San Angelo City Council 4-4-17

[0:00:00] morning, and it's time to get this show on the road. My goodness, we've got a good crowd today. And since the agenda's kind of light, I think most of the people that have here today is friendly. That is always a good sight. But I've got central kids and ASU kids and some of them. I'm just a tickle that y'all are here today. We will start this morning with the prayer. I'll ask Tarmy Richardson if he would to come forward. I would ask you to stand as your label. All right, would you pray with me? Lord, we come to you today thankful for your provision. Lord, we're thankful for the provision of rain that we've enjoyed this week. And Lord, we know that we're dependent upon your provision for even more. Lord, I thank you for those that are here that are offering leadership for our city. And I just pray for wisdom for them. I thank you for the representation that's in this room of our city and just to rejoice in the excitement and the life that we experience together. Lord, we always want to lift up our first responders to you. want to lift up our military to you and we pray father that you would offer your protection over them and their families. Lord today as we discuss business Lord may we do it in a way that would honor you and father I just pray for the wisdom that you can offer to each one of us as we lead our lives daily Lord also for these who offer leadership to our city. Lord today we want to honor you in Jesus name. Amen. to help me with my pledge this morning. We have Caden Balkam, Cooper Cuevas, Ben Fargy, Lucy and Green, Genevair Gonzalez, Kayla, Kayla, Gavin Spain, and I'm going to ask y'all to come forward and help me with the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Come on. That would be Kayla, Naya,

[0:02:03] I got pretty close, didn't I? Good morning, y'all come right up here. Right there is a good spot right there. Elimination, I would like to read since I've got y'all appearing good. Y'all may be seen. Thank you so much. Autism is invasive, developmental, developmental disorder affecting the social communication and behavioral skills those affected by it. As more health professionals become proficient in diagnosing autism, more children or big diagnosed on the autism spectrum exulting and rates as high as one in 68 children in the United States making it, the fastest growing serious, I can't say that, developmental disability. While there is no cure for autism, it is well documented that if individuals with autism receive early and intensive treatment throughout their lives, they lead significantly improved lives. Individual with autism often require lifetime was specialized in community sports services to ensure their health and safety and to support families' residents as they manage the psychological and financial burdens autism can present. It makes you more services for the Concho Valley is spearheading an awareness effort in order to educate

[0:04:06] parents, professionals and the general public about autism and its effects. Now therefore, Adouane Morrison, Mayor of the City of San Angel, Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim April 2017 as autism awareness month and urge all employees and residents to participate in autism awareness month activities in order to become better educated about autism and to create a better community for individuals with autism. Leave you that and you've got the microphone whatever you want to say 10 15 20 minutes. Thank you all so much. But thank you for helping me with my play, it was very kind. This picture, yes picture, I want a picture of y'all. And now, we have some musical talent. And I started this about four or five meetings ago. I said for as long as I've got meetings, and I think I got three more after this unless it's a runoff, that I was going to have someone from our city that is homegrown to come up and to play us music.

[0:06:06] And we've had some tremendous musical acts. Today I have another one. Now this one is somewhat special to me because this is my first born son. Darren Morrison, he'll be playing the guitar, I have Alicia Long that is with him, and you've got ten minutes Darren, approximately three songs, I have no idea what he's going to play, I tried to find out and he said I'll find out today, so. We're going to start with the end of Gaudet to beat him. I'd like to introduce the band first, this is a former first sister, Alicia Long, that took of that. This first one we're going to do, we're going to do a little hymn, a little waltz if you all want a three step here. This one, I've noticed a lot of the gospel songs, the songwriter and the attempt to tell us how great heaven's going to be, a lot of times they tell us how sorry the world is. And I don't know if that's the right, I mean I don't know what else you'd do, you've got to make a comparison one way or another. But I think maybe the Lord gave us this earth, he wants us to take care of it and do the very best we can with it. And that's what this is about and it's kind of a this song about doing the very best with what you have And it kind of brings up another deal I've know you know a lot a lot of times in this time of year of the politics and stuff We hear a lot of negativity about how sorry everything is and how bad things are and My work takes me to Midland Odessa Abilene a lot and I'm gonna tell you with the exception to Noel Wagner They ain't got nothing on us St. Angelo is a really fine place, and this right here is your reason. These folks up here that come up here for 50 bucks a month and take all the abuse from the city to do these things are the reason we have such a fine place. So, this song is dedicated to y'all. We appreciate you doing the very best you can with what you have to work with. This is a little hymn. This is called Gold Pave Streets. Well, along for the day, when the whole world can't see, when we all get along, and we're

[0:08:26] living in peace, when well it has, during this little world, has some good in it still, I've seen the mountains, where the trees touch the sky, and I've slept eight stars on a cold Desert Night I've known some green tears And the love of a mother Sees through my lies While we are

[0:10:28] And some good at ya You've done Wake up in the city With the gold-paid streets Alright, let's do one for Willie now Two, one, two, three About fifteen more and more

[0:15:17] Okay, I'd like to introduce our drummer over here Former First Sister, Alicia Elan, on the drums Here's one of sing along, so y'all just jump right in whenever you're ready. No Meru Haggard, no ma Even though I's on your back You will stand in deep darlin Darlin You never have been in me I'm not the only one who's in my life I'm Steve Goodman I'm not the only one who's in my life I'm the only one who's in my life I'm the only one who's in my life When you have a Ivy, every Spanish friend on a river, every other object you have a right to go to a country,

[0:17:20] and you have a right to go to a country, and you are a never-whoowed person. You have a right to stay alone, you have to be a very Jewish person and you have to be a very Jewish person. As a young mother, I have a right to go to a country, but I don't want to be a very Jewish teacher. What if I lie and let you be I, but, get my soul steady, oh yes she did, well let me, let you be I, you don't have to call me darling, darling, you never hear me, pour me no me My wife talks to me like they did with it.

[0:20:04] Thank you, son. Thank you, Alicia. We do have some more proclamations. All of these Central High School kids come up here to the front and let me read a proclamation honoring y'all. My goodness, what a great, good-looking group of kids. Welcome. There is no debating this point. Central High School is built one of the state's power house speech and debate programs, and this year again offered ample proof of that. Led by coaches Julie Snears and Tim Hayes, the Central Bobcats this year had 44 qualifications. The second most in the state, at the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament, among 222 schools including all private and public schools of all classifications, Central High finished 11th and the nation's largest state's speech and debate competition was six semi-finalists, five quarter finalists, two finalists, and one state title. Kelly Shaw placed third overall in informative speaking and Alfredo Antu claimed the 2017 program Oral Interpretation State Championship. Additionally, a record 14 Bobcats will compete at the National Tournament through the National Speech and Debate Association in June in Birmingham, Alabama. That shattered the CHS record of nine qualifiers. In UIL, competition 11 of the 15 district spots were snatched by central bobcats of the district meet and they won the district championship for the 10th year in a row. Good luck as you compete in regionals later this week therefore I, Dwayne Morrison, the mayor of the city of San Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud the central high school speech

[0:22:06] and debate program for its achievements and positive determination to make a difference in our community misniers. You have the microphone, man. Thank you so much. We're just excited to be here. I'll just want to take one second and recognize the 14 kiddos that are going to nationals because that is a huge feat as well. So if you raise your hands, if you're going to nationals, yeah. And I want to take one more second and recognize our TFA finalists because it is a huge deal and I know that we stand in front of you. And you're like, wow, there you have a big team and it must be easy. But these kids work so hard. I cannot explain to you when we walk into the state meet how proud I am to be with Central High School and these kids because of All of the teams in the entire state. They have the biggest heart the biggest drive and they are the most respectful Children in the state. I stand by that firmly so I'm super proud of them Our third and informative was informative was Keely Shaw and she's also going to nationals in that and so out of I mean the state meet is huge and our POI which is program oral and turf Alfredo on to he's a state champion for us to have a state champion then we're proud thank you for having the help we can take you and there is proof positive right there what we have in San Angelo Texas very proud

[0:24:28] you kids. Very proud of you. All right. We have crime victims' rights weeks. If y'all would come to the front, whoever our honorees are, good morning. Thank you. Come by yourself. Anyone come with you? Americans are the victim of more than 20 million crimes each year affecting individuals and communities. Providing victims with knowledge of the rights and available services further strengthen their ability to recover by restoring a sense of self-empowerment. A trauma-informed response to victims from both healing and foster strength in survivors unaddressed trauma from victimization, weakens the residents of victims, and their communities impeding their ability to withstand further trauma. Victims who feel we understood and supported are more likely to disclose their victimization, seek services and participate in the justice process, a multidisciplinary response involving collaboration among victim service professionals, criminal justice officials, legal professionals, medical and medical health providers and community leaders is essential to reach and serve all victims, especially those who are marginalized, have disabilities or live in remote locations. Strengthening the multidisciplinary response brings diverse skills, perspectives and understandings together in the service of victims also serves to build the resolence of those responders by strengthening the confidence and the roles, abilities, and sense of contribution. National Crime Victims Rights Week, April 2-April 8 of 2017, provides an opportunity to recommit to ensure that all victims of crime, especially those who are challenging to reach or serve, are afforded their rights and receive a trauma-informed response. The Tom Green County Coalition Against Violence is hereby dedicated to strengthening victims and survivors in the aftermath of crime building residents in our communities and our victim responders and working for justice for all victims and survivors.

