City Council - Regular Meeting

all right we're going to call this regular City Council meeting of July 8th 2026 uh to order at 601 p.m we will start with our moment of silence things right if you're willing and able All right, we'll proceed into our pledges.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, with honor and justice for all, and with liberty and justice for all, one state under God, one and indivisible,

Thank you all. We'll do our roll call to establish a quorum.

Council Member Crystal Richardson. Council Member Chris Carver.

Chris.

Aye.

Council Member Lennox.

Aye.

Council Member Linda Swenford. Aye. Mayor Portillo-Frasco. Aye. Mayor DeRozan. Aye.

move into our proclamations uh i haven't noticed that council member richard's friend around this issue um you're right this is my novel phone We'll move into our proclamations and presentations. July 2026 is National Park and Recreation Month in the City of Whitley. Please note that we have several parks in this city. Please make an attempt to go out and enjoy them when you can. We have Aggressive Park, which is where the two Aggressive meet near Brook Mill. We have Creekside Park, which is a playground. We have the Triangle Park, where we have our gazebo. And we have Veterans Memorial Plaza, which is at the entrance with the mallets. We will move into our public comment portion of the meeting. Please remember the rules. We do not allow profanity, personal attacks, or threats. You will have three minutes to speak. We will start with the in-person comments. And we do have one written comment. Our city secretary will be reading our written comments from now on. Okay, perfect. we will be timing the written public comment in order to make sure we can read at a pace where people can understand. If you don't mind, I'm going to take a moment to make a note about that during that item. All right, first on the public comment list, we have Ms. Stewart. Hello.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hello, I'm kind of soft-spoken. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. Hi. My subject tonight is reinstating a budget item funding for speed cushions on the east end of Wood Creek Drive. Dear Council, I'm writing to urge you to reinstate budget funding for speed cushions on the east end of Wood Creek Drive, slowing down traffic in this area with public safety necessity. Two specific locations require traffic calming to prevent accidents. Near 16 Wood Creek Drive, there's a blind curb. It severely restricts visibility when vehicles are backing out of the driveways down near 7 Wood Creek Drive, which is where I live. Incident-bound speeding cars appear without warning, causing numerous close calls. Installing cushions near 16 Wood Creek by upstream from there will force drivers to slow down before this blind curb. And then near 5 Wood Creek Drive, which is the golf course spot, The golf cart crossing here is dangerous. Carts must navigate it like an L-shaped path that's keeping them in the roadway longer. Further more heavy shade makes the carts difficult to see during the day. Speed cushions before this crossing, like going eastbound, are essential to slow oncoming traffic down so drivers can save the gear. I feel like we can kind of do it two for one there because sometimes it's hard to see the carts crossing. Uh, investing in speed cushions is a proactively low cost measure to protect residents, drivers, and golfers alike. Thank you for prioritizing our community's safety. Yeah.

Yes, on our list we have Ms. Little.

Ms. Jane, welcome.

Thank you. Uh, first of all, my thanks to the Council Our mayor and our staff who worked so hard to make Wood Creek a very special place to live. I have been in Wood Creek 22 years and I must say they've been the greatest years of my life. Wood Creek was just not all retired golfers. It's changed. Our demographics have changed. All the empty lofts. i'm gone most of all we're a glowing city where people want to live families young families and i had two of the cutest ones you've ever seen but and i think of them but i think uh the reason we're here tonight and that's asking you to please reinstate funding for the i like to call them traffic calming thoughts the reason being We have a busy road line, Whitley Drive being one of the nine streets in Whitley. And people sometimes are speeding. I don't know if they're just passing through or they actually live here, but the speed cushions would really be a thing. It was near my home at 16 Wood Creek Drive and then probably near where Diane and Michael live. And if people who are entering Wood Creek, whether they're villagers or residents, when they see that, they know that this is a community that prioritizes safety for its citizens, its squirrels, its little farms. I'm more cognizant of that because, if you know me, I still love to mow. I still love to pull weeds where they're in my yard or benefit entry, and so I see a lot of fast-moving traffic, and I would really, really appreciate if you would reconsider the funding and add funding for additional speakers on the free time. Thank you so much. I'd also like to resubmit a petition that was actually submitted last year, but almost everyone who lives from the beginning of Wood Creek up to where I think Brent lives and is in favor of. Thank you so much.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you. All right, next up we have Mr. Hayes.

Good evening, elected officials of Wood Creek and the citizens of Wood Creek. My name is Richard Hayes. I live at 12 Wood Creek Drive. And I am begging y'all to reinstate the money for these speed bumps. I want to point out a few things that maybe have been overlooked. On the weekends, we have a lot of golf course traffic. I understand we have a sign posted that says 25 mile an hour radar enforced. It's not being enforced very well from what I see. I've been tasked Backing out with my driveway and starting forward towards 12. Numerous times by carps. And I'm asking y'all to please. Rethink this because somebody is going to get hurt. And I do not want to see that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next up we have Mr. Pulley.

Yes, my name is Greg Foley. I want to thank you guys again for all the hard work you do up here on the council, you know, representing our community. And that being said, I'm concerned with the idea of this budget. You know, this is something that we thought was kind of a done deal. It's page three. We've been told it's coming. And we thought, okay. And for some reason, that thing got pulled. but I think it's clear that we really, really need that speed cushion there. We really want you to put that back in a budget if you can. You know, one of the things that's really dangerous for whatever strip, you know, I do a lot of walking through here. You can't tell it from this big belly. But I do a lot of walking through there. That is one of the most dangerous stretches for me. When I come through on a cycle, I'm like, I got to be super careful because this is, if I'm going to get it, this is going to be that little stretch of area that I'm going get hurt and it's i don't know what it is about it but it just is people are going fast trying to get to the highway they forget that we're a neighborhood you've got families walking in that area you've got kids on bikes you've got problem mental bicycles you've got uh you know a neighborhood that's trying to enjoy their neighborhood and i think it's critical We're relying upon that. We thought we had a process that we worked through for years, Chris and some of the others that I served with on the council. And I thought we had that in place. I thought we were okay. So I'd like you to rethink that and reinstate that speed cushion. And I think the way to do it is just bring it back as a regular agenda item and then do it as a budget amendment. Don't work back again. You have to fulfill that promise that you made to. been so we have been one discussion we've worked with engineers we've worked with a ton of people these folks as well as people who couldn't be here today all behind us and they're behind you and we want to get that back in the budget so please do what you got to do to make that happen sooner than later again thank you so much and good work thanks thank you sir all right i believe that concludes our public comment period

uh we will move into our consent agenda do you have a motion to approve we have a motion to approve the consent agenda seconded by council member bailey made by you know jim roscoe all in favor please raise your hand and say aye unanimous consent agenda passes We'll move into the reports. Our city administrator is out of town, but I'm going to call and zoom in with us. Sorry, we don't want to go. Thank you so much. Y'all have a great night. Can y'all hear me?

Yeah. Okay. I'm just going to be real quick. You know, the sheriff's report, he's been active. You got several tickets. As you notice, there's a, he's after the e-bikes, so he's keeping an eye out for that. And hopefully that'll come to a head at some point. Code enforcement, we had a pretty good busy month of June. We had 11 vegetation, dangerous growth. Most of them were empty lots, but those have all but two have been, as of last week, all but two of them were open or all but two of them were resolved. We had seven trailers. One was left unresolved. We had one trash, you know, junk accumulation that's been taken care of. And then also there was an open burning note that we sent out, and that's been resolved. Engineering update. The Wood Creek private drive reconstruction, the bids are in CivCast, and they're out for bids. They're due on July 29th. They're targeting the August 12th council meeting for the bid award with construction anticipated in September. Drainage site for the Westwood Brook Hollow, they just got their approved task order in and they're working on. Next Tuesday, we have the next steps, which is just kind of a coordination of all that needs to happen with the location and easement with the full set of preliminary plans due around October. Also, I've talked with the golf course contractor that's redoing the cart pass. We're going to work together with him on the cart path that's in that area as well. So that's going pretty well. And then city hall updates is pretty quiet. The main thing is we've had a bunch of tree trimming and, um, removal permits since June 1st or July 1st, July, June 1st. Anyways, we've, we've been busy. So, uh, that's about it. Pretty short and sweet.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda, we move into our regular agenda. Um, it's the item. Cora Bennett , Concerning our audit and financial statements we're going to start with a presentation on this and then we'll go with emotion, so I believe. Cora Bennett , Online with us now. Cora Bennett , What. Cora Bennett , We will be able to project that and have them online that's why I was asking if you were using that would be. And by the way, the microphones are not hot yet, so y'all don't have to speak into them. No, everyone, so in your packet is the full report on your desk or sorry, in your full audit on your desk is the report portion only. We received this after the agenda was posted fairly recently, actually. And then additionally, council members on your desk, at least four of you had a letter that you needed to fill out and send to them. So if you could make sure to do that before you leave tonight so we can get back to them. That's something we were delinquent on. Okay, Jeremy, whenever you're ready, we're going to start with your presentation and if we could let him finish speaking before we start asking questions and then we can move into the question portion after we have a motion on the table.

I appreciate that. Can everyone hear me?

All right.

Yes.

