Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome to uh council chambers into city hall. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Missa, would you please call the role? >> Mayor Plet Wardo, >> present. >> Council members Roland Beretta >> here. Sylvia Compos. >> Eric Ku is absent. Gillard Nandez. Mr. Nandis would is supposed to be participating uh by WebEx today. Kayn Paxton >> here. >> Okay. Thank you. Everett Roy >> present. >> Mark Scott >> here. >> Carolyn Bon >> here. >> City manager Peter Zenoni >> present. >> City attorney Miles Rzley >> here. Mayor and council, a quorum of the council and the required charter officers are present to conduct the meeting. >> Thank you, Miss Quarter. So, this morning we're here to u provide an overview of the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget in additional detail of the general fund proposed budget. Mr. Zen. >> Yes. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Good morning, mayor and council and the community that may be listening. Uh today is our first budget workshop uh for the FY26 proposed budget. And we do have two things on the agenda this morning or today. Uh from 9:00 to 1 is our planned time for this. The first is in front of you which is the budget uh first budget workshop material. Uh you have that handout in front of you. And then the second thing we'll do after we do that is the fire chief will do his briefing that was scheduled for the last council meeting, but because that meeting went kind of long, we postponed it. And we thought today would be a good day for the fire chief to go over some of his um operational procedures and metrics and and forecasted um delivery in the future. And so he'll do that second today after we do the budget workshop just so that we we make sure we're covering both public safeties, the fire I mean the police chief already did two briefings to the council uh in the last couple of months or so. So this is a similar briefing that the fire chief will give that the police chief uh has given over two uh prior council meetings. So uh just a quick recap on the budget. So the FY26 proposed budget that uh is for the fiscal year that begins October 1. Uh we did deliver to your offices or to your mailboxes the two budget books. We have the operating and then the capital budget that was delivered a week ago or more than a week ago on Monday. And so the council and the community has had time to look at it. Uh today's workshop will be led by Amy Khali, our budget director. And today we'll focus on the general fund uh primarily and we'll do a little bit of uh introduction on some of the other funds. Our next workshop will focus on the water wastewater and the and the rates for water. And we'll probably carry that over to the third workshop uh with the city council. Just some quick highlights on the budget. This budget that we're proposing is balanced. So, we eliminated that $7 million shortfall. Uh the budget overall though is less than what we had a year ago. So, the budget is is down, if you will. Um not down in terms of excitement for the community, but just down in numbers wise. Uh so, when you look at the total budget, the number for the proposed budget is 1.6 billion. And we know that today's budget is 1.8 billion. So that's% reduction if you will in planned expenditures uh for this coming fiscal year. If you look at just the operating budget, all the operating funds that is down about point about 5% or about 49 million less and then the general fund budget is just about the same as what it was a year ago or in the current year. Uh just8% more. And one thing we'll focus on in one of our workshops which is a high priority is street funding. Uh we have to talk about not the 26 so much but the 27 budget uh where we'll have less revenue for streets. But in this budget we're proposing 11% more in street funding. So that's a that's a big bonus in the budget. So after today uh after this workshop this evening we have our first community workshop in the budget. Uh that'll be in city council district 3. And then next week we'll have another workshop as I mentioned and then we'll have uh two uh community budget hearings next week, August 13th and then August 14th next week. So with that, we're going to turn it over to Amy uh who will walk us through the presentation. You have that in front of you and we'll show it on the on the screen as well. >> Thank you, Peter. And uh the way we're going to proceed is is hear out all of the um the entire presentation and then the council will um we'll have questions and and and answers and discussion after the entire presentation is has been presented to us. >> Thank you. And it looks like we're on the last slide. If if you don't mind moving the presentation to the first slide. >> Yeah. Very quick. Thank you, mayor and city council. I'm Amy Cowie, the director of management and budget. I'm very excited to discuss our general fund budget with you today. Um before we begin, I would like to just acknowledge our budget team. We have a very small but mighty team and they have worked many many hours with all of our departments to build this budget for our city and and and they've done great work. Okay, let's get started. So, for our FY26 proposed budget, just a reminder, as Mr. Zenon said, we did have a preliminary forecast of a $7 million shortfall, a difference between our incoming revenues and our anticipated expenses. Um we worked through that by collaborating with all of our city departments who did some really great work on evaluating their um core services, how they charge for the services and the cost of those services and then identifying opportunities for efficiencies or expense reductions. So we'll go through that in detail today for the general fund. This slide is pretty telling as far as what we saw when we prepared our initial forecast and where we wound up with property tax and sales tax. So our very early assumption as we looked at the FY26 general fund budget for our two main sources of revenue in that fund were that revenues were going to be flat. And so if you look at the um chart on the left of this slide, you can see in the last six years that there was significant increases in our net taxable property values and in the last two years that leveled off. And then the chart on the right shows sales tax which is a very similar story here. The sales tax was growing for several years significantly and in the last two years has leveled off. This is our overall city proposed operating budget. The total is 1.6 billion. That is 941 million of operating funds and 693 million in our capital budget. The overall decrease in this budget is 12%. We had a 5% decrease on our operating um funds and then a 20% decrease in the capital. This pie chart, there's actually two um really important things to notice in this pie chart. What I would call the crust, that black ring on the outside represents our general fund revenues. And you can see that sales tax and property tax represents more than half of our general fund revenues. Our total general fund budget is 346.5 million. And the expenses are in the inside of that pie. Those slices represent those expenses. And you can see that public safety represents more than half of that budget. For the general fund, there is a slight increase in our proposed budget of8%. [Music] This slide represents all of that collaborative work that our departments did and the time that they spent beginning in February of this year to really critically look at their operations. And so we can see and at a glance that there are five departments that had mandated increases to their budgets. There are seven departments that had enhancements. So, increases to their budgets that weren't mandated by contracts or legal requirements. And then we had almost all of our general fund departments that submitted some sort of efficiency or reduction to their budget. And then we had five departments with revenue changes. So, now we're going to look at the revenue changes to fees for service. So, we've got the fire department, code compliance, parks and wreck, police, animal care services, and library who had changes to revenues. There's six six departments there. The fire portion is over half a million dollars, which is a significant amount. And we'll go into more detail, but the majority of that is related to EMS revenue. So for code compliance, our code compliance department is recommending implementation of a vacant building registration fee and a vacant building inspection fee. This would result in $414,000 of additional revenues to the general fund. This is a new fee. The fire department total revenue increase results in over half a million dollars. 314,000 of that is related to inflationary increase to medical services. That's the EMS call revenue. And then there is an increase of 193,000 for the services the fire department provides to CCW for maintaining fire hydrants. So that revenue is coming from CCW to the fire department. The police department looked at their new training academy and said, "We have an opportunity to provide training to other agencies, our partner agencies in the area." And so they're requesting a new fee be approved to charge for registration for those trainings. That would result in an estimated $100,000 in additional revenue. The animal care services department is recommending increasing a few of their fees. These fees have not been adjusted since 2015 or 2018. The total revenue increase projected is $24,510. And these fees would increase, the detail is there. It's also in our budget book. All of our fee change detail is there. um would increase for impound fees, boarding fees for pets that are picked up and and picked up on a recurring basis. Um and then some u vaccines would be increasing. The parks and recck department is proposing an overall revenue increase of $411,955. The fees that they looked at are um related to afterhour kid power, related to reserving a pool for a party, a pavilion for an event, those types of things. And so there are the main fees listed. We use two slides for the fees that are listed. There are more fees in the budget book that had um a less less of an impact monetarily. Um but the detail is is fully listed out in our um in our proposed budget book. So this represents the um fees related to the learning center and vendor permits and then other special events. Next we'll look at mandated expenditures. So these are increases to our general fund expenses that are mandated by a legal requirement or a contractual requirement. The majority of the increase you can see here is related to the public safety collective bargaining agreements. And then we have an increase for parks and wreck that's related to um CIP projects that will be coming online. And then um solid waste which is related to contractual requirements. So, the for the police department, uh, we are in year three or we'll be going into year three of a four-year agreement. Based on that agreement, all officers will receive a 3% increase to pay effective April 1. And then we've also included an increase to their overtime to rightsize that budget along with their pay increases. For the fire department, they are in year two or will be going into year two of four of their collective bargaining agreement. All firefighters will receive a 3% pay increase effective October 1. We've also included an increase to overtime to rightsize that budget. We've got a uh increase built into the budget of 984%. This was a planned increase. We are in year five of five of that plan. We've added u firefighter occupational cancer screenings and physicals. This was based on a legislative update and then an increase to EMS billing services which is increasing based on the amount the revenues are increasing as a percentage of revenues. For parks and recreation, we have included three months of operating and maintenance at the north side aquatics facility, the Harbor Bridge parks and trail system. And in the solid waste department, we have incorporated increases to the push and pack contract and the recycling contract. Next, we will discuss enhancements to expenditures. So, these are um increases to our general fund expenditures that aren't mandated by a legal or contractual requirement. Um most of these increases were assumed in our initial forecast. Um and we'll go through that in detail. And you can see here that um public safety represents 3.3 million and parks and wreck represents um just under half a million. So for the police department, we have included the uh police training academy which begins in July each year and we've included funding for 25 trainees. And then we've added funding for five additional police officers. In the fire department, we've included the fire academy, which begins in January of each year, and funding for 23 cadetses. And then we've added funding for five additional firefighters. For animal care services, we've included enhancements that were in line with the city gate recommendations that you had seen previously. This is in addition to what was added at midyear in this current fiscal year. It includes um an additional administrative dispatcher position and then we have the free uh spayneuter vouchers included in the budget and supplemental veterinary services. the city auditor's office. Um, at at the audit committee meeting prior to our uh finalization of the budget, it was discussed that they would have just over $70,000 added to their salaries budget plus 30% um for benefits. And so the total increase to their personnel budget was 96,000. That was based on the discussion. I did want to point out that there were some additional requests that came into my office after that meeting and so I'd be looking for your direction on whether or not to include that in the budget. These requests are not currently in the proposed budget, but it does include new audit software, annual recurring cost of 25,000 and a one-time implementation of$7,000. It includes professional services of 20,000 and a certification incentive pay program for 4,000. For the finance department, we included um an a budget for grant writing services. This would be professional services for grant writing specifically in parks and wreck. We are proposing to continue the implementation of our athletic field maintenance program. So this would be an enhancement um that includes an addition of four positions. The planning and economic development department um we have added a position for homeless services one position and then also included as an enhancement. This affects all departments um specifically police and civilian employees. We are proposing an update to the um TMRS plan provisions. And this slide just shows the current provisions in our TM TMRS that our retirement plan and the proposed changes to those provisions. The highlighted rows are the provisions that would be changing. So we would be going from a 7% employee contribution to 8%. The city's match 2:1 would not change. Um we would still match the 2:1 and then it includes a change um to uh transfer updated service credit and then a change to the cost of living adjustment and then the retroactive COLA. There's a lot of words on this slide, forgive me, but this is to help try to explain what those changes mean. Um, so just briefly, I'll I'll go through this. Um, for the transfer updated service credit, this transfer feature allows the USC calculation to include previous employment with other TMRS cities. Adjusting the USC to align it it aligns with the top 20 cities that are in the TMRS system. And then the change for the COLA from annual repeating to an ad hoc is is the term TMRS uses means that it won't automatically occur every year. It would come before this body annually to approve that COLA uh review and adjustment for the retroactive cola that um calculates based on the change in the consumer price index and currently um it's it's non-retroactive cola. So that only looks at the most recent year. the retroactive cola would would take it um from the beginning of a person's retirement to the current year. So next we're going to look at reductions to expenditures and you can see the departments did a lot of work here. Um this represents just a ton of time and collaboration to bring forward these these recommendations to you. So, we'll go through that in detail. For the city attorney's office in FY25, they're holding a a position vacant for 12 months, and that will continue into FY26. For the city manager's office, there has been a budget of half a million dollars for a reserve appropriation um that's really intended for emergency uses. And so that is is being uh removed from this proposed budget. And then he will also hold the assistant city manager position vacant for another 12 months as well as that management assistant. In total, this was a roughly a million dollars. the city secretary, um, city council and mayor's office will be holding a position vacant for 7 months after retirement and then the mayor's public relations specialist will be held vacant for 12 months. For code compliance, we're proposing to eliminate two vacant code compliance officer positions and one vacant administrative position. This would leave uh 27 positions in code compliance for communications. These reductions are really specific to the 311 call center. And um the department looked closely at what made sense with operations. And so one of the recommendations is to reduce the call center hours from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. And when they looked at call volume during the hours of 7 to 8 and 5 to 6, it made sense to do this. And then they they would be eliminating their office lease at the 311 call center, which was which also made sense and was a good business recommendation. Then there's a reduction to temporary salaries um which is a line item that they've not needed to utilize. And so all of these changes made good business sense for the operation. And then we would be transferring one position from that department to an internal service fund. This is another department who looked at their operations and said let's let's make some changes that make sense. And so the court um Judge Chapa did a great job looking at court administration budget and she's recommending that we eliminate the food budget for the detention center staff, the um professional services and rentals. That um makes sense to remove and then to reclassify the assistant director position to a lower level position which would generate savings. That assistant director would be reclassified to a court administrator position. for the fire department. These are one-time reductions. Um does not impact their their trainingmies, but there is um some savings that can be realized one time for Delmare tuition and for promotion testing. and the health department. They looked at the services being provided for nursing health and that will be moved out of the general fund into their special revenue fund. The charity care program services won't be impacted. It's just a transition of the funding out of the general fund. for human resources. They are eliminating an organizational development manager and then they have two positions that were in that um division that will be reclassified to uh other other roles within the department to result in in some savings. And then they're reducing the budget for um some developmental courses, memberships, and professional services. For libraries, there's a reduction to books and periodicals. And then due to the changes that are happening with Flower Bluff ISD, they're changing their operations when we're going to be allowed in the building because of student safety concerns and the requirements for those protocols. Um, we'll be eliminating a vacant manager position, branch manager position there, and it is currently vacant. for the parks department. They um evaluated the afterhour kid power program and identified two positions that would not be needed to continue operating that program. So those positions would be eliminated and then we would be transferring a custodian to our um asset management fund. And then um they also looked at the tis uh tennis center business model and realized some savings by changing those operations. One of the great I think really good news stories we have for the parks department is the work they've done on the Oso Bay Learning Center and um seeking out contributions to fund that that program. And so we'll be transferring the Oso Bay Learning Center out of the general fund into a special revenue fund dedicated for that learning center where we can receive contributions to operate it. Currently in this budget, we are um having to transfer a minimal amount of general fund support to to close that gap. So this is uh considered an efficiency. The recommendation is that we eliminate three positions from the economic development department and consolidate that department with the planning. And so it would the new department would be planning and economic development. Um we would be reducing some operating expenses as well, holding a special project manager position vacant for 12 months. And then we're also proposing to eliminate the fee waiver program for infill housing for the police department. Um that this isn't really a reduction. It doesn't change the services in the police department, but the cost of maintaining the facility are transferring to asset management in accordance with the asset management business plan. So for the general fund as a whole, this will show you our adopted budget for 25 and our proposed budget for 26 by department. A comparison, you can see where there were some increases and some decreases. Um in in total, the general fund budget increased $2.7 million and that's a 8% increase. um considering some of the um mandated expenditures and and um changes there. I think that's pretty excellent work on behalf of our departments. Now I'll go over our other funds just at a high level. These are our enterprise fund expenditures in the proposed budget. You can see where there are increases or decreases over the FY25 adopted budget for each enterprise fund. Overall change is a $9 million increase for the enterprise funds. special revenue funds has um you can see there are some changes fairly significant decreases in in some of our special revenue funds over the prior year. That's primarily due to um lowering our transfer to the CIP projects. We had several very large projects that were funded out of special revenue fund operating um dollars last year and so that decrease is reflected here. Overall the decrease is almost $56 million for our internal service funds. And just a reminder, internal service funds are exactly that. These are funds that serve the entire city as an organization and they receive their funding to operate from other city departments. So overall these funds are decreasing 1.4 million over the prior year adopted. And then for debt service funds, you can see there is a a decrease in our debt service proposed budget as well. Here we have projected fund balance comparison. So as we look at some of our major funds, our budgeted ending fund balance for FY25 compared to our budgeted ending fund balance for FY26. And then that final column reflects what our reserve policy is according to our financial policies. For the general fund, we keep a 20% um 20% of expenditures in our reserve um for contingencies. For enterprise funds, it's 25%. Special revenue funds do not have a required reserve amount. And then our employee benefits funds that reserve should be in line with our incurred but not reported claims and potential catastrophic claims that is received from um our actuary each year. So just a reminder this is our first budget workshop number one of four. We have three more to come. Um, I look forward to working with you all as we refine our budget for FY26. And then this evening, we have our first community input session. There are seven scheduled throughout the city in every district. They are all from 6:00 p.m. to 700 p.m. And the dates and times are noted here. They're also listed on our FY26 budget website and um can be available for viewing there. That concludes my presentation and you have a great team of people here to assist with answering questions. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, Peter, you don't have any comment. We can just go into >> No, I think Amy did a good job summing up the budget. So recall again though we did have a $7 million shortfall in the general fund and this would be the second year where revenues weren't sufficient for planned expenditures. The prior year we reduced the budget by 9 million. >> Uh so this is another reduction in in u services. These we tried to not impact direct service delivery and so the budget becomes balanced by reducing the budget by 4 million. um bringing on additional property tax revenue that the appraisers uh didn't anticipate initially and then making some minor adjustments in user fees of 1.5 million. Uh the new the new enhancements in the budget are limited and um Amy spoke to it a little bit, but they do reflect the council's priorities that we've heard from you. That includes grant writing services, uh homelessness services, police and fire. And so we're fortunate to uh we didn't make the goal of adding um I think it was 15 plus firefighter positions and 10 police officer positions as requested by our chiefs, but we do make progress in adding five additional positions in each operating uh department. Both five for police and five for fire. So that's good because if we if we take too many pauses and not add additional public safety positions, it gets tougher to add them and and more even tougher to to train them. you can only train so many in a in an academy. So, this will keep us up this will keep us up to speed, we believe, and both chiefs um are happy with that and I think the council has expressed interest in doing that. So, I think that's a good summary. Uh as Amy said, she's here, the budget office is here, I'm here, and most of our major department heads are here uh to entertain questions and comments from the council. >> Yeah, thank you, Peter. I actually have a question and it's uh for fire. It's a line item. It's not specific to anything that was presented. Um I don't know if Chief Wade could probably or maybe you could answer. The the question is is it's on page 116 of of the budget book. There's a line item um that we're always very um cognizant of because it's ambulance services. So it's city ambulance operations. So I noticed that that has decreased by about half a million dollars. And so I'm just curious as to um or can someone give me an explanation on on why that decreased or how so? >> I can double check for you, Chief. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I I believe it was a capital replacement um >> medic units. >> What? I'm sorry. >> Medic units. So we had budgeted in FY25 for medic units that are not budgeted in FY26. >> Okay. And that's the half a million dollars. Great. Thank you. That's just so the community and you all know it's those are the actual uh vehicles if you will. So the it's an ambulance truck if you will. So it's a one-time purchase. Uh we included a few in the budget last year. This year we don't have funding to continue that. So yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh let me check. We have No. No. Okay. Anyone else have any questions or comments? Councilman Scott. >> Yes, ma'am. Thanks. I'm going to just run through a couple thoughts. Uh, so as we're communicating with the public, we had a $7 million shortfall. We've resolved that for through a a variety of changes, additional income through Avalorum that we didn't expect and then some reductions. Right. >> That's correct. So, but in in that we say that uh the general fund is uh that the budget is is overall 12% less this year than last. So, the same >> the entire the entire budget the one yeah the 1.8 compared to the 1.6. Yes, sir. >> Okay. and that and and then in in uh go diving deeper is it a five because on page five it says a 5% decrease in the proposed operating budget but then later you said it's an 8% decrease. So just how do I what am I missing? The 5% decrease looks at all funds citywide for all operating. Um the decrease is8% so less than 1% in the general fund specifically. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I see. So the overall budget is down 12%. >> Right. >> The operating budget is down 5%. >> Right. What? Say that again. And then what is the point? >> The 08% is the increase to the general fund. >> So general fund only. >> Yeah, we're just councilman we're we're kind of dissecting it. So the the biggest number the one that you know we're familiar with is the overall >> all funds all funds including operating and capital that 1.6 billion decreases by 12%. And then if you say forget about the capital budget, just the operating expenditures, things like garbage service, police services, airport services, direct services, no capital expenditures. >> When you look at that budget, it's it it decreases 5%. >> Okay. >> Okay. That's within the big overall budget 1.6. But when you kind of dissect out now just operating the capital budget if you say let's just look at the capital budget that decreases 20%. So you can see on this picture here on the bottom right. >> Yep. >> Go back please. One >> I saw the I really wrote the note. >> Yeah. Okay. Well the prior slide the capital budget 693 last year was 867. So when you say just compare capital budget year-over-year and then of all the operating funds if you say just let's look at the general fund that went up just slightly 8%. >> Got it. Got it. Got it. >> Yeah. So we're just kind of dissecting it this >> you know I think it's important. Yeah. >> To communicate that uh and and we're going to go through the CIP and how that 20% happened. >> Right. Yes sir. We will. I think that's the third work fourth workshop. >> Okay. And then it can somebody later have a conversation with me about the code compliance increase through the vacant building registration? I was I don't think I was around for that. >> We should do it right now. Is Michael Dice here? >> Somebody just kind of talked about where it went. >> I think that was a big deliberation five, seven years ago. >> Sure was. >> And >> yeah, the city council approved >> there's going to be interest in that u right that revenue. Well, with all the heavy hitters in the room, I appreciate code compliance coming first. >> Uh, Michael Dice, Development Services, code compliance. So, yes, a few years ago it was considered uh it did not go through at that time. Uh, we are looking at ways to help um, you know, manage the vacant building problem we have in the city. Uh, increasing those fees and getting the typically out of uh, city owner to be compliant and keep up with that. uh it is a burden and so we're trying to make sure that we weigh um you know public safety the the view of the city and and making sure we have revenue and engaged ownership >> and what's the stated purpose of that effort I mean what's when we say hey we're going to implement the code compliance um vacant building registration why do we do that what's what's the goal in that effort >> the goal is compliance we want to make sure that absent owners which typically are the bulk of any vacant building uh keep their buildings safe, secured, maintained. Uh and that's kind of gone to the wayside with some cuts that we've had to abatement. It's it's a little bit harder to to maintain those and then lean a property, which you only get back that money once it's sold. So, this really engages the the vacant property owner. Uh it allows us to to to manage and keep track of those a little bit better. Um, and again, hopefully it has a positive. I don't want to make money on vacant buildings. I want vacant buildings to go away. That way, it develops the city. And so, the con the concern is that if I'm next to a vacant building and it's not wellkept, then it it impacts my, you know, my my lifestyle. >> I thought there was some police and fire. >> They're always out investigating uh vacant buildings that aren't secured. you know, if we if we haven't secured it for whatever reason, it's up to the property owner. It's their responsibility, but you know, a number of fires that we've had recently have all been vacant buildings. >> Is that right? Okay. And because, you know, generally you're supposed to keep track, you take care of your own property, and if if you don't, then you guys show up and and find me. I take care of my P. That came out wrong. Other people that don't take care of their property. Fine. >> Yes. >> Uh there's going to be a lot of conversation on this. be some push back and I just don't remember, you know, how it came about, why it came about. >> I I do recall some conversation with maybe police or fire that it was these vacant buildings are causing a concern. >> They are a nuisance. >> They're a nuisance and but they're also a concern to uh neighbors. Yes. Right. You know, >> absolutely. >> If this vacant house catches on fire, I sure don't want mine, you know, to be a part of that. >> And that tends to happen as well. So, uh it it's also a best practice. it just managing the the vacant buildings, the nuisance properties that are out there, the more we can manage and the more that we have the ability to manage, they hopefully go away. >> Does that require um a database? >> Well, I mean, we'll manage through spreadsheet at first, but INFOR is pretty flexible. That's our permitting software. Um through code compliance, we have GovQa. We have lots of different things on the shelf that we can utilize. >> It's new to me. if there's any additional information you could provide that that would be helpful. I suspect there'll be calls on that issue. >> Absolutely. >> And I'm running out of time. I I'm not aware of the city auditors additional enhancements. Is that did they did we all get that? I didn't get that information. So, Mr. Chair, at some point can you said it happened after we approved the budget? So after that audit committee meeting where we discussed the increase for salaries >> um the auditor's office submitted additional increases to the budget office that they were requesting and and so I just I'm requesting feedback from the council on how we should proceed. >> Okay. Well, just as a as a committee member, I'm not prepared to deliberate or opine on whether that's good or bad because I don't think it's been provided to the committee. I think that's interesting. All right, next one. Uh because I'm running out of time. Uh walk me through why the TUR's funds proposed budget goes down so dramatically. Is that's just because we're not we're not incentivizing projects this year. >> Um it just it depends on which one you're talking about. A lot of it is just whatever the payment schedule is or what the commitments are, whether we're transferring out to a CIP fund for a CIP project. Um, so it just those funding kind of es and flows depending on what the commitments are. >> Okay. Can All right. So for instance, type A funds that went from 34 to six. Is that because that's over? There is no >> Exactly. Exactly. So we had transferred a lot of that money to the CIP in 25 and 26. The type A only has either um you know about six months worth of funding in there. So there's just not you know we were we were putting all that money to use. Would that be representative represented represented uh in a 20% reduction in CIP like that 20%. The reality is it's because >> type A went away and it went to type B. We're not spending. We're down in our spending of type B. >> It it is a portion of that. That is reflected in that 20% reduction, but it's not the sole cause of that. Yes. >> Got it. Uh can can you provide additional information on on that the reduction in TUR's budget from 21 to 16 the reduction in type B funds from 17. Can you just provide some background information for me? I >> sure we can provide a schedule of what we had budgeted in 25 and then what was budgeted in 26 what projects? >> And I think lastly oh no uh yeah we're eliminating the um the free waiver program. Why are we doing that for infill housing? What what's what's I thought that was uh to incent. >> That is right. Right. Because we forewent or we lost $2 million in revenue because of the housing authorities. We thought that they're picking up additional revenue that they can they can cover that$100,000. >> Oh gosh. So, but if uh >> if somebody in the audience wants to do infill housing, do they last year they would get their fees wavered? >> There was some Right. Right. Development services fees were waved or paid for with this money. And so we had a $100,000 budget. Uh because we're losing over two million in revenue and the housing authority is gaining that. We thought it'd be prudent that they cover it this next year. >> I get that. But but I would be concerned that you know private developments that we're trying to incent infill housing or also be impacted. Right. >> No, they won't because they'll go to they need to go to the housing authority to get the money now. Got it. >> Yeah. So they'll just go to the housing authority who has picked up millions because of their their policy directions. >> Last thought. run out of time. Um, >> right. >> Convention center complex fund. Uh, we'll talk about that later. Right. Is that going to be discussed in and in some >> I'm not sure that we actually have it scheduled for, but we'll talk a little bit about it and when we go to the CIP. Okay. >> Um, but >> because we have this new income stream, you know, that coming on, right, the that the legislature amended to provide additional revenue now >> for the PFC. >> Yeah. um that actually I mean we will that's is similar to a TUR where that increment is going to build up. We really aren't until we have a designated project and that increment builds we wouldn't really we're not recognizing any of that revenue yet >> really. >> So it it it doesn't start acrewing you know >> so 24 was our base year. >> Yeah. >> And so 25 going into 25 would be our our first increment. So it would only be the small you know like I said like a TUR it has to build that increment because it's only over revenues generated over the base year from the hotels from hotel occupancy. The other thing is is that we still need to bring forward the designated project. You have to have a designated project to start receiving those funds. We have to file that with the comprollers's office. And so that's something that we will be bringing forward um start working that working through that with city council um after we get through the budget project process. Well, I have six seconds. That's it for me. Thank you. >> And mayor, if I can, uh, if there's any questions that are not answered here at the podium or in the case of additional information asked for, as part of the budget workshops, we'll send out a one follow-up memo covering all the questions raised. And so, over the next several weeks, at least once a week, you'll get a memo that details the question and then has the response or the request for information and then has the response. So, we have staff that are tracking the questions. >> Perfect. And uh the goal is to try to answer everything here, but if we can't, we make sure we do via a weekly memo. Uh that'll help you. Yeah. >> Thank you for including that. Uh we have Councilman Hernandez online who has a comment or question. Councilman. >> Yes. Good morning. I want to also reiterate on that the the issue we had with uh the property registration. We actually voted that down that we you know because it was an additional fee on properties that was u I mean I don't think we're going to be doing property registration for vacant houses are we? >> Oh >> yeah. We'll have Michael Dice answer that. Michael, when you uh if you can, can you also give the definition of what's vacant? You know, what's a vacant property? >> Uh we don't want this to be misconstrued if you're changing tenants. That's vacant. >> No, the these are houses that are already on the radar that we're already maintaining either through boardups, uh abatements. Um we have approximately about a thousand homes that we know are are vacant in the city. These these are tend to be nuisance properties. These are not, you know, a house that's for sale that no one lives in. These are tend to be again nuisance properties. >> Okay. So we have a process of where we go through the whole you know rigomearroll. What I mean where what is this what would having people register their property uh actually do other than just be a revenue source? >> Well it tends to be much like a speeding ticket for speeders. tends to be a way to get people to get in line and maintain their properties uh by having the database and a better managing u of it. >> Well, that's you have you have the uh the all the information for every property in the appraisal uh district, right? You have all this information. What what's the fee for? >> Again, the fee is to help with the consistent investigations. Uh we have repetitive uh inspections. Uh we inspect every neighborhood complaint. >> Right. >> Those are those are uh code violations that we find for. >> So what I mean this is a fee on top of a fee. >> Yeah. Those are potential fines, >> right? Potential Councilman. This is Peter. So u everything Michael said is accurate. To add to that, it provides revenue for additional services that are rendered at these properties. >> Correct. The fire chief may want to talk, but just this week he his crews in the middle of the night had to uh put out a fire at a vacant home. Obviously boarded up and it impacted three other vacant structures next to it. We're not getting any money for that call for service. >> Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. These these properties I'm assuming that are on the tax roles that pay property taxes which pays for the fire department. Am I incorrect? >> Well, you can't answer that. They may be delinquent in their tax payments. You know, a lot of these are property donors that >> well then then they become property of the you know they get repossessed and we sell the property. I mean >> at some point >> right I mean I get what you're you know the idea is here to try to generate revenue but we're we're putting fees on top of fees and I understand it's a nuisance but that's why we have code enforcement to uh assign uh citations. We specifically withdrew this out of the his the um property registration out of the historical building um or I forget what ordinance that was, but I mean this is I mean we're having fees upon fees um that we're they're already paying property taxes for for particular services is is is not the right way to do this. if we have a process uh to expedite uh issues with with nuisance homes and let's look at the process not just add fees uh for you know for the sake of adding fees. >> Well again the proposal is not for the sake of adding fees. We do a a number of abatements throughout the year on these properties. Um be it lawn maintenance, boardups, cleanups. Uh and we have a burn rate of about 40,000 per month currently. And based on our current budget, as you all know, we issued a memo in June. We burn through our our annual by March, April of every year. So this helps with that to help supplement some of those boardups and uh property maintenance. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm I'm not for property registration. Uh I think you we have all the information needed for this this kind of stuff. >> Um so yeah, we'll move on. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Roy, >> thank you for your presentation. Uh, council members uh, Scott actually asked a couple of the questions that I was going to ask, but I want to kind of reiterate a few things. Um, first of all, this is probably just for my knowledge alone. The TMRS 8% increase, um, I was reading where it's mandatory contribution. Um, and I'm thinking like my wife's a teacher and so they they give into the TRS system, but when they do that, they don't pay social security. And I was just wondering for my own knowledge, do do the city and fire and that do they pay social security too? Also >> civilian and police do firefighters do not >> Okay. I just wondered um because of the fact when I when I saw that it was mandatory I thought oh that's interesting. Um but it's mandatory for the police fire and uh and the other employees of the city. >> Yes sir. >> Okay. Uh, >> so fire has their I'm sorry. >> No, go ahead. Yeah. >> Fire has a separate retirement system. Firefighters, the sworn firefighters aren't in TMRS, but the employees that are in TMRS, it is a mandatory 8. It would be 8%. >> Okay, that's just good to know. Um, the other thing is if you could clarify on the audit software purchasing of the new software, but then there's an annual renewal fee for that. There's an annual subscription or renewal fee is of 25,000 per year, which is pretty um having an annual subscription fee for hosted software is is common. The $7,000 was the one-time implementation. >> So 7,000 to implement 25,000 a year to renew the software. >> Yes, sir. >> Um did that go out to I'm just curious. Did that go out to bid? I I'm not sure what process >> I see the the auditor just came in so maybe George he could answer it. >> Uh yes sir. This uh this software is really critical. It's uh going to allow for increased security within the application. Audit efficiency will be enhanced. Uh data integrity and the risk of data loss will be significantly reduced. Uh the current software is reminds me of Windows 95. So it hasn't been updated. It's really archaic. And uh we did go to bid. >> You >> Yes, we went to We got other bids. >> So you got other bids? >> How many bids did you How many people responded? >> Well, again, it was 20 25,000, but we uh we had one other bid. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So you had one other bid and then you guys selected this particular company. So every year we're going to pay 25,000. Yes. >> For the software. >> Excuse me. No, it's not budgeted, Councilman. So this decision hasn't been made by the council to increase the budget to allow for the software. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It came in after the audit after the audit committee meeting who endorsed Excuse me, I'm almost done. It came in after the audit committee um who endorsed the budget recommendation of 96,000 increase to the budget. Subsequent to that meeting, uh, George presented the information to the budget director and so we absent of the audit committee hearing it, we thought we'd bring it to the full council to get input. Right now, it's not budgeted. >> So, we'll have a separate we're going to have a separate discussion on that. I don't want to take any more time. >> Yeah. And if I can add to that, we we did actually include it in our audit committee packet. We just ran out of time before we could address it. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. And and then the other question I had um right now is that I saw so there's a decrease. Oh, that's not for you, sir. Um this is a question that has to do with special revenue. So the projected TUR we're going to get in a decrease in the um 4.9 uh million dollars for the TUR funds. >> That's 48. Yeah, that's correct. >> Um I know that there's conversation about the possibility of adding another TUR and um and you're ju I'm sorry just to clarify. So this slide that rep that reflects the 4.9 decrease that is for expenditures not for revenues. So that it's our expenditure budget for the TUR. And the slide doesn't say that. That's my fault. We >> Okay, that's kind of what threw me off there. So that Okay, explaining that then that answered my question. >> Yes, sir. >> Can we do me um Can we do a Just Can you for the record amend that at some point? >> Yes, sir. >> Just so that you know, six months from now when I'm reading this that I I'll remember. >> I'll send out an update. >> Okay. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. That's all the questions I had. >> Okay, Councilman. uh compost. >> Uh thank you, mayor. I just wanted uh a little bit more clarification on page six where it lists the um the 51.1% for the police and fire and then on the other departments it has 76.7 and it combines you know all the departments on the side. Is there any way you can include the actual percentage for each department on this wheel? The >> I can provide that to you as a follow-up. Yes. >> Okay, that would be great. >> Okay. Um and also when I was looking at the 51% uh police and fire um how is that in comparison with other cities our size? Is that pretty average? This seems pretty seems like we keep going up on the police and fire. Not that I'm Yeah. I don't appreciate what they do, but I'm just thinking of our budget overall. If we're in line with some of the other cities that spend that amount of of their general budget on the police and fire, how do we compare? >> I don't have that data in front of me, but we can we can look into that. >> Okay. I I would appreciate that. It seems kind of high, but I I could be wrong. Okay. Um the other uh item I guess page 51 which would be the residential street fund. I know it's um we did away with that fund and I am I did hear um our city manager did state that there was going to be an increase did you say 11% back to the residential >> right? So in this right in this proposed budget streets funding will increase by 11% or 14 million but that's because of the bond program project 35 million uh for residential streets. Once that's exhausted in this budget there's going to be a cliff where we're going to be down about $16 million recurring revenue in streets. So there'll be and Ernie's going to show you this. He and I met on it Monday of earlier this week. But uh so the discussion we want to have when we have the streets conversation uh in our third workshop is just that which is that unless we put more bond program projects on the next bond program uh we will have half as much money for streets. And that's what I'm concerned about because we're you know >> we've been doing a whole lot better since um >> well it really in the last six years I guess >> right especially the last four uh since Ernie's been here >> with the rapid response or the rapid uh >> rapid paving just to help you out here. So initially before Ernie started to fix all neighborhood streets would take 60 plus years. I remember >> Ernie came in did months and months of analysis recommended to us in the council of the rapid paving program that dropped the uh time down to 12 years. With the with the work he's doing now and the contractual work that's being done, it actually has reduced to 8 years. By 207 though, if we don't get any more revenue, it's going to go back up to 30 years, 32 years to get all the neighborhood streets. So, we we'll lose ground. So, we do want to have the conversation with you. We didn't recommend it in the proposed budget. the street user fee. Uh but since the council goal setting session and and today we've heard a lot from council members who are consider who want to recommend that. So we're going to bring that to you in the workshop about that street user fee that generates about 13 million uh because without that you you'll see degragation in in the in the work that's been achieved to date. >> Okay. Mhm. >> Well, and on that note as well, um you know, I've been a big proponent of sidewalks and um I I'm not uh I'm not giving up. Uh so I'm hoping that uh maybe uh we'll be able to figure out how we're going to be able to do that. And maybe that might be the possibility of if we revisit the residential um fee. Um let's see. I um I also am grateful that um our media I guess department um Elise was able to um have something so that the community could um be informed about the input sessions. This is really where where I I feel that, you know, um we need to shine and we need to be able to hear what our residents are are requesting and what it is that, you know, that is missing. Um, you know, I I have my list which is, you know, making sure that our water is is um is um charged equally, you know, because the reality is that the residents uh only use 20 uh% of the water, but yet we're going to be expected to finance the whole thing. uh as far and I'm saying the whole thing. I'm saying that you know the commercial and the uh industrial use about 80% of our water. So that's going to be a huge impact um on our you know I know it's not here in the budget but it will be discussed and it's something that we need to keep in mind. And um the other is just making sure and I'm so glad to see animal care services um their budget, you know, increased the spay and neutering is so so essential and needed. So I was, you know, I was glad to see that. Uh again, we just, you know, I'm open. U it it doesn't look too bad, but I'm I'm here to listen to uh the constituents and if there's anything that I'm missing, please um contact me. My number is 361-6877259. Thank you. >> Right. And Counciloman Compos, thank you for those words. So it's 250,000 for the Spain nut services and animal care. And the you know the total amount added in the budget is as Amy said is on top of the midyear adjustment. So this based on council policy input, we're adding to that department again. Um and many departments don't have any improvements and have reductions instead. So that's good for animal care. >> I agree. >> And uh we do appreciate the the words on the community input sessions. We started those uh six years ago and we continue. >> We've actually grown the number. So we'll have seven uh one in each of the districts, one in the island, one at Cal Allen. And they don't you can live in any district and go to numerous ones. You can go to every one if you want. Uh we'll also have them on uh on YouTube or on our social media channels. Uh we know that in Lindale there'll be a watch party there. Uh the staff scheduled the District 2 one at the Greenwood Center which is a little bigger. Uh but we know Lindale is a is a popular place. So we'll have a simalcast event there when we do the District 2 one. And then I was going to see if Drew can come down just to we want to make sure we get those water percentages right uh because they tend to perpetuate in our in our community meetings. But Drew, can you just remind us on the percentages of water in total? How much of our water goes to industry? How much goes to residential and commercial? >> Yeah. So, Drew Molly, chief operating officer for Corpus Christie Water. I mean, we'll we'll be getting into the details of that with lots of specifics, but I I will tell you, Councilwoman, and and we'll talk a lot more about this, but our water rates are based on a cost of service. >> So, everybody pays what it costs for us to provide water to them. So, I I we will show you the details. We we've been doing this over the last couple years. We know that there's been some changes to how uh how we calculate that cost of service. Um, you know, just as a reminder to you and and obviously the community who's very interested in this is that over the last couple years, we've we've brought in a different uh company who does this uh rate analysis and they've done that rate analysis and it's taken some time to get all the different customer classes essentially paying their true cost of service. And we are there now. And so ultimately the different cost the different customer classes are paying their cost of service. And so nobody is getting anything for less than what it costs us to serve them. And we'll get into those details. But industry uses they use they use a majority of our water. You know they use 60%. Um and it changes every year because every every year uh different customer classes use different amounts of water. And so we will absolutely present that in the next week and we can get into the details about how the costs are allocated. >> Okay. Well, I I do I really do appreciate your work. I know that y'all are working 24 hours a day. I mean, I know y'all are busy, but let's also uh be accurate in this. Yes, we do raise those rates, but then at the same time, we have industry that turns around and then challenges those rates. And it's not the same for inside the the the city limits. We can't do that. But had they been annexed and they wouldn't have been able to do that. So I'm not going to stop on this that it's not equal because it's not equal. And now they've even changed the law to where it had to be I don't know 70% of the people that were outside the city limits and now I believe it's only one that they can challenge that. And and just one more thing about the Lindell, if I may. Uh I I do want to apologize to the Lindell uh neighborhood because uh they are a very active neighborhood and I'm sorry that we weren't able to get another uh budget. Um but you know the next best thing is the watch party and I hope that they'll participate. Thank you. >> Thank you councilwoman. >> Well just for the record c we're going to we need to go back to Lindell next year. We the issue is we already put the information out. It was publicized of going to Greenwood. So, we do apologize for that, but next year the Lindell's a, you know, it's a that's the go-to spot. Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. >> On that note, Peter, would you please make sure that >> we get the numbers of attendance? I don't I don't recall ever seeing that, but but I'd like to see the number of people that attend >> every single one of these um budget work community inputs. >> Absolutely. Generally what we do is after the seven like last year we'll do a presentation of generally what we heard in the in the seven events and then we summarize how many people in total but we'll do the breakout so you'll know how many at each of the events we give a total number but we'll sure >> we track it so we'll report that to the council. >> That'd be great. Thank you. >> Councilwoman Vaughn and then we have councilwoman Paxton next online. >> Okay. Um, I'm not a fee happy person and I feel like we are fee happy today. You've got five new fees for the fire, seven for the animal, eight for parks. So, I have a real concern with that. I think I want to address parks first. I'm not picking on you. I just want a little bit more information. Okay. The teen and youth camps, you increase that by 26%. Tell me about that. I mean, are these underprivileged kids? Are these where are these held at? >> This is at Oso Bay. Okay. The fee increases uh these haven't been increased since 2018 most of them. And so just for the the service that we provide there at OSO Bay for these uh parties and camps that we have, you know uh >> you know, we have to have staff there. We have to have uh things for the kids to do and things like that. So all of that has increased over the last seven years, I guess. So um >> So are y'all leading these camps? Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, that's my question. Okay. And the birthday part is the same way. Are people renting facilities? >> They're some renting facilities uh at Oso Bay and then obviously we're there. We have staff there as well as as we provide, you know, things for the party. >> Okay. Um the classroom rental, what is that about? >> That's the classroom inside the um facility itself. So, if they It's an open space just like most of our places there. If if it's available, obviously um people can go in and use it. But if you want to if you want to go on a Saturday afternoon at 3:00 to have your birthday party, this assures that this this will be available. >> So they have to rent it. Yes, sir. >> Okay. And the vendor permits really concerns me. Um so you went up $50 for McGee and North and Gul Beach and Cole. Why did y'all do that? Because y'all aren't doing anything, are you? >> No, ma'am. These are these are the vendor fees for uh food trucks, uh merchandise, uh beach rental equipment. Um so they pay us to to be down there. And so again, this this cre this uh increase was last done in two 2021. Uh and again, it's not like they just show up to our office and we give them a permit. There's a process that goes through. You know, we work with the health department, we work with other facilities. So there's work on our end to do those. So the increase uh is part of that is part of our staff time as well. >> You don't think that discourages vendors from going down there when you have a fee so high because it's high. I mean for food trucks I wouldn't think their revenue is huge. >> I don't know what their revenue is. But again, we've looked at other cities. Uh we've looked at uh uh you know other places that that vend out food trucks and we're pretty comparable if not on the lower end. >> Okay. And special events, what are they renting there? What are these places that hold a thousand people? >> Uh that would be a park, you know, Wat's Edge Park maybe or you know when we have certain events down there. Uh you know, and I would say um the and I'm sorry, we we do have a lot of fees. So, I'm I'm looking um and and you're Say that one more time, ma'am. I'm sorry. The uh >> I was talking about the rent like a,000 attendees. Are you charging for your people? Is that 450 for them to clean up? >> Oh, yes, ma'am. So, this is the permit fee for small permits. Like I said, 0 to 500 people. Those are would be at parks. Um, you know, we had a big uh um uh Junth festival uh at Waters Edge Park where they had huge amounts of people there and so they they're charged by, you know, the the possibility of attendees there. >> So, we're charging them to use the parks to have attendees. >> And again, these are open space. Again, these are open spaces, but this guarantees them to have that, you know, that festival for three days or certain time frames, things like that. >> Okay. But uh uh excuse me, Council Robert, the fees are meant to offset the cost for >> Yes. >> providing extra service at a park when there's a major event. So, you're having to bring people in that you normally don't >> for cleaning of the park prior and after uh parks uh security, that type of thing. >> Exactly. Staff time. >> And that's basically what I asked. >> Yeah, that's right. We didn't answer it. So, that's what the It's not just to collect a fee and issue a sticker. It's to help offset the cost of increased cost because of a special event where they're bringing in more staff to clean the park. They're disposing of garbage. There's a security component. There's general maintenance, you know. So, it's to help offset the cost for the special use for that park. >> And I hope we tell them that because it sounds like we're charging them to use a park that they pay taxes on. That's my I I don't like that because it's their park. >> Yes, ma'am. And and and thank you for clarifying that. you know, we when we have festivals like this or or things going on, there's clean up before, there's staff time, administration time in the office, and again, the cleanup as well. We spend a lot of time after hours. Um, you know, if if if a festival goes till 9 or 10:00, our people are out there that late. >> And I get that. I get that. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. I'm not picking on the fire, but I kind of am. Okay. Um, how many firefighters do you have? Uh, Brandon Wade, Fire Chief, Corpus Christ Fire Department. We have 455. >> 450. How many police? Chief Markle. >> 501. >> 501. Okay. Just want to get it clear. Okay. You know why I have a problem with this? It's because it's ambulances and they go pick up and and the big fees. You made half a million last year, it looks like. Good for y'all. You guys, and it was probably on EMS, like you said. But most of these people that you probably pick up are elderly. They're probably on their insurance doesn't pay all of this. So, that's a concern for me. And I know it looks like a really small increase. Have y'all been doing this every year, increasing gradually? >> You weren't here, so you don't know. >> Listen, here, I'm going to bring up the expert on it and and he could put us to sleep on ambulance service fees, but but here we go with this is Chief Urban. So, Chief Urban, >> ma'am, uh Kenny Urban, Deputy Chief, Fire Department. Good morning. And uh can you restate your question? I I um about elderly I said, did you did you I really do remember it. Um, do you incre have you been increasing it every year? >> Yes. Yes. In our ordinance and we redid uh a way we do entirely on how we build for ambulance services in fiscal year 2017 to a more appropriate and more efficient way. And these um um numbers uh the fee schedule that we charge for various different things base rate and oxygen and those are what is dictated by the center for Medicare and Medicaid services which covers about uh which covers Medicare and Medicaid and sets ground rules for all insuranceances. And these fees that we charge in in our ordinance represent the gross cost of what it cost the city to provide the services. And those are our gross charges and those are allowed to go up by ordinance in according our current ordinance is the um consumer price index for medical care in this south region and that is represented as a whole in the in the nation as a a number called the ambulance inflation factor and uh which is it we're allowed to increase and just in insurance code in Texas they just passed a bill that says we can increase our base rate our fees by the ambulance inflation factor and I just wanted to cover that. Those are gross charges that we charge and represent the cost of the city to provide the services per call. >> Now 47% of our customers are Medicare which are elderly. You know 17% are Medicaid. It it adds up to it fluctuates yeartoear about 62 to 63% are covered by government insurance which includes Medicare. Um that is they have mandatory adjustments on our gross charges down uh and those are aboutund 60% of that goes down to our what they're allowed to pay and that gives net charges to our our patient which uh if in Medicare or elderly that equates to about $320 something dollars for that service. Now state law and state insurance code says we can't balance bill and we do not right most insurance ambulances are considered out of network and that state law says we can't balance bill meaning that that patient's only responsible for what Medicare and their co-pay is and that is so that reduces down what these fees are >> uh down to a very small amount on what that patient um can afford and what they're responsible for and we cannot by state law bill anything past that >> over what they have. >> Yes. So in general the fees that you see the increases are what's representative of what it cost the city to provide the service and what is allowed by uh state law and our ordinance to increase to represent our cost. >> Okay. So Medicare and Medicaid are different. Medicare it does not increase because they can't pay it. Medicaid I get them confused. I'm not up there yet. >> Yeah. Medicaid is the one that um elderly get and they do have to pay a cost right? >> Medicare is is what you're most usually eligible at 65 get on Medicare. Those that is that is 47% give or take depending on the on the fiscal year representative of our our patients that we treat and transport 16% are are on Medicaid which is our our low-inccome government funded. to government funded or Medicare and Medicaid and that represents about 62% of of our population. >> Okay. Well, well, that's my concern because I know the insurance rates are ridiculous right now that everyone's paying and then they get a $3,000 bill >> aside. I mean, you're talking about the rest of the population, which is craziness. So, I am concerned about that and I'm sure you are too. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um >> and and just to address that concern because I know that's not just elderly. I know that's one of the other things. 3/4ers of our patients that we transport, roughly 75% carry some type of insurance. So we stated already that 47% are Medicare, about 16% on Medicaid, about 13% give or take is on our private insurance like Blue Cross Blue Shield and those types of things. The rest of the 25% of our population that we treat our transport do not have insurance at all. Now, we as a city have a charity care policy that was put in place as a requirement for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for reimbursement on uncompensated care and that represents about 25% of our population. So, even if we pick up when we pick up a patient, we we we're agnostic to whether or not they're covered by insurance or what type of that is. We're going to treat and transport them the same as anybody else. and and we are concerned about what the burden is on what it costs for those uh individuals, but we're also concerned on being good stewards of our taxpayers dollars and getting those reimbured as much as possible. So that has our charity care policy. So a patient that we pick up doesn't have insurance, we find that out after the fact. Our policy with the city and ordinance or charity care policies, we write that off 100%. But they have to have been covered under no insurance. they have they meet certain requirements and we take that write off that charity care that we we do and we we submit that through the state of Texas department and DSHS and which is funded through CMS center for Medicare and Medicaid services and we get that and what we know as the task fund right so the charges that you see are just representative of what it costs us to provide that services so that we're not subsidizing uh indirectly to our taxpayer >> okay you got it Okay. The only other thing that I was going to ask you is the ambulances or the fire trucks, they go to every accident. >> They do not. >> They do not anymore. >> We when you say accident, like it all depends. So vehicle accidents, >> yes, more than likely they're going to go to the vehicle accidents. But based on the call priority, you may just get uh an ambulance and then sometimes based on the call priority, you also get the fire truck to respond so that you have a crew uh to be there. >> So, let's just say you go to a wreck. >> Yes. >> Nobody's hurt. Are you charging those people? >> No. >> No. >> So, if a fire truck >> just a service, >> right? If a fire truck shows up, nobody is usually getting a bill unless you're outside the city limits and then >> Okay. >> We have an ordinance for that. So, it's the bill that usually gets sent is when we are doing transports. >> Just making sure. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um Okay, Chief Markle, you're next. >> It's real It's real simple. I just want to know I see that you increased for um basic courses. Tell me who pays that. Is that do they pay for going through the academy or is the >> the responding agency? So so remember one of our goals when we built this great academy. Thank you for that. It's wonderful. Was to bring outside agencies in and host the training. Yes. >> So when we send our detectives off to like a Reed investigation homicide investigation school or some other um city that's hosting because they have a nice facility, we charge per seat. Could be $1,000 per se plus per DM, you know, all those things. Now we host them here and we bring those we get free seats because we host and we charge the ho the agencies that send their officers here. >> Okay. That's revenue. >> Yeah. That was one of the goals pre-planned. It's already in progress. We'll shake it out at the end of the year to see how well we've done for our revenue streams. It's working. Federal agencies, local agencies have all been utilizing our facility. >> Well, you may pay for that academy before it's all over. >> Well, we're working at it. Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Okay. And now we have Councilwoman Paxton online. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I do want to start by thanking Peter and his team, our um, executive team for uh, recognizing the overall conditions of our our budget and the the interests of this new council and taking that very strongly into consideration with this budget. So, I have to I have to thank you for those efforts. Peter and your staff. And um I did just get your response. I was curious about the litter critter. I know that was one of the expenditures we were talking about, but it looks like you were able to save that on there. Um and then I wanted to I wanted to echo a little bit um on a similar thread with Councilwoman Compost. Um recently we met with the Flower Bluff Independent School District to look at the implementation of their bond packet and a big part of that that they brought to our attention is the importance of being able to increase sidewalks connectivity. Also in our district one of the big interests is the mobility plan. Sidewalks play a huge role in that. Um, in talking to our teams, I know that in the 311 system, there's been over 700 correspondences related to community members concerned with sidewalks issues. And so, Peter, I think we talked about a couple of things that could be down the line, some potentials to look at um, sidewalks. So that's something I know we don't have that in the budget right now, but perhaps in the year in the months to follow we can look at what are some options for that. Um because it is it's an important piece and our city is growing and our community, you know, is wanting to stay connected in effective ways and it it really does impact the quality of living and and especially when we get to talking about school districts and things like that. And um so that was my first comment. Another another item, I know Councilwoman Bond brought up a concern that I had with this is um the increase of fees. For me specifically, I I have a little bit of concern where the fees are increased in those um program contacts with the with the community. When we're looking at um the afterchool programs, we're looking at attendance for programs. um those types of things like the OSO learning center. I know it looks like small increases, but we seem to be applying that in a lot of different areas and it would be my preference if we could look at at at potentially other options for closing those gaps there. Um because that is a concern to me. that's something that the community will feel um firsthand and I know that that the team has tried to keep those increases minimal but they are still there and so I do echo um Councilwoman Vaughn with a concern there on those increases so I don't know if I don't know if that's something that we can if we can look at Peter if there's other areas perhaps um I I do understand the increases to the rentals um for I think you had on there some like private party rentals at the water parks, things like that where they're they're very revenue driven um expenditures. The parks, those are open spaces. And so that that is that's a difficult one, but it makes a little more sense than the the individual attendance to programs or after school camps or programs like that. That's just a concern to me. And then um lastly, I I did want to make a quick comment. You said we would come back around at some point to the section of the budget pertaining specifically to the audit committee. Um I did want to just make the comment that even though it wasn't discussed at length in our last audit meeting, it the information was in the packet. And I feel like as a member of that committee and and of this team, the city team, I think that we could have perhaps approached how we brought up that request a little bit differently. Um I you know I I think that could have been handled a little differently, Peter, other than walking up and saying, you know, there was additional requests made after the audit meeting. Um something like that. I'd like us to all look at the budget process cohesively, recognize that all departments have needs and and need to have an arena to bring those forward and certainly if that was something that was supposed to be discussed at a meeting and perhaps for time or whatever other reason didn't get to be evaluated at that point that that could have been explained with a little bit better um integrity for the situation as a whole um because it it was included. But yeah, so um going back to to your statements that we'll evaluate that at another time. I'll save the rest of my comments for that. But those were my big things is keeping sidewalks down the line as a priority. Um and then looking at these fees in our in our parks and playgrounds. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Mayor, can I just uh Councilwoman Paxton, uh so one of the things we talked about with the Flow Bluff Superintendent and and the board chair is and we talked about it at the last bond program is looking at doing some type of a sidewalk initiative and in this case it'd be bond 2026. So we need to get serious about that as a council because we continue to hear it and we've seen pictures of some real degragated sidewalks or complete missing of sidewalks as an example on Flower Bluff. So Ernie is aware and so we're going to internally gear up to develop some type of a recommendation for bond 2026 for it could be in each of the five districts. It could be just inflower bluff. It could be just in D2. But we'll work on that to present to council in these coming months. That would probably be outside of the budget a next opportunity for sidewalk funding should the council want to include something like that in the bond program. And that's what we talked about with the superintendent and with the meeting with councilwoman Paxton. And then councilwoman uh just on the just it's important to note that the OSO learning center uh given that the city council last year doubled the the homestead exemption and for the general population and increased the senior homestead exemption the city for went about 13 million 12 13 million in property tax revenue and we had to make some tough choices last year to present to city council to reduce the spending of the city because we without 12 million you can't do everything you did the you know the year before. So, we looked in parks and the OSO learning center is somewhat of a a unique uh service in that in in parks and it does have a certain uh uh clientele that utilize it more frequently than others. And so, we tried to in this budget uh make it a a and last year we tried to have another entity help us uh sponsor it and and generally give money uh that we didn't have to keep it going. So, in this year's budget, uh the initiative is to kind of make it a self- sustaining operation so that if somebody wants to come in and rent it or come to a camp or have a birthday party, uh that they would pay a fee and it's not a it's not a massive fee, but a fee to help offset the cost. Uh we also have a partner, the Bay and Estuaries, who's willing to sponsor uh over $100,000 uh to uh help us keep that operation open. So, we'll continue to have that dialogue on the OSO uh learning center. And then my >> and I do, Peter, I really do appreciate I I don't mean to interrupt. I appreciate that staff was able to take initiative and find some funding resources to offset the cost for that. My hats off to them because I I think that from early conversations this spring um conveying and working with staff on on the value and importance that that facility brings to the district and to the city. I think they really listened and took it to heart and found some opportunities there, but I think it's it's just the beginning. I think that's a huge a huge asset to the city and I think that there's a lot more opportunities to continue to find partners that can work with us there and so um that's I think for me another big priority that we continue that dialogue and look for offsets for that. >> Yes. And that that'll be the goal. the the Beijian estuaries may be become even a bigger sponsor. This is their initial conversation that they had have had with Heather. So, we know with the trestle bridge that's fully funded uh that the connect it will help to connect the Peninsula Flower Bluff to the Oso Bay. So, we do want to keep it open. It's just a matter as you'll hear again and again me saying the budget process. It's a choice that the council and and the staff helps you has to make and and balancing the budget and keeping all the services the same is a delicate balance. So, um, and then on the auditor, my my apologies. I was unaware or just for the record that there was something in the packet. I I didn't read the packet entirely that day. So, my apologies if we didn't fairly represent, you know, the integrity of what happened there. But, uh, we'll continue to work with George and the council on those requests. I I personally was unaware that it was in the