[0:26:31] Now, therefore, I, Duane Morrison, the Mayor of the City of St. Angelo, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim the week of April 2 through April 8, 2017, as Crime Victims Rights Week. Thank you. We just want to say thank you to the Councilman and women and the Mayor for this proclamation. My name is Mariah Cordery, I am the Secretary for the Tom Green County Coalition Against Violence and also the Children's Coordinator at the Family Shelter. As a coalition, we just feel it's really important that the members of the community know how frequent violent crimes are in San Angelo, not just domestic violence, but we're talking assault, sexual assault, robbery, things like this. In San Angelo alone, last year in 2016, there were 356 reported violent crimes. That means that 1 in 282 citizens have a chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime. So we just want to say thank you to our police department, the sheriff's department, CIU, and also the family shelter because without community alliance, we wouldn't be able to help the victims that are affected by violent crime. So the Tom Green County Coalition Against Violence is having a rally on Thursday at the Visitor Center at 5.30 p.m. and we'll be releasing balloons and having refreshments and entertainment and we would really like the members of the community to come out and support our victims. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Let's get a picture. National Public Health Week. Would you all please come forward? Bring them all Sandra.

[0:28:31] Hello Bob. Are you sir? Come with us Sandra. Welcome y'all. The week of April 3 through April 9 of 2017 is National Public Health Week and the theme is Healthiest Nation 2030. The home and neighborhood can impact individuals health and opportunities to engage in healthy behaviors. Public health professionals help communities prevent, prepare for, withstand and recover from the impact of a full range of health threats, including emerging diseases, natural disasters, and disparities caused by human activity. Public health action together with scientific and technological advances played a major role in reducing and in some cases eliminating the spread of infectious disease and establishing today's disease surveillance and control system. The work to become the healthiest nation will require making health a priority in all policies from housing, education and income to community designs, transportation and the environment to parks and playgrounds and walking and biking and improving the nation's health will require shifting the focus of our health care system from the treatment of sickness and disease to one that emphasizes wellness and prevention, the City of San Angelo's neighborhood and Family Services Department and the San Angelo Tom Green County Health Department engage a broad range of county, community and regional partners to support efforts that promote equality and and promote the economic, physical, and social environments that affect everyone's health within the community. Now therefore, I, Dwayne Morrison, Mayor of the Great City of San Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim the week of April 3 through April 9, 2017 as National Public Health Week in San Angelo, Texas, and call upon the people of San Angelo to observe this week by helping our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and leaders better understand

[0:30:31] the value of public health and adopt for many lifestyle habits in light of this year's theme, healthiest nation, 2013. Sandra? Thank you so much. I do want to thank Mayor Council City Management for their continued support of our activities. Oftentimes, we they're not popular You have animal control, co-compliance, health of health inspectors. A lot of times people don't want to see them, but there is a reason why those departments exist. It is to keep the community safe and through policies and the ordinances, through the federal state laws. We all try to do that. And so in order for us to continue to help the community, we require the support from Council And so we do appreciate that. And thank you very much for this proclamation. Thank you. Bob, do you have any thanks, guys? Just real quick, I want to echo what Senator just said and thank the Council and the Mayor for this proclamation. I think it's important to let the public know that we have these programs, these health services available to its citizens, especially those in need. And we encourage, and we hope that people take advantage of them. Thank you. Thank you. Let's get a picture.

[0:32:40] Alcohol wears much. Bring you good forward Eric. Good morning. Alcohol is a primary factor in the four leading causes of death for those ages 10 through 21 in almost 100,000 people die each year from alcohol related causes including drinking and driving crashes. Approximately 15 million drinkers in the United States are dependent upon alcohol. adolescents use alcohol more than tobacco or illicit drugs and begin drinking on average at 13 years of age. Young people who begin drinking before age 15 or four times more likely to develop an alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at 21. Alcohol abuse is linked to up to two-thirds of all sexual assaults and date rapes and is a major factor in contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The tip of American will see 100,000 alcohol-related commercials before he or she turns 14 years of age. Therefore, I, Dwayne Morrison, the mayor of the city of St. Angel, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim April 2017 as Alcohol Awareness Month in St. Angelo, Texas, and call upon all in the city of St. Angelo to support efforts to increase awareness and support for individuals and families coping with alcoholism and drug addiction in our community. Eric? Here's your proclamation, and there's a mic. Thank you, sir. On behalf of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council for the Conjavali, I'd like to thank the mayor and the city council for helping us recognize Alcohol Awareness Month. We all know that alcohol use disorder affects many families and those who are surrounded by them. And so at ADAC, we are committed to fulfilling our mission, which is to save lives and create healthier communities. We, this is our prevention team up here, most of them.

[0:34:43] And they're working with young people in our community every day in the schools and the different clubs around town to educate them on the dangers of underage drinking and alcohol use disorder. And so we have plenty of events coming up for ADAC. And so we would love for you to be a part of what we're doing in our community. You can visit our website at adacv.org. Again, we'd like to say thank you for everyone for helping us to recognize this month as Alcohol Awareness Month. Thank you. Now we've got another large group of kids here, Angelo State University. Bring them forward, please, sir. I choose Angelo State Month. Welcome, sir. I'm glad you brought these kids out. Yes, sir. I don't think there's any doubt that we've got one of the best universities in the entire world right here in San Angelo, Texas. Angelo State University and the community of San Angelo are partnering together in celebration of current students, future students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have chosen to participate in the auspices of higher education at Angelo State University. Angelo State University with an enrollment of 9,601 undergraduate and graduate students is an integral part of the city of San Angelo and is set to dial up higher learning in West Texas

[0:36:45] and it employs 351 faculty members, 500 staff members and 700 student workers who are a vital part of this community. The university has graduated 44,815 students since its inception in 1965. Angelos State University educational opportunities have grown to include one doctoral degree in physical therapy, 25 master degree programs, 42 undergraduate degree programs, and over 100 majors and concentrations. Angelos State University is this year celebrating its 88th graduating class. The month of April 2017 will be celebrated as I chose Angelos State Month at Angelos State University my current students, future students, faculty, staff, and alumni through campus events, social media, and local media outlets. Now, therefore, I, Duane Morrison, the Mayor of the City of San Angelo, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2017 as I choose Angelo State Month in San Angelo and call upon the citizens of our area to recognize this remarkable display of pride in our community and the comprehensive educational opportunities at Angelo State University. And use that for you, appreciate it. So Mayor, we truly do appreciate that you and the City Council for four consecutive years have recognized I chose Angelos State Month in the month of April. And so in that, I would also like to take the opportunity to ask any alumni or current student that is not up here to stand up at this point, raise your ram horns. And I know we have some in the City Council as well. There we go, and back here. All right, so we realize that Angelo State does not belong to those of us that work at Angelo State, but it belongs to all of the alumni, current students, and the citizens of San Angelo, and we are so appreciative to be good stewards of the university for the community.

[0:38:45] We'd also like to take a moment to introduce a few of our area students who have chosen to attend Angelo State University this fall, and we recognize that students, especially from the area have choices and options, but they choose to make Angelo State their destination university because of the great pride that we have and the great standards of excellence that we have at Angelo State. So today we have in front of us, and we're walking them to the Ram family, and we're very proud of Ram Fam. It's not just a slogan at Angelo State, it's really a culture that we celebrate. So today, from St. Angelo Central High School, we have Ashley Stewart and Jeff Cessick, Executive Director of Enroma Management, is presenting Ashley with her t-shirt. From Lakeview High School, St. Angelo Lakeview High School, we have Jordan Avendano, and we have Dr. John Wagner, Dean of the Freshman College and Center for Academic Excellence, presenting him with a t-shirt. From TLCA High School, we have Kaitlyn Neely and Kimberly Adams, Director of Development and Alumni Services, is presenting her with a t-shirt. From Great Creek High School, we have Larissa Bortick, and presenting her as one of our student leaders, Amanda Yaso, who is a current ASHU student. From Wall High School, we have Jake Dussek, and presenting him with his t-shirt is another one of our student leaders, Quint Anderson, a current student at Angelos State.