Okay, cool. Thanks mayor and thanks council for having me here today and allowing me to join remote. It's kind of a last minute thing. I just had something come up that I couldn't afford the commute time from San Antonio, but I appreciate the flexibility and the capabilities that the council has to let me remote in. Um, so everyone got the thick bound document. Um, it's basically your financial statements for the city of wood creek for the fiscal year end of September 30th, 2025. I'll cover a very high level of the financial highlights that I feel are worth mentioning, but I'm happy to go over any details. So, again, if there's any questions, I'll dive in as much as y'all want to go over. Starting on page 1, a few pages in. is our independent auditors report. I do want to mention this is a draft. There still can be changes if there needs to be, but it's in draft mode until council accepts the audit. So once council accepts the audit, we can go ahead and finalize it and provide it to Jim and he can distribute however he needs to. So, again, starting on page 1 is our independent auditor's report. This is actually only 2 or 3 pages that belongs to us. The independent auditors basically states what we're engaged to do. 1st paragraph is the most important and that's our opinion. We did audit the company financial statements for the governmental activities, each major fund and aggregate remaining fund information for the city of wood creek for the fiscal year end of September 30th, 2025. We find the financial statements as presented are in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. That's the highest opinion you can get from an independent accounting firm. Basically states there's no modifying statements or departures from GAAP in the statements you have in front of you. So it's a clean opinion. The basis for our opinion is basically stating that we gathered evidence in accordance with our auditing standards required, and those are the generally accepted auditing standards of the United States. Those are the standards we followed to do our audit. We did have a change in accounting principle that was required for the fiscal year, and it's called GASB statement number 101 over a compensated abscess. That change has been implemented in your financial statements. That was needed to comply with US generally accepted accounting principles. The next few pages is basically more border plate language on who's responsible for these financial statements and that's management of the city. Our responsibilities is just to issue an opinion and gather evidence in accordance with our standards. Going through the report on page 17 is our balance sheet over the governmental funds. These are the funds that the city manages on a month to month basis and Jim manages on a day to day basis. But there's major funds that are more highly active and then there's other governmental funds. We have a back schedule that still presents all the non-major funds, but we aggregate them in a single column here on page 17. So your major funds for the fiscal year were the general fund, the debt service fund, the capital projects fund, and the new drainage fund. Previously, we had the ARP fund, but through discussions with management, we had to rename that to the drainage fund. Your total assets for the fiscal year was 1.1 million in the general fund. Of that, 995,000 is embedded in your cash and investments at Texas Class and your local bank. Your overall fund balance for the general fund was 1.1M. 276,000 of that was assigned for capital projects and the remaining 832 is unassigned for ongoing city operations. I will say that 832 amounts to about 15 months of operating reserves. So it's a very healthy fund balance for the general fund. The rest of the major funds, I'll highlight their ending fund balance for the fiscal year, and it's pretty comparable to the cash balance. So again, very liquid health for each of the funds presented here. Total fund balance for the debt service fund was $89,000, and that's restricted for debt service requirements on your new note, or I'm sorry, your new tax bond. Capital projects fund is 518,000 and that's restricted for capital projects in accordance with your bond proceeds. And then your drainage fund is assigned based off y'all's ARP funding for future drainage projects. And that was 471,000. And that includes not only the corpus of the ARP funds, but also interest earned on that sitting in the Texas class. So it amounts to 471,000. Well, pages on page 19 is our income statement for the governmental funds. I'll just cover the general funds. That's the most activity. It was in that 1, our total revenues for the general fund was 885,000 of that roughly 750,000 of that is in taxes. So it's either property taxes, your heavy, heavy revenue source and then you also get some sales and franchise taxes. Total operating expenditures was 642, and that was all in the general government of the general fund. Overall, we did increase our general fund fund balance by 170,000. Again, good year for the general fund. Debt service did have a net increase of 70,000. Our capital projects dipped about 431, and that was due to some completed or some ongoing construction projects that the capital projects fund was funding. And then our drainage funds increased by 20,000, and that's all the interest earned during the year. The rest of the bound document is more detail notes to the financial statements. It gives a little more descriptive language on the balances themselves. I wasn't going to highlight any of those unless there was one that caught y'all's eye and I can go into further detail on those if you'd like.

Does this include your presentation portion?

For the bound document, yes. Do you want me to go into the report that was handed out today?

Yeah, do you mind and then we'll just then we'll do the item and then we can open up some questions.

Sure, so the item that was passed out to you earlier today again, sorry, that wasn't included in your bond pack or your board packet to look at beforehand, but I'll cover I'll cover the highlights of this. And if there's any questions, I'll happy to answer them. Um, so this is our required communication with those, um, charging governance or the city council of the city of wood creek basically states how the audit went. Um, there was again a new accounting policy adopted. I'm starting on page 1 of the document. There was a new accounting standard implemented. That was GASB number 101, again, on Calps and Adamses. There's some estimates embedded in the financial statements. We evaluate those and managements estimates, and they're comparable consistent with the years prior. No huge changes there. There was some difficulties encountered in performing the audit and that was just getting the trial balance timely. As you know, we did miss the March 31st mandated state deadline. And so that was the difficulties, the only difficulties in performing the audit, which is getting the trial balance and getting the audit started timely. There were some corrected misstatements. There were no uncorrected misstatements in the financials. Management has made all the audit adjustments, which amounted to about 20 journal entries in the fiscal year. And I've attached those towards the back end of the letter here. We didn't have any disagreements with management, or if we did, we would have to disclose that to you. Management has provided us everything we needed to conduct our audit. And then y'all did comply with the Public Funds Investment Act. And that's basically making sure that you're up to date on your investment policy, your investment officers are getting their training that they need and comply with that Investment Act. And then you're not investing anything that's not allowed in the Investment Act. On page three is kind of the highlight of this letter, and that's our material weaknesses. These didn't change from the prior year when we came to you in December of last year. There was some issues with the bank reconciliations again this year, and just getting those timely done. So we just recommend that the bank recs get more timely managed. And we think that with the new bookkeeper, that that process is already in place. But during the year, it wasn't in place. And that's why it warranted the comment here. Also reconciliation of accounts. Again, we had 20 journal entries over the city's fund statements. And so having the city reconcile those on a monthly basis or a more periodic basis would give you a true picture of the financial position of the city. So getting those fixed up and getting the bookkeeper to manage those reconciliations would go a long way. And that's all I have for the, for the audit presentation. I'll take any questions you have on anything I discuss or the audit process in general.

Do we have a motion on the table for item number 1 on the regular agenda?

I move that we accept the audited or receive just acceptable whether we accept the audited basic financial statement and supplemental schedules and independent in order to report by abip pc for fiscal year ended september 30.23 second motion made by mayor curtain roscoe and seconded by council member richardson as stated in the packet to accept the audit do we have any questions or comments at this time

Is there?

Yes. I have several. Could you look at page 9 for me?

Sure.

Which part? The one in the packet? The valid one you have?

The one that has any agenda. Not this new one. I'm going to do that. Some of these are just maybe there because some of the other things I haven't done. But on the note, it says revenues total 1.448, which is an increase of 18%. You can look at one of above 1.448 compared to 1.408, and that's not 18%. It's actually 2.9%. And so that note actually came over from the 2024 audit. So 2024 audit, it was an 18% difference increase, but it's not 18% here. Okay.

Yeah, I agree. That number should be 2.8%. Yes.

Yeah. Okay. So the same note, it says there's 52,000 or just the next note, which is a decrease, 52,000. It's due to reduced professional services. That line is directly from 2024 audit, but those fees were actually, the professional fees were $41,000 higher, actual to actual. And so I think some of these notes need to be adjusted to what actually happened. Some of them weren't adjusted from the prior year. Okay, on page 10, this says, second paragraph, it says general fund was $832,000 out of the total of 1.1. On the prior year, It says the general fund was $377,000. Later on, it goes on to say that in paragraph three, the GO bond, series 2023, was $89,000 for debt service and a remaining balance of $832,000 unassigned. But in 2024, That remaining balance was said to be $377,000. So that is a $454,000 change. And so sometimes you'd think a fund would go down, but this is going up. Now there's a number that keeps popping up. It's $426,000. That is an adjustment. And this may be what's going on. Now that's on page 43.

Can I address your number 10 real quick?

Yes.

Okay. Okay. So that third paragraph, the 832. So this is just described, that's the amount that's unassigned for future use. So that directly ties to page, I think it's 17. So you can see the components of your fund balance. You have some that are committed, assigned, restricted, and unassigned. If you look at the far right column, it's just summarizing those in that paragraph. So that 832 was related to what was the fund balance for future use at the end of 2025. And I think the difference that you're mentioning, the $450,000, that was because we had a prior period adjustment related to the ARP funds that you mentioned, the $426,000. Those were the ARP funds that weren't realized, and we realized them in the current year.

Can you explain? Because there's also a place that's called unearned or deferred. what you're talking about there. Okay, so when the prior audit says it was $377,000, that was just... That did not include the unearned revenue of $426,000 that was in the ARP fund.

Okay, so yeah, and so we realize that revenue in the current year. Well, I guess it was a prior period adjustment, so we realized it in the prior year. It should have been, it should have been realized in the prior year. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. The next sentence general funds. Again, this is kind of a. lack of text being updated, it says the actual expenditures are $95,000 less. And that's due to salaries, general office expense, meaning court. But in actuality, salaries were down by, so this is $95,000. $3,500, office was over by $9,000, and meaning court was $5,000 budgeted. That's down $1,000. So what really happened there was the increase, the budget was higher by about $80,000 on a contract student's line. But the actual to actual was $41,000. So this might seem picky, but it's still an auditory reactor.

I got you. And you're referring to the general fund budgetary highlights, correct? That's where you're at?

General fund budgetary highlights.

Yeah, we worked with Jim on this to provide us information on what caused the difference in the actual versus budget. And so we'll have to re-look at that and give a better explanation on what caused the difference between actual and budget, final budget.

The same goes for the next line, 147,000 actual revenues. That really had to do with franchise fees, taxes, services, and some other income. And I just have one more main area to go over. Now, which page? On capital assets, let's just keep on page 10. It says that there's an increase of $533,000. But our revenue and expense report shows $459,000. which you know is probably more correct but how where do you find those uh capital improvement numbers and is there a place where it's it's summarized because yes okay yeah if you go to page um sorry it's in the footnotes if you go to page 31

So that $533,000, if you look at this table that shows your capital assets for governmental activities, if you look at the bottom where it says governmental activities, capital assets, common net, it's the difference between your increases and decreases. So the 802,426, which includes the actual cost of constructions and capital improvements, as well as less depreciation on your existing assets. And then the subtraction is through your disposal of assets and completion of your projects, which equals the 269,241. So the sum of those two or the net of those two is your 533,185.

but is there a place where they are identified? Let's say, okay, in our reports, we identify safety enhancement, we identify drainage. Is there anywhere in your report where it isolates? What has been the root?

I'm sorry, in my report, what is what?

Which items of what capital improvements?

No, no, no, we're not required in the in the section, which is your page 10 over capital assets. We can add some language in there to describe it. but it's not required to be presented. We do have a schedule that details out what your capital projects are and what each of these buckets on page 31 are, what land you have, what construction in progress, building improvements, machinery and equipment. We have details behind all that and what they're still being depreciated on. And that's just an Excel schedule, but we have the data behind it, but we're not required to disclose the details within the document.

it's up to management if they want to disclose some more information they can okay yeah um there's differentiation that was a question uh the new roads don't seem to be depreciated but there's something already about oh the modified approach where if you maintain the roads to kind of the condition when they were first built you don't have to do separate depreciation, but on those modifications, is that capitalized or expense?

It depends. I would say they're probably capitalized because they're extending the life of the asset of the road. But it just depends on each invoice. And we looked at every invoice.

Okay. And that's all the questions. Thank you. Okay.

So hopefully I answered them.

Yeah. Thank you. Councilmember Bailey. I have notes that we have on page nine and these two corrections to make. And then some possible corrections. I'm unclear on that. Under the general fund budgetary highlights that you just plan to get back with Jim again and verify that information. Yes, that's a good summary for you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A little bit of the description. Okay. Any other questions or concerns from other council members? I will open the floor to Jim, but before we do that, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that this was Jim's first fiscal year as the city manager in its entirety. And there was a pretty hefty return to reserves under his stewardship, and I'm personally very grateful for that. He managed our budget well. Of course, some of it was due to just other things outside of his control, but it's always rewarding to see the city administrator returns money to reserves rather than all of us collectively overspending. So I just wanted to highlight that. And then Jim, he is online. Jim, did you have anything to add or comment on this portion of the meeting?

