All right. Good afternoon everyone. Dr. Vto, your mayor for the city of Laredo. We're here to give the recognitions for the persons that really deserve it and we'll be calling one by one and a group at a time. Then we'll take a picture back there. Recognition and communication 5:00 pm. The mayor will be presenting the following. Starting with the city of Larredo and mayor Dr. Vto Trevinho and council congratulate Alexander High School junior ectctor Benavides on being selected the thca super elite teams. The elite team consists of high school players nominated current by current professional members of the Texas high school coaches association. The award recognizes student athlete across the state of Texas for their exemplary athletic athletic achievements and in their respective sports. Ector Benz was the only Laredo selected for this award. Ector Benz please step up. And do you want to say a couple of words? Of course. Well, just wanted to say thank you for all these people right here. my family, my coaches, and just my team. And we're getting ready for some more this coming up season. Thank you. All right. Congratulations again. Yeah. Can we get the family to the back so we can get a picture in the back? You want to Ready? One two Got it. Thank you. All right. Next would be city of radio mayor city council congratulate Alexander school varsity robotics team which would won the inspire award and advance to the world championship for the first tech challenge. Now, this inspire award recognizes a team that best embodies the challenge of the first tech challenge program. The team that receives this award is a strong ambassador for first programs and a role model first team. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much to everybody that came out. It really means a lot to us all of the time and the effort. We know it's not just a team effort, but a coach effort. Uh, thank you so much to Mr. Medina for all the time that you put in. Thank you so much to the parents, the siblings, everyone that puts all the time and hours just so we can put everything into this club, into our team. And we are so excited to be representing Laredo at the World Competition. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Can you switch over? You guys don't come. They're going to be first certificate. Right here with your parents. You want to start over here? >> Right here. The last one over there. She's not here yet. >> Chief is not here yet. Give me one minute. All right. Next, city of Laredo and council recognizes the South Texas Elite 12U, which recently traveled to Dallas, Texas for the star and ex experience tournament of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. This team was awarded star champs and presented with champions in rings. Come on down. Councilman, you want to give some words? >> You know, I just want to uh thank well the parents first of all, the coaches, it's there's so much time put into this. It's such great accomplishment. Uh kids, you keep going, keep striving. You thank you all for putting Larredo on the map. uh Laredo as a whole, we're glad you guys are are, you know, competing in in in in in that uh in flag football and at that capacity. So, thank once again, thank you so so much. And to the public watching, we want to recognize this great football team, flag football team, uh today. Thank you. >> Coach, you want to say some words? Um, thank you for everybody that came out to come and support us. Um, it was a nice feeling knowing that we went to Dallas and came back with the championship. Thank you for the coaches who supported us and our parents and families, everybody who supported us and thanks to my team for uh, getting us a championship. Thank you. It's so important because to us, we just see the stadium on TV and for you guys to actually play in it, it's so so special. Here you go, coach. >> Thank you all. Thank you all so much. Uh these kids, uh they went out there and they brought back the championship. You know, they won it all and they deserve it. Thank you all. >> Let's go get a picture in the bank. I like that. Get closer. Can we help the kids one by one? Okay. You want >> one minute? right over here. >> Okay. >> Right over here. >> Right here. And last one. Congratulations. All right. Next is city of Laredo and council recognizes Maria Solis for her almost 30 years of service with the city of Laredo. And I think uh it coincides with National Library Week. So the award goes well in tune with your award. Thank you very much. All right. Can you say a couple of words? >> It's been really been an honor to work for the city of Laredo. I want to thank you, mayor, and the city council for all support throughout the years, and I hope it continues, especially in these hard times that the libraries are facing. I'd like to thank my staff who's up there. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish so much. And I'd like to thank my family. My boys are still on the way. Um, they've had to miss a lot of home-cooked meals because I was here at city council. So, they had to fend for themselves. But thank you. It's been an honor. >> Very good. And congratulations again. We'll go to the back for a picture. Do you want to be Right. One 2 3 Ready? Are you right next City of Laredo Mayor City Council proudly recognizes Lieutenant Margarita Goa for her recent graduation from the prestigious FBI National Academy. This this elite program recognized worldwide is a rigorous training and specialized curriculum brings together law enforcement leaders to enhance their skills and knowledge. Why we respect this from Laredo? Congratulations. A couple of words from the receipt. >> Very much. Thank you very much, mayor. I appreciate it. I wanted to thank my chief, Chief Rodriguez, for having granted me this opportunity. It's a once in a-lifetime training and I'm very privileged to have partaken in it and it was a very long time away from home. I'm very glad to be back in the sunny Laredo weather. And I also want to say that I appreciate the sacrifice my department did by sending me away for such a long time and everything I learned there. I will make sure to pass it to my department. I I'm going to make sure that my department, my fellow employees, and my community benefits from this time that I was away from home. I appreciate it. That's right. One more. >> One more. Last one. >> Very good. Thank you so much. brush master. of this vegan pancake. Next recognition. Certificate of recognition. Mayor and City Council hereby recognizes Andrea Reyes, United South Lady Panthers in recognition of the United South Lady Panthers 2024 2025 5 PAT30-6A district champions be district champions and champions regional semi-finalist 16 with an overall record of 29-12 and district record of 12-0. Congratulations. >> The city of Laredo mayor and city council recognized from United South Andrea Reyes for being selected 2024 25 TABC all regional girls basketball team. And any words? >> Thank you to my teammates and my coaches for uh just just for the support and bringing us all the way to here. >> All right. Thank you. Are you sure you want to come out? One minute right here. pretty No, we're going to do United best. >> All right. Next is cityo and mayor recognizes the 2024 2025 United South High School Lady Panthers basketball team on their 5P30-6A district championship. also their by district championship area championship regional semi-finalist sweet 16 with an overall record of 29-12 and district record 120. Congratulations. The city of Laredo mayor and city council recognized the United South High School Lady Panthers 2024-25 basketball team for obtaining a 5P 30 on the 6A district champions by district champions area champions regional semi-finalist 16 with an overall record of 29 and 12 and district record of 12-0. Congratulations girls. I believe one we're we're one championship away from the Bulls. I think >> coach, a few words, please. >> Uh these girls have worked extremely hard and and we're super we're super proud of them. They they've dedicated themselves to the program. We have about 11 seniors here that are leaving the program, but we have a lot of youth, as you can tell, and we're just excited for our future. Let's go back there for a picture. Yeah, girls, you can you can join me here if you want. >> Y'all can join me up here. >> Yeah, seniors. Half. Half and half. >> We can do half and half. >> Well, no. >> In the middle. >> Where's your >> I hold it like this. >> Ready, girls? at least. >> Ready, girls? Perfect. Right over here. >> Right here. effort. Hey, how's it going? Congratulations. >> You got it. >> Congratulations. Right. We'll give him a chance. All right. Next is city of Loreno. Mayor and City Council congratulates JW Nixon High School Lady Mustang powerlifting team on achieving the incredible milestone, placing second in region 5, which spans all of South Texas from San Antonio to Bronzeville. Way to represent Laredo. Come on down. and the coach. Can we see some words? There we go. >> Thank you. Uh we really appreciate this honor. We're very blessed. Um and it's just a great thrill to know that in South in Texas, all all throughout the state that Nixon's always mentioned as one of the strongest and it's just because of the hard work of these young ladies. Our community is very supportive, our administration, our athletic department, and the city of Laredo. And we really appreciate it and we're really happy. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Let's go back there for a picture. Ready? right here. >> Right here. Thank you. Oh, thank you. >> Congratulations. Yeah, he called me. >> Right. Next Friday, >> city of Laredo and Mayor Council congratulates the Seigar Roya High School robotics team which advanced to the world championship for the first tech challenge. The Seigar Roya robotics team is one one of only two teams from Laredo to make to make it this far. Congratulations on your job well done. Few words from the coach. >> Thank Thank you, mayor. Uh, first I'd like to thank everyone in the city for helping us out so much. Uh, we had a lot of support from all the council members and the city. Um, I just want to mention that our team is also going to go to the to their fourth UIL state championship in uh in May. And we we hope to come back with another state championship. We've won two already in the past three years and we want to make it three. So, thank you again. Congratulations. Let's go back there for a pick. One two three. Yes. Number nine. Oh yeah. Next recognition. Certificate of recognition. Mayor and city council hereby recognizes Los Do by National Marathon. in recognition for Loselo B National Marathon a Boston qualifier aims and world athletics certified one-of-a-kind race in the world that starts in one country and then ends on the other one and we have representative from folks here we have their mascot here congratulations Okay, >> couple of words. >> Well, this is a great race because it's a 26.2 mile run that starts in Laredo, Texas, ends in Nova Laredo. I know I speak uh on behalf of La Calaldesa. She is very appreciative of this race. This is a race that unites the best runners in both Laredo and Nova Laredo. This year there were six Boston qualifiers. So this is the world championships of marathons and they're they're basically given the opportunity to go run in Boston this this next year. So congratulations. I think it's a unique race. Thank you, ma'am. >> Thank you very much. Congratulations. Let's go back there for a picture. We're supposed to All right, we have We have other recognitions that will be done during the council meeting. So, we're going to have to start the council meeting. Uh nevertheless stay here for the recognition during the meeting and we'll proceed for the opening of the city council meeting Larredo regular City Council meeting, Council Chambers, 11:10 Houston Street, Florida, Texas, April 7th, 5:30 p.m. Call the meeting to order. All stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll proceed for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. Five minutes. Approval of minutes. March 17. >> Mayor roll call. >> Roll call. Sorry. Let's proceed with a roll call. Mr. Secretary, roll call, please. >> Honorable mayor, Dr. Victor D. Travinho, >> present. >> Honorable council member, District 1, Gilbert Gonzalez, Honorable Council Member District 2, Ricardo Vankeel Jr. >> Honorable Council Member District 3, Melissa Sigaroa. >> Honorable Council Member District 4, Ricardo Rick GarcA >> here. >> Honorable Council Member District 5, Ruben Gutierrez Jr. >> present. >> Honorable Council Member District 6, Dr. Tyler King >> here. Mayor for Tam Vanessa Perez. >> I'm present virtually. >> Honorable council member district 8 Alisa Seigaroa >> Mr. Mayor just Mr. Secretary also miss Melissa Cigar District 3 is present. >> Mayor you have a quorum. >> Thank you. Now let's proceed to approval of the minutes March 17, 2025 and March 24, 2025. So moved. >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> I approve. Motion passes. >> We'll proceed with citizens comments. >> Mayor. >> Yes. >> Uh would you accept a motion? >> Okay. >> All right. All right, we have three so far. Starting with Al Rivera. >> Good afternoon, city. I'm here again to bug you about my idea in turning that u old federal building one of them one one of the floors into a tourist attraction and I wanted to let you know that I want to add I've talked to some friends of mine who know plumbing and another one that knows electricity and they're wanting to uh teach basic um uh of those uh two uh trades. Aside from having dances for for the tourists, uh more more than than uh just the people from Laredo to go to uh having Saturday dances like they do in Montter. I've been going there for the last 30 years and on Sundays they have the whole place packed and I want to have that for the cities uh citizens and and also for the tourists who who are visiting. I want the tourists to uh leave Laredo with a positive uh attitude and to talk about what their experience aside from all the collectibles and and things that I have because I have collectibles that will last a year to sell or and then I'll uh give a a percentage of all the sales to the city. Uh and also teach all the kids about Laredo. I got books that people will be able to read and learn about Laredo and Web County. U and um that's what the kids will be learning and passing that on and passing that on to their to their comrades so they can um learn what we have accomplished in the last let's say 20 years. Uh, I've been here 30 years and then so I want to be able to um do a positive uh uh talk about everything that happens in in Laredo and uh I think that that's the ideal place because not only the parking across from El Metro, but all the restaurants around it would be perfect for the tourists to uh have a place to go. uh soft music uh throughout the day and I I will be teaching all the kids about uh what's happening and uh keeping keeping the kids up to date on what is happening so that they can pass that on to their to their comrades. I appreciate your time and your consideration in this uh endeavor because it's I think it' be ideal for for tour tourists to go to and I thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Sister Rosemary, Sister Rosemary Welch. >> Yes, me. I'm coming. >> Okay, first of all, thank you, mayor, and thank you the honorable group. And I'm I just here I I'm here because somebody told me we're going to talk about the border wall again. And I guess it makes me sad in the fact that I thought we've we've discussed this. I think we know that we're a safe city. Uh thanks to all of us in this room. Thanks to everybody. Our community is safe. I'm just not sure why that issue keeps coming up. So maybe somebody could enlighten me on that. And uh somebody actually told me, "When are you going to stop talking about it, sister? When are you going to stop going to the meetings and discussing the no border wall? it's going to happen. And I guess it made me sad. I went to something on Saturday and maybe this is too political where it said hands up and uh we only got the finger three times. You know how people drive around. Anyway, it was a peaceful wonderful agreement and someone asked me why was I there and what my response was at 80 going to be 81 soon. When bad things are happening, good people have got to stand up. And I'm just asking you, let's really rethink. Why are we doing this? It's a slippery slope. You give a little piece away and then the next piece away. And then one of we all say how much we love Mexico and how much we love the Mexican people. We invite them over here for all of our different activities. Oh, WBCA is wonderful. And then we're going to put up any semblance of a wall. What does that say to them? So, I'm just asking you to please consider very carefully. I'm not a politician. I'm a sister of mercy who has been here so long. I consider myself from the radar nasi in Springfield, Missouri, but so thank you for listening to me. I'm very proud of you all, but I hope you vote the way I want you to. I'm not I shouldn't make a joke about it, but we've got when good when something bad is happening, good people have got to stand up. And I think this is a time that we all have got to stand up. Thank you very much. God bless you all. >> Thank you, >> Jesse Era. Some call me a poet, some call me the dude, but I've always been Jesse Ger. Anything you might have heard about me is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. In these extremely volatile and turbulous times that our future as a democratic nation seems in pearl, we are here exercising our constitutional rights to petition our local government. Let us be an example to our federal government that we still believe in the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the words we the people and that this system of government for over 200 years does work in the face of the juggernaut of big brother. We the common people of this community have come together to ask that no land be sold or lent out for the purpose of a border wall. Not one inch. Remember Shelby Park. Big Brother is a Trojan horse. Remember Shelby Park. No, we don't want the militarization of this community in peace time. Remember Shelby Park. And long long after Big Brother leaves, the dinosaur footprints of this his wall will remain for years and years in our environment and in our community. Remember Shelby Park. Make us an instrument to do what is right in our country, for our city, and for our children. Let us always see the river as to Sanchez saw it. No border wall. Gracias. Juan Aila. >> Good afternoon, Mayor City Council, honorable uh city manager and other staff. I heard your your comments, mayor, earlier today and it seems like we're getting cold feet on the uh proposition to get a bond out and I think you're on the right track. I hope your colleagues feel the same. Even though I will say my respects to the Laredo Police Department chief and all his staff for a wonderful job they are doing. Black eyes are always going to happen. We're we're not all perfect, but they do need the space. They do need all that. Councilman Gutierrez, you know that they need the space, and we all know that. Firefighters, Chief L, former Chief Landin, he knows they need the space. They need trucks. They need ambulance. We need all this. Yes, we do. But like I stated in the first time, and I'll state it again, let this man get his 100 days in office. start stop signing so many executive orders before we make a commitment to the city of Laredo to get us a bond. We are not ready. We are not. Please open your eyes. Councilman Sigoa, we need help downtown. Council, you and I have spoken. We are not ready. Councilman Rael, I have spoken to you as well. Dr. King, I gave you my feedback. We are not ready. Ladies and gentlemen, open up your hearts for these people of Laredo. Open up your hearts for for Hamilton Hotel or former Hamilton Hotel. Those people are in dire need. Those people sometimes don't have AC. Sometimes don't have feet. Where is your hearts? The same way you go out there and knock on those doors asking for that vote. Hey poor me, I'm going to do this. I'm going to bring this I'm going to bring the sun down. I'm going to bring the clouds down for you. I'm going to do all this and then be turn around and do a 360 on it. No. Don't do that. We are not ready for this bond. The same way you go out there knock on doors asking for that vote. And Mr. Neb, you are so much responsible for this bond that you need to look at the citizens. You're not from Laredo. You don't know what we have suffered here in Laredo. You don't know not even half of what we've gone through here in Laredo. But I do know that you had a good time up in Washington at 2:00 in the afternoon putting