[0:40:50] Transferring from Howard College to Angelos State University is Giavana Scott, and presenting her with her t-shirt is Brooke Flores, coordinator of the Carr Scholar Recruitment Program. Thank you, Mayor, for giving us this time. You know, it might also be noteworthy to realize that two or three years ago, we took that little school in Lubbock under our wing and made it part of the Angelos State University System. Congratulations, I'm proud of all of you. Lease officers and firefighters appreciation month. Y'all come forward, please. Hello, too. Good to see you. You've done? Over 1,000 young people from area schools will recognize and honor our first responders for their dedication and service that the annual read to me gathering. St. Angelo is blessed with outstanding public servants and our police and fire departments whose commitment and service keeps every citizen safe throughout the year. The annual gathering over 1,000 elementary school children is an

[0:42:50] excellent opportunity to instill in our youth awareness and appreciation of these brave public servants. Now therefore, I, Duane Morrison, the Mayor of the City of San Angelo, Texas on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2017 as San Angelo Police Officers and Firefighters Appreciation Month to thank our police officers and firefighters for the work that they do to protect our community, not just hand that you do, and you have the line. I will. I am Sally Myers. I am the children's librarian at Tom Green County, and it is my pleasure to be here to accept this proclamation so that the children may present it to our firefighters and police officers on Friday. There will be, as Mayor Morrison said, there will be at least 1,500 children, teachers, and readers there, and we will celebrate the service that these public servants do. We thank you, and I also thank you all for being here today. And we will be seeing them at noon at the courthouse on Friday, April 7. Thank you so much City Council and Mayor Morrison for this proclamation. The next part of our agenda is the public comment items that are not on the agenda may

[0:45:13] be raised by the public at this time. Citizens should speak from the podium, began by stating their name and limit remarks to less than three minutes. Council members may request that a discussed item be placed on a future agenda. The council takes public comment on all regular agenda items during the discussion of those items. the floor up to anyone that wishes to come forward and make a public comment on anything that is not already on the agenda. This is your opportunity. We take good, we take bad. Whatever you want to say to the City Council, this is your opportunity. Going once, we will call this to an end as part of the agenda. I'll also start with the council members if there is anything that they wish to say if there are any comments they need to make or if there is anything on the consent agenda that they wish to fall to the regular agenda do so at this time and I'm gonna break I'm gonna break president's I'm gonna start with you Marty yes welcome I have nothing to pull and nothing to say Harry nothing to pull nothing to say Lucy I would just like to say wow that was a great open in our city council meeting and I have nothing to pull. I'd like to remind everybody that at my town hall meeting over shelter list is tonight at six here at the convention sitter in the chambers. And also I'd like to pull item K for recognition for one of the city administrators from Eaton and a couple comments of mine. You're pulling item K to go to. Item K, okay, Ms. Farmer. Yes, I have a comment to make. I want to know what took you so long to bring us entertainment, to get us started. See what is the greatest thing. Just as soon as the entertainment's through, I'm ready for somebody to call for an adjournment. Absolutely, absolutely.

[0:47:14] And the only other thing is comment along with Mr. Carter's Town Hall meeting tonight at six. I have a Town Hall meeting tonight at seven. You're in the chambers right after his meeting about crime in the Southwest portion of the city. So, please, come. The only thing I need to say is that I was in Austin last week and I lost my appointment book. My entire life was in that appointment book. And now that the appointment book is gone, I have absolutely no idea anything I have planned for the rest of April and through the middle of May. Would you like to borrow mine? I'll tell you what, I need somebody. that that has really been a traumatic experience. So I would say to the public, if you have scheduled me for any appearances or any speaking or any type of engagement, please call me back because I will never remember it without my book. And I have nothing to pull. I've said this time we'll take a motion, entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda items, A, D, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and L with the exception of F. May I have a motion, please? I do have one from Harry. I have a second from Marty. Do I have any other questions on the consent agenda? Do I have public comment on the consent agenda? All in favor of approving the consent agenda with the exception of item K, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Draw up a 6-0 on that one, please, Brian. Item number K is to consider a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a letter of support to prevent closure of the Eden Detention Center. Yes, right. First I'd like to recognize Ms. Selena, if you can stand for everybody, She is a city administrator from Eden, Texas. What this resolution is to help prevent the closure of their detention facility, which can directly impact us and definitely impact the city of Eden. I just want to read off a couple statistics for the public to know exactly what will be taking place.

[0:49:14] Upon closure, there are 260 jobs that can be lost. $15 million of annual salary, $1 million in utilities spent, 600,000 in property taxes spent, and $950 in sales of goods spent per year, 42,000 of the $1 million of utilities goes directly to their water fund per month. The 60 jobs in Eden is equivalent to 105,000 jobs to Houston, 60,000 jobs in Dallas, and 42,000 jobs in Austin. So you can see exactly how this is going to impact the city and impact the city of San Angelo and the surrounding areas. So I'm in very much support of our resolution to help prevent this. So I move to approve. You have a motion to approve and I do have a second. And we would also encourage we had a meeting last week with the with the Eden officials and also Steve Floyd the Tom Green County. Tom Green County is also issuing a resolution. Anyone in our city wants to get behind this. They would welcome anything and anything that anyone could do. So write letters to your congressman. Let's try and save this detention center because it will be a very serious blow to the CD of Eden and anything that affects Eden is going to affect San Angelo. So this is a regional thing here like to add I think it was about 190 jobs of San Angelo residents that commute down to work at the detention facility. This is serious. This is serious. I do have a motion to approve. I do have a second. Do I have any count any further comment from the Council? Do I have public comment on this item? I will call for the vote all in favor of the resolution. Please say aye. And oppose nay. Put a six old that one too Brian. Thank you for being with us ma'am. Thank you Selena. Regular gender public hearing and first public first reading of an ordinance

[0:51:16] regarding the voluntary annexation of 17.192 acres generally located in the south of US Highway 67 and west of southland Boulevard at the end of Willoughie Drive and Pinyon Ridge Drive. Brother James you are on sir. Thank you. John James director of planning and development services. Maybe we'll get it. I don't know If I did that, or they did, but thank you. This is the annexation you've seen a couple of times with the public hearings. Now we're actually to the first reading of the annexation ordinance. Talked about the area a couple of times in the past, but it's out in the southwest part of town. And I guess someone else must have advanced my slide, because that didn't work. And I can go to the next one as well. That was just the survey of the property. We do provide a service plan as required by state law. This is, thank you, normally more intensive if we're annexing a large area or area that already has businesses or homes, it basically describes how the city intends to provide services from police, fire, water, roads to that area. When we're annexing an area like this that is an undeveloped area at the voluntary request of the property owner. The service plan is basically pretty simple. It just says we will provide services to the area as we do the remainder of the city from here on after it's annexed. And then we also do a capital improvements analysis. Again there are no existing roads, water lines, sewer lines within this area. Those will all be extended by the developer as the property develops. But we have prepared the required CIP analysis, just indicating all of that.

[0:53:22] What we're asking today is just for approval of the first reading of this ordinance that would annex this property into the city. Along with that motion would be approval of the service plan and CIP analysis. And then of course we'll be back with the second and final reading at the next meeting. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I think this is in your area, Charlotte. What else to take the lead on this, please, ma'am? is in my district. The first question that I have is drainage. What has been done or continuing to be done about drainage in that particular area that also will flow across Southland and on down to college hills? I can't speak to what's been done there or maybe what's been done in the past, but for new development we do require drainage study and engineered analysis to ensure that drainage after development will not exceed that pre-development in order to address at least future drainage issues that might arise. Move to approve as presented. Second. Do I have a motion to approve as presented? I do have a second. Do I have any of these questions of council? I have a comment on this item. We'll call for the vote. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Another unanimous vote. Mr. Brian. Item B is considered application and agreement to upgrade NYXL alerting system to use in the place of the warning sirens and authorizing the city manager to execute any related documents. Steve Dunn. Good morning, Mayor, Council. Far cheap, Brian Dunn. Talk to you a little bit about the sirens that we have from now. Currently, there's about 29 sirens throughout the city of St. Angelo. Get in the mic, Brian. I'm not close enough. No. In the city of St. Angelo, Great Creek and Crystalville. And many of these sirens are older and they're really in need of being replaced if we want to continue using them. Of the 29, 23 of these sirens are pre-1980

[0:55:25] with the majority of them being in the 1950s and 60s. They are the old Cold War era air raid sirens is what they were designed to use for. And as we moved out of that area, they got adapted to use as emergency warning sirens. Some of these coverage areas are weak. As you know, the sirens are designed that if you're outside to alert people to go inside and take cover. Most of the time, you will not hear these sirens if you are in your indoors. I never hear the sirens when they go off at my house. Some of the issues we have with them now is ability to get parts or fix some of them. I talked to Ryan Ward at Signal who usually he does the repairs on these. And when he calls to ask about some of the parts for the older ones, they've told him to look in museums. So that's how some of these things are. Some of the other issues we have when the sirens go off is that all you hear is a siren. So as we're dealing, as public safety is dealing with the emergency issues, dispatch is getting inundated with calls asking what's going on while we're trying to make emergency runs. So they are getting overloaded on the non-emergency and the 911 lines when a lot of this happens. Mental and warning areas with the sirens, depending on the weather conditions and the wind. If you've got high winds, it's gonna cut down on the reach of those sirens, same as the sirens that operate on our vehicles. Once you're running at a certain speed, if you're running at like 60 mile an hour in a emergency vehicle, it actually only projects out a few feet. So alternative warning system. Currently right now, the police department uses NYXL in a limited capacity. And the version that they have is an opt-in version, like for wrecks that they have on the streets. People can opt in to find out about this type of information. What we are looking to go to is an upgraded version. And it has to do with the federal regulations with IPOS, which is the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