No, I'm good. Just want to thank Jeremy and his team for all the hard work they did fighting through our issues, but they went pretty smooth and we're ready to move forward come October. Get on a normal schedule.

Yeah. And so one of the highlights again, Jeremy mentioned it this evening, but we do have a new accountant who works for us regularly. We struggled with two previous accountants. And so that is actually helping us kind of keep pace better. And then we will be ready to start our audit, as Jen just mentioned, in October as soon as this budget's closed. So we should be in good standing from now on moving forward. And we should be able to make that March deadline more regularly now.

What's the name of the account?

They work for the clear. Yeah.

Charles Williams is one working under clear career doing that for us. He's on top of it.

Yeah. All right. Are we ready to vote? Any other comments? So just to be clear, because this was a draft and there were some possible edits, will it need to come back to Council again? Or will this, will you just accept this understanding that it'll come back with edits at the final?

If it were up to me, I mean, it's up to y'all. We can come back and present again and give you more time to review and we can have a meeting before and just go over any questions you may have and changes. But the changes that were here aren't Material I don't want to use the wrong word aren't significant enough to warrant not approving. But I understand if you want to table this and wait till we get the language in there and then come back to you and an issue again. I mean, I understand that. I leave it up to council.

Okay, I can make a request that we approve with the edits as suggested only because we do have the rather large grant that we're trying to get that. us approving would need to happen before the end of the month.

Mayor Mayer? Sir? I move to approve with edits.

Thank you, Susan. Second.

Second.

An amendment seconded by Councilmember Richardson. So approve with edits.

Do you second it? Councilmember Richardson.

All right. We'll take a vote on the amendment first. All in favor of the amendment of approval of edits?

I have a question. When would we see the edits of Fox and Lake? Oh, well.

Tomorrow morning I can get him over to Jim tomorrow morning. Yeah. And again, like we've had this draft prepared and if there's any any time that they can get distributed out to whoever and we can meet and make these edits beforehand. I'm happy to do that. I'm happy to meet ahead of time. It's up to y'all.

Yeah.

And next year, maybe that's the route of changes. Hey, we have a little audit committee meeting with some of y'all and go over everything and make sure everyone's okay so that there's none of these changes happening kind of last minute.

All of our council members do have an opportunity to meet with our city administrator in advance of meetings at any point in time when some of them have set meetings. So as we move forward every year, it would be good to utilize that meeting for these kinds of investments. We don't have to have gotcha moments in the council meetings regularly. We can't address small things like this, especially if there are no corrections and there's no dispute over policy or anything like that. All right, any other comments on the amendment that will hold the vote? All in favor of the amendment to approve with edits, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. And then it passes unanimously. And we move on to the main motion, which would read, accept of the audited basic financials, payments and supplemental schedule and auditors reported by ABF-BC for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 to approve with edits. All in favor, raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Unanimously approved. Thank you all. Thank you, Jeremy.

Thank you.

We will send out communication from them as soon as we have it for everyone. Moving on to item number two in the agenda. This is related to the Hathaway Central Appraisal District's proposed land purchase. Do we have a motion on the table?

Council Member Richardson?

I move that we approve Resolution No. 2026-07-08-01, supporting Hays County Central Appraisal District's proposed land purchase and construction of a new facility to provide services to the taxing units and taxpayers in Hays County pursuant to Texas Property Tax Code Section 6.05.

Councilmember Richardson made the motion as stated in the packet. Mayor Brantamarasco seconded. I have a brief statement here to read. One, the purchase of construction will come from the CAD budget and not the City's budget. Two, the resolution is a formally required by statute in the tax code to authorize the CAD to move forward. And three, the City Council must make a factual finding that the proposed new facility is to expand operations and promote the CAD operations to serve both the City and County residents. and thereby promoting the general welfare um we did not present a no response to this um it was the only time they needed the resolution was if we were approving it um so do you have any questions about this item okay I didn't want to saw it I didn't want to read it Essentially, they are saying they need to build another facility and this will levy taxes to do so, but it comes out of their portion of the taxes. And I don't want to get into the weeds too much because I can't speak for other cities. Some cities might not move forward with this because they felt that it came out a little bit late in the year and so they had more questions. I don't personally have those questions. Of course, if you all have them, you have the opportunity to not pass this. But essentially, they only need a portion of all the cities in their jurisdiction to approve to move forward. No other comments? All right. All in favor of approving the resolution number 2026-07-08-01, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. unanimously approved thank you all in the morning we need to send that over to them because they have a different all right we move on to item number three this is a discussion about planting seven new trees do you have a motion on the table a motion to approve the purchase and installation of seven new trees

City of Wood Creek to be installed by We Love Trees because it costs not to exceed $6,000 from the 2026-2027 trees and parks budget line item 10-10-5554 designated for fall 2026 planting.

I second.

Councilmember Gromick seconded the motion made by Councilmember Swetford as stated in the package. Do you mind if I present this item? Okay. First off, our city administrator has asked an amendment to change the budget line item. We have a tree fund. And so we just kind of in our discussions of this moving up to it, sort of forgot that we have an entire fund designated for this purpose. So I would ask that in this meeting, you would amend to say tree fund instead of the trees and parks budget line item. At some point, we don't have to issue that now. um letter a has actually already been approved by council this is sort of just the final approval because we asked the trees and parks board to uh decide the uh type of tree and this was actually their second designation they originally picked or i don't remember the complete history but at some point i think it was supposed to be a sycamore but the arborist on the board recommended not because sycamores prefer more water than this area would provide And so he recommended the Cedar Elm because they are more resilient and this area will receive less water. So that's the history on item A. Actually, it might have been November. They voted to say a Cedar Elm. And like I said, council has actually already approved the funding for the planting of that. This would just be the final approval. Item B is new. and um something i'd like to recommend if council would like to send that portion to the trees and parks for a direct recommendation since they haven't commented on that that would be great also city administrator uh mr burton wanted um to discuss the concept that the veterans memorial plaza might be better served by only memorializing veterans there that's up for discussion and debate by council and of course the tree board of how we install trees where, but I wanted to make sure his opinions on that were noted tonight. And then items C and D are related to the road reconstruction of Western Wood Creek Drive. Both property owners have expressed interest and favor this, and specifically the Cypress Falls side was on board and essentially requested this instead of using a tree and the tiger's point side has stated that they are supportive of this um and that they would actually be interested in cost sharing but have reserved to giving a final um total on that because it's for one it's a whole board but also um they were kind of waiting to see what um the city plan might look like especially the cost of it okay may i ask you a direct question yes

Could you distinguish between Cypress Side and Cypress Point?

Yeah.

Yeah. So the large area is Cypress Falls. Yes.

Yeah. So they own one side of the culvert where a large tree has been taken out. And then Cypress Point is actually the landowner on the other side, inside Hog Creek. And there's, I think, three trees being taken down there. And so this is kind of just our commitment to replace trees that we take down for construction. We have an overall city policy in favor of that kind of thing. Actually, it's an ordinance. So this is us kind of acting in good faith in our own construction. Yep, next.

Mayor Mayer? Sir. I wish to discuss the suggestion on the Cedar Elm at the Brookmeadow Street Island location. I have Cedar Elms in my backyard, and they have a strong tendency to drop limbs, large and small. So I did some research to see if that is true for cedar elms in general, or just those in my backyard. The research says that, yes, a cedar elm is a good tree for street islands as they are highly adaptable, resilient native trees that tolerate tough, compacted soils, restricted root spaces found in Texas road islands. But because they grow quite large, often reaching up to 70 feet, confined road islands might restrict root systems over time or lift surrounding roadway if not provided adequate room. And to quote the We Love Trees website, in small Rhode Islands in Texas, these trees face added stressors, constricted root zones combined with extreme heat and unpredictable weather swings frequently resulting in sudden living drop where heavier branches fail without warning. So the research confirmed my concern And then I did some research on what other trees might best suit the small little roadway location and the following four trees consistently showed up on all the lists. Texas mountain laurel. A slow growing evergreen featuring fragrant purple spring blooms and compact county perfect for tight tough spaces, there are already two volunteers at this location, though poorly placed near the edge. Mexican plum, a native ornamental offering beautiful white spring blossoms and attractive bark. I should mention that I have several of these and they have three to four inch spikes on the branches, though I do support the idea of planting fruit trees in the community. Desert willow, thrives in full sun with high drought tolerance, producing trumpet flowers. Texas redbud, thrives statewide with bright pink spring flowers and handles reflected heat well. In my yard, I have several of all of the above except for the desert willow. Based on my experience with my trees and the research I've done regarding street trees in Texas, I would recommend Council chooses the desert willow to complement the other plantings and volunteers at the Brook Meadow location. Specifically, I think Council should choose the cultivar Sweet Boa, which is a seedless variety featuring large fragrant magenta blossoms. Being seedless helps reduce maintenance for this area, compared to other cultivars. Overall, the Desert Willow is a tough and pretty tree perfectly suited for this location.

May I just say, they're not pretty in the winter.

Sure, they do.

They're just like sticks.

They also grow very wide and low. So this area is a little, like, I'm not disagreeing. That would, in theory, be a good pick. I am concerned about the width of 20 feet at only 20 feet high. So that's, they grow like, so I think that that would actually impede the streets. pretty significantly.

The desert willow.

Yes, because they grow wide and low. So they would be good for like that street island in Wood Creek Drive because it has a wide breadth. But they, like the one that's planted at the gazebo is actually planted too close to the gazebo. The arborist commented on that as well.

Yeah, I was just trying to state my concern about the limb drop. If I experience it, anytime you have a slightly strong limb, I get it. big break. So, especially since it's a roadway, I want to make sure that we're considering that option. If I could, I'd also like to talk about Memorial Park. I do appreciate Jim's idea. So, kind of take that in. I wrote this well before Jim mentioned this, but I wanted to talk about the orchid trees in Memorial Park. They're beautiful spring blue trees. yeah yeah and i've had them personally which may not be an issue for the city if they are planted in a location where consistent mowing will occur as they tend to throw seeds like crazy actually the tree is funded on how it throws seeds the dry seed pods literally pop and throw their seeds 35 to 50 feet away i've actually been hit in the face by these seeds i planted mine in a wide deep garden border One of my annual tasks is to pull out the volunteers of this tree next. They look delicate, but they are truly Texas time. A two-weight volunteer can have an eight-inch taproot. So I would only recommend that if council decides to go with orchid trees, that they plant them in the Greek grass section of Memorial Park. But if the plan is to plant in the existing garden beds, I would go with the red.

