not limited to all these different projects. And so my preference would be to have it listed how you had the first two items that were specific to that firm or that specific project to go out for bid knowing that that's what it's going to be for. So if you're saying it's an engineering company and it's going to cover this, this, this, and this as opposed to all of these different areas that are listed on here.

Sure. The difficulty with that is that we don't know what the need of the city is going to be as developers come up, as items come up before the city in terms of projects. So, we would have to do with what we're doing right now, take that course and it would create uh time constraints for us, especially for planning and zoning. Uh since they are once something's submitted, they are up against the wall in terms of a deadline for getting things approved. What we're asking for here is a firm to essentially act as an engine department for the city to expedite a lot of these reviews and a lot of these projects. They themselves will not undertake the projects, but they would work with us and determining the scope of work, doing the bidding uh information for us and review and working with developers and our planning team to make sure that our interests are preserved, especially as we're going with the new comprehensive plan. We are working on a citywide drainage plan. We're working on uh land plans, uh subdivision ordinance and those things of that nature.

Yeah, I understand. I I still would like to see those listed out. And then my next question would be, you know, what is that going to do with other plans that you have said that you wanted to bring forward to council? I'm not that we can't really discuss right now. Okay. Uh yeah, I mean we can do that. It's going to be an exhaustive list, but again we would put the caveat in there that it is not exhaustive of all other items performed. And I don't want to limit us in terms of saying this firm can only do this, this this is and this for the city,

right? No, I I also don't want you to get bids for firms that are a catchall if that's not what you're looking for either. Oh, actually, Mr. Are you looking to attain is the idea is to get one firm um and they would do all of these things or is it the idea is to get maybe two firms?

Typically under this what you do is you do a what they call a master agreement that allows them to serve um several functions for you for a municipality and then as you need them you use them as items present themselves. uh other items for like construction material testing, you do a rotation list. Uh you do different types of testings, asbestos or uh accessibility standards, you create a rotation list. You can do that as well. But typically for this to serve as your engineering department, it would just be one firm that you would qualify to serve in your best interest for engineering purposes. Okay, got it.

I really like this idea. I I want to make a statement as well. Um this is prior to him being here permits development. They have I don't I wouldn't say interview but they have met with several engineers because they are having issues with being reviewed. Um who can they go to? So I mean he's not here not here but something

and we're and we're not consistent with the review. I mean every engineering firm is going to give you their perspective uh and based off their interpretation of what we have in terms of ordinances and policies and so that's why we have a lot of the variances that we do and I don't even know like an actual variance but the differences of how our infrastructures are being built right now we don't have that one voice that we can go to that's going to be consistent to serve as a best interest for the city we're looking to consolidate all that okay or if you like we can hire an engineer but We have the money to do that. Do I have a motion for this?

Mayor, I'll make a a motion authorizing issuance for qualified firms to submit statements of qualifications for professional on call services as required under the Texas local government code of chapter 2254 professional and consulting services. Do I have a second?

Motion made by Miss Zero again. I mean one against Moving on to it. consideration and take possible action to authorize the insurance of a request for proposal to access, repair, upgrade, and construct a single parking lot and adjacent drainage retaining wall drainage system.

Good evening, mayor and members of the council. We did consult with an engineering firm in the past to do the repair of the kind of the breakdown of the asphalt in the back of the parking lot as well as the drainage of the the parking lot moving towards that little ditch creek area. Um it was our opinion that the price exceeded over 50,000 which means we have to go out uh for proposals on this. Uh, also it was our opinion that it was overd designed because they wanted to do hydrarology and hydraulic studies on this and it's only one block. We thought that was excessive. We also wanted to look at rather than just doing the parking lot itself uh in terms of overall drainage, we want to be able to put inlets to a drainage retention wall. So that way if uh the water because it goes from the street back towards So you have some ponding over here on the southeast corner uh but you don't really have inlets. you have the the concrete barricades that are there and water flows through there. So, we don't have sufficient uh access or inlets and that's what's really causing the deterioration. It's not that it's flowing east or west. It's that the flow is coming the sheet flowing from the curb to the back and it's collecting in one area which is calling it's causing the failure and eventual erosion. So what we'd like to do is we'd like to look at the pin points and the elevation of the parking lot to get a actual correct flow of water, create the inlet, and create a retention wall. So that way we would no longer have to deal with erosion of that area in terms of the scope of work. Uh but again, you know, that hole in the back parking lot's getting bigger and it's becoming much more of an obstacle to get around. And so we'd like to go ahead and address that. Again, we did consult with an engineer before. His cost estimate was just 60,000 which requires to get proposals anyway which is why we're here tonight.