[0:57:26] And this system is not an opt-in system. It operates like the amber alert that you get on the phone. They come through no matter what. There's certain stipulations that you go to, and you only use this for things. It would be like the tornado warnings, severe warnings that you would broadcast to everyone. Under the system that we're wanting to go to, it would hit all cell lines, land lines, with the ability to re-dial if somebody doesn't pick up. And back in the audience, right here. Tracey Gonzales with the police department. She's more familiar with the NYXL staff. She tells me that it also has the ability to send out email things. And Google, talk to the microphone, please. If you have somebody that's visiting San Angelo, and maybe they have not subscribed to NYXL, or they're not a resident of San Angelo, they will, if they have a smartphone, it will automatically populate to their cell phone. You have the ability, you know, if you're out of town the sirens go off. You don't know that there's been a warning made. When you come and hit that threshold, you will get an alert on your phone. The other ability would get this also is where the sirens are right now. With this new ability, we'll be able to do the entire Tom Green County. So that means calls bad. Well, all these other areas right now that have nothing will get warnings also now. Like I said, the system is able to broadcast without it being signed up for. It will go to all people in this area and with this system, we send out, you know, we should be able to have pre-built messages such as a tornado warning. As now the sirens go off, you don't know if it's a tornado, high winds, hail, you don't know what's happening.

[0:59:26] We'll be able to say this is a tornado warning for eastern part of Tungering County. Take cover in an interior part of your building so we can give them instructions on what to do with this system. Like I said, I'm getting ahead of myself ability to warn people who enter the area after the initial warning, which is an issue now, with this system, the city would not be responsible for maintaining any hardware. That is, the cell companies do all that. Low cost to use. Right now, if we have to replace the heads on the sirens, which run for the two kinds. They're either 12,600 ahead or 15,000. That does not include installation or if it has to have a different pole, which is the bottom part of the number. So it can be any, the top part is actually the mechanical heads. The bottom part is the poles and the other part of the labor, if you replace everything. To upgrade to this NYXL program, it would be about $5,500 a year. currently we spend right out about that mount on electricity to operate the sirens when you have meters and all these sirens. So that is about a wash and then you could, depending on whether you do away with them or not, you would not have any repair cost or maintenance for future for the sirens. The city can switch over to the system without having to buy any hardware. My recommendation is to move to the NYXL alerting system and discontinue use of the sirens. And I talked to Ryan work yesterday and he estimated at the most it would be about $15,000 if we took down all the polls and everything and I assume there's probably some scrap value to that but that would be the the cost to get the trucks to be able to get up there and take these things down into some of the museums yes you say that things

[1:01:30] from the 50s and 60s should be in a museum you've hit our entire council exam lane and myself I think this is an excellent idea, it makes sense, fiscally, and also it's, it looks like the right thing to do. I'll entertain a motion on this. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Uh, the cost to remove the old horns, you said, was about 15,000? That's what Ryan Ward estimated to me. And they're going to have to get a truck, and he said the labor involved. And I assume that's if his department's billing for that, if it's internal, I don't know if, know and then my other question was what percentage of the people in San Angelo do you feel that do not have a cell phone? I do not know San Angelo exactly but I did pull the Pew Center for research and they say 95% of all Americans have cell phones so it also operates off landlines too so we will get far more coverage with this than we ever got with the sirens and any any internet, Twitter? It is automated to publish to all of the social media outlets as well. So aside from the police departments, Facebook and Twitter and Google use, it will enable city emergency management and COSA social media accounts to auto-populate as well. So we have a broader reach, very robust alerting system, we can target as many of the population as we can, and not just relying on landlines, like some of the other companies use. You mentioned smartphones. If people had smartphones, now this will work on phones other than smartphones. Again, if we speak to antiquities in the flip phone, ma'am? Yes, it will work on flip phones as well.

[1:03:31] The text will come through to all the cell phones. A smartphone would be with the email in the Google portion of that. We were to approve this. How long does it take to get in to come to effect or to start? I am thinking on the NYXL side is probably just a matter of flipping some switches for them. I do have an IPAWS contract in legal right now that would go forward. It's basically the federal deal saying we will follow guidelines, I believe. I would think very, very quickly, a matter of a couple of three weeks maybe at the most. And when Nixle first came out, I mean, I got notices on my phone, and that was five years ago maybe, and then it just stopped. Just stopped. And the last month, I picked back up again, just now it's coming across, it's... That probably was dependent upon your carrier. I know that there were some issues with cell phone carriers in the past, some smaller cell phone carriers within the city that they stopped acting as a provider to Nixle and some of the customer base spoke up to those carriers and said hey we're relying more and more on Nixle to keep us safe and we're demanding of that as customers so they started incorporating those alerts back to their customers. My questions in reference to taking care of my My question is in reference to taking care of my 85-year-old grandmother. You said that it has the potential to re-dial the landline. She's more than likely not going to one to answer if she doesn't recognize that number. Sure. And you said once you cross that threshold, if you're out of town, is there a way, if I say I'm up in Lubbock or Dallas, I can still get that alert for the city of San Angelo and I can dial her because she'll see my name come

[1:05:31] over. Absolutely but keep in mind though when you're talking about a disaster some of your cell phone carriers then become inundated with emergency calls call you see that across the country during tornadoes you try to call your loved one in Oklahoma and you can't get through because all of the cell phone lines are bogged down. So, NYXL works off of a dedicated proprietary system for alerting. Now, we can set up what I call a vanity line which we can designate as a city line so that our receivers or the NYXL recipients will see that number come up as emergency management or whatever we want to set as that vanity line. So, they'll know that that number that's coming to them is a valid emergency. So that's important. And also going back to the iPods integration that has the ability not only to populate to the cell phone and the landline, but we're talking it will interrupt to your television as well, and your weather radio. So it's targeting everything when you talk about the iPods integration. I do have a motion from Harry. I do have a second from Marty that we accept this. Do I have any other questions from council? Just to comment, it'd be nice if it would say tornado as the calling number or hail or earthquake. I mean, I don't know that it can be done, but someone just look at their phone and know. And that is possible. So for instance, if you're getting the text message on your cell phone, the initial text that will come through is truncated, much like your Twitter message is a shortened version of an alert. we certainly want to maximize that initial message. And, you know, content is key, right, in emergency communication. So that would be something that we wanna communicate right off the bat, straight away,

[1:07:32] tornado warning, tornado, you know, take shelter. So we will let the public know what exactly we're alerting them to. And then secondly, what is the call to action? Which is something that we've never had with those sirens. So they hear the siren, what next? You know, we will have the ability to tell them what to do and where to go afterwards for help. I'm all hoired. Because these sirens probably don't even, I don't man half the people here, do they? No, they're not made to hear indoors. I know when the one goes off by my house when the dogs start hollering. That's the reality of it, but that's not what they were designed for. They were designed to tell people to go indoors and take cover. So, any other comment from Council? Public comment on this item. Call for the vote. All in favor of accepting this as proposed, please say aye. Aye. An opposed nay. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Tracy. Item C is discussion regarding late fee charges associated with an municipal statement requested by Lucy Gonzalez, Bill Riley. Take it. What's your question, Dorothy? Okay, first of all, I had a bunch of questions, but I walked out of the house today without any of that paperwork. So I'm gonna have to try to remember some of this stuff. This is a long time coming because I believe that $25 is just a lot of money to pay for a late fee. And what's even worse is that you can just be a day late and that's how it's black. That's what I'm just gonna be. I do understand that it's part of the revenue for our water fund, but $25 is still way too much for a lake fee. And I would like for us to look at it and maybe even go down as a 10%. Say for instance, whoever is owing $75 is late

[1:09:38] would only pay $750 late charge. Because also you have to look at it that whenever somebody has a $75 water bill And they're late, they paid $25, okay, somebody can raise, I mean, can have a water bill of $1,000, and all they have to pay is $25. So I think that the fact that it's going to be up and down or it's going to be different, I still think that we'll be able to make up the difference somewhere else. But I do believe that our citizens need this right now with the water, with our five-year plan that we have in effect. I believe that they would appreciate anything we can do at this time and I believe that this is what we can bring to the tape. Let me take a little bit here if I may and just kind of go through the numbers so you understand what we would be looking at in that regard. Just to start with, this is the ordinance that was adopted in 2005. It went from $10 flat fee at that time to the $25. And while I wasn't here, I understand that the purpose of that, of course, was to encourage people to that were consistently late to pay that bill. Whether that worked or not, I don't know, but what I do know is this is the revenue that we budget for and it generates on an annual basis, which is, as you can see, around an average about $1.5 million. Now, there are about 5,000 accounts a month that are late. month. Sometimes it's as many as 6,000. If you went to a percentage based late fee, the 10% here would be on an average bill would be about $8.19 for 10%. And again, that's based on the actual annual revenue would drop from $1.5 million to just under $500,000. So that