Fantastic. No, on that one we were going to let an arborist kind of decide the place, but we lost like a whole copse of trees over there a few years back. There was a mistake in direction from a member of the tree board, and they took out a bunch of trees they shouldn't have. And so she was chairperson at the time, actually. And so in my mind, I would hope that they would try to go kind of in that area. um to where a bunch of trees were taken out we looked at the letter yeah I don't know I'm just thinking of with parents during the year yeah but we would realize the intention was not to go on the existing beds and we would rely on a professional to say this is a safe place to plant this or you know we have to look through lines as well right can we discuss the work about the veterans or non-veterans if y'all feel like you need anything

Well, it's called Veterans Memorial Park. There's a monument there to the services, there's the flag bowls. And I just wonder, they're not a committee of veterans that manage that or would go to approve anything that's going on in there. So it's like, okay, so I'm not sure who would complain if we were memorializing you know city leaders city members um in that way in that place um that also in these streets but um but that's just my thinking is it's like well i mean council would ultimately make the decision whether to put trees there whether veterans or not we don't know whether um uh ms brittner um or mr winter were veterans i mean we probably find that out but but even if they weren't this You know, it seems like the most logical place to do, you know, special memorials. And there is a need in that location. So it's just, I just wanted to sort of bring that up and see what people think about it.

If I may also, Mr. Renter actually was a member of WOW, James left, but WOW, the leaders of Wood Creek takes care of the entrance for us for free. And he was one of the members that used to go work there. So it was sort of like a kind of an homage to that work he did there. And this idea started for me right after his passing, which was actually some time ago now, almost two years, maybe two years. And then when Ms. Brittner also passed away because of her lengthy service in the city, I just wanted to recognize her as well. She served on a council for a long time. And Mayor Pro Tem.

Mayor Pro Tem for several years.

So, you know, I think, You know we could take each of these as an amendment. I would request the first amendment to be about the budget to come. This would come from the tree fund specifically.

Sir, I manage the funding is from to become from the tree fund.

Thank you. So it would to confirm you mean you would strike trees and parks budget. Lindsay Chichester, Lines item and instead put like and with the number is a tree fund, would you like me to fully speak that no it's Okay, I just want to get on. Lindsay Chichester, Okay, so seconded by Councilmember Richardson motion made by that's what we're going. Lindsay Chichester, And then um. Lindsay Chichester, You go ahead and vote on that just to keep this clean if you're applying all of you for that budget change raising his eye right unanimously I. on that amendment um and then if you just take each letter you know i hope you all approve these all of them um obviously they're a crew discussion um because of the way this is stated you can make adjustments but if you make adjustments it likely needs to come back because that was not publicly noticed so for example if you want to reconsider the cedar elmont letter a we would either need to send the new request to Trees and Parks or for it to come back in a future council meeting that way the public is adequately noticed on that change.

Let's see if I may. It says proposed selections on our agenda. So can't council change something that's proposed? And we're also not changing the value or a number. We're saying proposed is a blue car, we want a green car.

That is not allowed on TOLA.

So you've got a very specific list of A through D. It does say proposed selections, but here they are. And so the question is adequate notice to the public under the Open Meetings Act. And, you know, if you had a discussion to formulate what the options will be, and that was broadly drafted, then you'd have a little bit more discretion. But here, you've got a very specific list that follows a specific list. And to the extent that, you know, if it's a de minimis or a very minor change, it might be okay under adequacy of notice. But the best practice is to either go with what action is proposed and vote up or down on it, or bring it back to the future agenda, which can certainly be done. You can direct staff, say, adequate notice to the club.

And I will say on letter A in particular, that's from a report from the tree board. So that wasn't something I personally generated.

My concern is that We Love Trees actually doesn't recommend this very tree. And we're hiring We Love Trees, so it kind of... So my amendment would be... I'll get it off.

um item A and B be sent to the tree board for review and recommendation the second all right we have a amendment to send A and B to the tree board for recommendation with a second from Councilmember Bailey any further discussion on those two they would have um the notes from the meeting with the discussion yes

That's true. This need to be made, yeah.

From this need? Yeah. But I mean, just, oh, I'm sorry.

I just have a quick question. As far as the cedar elm and the risks of the limbs dropping, is that minimized by regular maintenance by an arborist?

Not my experience.

Well, it's the rest of it, so.

I understand, but I'm going to share what I, one of my research that I did in the last couple of days. cedar elms have very brittle wood, so wind tends to break it, versus other trees that tend to have more flexible wood, I guess. I mean, that's based on the research I did, and that's kind of what We Love Trees said. So, we'll just look at their website, though, as doing this research.

But as far as cedar elm goes, you know, I was in on those meetings, discussions, and going back and forth, and sycamores, cedar elm, is that the the focus I think of the tree board at the time was we need something that goes tight because it's a fairly narrow stretch and you don't want you don't want the traffic block you don't want traffic vision blocked but you want something that's that trunk and leaves um and so it fit that description but there wasn't a real there wasn't a conversation about sort of the downside of glenn because i we had a bunch of cigarettes too and they'd be smart um and it's a win i mean so so would would regular arborist care help um yeah what would it solve it was i i don't i don't know but i don't think so

I still ask the question, is the deciduous versus evergreen a question that we want to consider as we look at these trees? Because the rest of them look good in the winter. Do you have a citation for the We Love Trees? I don't.

Sorry. Okay. Because I'm on their website right now, and I don't see anything in that.

I put in quotes, and I just pulled it and put it into my notes.

So am I alone? No, you're not alone. I didn't mean to glaze over it. I just, I think it's best to rely on professionals and all, you know, for this in particular. And we could always also add on a consultation with We Love Trees in particular if that was a concern of y'all's and they could give a more in-depth answer.

for the for the tree board if y'all wanted as part of that yeah I think it's good okay because I was one of the ones who said see it around the first they're all over our city they're all over our city and they line their streets already I've got too many um

have any other comments on sending a and b to the tree board and offering a consult with we love trees for them all right all in favor of that please raise your hand and say aye all five passes unanimously um that leaves item c and d um much like item a this wasn't directly generated from me i offered the opportunity of a possible tree replacement in the discussions with these individuals. Cypress Falls, or Ms. Hasty in particular, appreciated the Bald Cypress petition specifically. I will say that the board chairperson of Cypress Point made some other suggestions. And Mr. Foley, however, when I looked those up, they don't meet kind of like our city standards for the kind of trees we prefer to plant by policy. So I did not proceed with some of the things he mentioned, but he did. He basically said, yeah, you know, whatever is going to create. you know, replace, I'm quoting, sorry, Ed, if you're listening, but so what was selected here were trees that are already located in that area, pecan, sycamore. And because we have a policy of promoting diverse canopy instead of three of the same, it was, you know, promoted to be three different.

So we don't need the amendment. That's already part of it.

unless you guys want to do something else and then i would recommend that you bring it back to council so you have proper diploma compliance or send it to the tree board forgive me any further discussion on cnd all in favor of moving forward with those as stated please raise your hand and say aye um that just occurred but we have to go back and redo all of the main motion together with all of these amendments so C and D have been approved A and B would be sent to the tree board and then we'll do the main motion with those amendments so I'll read that now are you ready All right, so the motion as amended will state to approve the purchase and installation of seven new trees in the city of Wood Creek to be installed by We Love Trees, cost not to exceed $6,000 from the 2026-2027 tree fund designated for fall 2026 planting with A and B to be sent to the tree board for consult. In addition, with We Love Trees, I added that. It's not an official part of the amendment though. And then C and D would be approved as is. All in favor of the amended motion, please raise your hands and say, I. Unanimously passes with those amendments. All right, we'll move on to item number 4. This has actually been postponed because we do not have the report from the Trees and Parks Board. They requested a secondary meeting to discuss the topic because they wanted to go out and personally spend a little bit more time on this and do a little bit more research on their own before they issued a report to us. So we will not be taking up item number four. We'll move on to item number five. which is related to a schedule for routine maintenance contract review and policy review for the city.

May I? Sir? I move that council direct staff and or city attorney to make the following edits and return the draft resolution to council for approval. The edits are to remove the third and final resolved section from this resolution and any creation of a threshold higher for submission of an item to council's agenda or council's final approval on any item on council's agenda that are legally required by state law, and remove the entire section regarding policy and any reference in the document pertaining to specifically the whereas statement about excessive and redundant policy review, leaving only the sections named infrastructure and asset maintenance and contract services, and that the resolution makes clear that only those two sections are being addressed by this draft resolution including in the whereas and results section.

Motion fails for lack of a second. Do we have a secondary motion on the table?

I move that we approve resolution number 2026-07-08-02, Establish and Schedule for Routine Maintenance, Contract Review, and Policy Review for the City.

Second. Seconded by Councilmember Richardson. Motion made as stated in the packet. Do you mind if I introduce?

No.

So this item is something we've kind of long talked about. It kind of concretes some of our maintenance schedules so that, especially if we have any turnover and change of staff, hopefully that never happens, but if it does happen, people do wish to retire eventually. This would give a clear roadmap for people moving forward. The policies themselves they are set so I'll just take kind of take it by section um we discussed in a meeting and set the the numbers for procurement and fund balance the investment policy is governed by state law so that means that um the other ones are kind of set after each Council is redone so at November we have an election and so that new Council will get to set their policies if they wish um and then The setting of paper of record that's kind of a standard process we do that every single year, at the same time, the record to retention policy. We you know that is under kind of what's required, I mean that's a city secretary item in the state sort of regulates it, but this is in compliance with that and then moving on. With our advisory bodies, we ask that they do this annually. That's in the code, but by including this in this kind of calendar, it gives us one place to look for all of this stuff. Subcommittees and ad hoc work groups, that's something that we we can dissolve either with an election or when the business is done, or we can work on them during the budget season. Like if we know we're going to be forming, like for example, when we formed the road committee for the road bond, that kind of stuff, um, the comprehensive master plan has a plan, you know, so I'm not going to read this whole thing to you. Um, the, the only like the liaison policy, uh, is something that, you know, we're kind of like, uh, like sort of using that might eventually not be on here. temporary water restrictions we set in that actual resolution. So that mimics that. Moving on to the infrastructure and asset maintenance, these are things that we have been doing out of like kind of just memory. There's never been a consistent stated schedule on any of these things. And so they were based like, for example, the rainwater collection system, that's based on the recommendations from the people that installed it. and people that work in that field they need to be. checked out every couple of years. The website review, that's something that I take in all my staff personally. And so we do that in January. In fact, we've done a few of them now. So that will probably at least happen once a year. But obviously, if there are changes needed in the meantime, we would do that. The golf cart crossing, that number is based on what we watched since we last painted them. So it's been about three years since we last painted them, and they need to be painted again. so that's where that number came from the playground wood chips um basically this just sets out a plan to regularly manage them and measure them the right of way trees trimming was something we just sort of did every two years and so we had to cycle it into the budget but this now concretes that i would like to make a minor edit to strike starting year 2026 because it's it's not needed um the way this was originally lined out changed i added that next review time column give more clear directions so people didn't have to sit there and do the math so the starting year 2026 is actually um a mute point now the contract services um that's actually where that change came into place because council has sort of a standing motion that we would in theory review these every three years and but that notion is very very very old um The overall goal of this policy is not only to make things explicit and clear for any staff, any council member, any member of the public about when we promise to do these things, it's also to create continuity in our leadership so that we have kind of a very clear direction for the city on an annual to like every two year basis. So we're not kind of changing direction repeatedly. So by clearly expressing that we're going to review our audit services every three years like this, it doesn't become a relationship where we make a bit feel like they've done something wrong or we're not serving as well. It's a policy that we've written in the same with our legal representation. Erica Kaurudar, At five years Council would take up the item talk about it, see if we want to go out for you know. Erica Kaurudar, proposals, thank you, I couldn't remember this bit of proposal, but it doesn't become a. relationship where you know we imply that we're unsatisfied it's just kind of a routine schedule of maintenance is the goal for this I tried to capture everything of course if I missed something um you know that might need to be taken up the only policy that's not in here is this policy itself um so that explains that does anyone have any questions for me about it I'm not mad I