packet. We spent, I think, three hours on the $96,000 adjustment to the budget. >> And, uh, >> thank you for that. >> Yeah. So, just to put it on record and councilwoman Compost asked me yesterday just also we'll uh the salary adjustments we'll look to see generally that money is available October one. Uh but we know that George wants to adjust salaries now. So, we'll see there a solution for that to see if we can make those effective right now in this fiscal year. Councilwoman, yeah, we >> Peter, I thank you. I really do. I do I know I'm running out of time. I had one more thing. Um and I apologize because I don't have the timer in front of me. woman. I'm sorry you Yeah, the timer went off, but you do have another another uh time to speak. >> Okay, thank you guys. >> Yeah, thank you. And Peter, just on on that note, we did have a whole conversation a year or so ago regarding sidewalks. Um something was presented to us by Mr. Deagarza regarding a feasibility study that would have been citywide or maybe doing one, an assessment, I should say. So, you know, for whatever that's worth, but but I think that I think every district has issues with sidewalks. So, I think that's we don't have to go into it now, but I'm just saying >> that conversation has, you know, begun some time back. There was some information given to us back. >> Absolutely. You're correct. And we'll have Ernie repeat that when he presents the third budget workshop. It was a million dollar estimate for the feasibility study, which we don't have. So, but we there's got to be some work around to >> well, I think we're going to include we're going to recommend to include money in the bond program and maybe that also is some of the feasibility study money but >> yeah, >> it's to a point where we got to do something point to these meetings is prioritizing, >> right? Absolutely. Yeah. >> What we need to get done, right? >> Thank you, Councilman Ba. >> Oh, man. I pushed my button. >> Okay, mayor. Thank you. Uh just real quick, um I had the pleasure of testifying before the Texas uh Senate with regard to the the rate cap and the majority of those individuals uh were basically stating that how it would affect police and fire and uh there were many of them that said up to 60% of their operating budget was covered was police and fire. uh what is it a majority in Fort Worth, Dallas, uh Sen uh Austin testified and even some of the smaller communities uh but pretty much the majority I said that more than 50%. Senator Royce West also mentioned that that the majority of the people within the that DFW area that said it's in excess of 51%. So I just wanted to clarify that on the audit committee uh the way I recall is that and and we might want to have check Elizabeth check the motion. It was to make the adjustments for the range. Now, I do believe that we do there there are some increases merited, but I think that we just need to go back and review that. It was just to make some adjustments to the range so that way we can make improvements. And so, our plan is obviously to to go through uh uh what is it? Uh the u um um the um uh the process to to to evaluate and so that way we can make those adjustments. So, I'd just be cognizant of that and just have Elizabeth go back and check or we go back and review that time. I do believe that we ought to get the software. In fact, I was of the opinion that we ought to get a more a uh a a more robust system as far as the software. I think that's very important. Um what is it? The system right we have right now is is quite an antiquated. It's not userfriendly and and it's it's actually been a waste for the last 10 years because it's very hard to recapture the data. So, that's something that I'm very much in support of. I know right now we're vacant two positions. So, I think George and I know right now HR has uh is recruiting at least one person that they've already put that on the street. I'm hoping Yeah, I see I see the HR nodding back there. So, I'll I'll refer that. So, just that's something that I think we just need to take a look at that and and communicate with the audit department so that way we can be very clear and communicate with Elizabeth. Um, you know, uh, um, Boo, just real quick, I just want to ask on the park fees. I know there hasn't been made an adjustment in a long time. I'm I'm just curious. We got a soccer tournament coming up. How much are we charging them >> for uh, McGee Beach? >> Yes. >> Serge >> just stepped up. >> Just stepped up. Uh, if you have another question wait. >> Okay. The other one is I was going to say because and but and I want to know what the expense was because both soccer tournaments, the adult one and the youth one are a major undertaking. >> Yes, sir. >> And so here he comes. He's running up here. So I'll keep quiet so I don't use my time. And then how much staff are do you have to increase for both of those? >> Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. >> Okay, so we we normally have the youth soccer tournament which you know uh what is it? And then we've got an adult one coming up. What are the fees that we charge to be able to for those? >> So on our normal, if we were for Dylan and and Express Soccer, uh it would have been close to $5,000, okay, >> for the use of McGee Beach plus the permit plus some of the staff time there. So, since they're a nonprofit and I know that they're doing it for their community and for their soccer uh organization, we wave some of those fees to where it was comparable for them to um you know make some money for the organization for the kids. And I know talking to uh Delin, they offset some of their their uh cost for that. >> And then how much does it cost us? >> Uh it probably costs us close to I would say around 3,000. >> 3,000. Yeah. Okay. Um >> I can get you those numbers for sure. >> Yeah, I I'm surprised. I thought that would be more because I know you you you put quite a few much much staff out there in the same thing. >> Um the other thing is u um you know and I I was surprised when we looked through the fees. I went back and looked you know when my daughter got married about 10 years ago we used Heritage Park and I think the fee was $400. Uh what is it and what is it right now? the current fee and the adjusted fee for Heritage Park and let's say um like Galvon House for rental fee it's right at 400. >> Yeah, probably around that same price. >> I just I that that's one of the things I'm shocked that and she was married 10 years ago and so I think there has to be an adjustment and that's a great deal. I mean it's a beautiful venue. The lights are beautiful. It's a it's a wonderful venue. I mean it's >> and how long ago did she get married? I'm sorry. >> 10 years ago. >> 10 years ago. Okay. >> So I I I I understand the constrnation but I think there's a thing that that we just tend to be reluctant. We don't understand the pressures that we have to deal with with inflation and what is it we have to deal with it too. And so what happens is politically we don't want to move forward on adjusting on at least on the CPI and then what happens is that we're the taxpayer is subsidizing that for the individuals that want to utilize it. I mean, I obviously I wasn't on the council then, but you know, I capitalize on $400 to be able to use the that deal for an amazing venue. So, I I just think we just need to be conscientious that particularly when you're when you're you're telling that story that you basically come back and talk about CPI and then the fees that they've maintained for at least the last 10 years. Uh the other thing that I just want to clarify on is with regard to the fees with the ambulance service. I just want to say when you say no, you don't have to stand up, but if you want to maybe, but but when it comes to B balance billing means we don't build them for anything different because whatever Medicare says they're going to pay, we're going to pay that. I mean, we're going to accept. There's no one that gets a a bill after that. Also, in Go ahead and come up and also in addition with insurance, if somebody has insurance, there's no balance billing with regard to with regard to that. So, and here and I want to also add, I'm going to toot my own horn here, that back in 2021, uh, Congress passed the No Surprises Act, of which, uh, I was very much engaged. So that way, even to the point where an individual is in an emergency and it's out of network, then there's a stringent process for us to be able to build for that balance. >> Correct. Right. the no surprise bill act in the federal and in the state kind of mirror each other and the um the discussion we're talking about with the CPI which by the way that was a novel ordinance we had in 17 which is now turned into um uh that state it's part of the no surprise billing act that had changed where we're using the CPI which is now the ambulance inflation factor is in the same insurance code no surprise billing act where we cannot balance bill and it also addresses how we do our rates which is how we're we're doing that. >> Yeah. And so I just want to be clear. So we're not charging that to individuals. I just want to say it, you know, on a sixth grade level for my own sake because that's the way I understand it is that we're not charging anybody extra. We are not, in other words, by not accepting anything by accepting Medicare and not balance billing or not charging back, we we're not subsidizing the federal government. >> So that that that CPI is subject to what Medicare will charge. >> Yes. Yes. And so in addition, the same thing, we're we're not subsidizing the insurance company because that's in relation to the contract that we have that is adjusted to CPI. >> Correct. There's different adjustments for each payer. Each payer is private insurance Medicare Medicaid. >> So, so, and I know my time is up. I just want to say number one, you're welcome. Uh because in my industry, that's the one thing that we're fighting for so that way we're not subsidizing the insurance companies. Okay. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Um, I've got a few questions. Um, and and mine are well, first of all, thank you for this presentation. This is a very good presentation. Thank you for balancing this budget, Peter. Um, and the team, of course. Um I I've got you know some of the same concerns in terms of you know one of the things that really caught my eye was the monthly first um the fee on parks on um the first fee first child going from 109 to 125 summer pre uh summer program weekly fee 99 to 125 um you don't need to speak on it you don't need to speak on it um I I understand to piggy back on on some of the comments um we have to cover the cost of service Um, and I think we might be missing when you guys are all, if I were in your shoes, I'd be saying this is the cost of service. This is what we're charging. This is a business, right? So, we all know a lot of us are were or are are business owners and and we you have to increase to pay for the service. So, I'm I have a question y'all can follow up. What What is the cost of service? Because I think we're kind of leaving that out. What's the cost of service of some of these things we're seeing go up? I don't like to see that go up, but at the same time, we cannot afford to have um the all residents pay for something that we are not charging enough for, right? The cost of service. So, just food for thought there. I've got a few questions and I'm going to throw these out there and then we can go back. Mine are more related to um the budget line item or the budget book on page 108. I noticed that um the largest increase in revenue for the general fund is under uh page 108 under industrial district in lie. And so my question is I think we have an increase from 26 million to 32 million. Um let's see. So this here there there's an increase there and I'm wondering is that expected to continue to go up? You don't have to answer now. I'm going to go to the next question. Can you give me an explanation? You talked about the retroactive cola. So what is the increase that we're anticipating uh in giving right under under that if you if you have that today. Uh, also on page 118, there is a new line item that's called a transfer to debt service, and it's a million dollars. And I'm just curious, what is that for? Next, page 119. We under uh one-time expenditures, one-time item expenditures. We budgeted $13 million there, but I don't see um I I don't see anything being estimated uh to be spent in 25 or you know this current year. So what what is that money or where is that money or why why is that? >> Yes ma'am. So for the industrial district inlue revenue that represents the revenue received from our industrial district agreements. So, as you recall, last year we went through the process to renegotiate those contracts. The um the contracts that we have in include terms that would have the industrial districts pay 100% of their what would be property tax to their land value. And it went from 62.5% of the improvements value to 74.5%. And so there is a significant increase in the amount that um the industrial district agreements um the terms for how much they pay toward their improvements. Um additionally we have several properties that we have rolling onto the ROS that have reached that four-year um there's a 4-year um period where they do not pay on a property once it comes into service. and in that fifth year it it they begin to pay. So we had a couple properties scheduled to come onto the calculation this year. >> So do we expect that number to continue to rise >> as properties continue to roll on after they complete that fourth year it there will be an increase. The um current agreement is for a term of 15 years. So the percentage will not increase as values increase or as the property tax rate changes that that revenue will change relative to those changes. Yeah, we do expect it to increase, mayor, but we don't know. We haven't in fact we we don't have a percent of how much >> not a percent but just a >> or dollar value like the increase this year over the 25 budget is significant for the two reasons that paying a higher percentage values have increased and new values have come on the roll so to speak. Uh we'll have to forecast and get you an answer on do we what do we think would happen in 27 uh the 27 budget. We don't know that today, but we'll we'll have to work with finance and the appraisal district >> to see if we can get an estimate. But I think generally we can see an increase in revenue each year due to reappraisals and new new construction, >> right, >> that comes online. There's a 4-year um kind of abatement period for new construction and then on the fifth year it comes on the rolls. And so uh we know that uh some of the uh petrochemical companies are building expansions and there there's no payment for four years once a new asset comes online and then on year five they pay the 74.5%. Which is a significant increase in that uh pilot payment in lie of taxes uh that we negotiated last year and it's a 15-year term. So this is a huge win for the city. You can see in that revenue alone 32 million versus 25 million. that helps us to take care of our general financial. >> So, being we have a balanced budget, we have $6 million, >> yes, >> that this is bringing in that we can look into as far as streets, as far as animal care services, um or or anything else we prioritize. >> Right. So, the $6 million difference is already assumed in the overall balanced budget. You know, we've already used it, so to speak, right? But it does go to police, it goes to streets, to animal care. It has gone in this recommended budget. >> Okay. So, it's not available. it is not available. Right. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Well, that's good to know. >> Yes, ma'am. And and at the time that I presented the preliminary forecast where we forecasted the $7 million shortfall, we knew about this increase at that time and it was captured then. >> Okay. >> Um if you don't mind, I'm going to jump to your last question. the uh one-time expenses in the adopted budget for FY25 are included in the estimate in their respective departments. And so those numbers would be above um for instance the transfer to street maintenance is included in the estimate for the transfer to streets fund above that. And then um Mr. Rodriguez will speak to your TMRS question. Good morning, Mayor and City Council. Michael Rodriguez, deputy city manager. So, luckily with the TMRS change, the total cost for all changes in the proposed recommendation is $40,000 across the entire general fund. Now, you asked what is the change on the retirement colas that remains at 30%, the major difference in this change is the way it's calculated by TMZ. >> Michael, it's 30% of the CPA. >> It remains at 30%. is just the way >> 30% of the CPI >> the CPI correct >> right so that means retirees who are on the Texas municipal retirement system based on our our plan uh in that system a retiree receives a cost of living adjustment that is equivalent to 30% of the CPI >> correct >> right >> okay so that's the amount >> that's something city council the that was a policy adjustment city council did a few years ago >> right >> as part of our collective bargaining agreements >> right I recall going back >> right Yes. >> Yeah. No. And that's a good thing. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. And I believe your other question is related to the million dollars in transfer for debt service. That million dollars will be transferred to our debt service fund and it is intended for our self-supporting solid waste debt that is paid out of that fund. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Did I forget any? >> No, no, I think I'm checking. No, I think I think you're good that you answered all of my questions that I had. Thank you. We're going to move on. Councilman Roy. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. I I earlier I didn't use all my time, but I forgot to ask a question because I can't read my own writing. Um, when you look on page 49, it talks about engineering services fund and it went from 13.3 to uh 17.4. And I I I want to recall that several months ago uh the council was addressed by the engineering department um in terms of looking at adjusting uh they had additional requests for uh some additional labor and uh at that point in time I believe the consensus of the council was to kind of wait until we get into budget and now we're here in the budget. So, what I want to make sure because I couldn't find it and it could be there, but I couldn't find it. I looked twice. Um, did we address the uh increasing your staff, Jeff? Um, I know that you had proposed 20 positions >> that you might recall that failed. I know at >> that's why I'm asking and we said that we would bring it back up during budget and this is budget >> and and so what we've done and this in consultation with the executive leadership team and uh one of the things that we heard from council uh was a preference to try and contract uh some of the service out rather than adding fulltime employees. So what this represents is basically splitting that. And one of the things that we're doing a lot of times we would charge those outsource costs directly to projects just like we charge any other service related like architectural service or the construction contractor. We've pulled that in so it shows up in our annual budget to accurately reflect that. >> Okay. Yeah. And I think if I remember I was one of the council members that actually proposed splitting that. So that's that you ended up doing that in terms of uh your approach >> based on >> Okay. I just wanted to clarify that and make sure that cuz I had a concern. I mean when you take a look at the overall number of projects that are in your pipeline and your current staffing, I knew we had to adjust something. So thank you. >> You just awarded another $und00 million one last week. >> Yes, sir. Well, good job. Thank you. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention and and I'm we're probably beating this to death, but when it comes to the balance billing issues. So, Chief Urban, if if we could address this, I want to make sure just based on, you know, my background prior to being in banking, that's what I used to be in was in the healthcare industry. And we talk a lot about the balance where you can't balance bills somebody, but I want to talk about another section. when you send an actual bill out and I believe it's based on a CPT code, right? >> Yeah, ICD10. >> Okay. So, it's ICD10 code. So, that's going to show the severity of the actual incident. But when you bill whether the reimbursement or that fee schedule is different if you bill for a level three type visit, I'm going to use that try to put it in layman terms. you have to bill, let's just say hypothetically that IC10 code, you bill $3,000. If when that individual that you render services to, you have to bill that 3,000, whether they're Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance, right? You can't sit there and go, "Oh, that's a Medicaid individual, so we're going to reduce it because we know we're only going to get x amount of dollars." You have to bill them the same amount. >> Correct. And that's the important part, I believe, for the public to understand and anyone that that has any questions about the way the system works. And then you have a fee schedule in place where you look at that fee schedule based on the contract. And if it's private, maybe it's it's uh United Healthcare or Blue Cross Blue Shield, they're going to reimburse you a certain amount. Now if it's private you have different uh options that in place but when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid what we're talking about is you cannot go back and go to that Medicare Medicaid individual and say look they only paid me $500 and I build them three you're on the hook for $2500. >> Yes. >> Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay. I wanted to make sure because we weren't really talking about the billing process. And I think that's the important thing is that across the board, you've got to bill the same. >> Correct. >> And so the difference is is that contractually you can only get a certain amount. >> Correct. >> Right. And actually, if I can take it one step further, part of the audit process if you're audited is somebody's looking at did you upcode and and and say that it was a level three, but it was really a level two. And so you're actually subject to that too where there could be possibility of a reimbursement. So you've got to be able to bill as accurate as possible. >> Yeah, there's many many facets in the in EMS billing and and the gross charges that we like I said are representative and as the mayor had spoke as well representative of what it cost the city to provide the service and we build the same regardless of payer patient whether they have Medicare, Medicaid. It's very important to charge what it costs you to provide the services because each of those payers, like you said, Medicare will only pay a certain amount. Our average revenue per transfer for Medicare is about $325. And that is representative of across the board on those those charges. And that's why it's very important for us to charge what it costs us. Those those those payments that they write off will go up as long as it's the average consumer rate and charges. So, it's important for us to truly charge what it costs us to provide the service, but they'll contract it uh the adjustments down to the patient. That's what is paid by that their co-pay. We cannot the balance billing between 325 and an average of about $1,500. We don't go back and charge the patient $1,200. That would be a violation of the no surprise bill. >> Thank you. And I just want to make we sure we super clarified that. Thank you very much. I got 48 seconds left. The last thing I want to say is that, you know, the city is a business and I'm, you know, fees in terms of fees, um, they increase. I I understand that. I mean, when we look at anything, if I were looking at purchasing an automobile today and, uh, it would be foolish for me to think that I can walk into a dealership today and purchase an automobile in 2025 for the same price that I would pay for it in 2020. So, I I just want to say that, clarify that, that we have to be careful. We have to look we have to look at the necessity when it comes to increasing our fees. But the reality of life is is that nothing um in in terms of at least that I've seen uh for the most part is cheaper. You're going to pay more for your homes when you purchase them. You're going to pay more for your automobiles. You're paying more for a gallon of milk. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Vaughn. >> Well, Eric, I thought you were on before me. I guess not. Okay. Um, thank you for that. It was very uh explainable and um Roland, I would thank you, but I don't know what I'm thanking you for for the welcome. So, we'll talk later. So, I don't know what that's about, but you explain that very well and I think the public needs to hear it. I'm going to have questions I'm going to have to submit because I've got a lot because I think there are some other areas that we can cut in, but one of them that I would never consider cutting in is fire and police. I am very proud of what the city does there. um animal control. So, I probably need to talk to them. >> Will you not time her while she's walking up here? You got to run. >> I know my little legs. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Kathleen Chappa, director of animal care. >> Good morning. Um okay. My concern, you've got a lot of fees, and I get it because animal control is a hot mess. That's for sure. um fee for owner recovered animal 50% you went up and um the vaccines you know why I'm concerned about that is because we want them to vaccine their dogs >> and I think that for me from what I'm seeing and there some of the do people that have dogs are in lower income areas and to raise those fees I have a problem with I don't have a problem with those impound fees at all because to me you're responsible for your actions >> well those vaccine fees Those vaccines are given to animals that we impound. It's not um citizens coming in to come get vaccinations. >> So you don't you don't do you give those and give them free? >> Not to the public. >> Not to the public. >> No ma'am. >> Nothing. Not a Okay. What about what is this commercial permit? >> Um so for grooming, boarding houses, um if you have a special event, a circus, uh a carnival, they come in and get permits from us because we have staff that go and inspect Say that again. >> So if you have So we have a buck days. If you have an animal exhibit, you come and get a permit from us because there's ways that you have to house those animals for those events. And so we send staff to do those inspections to make sure the animals are properly cared for. >> Okay. All right. Boy, that's a hefty little fee there. I just I just don't agree. Some of you up here don't have a problem with fees. I do >> because I think that we pay property taxes, sales taxes, so many and I don't I think understand the cost of service. I do understand that, but I I don't like it anyway. Okay, that's all for that. Wait, let's see. No, that's it. Sorry. Um, parks and wreck. I promise I'm not picking on you. >> No, no, ma'am. >> Page 14. Um, the mayor kind of got on in the after hour kid power. Okay. So, the kids that stay there, do you find that they're lower income for that? Is that for um this price right here for a week? Is it for a month? What's that for? >> The 125 is for a month. >> A month. >> And and again, uh we work with I think 40% of our clientele and after our kid powers is Texas Workforce Commission. So we work with them and we >> um >> obviously they we get fees from them that they pay. So I would say about 40% is Texas workforce. The 125 again is we looked at other cities, we looked at other facilities that around the city and it's on the lower end. I personally play $90 a week >> I know >> for a grandson. So 125 a month I think is >> and we also offer scholarships. And we work with >> Okay, that's good because that's my concern because PE Texas workforce I appreciate that you work with them for but those people that are bringing them there probably don't make a huge salary so that's my concern but that is cheap for childare. It is it is um but I saw that you're eliminating two positions for the after hour >> and that was just the right size. I think we were topheavy and so uh with the schools that we have uh with the uh >> with those positions the area managers we're going to be just fine. So that's it's not going to hurt us. >> So your cost went down then. I mean you're not paying as much because you're eliminated two >> and and and some recreational supplies and equipment which you know was uh I guess was uh so area man I just want to make sure going back to the area managers I want to make sure I get this correct. There are over four different schools >> four different places that we're at. So again we we've we've worked with CCISD. We worked on that. So, getting rid of those two, it's just right sizing that spot where everybody has four schools that they're over, those area managers. >> So, how much money you think you saved by eliminating those two positions? >> Uh, we have in our notes right here 69,000. And that's some of it with recreational supplies and equipment that that we cut in that group too. So, about 70,000. >> Okay. 70,000. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Let me see if I have any more on you. >> Oh, page 19. Okay. So, you have funding to operate and maintain new park systems. Are these park systems all on their parks now? They're already parks that we maintain. >> No, ma'am. These are the new parks. These are the Harbor Bridge parks that are being built. And >> when are they going to be built? >> Uh we they're we will bring a construction contract or Jeff will bring a construction contract next council meeting Tuesday. So think they're going to be built for this budget. >> We looked at that and and some of that is is onboarding these people, getting the equipment before. So um getting the the the capital outlay, the trucks, the equipment that we need. We're looking within that year time frame. So we're looking at maybe next August. So there'll be some time that when they're finished built. >> So you're you're wanting to add a lot of positions. You got 18 for the north side aquatic facility, five, six for the harbor and the trails, but what's the trail system? And that's four. >> Again, all those parks in the Hillrest area will be uh >> connected through the trail system and over the bridge over to North Beach. So again, our tourist our tourist district group works from Ropes Park all the way to North Beach. And then we're adding four new parks which will put our our park system over 200 parks that we have in the city. And so that's what we will uh that's what that new group will will help with. >> But the harbor harbor bridge parks I mean none of those will be done to the bridge comes down. >> Do you know? >> I don't know that. >> No. Yeah, councilwoman. They'll be uh some of them will begin. I think um all of them will begin now before the bridge comes down. And so next week as um as Robert said, we'll have a contract. I think it's 16 million to uh J Construction is a low bidder and uh what Robert didn't say is the positions are just partially funded for the latter part of next year. Three to three to four months of salary and so uh we do have a timeline to get these parks done to meet federal uh the four-party agreement so that the the project can be complete and all the federal money can come in. >> Uh so um the so the the work will begin soon. It's a 100% design with the exception of the pool. Uh the trail system includes not only the harbor harbor bridge parks, there's four that are connected with the freedom trail as the community wanted to call it uh through our community dialogue. There's also trails and extensive trail network in Councilman Hernandez's district, district 5 that has been built with bond program monies and we need we need to maintain it. And so the four positions will help not only in the uh inner city here, but also in the district 5 community where there's an extensive pretty much private sector developed trail system that we're with this new bond program connecting uh making trail heads and so things like cleaning, maintenance, uh debris removal, uh that's what those positions will do. >> And I get that. It just seems like an awful lot of positions to >> it. And let's have Robert break down, right? Let's the 18 positions, Robert, break that down for the aquatic center. Those are primarily part-time. >> Those are Yes. >> But tell us explain using the Bill Wit as an example. It's a lot of bodies, but you have to rotate staff. You're open six days. >> For example, to open up Bill Wit on any day, we use 20 lifeguards with with the recreational side and the uh lap pool side. They rotate, you know, they get they got to have time for rest, water, you know, recuperate a little bit after they make their round. So, uh, with the aquat, uh, the north side aquatic center is not going to be as as big as Bill Wit, but we're looking at the size of, uh, uh, an existing pool, call your pool, in that area, and it's a brand new pool, so it we're going to need more lifeguards to to to, uh, help with. >> So, so most of these positions are lifeguards. >> Yes, ma'am. I think we have a total of uh, two full-time employees in those 18 and then the 16 seasonal, which will be the lifeguards. 16 are lifeguard? >> Yes, ma'am. >> And they just work during the pool season Robert. >> Yes, sir. >> Right. So, that pool, is that planned to be open year round? >> Uh, right now I think it would be seasonal. >> Seasonal. Yes, sir. >> It's just a seasonal pool like the other ones, including Bill Witz the same way. It's a seasonal pool, >> right? Yes, sir. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And Councilwoman Vaughn, the one thing we have done in my six and a half years here is when we do a bond program project, um, it it needs to be staffed. It needs to be appropriately maintained. So, we bring it as part of the budget process. I'm not sure if that was always done in the past. I've heard the examples of the fire station 18 that was built, but that was never staffed. And so, that a fire chief then had to pull resources from all around to staff it. So, we're mindful of making the recommendation to council that if we promise the public we're going to do a new public infrastructure like a new pool, uh that comes a financial commitment to operate it at a at an excellent level, you know. >> And I appreciate that and I and I agree. I mean, I love parks, but I just don't like adding a whole bunch of people like this. >> Yes, ma'am. And and also, if if I know Peter mentioned a memo that would go out to y'all. I want to make sure I include the rest of that as well. I mean, we got purification chemicals, we got tools and equipment and things like we can break that down to you, you know, by lines if you want to see that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, Mr. Cown, you know, the discussion has been on recycling. He came up and said we could save $20 million on recycling. I think we need to look at that. I think it was it 20 or two or three million? What was the >> Oh, tell me it was 20. That sounds better. Maybe I >> Philip's hair. Our director's hair. >> 2 million. >> How much? >> Two. Hey, 2 million is 2 million. >> If it was 20, we would have recommended it. >> I'm sorry. I'm like ever. I can't read my own writing. Um, >> how much does it cost to run that thing? What's the city make or lose on that? >> Uh, Philip Alders, director of solid waste. um to run the recycle program is about 7 million. >> Okay. >> And the cost to process is uh it's about $138 a ton, but after we sell and do rebates, it's about $60 a ton >> that we pay to process the recyclables. >> Okay. So, what's the big number? >> The big number, uh so this is $7 million. >> Seven million is the big number. >> Mhm. Okay. >> But if you were to eliminate, then all the recyclables become garbage and it would just shift over to the refuge collection side. >> Yeah. But he's saying that um most people don't even use it. >> Well, we have each audit that we do, we go out and we count the number of people that set out their hands. >> So, we have about 88,000 recycled hands out there and at any given time, 68% people set them out. So that doesn't mean a participation rate. Yeah. >> Because you might only set your can out once a month, >> but 68% of the people set their cans out. >> I'd like us to get to Del more into that and see what the figures are because he acted like he really knew what he was talking about. Not that you don't. Yeah. >> But I'd like to see some more figures on that. So we can cut. Right. The big picture is is that it does cost more to recycle. That is no doubt the prior city council amended twice the recycling contract with the with our vendor >> that does this. So on record it is more expensive to recycle and it's a community choice. Um just to put it in context here $60 a ton is the net to cost to recycle. What is it for garbage disposal? >> Uh garbage disposal it's probably $26 a ton. What's the factor in those are the numbers to focus on. So, $26 a ton for garbage, $60 a ton for recycling. >> Yeah, that's >> you know this uh one good thing the city has done is is purchase a big amount of property for our landfill, the See Valenuela landfill. So, we have 100 years of life in that landfill. >> Okay. >> Uh because of that, our disposal costs are lower. Other cities in Texas don't have landfill space and are paying a premium to private sector run landfills. So we're fortunate here where the four fathers of the council did a did a real good job buying that over 100 acres is it or thousand >> 2003 >> 2,000. So we have a 2,000 acre landfill that has been paid for and we don't have to pay pay the private sector for landfill use. But back to the recycling, it is admittedly more expensive. So we actually looked at it last year as a reduction and ultimately didn't recommend it. But it really comes down to a community choice. Do we want to recycle? If we do, we pay more. $60 a ton. >> I mean, I recycle, but everybody does not recycle. And your percentage of the ones that do and don't are different than what he came up here and said. I would just like to delve into it a little bit more. And let's make sure on our figures. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. That's all I have for now. I will be sending some questions out to y'all though. >> Yeah. Great. Thank you. >> That way I can ask. >> Right. And if you want to meet with us one-on-one as well and and maybe if you can um any change in the budget if we say we want to cut revenues um increase expenditures has to come from somewhere. So we'll be working with the council over these next four weeks to see how do we accommodate the adjustments. Last year, as an example, the city council wanted to uh do some revenue reductions. And so we and the and the council um wasn't prepared to cut anything, but we we pointed out the council if we cut revenues, then we have to cut spending. If we increase spending like software solutions, we have to come up with the money somehow. So, it's either we increase fees or we cut. So, we'll help you with that. It's the the budget right now is balanced and any adjustments, which is no problem. We expect it and we're going to help and guide you through it. Uh we adjust the budget by either less revenue, uh less spending, more spending, more revenue, that type of thing. Yep. >> Yeah. Thank you for saying that, Peter. Uh Councilman Kenchu, >> thank you, Mayor. Um ENS Fire Department. So the $240,000 that were taken away from them, what was it for again? It's a onetime fee or something. 240. >> Yes. So, we had some money in tuition for the academy. Okay. And we've been able to have some savings working with Delmare where we weren't paying full amount of tuition. So, that's part of the one-time cut. And then we had some money that was set aside for promotion testing. So when we do battalion chief and assistant uh chief promotions, we have assessment centers which you have to pay for the assessors to come in and the test to be built. So we see some uh potential savings with that. So that's where the 240 came from. >> So it's not going to affect you guys at all. >> No, it's not going to be out of our operating budget which we're buying EMS supplies or any of that. So we yeah, we try to identify areas that was not going to affect um >> the tools and equipment and staffing of trucks. Then I got a question on the EMS um transports like the co-pays whatever the insurance doesn't pay the the patient pays for it. Um what happens if that patient can't pay for it? Do you all go to collections? How do what do we do? >> Yes. So uh and you're referring to like their co-pay on those >> or no insurance >> or if they don't have insurance, right? So, um, we if they, you know, if they, uh, are able to get on our pro charity care plan, which we do have, and it it is sent with each of our bills, um, we will, um, label them as charity care and they don't have to pay. And, and there is certain requirements that they have to meet, no insurance, um, they meet, uh, 400% of the federal poverty level, those types of things. And we've identified that very specifically on setting those numbers so that it meets um it was 97% of our population that has no insurance will fall into the category that meets charity care >> and so we want so we don't be an undue burden. Now as far as those who have insurance their obligation is their co-pay or others that that is their their um responsibility for their insurance company. >> Yeah. um we are under certain regulations that we have to provide some reasonable amount of collections and so we have a process that will do that. They get three bills and it is a a um a very regulated type that we have to provide some reasonable amount of collection with that. >> But you guys don't report it to the 80-year-old lady's credit report, do you? >> We do not. >> Okay, good. Just want to make sure. No, but we do follow all the law that we're supposed to, but also try to not be an undue burden to our patients. >> Got it. And real quick, how much do you think we pay yearly for >> for the academy for Delore College? >> Do you know on top of your head by chance? >> I don't have that right here with me. Um, again, we've had something what we're usually paying is tuitions and some fees and through certain programs, we've had some of that reduced. Um, and that but you never know what that's going to look like each year. So, yeah, that's why this year we have some savings with it and we were able to offer that up. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. >> Yep. >> And for the police department, um, the one time for 122 >> K. Um, what was that for? >> The reductions. >> Yeah, >> they moved um facility maintenance out on under one umbrella. So, that was part of the cost and um some groundskeeping was also removed out. They're just onetime costs move from our budget over to facilities. >> Asset management rather. Yes, sir. So, we're good. >> Yes, sir. No, no impact whatsoever to the PD operations. >> Okay, good. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. And then, um, streets, I like the user fee. Can't wait to see it next week. I think we need to bring it back. I know people are going to complain a little bit in the beginning, but um after a while, I think people won't even notice it. We need to fix our streets, you know. I don't know why we even took that out, but um Okay. And then um parks. Couple questions. For example, say I want to do a um a uh free event at the water edge park. Okay. What are we charging the people that want to do like a weekend festival, something free um downtown >> at Waters Edge? >> Yeah. And the reason I asked is that somebody reached out to me last week and was saying that they're paying like $3,000 per day, um $400 permit fee, and a $4,000 retainer. Does that make sense? Does that make any sense by chance >> or is it Go ahead. >> Wrong information. >> So on the permits, anything over they go by participants, right? So 0 to 500. You've seen that already. Yes. Anything over that, there's a certain permit fee. So that's just a permit fee. The 4,000 is a refundable deposit cleaning fee. >> Okay. So, long as they clean the property, you get the $4,000 back, >> right? Yes. And we've seen we have seen cases where some um you know, food truck festivals have left W's Edge a mess where we had to pull resources from all the tourist district. Uh I can remember three years ago, 4th of July to do a major cleanup before uh the veterans had their um event out at Cheryl Park. So, anything I'll have we can get look on the fee schedule to send it to you. >> Are we really charging 3,000 a day? >> Uh, I have to I don't think it's 3,000 a day. Um, I I really don't I know we've I've talked to the individual who that gentleman talked to as well. And I know it was in conversation. So, nothing was ever like, you know, submitted application, how many hours, anything like that. It was in conversation, nothing documented. That's that'd be the next step. if he was really interested and wanted to do it, we'd say, "Fill out the preliminary application. Let's make sure the date's available." >> Yeah. >> And after that, we'll go and send if the date's available, we'll send out the, you know, the long application. After that, that has everything from traffic control plan, cleanup plan, um if you need security. We also, you know, will provide a dumpster as well from solid waste. They help us out with that during those big events. Okay. >> Um so, all these things whenever they fill out that application, it's it's lined out as well. I just want to make sure that we're doing stuff for them because it's bringing people downtown and we want to build downtown up, you know, and I think the more festivals, you know, whatever we have in downtown will help um downtown. Um on the food trucks, what are we doing? I believe that the that the governor signed into law that the food trucks is going to be under one permit in Texas. Is that what I read correctly? I saw that on the news. Uh, >> I think it's it's one statewide permit instead of a local permit. And like I said, I'm going by what the news said as well. Yes, sir. >> So, we're so we're not going to be able to we're not going to be doing permits in corpus for food trucks. >> Health department. >> That would be the health department permit and the permits they need. I mean permit for us to be on in our parks or whatever would still be right. >> But the health department will be one permit. >> Correct. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. I apologize. >> Yeah. Sorry. Um Sony Parano, assistant city manager. So, yes. >> What's your name again, sir? >> Sony Parano. >> Just kidding. >> Yes, sir. So, yes, with that, um they did pass in the Texas legislator. So, yes, it'll be just one uh one permit, one food permit that'll require. >> So, if I have a food truck, I could just go to the health department here, get one permit, and that's it. Or I go to the state and do it? No, it would be they would still register with uh with our health department. Okay. >> Because then we still have to do the inspection. Okay. >> But then let's say if they were go to another city, then they don't have to go to another city and then get another >> as long as I have a permit from that county or that city. >> Correct. >> Got it. Makes sense. >> Okay. How much time do I have left? >> Let's take I got one more time to talk too, right? So >> yes, >> animal care. Um, >> what? >> She's not pushing. You're getting >> Oh, there we go. >> I know. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, I was talking to Peter yesterday and Sony I um you want to come up for this? Um, I was talking to Peter and Heather and this might not be the most popular thing to do right now, but I think we need to find a way to get more money for the animal shelter. I think we have a really big issue right now in Corpus Christie with stray animals. It's a public safety issue. Um, in my opinion, y'all could say different. I think we're killing for space. Um, and I kind of want to see how we can maybe throw around the idea, for example, the street user fee, doing another fee for the animal shelter and utility bills. Um, even if it's $3, $2, $5, I think, um, people will react to it a little different than straight user fee. I think people will feel um, good that they're doing their part to save animals in Corpus Christie. I think Corpus Christie is is uh they love their animals and I think um we need to do something because and I know that monies if we do get it passed and whatever the case is I know building more kennels won't solve the problem but that money will help with like spraying noodle programs you know reaching out to these nonprofits to help us with animals um with other other shelters or you know um stuff like that. um adoption overhauls, you know, we could do a lot with that money and it's it's a lot of money per year we collect these funds and um of course we need we need to build another kenno and stuff like that but like I said that's not going to fix our problems and what is your your reaction to it Sony what do you think you think that sounds that will help us a lot because I mean we have no money for the animal shelter >> I think the way to answer that would be it would be for council discussion on terms of how to have >> but do you think that would help us Um any any revenue coming into animal care of course helps but then there would also be have to be a long-term strategy. Yeah. >> In terms of then how to properly utilize those funds because as we are now the animal care facility was never built to be a true facility that handles adoptions that handles stray or whatnot. >> So and so there there would have to be a a long-term strategy and then from there to then say if these are the amount of revenues coming in per year then how does the best utilize that? I mean, is is it is it possible we could do that, Peter? Is that legal? Like, >> you know, Miles wasn't in our conversation yesterday and he's not going to speak now, but uh let us debrief with him. We may have to be uh creative in how we uh implement the fee if the council chose to do that. >> Yeah. >> So, what we what we talked about yesterday is we know that the street user fee that was about $5 and there was a commercial bill or an account as well generates about 12 million. So if you do the math and you know reduce it to five or I mean cut it to three or two >> it can generate some significant money and like anything in the city more money um generally improve service. >> Yeah. >> So we'll look with miles to see can we is there a way to uh that a fee could be implemented. It probably would be just to residential accounts. Um that's something we talked about yesterday. Uh but we'll look at it and continue that conversation. >> Okay. All right. Thank you guys. Thank council. >> Councilman Scott. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Mayor M. I'm sure your comments. >> Oh, I'm sorry. You know, I'm gonna interrupt you. Uh, Councilwoman Paxton was first. >> It was brilliant, too. I'll probably forget. K. >> Sorry. I'm trying to stay in order, but it's hard when online. So, Councilwoman Paxton, you're up. >> Thank you, Mayor Mark. I hope you wrote it down. I don't want to make you forget. It's brilliant. We won't want to hear it. >> But I had just a couple more questions. Um, Peter, and I'll try to I'll try to go real quick. So, simple answers work fine for me. Um, when we met over the budget initially at that that 4,000 foot view, we had talked about uh the two fire properties that we could potentially sell for revenue. Did those by chance get included in any of this? >> We do have uh 500,000 in the budgeted revenue for sale of city property and it could include those two fire stations. Yes. >> Fabulous. My next question, we talked a little bit on solid waste. Um, when we when I had my one-on-one to talk about the compost facility, uh, I was told we do have a 15% rebate from TCQ on, uh, the remaining tonnage that we take to the landfill. And that was, in my understanding at the time, a pretty sizable amount. Did we look into that by chance? it is. And when do we know that's going to potentially be able to reach the budget? >> That Philip Aldridge, director of solid waste, that rebate won't take effect until we start composting. >> So, it'll probably FY27 budget. >> FY27. Okay, perfect. Thank you for that. And then, um, >> Peter, thank you for being able to prioritize putting into this budget someone for homeless services if this passes as is. And we keep that in there. When do we expect that job to post? >> We would we would post it. Is it funded for 12 months, Amy? >> Yes, sir. It is funded 12 months. >> Okay. So, we would post it even before October 1 knowing um the budget's going to be approved September 9th. So, September 10th, we would post it since it's funded October one. >> I was curious. I know going back to our meeting, um the budget right now, we're looking at incrementally investing into that department. We don't know what the future going to look like, but getting one full-time person in there is going to have a huge impact. It another thing that we talked about was incorporating the use of other resource opportunities such as internships and things like that. And um did we explore that at all as a possibility because perhaps we can look at advertising that simultaneously so we don't lose it by the wayside because that's going to take some time too. I we I don't think we have yet, Councilwoman, but we will. Uh and especially when the new person comes on, there'll be more staff capacity to do that. We talked about looking at the university, uh looking at some of the nonprofits here or just high school students, you know. So, we're going to try to grow the homelessness services uh work by getting volunteer interns. That's what we talked about. And um so, yes. Yeah. >> Correct. >> Perfect. I just want to make sure that we um we communicate it very well that you know while we are trying to close a substantial gap in our in our general fund, we did prioritize this and and we're being creative to maximize what we're able to serve, you know what I mean? So, so if we can make sure that we capitalize on that messaging because I think there's a lot of community involvement there. So, um thank you for that. And then real quick to parks and wrecks. Um we are one of the things that I'm hearing across the dis and thank you mayor for also agreeing with some of the comments is uh concern with the impact to the customers for the fees. Is it possible I know we're prioritizing more grant writing services. Is it possible to look at as a priority offsetting some of those costs with sponsorship funds or um grants type things so that way maybe some of that um some of that burden doesn't get transferred to the community and also we're partnering with our local groups um because I know that's a successful um um schematic like little leagues they'll have banners of businesses all around the the fences that kind of thing to work with some of those fees to offset. >> So, um, Heather Hullbert, assistant city manager. So, yes, we always look at those opportunities and many of our programs do have scholarships associated with them. And so, while we may adjust the fee for the overall program, there are scholarship opportunities for those that maybe cannot that would qualify for those scholarship opportunities. >> Okay, perfect. So maybe if we were able to to really embrace that, we can see a wider breath of impact for those scholarships. Thank you for that. >> Sure. >> Um on page 373, nope, 372, um I was looking under parks and wrecks where we have all of our Harbor Bridge mitigation projects, about six of those there. It's showing prior year um I guess funds being earmarked for this project. Could you could you kind of explain to me? I don't really see anything going into 26 27 28. Is that because those funds have already been earmarked previously and now we're going to expense those now or or could you explain what that what I'm seeing there on page 372? >> Yes, Councilwoman. That is uh so the design services that have been performed uh was an approved contract uh for for the design the engineering design services to design uh those four parks and so that made them ready to put out for bid and um >> um I can't tire well CCW but the prior uh capital budget manager um the reason why you're seeing it prior because the the funds for constructions were budgeted in fiscally 25 the contract tax is coming next week. So in 26 there is no new budget for those project. All of that money is in prior because we're committing all that money into fiscal year 25 and then constructing the project and >> that includes the design services. >> Yes. Includes design, construction, everything, >> right? >> So, okay. So, everything has already been budgeted and it's going to begin actual construction in 26. Um >> the expectation because when we developed our CIP plan, we knew that we would be bringing the construction contract to council in FY25, those uh funds are already earmarked for FY25. And the construction may take, you know, into FY26. We will be expending construction dollars, but they're already accounted for in FY25. I I guess what I'm getting at is when do we see the these projects, you know, when are we ribbon cutting? When are we ready to open the doors on them? What's our anticipated date? >> Uh Jeff Edmonds. Yeah, we're going to award next week. Um I think it's what was the timeline? A year or so? Yeah, there's four different projects with four different u levels of construction. as an example, the uh TCRs baseball field u will be a much easier and quicker completion. Um the HG Williams Park improvements to include basketball resurfacings and and putting shade covers will be quickly done. uh one two that the two of the four that will take some time include the um the Washington Kohl's trail head for the pedestrian walk over the bridge and that includes an amphitheater, a nice outdoor pavilion with restrooms, uh parking lots and a very complex site to uh regrade and and construct on. Uh so it's going to be a tremendous and beautiful asset. That one will take some time, probably a year. and as well the swimming pool uh in what we're calling the north side swimming pool just outside of the Hillrest neighborhood. That'll also take about a year in excess of a year and that one is not 100% designed yet. So, we'll come back to council on that construction contract later than next week. Next week will be three of the parks. The swimming pool will come back in the near future since it's still in design. >> But the tre Yeah, right. I just want to add a pl a shout out to them. They're tremendous improvements and we applaud the council for supporting it. It's a total of $26 million investment in those four parks and it's consistent with a a big motto of ours which is engaging the community. It took us over a year I think almost close to two years to reach consensus with the community and we did what they wanted to do and so that's what these four parks represent. >> 100% I agree. I think these are huge priorities and they're going to be beautiful assets to the community. I'm curious though, if we're seeing only two of these roll out in the next 12 months, we seem to have quite a chunk budgeted for operations over in parks and Rex for this for the upcoming 12 months. And I'm trying to understand the um the connection as far as yes, we're going to start construction appropriate 100%. But also maintaining and and doing staff, you know, like one of these is an aquatic center. That's monumentous amounts of staff. And if it's not going to come online this year, but we budgeted for that, >> right, Councilwoman? You know what we can do is next week uh at the council meeting we will we'll let we we'll show we'll match up the construction schedule for each of the parks with the staffing uh so you can better see in some type of a diagram you know to show each park and the and the layering in of either onetime purchases of staff. Uh we can if that's okay if next Tuesday we'll show you that. Robert, I don't know if you have >> Well, and >> do you do you still have that budget uh presentation? >> Miss Paxton, your time's up, just so you know. >> It's on slide 19, Peter, that I'm specifically referencing. >> Yes. Yeah. Right. That's the one. Councilwoman, we'll we'll match slide 19 up next Tuesday uh for that agenda item that shows that awards the contract to to J Construction. And so we can do that next Tuesday. I think it's a individual item next Tuesday. and we'll we'll get we can send it via memo too, but it may be helpful for everybody to see it next Tuesday. >> Okay, >> Peter, just to add just so there's no confusion, the the North Side Aquatic Center has two full-time employees and 16 seasonal. Now, so that's one item. The other item is the Hillrest Maintenance and that's a total of six full-time employees. So, she mentioned 18 with the parks, but it's Yeah, >> we're different. The parks and the aquatic center are two different >> That's fine. Yeah, we'll lay we'll we'll give more detail. uh councilwoman next Tuesday so so we can see um and then just to point out if if we don't hire them as planned the money stay you know the money drops to fund balance in the general fund uh but I think the I think the staff did a did a decent job matching up when the expected completion of the construction uh would be done and the timing of the resources whether it's onetime purchases of staff but we'll show you that in the diagram next Tuesday. >> Thanks Peter. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Compos. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I just didn't want to lose sight about um uh the sidewalks and um I I've been hearing this for a couple of years now about, you know, we have to do the indexing and and the amount that I've heard is a million dollars, but we have been able to do sidewalks, I mean, decades. And all we actually need is a vetting process cuz we've done it through our streets. you know, whenever we we do some of our streets and um and we've also have used CDBG uh money that is that could be available and I'm also looking at type B and besides bonds, but I'm just saying that there is more than one way to get sidewalks to our residents. I just don't want to lose that and getting stuck in this $1 million, you know, um, assessment that that should not prevent these sidewalks from getting done. So, again, I just want to make sure that we don't lose sight of that and that we just keep, you know, our common sense. Uh, we can, you know, we can come up with an assessment. I don't think it has to be all that difficult. So, um, and I do appreciate the the comment that Councilman Canu said about the animal care. Um, yes, there is a lot of, um, need. Uh, yes. U, but I'm not sure if I totally support a fee because I think there is money that could be obtained through the grant. As a matter of fact, I believe that's how we got the 250,000 or 200,000 for the spade and neuter, which I don't believe had been done in the past. So, I am um looking forward to this new grant writer that will be able to use some of uh the skills that are needed to offset some of these costs that could, you know, or would benefit our city. So, again, I think there is some grants out there. We just don't have right now the staff to go after it or know what we want to go after. So again, I think uh there's also even grants when I first started on this on the sidewalks. Um you know, AARP uh had even funds, but you know, we didn't have the capacity to ask for it. The other thing I wanted to also just mention is about the recycling. I am going to um hopefully get together real soon with Phillip and and just um emphasize that I I do believe 68% is a really good number for a city our size even though it may seem as if we're not doing as great as it may seem like. Um I do feel that uh we're doing a better than above uh above job average than some of our cities of the same size. Do you want it, >> Phillip? Thank you, >> Philip Aldridge. Solid waste. Um, I'm glad you brought it back up. Just wanted to clarify what I said earlier. The cost of recycling is 4.2 million. Garbage is 7 million. So, the 4.2 million is all in. That includes processing. It does not include the revenue that we get back from the sale of the material. So, if we were to eliminate recycling, you still have the burden of all that becoming trash and then having still having to go and collect it. So, we anticipate those savings to be about the $2 million. >> Okay. Can you repeat that one more time? >> Okay. So, the all-in cost to recycle, go and collect it, drop it off at the recycling center is $4.2 million. >> Yeah. >> Uh that does not include the sale. When we sell the material, it's 600, 700, $800,000 a year. It's a commodity. It moves around. So, we receive that back in revenue. If we were to eliminate recycling, the recyclables now become trash. that we still have to go buy your house and collect and that's a high fixed cost to do that. Um so that we anticipate that cost to be around a $2 million savings that but then another 2 million would shift over to the garbage collection and that would increase the cost of the garbage collection from 7.8 to about 9.9. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Um I guess that that's all for now. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Scott, >> it's not going to be as good as it was a few minutes ago, Mayor. But let me try to chin this up. Man, I'm going to Heather, I'm going to go in deep, so just be kind to me because I'm way over my head. So, I want to talk about the hot hot tax, hotel occupancy tax. And this is just going to set up a conversation for later. Does it uh line uh page 252 uh 300 500 line item uh revenues? Is it is our hot revenue income going down 152 down to 145? >> So yes. >> Interesting. So we're budgeting less hotel occupancy tax revenue this year this coming year than this current year. >> Correct. So um our collections so if you look at the estimated collections for 25 and we do work very closely with visit corpus Christi on these based off of their information that they have looking at the trends average occupancy rates along with average daily rates on our hotel rooms and so looking at this if you see um on the estimated for 25 we are estimating about $800,000 less than to collect $800,000 less than what we had budgeted. So we were going from the 19.8 8 million to 19 million is what we're estimating to collect. And so we are incre just there's a slight increase from what we are estimated to collect in 25 to what we're budgeting in 26. Unfortunately what the industry is seeing is that there is a reduction in leisure travel. Um we are anticipating that we will at least stay flat and even with what we are because we do have a large drive market. And so um that is a more affordable um vacation than say going to flying somewhere. And so but we are not anticipating that um we will see an increase in our hotel occupancy taxes and that um it will we will not reach what we originally budgeted for in 25. >> Wow. What's the uh the next line? Hotel occupancy tax convention center expenses. >> So we have a total t a hotel occupancy tax rate of 9%. Seven of that is a general um the the local hotel occupancy tax that goes like I said to help support Visit Corpus Christie for our marketing, help support those efforts. And then um city council approved a 2% um venue tax or convention center that goes specifically to the convention center and supports that. And so that 4.2 million was originally used for the debt that was issued to help the improvements to the convention center. Um that has since been paid off and so that is available to go into those operations. We are utilizing that to help with our capital improvement program at the convention center um or the convention center complex that can go be used at all of our different assets at the what is now the American Bank Center will be transitioning over to the Hilliard Center. Um so that can be used within the arena the convention center space or the Selena Auditorium. And so that does help with operations along with um capital improvements at the facility. So, so the first line says 7%. The second line item is the 2%. >> 2%. Exactly. >> It just said convention expense. I just didn't. Okay. And then I noticed the convention center expenditure goes from 1.6 right down up to 5.6. >> Yes, exactly. So, what we've done is um over the years we are over the past several years, we've somewhat cleaned up the way um that we show the funding in here. And so it had been that we spent some money out of the hot fund. We transferred some money over to the convention center fund um and then we transferred some directly to CIP. So what we're trying to do is to be able to present that more clear picture of what funds are being used within the operations of the convention center complex is we are actually taking everything now and transferring it to the convention center complex fund and then spending out of there. So you will see that uh offsetting is the bottom line that says transfer to CIP fund. So we are now instead of you know transferring it to different areas or bringing it all into one area and then transferring from there. So we can see a clear picture of what is being spent not only for operations for capital expenses and for our CIP projects. >> You'll be happy to note that I actually had a question mark on line item 6150 which is that bottom line. >> Yes. Hey, so where so you transfer 5.95 into the convention center and then is there a page I'm miss I'm just haven't found that says how we're spending the 5.5. >> Yes, exactly. It is on page >> 302. So page 302 has the um convention center. It's called the convention center complex fund. Okay. And so you'll see the different revenues coming into the convention center complex fund. Um and then the different expenditures going out of the convention center complex. >> Awesome. I'll I'll follow up with you on that. Thanks. >> Sure. >> Um yeah. And so the the TPID funding is a separate funding mechanism. Never touches our never flows. >> Exactly. So that is actually not a hotel occupancy tax. It is an assessment similar to a development PID. you can do a PID or a public improvement district for um for hotels. And so that money is segregated separately from our hotel occupancy tax because it is not a tax and it is actually um it is administered by um Visit Corpus Christi has a total separate TPID board um and they have a service plan that they follow. >> And then what's the one that the legislature just passed that you talked about? What's that acronym? >> Public finance zone >> or a PFC. >> PFC. This one also >> and so or project sorry project finance zone not public finance zone project finance zone >> and so that one operates similar to how you have a tax increment financing zone where you have a base year so say we were collecting $100 in hotel occupancy tax um at the state level then each year so the next year it would go to $110 worth of hotel occupancy tax and so that $10 increment that the increase would then be available for that project. We do have to have a dedicated project. Like I said, we will bring it forward for conversation. Has to be approved by the comproller and then at that point we're able to draw that money. The money will continue to accumulate even if we don't draw it on an annual basis and we'll be there whenever we're ready for it. >> When do we anticipate that conversation? >> Um after the after we get through budget in the fall. >> This fall. Yeah. That'll be an important policy conversation. So we're going to wait till this fall and we have to have more time to put it together and have more data as well put it together. Yes. Uh when did we pay off the debt uh the convention center? >> So we actually paid it off uh so we paid it off early. I believe we paid it off in 23 22 or 23. So we were able to defease that debt. We had a sufficient funding and then we were able to free that money up to then go for some of the capital improvements that we had have been doing over at the convention center complex. >> And then uh 256 on page 256 there looks like changes there. There's a just wanted to kind of touch on the changes in expenditures. Like we're spending 400,000 less on Gulf Beach maintenance, but North Beach did well, which is fine. That's awesome. 200 what 20 40% increase in North Beach maintenance. >> So, the difference between 25 and 26 for that Gulf maintenance is we did have some capital um purchases within there. I believe there were some some vehicles and then I think we also redid the um the kind of the maintenance barn shelter that we had out on the Gulf Beach where the Gulf operations were and so I believe that was the majority of that difference. >> Got enough for me. Good enough. All right, two last thoughts. Um I'm I'm in on street user fee. I'm interested in that conversation. That was that was a brutal experience that I think you woke up a couple years later and the public was used to it and streets got fixed. Um, and then when you go through the presentation next week on these park improvements, >> it'd be interesting to see the uh the trail system uh from the base of the new bridge. I think that's going to be a big deal for hiking bikers, tourists that are coming to town. I know when I travel, I love to rent a bike and, >> you know, did the Golden Gate Bridge one time and you stay, you go over and you have lunch across the way. I mean, actually got a ride back. True. Full disclosure, but um >> it was a thing, man. Uh anyhow, can you show that in the presentation? >> Absolutely, we can. Yes. Yeah, we have uh it was tough to get, but we did get them eventually from the Flat Eye and Dragatus textile group, but uh and we focused on both both ends of the trail. So, there's a pretty elaborate $10 million trail head here. Cool. >> There's an equally uh maybe not as expensive, but elaborate trail system on the North Beach side that it's not as expensive for us because Texot funded it through the bridge project. So, there's a parking facility there. Uh there's a safe trail uh there. Uh we're guiding residents also to go to the beach to North Beach. There'll be directional signage because you could you could go over the bridge, hang out for a little bit in the trail head at North Beach, go to the beach, have lunch, and come back over. So, we want to make it an experience. >> Uh sea district area and then down shoreline is a general idea. >> Uh you can do that as well. Yeah, we >> I know there's a parking area right there, but I didn't know if there's a trail that it's going to tie into downtown. So downtown tourists can >> Yeah, that's going to be a longer lead item. The trails that we talked about connect the four parks around the bridge. So we'll show you that. Plus the trail over the bridge, the the protected Yeah. protected bike walkway. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. >> Okay. Thank you, Councilman. I think that's all of our comments. Um I I I am going to do just mention one more thing because I noticed in the book here in our in our um budget book uh the animal care we don't have I I see the calls for service but I don't see well I guess you know what I'm talking about the um the presentation. So, are these the priorities that were given or is that something that was just recognized by staff or were there more I guess is my question. >> Kathleen Chopper, director of animal care. These are the top priorities that were discussed working with citygate and then um also brought up by our advisory board. >> Okay. >> And and staff. >> Okay. I am going to because um I should probably start keeping track of the calls that I receive and it's all about ACOs really. It's about we I I believe we need more ACOs and animal control off animal care officers. And I think that's extremely important because I think those that's where a lot of the complaints come from which is I've called and no one comes. I've called and no one comes. And that isn't a fault thing and I'm not trying to throw that out as one. If we're not if we are not um if we're not staffed, then we can't make that call in in the right amount of time. It's no different than our police officers. You know, they have to prioritize call calls. And so, you get to that call as it comes in, which is why, you know, we have such a constant um emphasis on more police officers for public safety. But here, this is the same thing. It's public safety. And I I I just want that I will be looking at this budget to look to see where we can find I'm not necessarily a fee of adding a fee to um the the um budget for this but I think with some creativity we have a lot of passion for this. We can look for some you know other means here that we might be able to cut back. It's going to take a lot of time from this council your own time to look and ask. I mean the resources are here. We can call Heather. we could call whomever and say just like the six million I asked about earlier, you know, it's taken but but I asked about it and and I think I'm I'm going to focus very much on trying to find funding from within from what we already have for some acco needed and the public sees that. I mean, you know, with with the calls that come in, your calls right now are at uh five uh projected at is it 5,000 performed timely? Uh where are they? Administer animals. >> Number of animals. I just saw that >> it's 31. It's the estimate for this year of calls for service is completed is 31,000. >> Yes. 31,000. >> 31. Yeah. But you're the target is >> targeted is 35,000. >> 35,000. >> Right. So, how do you do that without >> by making sure >> increasing making sure that we have what we need to be able to um >> service the community? >> Service the community. Thank Katie. >> So, I just wanted to make that point. But again, I think we all need to really go back and do a lot of homework because all of the things that were mentioned today are great priorities and they're things that matter to the community and and as representatives of this community, it is our job to bring them forth. Now, the the the big job is okay, how do we get it all in? Because there, you know, the the funding is is the issue. But that's where we have to look at this and say, okay, do we really need this or can we cut this back? So, I encourage all of our council members to do that, to work with staff because it it is on us and we do I promise you I'm going to be looking at this as I have um look at this line item, this budget and and be calling for um some answers and inquiries. So with that, um I want to thank everybody for their engagement today, for their focus, um and for their insight and and as we move forward, um or as we close, I just want to acknowledge the hard work and the collaboration um from our city manager, from our finance team, from your team, um and from the department leaders, everybody that put so much work into this general fund uh workshop today. It's extremely important and I think now you have given us a lot of homework to do um and to to try to reach the the goals that we all want for the community and for for each district. So let's carry on the momentum and we will have the next uh budget meeting on I'm sorry next Wednesday and that is going to cover uh let's see water uh the operating and capital improvement pro program proposed budget and rates. Is that correct? >> Right. Yeah. It's all on water next week. Water, waste, water, >> just water. >> Just water. And we're going to need the part of the third workshop we expect uh potentially. So, next week, Drew will go over his operating budgets. Okay. >> And then go over the rates uh for water, wastewater. >> Right. And that's scheduled from 9 to 1 here in council chambers. We invite everyone to please join us then. >> So, with that, this >> and mayor, we did so we have a you may want to take a quick recess, but we do have the fire chief that present, right? I see people packing up. The fire chief's going to go. He has a Did we pass out that presentation? We're going to pass out the presentation for him, but I'm not sure if you want to take a quick break. >> Uh, no. Let's go ahead and >> Okay. >> get through with it. >> Okay. Chief, go