[1:11:39] would be about a million dollar decrease in our revenue stream. And again, that's based on the average of around 5,000 accounts a month that are late and an average 4,000 gallon a month bill. If you went to a set amount back to the way it was before, the $10 was about $600,000 a year in revenue. Now, the thing that I think is important here is that while it is, I understand exactly what you're But the fact is we are relying on that revenue, and the rate study that was done considered that $1.5 million revenue as an annual revenue, so that's an offset, if you will, from the amount of money that had to be generated through rates. So if that went away, then there's a million dollars that needs to be made up somewhere. Just real quickly, just let me show you what other cities in the surrounding area do. does have a 10% so does Big Spring, Odessa and Wichita Falls have 5% and Abilene has nothing. But again, my point in that is that while if we go to that, there is quite a deficit that has to be realized because of that amount of money that has been annually received was planned for in the water fund. So just to kind of look at what that does to the five-year rate plan, if you went with the alternate two on this in this area, that would be basically the 10%. And what you can see is with this number right here is the 11% is what we were anticipating for the rate increase in 2018 as part of the five-year plan. To make up that million dollars, it would end up being about 14 and a half percent to make that up, which would mean the additional per amount of money collected per account would

[1:13:41] be about $1.35 a month. So as looking at the actual rates, for again looking at the alternate two, because that's to the 10% is that it would, the actual monthly rate would go to 330 under the current plan, it would go to 339 for the first 2,000 gallons under the, under a 10% increase. So the point in that is that if you continue with your five-year plan, you're going to need to make up that million dollar somewhere. And the way to do that is to raise in the rates more than what we had anticipated to those customers that do pay on time. Well, I don't want to do that because that's to feed in the purpose, I mean, it's already gone up enough. So I don't want to do that. I would really want to be able to find that many, and in other schools, it's looking to to something else, but I do want us to be able to bring that $25 down, and I don't want to increase the water rates anymore. Well, to me, I look at the late fee, the $25 late fee is another tool or source of conservation. When I look at cities, say, Abilene, I'm looking at the cities that share our water source like Ivy. They have no late fees. disheartening to me because you want to encourage people not to pay a late fee and we encourage people not to pay a late fee because they've had 28 days 28 days from the time they get their bill until they have to pay it and the conversations that I've been hearing out there well they don't like you know

[1:15:44] I rush down there at get there at three o'clock and the window closes at two and my payments not credit to that day and then I get hit with a $25 late fee that's That's not right. It should be all transactions that come in before 5 PM, in my opinion, before they get hit with a late fee. But to have 28 days to know that it's due and it has got to be paid, I have to ask for someone Tina or Michael or possibly you, Bill can tell me, how many dollars? What is the volume of dollars of delinquent water bills? This is money that the city needs to operate on, and what is the dollar amount of our delinquent water bills per month? I actually know that number. Michael, if you have the help us with the answer, please. Because to me, that's important. When you look at a city, our size, and the number of people, you can say five people, 10 people, but I'm wanting to look at the dollars. And it's huge. is huge. It is huge. And we can't move forward and operating the regular daily business without that income. You know, we have a reserve fund, what are we at now 90 90 day operating? 120. Our reserve fund actually had gone on to $300,000 at the point that is implemented to try to get that back up to 75 day. And that was the five year plan was to get us up to 75 days. We have not got in there bills average bill is be about $215,000 and 15,000 I was thinking

[1:17:44] 300,000 so that was a little better but $215,000 a month it revenue is not being paid to the city for services that were rendered 28 days prior now to me water is precious water is precious and if I can't get their attention with a percentage that hey we need your bill paid on time and if you can't pay it on time we need you to get in here and make some arrangements and if they've made arrangements to pay pay the bill that's great and that's wonderful but at the end of each year we still have about a half a million dollars in water bills that go unpaid to me this is a a serious matter, it's very serious. My question is, why are we calculating in a gamble of 5,000 people betting that we're going to be paying, they're going to be paying late? In my opinion, that shouldn't have been placed into a calculation at all. Because what if in a perfect world those 5,000 people, everybody paid perfect that month? That's just such a dynamic number. Actually, it's not. It's a very consistent number and has been for years. And therefore, it is a budgeted number because it happens every year. Bill, could you bring that slide back up, please? That's the one. That's actual history, the last? It is. And it goes back considerably farther than that. It is an annual amount year after year that is very consistent with the 5,000 to 6,000 a month that are delinquent. Eric? I guess a couple of comments.

[1:19:44] I think one of the things we probably need to do a better job on is education of our citizens because even though there are people sitting at this particular desk right here that believe $25 impacts some of the most precious lower economic people that we've got in as citizens of this great city. The bottom line is that that money is needed for services that the rest of the citizens depend on. So you've got a consistent portion of income that comes in every year. It's got to be budgeted for, and that outlay has got to be put on the books so that you know exactly what that is. I was really in favor of looking at going to a percentage prior to the presentation that Bill just made, but I can't see that if we're going to have to increase water rates for the rest of the 95,000 people that are out there, the bottom line is I'm not willing to do that. So I'm willing to keep this at the $25 lake fee because they do have 28 days to get that dollar amount to the water department and get it paid. I would say that most of these people consistently do this, so from my perspective, I don't want to penalize the rest of the citizens. You said this is 5,000 delinquent counts per month. How many total accounts do we have? 35,000. What percentage is that? 30,000 people pay on time. So 18% of the people. We're looking at possibly changing it for 14% of the people. It is.

[1:21:44] I think Lane's comments were leading up to a statement about how incredible it is that people continue to pay those late fees. I agree, we moved a few years back and it put me in a different billing cycle and it threw me off and I paid a few late fees and I went to the draft system and I haven't paid any late fees since, but it is amazing lane that people continue to pay those fees rather than get and caught up and stay that way. There's a lot of people that do not have, I mean, they don't work on every day. They might not have a job that's every day. They may have to work maybe Monday, Tuesday and Friday or whatever and they get paid there being told they're going to get paid on Friday well they don't and they're thinking I've got to pay my water bill on Friday and then they don't get paid so they have to wait till Monday and because they had to wait till Monday that's twenty five more dollars. I can see I can see what we need I can see that we need this revenue coming in I do but But at the same time, I just feel that $25 is just too much money to ask for our citizens from our fixed income people that are out there. And I know that y'all talk about, well, they have to budget. In the real world, there's people out there that pay their bills on time and are just right there on it going, I have to pay this and I'm not a day. Some people are not as responsible as others. We know this. As long as we work with people all the time that call us and tell us that they just can't pay it and they work out of the day. You still charge in the twenty-five dollars? No, we do not. We'll waive that if they say, okay, we can't do it today, but we'll be there Friday and we will pay you. If they come in on Friday, we let them pay their bill. If they don't show up on Friday, then they're going to pay the twenty-five dollars. But if they call and let us know, then we work with them and we do that all the time. Just as a matter of context, Lucy. When this thing first started in 2005 and we started charging this, in my mind, exorbitant

[1:23:44] amount of money for a late fee, we brought this before council twice. Danny Cardis was on the council, Danny and I both voted against this $25. About two years ago, Johnny Silverson and I brought this exact same thing forward. Johnny Silverson and I voted against it, the rest of them voted for it. When you've got someone with a $25 water bill and you charge them a $25 penalty, that is usually. is as bad as these car title loans that we are fighting because you are charging entirely too much money for the amount of money. If you put it on a percentage basis and at least it is fair, and when you tie everything to a dollar amount and you forget about the people in this city and the harm that it's causing, I think it's the same as usury. I'm very much against this $25. It's excessive and it's punity and I would like to go to a 10%. If you have the stats that 5,000 people are paying late every every month surely we have the stats on how late is it one day Late two days late five days ten days the whole month late. I Don't know that we actually Have that information no It at the end of 28 days If you haven't paid your bill the next bill goes out and there's a late charge on there I mean if The initial first week I could see yeah, I've lowered the you don't need a $25 late fee, but To incentivize why don't not do a rolling? Schedule first week five bucks second week ten bucks and when if they That I can't probably speak to that like Tina or our billing folks could but that would be a pretty expensive undertaking to do to to track it at one week intervals, but I would say percentage based. Do you have

[1:25:45] about the comment? Yes, I also want to ask how many accounts do we have in collection right now? The amount is around three million dollars. The number of accounts I don't recall. I do know as when in 2005 when we went to the increase and the whole idea was to encourage people to pay that bill on time because for budgeting purposes the city needed to pay their bills and that's our only source of income is that fee or like Marty was saying it for me to subsidize the small portion of the city that are not paying on time or who don't don't come in and make arrangements, because you've just said we wave those fees, make arrangements for those that have hit something out of the ordinary in their budget that causes it to be late. 28 days, I'm on Social Security, I get paid once a month, once a month. When I worked in the bank, I got paid once a month, and first of the month, when I got paid, water bills do on the 28th day of the month, or the 29th day of the month. Well, I can't pay it because I don't get paid again till the first of the month. Well, I got paid on the first of that month And I have known for 28 days that that bill needed to pay. I like The idea that we've changed and gone to automatic drafting systems so people can pay their bills and have them set up on Anyday, it's not a specific day. It's a day to fit their budget automatic draft. I only had to pay the light fee one time to make sure I got that done real quick. You said that we're in the hole of collections three million dollars right. If I remember right that was the same number about a year year and a half ago. It's been growing at about a half a million dollars a year.