any other comments or concerns all right all in favor sir i'd like to comment to start remember this is not simply a schedule that is being posted on this office wall as a reminder to anyone as to when it might be good to review the listed policies no this is a policy of seemingly restricting anyone from considering updating outside of this arbitrary timeline Anyone is already free to create their own schedule for themselves as to when might be a good time to review the policy. Everyone is free not to present a policy for council consideration based on their own schedule. This resolution is designed to prevent council members who wish to take up reviewing or updating council policy from submitting and or approving any such improvements to their policy. Council, I will ask you to consider who this resolution serves, as it certainly does not serve Council and their legislative duties. It serves to restrict Council's ability to serve the City and its citizens, as well as it violates Open Meeting Act and the Attorney General's opinion on such. The Mayor's mindset regarding Council tearing out their official duties is on full display here. She thinks that our legislative responsibilities are excessive and redundant. This policy attempts to supersede or alter our conduct of meetings policy by creating additional hardships and barriers and additional bureaucracy on a time council's ability to respond in a timely manner to situations as they arise. Council needs to remain nimble and free to address issues as they see fit. The intent of this policy is to make it more difficult to present items on council's agenda. I mean, what the heck, a unanimous vote before even allowing an item to land on the agenda and then creating an additional high threshold of a supermajority vote to approve that item when no state law requires such thresholds. The resolution states stated threshold of requiring a unanimous vote in order for council to submit an item related to any listed issue violates the Open Meetings Act in that while council is free to create a policy governing their agenda preparation, the net effect of such policies cannot preclude a council member from placing an item on their agenda for public discussion. Also, the Attorney General's opinion as to the OPENS meeting that as it relates to council's ability to place items on council's agenda is that it is important to ensure that policy requires no more than two council members to agree to place an item on the agenda. Attorney General opinion number DM-228-1993. As a result, an item can only be removed from the agenda by the council member who placed it on the agenda or by a majority vote of council at an open meeting. This resolution goes far, far beyond that. Imagine if council were to create a policy that required a unanimous vote for any item that the mayor may wish to submit to council's agenda. and that in order for the Mayor's item to pass required a supermajority vote. If that sounds shocking to you, and you are not opposed to the Mayor attempting to obstruct Council's official duties and their ability to place items on their own agenda with this ridiculous resolution, I would ask that you review your reaction. If you are horrified by my hypothetical restriction regarding the Mayor, How can you not be horrified by the mayor's attempt to restrict the very legislative body that is given the responsibility to legislate? We are an automatic form of government, a beautiful, sometimes cumbersome, elegant form of democracy. Council is the governing body. Council's agenda is named such for a reason. It is not called the mayor's agenda. It is council's agenda. Council is a legislative branch of this government. legislative and policy making power rests exclusively with the full city council the mayor is the chief executive officer the mayor execute council's action as well as prepares the proposed budget and is the emergency manager nothing in those state listed duties of a mayor is about creating policy that responsibility rests entirely on council's shoulders If Council does move forward with approving this resolution as presented, let's consider what effect that has on Council's ability to address situation and changes as they present themselves. For instance, the City Administrator recently presented to Council an interesting idea that Council seemed to support, which would require Council to update the liaison policy and create the City Clerk as the new liaison for advisory boards and remove the Mayor from that role. this resolution could prevent anyone council members the mayor or staff from presenting updated liaison policy on council's agenda without first obtaining the toma violating requirement of a unanimous vote Imagine one Member of Council could prevent the update to the liaison policy, even though a majority of Council may support the change, or even a supermajority as this policy describes. This resolution states the first time an update to liaison policy could be considered is in 2028. Remember this resolution would go into effect immediately upon passage. You may be thinking to yourself, but council would understand that an update to the liaison policy would need to come before council. Therefore, it is obvious that a unanimous vote would occur. But remember that council is not allowed to discuss the content of a proposed future business item being presented. A council member may simply state they wish to bring an update to the liaison policy or any policy during the future business portion of an agenda, and council would be voting on allowing that item onto the agenda, and yet one nay vote would prevent that item being considered by the rest of council. If council was allowed to consider the item, it may have passed. So giving the power to one member of council to preclude other members of council from being able to add an item to council's agenda would be a disservice to the majority of council, good legislative practice, and frankly, violates TOMA. Again, the net effect of city policies cannot prevent a council member from placing an item on their agenda for public discussion. Interestingly enough, I submitted an item and received a required second months ago to update the conduct of meetings policy, which includes the agenda preparation guidelines. And if council were to adopt this resolution before you as presented, it would prevent my item from coming before council. The reason I am bringing this update to the conduct of meeting relates to this very issue I am addressing, which is that I see that the mayor is interpreting policy restrictions should only be applied to council members when policy clearly states that is the item, not the who, restrictions apply to. I'm not sure that council intended that council members would have a more difficult time placing items on their own agenda then anyone else may wish to place items in front of Council. I certainly did not intend the policy to be applied like that when I voted aye. The Mayor certainly does not apply these policy restrictions to her own items which she wishes Council to consider. It should be noted that I have submitted items that I ultimately withdrew because the Mayor created additional steps and requirements not listed in our submission policy in order for my item submission to be on the agenda, so I remove submitting it. That is not how this should work, nor should my mayor consider herself an adversary to council legislative responsibilities to consider and entertain ideas beyond her own. Again, this is the same issue. Council's ability to place items on their council agenda and respond to situations, changes, and new ideas. Council's legislative duties should not be obstructive in this manner. And it should not be imposed by an arbitrary schedule and extreme threshold that is seen in this resolution. There is another aspect to this schedule that I wish to bring to your attention, which is that some of the policies listed are scheduled for two, three, and five years before allowed to be considered by this or any future council. Council's terms are for two years, though staggered. Imagine someone running for council on a particular idea of updating one of these policies, and the citizens elect that person to office. There is a likelihood, if this resolution is adopted as presented, that they could be prevented from ever being able to represent the citizens and present the policy update to council. Remember, this resolution attempts to create a unanimous vote threshold to even consider any of the policy items listed. But let's break it down to the basic. As it currently stands, in order for a council member to submit an item to council's agenda, they must first request a second from another council member during the future business portion of an irregular council meeting. And then the submitted item will be placed on Council's agenda between three to six months in the future, after meeting certain requirements such as meetings with the City Administrator if the item proposes to spend money, etc. By not adopting this resolution as presented, all that still stands. This resolution restricts 36 issues from being taken up outside of this arbitrary schedule. It creates a tonal violation by requiring more than two members approving placing an item on Council's agenda. It creates the possible violation of preventing a member of Council being able to submit items to Council's agenda, and it creates a supermajority vote to approve such review or updates where no such threshold is legally required. It attempts to strike at the very heart the bedrock principle of Council's ability to legislate and control their agenda. Let the Mayor or staff place this schedule on their walls as reminders to themselves as to when it might be a good time to review and take a look at updating the policies listed, but leave in the dumpster outback any attempts at restricting Council's ability to respond to real life. There appears to be a motive of efficiency in this resolution. I would argue that it is more efficient for this legislative body to get things right and working for the citizens of our fair city than to simply allow an issue to go unreviewed for years. Sometimes getting it right involves trying things out and seeing what works and seeing what doesn't work. Why would anyone consider good practice to restrict their own ability to learn and make things better? It's amazing this policy is being presented by a former educator. I do not believe that it is good leadership to set up a situation where everyone fails because they place arbitrary additional restrictions on any offense to correct or even simply review their own work. Life and the changes that come with them do not abide by arbitrary schedules, nor do new ideas and perspectives about issues. Sometimes you have to try something out for a bit before you realize there are elements of it that do not work. Council needs the flexibility to easily address those non-working elements or changes in perspective unobstructed. It should not be the mayor's decision as to what qualifies as excessive and redundant review and updating of policies. Council's actions should remain with the legislative body to decide on a case-by-case basis. Simply put, this is bad policy in its current state.

Mayor, if possible, maybe some clarifications might help. For the record, Stan Sperling, the Havana City Attorney. Factually, in my experience, usually a resolution is a directive to staff on administrative matters. And usually with contracts, contract administration, routine review, having a tickler system, kind of bring things back to council. A resolution is a mere statement of this administration's approach, directive. It is not the same thing as city code. The resolution as drafted, I did review it. I didn't catch any issues. I think that's, with all due respect to Councilmember Grummer, He's real good at analyzing things and spotting issues. I think there's a little bit of overly broad concern based on hypotheticals. The resolution is preempted by state law in numerous ways. First, the Texas Constitution, you can't bind future administrations. You can revisit your own motions and orders. For example, state statute in the financial provisions in the local government code, Chapter 111, a bank depository contract has to go out for solicitation every five years. This resolution does not change state law. It does not change the Open Meetings Act. It's more of a... best practices approach with the intent of capturing concepts like contract management, revisiting things. It's more of a aspirational approach. It's not something that's drafted to prohibit this body from addressing things that have to be addressed. So the resolution is fine in my legal opinion as to legal form, and it's up to the local governing body to make its local rules. So I hope that helps.