yourself on Facebook that you were enjoying uh spring break, which is great. I'm glad you enjoyed it. But it was work time. It was work time. You're on citizens time. You're on their payroll. You're not on your own payroll, sir. You're not on your own payroll. You're on the citizens payroll. And we have to we have to look at this. Mayor, you are the lead of the pack. Put your feet down and look at this facts. We are not ready for a bond. Let's give it till November. Let it rest a little bit. Let this man stop doing so many executive orders before we find out how much funds are we losing, how much have we lost already because of the tariffs. How much? Ballpoint figures. And if you look at that, then you're going to say this. All right. Thank you. All right. Uh what we need to do is uh get the recognitions um uh started so we can alleviate a little bit of the congestion. >> Oh, you have >> it's an item 55. So we'll wait for the item 55. You you want to speak now or you want to wait? Okay. >> Thank you very much, mayor, for that. Um, and good evening, mayor and members of the city council and Mr. Neb and your staff. My name is Trisha Cortez and I'm here with the uh Rio Grand International Studies Center and I am here mayor to talk about uh item number 55 and um to urge you to vote against selling or giving away any city lands to the state for the potential construction of border fence or border wall. I just want to remind everybody that in one of the greatest battles in Ledo's nearly 270year history, our residents along with this body proudly and courageously mobilized to defeat the disastrous border wall. After after we were told a thousand times, this is a done deal. Today, tonight for you, it's only about two slivers of land. But tomorrow, it will be the whole riverfront because once they're in, there's no negotiation, no compromise that will serve the best interests of our community. And in this instance, dealing with the future expansion and growth that will be needed in and around Colombia Bridge. The wall will carve a massive path of destruction through Ledo's homes, ranches, public spaces, churches, and parks and divide us from the source of all life here, Mro Rio. In response to this threat, Laredo residents that include military veterans, faith leaders, artists, landowners, and attorneys, and city council members united together in such a beautiful unexpected moment and rose up to defend our community. As a result, Laredo successfully stopped 71 miles of wall from being built and halted halted from the beginning the transfer of our historic public and private lands into government hands. We ask you mayor and city council members today to rise up again as you have before bravely and defend our lands, our river, our history, and our future memories. We ask that you continue to demonstrate Laredo's fearlessness and stand with us to honor our river, cherish our history, defend what is sacred, protect Laredo for our families and for all of our future generations. We ask this of each and every one of you tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have one last citizen comment on the same item 55 and we're on the same topic. Margarita Arisa, would you like to come? >> Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members and city staff. Uh my name is Margarita Risa. I'm here to speak against uh item 55. Um, many of you might reme might know that in Spanish colonial times, the king of Spain gave away land grants to the first settlers here, leaving out of course the native tribes that were coming through here, but to the Spanish colonists that came here, they gave out the Spanish lang grands called porcionis. These were long strips of land that all had river frontage and that was considered the most valuable land of the city. Of course, it gave access to the water. Water is life. That is still the most valuable and treasured real estate that Laredo has. and instead of handing it over to someone who wants to build a 300 ft barrier, a horrible affront to both sides of the river. Um, we need to do everything we can to prevent that from happening. And I'm appealing to you as I did the last time when we were here about a month ago. Uh, I I don't know how this item came back. It was clear at the time and there were a lot of very passionate people speaking against it as as I did then. Uh it was clear how much this means to all of us. I said then and I will say again with all due respect, it is not yours to give. It's not yours uh Mr. Neb to negotiate away from us. This is the most valuable and treasured land. This is the reason our city was founded here. I appeal to you to look to the future generations and look them in the eye and say, I I stood up for you as your ancestors did also. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll proceed with whatever recognition we have left. Which one do we have left? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. >> One more citizen comment before we go to recognitions. If she's present, he's present. David Patricio. >> No, not present. Okay. >> Do we have No just >> All right. So, we'll proceed with the recognition that we have pending >> which was >> we have United. >> All right. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. Thank you all. I have two uh recognition items and I know we have a lot of serious conversations to get to, but I hope we'll uh give them our attention. And this is uh we'll start with RXC uh running club. Uh they've had several accomplishments lately. A little bit about them, they've been a running club in Laredo with middle school and high school athletes uh for the last decade. Coaches Carlos Ranel and uh Peter Caso. Um and uh they compete together year round in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field. Um uh and then uh there's no fee to be a member of RXC and both coaches uh train runners on a volunteer basis. Um, as a as a team, RXC has won multiple national championships in track and field, cross country, and has represented Laredo and South Texas in many of the junior Olympics. Uh, middle school runners currently hold several city records in the 800 meter, 1 1600 meter, 2400 meter. Uh, those records were challenged this year by the new generation of RXC runners with the 1600 meter record broken. Uh this year RXC's runners from Troutman Middle School went undefeated during their cross country season, finishing each race in the top three places. After after the season in November, RXC traveled to Houston to compete in the Texas Middle School Cross Country Championship where they won first place. In January at the Carl Lewis Indoor TNF Invitational, RXC and Troutman runner Haqin Melendez finished first in the 3000 meter and was ranked number one in the entire nation. In March, RXC runner Pablo Garcia of Culla uh competed in the Nike indoor national championship in the New York City in New York City, earning first place in the onem event and is now the Nike national champion. As the 2025 outdoor track and field season concluded in March, RXC runners and Troutman Middle School students Marcos Valdez and Hain Melendez finished their eighth grade season undefeated in each event. Um, so RXC runners, they've consistently been recruited and getting D1 offers and scholarships. Uh, in the past, Mr. Michael Kaso at UIW, Chris Navert&M Commerce, Dylan Naverit UT, Tyler, Diego Ramirez, UTSA, Joseph Gonzalez, Alan Hernandez in uh, Dion Adiaga. So, um, RXC also gives back to the community, uh, working through, uh, Laredo Police Run, Run for Autism Labs, United Way. Um, and, um, in attendance today, we have coach, the coaches, Carlos Renel, Peter Kaso, and runners Andy Landeros, and, and y'all can come up as I say your name. Okay. Sorry. Yes, you can. >> I'm sorry, mayor. >> Yes. >> Point of order, please. In order for to continue with these recognitions, uh we need to bring up item 59D1, 59D2, and any other recognition that may be uh still pending. >> Second. >> All right. Go ahead. Second. Motion. Second. All in favor? >> I post. Motion passes. >> I apologize for the interruption. >> Yes. All that I got to start over. Sorry. Well, no. And uh so Andy Landeros, Yanuel Roas, >> Luis Salisar, >> number one in the nation, Melendez, Manuel Valdez, Marcos Valdez, Olla, raise your hand. Mateo Franco and Pablo Garcia. We also have Gilbert Moreno, the Tro Middle School principal. Coach Edwin Garcia, Alexander High School athletic coordinator, coach Daniel Lombrano, head boys and girls coach an assistant track at Alexander. And then coach Brian Swain, the head boys track and field coach Alexander High School. Thank you all for being here. Yeah. And and thank you, Council Member Alyssa Cigaro, for co-sponsoring this item. Give me one minute, ma'am. I'll take it and then if you'all want to stand here to take the picture. >> Okay, y'all scoot over, please. >> Right there. Okay, ready? One, two, three. Right here with >> one, two, three. One more here. >> One, two, three. One, two, three. How many We'll continue. Okay. Okay. Okay. >> Just have one >> next recognition. United. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. >> So, may Mayor, if I may. Um, so this will be recognizing the United School class of 2034, uh, boys basketball team led by coaches CJ Martinez and Matt Duran, uh, for winning the third grade division championship at the Elite Mexico National Tournament in Monterey, Novleon, Mexico. um competing against teams from northern and central Mexico, the Patriots went undefeated 7-0 and defeated North Saltio in the final. Um in addition, several team members received individual awards for their performances. Many uh Dez was named the MVP while Raphael Gutierrez and Ueno Galindo earned all tournament team honors. The city of Laredo commends their dedication and achievement on the international stage. Thank you for representing Laredo so well, guys. And thank you for bringing the trophy to city council. So, if you want or in the Gabby senda right there. >> Oops. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You have your certificate. Okay, ready? One, two, three. Perfect. >> One more here. >> One, two, three. >> Do you want to come take pictures? >> One, two, three. >> Thank you, guys. right here. One, two, and three. >> One, two, three. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> How are you? It's good to see you guys. Congratulations. >> Hey, >> mayor, if I may bring up a motion to bring up item number 59E1. Recognizing Mr. Rick Rick Laette another recognition that's the next one right there. >> Motion second. Mayor >> want to take a vote. >> Motion second. All in favor? I motion suspension. Thank you. U mayor, do um can I can I >> councilwoman is on virtual so you'll go ahead and >> give the recognition >> discussion with possible action recognizing Rick La as chair for port of entry advisory committee from March 13, 2024 to March 19, 2025 and any other matters incident there too co-sponsored by council member Dr. uh David Tyler King who was actually the one that appointed him. I just want to thank Rick for Is he there? >> Yes, he's here. >> I just want to thank him for his service. Um I know the port of entry is a very active committee. They've done a lot of great work and he's served the city honorably and he's always been there to try to help us figure out how to make the port better and more efficient. And um you know, we look forward to continue working with you, Rick, and thank you for your work as chairman. >> Thank you. >> And mayor, >> go ahead, Councilman. >> Yes. And Rick, I also wanted to say thank you for serving and for continuing to serve. You're not done. You're not done with the committee. You know, you're just done being chair. So, uh we still need you on the point of entry advisory committee. So, thank you for continuing to serve. Yeah. >> All right. Certificate of recognition. Mayor and City Council hereby recognizes Rick Laell. Recognizing Rick Laiel as chair for the port of entry advisory committee from March 13, 2024 to March 19, 2025. Congratulations. Couple of words. Uh well, it it was a it was really great working with everybody at at the port of entry. The port of entry is is made up of uh a bunch of uh international trade experts, subject matter experts, and all we do is try to make this place a better place to live in uh when it comes into trade and our bridges, and we try to protect them as much as possible. We look forward to many more years uh serving. Um that's what we're here for to do, sir. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations again. Congrats. Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Council member. Yeah. Ready? One, two, three. One more. >> One more here. One, two, three. >> Perfect. >> Thank you, Rick. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you. >> Andy. >> Andy. What's the last one? >> What number on the agenda? >> Oh, no. I don't see it on the Under what what number is you? >> Oh, up on top. Okay. Okay, I see it. Mayor is just a motion to bring up on the supplemental agenda number one. The city of Laredo mayor and council recognizes Harmony High School student Juan Lopez for being named 314A district champ on track and field 400 meter. Lopez competed at a recent track meet in Tuluso Midway second. All in favor? >> I post motion passes. Your recognition. >> Certificate of recognition. Mayor and city council hereby recognizes Juan Lopez. Recognizing Harmony High School student Juan Lopez for being named 31-4A district champ on track and field 400 meters. Congratulations. Let's let's say a couple of words before you go. >> Um well, first I want to thank my parents, my mom right here. Um, I just want to thank her for everything she does for me, everything she sacrifices. And then, uh, second of all, I want to thank my coach, everything he does for me. Uh, we wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning to practice. And, yeah, I just want to thank you so much, coach. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Congratulations. Folk, you want to say something? Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Um just um want to first want to thank Juan's parents and um for everything for their support, our school, our community. Uh this is our third year of running track. I'm also the athletic director at the school. I started the program 11 years ago. I'm so proud of him. Uh how his commitment, his dedication. Right now he's ranked number one heading in the area. This uh this Thursday we're running Rio Grande and then from then on he's still ranked as one of the top runners. Hopefully we make it the state of Texas. And so he has to turn around and yet run the 800. He has two awards there and he runs the 800, got third. He's one of the top runners there. And then he turns around, runs a 400 about an hour later, which is unbelievable. The lactic uh acid that builds up in a athletes body like that to turn around and run that fast. It's incredible. It's a hybrid almost. I look at it, you know, and he's that special. So, he's representing Laredo and also our community as well. So, I'm very proud of him. So, thank you, mayor. I appreciate the picture. Congratulations. >> Ready? One, two, three. >> Remember here. One two three. Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. For the record before proceed. >> All right. >> Mayor, if I may, I'd like to continue with communications. Number one, presentation by the mayor. Dro Victor. >> Yes. And after that I will proceed to then bring my item up 59A. We'll proceed with communications. >> U that's my motion. Mayor I'll accept amendment. >> Motion second amended. >> All in favor? >> Vote. Motion pass. Communications presentation by mayor Dr. Victor Travin providing general comments on city manners, upcoming initiatives and other relevant updates for the council and public. Some messages and announcements. I think we have an announcement from the community development. Also, I would like to just express our awareness as a council of the economic anxiety and concern that we have been hearing in the community as we go into uncharted territory. I know that I have an agenda item on this issue, so I will reserve my comments until we bring it up. Mr. Neb, go ahead. >> Yes, sir. Mayor, city council. Uh, first part of, of course, we were going to talk about the city of Laredo efficiency study. Uh, we did talk about this just a little bit at our budget workshop as well, too. And so, when the when the mayor put this item on there, we kind we've been working on it to tighten it up and everything. So I wanted to talk a little bit about how we want to get the efficiency study done. Again, one of the things that we looked at through the budget workshop is and the bond resolution kind of brought this about as being very important to look at this even in deeper study for that. But we want to complete a comprehensive citywide efficiency review. We want to look at every one of our departments, where we're spending our money, what we're what we're trying to accomplish, and make sure that everything still fits the vision of the council uh as what we're trying to accomplish. Uh all of this work will be prioritized and walk through that. Um we want to identify any of the cost savings, innovation opportunities, service improvements. We want to align our operations with the strategic goals and the up andcoming bond referendum. And we also want to support the council directive under this 25c40 that to prepare for grant reductions and rising costs. If you're not aware, uh I think everybody is aware the uh through the through the state of Texas, we lost three grants a little bit early. We knew they were coming, but they were related to the COVID response and we thought we would have a little bit longer. uh based upon the uh the executive order from from DC through the uh the state of Texas, we lost uh two of those programs early. Three of the grants were gone. It affected 22 of our employees. I will say that at that point in time, um we still have a few left over to find homes for them, but most of them have went into other roles that we had open. uh and we're going to we're going to see if we can find for those that are that are still wanting to work with the city of Larredo if we can transfer their abilities we're going to be moving them in there. So, but that's the reason why this item is on the agenda as well too is that we believe that there will be further uh federal involvement, state involvement on our grant systems and and of course most of them are in very important areas, police, fire, health departments and so we want to be ready for that. And so staff has been working on some of this uh but we are putting it together. We also went out on the framework structure. We we went out and looked at other cities. Uh we're not the first ones to look at an efficiency study. There's everybody looks at that all the time because the limited funds that we do have have to go to the most important things. And so uh we we looked at other cities and national models. Uh we are integrating the budgeting, innovation, consolidation, strategic planning. We're structuring it under 18 key sections and that should have been in the framework that you received during the budget workshop. I'm just uh I'm responding to that, but I'm going to just walk through uh the broader pieces of that. We want to look at the efficiency initiatives aligned to our long-term strategic plan. We want to make sure that everything we do ties back to the vision of what you said as the elected officials. We are wanting to put this and house this this program underneath our budgeting department uh using a crossf functional staff. There was a conversation we looked at bringing in an outside consultant, bringing in additional resources, but I think it defeats the purpose of doing an efficiency study. I think we should be doing this in internally and finding those uh those that criteria. And so we're going to lean on our professional staff to help us with as we walk through this. We are framing the initiative as the Laredo Efficiency and Innovation Program, not as a new department, but as a a division within our budgeting department. We do a lot of this work anyway every year as we're putting together our budgets. We're just going to put it on steroids essentially and make sure that everything that we are providing um still meets what what the council's vision is for what we're trying to accomplish. Um, I really wanted quickly I wanted to just talk about some of the existing city efficiencies. We've been doing this all along. I don't know how far back we could go, but I do know in the last couple of years we've done organizational restructuring. We've created new departments and restructured old departments. We actually uh we we removed two departments and created them as divisions in order to tighten up the