[1:27:46] What are we doing wrong to not collect from people? Well that's a good question. I had one more question, I had a gentleman ask me the other day why we take their social security numbers, this could answer it, is that why for collections? It is for collections, it's also for identity theft reasons as well. What are our actions now to get that three million? If I was in the, if someone owed me three million dollars, I'd be going after them every day. Well, we are actually doing that. We are working with MBVA, I think, is the company that's working on the collection side for us. They are making some slow progress. Some of these accounts are so old, it's going to be very difficult. One of the issues that we need to look at and would anticipate bringing back to you sometime soon is on our deposits. Our deposits are very low. they don't even come close to covering the cost of the bill. If we had those more appropriate to what the bills are, then we would be able to lower that number considerably. But when somebody just leaves, they're not always easy to find. And a lot of them are not people that just quit paying their bill and don't have water, they're gone. In an effort to address that growing delinquency, Bill, how long ago was it that you brought the contracts to go with the professional collection agency? It's been about eight months, I think, since we did that. So that condition, which has gotten your attention, got their attention a year or so ago, and so they're working to address it through a stepped up effort. We had to approve an amount that the collection agency would retain for the amounts they collected. And so there is a stepped up much more professional approach associated with collecting those delinquent accounts,

[1:29:46] but that's a good question, you're right, and they do work it every day. There was a question in earlier mayor about what those receivable balances were, according to the year-end audited financial statements in the notes, shows that utilities receivable accounts total a little over 5.7 million in the water fund, a little over 1.6 million in the sewer fund, The allowance for uncollectable accounts in the water fund, 1.6 million in change, and 470,000 in change in the sewer fund. So there's an allowance between those two funds for uncollectable accounts of $2 million. And that's against accounts which have not already been written off. So chasing those delinquent account balances is a priority, and that's why our utilities management folks have brought to us the MBBA and one more. I just wanted to add to that as well. I know that you mentioned that first of all, the reason the course for this plan is to make sure it's three steps. We want to make sure that we're a solvent that we were really way down on our reserves. Part of the plan was to get that back up again. The next plan was to replace what's in the ground. start replacing the water lines at a better rate than we were in the past and of course the third reason for this water rate plan was to address a future project. Mary mentioned two years ago that Johnny, you and Johnny brought this to get this down to 10 percent. At that time, had it been approved as far as a 10 percent, when we worked out this plan, that would have been taken into consideration because at that time the revenues would have been at 10 percent of the delinquent amount. So really this plan that we have before at this point which Bill made the point that in order for us to make up that a million dollars would have had an adjustment on those water rates. If that 10 percent had been approved two years ago,

[1:31:49] it would have already been built into this water rate plan. All we're saying right now is that we in fact go to a 10 percent unless somehow we have to build into this as well to make sure that we do keep those three priorities that were established. I didn't bring my calculator, I wanted to ask someone what was at 12% of $8,000, the $8,912 or something like that, don't trust my calculation in my head but I don't have the machine. There are some large volume users out there, they don't want to see it go to a percentage because they would be paying $812 a month late fee or on that month and they would like to stick to the $25. Now I realize we don't have that as many large volume users but there's the other side of that coin to go into a percentage. You have your large volume users and to me that's restricted to the only fair way is to pay your bill on time and I do not want to raise citizens water bills because 5,000 people, 5,000 accounts, don't pay on time, and the rest of the city does. I would help. I know if you set up service on the 14th, then your cycle is from 14th to the 14th, and a due date somewhere in the length of 12th. Would it help if our system calculated based on the first day to 31st day or 30th day at the end of the month, that way we get on the cycle of the same cycle as everybody else's paychecks. A lot of people get paid first and 15th, semi-monthly, every other Friday, would that be helpful if our system calculated it that way? I think Tina will probably have to speak to that,

[1:33:50] but I don't know that we could, That would have everybody being built at the same time, which would be quite difficult. It would be having to read the meters all in the same day. I don't think that would be reasonable. We had electron meters. They're not all there yet. But that is how you would have to do that. How many meters are we lacking to go electronic? Well, we've just done the residential meters. We've not done anything beyond that, even some of the large meters that were sprinkler meters for residential so we have not got to those yet. They were not part of the original program so that still has to be fun. Ryan. I just wanted to bring up a couple of things for you to consider. This is posted as a discussion so we just really need a consensus for staff to move forward if there's any direction that y'all want to provide. Second thing is this will come back in the form of an ordinance and we are one person down and so it would take four votes to pass that ordinance on the first reading so there's a couple of things to consider we're really close to an election and to city new council members I just want to make sure you are aware of the situation there as far as passing ordinances and so forth. Well let's get a consensus to say where we're going. Yes okay Bill also could you also think about the three from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the time on the due date. Can you do that? We can. We've had a lot of discussion about that. The problem is when those actually come in and the three o'clock is when is the deadline when we can end the day if you will. We'll continue to look at that. We understand the issue there but it's a little bit difficult to do that but because we can do

[1:35:50] anything right let's have some public comment and then I'll see if we've got a consensus to move forward come ahead Turner yes my name is Jim Turner and realistically the twenty five dollar P is a flat P is probably an unfair at both things of the ratepayers, the people who are on a fixed income using the bare minimum, it's a very high fee, the people that are taking advantage of the system using lots of water. It's basically an interest-free loan as far as they're concerned when they're using that much water. What may be better to look at is a hybrid approach to where you have a minimum-late fee of something like $10 and once they get over the $100 mill amount then the 10% fee kicks in and that can be adjusted to where you're still getting basically the same revenue now by adjusting the minimum fee. Realistically, once you get down to a certain point, collecting the fee doesn't make a lot of sense just because of the paperwork involved and the record keeping. So a minimum fee is probably reasonable, something in the range of $10 up until you get to a certain tipping point, and then you also pay a percentage so that the people at the bottom end, the people with the lowest incomes are getting not hit as hard, but the people that are taking advantage of the system are actually carrying their weight for how much they're using water and not paying for the time that they're getting basically the late fee that they should be paying. And it's almost like the difference between you've got a meter fee that's just for the privilege of having water you have to pay that and

[1:37:54] then you have a certain amount that you pay for every gallon. This is the same type If you have a late fee, there's a minimum fee you pay for that privilege of being late, but the people that are really taking advantage of it, they need to carry the weight because they're just, they're what's making the payments and the whole cash flow a problem. Thank you. Any further public comment? Chris Jerome. I find it very disconcerting that our water department is actually budgeted in how much people are going to be light on their water bill and that's a usable amount of money. Sounds to me like if you have excess income from light fees that should be going into a rainy day fund to if something massive happens with our water system. We've got some revenue there to take care of that. And as to Mr. Valenzuela alluding to the fact that if we do change this we've got to look at the water budget that we had set up. We've got a 55 percent increase coming over five years. I believe you had a toilet to tap program that you decided to get rid of that's part of that 55% but I haven't heard anything about pulling that money out of that 55% so I'm sure there's some extra revenue in there that can take care of that if we do drop this absurd late fee thank you. Brother public comment. Council Steve Hampton I would like to fall in with Jim Turner I think he had an excellent idea there I was thinking more like ten dollars for four days and then go up to twenty five after that, but I like his better because of the large volume users. Also, I'm concerned about these five thousand.

[1:39:57] We don't know anything about them apparently. Why are they delinquent? Is it poverty or is it neglect or what? And then the water department is independently excusing people because they say, please. So I think we need to, if we have a problem with people under the poverty level, that they need to be registered and so we can work with them before we excuse the bill. And that's all I have. Thank you. Further public comment? I am Brenda Genter. I think all issues need to be broken down into the pieces that make up the issue. And I would say one of the first issues that I would look at is having a deadline of 3 PM. That's the middle of the afternoon. Most people have a deadline for paying at the close of business. I don't know that we close at 3 PM. But I do know this that it is the middle the day and I'm not sure why we've picked that arbitrary time frame. It would seem to me that it ought to be end of business day. Yes ma'am. I use the mic please ma'am. Pull it down to you. Anna Bartosch, I listen to Mr. Riley and I understand, I don't know if these 5,000 or the same 5,000 every month or that very month to month. It is the same 5,000 that