Yes, if I may, since it was my item, I do want to kind of highlight some large or strong wording used. So this does not prevent a council member from submitting an item. What it says is this is the timeline for when certain items will come back up. So there is no prohibited motion there. Every November, for example, the council rules and meeting procedure would come back up and a council member could submit the item in advance with a second, and then the reconsideration would come onto the agenda. And in my mind, by asking for the unanimous approval, that was protecting the entire body. That was my intent because you all would then collectively decide if you wanted to bring back up that policy again and actually there was a history here so not a future um hypothetical that occurred we actually took up the council rules and meetings procedure policy i think three or four times in a two month period one time with council squabbling over details in it and while i respect that process that was very very difficult for staff and the administrative team leading the city at the time because it repetitively changed how our meetings ran but back to back to back. And so that was part of that. So that isn't being changed. You all would still have the right to bring things up. It would just require all of y'all agreeing to do that after you've already agreed to pass something. That's the other thing is these are not new policies. I haven't snuck anything in there. These are things that y'all already voted on. For example, the county council meetings and rules and procedure policy, you all unanimously approved just in January, right? So to already be bringing that back up in three months, I felt personally was a little disrespectful towards Council. The only reason that item isn't on an agenda already is because Council Member Grummer expressed that he would not be in this meeting today. Right, so the next possible meeting, he could have had it was in August, because at the timeline of money submitted, we were already publishing the June agenda. And he was told that agenda was full with other administrative items, so he was not rejected he expressed at that time, the next time would be August I have with him communicated. with another item he declined to have it placed because he wanted to wait until the entire comprehensive plan process was in process for the survey questions to come back up he did revoke a surveillance policy item we all had that discussion with Stan in a meeting actually where the reason I asked for him to have an a an additional obstacle as he called it is I asked for the policy to be legally reviewed And I highlighted that part of it was an ordinance and part of it was a resolution and that neither portions were prepared in those formats and I requested that he break them out. I also cautioned on the use of government surveillance or public surveillance terminology. And as we presented in that meeting, that was not the appropriate terminology for the security cameras we were attempting to assault. So I am explaining myself there because I don't appreciate the misconception of my actions. Also, I just reviewed the council liaison policy and actually we repealed the council liaison policy. What's in place now is actually just says I'm the liaison, which as I communicated in that meeting, I would still be serving in those roles. I just wouldn't necessarily be attending the meetings. I would be watching them and I would still be the representative between the two boards. So that's not actually an issue there either. You know, I don't think there's anything wrong with this policy. Obviously, I brought it up. I firmly reject the concept that this wouldn't apply to me because if I needed to bring up any of these policies, I would have to follow this policy. So I don't circumvent it. For every item I bring to you all, I get a second. The only items that I don't do that with are not things I'm a sponsor for, meaning they're administrative tasks. that maintenance the function of our city or they're coming from other boards or other entities uh and so those you know most of that if anything has been new has been brought forward with the second as well so yes ma'am I just wanted to say that I read this more in the

the light of what our attorney said is that it struck me from the beginning as things that had always been important to me in administration and government, and that's better practices, not missing deadlines, legal deadlines, and contract management. I mean, that's our responsibility. And I just I didn't see anything in this that would restrict us from coming back. So.

Yeah. Well, there are a few things already that I'd like to see changed. I'd like to see golf cart crossing paintings more often than every three years. That's just not often enough. I'd like to see the product services changed, not limited to three years. We continued our auditor this year because it was necessary for the progress. I think this is way too far-reaching, and I would like for Council Member Rummick to restate his original motion.

understand all the facets of it you know i didn't have the opportunity to um well you did have an opportunity a second you didn't feel like it was enough time did i i mean if i may um to me the conversations here sort of we agree that you know a schedule is a good thing it seems like the main sticking point is requiring a unanimous vote um a super majority vote um where I I personally don't think that the the schedule or the resolution um would suffer by just removing that one clause and I would offer an amendment that um the clause on requiring unanimous vote for discussion be stripping. Second.

All right. Amendment on the table strikes under the third resolve require a unanimous vote from the governing body to take up for discussion. Second. That's, that's great. I'm not a part of that amendment. I would like to speak to my intentions that someone chose to spoke for me tonight. Again, it was just to protect you all so that we don't have one or two council members submitting things repetitively or wanting to reconsider things after you all have voted. So that was it. And that was an amendment.

I have a good amendment.

second by council right oh yeah i didn't hear that thank you and that is based on reality because over the course of the last five years that has occurred at least three different times what is current policies were brought back repetitively because a single council member was not, and it wasn't a single person either. This was three to four different people bringing back policies every single meeting to tweak and tweak and tweak because they didn't get their way in the previous meeting. So we spent probably about six hours total on one policy, ping-ponging back and forth again in another one. I know that you might find no problem with that, But I can tell you from working with three different administrative staffs now that our staff does not appreciate when our council cannot give them a clear directive and stick to it. It becomes very difficult to manage this city. We have lost two previous city administrators over these kind of things. If I'm being completely honest, obviously they also left for other reasons, but these were... huge complaints from them so my goal with this was to create a protection for all of us and our time and you guys have struck that point so that's a dress I just wanted to speak for myself instead of having somebody um speak for me which I don't find appropriate you have spoken twice does anyone else have any comments you actually issued an original motion Spent over six minutes speaking the first time. Does any other council member have an additional comment before Chris Gromert speaks for what he perceives to be his second time? No. All right. Council Member Gromert, you have the floor again.

Over the last five years of service on council, I can easily sum up what I've stood up for. and my goals as a representative of the citizens of this fair city. That is that the beautiful and elegant system the state has handed down to us as an automatic form of government here in Wood Creek is preserved and protected and even encouraged to become an exemplary example of democracy in action. I have run on the very ideal of a government that works for the people. Believe me when I say I have gained no pleasure in calling out where, when and whom of us fail to uphold these values. I understand well the experiences of being called out for my own failures. I have spent these last five years researching, questioning, and fighting for the system of government by which the citizens are best represented. It is better to have a team of these five elected council members exploring the best path forward in representing the people than it is for one person to attempt to make all the decisions. Regardless of how smart an individual may be, a single person has a hard time finding their blind spots or those perspectives that they have not yet considered. whereas five council members of diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas is more likely to find solutions otherwise not considered. I want to apologize to the Mayor for it may seem to some that I have been giving her a hard time since she has taken on this role as Mayor. It is not It is not because I don't think she is capable and intelligent and fit for the role as mayor. Actually, it is quite the opposite. It is because I have such high standards for her, having known her many years, serving next to her, that I know she is more than capable of doing better for working towards representing the best of our community. It is because I care that she succeeds in her role that I may appear to push her harder. A long time ago, I approached a teacher of mine and told her that I felt she was singling me out more than anyone else in the class and holding me to a higher standard than she was holding to the other students. Her response has always stayed with me. She told me it is because she knows that I am capable. That is why she has a higher standard of criticism for me. If she did not believe that I was capable, she wouldn't waste her time. I hold grace for all of us to grow and learn and become better at representing this beautiful, messy democracy we find ourselves in. But I will also hold the sword to fight for council's fundamental ability to fully realize, discuss, change their minds, to create better solutions, and to allow messy disagreements to happen as part of that process. Things do not become better simply by placing them on a shelf unexamined. They need to be held up under scrutiny, questioned, and called out. That doesn't mean you do not value it. It means you value it more because you're willing to put in the effort. There is a pervasive mindset of us versus them in our community. But I will point out that that very mindset also includes the go along to get along thing, which seems to float around in the air around here. Do not question mindset means you do not care whether something truly works or not, because you place your own feelings of belonging ahead of what actually might be right. I will admit I have fallen prey to this pervasive sentiment. And what I mean pervasive is that get along, don't make waves mindset expresses itself constantly around us, including such statements as come back to the table, to anyone who has different points of view than those at the table. This mindset is the very process of othering those who may disagree with your perspective. And this othering creates you are either with us or you are an outsider, one of them. this mindset and its expression is immediately created the us versus them divisiveness that so many of this administration has attempted to fuse in the past it also attempts to invalidate someone's level of commitment and voice on an issue we are actually in this together being a mayor or a council member is not an easy thing to do in a small town such as ours but please let us not make a disagreement or a mistake become the only identifier of a person While our mayor presented this ridiculous resolution in front of us is a huge mistake, I do not hold this one misstep as a sum of who she is. These service roles almost require that we will get things wrong sometimes, and that is kind of my whole point here. We need to allow ourselves the ability to learn, to correct things, and to work to make things better. The resolution as presented assumes that we are living in a non-changing world that Council has previously made the best version of policy ever to exist, and no improvements can or should be made, and that Council cannot learn anything new or adapt to any new situation that may present itself. That is unrealistic. It is one of the bedrock principles of Council's process to review, discuss, question the full implications, identify, and weigh the pros and cons and the context of something in order to create the best fit for our community. Though I sometimes wishfully entertain that I could wave a wand and there would never be a conflict, I know that that's often that very conflict that we should be exploring. Differing perspectives can create innovative solutions to hamper that to leave possibilities undiscovered. Council should continue preserving and protecting their legislative duties and responsibilities from any additional restrictions not already given to us by state and federal law. We should all stand up and protect our obligations regardless of whether or not someone else finds our process objectionable messy inefficient excessive or redundant that's one of many requests that you read your failed motion would you please do so i know that council directs staff and or the city attorney to make the following edits and return the draft resolution to council for approval. The edits are to remove the third and final results section from this resolution and any creation of a threshold higher for submission of any item to council's agendas or council's final approval on an item on council's agenda than legally required by state law. And remove the entire section regarding policy and any reference in the document pertaining to such, specifically the whereas statement about excessive and redundant policy review, leaving only the sections named infrastructure and asset maintenance and contract services, and that the resolution makes clear that only these two sections are being addressed by this draft resolution, including the whereas and resolved sections.

um he did not make any limit he was responding to your question Ms Weber just very quickly I will I believe that council member rest of us and then addresses many of the things that capsule number just outlined in the ability to bring back I was to Council without the

yeah that's true all right any other additional discussion on this item hearing none you know I'll have the opportunity to vote all in favor of passing this resolution with the amendment to strike require unanimous vote from the governing body please raise your hand and say aye you still need to vote on the number first oh apologies no no really I thought that oh apologies Yeah, so we'll vote on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment to strike, require unanimous vote from the governing body, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

So that is a unanimous vote, I believe. Yeah. And then on the full main motion, It would be to approve resolution number 2026-07-08-02, establishing a schedule for routine maintenance, contract review, and policy review for the City of Wood Creek with the amendment to strike under the third resolve, require unanimous vote from the governing body to take up this for discussion. Please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Three ayes, it passes. Nay.

Nay.

Two nays. And I apologize, because I made a statement that this policy isn't addressed, but it is in the end. I was meaning that it's not addressed in the chart. I'm sorry about that.

Question on procedure. Does this prevent

previously approved items for coming on it doesn't prevent them it would come up in November after the election for this policy unless a council member wanted to bring it up and have a second and then your your item can come back in August what this says is that it would require a super majority vote to pass him no we've struck that whole thing no we struck unanimous vote

What I said was that the clause

The clause required the unanimous vote for discussion. That's not what was stated, but we can retract and go back if there is confusion here. What was stated was the clause, and then you only read that section. I hear you. I'm just explaining that when I restated it, none of that was ever corrected. When I stated what the amendment was, nobody corrected that. So you're... To be clear, trying to strike the entire resolved section.