consolidation of our our restructuring. We are standardizing our entire services through citywide SOPs, tracking system, and classification systems, whether it be for personnel or or any of our work out there. We had a lot of departments that were they knew what their jobs were, but they weren't following a standard through the the operating procedures. So, I wanted to make sure that you were aware that we are in our third year of implementing those standard operating procedures, which will tighten up how we spend and and what we're spending it on. Uh just in the last uh conversations we've had, we are implementing 60-hour annual training, standardized hiring, compensation, alignment with the industries. We're looking at that as a modernization of our workforce. Uh we want to make sure that our people are highly capable of doing those jobs. So there is cross trainining happening as well as making sure that they are not just to do their jobs today, but to do the job that we may need them for tomorrow. And so that's the one thing that we're doing with the workforce modernization um financial policies. We we we're working on fee waiver frameworks. We're looking on fund management within that structure. And then of course our community engagement. Uh we are talking all the time multilingual town hall meetings, hybrid models. we are trying to outreach with the public more often and I think that's where um our our effectiveness actually grows through that contact whether whether they they agree with what we're talking about or or whether they they have a difference of opinion or anything that's what makes the democracy works and that's what makes it stronger for that that piece. Uh the study methodology that we'll do within this efficiency study is that we're going to start with of course data collection. We're going to do self assessments for every department, benchmarking audits to try to find out that we will compare that against all of our comparable cities as well too because there's a lot of lessons learned uh from our bigger brothers and sisters as well as what we're doing as well too. Uh the scoring criteria, the mandate level, public safety impact, public demand, return on uh investment and equity will all be considered within the scoring criteria. Again, we have to make sure that we are looking at every one of the departments, every one of our functions to make sure that it is still meeting what we hope it will uh that we're trying to how we're growing our city. Uh program inventory developed to prioritize services based on the critical nature of them and the value that that they provide. Uh there is a prioritization of every services. Those are there the services that we cannot do without like police and fire, health department. Uh and then we go all the way through that structure as to some of the expenditures that we're hoping for something better or we're working on something that that gets us better prepared for the uh for the long term. But we're our big focus is that we have to have have the day-to-day operation. And as my as the departments have heard from me as well too, we have to make sure our house is in order first before we can go out and help anything else happen within the city. So I always want to make sure that our foundation is strong as we go forward. uh the tools that are being developed and and where we're at with that. Of course, a service scoring spreadsheet, the evaluation ranking of our city services, a program inventory, understanding that all of our city programs by department so we can consistently evaluate the the effectiveness each one of those programs and then a checklist of uh completed initiatives to assess any gaps or next steps within there. These are the pieces that we will put together based upon the framework that I've already presented. Uh we will uh the stakeholder engagement strategy of course will involve the internal task force, the staff from the finance budget, HR, it all of our department directors exactly how we walk through the bond referendum uh build out as well too. I want to incorporate our academic partners. We have a lot of talent here within the city. I want to make sure that we're tapping into Laredo College, Tammy U, and utilize those resources that they have. They've helped us with other initiatives. I would like to continue utilizing them. And then of course the public engagement whether it be through the resident input through surveys, town halls, advisory groups. I think you're aware we do have a survey out right now for the budget. We are asking all the citizens to weigh in on what is important to them in our budget. We do our bud budgets every year. We're outreaching with them and trying to find out what's the most highest priority for you as a citizen. So that's our stakeholder engagement strategy. just a timeline overview because I want to ma help manage those expectations as to how to get there. In the next couple months, uh we'll define the scope, the teams, the metrics. We'll do the data collection with the internal reviews and external benchmarking. In the next three to six months, we'll do the analysis with the scoring of the services, identifying improvements in areas in the next the the following two three months. Then we want to do stakeholder and public feedback. Have we missed something? Have we have we have we have we thought of it too isolated within there what is that impact going to be to our people and our stakeholders and then of course in in the f the last two to three months we'll talk about launching the changes monitoring the KPIs which is actually our metrics to review to make sure that we're meeting those expectations. The total of time it'll take through this is 9 to 16 months. We're going to keep it as tight. We will make sure that the council is aware of this as we go through it. But I want to make sure that you're aware because I know when our conversations this would have been excellent information at any point in time as we build out our budgets. There's never a better time than today to start something. So, uh, we're in that as well, too. What does the success look like? I want to make sure you understand that as well, too. Datadriven budgeting tied to service priorities. That that's the thing is that if if we're spending money and we can't explain why we're spending it, then we've got to do something a little bit better. We'll look at the datadriven budgeting, improve service delivery with measurable outcomes. We've been working on that. Uh they're the smart goals, specific, measurable, uh accountable. Uh and so all those goals are very important so that we can explain to the people. We do two things that are very big and I I don't know if the the the citizenry understands it. First thing we do is we pass a budget every year and we walk we it takes us a year to walk through our budget and we say this is how we're going to spend your money. That's how we that's that's what our budget book does. We have volume after volume of our budget work information breaking down everything within that structure. At the end of the day, we come back in with the state of the city or we say or our essentially our annual departmental report and now we tell everybody how we spent their money. So we tell everybody how we're going to spend their money and then we show them how we spent their money. I guess that's the those are the benchmarks of everything through our years. Everything else that we do throughout the year is actually moving those things around to make sure that we we can accomplish what we're trying to get done. I truly believe that if we do this thing openly and transparently, the community trusts through that transparency to be seen. And we also want scalable innovations to weather fiscal challenges. The world is not a stagnant area. So anything we put together is going to have to be flexible and be able to be adjusted to what is happening to us. Nobody knew exactly what that we were going to run into those these issues with the grants. There was always those little signs of whatifs. Uh and whatifs are a blessing and a curse, by the way, because some whatifs will stop you in a in your tracks. Some whatifs will actually help you move through. So, we want to make we want to make sure that whatever we put together is scalable and that it can weather the any of these challenges that we walk through. Um, really quickly with the fairness and affordability, I want to put this in there. This was some of the conversation that the mayor had at the press conference this morning. Want to make sure that we are reviewing the fees and rate structures to avoid unattended price increases. We want to make sure that what we're doing is affordable. We want to make sure that what we're doing is is where it should be. We want to evaluate existing safeguards against perceived or real price gouging. One of the things that happens and anytime there's a challenging situation is that there there can be the potential of of uh people trying to reap a benefit from that as well too. We're going to put in some some areas there as we look at some of our departments about making sure that we have safeguards in place. We're going to expand the deferred payment plan options for utility and service service bills. depending on what happens, we're going to put these things in there and make sure that we expand out how how we can help people um take care of their needs for their families and everything. We'll consider equity based adjustments or sliding scale models where appropriate. Uh we have different levels of of individuals whether it be over the age of 65, whether they be disabled, whether they be a poverty level. We have to take all that into account as we put this model together. We want to ensure that the efficiency doesn't come at the cost of the resident access or well-being. So everything we look at, we want to make sure that there is u an alternative for how we work with our residents as well too. Uh that doesn't mean that the service can't change. It just have we have to make sure that we are we maintain that fairness and affordability within those considerations. But wanted to make sure you're aware of that. What what we are asking the council tonight is to endorse the study framework as the implementation of the policy direction. Uh we will we'll work through budget. Uh I have talked to budget today as well too and we're going to build this internal task force structure. We're going to engage Larredo College Tammyu for third party participation. We'll use the results to inform budget decisions and bond readiness and of course schedule regular updates with the council on progress and impacts based upon that timeline I provided you. mayor and city council. That's uh hopefully that that meets the expectations of this report. Uh but I would ask that if uh if it does uh please uh please endorse the study framework so that we can uh get our our teams moving. So mayor and city council, I'll answer any questions. >> All right. Thank you very much. And basically um that goes along with 59A1 discussion with possible action to create efficiency initiative throughout the city to adapt and prepare for impacts from grant reduction anticipated increases in cost operations any matter related to and this was sponsored by mayor pro Vanessa Pettis and the reason is uh some of what you alluded to I place this item on the agenda because I've been receiving significant amount of calls on the current economic climate and I'm the rest of the council as well. And as a result, I had a press conference this morning, as you all know. So the public knows that we're not going to ignore what is before our eyes and what the community is telling us. These things are real, undeniable, maybe uncomfortable. We should not pretend that they don't exist or hide between laws or lawyers to provide to try to avoid difficult decisions. I would like to focus on solutions and that is what leadership represents and some of the possible initiatives would be I'd like the city manager to survey departments and see where we can come up with some more efficient separate uh situation where the wants uh from the needs are separated with the overriding focus on core government services and report back to the council. The other one is I would like for the city manager to work on relief programs in terms of installment plans for city services that we can offer the public in case the economic the economy continues to be negatively impacted and a recommendation on what would trigger these programs and bring it back to council. And uh one more is discussion with possible action on bon bond rollout. We can talk about Mayor before you start just a clarification. You had asked on my amendment for 59A. So I'd like to just amend that motion to make it 59A1 2 and three. Is that what you wanted to have those three items read? Please motion. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> Motion pass. >> Want to ask a question? >> Yes. Go ahead. Sorry, there there it is. I mentioned >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. Uh as we mentioned, as I mentioned before that um it's sometimes uh with these kind of studies and I said this study more than any bond or any uh brick and mortar project is not is the most important thing we're probably going to be able to do. >> Council member Gasa. Yes. >> I hate to interrupt. Mayor, we need to vote on number one before we continue to number two. >> All right. Before we do that, let's go ahead and uh want to put it as a motion on that. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Is it just to bring up the item? >> Yes. >> Bring it back to us. >> Sorry. >> Yes. >> It was number one. Item number one. Voting on item number on item number 59 A1. >> A1. >> Yes. There's two motions that that the mayor made. >> Okay. That is a motion. >> Then second, >> sir. >> All in favor? >> Oppos? >> I motion pass. >> All right. Did you have a question? >> Yes. I think I lost number two. Number two. >> Forget it. I lost my train of thought already. No. Um well as we discussed before it's it's this document and this this study is going to be I think vital and the probably most important thing that we do from here uh to whatever we do over the next 20 years. If we can get this right I believe that this city can be transformed into the 21st century. But the only caution I would tell you is that sometimes when these studies are made you kind of have to be worried about the answers too. As much as we're trying to get efficiency done, as much as we're trying to get something good out of it, something uh good can come out of it that might not be at the uh the timing, you know, that where we're at right now. And so, one of the things that I mentioned before, I'm hoping that whatever documentation or or matrix comes out of this that it's absolutely manageable according to the times. Of course, we're doing this right now only because of what's going on nationwide, right? We really don't want to do what they're doing up in DC, like like I said before, sarcastically, and just chop heads for the sake of chopping heads, you know. So, we're trying to get the bottom and the core reasons of of the inefficiencies and efficiencies that we have here at the city, which I am all for, but I do not want to get to the point where we do these type of things and then uh some of these studies, like I said, sometimes come out with um some numbers that we're not going to be ready to support. So I just want to make sure that it's valuable enough so that we can discuss and we can all understand as adults you know this will be good for its timing right now and it can be uh processed in in justified time rather than okay this is what the study found is go forward and let's do it and so that's the only concern that I have about this but I am 100% behind what we're doing it there's a lot of vital information that we're going to be doing out there um I think the the bottom line is our customer service is going to increase because of it we're going to be able to better to respond to the public and we're going to be able to get an actual number a very important number as to where we're at and what like great system what we're at with what we have right now and what we need to get us to the 21st century or or where we're at right now more. >> So I just want to make sure that the document is absolutely manual and discussed at nauseium until we get to the bottom of everything that we have here and make sure that it's the right and appropriate thing to do for the city. >> Right. Before we proceed, Mr. Secretary. Uh, that item we voted on was 59 A1 and two or just A1. >> Just A1. >> Just A1. >> A1. >> All right. On AQ, >> you have a question. >> No, Go ahead. >> Um, >> okay. Uh so I thank you for putting together such a comprehensive um look at how we're going to move forward with the efficiency study. I do think that most important when you were discussing about how to integrate this is the focus on strategic planning that everything that we do whether it is looking at how we can run the departments more efficiently or restructure some of the programs that we have looks to how it moves the city forward. And I know that as a body we're going to have be focusing on strategic planning at the end of this month. Um I think it's important to make sure that we have stakeholder engagement in that so that we can bring the community along with us so that every decision we're making is not seen as something that is arbitrary but as what uh uh Mr. Gara was talking about is really focused on how to move the city forward. And so um I'm thankful that it's it's comprehensive. I'm thankful that you're looking for uh stakeholder engagement and that you'll return to the city uh council and and we'll continue to mold and guide this and um that that piece of strategic planning is very important and how we move forward. >> All right. So, we'll move to 15982. >> No, go ahead. Sorry. >> Um thank you. Thank you, Mr. Heb and thank you. Thank you, mayor. Um I also along the same lines of strategic planning and you mentioned the um working towards goals and I guess is it goals in between between individual departments or the go like the goals that we have of our city? I mean obviously we are we are going to be meeting on on on this in a couple weeks. Um, but I I guess I'm just curious are these met I mean I love I'm love that we're talking metrics and data and this is something that's been missing up until now. Um, but are like are your metrics going to be and the score criteria and um going to be tied to the the the RV valid comp plan? Granted, it does need um being updated but it's still a document that's been adopted and that exists in our city. And I'm just in a way I want to bear with me. Um because for example like even when we talk about street paving there are recommendations within the vivaro comp plan that we're not taking actionable steps to implementing those recommendations and and even with just a lot of the conversations that are surrounding that we're having these days. Um like rather than saying repairing just the you know the the worst streets in the city. We're taking steps of redesigning the streets so that they're more multimodal friendly and and whatnot. So, I'm just curious, are we tying these metrics to the bigger vision? Um, and if not, can we? >> Yeah. U mayor and council member, city council, yes, I I in the perfect scenario, we're going to work from that the the comprehensive planning all the way through. Um and then of course the directors anywhere from my my position down in there we are actually taking all of that vision and trying to make it all happen and make it coordinate together. Um I think when you when you when you look at the efficiency studies to everything and just so you know the documentation is more comprehensive because I want to make sure that you understand where we're going. Every step of this thing will be presented into the council to make sure that I'm not missing where we're headed as well too. I want to make sure that uh it is uh if somebody doesn't like the direction we go, if somebody doesn't like the metrics that we've created, that somebody says something to me earlier than later because we're going to we're going to exhaust a lot of different resources to walk through this thing to make sure that we are aligned together with what we're trying to do. So, I I I do appreciate what everybody's saying. I just need to make sure that we're there. And that's what that's part of the reason why the the conference of the war on peace novels that I I put together because I want to make sure you know what where the thought process is. And again, I want to make sure that uh even the public's able to keep up with exactly where we're going as you as you're walking through your vision directing the staff as well too. But in the perfect world, it's going to walk all the way through there. Now, depending on some of those things that are in the Viva Laredo plan and where we're at with uh all this conversation about how the world is adjusting around us, there has to be a coordination through all of that. U yes, all of our streets should meet the uh the complete streets mechanism just like you're talking about. we should be looking at if we're going to go in and rebuild a street and and invest a million dollars to change out a mile that we look at all those other pieces in there, whether it be the walkability, whether it be uh the safety features in there. So, the quick answer is yes, we were going to try to tie that all in there. It all comes at at some point in time. It all comes at a cost as well, too. And that's the balancing act that we will walk through there. And um it's it's kind of hard to not without a lot of different examples, but that's what you're going to walk through there. You know, the first thing we will look at is any of the programs that we believe that have outdated themselves and not been looked at or not adjusted to where we're at today. But then we're also walk through every one of those comprehensive plan items and make sure that we are coordinated with what this vision is as to where we want our city to go. And um I I so that's my that's my answer without giving you the absolute oh yes we're going to be there because I think we also have to look at that be Larredo plan because some of that vision in there has a cost within within it for the city as well too and we have to make sure that everybody's ready to go with all of that within that structure. But the idea is to make sure that our limited resources that we use uh go to the the highest priorities as we walk through that and we will look at everything and we'll coordinate it back and forth with that. But I I think we have a we have the systems in place right now that we are able to look at the Viva Laredo plan, plug those items in there and see how that impact each one of our departments will be. I what I will tell you is that our departments, our our directors, uh city staff, they're the professional piece of this. You're the voice of the city within your your own areas and everything. And so we have to we have to marry all of that information through in order to get there. the directors are going to tell you if it if it if it's if it's the wrong thing to do. You know, if we're going to we're going to make a street out of cornflakes, we we we'll hear very quickly that we should never use cornflakes for making a street. So, >> yes, go ahead. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Real quick. My question is what made you come back with to this plan to start off this plan? I'm sorry. I'm just a little word. What made you come back to this plan or come up with this when you started when you started back two years ago, three years ago? What why didn't you start out with this and now we were trying to implement it >> this program trying and I love the program. I'm not saying I don't. I'm just saying why are we doing it now three years from when we start when you started. >> Thank you. >> And what did you see? >> Yeah. And mayor and council member that's why I tried to show you in the presentation of the things that we were already doing. There are there we are always adjusting how how we're spending the money. We are looking at that. Uh there is ordinances and policies that are coming forward to each of you if it's your responsibility to do. There are a number of policies that we've been implementing all along. I I the difference between now and then was is that this is the first time in 30 years we went out for a bond referendum and that triggered everybody to say have we looked at have we looked at our house first? I think some of the people that have been talking out on social media and everything, have we looked at our house? Have we looked at our foundation? Are are we are we where we're at? >> So, why didn't we do that first before doing that assessment before? We do assessment for everything all the time. So, why didn't we do and we we do uh uh planning and we just do the strategic planning and all that stuff. Why didn't we do the assessment this assessment first before we went out for the bond? the the bond referendum was established within the the timeline of what was established. It was through the conversation with the council all the way back into into May and June. At that time, we were talking about the uh the issues within police. We were talking about the issues in fire. The Hamilton Hotel was coming back on board for us and we were looking at the health department. We took our CIP list, essentially our five-year master plan of capital improvement projects, and looked at that and said, how based upon what the council was saying is that how can we get this done any faster than what we're doing. That was that was the request. We are, you know, we're we're three fire stations down by having the city the our standard of fire departments overlaid over the entire city. Uh these are all up for the north end that's growing faster for for all that industrial area. And so we we took in two of those fire stations into our structure now, but we still had one fire station that we had no way to get there. So the bond referendum was the conversation that we created between staff and the city council to try to find a way to fix that. the efficiencies were always the efficiencies were moving but at a slower pace but based upon the conversation of of of the where the bond referendum is now based upon this council's vision when we met and the budget workshop that we held and then I met with each one of you individually in in the month of February what I heard from you collectively was we need to do this in a larger scale we need to do an efficiency study as to what we're tackling that's why um it's never hindsight in 2020. I wish we would have done this 10 years ago, 15 years ago. I can't say that they didn't do something similar to that at that point in time because I wasn't here. All I can tell you is that from this point forward, this is my recommendation for what we're trying to do. All right. Okay. We'll proceed with 59 A2. Discuss with possible action on bond bond rollout and any matters related related there to sponsors. Mayor Prom Vanessa Pettis on this item. I brought it up so we can discuss the city's bond roll out in light of the current economic environment. I believe giving the public the ability to vote one way or another on government needs is important. Service is part of the democratic process, especially since the majority of the community bond committees voted to recommend these bonds to us. However, my strong belief is that we cannot be tonedeaf and listen to the clear changes of the economic environment that did not exist during the bond recommendations. So, I put this as a motion and for discussion. Mayor, I have uh second >> I'll second it for discussion, please. Um I have a comment and a couple of questions. First, the question to legal Now, we've all gotten plenty of calls about this bond referendum going out and most of them that I've received are negative. People don't want to vote for it and that's okay. They need to understand that we're okay with that. Question to you legal is are we able to because people have asked me because of this particular item if we can pull back from putting this out for a vote. What I have gotten from you all, from that department is no, we cannot recant. We can't pull back this item. We can't pull back the election. So, at the end of the day, if the people of Laredo don't want any of these options that we're putting out there for you all that we see as necessities, but if you all don't want them there, then you simply vote no. And the city's okay with that. But, but you make the ultimate decision. We don't make the decision for you all. We cut the budget down. The committee cut the budget down from $800 million which was recommended initially. We almost went to half to $417 million now. But if you don't feel that these services or these buildings are necessary, street paving is not necessary, you don't think that the Hamilton is necessary, you don't think the police department needs a building, the health department doesn't need a building, then you simply vote it down. You say no. We may come back in the future and ask for it again because that's very, very possible. But the consequences to that is that the prices of material labor are going to go to the roof as you see the increase going up 10 to 15% every single year. >> If I may if I may. >> Yes, sir. >> Um >> go ahead. >> Uh as as as your legal council's council for the city, I would ask that you >> I apologize down that rhetoric and we will continue on with just talking about generalities about the about the um about the council. Right. So, so the the only thing I wanted to keep out to the public was for you all to know you voted up, you voted down. At the end of the day, this is your decision whether you want these this bond to pass or not. Also, fact, just because it passes, let's just say by some miracle it passes and the voters say yes, we don't need to bond out automatically for the full amount or bond out for any amount. So, we can bond out. We We see these tariffs taking place. They're taking place now and we're seeing that it's affecting our economy and we see it up here. We simply don't have to bond out now. We don't have to bond out a year later. We don't have to bond out three years later until we see that the economic development or economic growth is back to where it was and you're comfortable with it, then we can continue. So, we can hold off on it if it should pass. If you don't want it to pass, you simply say no at the polls. >> Try to clarify. The council member took half of my presentation. >> I apologize. Sorry about that. >> Before we proceed, let me just add this. You know, in this climate of all the tariffs, all the products are going up. Everything will be going up in price. A family is expected to pay maybe about $4,000 more per year with all the price increases. And the concern that I hear is that people are going to say we're going to have to pay this much more for groceries and things that we need for the house. And at the same time, we're going to have to pay a tax on top of this. So the idea is maybe this is not the right time to get the bond put out. Uh and the idea is to postpone it for a future date. That would be a consideration. uh because people are saying that we're going to have to pay tax and at the same time pay for everything that's going to be more expensive. That is the concern and that would be something that we have to clarify that >> go ahead council. Sorry. >> If if I may, Mr. Mayor. Um what I will say uh Mr. Mayor, even though um it it's your idea and and this could essentially be an idea worth exploring, I would say that legally it is imp it is impermissible under section 2.081 081 of the Texas Elections Code. Um, we are only able to cancel an election if there is a mooteness issue. So, just as a quick example, let's say that we're going out for the bond for the Hamilton Hotel and for whatever reason, um, for purposes of my hypothetical, the Hamilton Hotel would no longer belong to us. That so us going out for that bond money for something that doesn't belong to us is a moot point. Then we could cancel for that reason. Otherwise, that is the only exception that the elections code allows for a cancellation. A postponement uh would also be akin legally to a cancellation. And if you and if I can turn your attention to 2.082 of the Texas elections code, it does say that the authority giving rise to the election has to have statutory rule in order to cancel. The only one that we have right now is the moot doctrine, which nothing nothing qualifies under that exception. So, that's just for clarification. Uh speaking Mr. >> All right. One question to that cancellation and postponement. >> It's not the same thing. >> Uh I would say I would argue and based on um the advice given to our bond council and after them consulting with their elections uh department there at at their firm they are the interpretation is that a postponement would be akin to a cancellation legally speaking. One one more thing in regard to mood point. You know the uh initial thing for example in the health department was to increase their space in order to get more grants but now the grants are being cut. So there's no that rule doesn't apply anymore to build out the health department. So that is a mood point >> that would definitely and and that is new information and what we could do is take that question back to our bond council and see what they recommend in terms of whether or not it qualifies for a cancellation under this provision of the elections code. >> Since this is a little bit I I guess complicated I think a a an opinion from attorney general's office pending a decision on this would be appropriate. That would be my motion. >> Mr. Yes. >> Um, you have to or you'd be in violation of state law. >> Hey. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Okay. So, guys, um, back on our meeting February 11th when we had a deadline of February 14th, I made the motion for us to move it to November. Everyone spoke and the majority said no we we need to go for I'm speaking sir >> what's the point of order can I just >> yeah go ahead continue >> so we we spoke the coun I withdrew that motion the council clearly wanted to move forward with this election we passed it with three days to spare and that's what the council ultimately decided to move forward with this bond election. At this point, our legal council, and this is not just our city attorneys telling us this, this is the the bond elections firm that runs all the state bond elections across the state of Texas. So, going against that recommendation, I would not advise. I I'm So, my personal belief is that this bet is set. The election has to go on as said, "People are free to vote how they wish." And I would also like people to be aware for the public to know that if this were to fail in May, we have every right to go back um in six months in November and say to the public, we made a mistake with this bond and how we did it and we can either trim it down or put do different things. So the there's been misinformation out there that we would have to wait three years to go out for a bond election again. That's not true. We would just have if we never did a bond election again, we would not be able to distribute a CEO bond for the next three years. But in if it were to fail in six months, if it were to fail in May, in November or in May of the next year or in November, every six months you get the opportunity to go out for a bond election, regardless of whether or not it fails, and you can put the same information on again, or you can trim it down or you can even put more. I wouldn't, you know, advise that. But nonetheless, the point is we there are options. The bed has been made. We have no choice. There is no option of cancing it. We had our February 11th to push it back. We chose not to. We We have We have no legal options of cancing it. It's been it's clear as day. It has to go on is is what I've seen what I've heard from our legal and their legal and their legal opinion. >> So that's that's where I am at on that. And I people should vote how they feel. >> And the only thing I'm trying to point is that yes, we did back when we uh was it se February 17? That's the date plan that we did. We did vote. I was a part of it. At the same time, it's we didn't have these tariffs that were coming in. People were we didn't know how it was going to look. So, we started, you know, thinking of what the community needed. I'm sorry. Um, but at the same time, we did understand that the health department and the Hamilton needed that help as well as long as as well as as uh fire and and and public safety, which is PD. So that's one of the reasons we we we we went that way. But if we have the opportunity to help our community to see the the way that we need to do it, I you know, we'll we'll find a way to if we can change it, I'll be more going forward with that. So >> all right. >> Yes. Um, >> so I I really appreciate the fact that council member Gutierrez framed it in this manner that it's we did decide as uh uh Congress uh council member King was saying to to push this forward, right? And I also was one of the voices who thought perhaps that we would wait and and have a little bit more time. But if that decision was made then, it was made back then. And I think even if the town halls currently haven't been successful, there can be a renewed push to get that information out. There has been misinformation and people don't understand still that we're talking about an $8.33 increase in taxes per month per $100,000 property valuation. And while you look at that over the year, it's $100 per year for everyone who owns $100,000 in property valuation. And that goes up in $100 increments, right? According to the $100,000 more property that you have. Um those those simple details so that it doesn't seem like this big scary uh ownerous burden to understand that a bond referendum allows us to spread out the costs among all of our citizens. We're a city of 260,000 people plus that um when we think about doing big things in our budget that uh sometimes that budget just can't handle the needs that we have. >> Council member, I I am so sorry to interrupt. I just think that this this comments could be >> understood. Um I guess my point was just that we look to spread costs over the entire population. That's that's what my point was. Um but I I don't think that information is um we the city needs to do a better job at communicating what that rate structure looks so that people have an objective measure as to what this means. Unfortunately, the climate right now, the financial climate because of national politics is um creating a lot of fear and understandably so. But our city and our budget um we have a vision for the future and we would not be doing our work here on council if we weren't making that clear to the public as to what those needs are and what those impacts are to our community. So, I think um we have a re if if we are caught in this uh date that we continue to commit to getting that information out to the public. And if that needs to be more town halls, more informational sessions, if we need to individually try to meet constituents in a smaller venue to only to distribute the facts to create to make sure that we do not fall outside of this box of electioneering, but just so people understand what the vote means factually, how it will impact them financially. then we move forward doing that with more information to the public. >> All right. One one of the other things I think we need to focus on what we're saying. Uh we have two things. We had the terrorists that were not present at that time when we made the decisions and number two now there's mood points on that we can't build to get more grants. So, because it's a federal issue, it's election per p perview for the state, I think it merits getting an opinion from the attorney general just to make sure we're on the right playing field. We want to make a decision based on what the state law is and how it would impact us based on these two situations of the non-existence of tariffs and the mood point for the health department. >> So, that would be my motion. If if I may, I'm so sorry, Council Member Zigor, if I may just respond to the mayor's comment. Does the city of Laredo can't ask the attorney general for an attorney general's opinion? That would either be our our duly elected county attorneys or the district attorney, if I'm not mistaken, but we cannot ask for one. Typically, when we do ask for one, it's it's in the context of a open records request and whether or not uh we whether or not something is releasable. But from the city to the attorney general asking for an opinion, we we cannot do that. >> All right. Okay. Go ahead. >> I I just mentioned that I believe the the mail out um ballots are going out Friday if I'm not mistaken. And so would that even give time to hear back from these higher authorities, >> mayor and city council? Yeah, that was one thing that the bond council provided to us as as this election has actually started. Uh those overseas are our military that are overseas are already receiving ballots. So the the the idea of of holding off on the election is very difficult at this point in time because it has already started within within that ballot structure. Um, I think the the one thing I want to make sure that everybody kind of keeps an eye on is that the purpose of the bond