[1:41:58] would be we need to look into that because obviously they cannot pay the bill but also on the water department I didn't hear anything about them looking at their own budget and trying to streamline their operating expenses so that they're not in the whole every month if they don't collect the fees and I agree with Chris these should not be part of the budget because it is a nebulous number. It may vary, and just like Mr. Carter said, what if in a perfect world everybody did pay their bills? What are you going to do then? So I think that should go more to a set-aside account and you should try to operate within your means. That's what I have to say. Thank you. Anyone else? Merivame, two comments were made. First of all, Rainy Day Fund, we do have this amount that is budgeted in. I just mentioned a while ago that part of our objective was to increase that Rainy Day Fund, or to become solvent. So that is something we're working on. Future projects are really important to us, whether you want to call it a total to tab, or whatever you want to call it. It may be a direct, a portable reuse, it may be some other project, but it is something that's community will need in the future, and it is something that we're planning for. any further comment? Let's get a consensus. I for one would like to bring this back. I would like to see the $25 go away. Lucy, how do you feel? I want to go along the lines of Mr. Turner. How do you feel Charlotte? I'm not in favor of reducing the fee you're making it go away. I know that we have reduced our delinquency when we started charging a fee that got their attention. I have to base my opinion On 25 years in banking and 16 years in property management, that's a lot of the years of collecting money from people on a particular day. That's a business experience that I do have and that I do know,

[1:44:01] and if you've got their attention, your payments come in on time and properly, unless there's something catastrophic and make those arrangements. That's a price stand I wouldn't vote to reduce them. I am in favor of changing the hour to 5 p.m. because the two o'clock, three o'clock, whatever it is is long gone with banking days and today's technology work can be balanced and the people should have till the close of business day. Do you want to bring it back or no? You do not. Harry. Well, the direct answer is no. As long as there's a way that we can get this $1.5 million and keep it out there and I don't think that there is without keeping that $25 late fee. So I don't want to bring it back. Marty. I'm not in favor of bringing something back to help or not I should say not help, but I don't think we should penalize 86% of the people that pay their bill on time for 14% of the people that don't pay their bill. That's three to three, I'd suggest you bring it back after the 15th of May, Lucy, if you want to bring this up again. Okay. And it is 10, 20, let's take a break. I need about 15 minutes. For D on the regular agenda is the second reading. For an ordinance submitting a Penny State Fee Schedule Article A2 double, double, double, zero, zero building into construction related fees, section A2 double, zero, one general provisions. Restating sub part C building valuations and repealing subpart D inspections and permits in the E.T.J. and many section A002 building permit fees. Restating subpart F, expedited plan review plans and added subpart G in a modal container placement fees amending section A004 miscellaneous permit fees by restating subpart D, 30-day partial temporary occupancy permit, many section A209, and permit fees

[1:46:01] by adding subpart E public event banner fee section A-2-0-1-0, general fees by adding subpar G fees for appeals, billing official to the board of adjustments and appeals in any section 2-0-1-2 permit extensions by restraining said section to provide for permit renewals repealing section A-2-0-1-3 licensing the electrical. Morgan, you have the floor ma'am. Good morning y'all. What's before you today are the fees for the permits division. Recall this is a second reading on March 7th, this did pass the Council first reading at a vote of four to two and in in light of that we can go through the whole presentation we're prepared to do that today but just as a quick reminder there are four fees proposed at this time the ones particularly for the intermodal container is intended to offer some relief on the permanent what's authorized in our fees right now for the temporary intermodal containers is actually higher doing it by evaluation than being able to do this to be able to do this $35. Additionally, there is some information to remove certain fees that are extinct now, and then also clean up of language about fast tracking plan reviews. That's got all of them. That's got all we're dealing with today. For permits, yes, sir. Somebody want them to approve. That's presenting. Has a second. Second. Charlotte has a second. Harry has the motion. Any comments from Council? This is second reading. Public comment on this item. First, Joe, I'd like to better understand why we have some of these fees coming up. I happen to sit on the construction board of adjustments for the city of St. Angelo. And I'm a volunteer. Everybody else on the board is a volunteer. So why does it cost any money at all for them to come forward and present something to my board?

[1:48:02] again. Each year we do a fee review process with staff and so what goes into the estimated cost of service for example is staff time for receiving the application process in the application reviewing and preparing items to go to the board. So the vast majority of for example that $70.69 is related to staff time in the downtown banner. Some of that is staff time but then some of it is also for the materials to put items above downtown, the ropes, the pulleys, the chains, the all of that. So it's materials, operating budget, staff time, you'll see in the majority of fees, it's driven by staff time. And I'm glad you brought that up, Chris, because that brings a second question. Why is it that when we go before the zoning board of adjustments, it's $200 plus dollars. If it costs $70.69, estimated cost of service for the construction board of appeals and adjustment, Why is to go before the ZBA $200? It was 50, and then it went 200, and then it went to 200. I'm not real sure what the fee is now. Also know to go before the Planning Commission, which I did about a month ago, cost me $453. Why is it if we can do it for the estimated $70.69, or are our citizens paying so much more for the zoning board and for the permit planning for the planning board? I can defer to Al to talk about the specific process that drives the construction board of adjustments. I can say that the fee that was adopted at $200, the cost to provide that service is well in excess of that. We're not allowed to levy a fee that's more than our cost of service. So I don't remember that cost of service for that fee here is particularly talking about since that's not up for a change today, but this is a more streamlined approach and I'll let Al speak to that. Chris first. Chris, did you have another comment? My comment would be, I am to understand that the personnel

[1:50:03] that we're talking about reimbursing their time for, our tax dollars are already paying them to be there to provide this service. So basically, we're being taxed twice. If I'm already paying somebody to be in there doing paperwork, I don't see why I should have to pay again just to get them to do a job that we've already hired them to do. I would feel that we would be praying add Valorium taxes up to better serve those people in other places similar to what we're talking about on the water bill, you know, I'm a business owner and the fee that I pay the city now went from basically $5,282 because that's the cost of services for that for what I do. But I pay that and in turn it presad Valorium tax that would be spending for that service It brings those tax dollars up to better service citizens in other ways unless I'm looking at it wrong. I am curious why one board is this and the zoning board is so much higher and the planning board is so much higher than that. Part of that has to do with the staff that are involved in those processes but part of it for both the zoning board and the planning commission. There are required notices that have to be sent to all the properties and 200 feet surrounding So there's mailing costs and other costs that they're just aren't with the construction board Well, I won't be part of it, but I'd like for that to be adjusted well sometime down the road. Yes, I'll tour his permanent office I do want to add a little bit that it is a different process of the cases that on the construction board basically are for appeals to a decision that I've made so typically it takes a little bit of research time in my part to research what the issue is you know put together

[1:52:03] presentation my staff has to do that and basically it's a user fee like you like Marty was saying otherwise yes taxes do pay my salary but why should somebody who has nothing to do with this pay specifically out of their tax general taxes for something that one person is needing I will add that in the seven years that I've been here, I think my decisions have been appealed to the construction board twice. So it's not like this is something that's going to happen all the time, it's going to be a big impact. We just looked at other cities and other cities charged for people to go to the construction board. The most part of the construction board here is dangerous buildings cases and we don't charge for those. Applicants that will go for the construction board, 95% of the time won't get charged. This is just for appeals to something that I would have to put a presentation together for. So that's what that is. These user fees unique to San Angelo do the city's charges or other other cities and again it runs the government, but we looked at At some of the comparable cities and some of them charges some of them don't I ask that question because The this is not unique to San Angelo These are fees that are charged these are user fees that are charged as far as taxpayers and monies that we collect just from property taxes alone Isn't enough to cover our our first responders are far Department of Police Department so we do everything we can to stretch our dollars but again to say that we should be subsidizing how the general fund for a user fee I think that's just not right we want to make sure that we do stretch those dollars for the services that we do provide. Well we do this because our sister cities are doing it and we're following you say no. To an extent some of our sister cities don't do it some of them do. So let's go right back to that last issue we just dealt with. Midland charges are 10% charged when they're late. Oh, that's a charge of 10%. I think the other two charge five and that charges another subject. It no, it's it is another subject, but it's the same subject as well. If we're going to be, no, I've got this. Thank you. But I'm just saying if we're

[1:54:05] going to do it because other cities do it, we're going to use similar. Why is it that we do it on one hand and then do it on another? That's I just threw that in no charge for that. And I do want to point out that some of our reasons we're trying to get and 95% on our police officers. But anyhow, we've had our discussion. Is there any further public comment on this? You've had your discussion. Sure. Okay. You know, nobody likes fees, everybody hates fees and everybody hates to go up on fees. But what we hear very little about, I've been hearing a lot lately about how high our taxes are and what our taxes do pay for, all of the property taxes do pay for. You know, everybody forgets the city of San Angelo for the last 12 years has either reduced or kept your property tax at the same rate. That is proven, it's in the records, it is a fact. And by doing that, we don't increase property taxes for everybody to cover these expenses that some people don't use, period. And I believe we have gone from the 84.7% range for $100 down to $70, what is $74.76? $77.76. That is what the city of San Angelo has done. That's what your council up here has done to reduce your property taxes or keep them at the same rate. Yes, we know that the state has raised property values. And we know that the County Appraisers Office is the one who goes out in appraiser values. We have no control over that. The only thing we have control over is our budget and how we structure whether it be fees to help pay for these things because we've not raised those property taxes.