come on up. Again, Chief Markle presented two presentations on his operations and um, uh, Councilwoman Vaughn asked that we do similar for a fire and so Chief's going to do that today. You want to answer? >> Sure. If you hold a baby, >> that's what I'm bringing. Every time I got a baby, they all get in. cry for the year. >> But I think we do need to clarify that because it's probably come up later. It's like It's just different, you know. It's just a different >> Okay, chief. You ready? >> We got Yeah, we got uh >> Yes, we're good. >> Okay. Yes, sir. >> If everybody's ready to go. We let a few people file out. >> Okay. So, Brandon Wade, fire chief, thank y'all for allowing us to uh present this. And I know we delayed it from couple weeks ago to today. So, some of the numbers obviously have changed just a little bit with it, but uh gives us the opportunity to talk to you and tell you a little bit about what your fire department is doing out here in the community and and we've kept it pretty tight at a high level. There's a lot of numbers and things that we track, but these are the things that we're usually asked about uh and things that we are measuring as well. So with that, our operational resources are uh as we said earlier, 455 uniformed firefighters and then 17 civilian positions. We have 18 fire stations. With those 18 stations, we have 14 of them have a medic unit that is uh housed there as well. That leaves us where we have 22 frontline fire apparatus and those are broken down into our 15 engine companies that have all the hose. They're pulling the hose lines off to extinguish the fire. We also have five aerial trucks. Those are the ones that you see the big ladder on top uh in kind of different work. They can get to elevated um places to get people off or elevated fire streams and they carry different tools on them. We also have two specialty units which are fully staffed as well. That is our technical rescue, our heavy rescue in which they handle anything that comes from ropes, collapses, trenches. They do that specialty work and then also a full-time and staffed hazardous materials unit uh that go to the hazardous materials calls. That keeps us with those 14 medic units. You also see off to the side there, we have one peak demand medic unit. Right now, our minimum daily staffing is 108 firefighters. Whenever we're over 108 and we're at like 110, we put another medic unit in service during a peak times that we see our medics getting used. So from 8:00 in the morning to 8:00 p.m. if we have the staffing allows us to do it, we put an additional medic unit uh in service and that helps us with the just just tremendous call load that they see during those hours. Since I've got here, we've increased our brush uh wildfire capabilities. We had three brush trucks. We had uh what is called uh the type five. Those are the pickup trucks, four-door pickup trucks with a smaller pump than what you see on normal fire trucks. Uh and also the the water capabilities, but they allow us to go off-road 4x4s. We also added three um type sevens. Those are the ATV, the the mule, the gators, whatever you know you want to call it. They're more nimble. We put a fire pump on those and a small water tank that allows us to get into the brush uh even quicker and be more nimble and and extinguish those fires as well. So, we've increased our capabilities in the grass and the brush fire response. Thanks to y'all's uh um commitment to us, we added the shift commander position this fiscal year and that went into place in which we now have a shift commander that is over each one of the three shifts and that's on 24/7. that helped us with our span of control and they do everything from uh ensuring we have that appropriate staffing on all of the apparatus. They do resource management. They're the advisers on any big incidents and it breaks down again the um the command and control for all of the battalion chiefs. With that, we have four battalion chiefs spread out throughout the city. Each one of those has their battalion with a number of stations that are assigned to them. And then they are the incident commanders on any of the major incidents. And then again with this past fiscal year, we were able to add the one field medical officer that is also staffed 24/7. That was one of the number one things we said when I first got here that the um the department in my station visit said we needed to have and that was a person dedicated as a field medical officer which is uh ensuring that our protocols are at the highest levels up to date. They assist on any critical incidents with our paramedics. They help us with training. They're hospital liaison. If our medic units are getting tied up at a hospital waiting for beds to open, the field medical officers go out and they try to help free that up so we can get those ambulances back in service into the system instead of waiting at a hospital to to um transfer the patient over. So that has been a great increase into the department is adding those field medical officers. This is the map of what our station kind of breakdown looks like across the city. Those that have a blue are the ones, the 14 that have a medic unit with it. And then the ones that are just red, those are the ones that do not have a medic unit with it. The peak demand unit that we said we put in place, we put that and house it um when it's in service at station 14. So during that peak time, two medic units are running out of station 14. That is one of our busiest areas in the city. Uh and they could also house another medic unit during that time. So that's where that peak demand unit sits. Of course, they can go anywhere in the city as any of our units can, but that's where that 15th one goes during the day. Here's a breakdown again from a week ago. These numbers have changed. Uh well, I guess I shouldn't say cuz these are the estimated ones, but what we look at for the past couple years for the structure fires, uh this year we're estimating that we'll probably be up around 339 structure fires, and those are that we qualify as fire in a building. It was burning. We have over a thousand fire calls that we respond to. So those are everything from the brush fires, grass fires, dumpster fires, vehicle fires, outside trash fires, and burning. Um but but those are the ones that we have classified as a structure fire. So that's quite a bit with those uh 300 an estimated 339 um structure fires. Right now where we're sitting is probably over 160 single family residential house fires. So, those are um the what the majority are that we're running to. We've had over 58 multifamily fires, which is in our apartment complexes, forplexes, condos, things like that. And then we're over probably in the 60some for commercial business fires right now. So, they they what creates one year busier than the other, we don't know, right? It's a number of things. a majority of our calls um or um causes for fires that we're seeing is electrical and that could be everything to very old electrical systems, aluminum wiring in there to people utilizing um um what would I say non-licensed electricians and stuff to do work around and and then you may have a fire. So that's why we always say it's important to have licensed electricians uh to do that work and and not have that fire as we see that as one of our top ones. Our number of EMS calls continue to go up. This is the national trend. Everybody is seeing this across the country. We are no different. So, our number of EMS calls are at 47 thou estimated to be 47,900 by the time we're at the end of the year. And again, our transports will go up as well with that. So, we're estimating we'll be at 29,500 EMS transports for the year. Continues to climb and we will probably see that uh go up. Our total calls for the year is estimated to be at 63,000. As our calls continue to go up, we have, you know, not increased the number of fire stations or number of units in quite some time. I think we added two medic units uh around, if I remember, was it um 17 and 12 came online. >> 22 >> 22. it helps for a little bit and then the calls continue to go up and then we're right back at the same utilization uh for our units. The big one that you see at the bottom, the total unit responses 113,000 is is what we're estimating by the end of the year as we talked about earlier where some calls you may get one unit respond, there are some calls you're going to get two units. So that's two responses for one incident and we try to base that on what the priority is. Um and so we put the right resources on the incident at the right time, you know, so we have a good effective outcome with it. But those continue to go up as well. Um and again, there there's some ways to do it out there instead of that we can look at to try to you don't really reduce the calls. Um some municipalities are looking at things instead of the easy answer of you call, we answer it, and then we just push lights and sirens go out the door. There's another number of places and departments in the EMS system and fire, but a lot of times with the EMS system that are doing some um creative things with dispatching. So instead of just trying to send a unit right out the door as fast as possible, um they may take longer to process that time in the dispatching center to try to figure out what's the true resource that they actually need and is it a medic unit to trans uh port them. That's some things that we're looking at currently instead of just saying add more people, add more medic units. What else can we do to divert some of those calls to get the people that are calling the right resource that they need? Here's a little breakdown uh per the district. This was again as of around two weeks ago. You can see the number of structure fires. Again, those are just the structure fires that are within your district. number of EMS calls, transports, and total calls that we saw as of year to date for fiscal year 25. Most of those when we look at um what the the majority of the medical calls that we're going to be seeing in everybody's districts, the top five, and it changes just a little bit, but the top five for everybody's district that we see on the EMS side is usually some sort of generalized sickness. people are ill, they're not sure why, uh, but they will, you know, need to go to the hospital. So, we transport it. Those are gen called generalized sickness. And then falls, respiratory issues, cardiac or chest pain issues, and then traffic accidents. Those are the top five that you're going to see. And it's consistent amongst everybody's district. On the EMS side, some of the performance measures that we look at and that are tracked uh nationally, these are fires contained in the room of origin, uh we're doing pretty well with that. We we have a goal of trying to keep it about 50%. There's a lot of things uh that go with that. The smaller that we can keep that fire, keep it into the room, whether it's a bedroom, a living room, or a kitchen or a garage, maybe it's an office for a building, uh the less impact it is for the people, right? So maybe they can either move back into their home quicker, but that this this is a lot of things that go with it. The newer construction has more open floor plan, so fires move quicker. uh the modern type of um home furnishings that we have where legacy used to be cotton wood. It used to take roughly 20 to 30 minutes to to go into a flashover state which means the whole room goes into fire in the the old legacy 70s 80s and early 90s. It could be 20 minutes before it did that. Today what we're seeing with all the plastics and synthetics it's roughly around 2 to 3 minutes that we're seeing flashover. So, it's becoming a lot more difficult for our firefighters to keep those to the room of origin. That's where we really look at the res uh response time. It's where we talk about the four-person staffing model in which we can be up to 22 to 25% more effective with four people on a firet truck to deploy the hose lines to to forceful entry into the to get the searches done because fires are getting more aggressive and hotter as we go about. So, but that's a number that we're trying to keep for the fires contained to a room of origin uh around the the 50% mark. So, we're close with that um stat though. We had to take out the vacant buildings. We we discussed, you know, some of the issues with vacant buildings that are there. Vacant buildings don't get called in usually until fires through the roof or fires coming out multiple windows and someone happens to pass by and see it. So that number is based on occupied um structures in which there's a timely response you know that that is going off the return of spontaneous circulation otherwise called Rossi that's something that's measured uh really across the world many variables go with that while we saw a 37% in 2022 and this year it's at 20 I mean uh 23% um a lot of things go into it what you will see when when you try to look at data across every community is made up a little bit different but anywhere from 17 to 30% is good on your Rossi score and that a lot of times comes back to if somebody goes into cardiac arrest was it witnessed and did CPR get started by a bystander that's one of the big things that helps uh that and then how fast can we get an EMS uh ALS on scene to continue CPR and defibrillate so we're doing pretty good with it even though numbers are going down. We're still within the range. There are some communities in bigger cities that that can be up to only 9% in their return of circulation. So, our paramedics are out there doing a great job. Fast transport times to the hospital and I think they're delivering really good medicine. Uh on the front, we're still doing very well. This is on the the response for fire calls and EMS calls. Even though our calls are going up, our unit utilization hours are going up. the the percent that we like to see on uh response to get to fire calls and EMS calls in 8 minutes is 90%. That's um a standard that's across the nation when we're looking at the NFPA. We're at 87%. Um again, goes to a lot of factors. How busy are we? Road connectivity, road construction, uh you know, units not being down for maintenance. That's why we continue to always try to push to keep our fleet up and running. uh because if you're down from maintenance, you're not running responding to calls. So, we're doing really good on the 87% and we always look to see how can we uh improve our response time. We don't want our people necessarily driving faster. So, that's where good station design uh making sure that they're available for the calls, getting out of the station fast. So, a good alerting system that that is going quick, that's where we're looking to improve those because, you know, response times isn't just about driving fast either. On the fire prevention side, the number of inspections that we complete, this is something that we've watched for. This has gone down since 2022. There's a number of factors with it. Since 2023, we've had a number of our um fire marshals and the inspectors being out. everything from um being off the job for past u injuries on the job, maybe they're going to go get surgery and they're out for two months with it to them using uh the family family medical leave act whether they've been uh ill or they've had family ills. So for the past almost three years, we've been down roughly three inspectors each year and some of those were for some long-term illnesses and then we've also had some retirements. They were fully staffed in 2022, but when someone goes and retires, we have to bring somebody else in. They have to go through a state certified class to become a fire inspector. Then we have to onboard them and show them how to do the inspections properly. So, it takes some time. So, we've been down for the past three years in each one of those with retirements, family medical leave, and injury on the job stuff. So, we're currently fully staffed. We hope to stay there with it and uh keep pushing those up. Um what we have done, we'll have another slide on it. Some of the things even though we've been down the uh increased services that our fire marshall's office has done, uh so even though individual inspections may be down a little bit, we've made some uh enhancements inside our fire marshall's office. I think that helps keep this community safe. Our number of arson cases, again, it varies. We have four arson investigators. Currently, this year, we're at 22 arson cases. They've made 17 arrests. Uh we classify, you know, the the arson case in the arrest is is we had enough to make the arrest. Whatever the DA does at that point, we have no control with that whether or not they're going to pursue it. But our investigators are out there and we investigate every fire to make sure we have a cause determination uh with it. So, they're responding to to quite a bit. Fire fatalities. At the time it was two. Obviously, in the news, we just saw that. This year we're at three. That's something that eb and flows for various reasons. We continue to push smoke detectors is that's one of the number one life-saving things that we see inside the residential uh places and obviously commercial occupancies are supposed to have a monitored system. Uh so we always hope for zero. Uh some of the things are out of our control but we try to make sure that we have the best response that we can to it to to reduce the fire fatalities. And then we've had 13 fire injuries this year and those are civilians. Those are not our firefighters. So, as we talked about on the fire prevention side, wanted to make a clarification. This food trucks came up about permitting. So, that permitting uh appears with the state that that put that in. That was for the health kind of health code with it handler. There's still a permit for food trucks on the fire side because they have to meet fire code with it. So, they still will need to come in, even though they may get a permit somewhere else and it takes care of the health side, the food handler side. When a food truck comes into our city to operate, they still have to get a fire permit. Um, and that's for good reason. They're running propane. They're cooking with it. Uh, it was several years ago, I think, a food truck exploded in uh San Marcus and it was not a small explosion when it did that. So, there's reasons that there are uh food truck inspections and that's some of the things that the fire marshals has improved on where we were not involved in special events which brings large crowds. If you look at a number of special events across the country, we've been very fortunate here where they've had some serious safety concerns and then they identify after the big event happens. We've included our fire marshall's office to go into these events that you see here, the art walk, the buck days, Junth, Big Bang, and they not only do their jobs and do the inspections, make sure things are up to code before, we verify it during the event, too. So, they're walking around even though a food truck may have their fire permit. Uh the fire marshall's office and the inspectors are there and they're using gas monitors that we bought them and they've identified a lot that have a propane leak and mo many of the stuff that we get to uh we find we can correct right there. So now we don't have a food truck with a propane leak. We've corrected it on the spot. They can keep operating. We don't affect the venue. So, I think that looking at um fire lanes, make sure emergency exits are still there when we have, you know, areas of the parks that are fenced off. They've really stepped up their game and uh have pushed that side of the house. And then they've also pushed more on the smoke detector drive. So, when we've seen injuries and fires or fire fatalities at places, uh we've tried to do a smoke detector drive, especially when there's not a smoke detector present uh in there. So, we've had a number of them. We've parked with uh we've partnered with the Red Cross. We'll go door todoor and uh hand out free smoke detectors and install it for them. So, and one is better than none. We can't always put one in every single room in their house, but we try to get at least one uh of the smoke detectors in there. And we offer that for free. And then recently, we had another uh donation in which people can call in and they've been doing it after we did the news release and we've installed uh smoke detectors out there. Again, it's just one of the the number one lifesavers for families when we see residential fires. On the emergency management side, uh fortunately, we haven't had to be too busy with that. Uh as other places have, but we've just kind of highlight some of the things that they're doing as emergency management has been the hot topic I think in the state as we've seen and especially with this special session up at the capital. We've had five EOC activations. Most of those are for just uh the larger special events, buck days, the parade. Well, we'll get the EOC on a minimum staff, a very minimum staffing level. Uh just so we already have some oversight should something happen, it's already kind of spun up and we can bring other players in. So, we've had five of the EOCC activations. Uh that staff of three has done 17 hurricane preparedness presentations, at least 57 general meetings. They go to the safety school and security meetings with them. Uh they're involved in a lot of committees and workg groups. They review plans from other of our city departments, their emergency plans and hurricane plans and nursing homes submit plans to them as well uh with state law. So they're very busy. We just condensed uh uh not the bigger things that they do, but every day those three are out trying to do a lot in this community and making sure that that we are prepared for the expected, which would be a hurricane, and the unexpected that could happen. And then last, we wanted to highlight this um this is our deployment. So, we were part of a couple state programs, everything from Texas Task Force One, all hazards in incident management teams to the emergency medical task forces. And we've gone on deployments across the state this year and outside the state. So, we've had everything from uh incident management teams for wildfire supports up at the state u offices. We've gone all the way to the panhandle. Obviously, wildfire locations uh from Fort Stockton, Marble Falls, College Station. We've gone to Hurricane Milton when the hurricane hit Florida. We sent people uh and a lot of that is on the over uh side of the house for the incident support teams. We participated with our tactical medics up at the capital during election days. We've gone to California wildfires. And then, of course, more recently, we were in the Hill Country. We still have three people deployed up in the Hill Country area as they're still doing um some search operations looking for some of the final people that haven't been found. So, we're still up there supporting that. But a big piece with these things, we are never down people. Whenever we send people out, we are still able to maintain full staffing uh of our operations. And the state reimbures us not only for the people that are out and the overtime that it costs for those folks that are out, but they also pay us for backfill. And that's what I mean. We will always backfill for the people that we send out and the state covers that cost. So the city is not out. And then for any assets that we send out, when we see the send the ambus out or we send uh a medic unit or a truck out, the state also reimbures the city for the use of that asset. So, you know, we want to make sure when people see that that they're not just saying the local tax money is going to help, you know, someone in Florida. We're getting all of that covered and then some when we go do it. And what that provides us, yes, as good neighbors, cuz we could always use that help here, but also the train, the the the experience that our folks get when they're out and what they bring back from organization of large disasters, how to operate at these wildland fires, medical stuff. It it's uh you can't replace it. So, we get a lot of things that are coming back from the state deployment. Uh and I will say the city of Corpus Christi is represented very well in all of these things. We get great stuff. Uh I can't tell you how many text messages I got from the Hill Country area of people seeing Corpus Christie Fire Department out helping and actually couldn't believe it that we're all the way up there. But we go everywhere from Florida to California to assist. >> And then uh with that, I think the last thing I want to say, I meant to say at the very beginning, I I wanted to say thank y'all because um a month or two ago, y'all approved us to be able to do the cancer testing. Uh if y'all remember that item that came through. So, we just completed the first round of that and we were able to bring in over 300 plus firefighters to get their initial cancer screening. Uh, that is a huge huge commitment and a benefit to our firefighters. As we talked about, cancer is one of the top uh killers and what we're exposed to in the fire service. We're going to have the round two which captures the rest come this new fiscal year in October, but we had over 300 plus firefighters do it and some retirees because that company came down, some retirees even went in and did it there. So, thank you for for doing that. That that was just a a great commitment to our organization. We appreciate it. And with that, stand by for any questions. >> Thank you, Chief Wade. That's wonderful. That's really really good news. How many times a year are they going to do those screenings? So, right now, because of we talked about one of the mandates that came in with um I think it was Senate Bill 198, it it's going to be mandated. We have to do cancer screenings every year. It doesn't have to be that same one, but we're now mandated under state law to give um occupational physicals, which also includes uh cancer screening every year. >> So, once a year. Yeah, >> once a year. >> Okay, that's wonderful. That is really good. and let us know how those numbers look, you know, annually of all of our firefighters that are coming forth. And we want to thank you all for your service. Thank you all for being here. Um, this was a great presentation. We appreciate it very much. I I just have a quick question. Uh, I don't remember the slide number, but there was 17. Number of arrests was 17. Um, I'm sure you can find that slide, but tell me that was for what was that for? >> So those four arson cases. So, or somebody's intentionally lighting something on fire, we were able to identify >> um it was intentional and then find the suspect and and go make the arrest on them. >> And I guess there's no real way to uh prevent um that. I mean, those numbers, >> it's hard to prevent arsonists. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's hard to prevent arsonist. >> Um and then the other number I wanted to inquire about, I just wondered if it was maybe some one or two big fires. You had six fatalities in 24 and two in 20. Well, so far in 25. >> Yeah, 25. We had three. Six and 24. I wish I could remember every one of those in 24, but I think those were all on on single incidents in which Yeah, I think they were all residential. Maybe one, >> if I'm remembering, it was a was a um car crash that went into a building and then caught on fire. I think that one was in 24 as well. Again, we would like to have zero, but and that's why we're always trying to push for fast response time, smoke detectors being in there because we usually see it in residential. Obviously, this where we were at uh for the current year, we're at three >> and we were at two when we first put it. We had the unfortunate incident there at the gas station, right? >> Uh so it it's three this year, but you know, something like that's hard to prevent. >> Okay. Well, thank you. All this information is very good in terms of why we do what we do and invest in in our in our department. Yes. So, thank you, uh, Councilman Roy. >> Um, first of all, thank you for your presentation and, uh, you know, I just want to thank each and every one of you for your leadership. I mean, we're very fortunate as a city to have, uh, great safety officers, you know, police and fire. Um, we're very fortunate and, um, we appreciate what you guys do. Uh, I do have a question about when the bridge comes down and I hear this when I'm over in North Beach a lot. We know that there's going to be possib the possibility of traffic changes in in the area and reconfigure streets and things of that nature. So, I just want to make sure that I'm sure you're going to reassess the amount of time that it's going to take to respond once we are reconfigured. Uh because I get a lot of questions about is there going to be a separate facility actually out in the North Beach area? >> Yeah. >> Any comment on that? So with the bridge once the station one has a direct access right now to the old harbor bridge um right now it looks like we have three stations and and we'll see I think when the old one comes down and then the mapping comes in place station one, station three and station five may have almost close to identical response times going over the new harbor bridge just because of the access with it. So we think three of them will be close. We know there will be a small increase, I think, in the response time because they're not going to be able to exit right when they get off the Harbor Bridge. They're going to have to go further down, I believe, to Beach Street and then turn around and come back down. So, that will be add to a little bit of an increase in the response time if we're going to go all the way back to the state aquarium. >> Yeah. >> You know, hopefully it's only a minute. We don't like to increase it by anyways, but um putting another unit or another station I think out there on the the North Beach side currently we don't see the call volume for it and we will assess what is our response time. Can we still make the 8 minutes or we have a big outlier with it. So we'll definitely keep a close eye once the old bridge comes down. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure number one that everyone knows that you are looking at those things. >> Oh yes. Uh the other thing I was just wondering that kind of goes handinhand with that is that um when this bridge comes down, you know, I don't know in terms of debris, safety, the potential maybe for fires. I mean, it's not a wooden bridge, but um is that going to put a demand, a higher demand just from a safety perspective on your staff when this when the bridge comes down? >> We we don't believe so. We've had some, I think, initial discussions with it. Um, and and I will have more as they get closer with the port. We don't see it really uh affecting us. Sometimes when that we've had certain events happen, maybe we bring the um because that's a big big thing coming down. There's going to be workers around it. Maybe we bring something in where we have some more of our rescue crews available should something happen. I think the port is handling most of it. My understanding it's going to be interesting to see is they're supposed to lower it on barges in a controlled manner and off it goes and uh I hope it goes that smoothly but I think we'll be ready for it but we have not been advised that there's going to be any need for fire you know being ready to respond to it. >> Okay. And then my last thing is I just want to thank you. Um, I live out in the Cal Allen area in a house that's 1986, built in 1986, and my wife keeps trying to get me to buy a new house, and I'm telling her that I I want I'm concerned about her safety and the amount of time that if there was a fire, >> so um, >> yeah, >> thanks for helping me with that. And, uh, you know, >> she wants a new open for plan like everybody else does, but you know, I just safety first. Thank you. Councilwoman Vaughn, >> thank you for doing the presentation. I thought it was so important to hear from you guys because we hadn't. >> Um, my concern too is on North Beach. By the way, Ever, this will help you with buying new furniture. Keep the old stuff. >> Keep the old stuff. Yeah. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Um, my concern too, I'm glad brought that up, is is North Beach has been for a long time. They they've always been worried about not having a fire station and police station out there, too. >> So, you're saying there's not enough calls right now to >> warrant? Yeah, I if I remember correctly in Chief Urban if were we just over 200 I think for a year that was in FY24 or we less >> it's about 300 being on the northern and it's actually decreased the last >> 20 years has it? >> Yes, that's one part of town seen a reduction in calls versus >> okay when I was on council before I toured the stations and they were in terrible shape. I mean, I was embarrassed as a city to think that's what they look like. So, I know that you've added more. So, how many are left that have to be redone or remodeled? >> So, we had to plan for nine fire stations to be um replaced and those were existing fire stations to be replaced were nine. So, we just did station three. So, we have eight more. two um this year should start construction which is eight and 10's should start construction this year uh by the end of the year break ground. Then we have station 9 and 11 that is going to be in design. That's the one that we've recently approved the purchase of the land so we can uh put station 9 and 11. That'll put us at five and then we have the four as the bonds go through and we get closer. So a total of nine. >> Okay. One thing that I noticed here was your E EMS calls. It's quite a bit more in district one. Is it because of the population? Is it What is it? >> Population and size. So, district one goes a a very long way. So, population and size is part of it. >> Okay. Yes. >> That's that's concerning. Um, what do you charge for the fire permits? >> So, we have a lot of different permits. Which permit are you talking about? >> The food trucks. >> $75.50. >> $50. That's >> one time. Oh, that's And that's that is annual. >> Yeah. That's good. >> If you look at um other cities, there's other cities that charge a lot more for food trucks. So, we're pretty reasonable uh here with it. Yeah, >> that is reasonable. That's reasonable. >> And and thank you for doing the smoke detectors. I think that's such a great great program. >> It is. >> All right, that's all I got. >> Thank you very much. >> Good presentation. >> Thank you. >> Uh Councilman Scott, >> Chief, first, you guys bring honor to the community. Thank you very much. It's >> It's a privilege. It's what you guys what you guys do going across the country is just remarkable and and I think Corpus Christie appreciates it. But I think Texas recognizes it. And so I wanted to I want and by the way if I ever want to ask Chief Urban a question. I want you to just give me the look cuz the guy's going to tell me how to make that watch. You're amazing. And you know honestly and this is going to sound really weird. I think I understood what you said. I think you you said it in a manner that even I could understand and I appreciate that. Um I have no real questions, just idle curiosity. Um so the number of EMS calls, uh like in 20 in 25 you got 47,000, but the number of transports 29. What's the deal? So you go somebody's fallen and you you get them up and then you don't have to transport, >> right? So there may be some times where people don't want to go to the hospital, we can't kidnap them, right? So, um, but you know, their family member calls for them, we go, we assess them. We can advise them, uh, as much as we want that you should go to the hospital, but if they don't want to go, they don't go. And then there's some that, you know, we may not advise them. They may think that they're injured and they need a stitch. And they go, "Do I have to go to the hospital?" No, but maybe you need a stitch or two. And they go to a minor emergency on their own. >> My dad when he was alive was fallen at the end and mom had no choice. you know, over in Kingsville, she had to call and you those guys showed up and got that up and >> That's right. >> So, I thought that was interesting. The you know, basically 50% of the calls don't end in transport. Just interesting. >> Um, so I'm fascinated by the arson. So, like what's the main type of arson? Why would somebody set a fire? I mean, do you interview does somebody go like, "What was that about?" I think I think you have everything without, you know, getting in bringing one of them in here and going over all the specifics, but what we've seen, you have everything from people that are a fire bug and they just want to burn things. Uh you you can have that. You have people that light fires to cover up crimes. Wow. >> That that can occur. Uh some people um just want to destroy property and you may see that depending on uh and unfortunately sometimes you see that in the homeless community. If I get angry at somebody else and I know where you're living or staying, I'm gonna burn you out of that vacant building. >> That happens as well. So, there's a number of reasons uh that you may see it. I I right there could be some for insurance purposes. Uh that does happen to across the country where you know whether they're home or their business, they may light it, but varying reasons. >> Well, so I thank you. Um, I do think you all have a role to play in this conversation about the abandoned building or vacant lot fee because I don't think a lot of us I don't. This is new to me. I wasn't involved previously and I think you all have a big role to play. So, if there's a conversation to be had about you why you all think it's important that we have this feed, then I think it would I'd like to hear it. So, >> right. and and we have had a number and I don't have the uh exact but it's probably over I'd say over a hundred vacant building fires and just recently we've had a a string of them. Vacant buildings worry me and when I say vacant I mean dilapitated abandoned you know just because somebody's business is closed they're going to rent it out. I don't count that as as vacant. It's just unoccupied at the time. But vacant buildings, dilapitated buildings concern me. Uh oftentimes they don't have utilities but a fire gets started in there. So what does that mean? That means there's there's probably a human that was in there. As Chief Urban said earlier, we're agnostic. We're here to serve whoever it is. It doesn't matter. We still have to take some reasonable approach to how do we search and get in there. And my firefighters going inside these vacant buildings trying to make the best, you know, what we call the survivability profile based on fire and smoke conditions. They're trying to put it out and reasonably get a search in very dangerous structures. Uh and I I would say this is one of the best cities I have seen uh from where I've come from and I think it's a big part of our city manager initiative that when we go to these vacant building fires uh the the battalion chief the incident commander that's in charge will mark it when they give us the report saying this building needs to come down. It is a high hazard to our community and a high hazard to our firefighters because we have to keep going back here. And then um we work with DSD and they able to to put a contract and and tear that down. And often times we get feedback from the community is thank you that this has been a problem you know for us for some time. Um so that is a big concern those vacant dilapitated buildings. >> Okay. Well that that's important to me and you know the fact y'all safety having to deal with the fact that somebody >> it worries me every time they go in there and but I understand the fire started somehow and and >> could be a number of reasons. >> Is there a rating? So an average EMS response is what 8 minutes you try to you had some statistic under 90%. Y >> but is there if it's under three minutes is there is there a national standard that you get a b c or d. >> No >> it's just eight 8 minutes is the is the standard. >> Yeah. Is the standard for you know NFPA 1710 of what you're trying to get you know to your incidents by. >> I always joke that the older I get the nicer I am to y'all because someday somebody's going to come to my house and one of them and go no not me not touching them. Well, thank you for what you do. You do you bring great pride to the city. Thank >> Thank you, >> Councilwoman Compos. >> Uh thank you, mayor, and thank you, Chief, for enlightening us about the uh importance of sending uh firefighters to different parts of our country, different parts of our, you know, the states. It's not just us, you know, going out there, but also bringing back some of that knowledge that you can't get, you know, unless you're there, right? So, I I just want to say thank you for that. Um, I also just wanted to uh just touch on the calls because I I just actually asked our city manager about the calls that are being received. I mean, because I believe yours is like 52,000 or something. I I don't know what they I thought I had the page, but it's >> 60. We'll be we're over 60,000 calls. >> Okay. And then I heard animal care services 31,000 calls that they received. That's a lot of calls. So what I am gathering is, you know, I'm just looking at the expenses and I, you know, I don't want to harp on it, but you know, um, the fire department is budgeted for 80.7 million um 87 for the police and five million for the animal care services. I know um that you know Councilman Canu brought up about a fee, but I'm trying to figure out what is is that we could do to just I guess just be more equitable is all I'm trying to say. I know it's not on you. I know you're doing the best you can with what you have and you're doing an excellent job. And this is what I think it means is when we put our attention, you know, to the fire department and the police, you get excellence, you know, I I feel I mean, like you're saying on the calls and and what um is being done for our community, which is the response time, right? I'm I'm just hoping that that will translate to the other departments. So, I I again, I just want to congratulate you, but I also want to highlight what could be uh we could do a little better job with some of our other departments. Uh I really didn't have anything else. Uh but thank you so much and and I'm glad that the um that our firefighters are getting that assessment for the cancer screening. I think it's it's so important uh especially you know the job that you all do and and so I I thank you um from the bottom of my heart you know you all are out there without you know just fan you know yes I think you all do get a lot of fanfare fan you do but you I want you to know how much I I appreciate and and our residents do as well so very much >> Councilman Kentu >> thank you um first of all thank you for everything you guys do and thank Thank you for having on 11 pages. I was telling Peter I was like thank you. >> Um I think Mark asked the question um EMS calls transports transports is nobody right like like u number of transports they don't transport nobody. >> So the the the number of transports that's who we're we're taking somebody to the hospital. So we're estimated 29,000 we're going to hit 29,000 mark this year again. And then the ones without transport, is it EMS calls or what? So difference? >> No. So when we're saying EMS calls, that's total medical. Somebody's calling in with some sort of medical. Out of those 47,900 estimated, we're we're going to probably have 29,000 transports out of that. So over half the time, >> we're transporting someone on medical calls. >> Wow. So we do a total of like 109,000 calls a year. So we do specific incidents. We're estimated to be at 63,000 of specific incidents and then we'll have with 63,000 specific incidents. We have rolled 113,000 units cuz some incidents may require uh like CPR. You need to get a fire truck and a medic unit so we can do effective CPR and take care of the patients, right? So that's getting two units to that call. at at a houseire, you're going to get seven units because of the amount of tasks that have to be done and the time to do it. You're going to get seven units on a houseire. >> Um so that's where the responses is different than the total calls. >> Gotcha. Okay. And then um I had one more question. Number of inspections completed. Those inspections are just for like what? >> Commercial properties. Those are um what I would say like technical inspection, new builds, those those are all of those type of things. So that's inspectors going out looking at uh businesses, making sure they have it, school inspections. Uh got it. And then also if we get complaints come in to go check something out, they're going out and they're doing the inspections of those. >> The um so the number of 4,040 from last year, how many expecters do you guys have doing this? >> Nine. >> Nine. What? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> And and at some point we've had it on a wish list again. a lot of priorities of increasing in the fire marshall's office this year. You know, one thing we didn't put in there, I asked our fire marshall to put a special team together for high-rise fires. We have we I think it's 13 or 16 highrises without um sprinklers. Yeah, that is a major life hazard is having highrises without sprinklers. uh we've put it in the code where they have to eventually come up to that code and and by 203 2032 I think it is >> I believe so. Yeah. >> Yeah. Somebody told me about that. >> It is a um that besides abandoned building fires a high-rise fire in an unsinkered building will be every fire truck will probably have to be there just so everybody would know that. >> Wow. >> So yeah. So, we put a team together and his team has gone in to really inspect those highrises and not just the ones without sprinklers, but all highrises to make sure that they're up to code as much as possible to keep any occupants that are there safe and then our firefighters that will have to respond. >> Feel bad for those owners cuz that's that's a very expensive um >> It is. It costs a lot more though when it catches on fire if you go look at them. >> You'll be in in lawsuits and and the loss of life will be even worse. Um, and then I know I think you did say it. I don't know it was in the back back, but um, the SUVs that go around on code, they're going to assist a call. Is it because the fire truck or the ambulance is not there yet and they're going to be the first responder? >> So, there's a couple things. So, you may see an SUV, kind of looks like a pickup truck with a camper. Those are our battalion chiefs that are going around. They're going to go to usually calls that have multiple units and they're our incident commanders for command and coordination of the incident. You may also see an SUV that's the field medical officer and it'll say EMS field medical officer on the side. They're going to critical calls to help with the patients also notifying hospitals. And then every once we have some squads that are out there um so at our stations that have the ladder trucks instead of necessarily running a ladder truck. So truck 4 has a squad over in their area. So they may make a lower priority medical call in the squad and keep the fire truck back at the station so they're not taking, you know, a $1.5 million truck to a lower priority medical call, which the wear and tear on those is is rough. >> Um, so you may see those as well over there. >> Yeah, I remember seeing an accident like a little twocar accident. One of those big old ladder trucks showed up. I was like, what are they doing? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It I want them to bring that there cuz they got a lot of tools. Yeah, >> I understand that the wear and tear with it. [Music] There's some other response things that we can do where you can put fulltime staff squad so you can only have to send, you know, a single um uh resource provider to some of those ones. Um but what it does is when we send it like that ladder truck there, there's times that you leave that medical call and a fire comes in, a rescue comes in, and you need that truck to divert and go right to it. So it you try to balance it out as best as possible. >> One last question. So does Corpus Christie have a problem with people calling 911 and abuse the system just for >> there's some that is abuse and then there's some that are highfrequency utilizers. >> Got it. >> Yes. Every system has it. And again very rarely I think sometimes is it just abuse you know where people are purposefully trying to to call uh and and disrupt a system. That's what I would say is abuse. But then there's some highfrequency utilizers that we also have within our EMS division. We work with police. We work with uh adult care services to try to get them the right help that they need so they're not calling every day. And do we have some that call every day, every other day? >> Yes. >> Uh and those are tough challenges to do deal with, but but we work with them to to try to get them the right help that they need. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Councilman Bonetta here. Here, I'll be brief, believe it or not. Uh, uh, what is it? You know, first off, just like everybody else, thank you for the great job that you guys are doing. I mean, you you guys are uh, you know, very well respected all across I know at the legislature in the last session, you guys were spoken of very highly >> and thank you for being active on that. But I just kind of want to reiterate I know a lot of times we have consternation about fees and you know but I think like you the thank you for giving us that information about the challenges with vacant structures because all we're trying to do is mitigate long-term costs and the thing I I encourage is that you know sometimes we look at that we have a fire and we have a non-compliant property owner and they put the neighbors in danger. >> Yes. you know, they put the comm they put the the neighborhood in danger and you know, it could be an absent person and you know, it's true those individuals, those neighbors pay taxes and they've been compliant. So, I I just, you know, I think that's important. So, thank you so much for validating that because you it's going to cost us a lot more down the road >> and uh so I just uh I thanks for that giving us that bit of information because I think it's important, you know, u I I just I'm just curious, you know, as far as training, you know, like for I mean, I know when you go do inspections, you know, in another life, I was a fast food restaurant manager >> and believe it or not, I was involved in four fires in a short time. One of them was for my own stupidity. I mean, they were all small. Uh, one was an electrical fire and two were grease fires. The two that were grease fires were just because uh lack of training of the individual working in a fast food restaurant and, you know, they just weren't maintaining the the, you know, cleaning out the system. Is is there any training that we offer? I mean, I would when it just perked my mind when you said uh uh food trucks, you know, uh just to I mean, do they have to be reinspected every year? How does it work? >> The food trucks have to be reinspected every year. And Tony, if you want to speak on um I'll bring the fire marshal up to talk about the training like on for restaurants and stuff inspections. >> Good afternoon. Tony Pettis, fire marshall. Uh one of the things that we do that a lot of people don't know about is fire extinguisher training. >> Yeah. >> And so just um you can request it through our office and we go to restaurants, we go to businesses and uh a lot of times we have fire extinguishers that can no longer be used. So we get to actually do live fire and let them use them to do that. >> Yeah. And we don't charge anything for that. That's just a service. >> I think that's the thing, you know, and especially in industry for fast food, you know, we got a lot of a lot of high school kids, a lot of young college kids. And you know, it's just and you know, they just don't know any better. And I mean, I'll embarrass myself. The situation that I did, I was a kid in in high school at the time. And we were cleaning the floors, just scrubbing the floors with water all over the place. And I plug plugged in a piece of equipment and knocked myself backward. And you know, I just didn't know any better. That's what happened. That's why I have this this this hair deal. But, you know, that's the thing. I think I mean, of course, back in the 80s there there wasn't a whole lot of training as far as safety anyway. And I'm sure it's changed now. But anyway, thank you again for what you do and and uh thank you for explanation for at least, you know, giving testimony on the issue with vacant structures. >> You bet. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay, Chief Way. Thank you so much. We appreciate your presentation and all of the information, your service, and thank you all for being here as all. >> Thank you all very much. >> Yes. And with that, Michael or or Peter, I'm just going to add one quick thing to your follow-up list. Okay. If you could um include a followup on the benefits uh to the retirees, >> the retirees >> that the cola uh being uh retroactive is going to afford. We we really didn't talk much about it, but it'd be nice to have that followup. Like in other words, we're going to go back, right? Retroactive, right? This is going to go be retroactive, right? So maybe elaborate a little bit on the benefits of what >> or what that means to our retirees. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Absolutely.