referendum is to empower the citizens of Alredo. The city council has not forced anything on anybody. We went through a bond referendum committee of 28 individuals each selected, three selected by each one of the council members, four selected by the mayor to look through these. And when council member Gutierrez talks about this this bond referendum going from an $800 million possibility down to $417 million. It went through three months of review of this committee. From that point it came to the city council level and it took two to three meetings a special workshop in order to wrap up this whole conversation. You're not forcing anything on anybody. Um, but it is I think the thing you have to watch out for as well too. We're asking the public, we're asking for the citizens of Larredo to weigh in on this. Are we are we correct in our assumptions that these are needed? I mean, a lot of the needs and I I heard that tonight as well, too, is that well, uh, you know, police and fire is important. Hamilton Hotel is important, the health department's important, but not right now. And and I wanted I wanted to make sure I'm going to I'm just I'm not going to go through my entire presentation because uh I think I want to get back to letting you guys get into that. Just want to make sure that you know that the voters let the voters decide. Let the you're going to let the council and so whether it be a for or against let them have that opportunity to speak their mind. I think this is some of the conversation we had in all of our our pieces. We cannot find any legal authority that exists and and our legal counsel goes through that. Love to ask the attorney general on this. We can go through our representatives. Just understand by the time we get that response, the bond election will be done. That that it's not going to happen that quickly. And so, and I want to make sure you understand because we are the ballots, the mail and ballots are already out. And so, the idea of of trying to walk through the election uh is very difficult for that. This was addressed just a little bit. This is the ability if the if the bond referendum was to be approved. This is the ability to spend money. This doesn't say we're spending money. The bond referendum says it gives us the authority that we can go out and spend the money on these four propositions. The council has full authority over when that chooses to go out for the bonds. We've had that conversation multiple times that it doesn't mean immediate borrowing. It means that we take the most important item and we can delay other parts of it as well too. >> And this is what I was I know it's still in your presentation, but you you you said when you said when, but it's also when and if because I just wanted to also be clear, >> all four of these could pass. Let's say they do in August. Every August for the next three to five to seven years. every August when we have our August workshops. Yes. The council, mayor, city manager, budget, finance comes together every August to look at these all these concerns, the uncertainty, the what whatever it may be. And even if they're all voted in, yes, every August, we decide whether or not to even This is just if people vote yes, they're they're actually not voting for it to happen. They're voting to give the permission of the council to do it. Uh, and if it's deemed that we can't do it with maintenance and operations that year or the uncertainty is looking bad, then the the council has the option of not doing it. It gives us So, I just you said when, but it's also it's also we we do a five-year capital improvement plan every year. We change out which projects are the most highest priority every year as we do this five-year capital plan. You look at it every year, just like what the council member saying as well too is that you look at it every year to try to figure out which projects are the most vital to the city at the time. Um if the if the bond was to fail, we will be considering alternatives. We're going to consider that. If you look at some of the projects in there, it's worn out infrastructure. It is uh it's another fire station that meets our standards of how we are responding to the public. We have critical needs regardless of the tariffs, regardless of what's happening to us, we will continually re-evaluate the priorities and the funding options. The tariff impact, just so you know, uh in the review that we were we've been doing and and all the people that we've been talking to, the tariff impact on material costs is a shortterm disruption, not and there's a long-term correction. Tariffs raise short-term costs. Uh I'm going to use an example of the steel in 2018. Uh the markets typically adjust within one to two years and strategic planning accounts within for this timeline. So back in 2018, President Trump enacted steel tariffs in the first quarter of 2018. Now, I inverted this uh this disruption timeline because I wanted to show you the impact of somebody that has a bridge, not the impact because from from the first quarter of 2018 to the second quarter where where the most the majority of the the impact was national steel creation peaked at that point in time. So when the steel tariffs went in, we quit bringing in the steel from China and I think that helped us become the number one port of entry by the way because when that when that shifted all of that model uh USMCA agreement has been very good to us but it peaked in the quarter of 2018. Now when you look at the trend line from quarter 13 of 18, quarter 4 of 2018 and then the quarter 1 of 2019 you start to see where the market adjusted. the tariffs came in had a short-term impact on the steel industry. But as the year went along, the market adjusts. Everybody corrects makes those corrections. And if you look at where where steel went from the first quarter in 2018 to the first quarter in 2019, it was almost back to where the tariffs imposed were negligible within that structure. And so be aware of that as you're looking at the tariffs. There is there we believe that there will be a short term. We've seen it already. We when when the the threat of the tariffs went in even earlier when the first 25% was going onto automotive, we see the we saw the bridge activity drop. It will be a short term. The industry will correct itself at some point in time. some of the analysis that we've looked at, even with the tariffs, even with the reciprocal tariffs on the other side, it still will be cheaper for most of the goods out there than if it's a reshoring on an orange shoring, redevelopment of manufacturing in there. And just so you know, within the city, um, we have we've been impacted by border border patrol staffing, federal policies, they always slow our trade down. Our strategic important remains intact. You've seen that over and over. The delay should not dictate long-term investment decisions. But I wanted to share this one with you. We know as subsidiial we are logistics. We are moving product back and forth from Mexico to the US. These are manufacturing businesses that we've brought in over the years. We are shifting our model with the with the help of the LED with the help of the chamber with everybody out there with all of our industrial parts. We are seeing manufacturing businesses come in. not just the logistics type businesses. We are diversifying our portfolio which makes us less uh less uh tight to the bridges. And so I wanted to make sure I shared that with you. Uh you know I think one of the nice ones was when the University of Texas Health Regional Campus they in they increased their health sector development in 23 24. You go back and the last time they did that was in 21. you go back even farther that the University of Texas within the health industry has been continuously on the front edge of changing and moving in the city of Laredo within their entire package. I just want to make sure that you understand some of these positive notes of where we're at and where we're going. Tariffs are a scary thing. Uh yes, there's going to be an impact, but I I want to make sure you understand that Laredo is resilient. Laredo will find a way to make it all work. I I do want to just leave you with trust the democracy. Plan with the strategy. Let the people vote. Let them decide if it's the right thing or the wrong thing. The the I don't mean this in the bad way, but the louder voices are usually the anti- vo voices. They're going to tell you what is wrong. The quiet voices are the ones that are feeling comfortable with where you're headed and everything. So, don't think you're out there alone. You guys have faced tough decisions before. You're going to keep facing tough decisions. That's your job. That's where it is. My job is to make sure you got all the information so you make the best decision possible. But trusting that that the citizens of Raido know what they can handle and what they can't handle. I think that's the thing I want to make sure I leave you with. I've seen a lot of different information out there as far as tax rates and everything. Uh I looked at the top 10 cities out there as their where their tax rate is. Just so you know, we're the seventh from the bottom of our of our total tax rate. Uh some of the highest ones are El Paso, Dallas are the highest tax rates within that structure. We do look at this stuff. We watch this stuff. We definitely don't want to impact our our citizens negatively, but I also want to tell you that and this goes off of I think some of the citizen comments this morning. I don't know what Laredo went through in the past. I I I agree with that, but I know I know how to help Laredo do better in the future. And I think that's the thing I want to make sure I leave you guys with. You're not alone in this in all this conversation. You got a lot of professional people looking through this thing. You have the options at your hand where if it doesn't look like the right time, we won't do it. If the public votes it down, we're going to go to alternatives because everything that we're asking for doesn't go away. It doesn't change. If it votes up, then we're going to be very astute and very financially responsible within that structure. I just I'm gonna get off my soap box, by the way. And so, I just wanted to make sure I leave you with trust in the system, trust in that this transparency we have. And and you know, and the nice thing is that we can fill the room because we are transparent whether they're whether for something or against it. That's a good thing. That's that's the real way of how to do that. You listen to the voices. You make your best decision. So, I'll just leave you at that. But I I wanted to make sure I shared these points with you because as soon as we look at these things all continuously if we thought there was a way to kind of hold this thing in check a little bit longer, happy to do that. But remind yourselves you're just asking the people to help you. And if it doesn't fit the plan, they'll tell you it doesn't fit the plan. If it doesn't fit what their needs are, they're going to tell you that it doesn't fit their needs. Trust trust that they they will vote the way that they should in order to make this work. We'll make sure the information keeps getting out there. We'll make sure that we're telling everybody what the value of this is and how it's going to impact them. We have all those sheets out there. We are putting out more and more information every day. Uh the um on on the case of the M. I know that was one of the big issues I reported at the Fasin and that we we actually increase M every year 13.6%. Our in our our growth is based on that. >> Uh yes, I will. Yeah, maintenance and operations. So, our tax rate is built in two different ways. M O is the maintenance operation side and then there's the INS side which is our debt service which is for the capital. We have our tax rate is broken into two. We are at cap at our M and that's why the questions of going how are we going to afford this when our INS because you have the ability to increase your INS side your debt capacity you have the ability to increase that up there. We're kind of capped at our M. So, how do we absorb that in there? Our growth as a city has impacted that 13.6% on average for the last three to four years. The uh the bond referendum, if you take the average of that, we're estimating 3.6 million there plus another 1.5 million of additional growth because I talked to you at the budget workshop about we need to put money aside for our building maintenance. We need to put aside other costs and everything. That's going to be the impact on the M. We are putting that information out. And I think going back to what Council Member Rangel says, why didn't we have it before before that it's been 30 years since we've actually walked through this thing. We are building the foundation of this conversation so that we know what our people want to hear. We want to know what everybody needs to know as we move through this thing. Austin has all their M worked out in their capital planning on the front side. Corpus Christi does not. They walk through saying we'll find a way to absorb it within our budget. We're right in the middle somewhere where where we're looking at that. So, I'm gonna leave you that. I'm gonna get off my soap box. I apologize for that. But, I wanted to make sure I covered this a little bit because we've looked at every variable that we can with this thing. And I I want to make sure you understand we're not blind to any of this conversation. All I'm asking for is that we should let our voters decide which way we need to go. and and and if and and in your in your wisdom within that structure, there are ways to protect our people as we walk through this thing. Thank you, mayor, city council. I'll answer any questions, but >> Mr. Secretary, do we have a motion on the floor? >> Attorney General, >> Mr. and there was no second. >> All right. So, >> yes, >> there's no second. So, >> go ahead. Mr. Deb, u in in discussing the bond and and and please be there. Uh I just we hear so much and you're talking about the needs of the city. When uh the voters are going out to vote for these bonds, these bonds are specific to projects and any money that is appropriated for them can only be spent on the projects. There is no scenario where we would approve monies for a bond and then spend that money in some other way aside from what is specified by what the bond allows >> that. So that in that sense these monies are protected >> in in sort of in a way that perhaps the budget isn't quite there's more flexibility in a budget than in this bond referendum because the projects described are exactly what needs to be spent should that money should the voters approve that the project goes forward. >> Yeah. So mayor and that is correct. We have to spend the money on that there. The question was asked at the fast and what if we actually have a surplus of money afterwards? The money has to be spent on those four propositions. If there's money left over in those four pro I would love the day that we can do something less expensive than what the engineers estimate was. Uh but but I but the idea is that we have to return that money as well too. By the way, we would utilize that money to pay down the bond of what we just borrowed because we didn't need the money in order to build what we were building. Go ahead. >> There was no second. >> All right. >> Okay. >> One more question. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. N. Thank you. Um, so I just would like to reiterate though I know we keep saying if and when and it's possible it may not happen until a couple years if the the bond is approved, but those if and when are tied to the raising of taxes and and um we're asking the community to believe that we have we will exercise restraint and look at where we're at comprehensively, but we're precisely in this precision position because we didn't do that. And I'm just I think we should I mean I do think people need to understand the entire impacts comprehensively and come to their own decision come to their decision on their own. But at at some point we als we're we need to hold ourselves accountable and exercise restraint and control and the how what we're asking of the community what we're asking of the city what we're asking of you Mr. Neb because we've also put you in this position. It's not you can't you're not the only one to if there's fall it's not just you it's us as well and and anyway I'm just sharing that because I feel the frustrations as well. All right. There would be one more question to legal. Uh if for for example we had the bond election a certain day and there was a tornado or hurricane that came by well we still obligate the people to go out and vote. How would you how would you cancel it or or postpone it? >> I I I would without any without more research on my own and then conferring with our bond council. I may not have an answer for that for you right now, but I promise to if it's if it's a memo I need to draft, we could definitely >> we'd like to hear about it. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> It's that's an interesting question for our legislature to consider if they were to add another statute to this section. >> So, it can be postponed. >> You want to start praying right now or >> that's that's a point. >> I'm surprised it wasn't prepared for that. No here. >> All right. >> Okay. Next. Anything else? Thank you. >> Number three. Discussion on the status of TCAQ enforcement and compliance 25c-48 request associated with October 2024 water bowling notice. Mayor, council, uh, Buzz Pisker, uh, interim utility director. Um, there's a couple topics on the agenda that I may be speaking to tonight. So, I've split up my presentation instead of giving you a big packet. So, I want to hand out a couple slides and then I'll talk to each of them as they come up if that's okay. Okay. Go ahead. Good job. >> Give me one. >> There should be verse 15. I trust >> mayor you raised the question about you know the recovery from our event in October of 2024 and it's very timely as you know and uh you've received a citation and I want to talk to that but uh I thought I'd start off with kind of giving you a little summary of what's going on and how how we're addressing our uh issues used. Um what you'll see there is BPA's backflow prevention assembly uh by hazard and and this is an important point because when the event occurred as you know we had the TCQ and their staff come out and they did a survey of a bunch of different locations both residential uh and commercial. And so therefore we have a have a we had a mixed group of people that we had to address backflow preventers with and some of those were residential which would be typical irrigation the others were high high health hazards. So uh but I want to make it clear that we've addressed those and so some residents who had what are called non health hazard situations i.e. irrigation did get letters and we had to address those because they were part of that survey. So, it was appropriate. Uh but but let the record be clear that the high hazard or the health hazard ones are are going to be our focus as I've told you in the past and I'll talk a little bit about that. Okay? At least for the foreseeable future. U clearly we have inspectors conducting surveys daily. Um uh some of those have been met with um a little bit of negative feedback from some of our commercial operators and whatever, but we'll deal with that. That's all part of transition. Remember, we basically didn't have a program and now we're walking our way into a program. Um reminder letters are sent daily. The reason for that is each backflow pre has to be tested on an annual basis. So each has a different birthday, right? So there's constant communication between our staff and the people who have these devices. Uh the last bullet point I think is really really important. Um in that group that we were uh kind of mandated to address uh as I mentioned there was 155 uh that were backflow assemblies that weren't being tested. Um, as as of December 1st, we have tested and made sure 560 backflows have been tested. So, we're far exceeding the mandate and really getting into a program and doing what we're supposed to be doing for for the residents. Um, the mayor had also kind of asked, "What did we learn? What's the lessons? What can we tell the public?" U, here's what I can tell the public. Uh, we got a letter giving officially noticing us of the citation on March 31st. >> I think this is April 7th. We will I've already crafted the letter responding to that telling them that we've already addressed every one of the items. There's 11 items already. And the message is very simple. We got a preliminary report when they did the when when they did the survey. We