[1:56:07] Rest you have the comment and then we're gonna call for a vote on this. You guys keep saying that you haven't raised our property tax rates. You've kept them at the same level. just by keeping them at the same level and the valuation of our property goes up means that your revenue stream is larger. So in essence, by not decreasing our tax rate. We're getting off, we're getting off the agenda. Well, she's the one that brought it up. And we need to shut it back. Thank you. There's Darren Fentress. Mayor, I know you're ready for a vote. I apologize, maybe I should have spoke sooner. But I think it's important to know What city staff does to bring issues to the ZVA or the construction board of adjustments or the planning commission, if that's considered additional services, you know, as an engineer, I sign a contract to do a certain amount of work. If we do work that is outside of that scope, is that we consider that additional services, we get an additional fee for that. So I guess my question is, is when staff has to do work to present things to the ZBA or the Planning Commission, is that outside their job description per se, is that considered outside of what the taxpayers pay for? Because I'm sure they have things that they need to do on a daily basis. They don't have to have anything to do with bringing cases before the ZBA or the Planning Commission or the Construction Board of Appeals. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comment on this? I personally have no problem with this. I think that these fees are fair. I got a real problem with the ZBA and the planning commission. The fees here I have no problem with. I need a motion. You have a motion by Harry and a second by Marty. I mean by Charles. I'm sorry. I missed it. Second. We do have a motion by Harry to accept this as presented.

[1:58:08] We do have a second by Charlotte. We've had public comment. Is there anything else needs to be said? Then I'll call for the vote. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Nay. Let's put a 5-1 on that, Brian. Item number E is the first public hearing in consideration in order to submitting a pending say fee schedule or a 6-0-0-0 parks user fee by renaming said article parks and recreation fees adding section a 6-0-0-5 park facility and activity fees. Market. What I have before you today is the results of the fee review for the parks, facilities, rentals, and the recreation division. The vast majority of your background, and I apologize that it was a lot to work through, is that many of the park's fees and the recreation fees have been before the Council for discussion, have been set by consensus, or have been to their advisory boards, but as we make an effort to clean up fees and to be more transparent, we're charged with ratifying these fees through this process, having an ordinance with two readings, having it codified all of these things. So the vast majority of what's before you today is simply ratifying existing fees that have been through some approval process in the past. For example, for the parks facilities rentals, there's 14 facility rentals before you day unchanged, simply ratifying what's already in place for the recreation division. There's fees related to 31 different leagues, 15 fees for the nature center, 14 fees for facility rentals, 10 fees related to the Love Municipal Pool, seven fees related to Texas being sports complex, and one fee for nutrition, the senior services program. There is one additional fee for the nutrition senior services program that we are proposing increasing at this time. There is a fee of $5 for non-registered members to have lunch at the senior center.

[2:00:08] The cost to provide that service is actually about $5.97. the majority of that is simply the food and in very little staff time when you realize that over the hundreds of people fed daily. So we are proposing increasing that fee from five dollars to six dollars. The registered members age 55 plus is staying unchanged at the three dollar suggested donation. So as I mentioned we can go through these fees individually but that's the by and large what's before you today. So the only fee that you're proposing to raise would be the lunches everything else is already current fees. That's correct sir. Move to approve as presented. Second. I'm wondering and Brent you might be able to answer this those fees for our for our little league and for the tournaments out at our parks. And we got those things to hide that it is hurting us or we that that concerns me the fees look awfully high. I don't want to get in the situation where we're charging so much that we're actually keeping people from using these fields, we could hurt ourselves in the long run, just trying to make a little extra today. Yes, no, I don't believe that the fees are hurting us where they where they are set currently. Our leagues are growing. Every league that we have is growing. We're trying to introduce new leagues. And the biggest problem that we have is we don't have enough space fields, gyms or anything else. That's our problem. Basketball alone, we had 155 teams for our league, you know that's more than doubled in the other leaks around town so and we're looking to grow it even more so I don't believe that our fees are hurting us for any of our leaks are okay thank you sir that was just for my information sir thank you buddy I'm enjoying seeing the heavy use okay I don't remember who made the motion to do second but we do have a motion and a second on the floor or any public comment on this?

[2:02:14] Brenda Gunter, how do we monitor, for example, the CVB building in terms of somebody using that? Because people just show up the same thing at Unidad Park and some of these other parks families just show up for reunions or events. I mean, how are we knowing that we're somebody using it and we're charging for it? Because I don't know if people know that they have to pay a fee go have a wedding down by the river at our CBB facility. I can speak to the pavilion as a citizen in using the pavilion the open air across from kids kingdom you know it is booked and people use it and if they get there and others are there they show them their the recreation used to give a little piece paper that said that they had paid and they have that area for that time frame and you can use it anyone can go down there you don't have to book it but you're not guaranteed if you want to be guaranteed to have it then you got to go see them and book it ahead of time and they give you the voucher and notice that it's booked during this time other times it's open to the public so if you don't want to book it and have your wedding down there and risk that everybody else is going to be down there you can't make them leave unless you private reserve it yeah It's kind of tough to monitor. Well, we really don't need to monitor because you only have to book it. I mean, if you book it, then you have the voucher saying. So when I walk down there, I can say, I have it reserved. You can't be in the pavilion. And then if they have problems, they could call. I understand the pavilion is a controlled piece of property. I just wonder how that works in our parks and areas that are beautiful by the CBB. I get the pavilion. That's an easy one to figure out. The CBB, we don't, do we book that out or do they do it? It was one of them up there. Not the building itself, just the fountain area and the gardens below the building.

[2:04:18] So just if you want that contained sort of where the fountains are and the plaza in the center of the building, but you're right, that is not the easy, because you have so much traffic through there, that is one of the harder spots to enforce. I agree. It's my point. I have further comment on this public comment. I will call for the vote. The motion has been made that we accept this as presented. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Put a 6-0 on that one. All right item number F is the first public hearing and introduction in order to amend the 216-217 budget for capital projects. Ms. Morgan, you have the floor. I have several items today before you the total budget amendment is $50 million, $93,333. The first item for consideration is traffic operations accident claims. I'm sure you've noticed some of the accidents that we've had in town that are taking down signal control, signal boxes, lights. We do attempt to receive reimbursement for the party that caused the damages against their insurance. proposing increasing the revenue from the $100,000 that's existing by another $60,000 in both revenue and expense to be able to make those repairs and seek that reimbursement. The next item is the Coliseum Climate Control. This is a contribution from the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo Association that was approved by the Council back in September, a $25,000 contribution for that project. That's about half of what it costs to put that new control system in at the Colosseum. The next item before you is for the auditorium, the marketing for CPAC to be able to provide. This is contractually obligated from the April 2014 Council approved agreement for CPAC taken over that auditorium. We're prorating that amount for this year. It does come from hotel occupancy tax proceeds. So prorated amount for the estimated live date would be $8,333 to finish out this fiscal year.

[2:06:22] And the last item before you we permission in December to issue debt for the Ford Ranch estimated revenue up to 50 million dollars and also expense of 50 million dollars as we derive the final Amount for all of that will reduce that budget back down to what it needs to be But at this home we need to budget what the council authorized as the maximum So that total is 50 million ninety three thousand three hundred thirty three dollars Need a motion to approve move. I do have a motion from Harry a second from Marty. Any questions from Council on this? In this forward ranch probably going to be back down in the forty two million dollar range which is what we were supposed to be plus the expenses we incur and so it's up to fifty but it will be adjusted back down. We're all cautious. Public comment on this item? I will call for the vote. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Drop a 6-0 on that one, Brian. Thank you. Close session. Executive session on the provision of the Governor's Code Title 5 open government. That's subtitle A open government. Chapter 5-5-1 open meeting sub-chapter D. Accepts requirements and meetings be open under the following sections A. Section 5-5-1-07-1-8 consult with the Attorney with the Government of the body seeks the advice of its attorney about pending or contemplate the litigation regarding number 1-2-13 seal-coating program contract. Number 2, temple to construction in cooperation. Number 3, Elsay in cooperation. Number 4, City of St. Angelo versus Spillman Technologies in cooperation item B. Section 5510712, consult with the attorney with the governmental body, seeks the advice of its attorney on a matter in which the duty to turn to the governmental body of the Texas History Rules Special Conduct of the state bar of Texas, clearly conflicts with this chapter regarding the Ford Ranch and Hickory Water. And item number C is section 55-107-2 deliberations about real property regarding 1-1-4-6 city farm road. It is exactly 11 o'clock and will be in the exactity for one hour. Be back about 12

[2:08:27] if things work like they're supposed to. Oh I missed one. There's one on the next Page D. Section 555-10712, consult with the Attorney with the Governor of the Body, 6, the advice of attorney on the matter and what to do, the attorney of the Governor of the Body, under the Texas, this is for the Special Conduct State Bar of Texas, clearly conflicts with this chapter regarding a leasehold at 1146 City Forum Road. Now we are in at 1101 a.m.

Transcribed 2026-07-26 with faster-whisper (base.en) · source: youtube.com/watch?v=VsvOO2kmqZM