That was my intent. Okay.

Okay. So, we will reconsider the amendment first. So, everyone's clear you're striking that entire section. All in favor of striking the third resolved in its entirety, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Your unanimous aye. All in favor of passing the policy with that entire section struck, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Three ayes, passes. Nays, two. All right. I would like to have a discussion about your item at a later time, Mr. Gramert, and whenever we are both maybe at cooler heads and not having been in a meeting with everyone for eight or until eight o'clock already.

Maybe if I'm late, like, of course, I'm late. There are always emergency situations where something can be brought to council. There are always situations that may require revisiting a policy or a code. For example, the state legislator passes new rules and you need to amend your local rules. So there's all these situations. I'm reading the policy to be a baseline, for example, on road regulation devices. The three years is, again, that's a minimum, a baseline. It doesn't necessarily preclude if there's an engineering study or if there's a compelling need to bring something back, it's just to revisit it every three years or whatever. But you can address emergency repairs, you can address any needs that the city has, That if there's a legitimate need, it can be directed to staff or there's a way to get there is what I'm saying. So, again, you're not boxed in completely. There is some discretion, obviously, based on the totality of the circuit.

So my question is a legal one in that it states, so the question is, I submitted several months ago. No. In June. May. I got my second in May. I actually submitted it in April. And I got my second in May. And Council agreed to allow me to present onto the agenda an update to the conduct of meetings.

Council Member Grimer, that is not on this agenda.

I'm asking a legal question in regards to the resolution we just passed. The question is, does the structure of this resolution where it says the update to the policy of conductive meetings is no longer allowed until this date, much in the future, prevent my item that I've already been approved to submit? It's been sitting waiting for months before it landed on the agenda. Which scenario is favorite? That is not true. I literally looked it up before I wrote any of this.

That's not a legal question. He just said this be your minimum standard. Something had to come back earlier than what's on here. It comes back earlier than what's on here. That's the question.

It's not stated as minimum standard.

The answer is this resolution does not expressly prohibit that. Thank you. Now, a body... makes its own rules, and you can revisit rules whenever the body decides to revisit rules pursuant to its procedures. So the agenda item here is this resolution, and the answer is no, it's not that restrictive. It's a presumptive baseline.

As I already told you earlier, your thing will come up in August. The only reason it didn't come up sooner is because you were told the June agenda was full and you communicated you did not intend to be here for this meeting.

And we really need to focus on this agenda. Yeah. I'm just clarifying that this, your understanding, everyone's understanding. Thank you.

Yes. Yeah. Don't fall through the cracks. That's the way I look at it.

Are we done? Is everyone? Thank you. We have an individual here who's... representative for item six and seven we will call our executive session to consult and receive and seek advice from attorney pursuant to section 551.071 of the texas government code regarding legal requirements and procedures for issuance of building permits pursuant to chapter 151 of the city's code of ordinances impeding but not limited through instances of applicant's hardship and related legal considerations at 801 um executive recording progress we're reconvening at 8 24 no action was taken during the executive session we do have a written public comment to read and then we do have the individual applying for the variance here we'll read the written public comment person that's okay we will do the the end person okay This individual submitted a total of three comments, actually. So we're going to start using the timer and the city secretary will be reading them. I'm going to try not to call to remove any political issues with this process.

All right. Go ahead. I notice the number seven on council's regular agenda deals with this folks law. If this is in any way deals with installation of an above ground pool, please read my below objection into the record. At the time this item comes up for council's consideration, as I'm unwilling to take a chance on something that so much affects the appearance of my neighborhood and the value of our homes, I remain completely opposed to these above ground pools, not that I want restrictions that may go with them. The ordinance should be left as is with no amendments whatsoever and I trust in my opposition to any above ground pool ordinance previously sent to the city secretary. You and others will be right by her at any city council meeting concerning these pools. Sorry I have practiced law for over 15 years and I've seen many unintended consequences in situations like this where just a small opening was left for someone to later utilize. Like this drop temporarily passing and someone putting in one of these pools. before another one comes along. Thank you for your time and your service. Lou Joseph, and then this one's from 23. Please note our opposition to any city ordinance in any shape or form which authorizes any above-ground swimming pool construction. One, the city already has an ordinance in place prohibiting any above-ground pool construction, and we're sure that it was passed for a very good reason. Two, currently there are critical drought restriction signs from the H&E Ground Water Conservation District around would be requesting 30% less water use. Three, Jenkinsville aquifer is so depleted that the pool can't be used by the public anymore and our aquifer already stressed out as well. Lastly, above ground pools are unattractive and adversely affect property values. We also ask that the city secretary read the suggestion under the record of any city meeting concerning any above ground pool ordinance, as well as reading it to any civil audience there, if possible. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter. Our aquifer property values and the preservation of them are very important to us. Okay. Dear Secretary, please read our below unconditional opposition to the assembled public and to the record of any proceeding involving any proposed program pool ordinance seeking to authorize the construction of program pools in the city or community. Please read this objection in some public comment sections. Any city council meeting, including but not limited to the city council meeting scheduled for 8-9-2023 and 8-23-2023, if there are in any way connected with construction, installation, or background pools, or on the agenda of any other proceeding involving such background pools. One, our city has already had to place an ordinance prohibiting any above ground pool construction, and we're certain that it was passed for reasons that were good then, as well as still being good now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Two, climate change in Wales right now. We're currently in drought restriction emergency, with signs all over Wood Creek asking us to lower our water usage by 40%. Take as well as close, and our own training all prefers already stressed out as it is. We don't want these pools, even if that's 40% figure, is lumbered. We know the people near Wood Creek who are now having to water having to have water trucked in because I lost everyone jumping three of my ground pools are Pandora's box you can't have words that should never be published for any reason that's it well question weren't these three different people he you know okay yeah in the thing it says please read any

future past they're never submitted so yeah and then when I so statement in fact um swim spas are not about ground pools per code um so when I did inform him of that he did not retract his comment so we proceeded with reading it as it was submitted in addition to his other comments for his request All right, we're going to move into item number seven regarding the request for the installation of a swim school and allowing the permit process to commence for 74 Champions Circle. Can I have a motion?

Motion to approve our request for the installation of the swim spa and allow the permitting process to commence for 74 Champions Circle.

motion fails for a lack of second just having a different motion all right well i wanted to hear from the resident i i apologize no i'm sorry yeah i i know you're reading the motion and then she talks and then i i just thought she could speak before we typically with the items going to have a motion to open it up and i apologize please if you would like to issue a comment now that would be appropriate

Well, I'm just grateful to be here. And it's been an honor to sit and watch y'all do your job. And I'm thankful to be in the city with such great leaders. And so thank you for having me and hearing me. And I am here to request a variance to the moratorium that I wasn't aware of. I just wasn't aware of it. I would have bought the swim spa if I was aware of it. I mean, I wouldn't have done that. But I did for my healing. And I've been watching it sit there for six weeks when I should have been in it healing. And I look forward to healing with it. I hope and pray that you will grant the variance. I do have several medical conditions that I believe this will heal. i'm not going to use your water or our water i'm having the water uh hauled in and i don't do any topping off of the uh feeding of the swim spa with rain water collection or have it trucked in as well i don't want to use the stuff that stick it and it's going on granite so it's not going on concrete and um And I just believe that I'll heal with this swim spa. I have adoption prescription.

That's a good question that I haven't actually found out about yet. Is this any ground?

It's, you know, I have a deck around it and it's lovely, I think. It's a mud ground spa, swim spa. It's not a pool.

But it You're digging a big hole.

No, not digging a hole. It's going to have a granite slab to be placed on and then a decking around it.

Okay. We do need a motion before we get into Q&A, please. So if we could have a motion on the table.

Thank you for hearing me. And my name is Laura. I didn't introduce myself. Thank you. And this is my first home, so I'm learning all kinds of things about home ownership and this city, so in your rules specifically.

Thank you. So, Council, we do need a motion to either approve or deny the variance. I don't know what the proper rules are. I'm not taking it up at all, but I would request that we either approve or deny the variance.

I move that. we take action to approve the request for the installation of a swim spa and allow the the permitting process to commence for 74 chapters we have a second i'll say so we have a second for discussion purposes council member bailey made the motion as stated in the packet council member richardson is the second

um so clarifying details uh swim spas or at least this one in particular and typically it's all above ground they're basically really really large hot tub um and I will caution you though that your Your impervious coverage, you barely got the swim spa under it. I do not believe additional decking would be covered. And so if they choose to approve your variance tonight, you would need to work with city administrator Burton on that concept because you might not be able to install the decking you wish. And if they do choose to approve your variance tonight, you would still have to go through the permit application process where you would need to approve the rainwater collection that is a large enough um system to support filling something like this um so all of that documentation would need to be as i was part of the permit process should they approve the variance the first step tonight is just the variance and we would need a direct statement on that this is not necessarily sufficient enough in my opinion but um So I would request that it be amended to reference the variance in Virginia, if you choose to pass.

To amend her motion?

Yes, because the packet doesn't necessarily directly reference the variance. And I'm just concerned about that. Sorry.

I move to amend to specifically reference a variance. Sorry.

And Gary, it would be to approve or deny the variance would be the end of it. Do y'all have any discussion or questions?

I'd like to say that if you don't mind, may I say something? The guy who's going to come and fill it up says that He can write a letter that shows that he will be in charge of keeping it filled.

You would have to provide the initial purchase of the water, and that's what we've required in the past. We understand they might not fill at that exact time, but you would have to essentially have that in place. A maintenance contract for the refill would definitely benefit you in regards to the city administrator approving the application. Yes. None of that was provided tonight, though, for the record, so.

Yeah, that's, I don't know, Stephen, I'm sorry, but that's really annoying issue is that, you know, the spa was purchased and delivered and um and you come to us with you know legitimate issues um but you know farm the the reason that you have to follow variants is that our job is to enforce the policies of the city um we haven't approved um even a hot tub you know in in a few years we did one one cool And the medical documentation on that one person was extensive.

Well, I've had the MRIs and the CAT scans and all of that that I can provide. I just didn't think that that should be necessary. I mean, I really didn't.

but i've been provided all i'm saying is that you know for us to approve the variance um we have to say it's it's so compelling that we're willing to break the rules that we have set for ourselves um and your application to me i mean it's just in my opinion the application you know isn't strong enough for for me to to feel like is there i mean it's not that you can't go back and come back with with strong i mean it's like like the the contract for the water being tucked in the design of the rain water system that's going to top it off um You know, I don't know about them. I don't know, you know, physical therapists or, you know, orthopedics or whatever, you know, you know, if I had better documentation that, yeah, this is really important and there's no other way you can do it, like going to the YMCA or the physical therapist that, you know, might provide, you know, that service, then, I mean, it'd be easier for me to say, okay, let's go ahead and break the rule. But that's my opinion. I'm not one of them. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I failed that part.