didn't wait till the citation letter came to address the problem. That's a proclivity for some people. We've already completed almost every one of those. Well, we have by the time we got the citation letter. Now, what's that mean? It means two things. We're not sitting on our, you know, what waiting for regulation because we have a responsibility to operate this system the way it's should be operated for our residents. But the second thing it says is when I send that letter to the regulators this week, uh, they're going to be impressed because they're going to say, gosh, we sent out a letter of violation a week ago, and we're going to get back a letter with beautiful pictures and everything we've done uh that said we've addressed it proactively. And I I I think that's going to bode very well for us. So for our organization, if I had to tell you what are lessons learned, um we need to have a sense of urgency and we've demonstrated that. And if there's anything I want to impart on this organization during my tenure here is we should be proactive in doing right things, not reactive to bad things. And that's a culture that is learned, needs to be reinforced, needs to be demonstrated, and there's value to that even for the people that have to do it. And uh so I think we're learning that teamwork. We now have people going out and addressing high bills and whatever. And guess what happened last week? We found four establishments because of our customer service people going out there and working on high high bills that didn't have backflow preventers. Now they're going to get a letter and say, you know, you need to get a backflow preventor. So, you know, we're working together as a department. Novel concept, but it works. And and and then the third thing is I think we're all in getting it. That responsibility lies with everybody in our department. This isn't the customer service problem. It's not a backflow division's problem. It's our problem because it affects our credibility. It affects this city's reputation. And I don't know I don't know a person I hope that wouldn't think that's very very important. Okay. So, and then the final thing I would say that I think we're learning is you do the fundamental things well, the big things don't happen and you have more time and more money to do more of the fundamental things. And so, those are the lessons learned, I hope, and I think they are. And I think we're going to demonstrate it when I send that letter out this week. And we're not going to put it behind us. You know, uh I I've learned my Texas history. We still remember the Alamo because it had meaning, right? But we don't want to fight another one. And so we remember October, but we don't want to be there again. And I think we're getting it. And I think we put in place some things that are keeping us from having that happen. So, uh, that's my report there. >> All right. I do have a question. >> Sure. Uh based on the the citations we received, would have would it have been a better idea to send what we did to repair before the citations or it wouldn't matter. We would get citations anyway. >> We're going to get the citation no matter what. >> Um and we'll be incredibly they could have added something to it between the original survey and when we got it. They didn't. >> Uh so we we'll have it addressed. The other thing I would say to to to each of you which I think is very important, we may well get a fine of some kind. Uh in Texas, you have a wonderful thing and as you know I've ran utilities in multiple states. You have a thing called supplemental environmental projects. And so when you get a fine which I've had in other places, you can actually substitute projects in lie of paying the fine. So we will find projects and I can tell you that we've already got projects that'll qualify uh to address that. So we won't get a financial impact I don't believe if they'll accept our SEP which I believe they will but more importantly I think we'll make a significant impression on our regulators about who we are as an organization and a city as as it relates to water utility. >> All right. >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you Mr. Buzz. Um can you That last meeting we had asked of the how many thousand 86,000 customers we have roughly >> about 80 >> 80,000 customers. Um of those 80,000 how many of them would this apply to as far as the backflow pre? >> Well, I I would suggest it'll apply to our commercial customers because they will be in that category of uh of being a health hazard. Uh, and we've probably got about 2,000 of those. >> Okay. >> That may that'll fit in there. I think we got 6,000 commercial c customers. So, uh, it'll be in that that range. >> But, but as far as residential goes because >> residentials, well, >> as like I'm I'm asking >> we have 6,000 irrigation customers and maybe that's the question you're asking me. >> Yeah. Basically the question following up from last time was um kind of understanding the impact because we know that this annual testing to hire a certified uh inspector for the backflow prevention could cost someone $150 to $250 per year to get the testing done. >> Correct. >> And we said that that's going to apply pretty much for every um I I was under the impression it was just for those with the second meter for um their irrigation system but last meeting you said it was for me irrigation system >> meters don't create backflow devices I yeah I understand now thanks to you um but my question was how many of the 80,000 especially residential how many of them will be getting a notice you know requiring the annual testing um which again is a roughly $200 annual expense for people. So, I'm trying to understand roughly how many people are impacted by this. I know it's needed because we've had this issue. I'm just, you know, and I I I want to be prepared for the the scale, you know, because I've already been seeing the people upset about this thing they weren't aware of that they were going to have to do in light of our E.coli outbreak last October. Apparently, this was something we were supposed to have them doing, but we just were not enforcing it. So, I'm just trying to get an idea because I I think a large percentage of the people in my district have irrigation systems. So, I'm trying to get an idea how many people are going to be >> well, you know, expected to have to do this. >> There's two important points. We should have been doing this for years, >> right? >> Okay. We weren't. >> So be it. We are. Um, and I'll reiterate, we're going to be focusing in the near term for sure on the health hazard, which are not irrigation meters. Now, it's hard for me to say that because they're all regulated and we all need to be in compliance for all of them. Uh, but I think we've been very clear to our regulators and the public that we're going to focus on the highest potential health hazards and work our way up and down to to that level. Okay. >> But the answer to your question is we have six 6,000 irrigation accounts for sure. All of those will need some kind of backflow prevention. >> For for some reason, I'm just finding it really hard to believe that we only have 6,000 irrigation accounts. >> Let me finish. Well, we do have 6,000 irrigation accounts that you can make book. >> But that's is that the separate meters that we have or is that >> Yes. Because for example, like let's say some of the new homes being built, they all have irrigation systems >> and they they don't have two meters and I don't think they have a separate irrigation account. >> Then they won't that's where I'm going. We have 6,000 that are irrigation customers. Separate bill, separate billing. >> We have I don't know an unknown amount that don't have a separate billing and would still need a backflow pre. That is going to answer your question. >> Yeah, that answer is going to be a lot higher than 6,000. So eventually if someone can get that information that would be great just and just have an idea of the gravity of this and I agree we should be doing it but we have to own we have to own that we weren't enforcing this. We have to say hey we screwed up we weren't enforcing this you know for over the years and then we ended up with the E.coli outbreak and now we're going to do it the right way. But you know, just sending out these notices and everybody's like, "What is this?" You know, um, you know, so it's people just get in the mail and they're like, "Okay, I got to do this. I got to find one of these certified people. I got to pay $200 a year. I had no idea about this. What is this?" Um, so it's just that's my main issue is I know it's the right thing to do, but we just getting it communicated to the people and owning that we in the past haven't been enforcing this like we should have. That's all that's all I'm asking. Yeah. But thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pricer. I appreciate that. Mayor, if I can, >> I want to make a motion to move uh item 14 uh 1459. >> Oh, 591. >> It's related with uh All right. >> with with utilities. >> All right. Mayor, if he would you accept an amendment to add mine as well. It's also on the on the same realm 59 C2. >> Might as well. We have Mr. Pittsburgh up there. So, >> I'll accept it. >> A motion as amended. >> Second, sir. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> both motion passes. >> All right. >> Discussion with possible action and for an update on all new water lines and water line breakage of extensions and any other matters incidents there too. Uh just a quick question Mr. Mr. B just to find out where we at with the lines that we replacing. How many have we replaced? you started off and uh and the lines that that that how many lines have been breaking along the along you know the couple of short time that we you've been here. >> Well, I'm going to pass out to all of you a copy of the 69 streets that we identified initially as our highest rate frequency by council district. Okay, >> that works. >> That works. That works. The message. >> By the way, there's something for everyone. Great. >> All right. >> And then I will pass out each of you. And I apologize to the public uh for not having this in front of them, but uh I'll pass this on also. >> I'm gonna talk to both of those. Second handout I I gave you has two things. I want you to revert in the second hand out. Go to the last slide. >> It is about to be And that seems kind of unreasonable. >> Well, I guess council >> woman addressed. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Guess I just was curious. >> We're back on backlo. >> Just really really quickly because I was just asking is there a time frame and so council member King mentioned that the city's giving residents about 15 days to to >> we want the residents to react and begin the process. >> Yeah. No one. Typically, you're not going to get it done in 15 days. And so, we we've struggled with that that a little bit. We haven't shut anybody off for not complying with the 15 days, but we want to make it clear. Remember, we're under the ones that residential people have received are part of the initial TCQ group and we have to deal with those and we have to be timely. And I just said as long as you have a plan and I I know you do, but I just in terms of working with residents and I think that might ease some of the >> We work for them. >> Yeah. Oh, yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> We haven't forgotten that. >> But anyway, I just think that'll ease some of >> All right. So, you should have in front of you the streets and the mains and then you should have this sheet I'd like you to refer to. Um because it's there there's two things. As you know, we're starting up what I would hope to be an annual main replacement program. And as you know, you need money to do that. So, um, the first item on that additional funding request, this is what we've accomplished in the last 30 days. We've applied for all of this lowterest loan and grant money. There's $22 million of grants and there's a total of $129 million of requests. And it's multiple things, but the first item there is that Army Corps of Engineers assistance program for water lines that uh are we can we ask them to put this presentation on the screen uh or if it's possible or >> I know we have it but just for the people >> can we put it can I put it here? >> How's that? >> Okay. Okay, we had two Florida. All right, let me move it so everybody can see it. That's great. Thank you. Anyways, um here's what we've accomplished since our trip to Austin and of course our trip to Washington. But u the Army Corps, uh Congressman Quar was instrumental in helping us get that. So that's the 20 million that's item one. Then you can see we're going to try to get we we put in requests uh for meter replacements. Um, we're putting in funds for a booster station in an elevated tank in South Ledo. Um, POS 1.4 drinking water and clear water. As you know, you've been reading about these uh forever chemicals, right? Well, we need to know what's in our water and we we we can get money to do that. Unfortunately, late last year, we were asked to submit for funding and didn't get it done. So we they reopened the window and we got in there. It was due by April 1st. So we put the fullcourt press on and and applied for that money. And then the last one is lead service lines and our residents should be very interested in that. We're asking for funding to both do the do a more diligent survey of whether we have lead service lines, what the what the magnitude is, and whether they're on the just the utility side or the utility side and the customer side. Uh that's a significant amount of money. And by the way, the beauty of this one is if we get it or a portion of it, we're actually able to use the money to replace the residents section of the service line. And that's always a big issue because a lot of people can't come up with two or three,000, but it's important. So, we're able to use this money for both the utility side as well as the resident side. Um the last thing I'll say related to water lines unless you have a question is go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> The main lines that we have are they cast iron or I see doset iron and cast iron. Are we changing now different or are we saying doet iron? No, >> change it to cast iron or >> the new material will be some kind of PVC or HDP which is high definition polyethylene. Those are the two materials of of choice today. >> Okay. >> So, so the the metal lines will be replaced with some kind of a plastic or or non-metal piping. >> Okay. And then the the last thing that I have brought some information on is as you know we went actually to bid for replacement of the first three lines on our list. Those bids came in and we're reviewing them uh and we'll be looking at either granting a contract or uh looking for a more cost-effective way of doing the the main replacement. And I'll be bringing back to council our recommendation in very short order next week or two. >> I hope that answers your question. >> Yes, sure. >> All right. Mayor who's >> Yeah. I was gonna bring up item. >> Okay. >> Um it's um Mr. Fisher, I want to thank you for giving the public opening their eyes to to what exactly is going at the utilities. We know especially with um bond conversations that comes up where was the focus on our waterline replacement and I think we have known that under your direction the utilities department has been putting together carefully crafted plans not only to deal with waterline replacement but all of the other issues like the contamination control um that were needed in order to meet those TCQ requirements and really get our house in order so that some of the like the valve also the valve turning program, some of the basic operations so that we can ensure that the public water supply is safe and that work has been ongoing and that the utilities department has the ability to bond out on its own so that there's money that it continues to to be able to access and focus on these needed infrastructure replacements. Um but you've also understood the need for basic functions at the utilities department and setting up that map so that the future uh director of the utilities department will begin to follow through and we as a council can um make sure that we are have oversight. So the enforcement of these basic functions continues to ultimately avoid boilwater notices to the extent possible and uh ensure the safety and quality of of water for the citizens. I think I think I mentioned this before when uh Council Member King and I met with the um TCEQ Commissioner Brooke Pop and yourself that she expressed a lot of confidence in your ability to write the ship at the utilities department and had a lot of trust that she shared with us in your ability to focus on those needed steps. So that again all of this is so that our water system can deliver quality water to our residents. So I want to thank you for that and uh thank you for giving insight to what is being done at the utilities water department. We have not forgotten as a council or as a city the importance of waterline replacement and that is moving forward. >> All right, you have some question. >> Uh mayor, all I have is my my item that's that's up next. So yeah. Okay. >> I don't know if it's for you or Miss Maldonado, but uh let me go ahead and call it out. So it's uh item number 59 C2, discussion with possible action on payment plan options and metrics used for suspending water services for customers in any matter matters incident there too, co-sponsored by council member Gilbert Gonzalez and council member Ricardo Richie Rangel Jr. >> All right. >> The reason that this one came up, uh Mr. Fistra, I received calls every so often and and there's been hundreds literally over the course of four years that I've been here and u people are purchasing homes or renting homes and apartments. And this last call that I got was a bill of over $3,200. And the p the person that purchased the home wasn't able to open up a a service line because they wanted the staff wanted him to pay the $3,200 that was owed by the previous owner. And my question is, what metric are we using or what are we using when we suspend services for it to get to $3,200 for a home? Your typical home, I'm assuming, is anywhere from $140 to $160 a month. So that's 24 months, just over two years that people are lacking or not paying their bill. So just wanting to have, you know, an answer to what we're using, if we have anything that we're using as far as as far as a a method. >> Well, if you look at the first page of the handout I gave you, you'll see a discussion of what it entails to become delinquent in your water bill. You see that right? I can walk you through that. Um, I can tell you that if you put this on, this is our ordinance for deferred payment plans. And I can tell you that uh through five months this fiscal year and five months last fiscal year, we've adjusted almost a half a million dollars in water and wastewater bills. Okay. I can tell you based on that sheet, what's it say? There's 1,800 residents that owe $300 or more at this time. And I think it'll also show on there the times that we had payment moratoriums. And payment moratoriums unfortunately sometimes relate to people not paying at all and then not being able to pay when they owe the bill. Um, I can't I I won't apologize, but I can tell you uh that we I' actually I've just met a couple times with our customer service group. We need to get better at what we're doing. We do no resident a service by allowing them not to pay their bill. It doesn't get better. If you can't pay it at $100, you're not going to be able to pay it at $500. And then you're not going to be able to pay it at $1,000. We need to do what we did at the hospital and what I think progressive utilities are doing. And I talked to you about giving a customer portal so you can see what's going on in your your home and what's your usage. That's important. We're behind the curve. The meters we're installing will allow us to do that. But more importantly, in other places I've been, we created funding for people that truly have a need and can't afford to pay their bill. That's what That's what conscientious people do, right? And uh in one utility I was at, we actually did a customer service line warranty plan like you've seen electric companies do. I started the second uh water utility service line warranty program in the United States. It's now owned by a company called Homeserve. They bought it uh when I was in Ohio. But more importantly, when I did that at another Texas city, because council wanted us to look at that, we decided not to take any benefit from the city. A lot of times there's a little stipen that comes to the city for these plans. Uh we then demanded that the provider of that provide a $75,000 fund that we could use to help people pay their bills. Now, I will tell you, uh, I've yet to be at a utility that had people that had tremendous expertise in how to handle true need and people's true need. So, we always outsource that to a Catholic Charities or some of these other entities who know how to judge true need because that's what we're looking for, right? Uh, we want the people that can pay pay. We want to keep the people current as we can and we want to provide courtesy and we want to provide resources to people who can. We're lacking in all of those. So, we're going to have to get our act together and we're going to have to be very, I think, customer friendly and smart about it. Uh, but a person that's got a $3,000 bill has got a problem if they can't pay a $3,000 bill. If they can't pay a $200 bill. And to answer your question, we've had a couple of those complaints. In fact, I had a person stop in to see me last week. The problem was they had a pass due amount on this account and then tried to put it in this name and we transfer and I think Dora will tell you that. So if you don't if you didn't pay your bill on Maple Street and you want to move into a place on Olive Street, that bill follows you because you stayed in our system. So you won't get service there until you've remedied the problem on Maple Street. And some people don't understand that. And quite frankly, you know, I I'm not going to cast any Spurs, but sometimes people just don't understand that. >> Okay. >> Mr. Fischer, do we have people specifically assigned to this to disconnect? >> Yes. >> These services suspending. How many staff members do we have specifically on? >> We have four people every day who are starting to address the backlog we have. We have some backlog as you saw. The most most recent moratorum was the to the end of 2024, >> right? >> Okay. So, imagine what's happened. Now, we start to get serious about seeing what's going on. I've been concerned with accounts receivables since a month after I got here. I used to run customer service. It's it's it's my passion. >> Okay. And so, I understand it. and and and we made a little modification to our adjustment program just to make it more streamlined and easier to do because we can't have every adjustment come to the dis to the to to the director. I mean, our people on the front line ought to be able to handle this stuff with with good guidance. And then, you know, the things that are unique, we we have to handle unique and endor their their group do a good good job. We need to give them better support and and some better tools in my humble opinion. And they'll do a great job. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do you need because this is obviously an issue right that we've been facing for several years now uh even prior to co do you need more staff do you need more staff to be monitoring this because it's an issue that hasn't gone away and it's it's happening it's happened for years after year years >> it's but it but again let's remember it's a fundamental function this is not something unique we haven't written off an account in this city as far back as I could find >> okay >> okay That's unheard of. Uh we have some accounts that have been owing us hundreds of thousands of dollars for three years that no one dealt with. Okay. We have accounts that someone's decided that Mary only pays $70 no matter what her bill is. Well, I went time out. We can't do that. We don't have the right to do that. Okay. Council sets the rates. We can't modify the rates. We have an adjustment program which is ordinance. I can give you a copy of it and we try to follow it and and we bend the rules when when proper, you know, situations occur and when people get behind and sometimes they do fail on their payment program, the the comment has been as long as they give us some money and they want to continue it. The whole goal is to get them caught up and get a water service, you know, that's that's our business. Thank you, Mr. Just just to piggy back on Mr. URL, if you just bought a home and or you're renting a new new home, whoever is responsible, the tenant who who buys a home is going to be responsible for that bill or do you just go in and just got to present what do you have to take? So, you would say, you know, I just bought this home. You like the purchase orders or the rent documents. What do you have to to take in the new resident and I know Doris is here is not responsible for your failure to pay the bill. Okay. >> Okay. That's not I I don't believe that to be true. I've never heard of that being the case anywhere. So I don't believe it's the case here. >> But if you have a problem at another account and you move to a new one, it's going to follow you. Um and so you're not going to be able to escape. I think that was something along the line was trying to to address. >> Thank you. Thank you for appreciate. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. We'll do better. >> Mayor, we may continue with business. Motion to approve appointments to commissions, boards, and committees number one through 13. >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> I closed. Motion passes. Motion to open a public hearing to direct the ordinances. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion pass. >> Number one, public hearing director ordinance amending the zoning order saved by authorizing a special use permit for a tobacco shop on lot 78910 blocks at 1372 Eastern division located at 2419 East Street, sweet 107 1,379.04 ft. The plans only commission recommended approval of proposed special use permanent. Staff does not support the application. Number two, amending article 3 section 24.56.1 purpose section 24.56.2 Two general requirements section 24.56.3 time requirements for park improvement design and consideration. Section 24.56.4 special fund 24.56.6 park and open space master plan consideration 24.56.10 appendix A and appendix B of the park and dedication ordinance in Laro land development code providing publication and effective date. Number three ratification to authorize a city man to execute all necessary documents granting a 15 foot wide ement line who holy within a tracked land containing 152.0760 0760 acres of land more or less being out of lot one block one airator international airport passenger terminal subdivision subdivision and 0.988 acres more or less situated in portion 27 dona Maria G Sanchez original grantee abstract 284 web county Texas set tracks of land conveyed to grant or undes recorded in volume 478 page 471 deed records of web county Texas and instrument number 795813 official public records of webcount Texas exhibit A and providing for an effective date number four of Credo, Texas. Authorized city manager to amend Credo fiscal year 25 full-time equivalent positions listing by adding three and a half customer service representatives 202 for the purpose of providing ground handling services at the international airport. The cost of these employees will be placed back on the airline through the current agreement with the company need. Hold on just one second. Go ahead. >> Four against. Yes. Four against. Four against. Four against. Motion tot. >> Second. All in favor. >> That's number one. All right. >> Number two. Four or against. Motion passes. >> Mhm. >> Four against. Four against. Four against. Motion to introduce. Motion passes. All in favor? >> Motion passes. Number three. Four or against. Four or against. Four or against. >> Motion introduce. >> Second. All in favor. >> Opposed. Motion passes. Number four. Four or against. Four or against. Four or against. Motion closing. Introduce. >> Second. All in favor? Motion passes. >> Number four. We just did number four. >> Motion, right? Correct. No motion. Just council to introduce introd ordinances. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10. All right. >> Motion. >> I'm sorry. Five and six only. Correction. My correction. >> Any second? >> No. >> Okay. >> No. Just just open open up. That's it. No motion. No motion. Open up. Uh motion to approve final readings of ordinances 7 8 9 and 10. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Motion to approve consent agenda number 11 12 13 14 15 16 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Pulling out number 23. Approval for 24, 25, 26, >> 25. We'll excuse number 25 as well. Continue with approving number 26, 27, 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36, 37 38 39 40. Number 40. And there's number 40. to approve number 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 47 48 49 50, 51, and number 52. >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion pass. >> Favor number 23. Mayor, please. My motion to bring number 23. Bring up number 23. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Oppos. Motion pass. 23. Excuse me. Um, Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. >> I just wanted to know if uh the consent agenda item of the supplemental would also be in that list. >> Just wanted to bring that up. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Motion as amended. Second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion pass. >> Back to number 23. Mayor >> 23. >> Uh, this is a number 23. >> Yes. Consideration for approval of fiscal year 22G-01 city institutional network fiber extension as complete including all warranty certificates and release of retainage in the amount of $34,991 to facility solutions group Corpus Christie Texas and approval of amendment number two which is an increase in the amount of $17,39 and an increase in the contract time by 236 days due to lead time and a to repair utility polls for attachments. The final contract amount is $349,910. Funding is available in the community development fund and public access PEG funds. How are you? >> So my question to you, the only reason why we brought this one out, we've had issues with fiber companies here in Larredo that are causing damage to our property owners here. Want to make sure that this is not continuing with this company. If it should be a company that's causing damage to our people, have you all done that research on it? Uh good good evening uh everyone. My name is Fabio Rodriguez. I work for the hearing department. Um I think uh maybe the company you're referring to is different to this company that did the work for this uh project. I just want to show you really quick u where the work was done specifically for this one. I don't know if u this can be shown or not on the on the map. So this one was done through the the poles upper electric like uh above ground not necessarily doing underground work like the other companies doing. So many times whenever they're doing underground work they don't know exactly what's under it and that's why there is a lot of uh disturbances. I don't know if that'll answer your question. >> Yes. So these are above ground wires correct pull to pole. >> Great. Why I do I do why and again I don't Mayor May I go ahead um >> and I don't know if it's this company or not but just in the conversations that we were having at the last one of the last council meetings um there are some issues with some of the above ground um work in the in like the inner city. So, I I don't I believe that district 4 had seen um had some concerns and I I've certainly seen some in in in the district just that they leave wires on the like the rolls on the ground and the there's just there are some some issues. I just I don't know if that pertains to to this item, but I know before we were trying to figure out who to contact and how to make sure we're um overseeing the work. So anyway, here it is. And I just curious if if we can just make sure um we're we continue to >> Mayor Mayor >> look for oversight. >> Mayor, yeah, Mr. Chavez, Mr. Rodriguez, it's just to have oversight over these companies obviously, right? because we've had issues with them and you all know this very very well. Want to make sure that we're not extending contract with these people that have caused damage or that are causing damage to our people's properties and to make sure that we're we have somebody on them to make sure that they're doing their job correctly and not causing damage because you have gotten the calls. I've gotten the calls. Legal's gotten the calls just to be sure that if we're extending these contracts to these companies, they're not the ones the same ones that are causing issues for for our people. Mayor, members of city council, this was a project that we worked in collaboration with CDBG uh and including CDBG funds. This was a design uh built project that we had in Salaro. It was uh mostly aerial along Highway 83, but then we did board under textile rideway um to get along Moon Lane and then eventually to the uh Elean Recreational Center. So, it's our fiber that we installed. We did have an inspector on site at all times uh during the course of this pro project. >> Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Motion to approve number 23. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> I motion pass. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Again, uh F Rodriguez, for the record, um this project we're we're recommending approval. This is for the for covering the the gap for the funds for the La Fletcher Lane um realignment and also Carlton Road uh regrade project. Um these two projects, they have been in the in the works for a long time. And by doing this change, it's going to make more efficient the the project. So, or or the the the getting of the funds. Before it was a um uh certificate of obligation, but now we're doing a a direct loan which should expedite the process. >> Mayor, members of the city council, uh I can also elaborate on that. So, this was uh part of our budget uh cycles where we had a a funding gap for both of these projects on Fletcher Lane and Calton Road overpass and and it was a recommendation that we apply for a siblum and that's why we did that. This is just an amendment that we had already brought an item to council approving this. This is just an amendment on some language that our our bond council asked us to uh include. >> All right. Thank you. >> Motion to approve number 25. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion pass. >> Thank you. Number 40. This is requesting that we authorize a fiveyear term contract for a total amount of 8 million21983957 cents for the for the purchase of bodywn cameras in car video system tasers accessories software and operational services and this purchase shall be using the bond the buy board contract number 74224 funding is available in the 2024 certificate of obligation Special Police Fund and General Fund Police Department. Good evening, Chief Rodriguez. So, I I just have a quick question. >> Are any is any of this equipment the equipment that we're asking for through the bond just because it sounds similar, but >> yeah. >> No. Uh in the beginning there was a uh a need for it to be >> further recogn uh since the need became imminent. We were able to talk to the company which is Axon and we were able to get a payment plan to the need that we have because of the fact that we have about 138 cameras that are no longer charging. We're out of compliance through policy for those officers that come in and say that they couldn't record an interaction with the public because of the cameras not being able to charge. So when we talked to our current provider, uh they pretty much were pushing us to do another fiveyear contract with them. And at this point, uh, that technology itself has not evolved whatsoever. So, we went back and, uh, talked to our action partners and and making sure vendor to make sure that we were able to get this in payment plans rather than a lump sum of $8 million. >> Okay. Thank you. So, it's not none of this is >> no. Okay. >> No, none of it none of this technology is on the bond. The only thing that was on the bond was the uh the fleet, the uh the buildings and uh the cameras for the parks. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion second. >> Second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. >> Mayor motion open staff reports number 53. Anything to report? >> 53 and a motion. A second. Number 53. Any second motion is on the floor. Any second? >> No second. I need a second. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Oppos? Motion passes. Number 53. Mr. Mayor, evening uh city council, just wanted to uh touch base with the legislative body to see what you all wanted to do with regard to the appointment of this uh second municipal court judge position. Uh pursuant to the charter amendments that were recently made, uh I know you heard from uh my boss, Mr. on win that uh we are asking for this governing body to come up with a process whether that includes taking in applications for a certain amount of time and then the this uh governing body deciding who they wish to appoint uh for this municipal court judge position so that we can come into compliance with our charter. >> Mr. Mayor, if I may. >> Yeah. Um, what I'd like to recommend is what was recommended the first time around, which is a 30-day open window for anybody to apply for the position, and then we'll make the the decision after then to see who's most qualified for the position then. So, I my motion is to open up for 30 days. >> Second. >> Motion second. >> So, we discussed this a little bit last time. you you're you're talking about opening it immediately versus opening it up later or did you intend for us to create whatever program we thought we needed to to give you alternatives? >> Um so this really isn't a a decision for the legal department. Essentially the legal department's recommendation is this spot needs to be filled um sooner rather than later so that we can be in compliance with our charter. So, we are leaving it up to the wisdom and guidance of this body to determine what is an adequate amount of time to collect applications, review those applications, and then have you, the legislative body, appoint who you feel is most qualified for this appointment. >> Um, since we're discussing um hiring a new attorney and and that is your field, can I ask if we are looking to hire an attorney, how long would it be? Because and they will be coming on full-time if I understand correctly. Just for clarification, you mean a judge, correct? >> A judge. I apologize. >> No, no, it's quite wrong. >> Um, so if an attorney pool is that what will we we will be looking at when we're looking at appointing a judge, how long reasonably would it take an attorney to close out their private practice in order to be eligible to assume the judgeship? So that when we it seems to me as if we were to proceed forward with 30 days notice and then assuming the judgeship soon after despite being out of our budget cycle. Um that there would be an undue burden or it would limit our pool of applicants if we do not allow sufficient time for attorneys who are practicing privately to close out their client list. finish up the cases that they are currently working on and then be able to apply for this position and assume it in this in a time frame, right? What is a reasonable amount of time for an attorney to close a private practice and and not that it would happen we would have to wait for that attorney to close the practice and then he can apply but or she but to allow time for a private attorney in current practice to close their practice while they're applying for this position. That is an excellent question and I'm going to preface my answer with I've been practicing law for 11 years and I've been a public servant for all 11 years. I've never had a private practice. But what I can tell you based on my knowledge of the legal profession here in Web County, this would be the same decision for anyone who would even want to run for the for for the for the position. There's other things to take into consideration as well, just not closing out a client list, but it's also will you be taking a pay cut if you become if you become a public servant. And the answer is possibly yes. Absolutely. Because anyone Absolutely. Thank you. >> anyone who wants to work in this position is going to have to give up their law practice. So that is I would be I would feel that is probably the most that is the most important consideration for anyone wishing to apply. As far as a clientness is concerned, they can pass up those clients to other attorneys or their clients can go find other legal representation. But there's a whole host of things that are going to have to go into this uh decision by an attorney and it's boils down to who wants to serve in this capacity and those that wish to serve are going to do whatever they can to make it happen. Well, with that in mind, then it seems logical that we would allow a little bit more time for