Thank you. Is that just for that immediate area? No, that would be for the entire parking lot for us to work on and and redo the the drainage flow that because we have an erosion problem that go down, right? We we'll look at that. definitely included that as part of support. Thank you. Do I have a motion or do I have discussion on this?

I do have a maybe a comment question. Christ, you said the threshold is 50, but I believe statute moved it up to 100,000 as the threshold. So if I don't know if legal can make a recommendation on whether or not we can adopt that to say that we want to you know give that I believe I misspoke. I believe our threshold was 25,000 based off of the charter. That's correct. Okay. Okay. I miss correct. I was thinking about the statute from the last update.

Motion to authorizations. Do I have a second? A second.

Motion made by Second by favor consideration and take possible action to approve foundation amount not to exceed 30,000 for the city general fund and for hotel uh motion tax fund for the 48 economic development corporation for expenses related to the city's fourth of July celebrationcl included including but not limited to entertainment, marketing, and event corporations.

Good evening, mayor and members of the council. Uh we're requesting to participate with the 48 corporations 4th of July celebration. We would like to use a combination of the city's general fund and the hotel occupancy tax to be able to pay for this. We'd like to do a much bigger function for this Fourth of July than what we've done in the past. We've already begun coordinating with uh outside agencies to help with this. We're also looking for additional sponsorships from the community and local businesses. Um we think it's a great idea. We want to be supportive of the for corporation and their efforts and I know they also have another request going before FPC. Um I think this is a great event. I think it's something that we can come together as a community to do and I think it's just a small part of what we can do to to help this uh effort. his approval questions.

Mayor, I have a question

or and a comment actually. Um, have you um Thank you for including, you know, the um sponsorship information. I think it's important that we can get as much sponsorship as we can from community members, even people outside of the community that may come to Forestville for our event. I would like you to consider having a conversation with the mayor of Gonzalez. He has told me about their celebrations that they had for the holiday and last Fourth of July. They used drones and that significantly reduced the cost of expenses versus fireworks. They used drones instead of using fireworks. So maybe a conversation about that that could be some cost savings and also be something actually kind of neat um something new for our city. and I can send you this information.

Please, I believe we'reing a motion. Mayor, I'll make a motion for consideration and take possible and take action to approve funding in an amount not to exceed 30,000 from the city's general fund andor hotel motel tax fund where the 4A economic development for expenses related to the city's Fourth of July celebration. Second favor motion passes.

Thank you. It is consideration and take action on the purchase by the city of 021 acre traffic land from in in accordance with the purchase of between the execution of a special and other documents by Mayor. Uh good evening mayor and council. This matter um was discussed with you in executive session and there was a motion that was made in open session following it. Um but it it was a very general motion because it related to real estate. Um the city needed to acquire a very small percentage of land uh 0.021 acre tract of land um in order to construct its lift station. Uh and so um with the instruction from and direction from council um the with city management, we were able to negotiate a uh purchase and sale of that agreement, the agreement for that to for the city to acquire it uh for $2,500. and that has been documented and uh mayor has signed the documents. But in order for the title policy to be issued for the benefit of the city, uh we need um a more formal uh minutes in item in the minutes for you for the title company to issue that policy. So that's why this is before you.

Thank you. 33.

I'll second by person by person. All in favor. Thank you everyone.