Council, if I may, you do have the option, if you'd like to postpone this for further documentation as well, just in hearing that comment, that is a possibility. There's nothing wrong with that. Does anyone else have any additional questions for the applicant or additional comments or concerns?

Do you know offhand how many gallons it takes to fill? About 2,000.

And I have it planned to be delivered as soon as it's moved and set up on the pad that's being built.

I will say typically water truck providers don't do less than 1,000 refill. Occasionally they'll come out for something like 3 to 600. So again, should council postpone and you wish to provide additional documentation or should your variance be granted and you move into the permit process, it would really benefit you to have more of that stuff documented, you know, like the size of your rainwater collection, your contract with your water provider saying they would fill lesser amounts than a thousand. So, I mean, if I could echo what Tim Roscoe said is that in seeing this application, there is a, a burden of the applicant to make a compelling case to grant a variance that standard policy that's nothing to do with you or this situation if that makes sense and so what I have heard or what I'm hearing now is that there is not necessarily right now a compelling case um meaning um a long-term disability that would take a permanent installation or um you know the the plans for the rain water collection would have been very helpful or um the the literal contract with your water provider these were the these would be things that would make for a more compelling case because the variance is basically we have rules and so you're asking us to go around these rules and it's sort of like a burden of proof on your part if that makes sense so it's all ready to go it's ready to be done

the crews ready to build the pad and the rainwater collection and install the jacuzzi. It's all ready to be. And I need to be healing in it yesterday.

Do the plans that you submitted include those?

Well, it can happen. It can happen as soon as y'all give me the okay to.

No, you have to come to us first and then we say, hey, that's good. I mean, we can't. I mean, I can't. I can't. i can't do for you what we haven't done for a lot of other people in this drive um with just on the promise that yeah i'll bring something back to you you know if i get it done if i get everything set i'll i mean it's like if if we had it now and had more to work with you know you got and this is this doesn't say that it will never come back before the council you never have another chance it's just that we in my opinion the application is just incomplete and and it's like like it would be it would be it would just be tough for me to say okay i'll take your word for it right so um sorry but does anyone else on council have anything you'd like to share i'm seeing

Just, if anything, I'd like to see further documentation of the meta-planing. You got it. I'll get it.

So right now we have an amendment to address variance specifically, is what it said.

To specifically reference variance.

If we could vote on that amendment now. I would request we vote that down, if you don't mind, and that we either approve or deny the variance and issue that amendment or postpone for further documentation. One of those three options, I think, would be more clear for our staff and for the applicant. want an amendment to deny the variance or approve the variance or a secondary like a new motion where we a postpone is a standalone motion it would intercept the conversation and stop it all of it would end postponing means done tonight come back at the next meeting with xyz so we have to take up this amendment that says paraphrasing addressing invariance I would ask that you all vote that down, and if you intend to approve or deny, you make that amendment, or someone issue a motion and postpone for further documentation. Sir, Councilmember Gerber.

I just want to make sure I understand the process. We have an amendment to add the variance word, and then we have the main motion as stated on the agenda. You're asking for all of that.

No, vote on the amendment up or down, and then offer a different amendment, maybe, or just make it clearer.

I would suggest to vote this amendment down because it's added wordage that's not necessary, if that makes sense. All we really need is vote to approve the request for a variance, or vote to deny the request for variance, or motion to postpone until further documentation. So we'll go ahead and take up the amendment to add variance verbiage. All in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. No ayes. Motion fails. Please raise your hand and say nay if you do not support.

Nay.

Two nays. Do we have anyone abstaining?

No. I'm sorry.

I'm not sure. Are you on the right motion? No, this is variance.

So there were no I's. I was just assuming everybody else would be mad, but no.

So we, yeah, you either have to I, nay, or abstain. And abstain is a yes unless you have a real reason not to be abstaining, meaning it's money going to you or something.

I vote against me, though. Okay.

Let's take a roll call. Okay, you're against. Against. Abstain. So that becomes a yes.

I'm going to name it. Clarification. Previous city attorney said we cannot abstain unless we have a legal reason to do so.

There is an argument for that.

Is that to your understanding? Yes, I agree with that. Okay.

So unless you have a legal reason, we're going to go with Stan's agreement here on that. So a legal reason would be that you're going to use her son's fall or this is going on your property or she paid you money.

A real conflict of interest.

So I missed the opportunity to move. No, no, no.

All we're voting on. Okay. All the amendment said was add various words. Okay. Paraphrase. So I'm asking you all to vote that down because that is not a helpful amendment right now to the motion. we and we would make a new one of some version please so we'll start over with a roll call just to make this clear so everyone knows Councilmember Richardson Councilmember Garmer Councilmember Bailey Councilmember Swiffer Mayor Kirsten Russell okay that amendment says that's what I know okay first um so The motion on the table right now is to approve a request for installation of the swim spa and allow the permitting process to commence. We can vote on that, or you can add the words about the variance in particular. That was just a request from me, or a new motion can be made to postpone.

Anyone have a motion? So, Sam, I move that we postpone this decision allowing the applicant time to provide more detail on the physical preparation of the spa and medical needs.

Can I ask an administrative question? That doesn't require any bearings.

We will waive that in this case. be um so councilmember bailey's motion was postpone this decision to allow applicant more time to provide documentation on the installation and medical need seconded by mayor person roscoe um do we have any further discussion um i would be happy to work with you via email help you understand what That looks like and city administrator Burton can also help on that front, we did not establish a timeline on this and as it stated now it's just when she feels her materials have been submitted so if that's okay with Council and for that understanding. So you don't have a deadline. right now and your variants will still be honored you don't have to resubmit and pay again um but the council is requesting additional information from you concerning the medical need so the doctor's prescription wasn't enough it's not that it's not you know you want to see the x-rays and then results from the different mris and things like what do you mean we're i would love to talk to you about this outside of a public meeting where we're not discussing your health in a recorded meeting if you don't mind but if you are open to that discussion i won't deny you it here it's just i out of your privacy and respect for you i don't think that that would be appropriate that's fine i'm willing to do whatever you need me to do okay I would like to discuss this with you at a meeting outside of your public opinion. So was it denied? It's been postponed until you provide additional applicant information regarding the installation. Specifically, what I'm hearing is related to the water concerns and further medical documentation justifying long-term disability or need.

So the long-term... health conditions that I have any more information on that because I have short-term and long-term.

Yes, ma'am. What we have here today appears to be kind of a short-term incident, right? So that was what I heard expressed was the concern that this is a short-term need that perhaps could be satisfied without the permanent installation of a water-using device. If you have a long-term disability, that would give a more compelling argument for a water installation device that's permanent or semi-permanent being installed at your home, then that would help your case.

I'll give that to you.

Okay. Thank you. All right. The motion on the table is to postpone this decision to allow the applicant more time to provide the documentation on the installation and medical need. Do we have any further discussion tonight in council? All right. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hold the vote on that motion to postpone. All in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. 4 aye. 1 nay. Motion passes to postpone. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. It's been a long way. Let's get together at a later time to work on your additional application materials. And Mr. Burton can also help you if I'm not able to.

Thank you very much.

All right, guys, we're going to move into council considerations for future business. I've mentioned this before, but if you guys would like your stuff, I put it in the slide so you can always email me beforehand. All I have right now are I would like to propose a rainwater collection incentive for small scale and landscape watering. Seconded by Councilmember Richardson. Tonight I heard a reconsider for speed cushions in the budget from the public.

Don't burn that one. I second.

Okay, so Mayor Pritam Rasa will be sponsoring that item, and Councilmember Gromit has seconded that consideration. When I say speaker, should I say safety enhancement phase three? I would say safety enhancement phase three, because that's what was in the budget, and that's what they were requesting come up, and we'll have a separate item for it this time instead of it being part of a larger item. I will honor the modifications, if it's okay. I've been working with Mayor Pro Temorowsky on the modifications that Council members expressed in responding in that plan the last time. So we'll bring back any questions.

Well, we're not going to be talking about details. Can the details be broken up so Council could maybe, it can change, you know, I just put that later.

And I don't remember that in that safety enhancement, it is kind of. It is kind of.

Yeah. Actually, nothing was specified. It was just safety enhancement phase three. And then what was proposed was what citizens had brought to us. Because the whole point was we were just approving to add it to the budget and approving staff to be able to work on the plan and consult with engineers to bring forth a plan for council consideration. Yeah. But Council did make modifications during the meeting, and I will honor those. If you don't mind, we'll adjust what was presented. No additional considerations for future business. I remember Councilmember Garmert, you made an announcement at a previous meeting about something related to taxes. Were you still interested in getting your second on that during the appropriate allocated time for policy?

Since I don't remember at the moment, no.

Was it like a further exemption?

Oh, it was. Yes. Possibly. I applied on our possibility of a general homestead exemption, tax exemption.

Yeah, that was on the last meeting.

Yeah, it was made as an announcement. Announcements were on the last meeting, so I was just trying to follow up. I don't know.

And then the item, the custom of the framework was taken about that was that may have been on this agenda.

It's already submitted. Okay.

So I'm just saying that it doesn't have to be.

It doesn't. It was submitted in May on the 17th. The agenda was posted on the 27th for June, and it was already in process at that time in full. He was asked if it could go on July. He said he'd be out of town, so it could come in August.

Okay.

It's already in full version. Yes. Sorry, that wasn't directed at you.

No, it's okay. It is 9 o'clock. Yeah.

All right, now we're going to move into announcements hearing no future business. One announcement, we have a replant of lot 144 and lot 146 of the replant and extension of Wood Creek Section 2, establishing lot 144A in Ace County. Texas notice of a public hearing set for July 15, 2026 at 5 p.m. during the regular Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. They will need to issue a report that would then come to us if this is your notice. You could tune into that meeting to be informed. by them directly. And then planning and zoning is also planning a public hearing for MH1, noting expected August 19th, 2026. That's related to the manufactured housing code the state is requiring from us. Our next council meeting is August 12th with the final budget workshop. Please come with all of your final budget stuff for that meeting because we'll be launching straight into the September you know like that's it and then September after you post it so I'm sorry you're saying that the regular meeting cost a bunch of work they're saying yeah that would be primarily a budget workshop I do yeah that's the goal got it and um in the future it's very beneficial for all Council to take into consideration the budget calendar when submitting items and understanding that the ones of July and August to in june really even tend to be very heavy budget stuff so anyway all right moving on uh that would adjourn our meeting if i have a motion to return uh meeting adjourned at 8 56. thank you