people to not only consider and weigh their options, but do do justice to the cases that they are currently working on, which would allow them a little bit more time to close these cases or find other attorneys to handle them if they think that they cannot finish it within what I would imagine would be at more longer than 30 to 60 days. and at the same time not undo our budget preparation for this year. So if we were to extend this to October, that would allow us to cycle into the next budget cycle, not upend our own budget process and allow for a wider pool of applicants because we would allow for attorneys who have private practices to do their due diligence. And so I would ask my colleagues to perhaps an amendment to extend this time frame so that we can meet those needs, expand the the pool of applicants of attorneys and then also fit into our next budget cycle. >> Mr. Mayor, may I respond to that? >> Yes, go ahead. What is a time allotted right now? >> There there is no time. That is for that is for this body to decide and to make a decision after that time period. But >> but but what I will say in response to council member Sigaroa's um um I guess statements and I mean >> that is very conservative and I'm sure that a lot of attorneys who were thinking about this position would agree with you. But as your legal counsel I will say that it is imperative that we comply with the terms of our charter as soon as possible. That would be my little bit as well too on on a on a on a human resource side as well too. But let me let me add this is asking the city council to consider the start of the process. >> So if we if we open it up for 30 days, if we'd have if we receive no applicants, we're going to have to open it up for another 30 days or or 60 days or 90 days. This is actually the start of the process. Once we once we select the candidate, whoever would be the appointee for that, that starts another conversation. By the way, we have a we have our utility director selected. He's ready to start. However, he's ready to start at the end of May because he has other obligations to get here. And so, as within the HR system in order, we've established that. And so, he's going to go and complete all the other work that he's doing and then join us at the end of May. We were able to work that way. I would I would probably say that that's what the city council is going to do with this. That individual, that attorney that says, "I'm happy to serve as the judge, the best candidates that you have." He says, "I need 30 days to close out my practice or I need 45 days to clause of practice." You don't want to lose that opportunity out there. So, it's really to accept in the applications, but I know we went out there, we've went out there twice for engineers because we didn't get enough candidate pool from the first time ago as well too. the the whole request that we have today is let's get this process started and let's let's uh let's start seeing who is interested in what what we're >> yeah hold before we get an idea of of how long it would take we'd have to have some input from some some from attorneys or would you have an input on that >> would I have an input I I I couldn't say Mr. Mayor, it would just be speculation at best. Again, I've never had a client list before. >> We don't know how long it would take. >> By any chance, Mr. is there anybody interested within the same realm or within the same facilities of the of the judges? >> You know, you know, mayor, city council, we we didn't go out and solicit from the associate associate judges that we have two of them that are serving over there right now. We did not solicit any kind of are they interested in that or not because it needs to be because it's an elected official appointment. It needs to be appointed by this body, not and so I I would hope that because they understand our system, right? That's what you're talking about. If they understand our system, they would make very good candidates because they they've already know how the system is operating within that. >> But as far as going out there saying, "Are you interested or not?" We've not done that. >> They haven't approached you. not approached us either. So, >> go ahead. >> I was just going to say, you know, I feel like there's very very few lawyers in the community that and a certain type of person that would be interested because this is typically an elected position. So, some there's only one until December November of this last year, there's only been one in the city of Rao at a time and then they're two four-year terms. So, people are thinking four to eight years down the road on whether or not this is they might want to do. And the type of person that's interested in this um you know position is pretty limited within the legal community I I believe. Um so ever since this passed the charter in November, which was now you know four months ago, it's been on anyone who might be interested in one day being a municipal court judge. It's it's been on their radar for the last four months. And if I put myself in their shoes, I would be coming up with contingency plans or whenever this opens or when it becomes a thing. Am I going to run a campaign or am I going to have an application? So, I don't think that this is something being sprung on people. The people that are actually interested in this are probably acutely aware. Um, and regardless of if it's 30, 60, 90 days, I think it's going to be roughly the same type of pool of people. So, I mean, personally, um, this is something this council hasn't had to do because I mean, we this is the first time this has happened. This will be the only time, God willing, that we have to uh appoint uh a municipal court judge u you know because the very the next time they'll run for their election. So this is just us going forward with our charter obligation that happened in November. If we're not happy with how the charter amendment was written, that's our fault for not addressing it last year. So we you know my view is we should move forward as advised to fill the position um as per our charter and um you can't go back to last year and say oh I wish we would have planned for this better. The fact is there's a vacancy. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Want to make motion open up for three days and continue. >> Oh you make the motion. >> Second by Dr. >> Okay. We have a motion from the second. >> The the uh the post amendment by >> Yeah. So I I don't believe I received a second, but my amendment was just to try to fit it into our next budget cycle. Regardless of the the fact that it did pass at November, I don't see how we are grossly in violation of our charter if we are programming this to follow our regular budget cycle. And my concern, how many if if I can ask Mr. Neb, how many um hundreds of thousands of dollars will it take to stand up a new municipal court? >> Uh, mayor and city council. And I did put this into a a previous email for what what it's going to be. We believe that the first time costs are going to be right around $400,000. Uh there's a $50,000 uh price tag for building out the office complex. And then of course the salary itself when you put in the uh the salary plus the benefits is right around the $200,000 mark. So I think on the low side $250,000 I more more realistic it's going to be probably 350 to 400,000 a year uh within that within the operation of that. So >> and Mr. Neb was any of that already programmed into our budget? >> No ma'am it is not programmed in the budget. We would actually utilize the uh the reserves or the other cash that we have already built into the budget to move over to uh uh to help solve this issue out there. that we did not know. Of course, when we established the budget, we did not even know that the the referendum was going to pass when it did. I so the budget was approved before the referendum was done. So again, it comes back to this idea that if we were to wait a few months after this extensive budget workshop where we discuss the importance of budgeting and planning for these expenditures, if we were to begin to address this in our new budget cycle, how are we grossly in violation of a charter? when the proposal was to add an elected office, understanding that elections have cycles and that our current municipal judge, that position would be open this coming November. So, while I understand that maybe on its face it's not fulfilling the charter needs, we it also doesn't exist in isolation. It exists with the understanding that our municipal judge election was occurring this October. So I don't understand the urgency, but also at the bare minimum, I would ask that we follow good budgeting by allowing this to be absorbed in just a few months. This isn't a long time. just to allow our next budget cycle to absorb these costs so we can better plan and not have to with not have to withdraw money from a reserve that we were told we would already need to increase to be fisc fiscally sound agents of that budget. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Mr. Is it not true that there's three temporary court rules in Mayor Street or >> the the the the costs that we put together were actually they came from the municipal court from our director over there uh within that conversation as to what they were going to need to equip for that. So, uh if there's rooms over there, I'm I'm I'm assuming that they're going to remodel one of those rooms for that purpose. >> But there's already three courtrooms, right? >> I believe so. >> Okay, Mr. May I mean? >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Yeah. So to address that that issue itself as far as courtrooms, yes, there are three extra courtrooms on top of the one with the main main judge there. So the facil facility is already there. Now whether an office is there for the new judge, that may be the difference, right? As far as the cost, municipal court brings in way more than $400,000, but it may cost $350,000 monthly. Uh they bring in more than that. So I don't think there's an issue when it comes to as far as the time frame. if we should start the process now. Let's say we wait 30 days from now to get the applicants to come in. We make a decision and he or she asks given me four months to close out my cases. That's something we're going to need to work on and the person that we pick is going to need to work on that that specific scenario. So, we may be coming into the next fiscal year already. We may be in October, but fact of the matter is we need to pick somebody now or as soon as possible. That way, he or she can make the plans to close out her cases or his cases depending with the individual that Men, at the end, >> Mr. Mayor, if I may respond to one thing that Mr. Net brought up. Um, the charter says that we have to have a second judge. It doesn't say a second judge and a similar size office as the one previously. So what I'm saying is that some of those things to to to council member Sigar Roa's point some of those things can wait for the next budget cycle but the the a second judge existing at this moment needs to be needs needs to happen to satisfy our charter obligation. All right, last question. >> Do we have a motion? >> Yes. Motion second. >> And a second. We need to call for the question. >> Call for the question. Can you repeat the motion, please? The motion was to open for 30 days to receive applications. Motion by a second by council member Dr. Tyler King. >> All right. All right. Call for the question. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion passes. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Motion to go into executive session for items number 54, 55, 56, 57, and 58. Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> This is government code 551.071 A1, 551.072, 551.071A. >> All right. Uh, what else? 55 1.01A and 551.087 and any other staff deemed necessary. >> Okay. >> Could we include What are the discussion items? >> Any staff is dee dee necessary. Absolutely. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Motion second. >> Motion is amended as and second. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Executive session. Back to regular session. No action was taken on executive session. Mayor, if I may >> go ahead. >> On number 54, we'd ask staff to just uh continue as directed. Number 55. Same to continue as directed on number 55 as well. Is that your motion? >> Yes, that's my motion for number 54 to continue as directed. >> We need a second. >> Second on that. >> Second 54 and 55. >> 54 and 55. >> 54 and 55. >> Separate that please. >> Yes. >> Uh for number 54 >> for staff to continue as directed. >> Second on that >> motion on number 54. Second. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion pass. >> On number 55, mayor. >> Second. also to continue as directed with staff >> number 55. Motion >> second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I motion. >> Where are we voting? >> On number 50, 56. 56. >> Yeah, that same thing to continue as directed as well for number 56. That >> motion second. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion pass. >> Number 57 same. Continue as directed. >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor. >> I >> oppose. Motion pass. >> And number 58. First staff to continue as directed. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> Opposed. Motion pass. >> Mayor, I have my item uh number 59 C1. Discussion with possible action to authorize a use of Sames Auto Arena for the 12th annual Driscoll Health Plan back to school event and any other me there too co-sponsored by council member Gilbert Gonzalez and council member Ricardo Richi Jr. Second >> motion. Second. >> All in favor? >> I question discussing the facilities and across the city. >> Do we have a um an estimation about what this costs the city? >> I mayor and city council, I I don't have that with me tonight, but I I know that since it's the uh the 12th, I think that's what we're looking at. We will we will have those numbers in there. Whether or not we were able to wave portions of it or we're sponsoring portion of it, that's that'll be the difference within that. So, but I'm I'm not sure what those numbers were for that event itself. >> This is an event that happens yearly. >> It's it's happened for 12 years in the arena. And so that I think that's why we're we're comfortable with actually moving forward with it. But I can't tell you because there are certain costs that we do collect for. It's just it comes out of their fund within the arena. And then there are certain costs that they we won't be charged for. >> So this is something that the arena does do some um I guess subsidy for want of a better >> they have they have done that's how they cover these types of expenses and so this one would be one to match within that. >> All right. Thank you sir. >> Right. There was a motion second. >> All in favor? >> Oppos? Motion pass. >> Mayor my second item 59 C2 discussion with possible action. Oh great I was already taken care of. Sorry. And for number three, I'm sorry, we're going to go in table number three. The team is out in New Bronals competing right now. Table next meeting. >> Excuse me. Uh, Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> I don't know if the uh if the public hearing introductory ordinance on the supplemental was read. >> Okay. I just wanted to bring that to your attention. >> Mayor, if I may. Yes. You have number 59 E2. This is a mayor promp's item. >> Second. >> Motion. Second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Motion pass. >> This is discussion with possible action to submit a resolution supporting the textile min road FM 1472 segment one feasibility study from I69 west to 2 miles north of FM 3338. expressing the urgency and critical need for the improvements and supporting the preferred alternative three which provides the best performance and level of service row acquisition and building impacts. also clarifying support for segment 2 schematic from 2 milesi north of FM 3338 to SH 255 and to submit by April 9th for inclusion in the official public meeting record in any matters there two co-sponsored by Mayor Victor Tvinho council member Rubenz and council member Richie Ram >> Mayor and city council >> I'm sorry >> just you need to move it >> yeah mayor and city council uh Mr. Chavez, assistant city manager, city engineer has the information, but uh we we we approve of the way this is written. We did provide today a a draft resolution for that work. So we would uh I guess we support moving forward with this item. >> Motion second. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um the Could we hear what the um what the final result was? you have the >> alternative what alternative what the preferred alternative three was because I know that there were several >> Can you can you show them that alternative? Yeah, >> thank you. I just I apologize, mayor. I I have to grab it real quick. >> All right. Go ahead. >> We're almost done. It actually we actually sent it out a little bit earlier today because we had received the information. I wanted to make sure you had it in your hands anytime that we have something ready to go. >> Right. >> Well, the idea is to find out what we're voting for and not really us but for the public to understand because there were three alternatives. people did go to these meetings. They were there for the discussions about the different alternatives. So I I think it would be a good idea to let them know what the final outcome was. The challenge we have is of course we need to do this tonight. We're get it done because April 9th is two days from now. >> Uh in order to provide the support letter for text for text, right? Correct. >> I thought there was an April 9th on this information. Say that I don't me city council Roman Chavez city engineer. I apologize for that. But uh here is the segment that uh uh aerial view uh for the study that we're looking at from I69 west to 2 milesi north of FM 338. And there's been a series of public meetings through text uh three of them the last one uh on March 25th. And so there's been a process for for all this and we support that process as part of that. These were the uh alternatives that were presented uh through again through this uh public uh uh notifications and meetings that we had. Uh so the recommendation is again uh for the segment one uh I69 west 2 milesi north of 3338 uh with the preferred alternate number three which is this one. And you can see uh how you have the over uh the overpass that will go on top. And and one of the things that we were looking at is as you can see the driving lanes we will be within uh those uh segments as well. As far as the uh segment from 2 miles north uh of 3338 to SH 255 uh we're looking at the segment number two schematic. And so that's what we have uh before you may uh so that the people use uh this information uh to make those decisions. And you can see here take a closer view how the proposed rideway varies. We're looking at the existing rightway. So there'll be a rightaway acquisition uh that would be part of of this process along with other improvements as well for building impacts and the level of service. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll call for question. >> All right. Call for the question. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. >> Mayor, can I go back to the uh supplemental agenda? to open up and approve public hearing. Introductory orders number one. >> Number one, an ordinance approving the author the author. An ordinance approving and authorizing the exe execution of a state infrastructure bank loan agreement approving the levy and tax for payment thereof and approving certain management related there. Yes, it's uh four against four against four against >> motion of closing introduce >> motion tech. This is related to item 25 which we uh looked at earlier. Uh and this is something that city council approved uh back in August of 2025. Uh uh that approved a resolution authorizing the filing of these applications. Uh our financial uh uh advisor has asked us to just include some language there that was pending and so that's the reason that this is coming back but we recommend approval. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Motion to close introduce. >> Motion second. >> Second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Mayor, if I may, on the supplemental agenda 7A, I'd like to motion to table second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> Post. Motion pass. >> Mayor, we can open up consent agenda on the supplemental agenda from the city manager's office. Mr. Joseph W. >> Those are all approved already. >> Yes, sir. >> Started again. I think we are done then. So um >> motion to adjurnn. >> Motion second. All in favor. Meeting adjourns.